The Doctrine of Positional Truth

Introduction

A foundation is the basis upon which a thing stands, is founded, or is supported, but a solid foundation is necessary to withstand the storms of life. Build your house on sand rather than on a rock and it will crumble under the tempests of life.

As the Lord taught in Matthew 7, the same is true for our spiritual life. The only adequate foundation for eternal life and a life that results in true spiritual transformation is the person and work of Christ and the spiritual wealth of our position in Christ—our co-identification or union with Christ in His person and work.

This study introduces us to the concept of positional truth. Positional truth has to do with who we are in Christ as believers. Since it has to do with who we are in Christ, it will also affect our self-concept. The focus, however, is on who we are in the Savior through faith in Him and how that should impact our lives as believers.

We must understand that the first key to effectiveness in living a godly life is to know what God has done for us. This forms the foundation for our response. Only as we understand and rest in how God has acted in Christ are we able to act through Christ. In terms of all aspects of our salvation and all that it brings we must know and consider that God has done it all.

Begin to show [people] what they are in Christ and all that the Great Physician is and they will apply it to their own life. … That is why preaching positional truth always proceeds in point of importance to life truth. In the great epistles, the doctrinal epistles like Romans and Ephesians you have this order. Take Ephesians and its six chapters. The first three chapters tell you what Christ has done for you and then the next three chapters tell you what you can do for Him.³⁹

Understanding what God has done for us and who we are in Christ is foundational to having the right motive in living the Christian life, and the right motive is a vital key in the process of transformation. Chafer called this “the right motive.” Lawrence quotes Chafer who said:

What is your motive for doing right? I suppose that above anything else in the world you want to honor God with the right kind of a life. I believe that, men. You do not need to convince me of that. But what is your motive? Why do you want to live right? Is it in order that God might accept you or is it because He has accepted you? … Ninety-nine out of one-hundred people who are members of our Protestant churches today … think their job is to win the favor of God and they do not know that they have the favor of God from the moment they believe on Christ. … He has given you everything that He ever required and that is yours right now when you believe. Never are you called to fall back on the merit system. … Are you living the best you could because you were set right, or did you live the best you could hoping to be set right?⁴⁰

Commenting on this statement by Chafer, Lawrence writes: “This is the foundational factor in obeying God’s commands: obedience is a response to God’s provisions for holiness, not an attempt to earn God’s blessings and provisions (cf. Rom. 8:32).”⁴¹

We hear a great deal today about our self-worth, self-esteem, self-image, and learning to love yourself. Many psychologists focus on self-worth with the goal of simply helping people feel good about themselves. Understanding just who we are and self worth are important aspects of emotional and spiritual stability and are a driving force within all human beings. As human beings created in God’s image, we each have value, meaning, and purpose in the plan of God. Having a right concept of ourselves is biblical, but only if we keep the right focus and purpose.

For instance, in Romans 12:3 we are told to think properly about who we really are according to God’s grace. The means for knowing who we are, so that such knowledge transforms our motives and thinking, is a renewed mind in the Word (12:2).

Romans 12:1-3 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. 2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.

The goal and motive of a right self image, rather than self-centered objectives, is loving ministry to the body of Christ that is empty of hypocrisy.

Romans 12:4-9 For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, 5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. 6 And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; 8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness. 9 Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

An accurate and biblical self concept has two important sides or contrasts. It contains both strength and humility. It contains both a deep concern over the fact of our sin and joy and relief over forgiveness, and both a strong sense of our inadequacy and need of God with an understanding of how God in grace has perfectly met that need in Christ.

As human beings who are spiritually weak, we not only need a proper self-concept we need God’s power and ability to change and overcome the sinful nature (the flesh) and those patterns of life that are so destructive to ourselves and to others. The Christian’s position in Christ and his co-identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection form the foundation for victory over the flesh and a new capacity for life.

To be sure, the Spirit of God, whose responsibility it is to glorify Christ and mediate His life to you and me, will never produce spiritual power or bring true spiritual change into any life that is not resting in the merit, significance, and sufficiency of Christ as the source and ground of all life and meaning. Such would be out of the question due to the purpose of the ministry of the Spirit as declared in Scripture.

If we want to experience the transformed life, we must understand who we are in Christ by God’s grace and how that affects our walk in life. Understanding the practical ramifications of our position and union in Christ (Romans 6) is foundational to the walk in and by the Spirit of God (Romans 8).

The Holy Spirit cannot cooperate or engender any reality of experience when the very basis of a grace relationship to God is ignored. How, indeed could the holy Spirit empower a life which is wholly misguided and wrong in its objectives, methods, and motives? His benefits, of necessity, have significance only for those who recognize and believe that they are perfected once-for-all by simple faith in Christ as Savior and that their new obligation is not to make themselves accepted but rather to walk worthy of the One in whom they are accepted.⁴²

A Note of Warning

In Colossians 2:8 the Apostle Paul gives us a word of caution and one that is particularly fitting for our focus in this study:

Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Satan is a master of deception and, aided by his world system in which we live and by our own blindness, he seeks (as he did in the beginning) to hold us captive as slaves to a whole range of false beliefs and strategies by which we attempt to achieve that which only God can give. Ironically, we seek to achieve by our own self-effort that which we already have in Christ. The result is we often become focused on false goals which, like a hypnotic spell, hold us captive and keep us from experiencing God’s love, strength, and freedom, and the significance of life in Christ. These goals we so often pursue involve standards of achievement we (or others) have established as evidences of our success and thus of our self-worth.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with doing our best and in doing things well for God’s glory and for the blessing of others as well as for our own enjoyment. However, when this becomes the focus, we can become a slave to perfectionism or to defeatism. Note some of the problems which typically occur with the perfectionist or those who are under pressure to meet self-imposed standards to feel good about themselves:

• They usually base their self-worth on how well they do things and on the response of others to how well they have performed.
• They tend to be critical and look down on those who don’t do so well.
• If criticized they are devastated and become defensive because they seek their value through their performance. Perfectionists tend to be vulnerable to big mood swings depending on their success.
• In their pursuit of a perfect standard, they tend to become controlling as they fight to have things perfect so they will feel okay.
• The self-imposed standards usually result in a rule-dominated life. They set rules and schedules for nearly every area of life and focus their attention on their ability to accomplish the rules and meet their schedule.

In contrast to this, the Christian’s focus needs to be on Christ and his new life in Him, not on self-imposed regulations, schedules, achievements, etc., regardless of their nature whether religious, social, or secular. Christ will bring order with spiritual control and ability into the life, but He will be the center, the focus, motive, and source of what we do and how we do it rather than neurotic motives to achieve.

Definition of Positional Truth

Positional truth is the doctrine of the believer’s heavenly, spiritual, and eternal position in Jesus Christ by which a person spiritually and positionally is united and identified with Christ in His person and work—past, present, and future. This truth is especially seen in the Pauline epistles where, over a hundred times, the apostle uses such phrases like “in Christ,” “in the beloved,” “in Him,” “with Christ,” etc. These phrases draw attention, indeed, they put the focus on the secure position and many blessings that all believers are given through their union with Jesus Christ. The basis of these blessings is the finished work of salvation accomplished through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Scriptures Showing the “In Christ” Concept

1 Corinthians 1:2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight—the only thing that matters is faith working through love.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.

Colossians 2:6-12 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Colossians 3:1-3 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

2 Timothy 1:1 and 9 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, to further the promise of life in Christ Jesus,…9 He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

Compare also Romans 6:1-11; Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:4-10.

The Mechanics
(Who, When, Where, How)

When people receive the Lord Jesus Christ (the who and when) by personally believing in Him as their Savior (trusting in His person and work on the cross for their sinful condition) they are placed into vital union with the Savior (the where) through the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit (the how) so that they become co-identified spiritually and actually with Jesus Christ in His person and work (the results).

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.

Romans 6:3-5 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

Colossians 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Key Concepts of Positional Truth

It’s the Foundation for Growth and Change

As stressed in the introduction to this lesson, understanding positional truth is foundational for growth in the Christian life. When properly grasped, it protects against man’s and Satan’s substitutes for spirituality, and it forms the foundation for spiritual victory over the sinful nature or the flesh. In other words, the truth of Romans 6, our position in Christ, is crucial for the truth of Romans 7 and 8, overcoming the power of indwelling sin by means of the Spirit who indwells within. One finds the same concept in Paul’s letters to the Galatians and the Colossians.

Positional truth means we share in all that Jesus is in His person and we share in what He did and will do, His Work. Thus:

• As He died unto sin, so we too have died unto sin.

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?

• As He rose from the dead, so have we.

Romans 6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

• As He is seated at God’s right hand, so are we.

Ephesians 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

• As He is the Son, so we are now sons.

Galatians 3:26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

• As He is eternal life, so we have eternal life.

Romans 6:23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• As He is perfect righteousness, so we have His righteousness.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.

Note the chart on Positional Truth.

The Nature of Our Position in Christ

Our position in Christ is not a conscious experience, an emotion, or a second blessing to be sought. It is a spiritual fact and takes place as a grace work of God when one believes in the Savior, and this is true for all believers regardless of feelings or understanding. Of course, understanding positional truth is important to experiencing the benefits of being in Christ. This is most obvious in Colossians 2:6-12 quoted above and in Romans 6:3-12.

Romans 6:3-12 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,

The Believer’s Position Is Perfect and Complete

Unlike spiritual growth and maturity in the Christian walk, positional truth is not progressive. From the moment of salvation, having been placed into Christ by the Spirit, believers are blessed with every spiritual blessing and are complete. They lack nothing, but they do need to grow in their understanding of what they have in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Colossians 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Hebrews 5:11-14 When someone’s prosperity increases, those who consume it also increase;
so what does its owner gain, except that he gets to see it with his eyes?
12 The sleep of the laborer is pleasant—whether he eats little or much—
but the wealth of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
13 Here is a misfortune on earth that I have seen:
Wealth hoarded by its owner to his own misery.
14 Then that wealth was lost through bad luck;
although he fathered a son, he does not have anything left to give him.

1 Peter 2:1-2 So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation,

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on that eternal day.

Positional truth means at least three wonderful facts for every believer:

• Christ totally surrounds us; we are enveloped by His life.

Colossians 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

• Christ protects us from everything that is hostile or dangerous.

Romans 8:32-39 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Christ supplies us with every possible need for life.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply your every need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Raymond Ortland writes:

We’re in Him the way a baby’s in a womb—but better.
We’re in Him the way a moth is in a chrysalis—but better.
We’re in Him the way a deep-sea diver’s in his diving suit—but better.
We’re in Him the way birds are in the air, or fish are in the sea—but better.⁴³

The Believer’s Position Is Eternal and Permanent

Salvation is totally a work of God’s grace and based on the merit and worth of Christ and His finished work rather than our works. Since that is true, there is nothing we can do to lose it. In addition to Romans 8:32-39 quoted above, note our Lord’s promise.

John 10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.

This truth is evident from the fact that the carnal believers at Corinth are still viewed as permanently set apart, sanctified in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

“are sanctified in Christ Jesus” represents the perfect tense which looks at an event or fact completed in the past with results going on in the present. Though he declared them carnal in chapter 3, the apostle viewed them as still positionally in Christ.

The Wealth of the
Believer’s Position in Jesus Christ

As to Christ’s PERSON

Being in Christ we share in the following:

• As He has perfect righteousness, all believers have Christ’s righteousness imputed to them.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

• As He has eternal life, so all believers have eternal life.

Romans 6:23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• His eternal destiny becomes the destiny of all believers.

Ephesians 1:4-5 For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. 5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—

Ephesians 1:10-11 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth. 11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

• As He is the Son of God, so all believers become sons and members of God’s family by adoption and by regeneration, the new birth.

John 1:13 —children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.

Ephesians 1:5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—

Galatians 3:26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.

• As He is the Father’s chosen One, so all believers are chosen ones. [Some see this as a corporate choosing, others as personal and corporate which fits best with Scripture as a whole.]

Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.

• As He is the Heir of God, so all believers are heirs of God.

Ephesians 1:11-14 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory. 13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

• As He is the Great High Priest, so all believers are priests of God.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

But being in Christ, believers also share in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross.

As to Christ’s WORK

Being in Christ, we share in His work past, present, and future:

• In Christ, believers are reconciled to God by His substitutionary death.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

• In Christ, believers have peace with God.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

• In Christ, believers have His righteousness imputed to them.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

• In Christ, believers are justified, declared righteous.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.

• In Christ, believers are redeemed by His blood and have forgiveness of sin.

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

• In Christ, the demands of God’s holiness have been satisfied; God has been propitiated.

Romans 3:25 God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed.

• In Christ, there is now no condemnation.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

• In Christ, the penalty of sin has been expiated, removed.

Colossians 2:14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

• In Christ, believers are no longer guilty or under the condemnation of the Law and its sentence of death.

Romans 7:4-6 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

Colossians 2:14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

• In Christ, believers are accepted, made fit and sufficient to be partakers in God’s family and inheritance.

Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.

Colossians 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

All the above deal with Christ’s substitutionary death for sin’s penalty as He died in our place, bearing our penalty. But Christ’s death also includes His judicial work against the reign of sin.

Christ also died unto sin’s power to break its reign. He died for sin and unto sin and its reign.

Romans 6:10-12 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,

• In Christ, believers have also died with Christ in His death and burial.

Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

Colossians 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

• In Christ, the believer’s relationship to Adam has been severed and the dominion of the sinful nature, though still present, has been broken.

Romans 6:1-14 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

• In Christ, believers have been raised together with Him in His resurrection.

Ephesians 2:5-6 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— 6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

• In Christ, believers have been raised with Him for a walk in newness of life (cf. Rom. 6:8-12 above).

Colossians 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

• In Christ, believers are seated with Him in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father.

Ephesians 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

• In Christ, believers have an eternal access to God, they are made nigh to God, translated into God’s kingdom, and delivered from Satan’s kingdom and the power of darkness.

Ephesians 2:18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ’s faithfulness.

• In Christ, believers have a perpetual and effective High Priest, an advocate and two intercessors, the Son at God’s right hand, and the Holy Spirit who dwells within (Rom. 8:26-27, 34; 1 John 2:2).
• In Christ, believers have special significance and the basis of a true self-concept as the children of God. Being in Christ, the believer is one who is God’s child by spiritual birth and legal adoption. This means believers are in the royal family of the King of kings. Believers are royal sons of God, a holy and royal priesthood, ambassadors of the King, and partners with the Savior. How could we possibly be more significant and have a greater reason to live than that?

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy , but now you have received mercy.

Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.

Hebrews 2:11-13 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” 13 Again he says, “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, with the children God has given me.

Application

There are a number of ways we could apply the truth of our position in Christ, the truth of identification. Let me suggest just two, with the second being a further outworking of the first.

Concerning Obedience

First, concerning obedience or overcoming the pulls of indwelling sin and the passions of the flesh. After declaring the believers identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, the apostle says: “So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 6:11). The KJV translated “consider” as “reckon,” and it is truly the reckoning that counts. The Greek word is logizomai. It means “to calculate, count on as true” as in adding up a set of numbers to arrive at their true sum. By calculating the facts presented in verses 1-10, we are to know for certain that we are dead to the power and rule of sin and alive for the power of Christ. This means the ability for obedience to God (Rom. 6:12-18). Our union with Christ is made up of two aspects: death and resurrection (life). Identification with Him in His death leads to identification with Him in His resurrected life.

• We must know the facts of identification with Christ.
• We must count on these facts as spiritual realities by faith.
• Knowing and believing in our new identification, we are to present ourselves to God for obedience.

This presentation is ultimately carried out through walking by faith in the Spirit who dwells within (Rom. 8:1-13). Being instruments of righteousness as seen in Romans 6:13 is equivalent to the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22-23.

Galatians 5:16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

Romans 6:13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

However, before we experience the life of identification (death and life) through this reckoning that counts, we too often have to experience the failure and weakness of Romans 7:15-25, the futility of trying to live according to law by our own resources and good intentions. Faith in God’s resources only really begins when we stop trusting in our resources.

Concerning Man’s Behavior

Robert S. McGee writes:

What a waste to attempt to change behavior without truly understanding the driving needs that cause such behavior! Yet millions of people spend a lifetime searching for love, acceptance, and success without understanding the need that compels them. We must understand that this hunger for self-worth is God-given and can only be satisfied by Him. Our value is not dependent on our ability to earn the fickle acceptance of people, but rather, its true source is the love and acceptance of God. He created us. He alone knows how to fulfill all of our needs.⁴⁴

All believers have the perfect basis for a proper sense of identity or a good self-concept, one dependent on who they are in Christ and, please note, one dependent on the value God places on their lives rather than on the value they or others may place on their lives. Whose opinion is the most important? Yours and mine, or God’s? Do we properly grasp how foolish it is to live our lives for the opinions of man? Compare the following verses:

1 Corinthians 3:3-7 for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? 4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. 7 So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth.

1 Corinthians 4:1-5 One should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Now what is sought in stewards is that one be found faithful. 3 So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord. 5 So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. Then each will receive recognition from God.

2 Corinthians 10:12 For we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.

The three fundamental needs people have for a sense of purpose and significance are Acceptance, Belongingness, and Competence, and each of these is found in Christ. Our life, therefore, is to be directed away from ourselves, the carnal and the visible, to the secret source of life—the risen Savior and our perfect union in Him and His life.

(1) We are Accepted in Christ with free access to God.

Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.

Ephesians 2:18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ’s faithfulness.

Romans 14:3 The one who eats everything must not despise the one who does not, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who eats everything, for God has accepted him.

(2) We Belong to the family of God as adopted children.

John 1:12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children

1 Corinthians 3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Galatians 3:26-29 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.

(3) We Have Competence, ability in Christ to be and do what God calls us to.

Philippians 2:12-13 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, 13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God.

Philippians 4:13 I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.

Our union in Christ (our position) is a call for us to be Christ-centered and oriented in our thinking. For a practical application of what this means regarding who we are as individuals compare the two self-concept diagrams at the end of this lesson.

In view of these many declarations of Scripture which use “in Christ,” or a similar term, it is clear why Paul said that in Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing and that we are therefore “ complete in Him.”

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Colossians 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Conclusion

Since believers are complete in Christ, there is nothing they can add to gain salvation, or to maintain their salvation (cf. Titus 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 8:32-39). We are saved by the record of the Savior, not ours.

Likewise, there is nothing believers can add to the work of Christ or to their new life in Christ in order to walk with God and experience true spirituality. The need is to reckon, to rely on this new spiritual life and these marvelous resources we have by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Col. 2:1-23; Gal. 3:1f; 5:1f).

Colossians warns believers against being led away from full confidence in their complete position in Christ. Similarly, Hebrews and Galatians warn against moving into legalism or into some form of works and away from trust in the finished work of Christ as the ground of one’s spiritual life. To trust in anything other than God’s full provision for us in Jesus Christ is to be faithless in our position and futile to our condition.

As a result of union with Christ, the believer’s life is hidden permanently in God through this union and identification with Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:1-3 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

There are two ideas in these verses:

(1) Safety: Believers are doubly safe with Christ in God.

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand.

(2) Secrecy: Believers’ lives are nourished and supplied by hidden resources which the world cannot know or give.

In conclusion, let me repeat what was said at the beginning of this lesson. The Spirit of God, whose responsibility it is to glorify Christ and mediate His life to you and me, will never engender spiritual power or bring change into any life that is not resting in the merit, significance, and sufficiency of Christ as the source and ground of all life and meaning. Such would be out of the question.

If we want to experience the transformed life, we must understand and count on who we are in Christ and how that affects our walk in life. Romans 6, understanding the practical ramifications of our position and union in Christ is foundational to Romans 7 and 8, the power of indwelling sin and the walk in and by the Spirit of God.

³⁹ Lewis Sperry Chafer, “ The Believer’s Responsibility,” transcription of a class lecture, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1948, taken from class notes by William D. Lawrence, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1993, p. 13-3.

⁴⁰Ibid., p. 13-3.

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 13-3.

⁴² Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. VI, Pneumatology, Dallas Seminary Press, Dallas, Texas, 1984, p. 164.

⁴³ Raymond C. Ortland, Circle of Strength, Victor Books, Wheaton, 1978, p. 5.

⁴⁴ Robert S. McGee, The Search for Significance, Rapha Publishing, p. 15.

Developing the Mind of Christ

Introduction

The Bible is the Christian’s resource book, his manual for living, the light to his path, and the index for faith and practice. The Bible is God’s Word—His special revelation by which man is to cleanse and direct his way. As God’s revelation to man, it teaches man things he absolutely cannot learn about life and death apart from this very special revelation as Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young person maintain a pure lifestyle?
By following your instructions!
10 With all my heart I seek you.
Do not allow me to stray from your commands!
11 In my heart I store up your words,
so I might not sin against you.

This revelation includes things such as the truth about God as a triunity or trinity (His essence, character, purposes, and plan); things about man (his origin, make up, fall, sin, and need); about the physical world and its true origin as the creation of the Creator and its future redemption; about Satan and the forces of evil in the world; about God’s plan of salvation for man through faith in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ (salvation from sin’s penalty, power, and one day from its presence); the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit; and about things to come. Because of man’s finite limitations, his natural spiritual blindness, and his spiritual condition in sin, the Bible is (as the late Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote) a book that man could not write if he would and would not write if he could.

Because of what it is and does, the Bible is the most important book of the Christian’s life. Note the following sampling of verses:

Matthew 5:18-19 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place. 19 So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:18-21 When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Christians not only need to know their Bibles, but they need to know about their Bible. It is important to be carefully informed as to its value that they may be more motivated to use it and use it properly in view of its character, purpose, and origin. Because spiritual understanding, faith, practice, and obedience to God is dependent on the Bible, the doctrine of the Bible (bibliology) is one of the most important doctrines of Scripture that a person can know.

David wrote, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (Ps. 138:2, KJV) (emphasis mine). The NASB renders the second portion of this verse “For Thou hast magnified Thy Word according to all Thy Name.” The NIV has “for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

“According” or “above” (KJV) represents in the Hebrew text, the hiphil stem of the verb gadal plus the preposition al. This would normally mean “above” as translated by the KJV, but all these are possible translations. Regardless of which translation one accepts, the text is declaring the importance of God’s Word to both the knowledge and worship of God. Knowing God, which the mention of God’s name includes, is dependent on knowing God’s Word. As it is sometimes said, “a man’s name is as good as his word,” so God’s name and knowing God is dependent on the truth, faithfulness, and accuracy of His Word and one’s knowledge of the Scripture. With this in mind, let’s consider what the Bible is.

The Attributes of the Bible

Psalm 19:7-14 The law of the Lord is perfect
and preserves one’s life.
The rules set down by the Lord are reliable
and impart wisdom to the untrained.
8 The Lord’s precepts are fair
and make one happy.
The Lord’s commands are pure
and give moral insight.
9 The commands to fear the Lord are right
and permanent.
The regulations given by the Lord are trustworthy
and completely just.
10 They are of greater value than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from honeycomb.
11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there;
those who obey them receive a rich reward.
12 Who can avoid sinning?
Please do not punish my unintentional sins.
13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins;
do not allow such sins to control me.
Then I will be blameless,
and innocent of blatant rebellion.
14 May my words and my thoughts
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my protector and my defender.

It Is God-Breathed: Inspired Revelation From God

A proper definition of inspiration must naturally be formed on the basis of the teaching of Scripture. With this in mind, Ryrie gives the following definition and explanation:

… God superintended the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error His message to mankind in the words of their original writings.

Notice carefully some of the key words in this definition. (1) The word “superintend” allows for the spectrum of relationships God had with the writers and the variety of material. His superintendence was sometimes very direct and sometimes less so, but always it included guarding the writers so that they wrote accurately.

(2) The word “composed” shows that the writers were not passive stenographers to whom God dictated the material, but active writers.

(3) “Without error” expresses the Bible’s own claim to be truth (John 17:17).

(4) Inspiration can only be predicated of the original writings, not to copies or translations, however accurate they may be.⁷³

The following data presents the testimony of the Bible concerning itself as the inspired revelation of God. This is testimony which needs to be heard, but should one not want to listen to this testimony—and many do not—they not only ignore the testimony of the Bible, the witness of the defendant to itself, but they also ignore a large amount of other evidence which has tremendous weight and substantiates this testimony of the Bible.

This evidence includes the inexhaustible depth of the Bible; its marvelous continuity from Genesis through Revelation; its world-wide circulation, the purity and ethics of the Bible; its unrelenting faithfulness to present truth and its refusal to hide the sin of its heroes; its relevance in all generations; the testimony of archeology; the fulfillment of prophecy; its prevailing power to change not only individuals, but whole societies; and its preservation and survival in the face of one attack after another to either destroy or discredit it.

This is particularly significant when we compare the Bible’s preservation with all the other writings of antiquity.⁷⁴

The greatest testimony to the authenticity of the Bible as God’s Word is the Lord Jesus. Why is His testimony so important? Because God authenticated and proved Him to be His own divine Son by the resurrection (cf. Acts 2:22-36; 4:8-12; 17:30-31; Rom. 1:4). Christ clearly confirmed the authority of the Old Testament and promised the New Testament.

Note what Christ taught about the Old Testament:

• Its Authority (Matt. 22:43)
• Its Reliability (Matt. 26:54)
• Its Finality (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10)
• Its Sufficiency (Luke 16:31)
• Its Indestructibility (Matt. 5:17-18)
• Its Unity (Luke 24:27, 44)
• Its Clarity (Luke 24:27)
• Its Historicity (Matt. 12:40)
• Its Facticity (scientifically) (Matt. 19:2-5)
• Its Inerrancy (Matt. 22:29; John 3:12; 17:17)
• Its Infallibility (John 10:35)⁷⁵

With this in mind, let’s look at the testimony of the defendant itself. In any just court of law, the defendant has the right to be represented and heard.

The Fact of Inspiration

2 Tim. 3:16-17 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.

All Scripture is inspired, literally, “breathed out ( qeopneustos) of God.” We could translate it, “all Scripture is God-breathed.” This points to the means and source of inspiration. Our English word “inspire” carries the idea of breathing into something. The Greek word, however, teaches us God breathed out the Scripture. Though God used human authors to record His message, the Bible has its source in God who breathed it out through the human authors. He used their vocabularies, experiences, and personalities, but He was the ultimate source and they were but the human instruments. More will be said on this below when we consider “the how of inspiration.”

The Extent and Nature of Inspiration

All Scripture, the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, is inspired and profitable. This points to the extent of inspiration. It is all inspired. Theologians often refer to this as plenary inspiration. The result is that the whole Bible is “true, tried, perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, more desirable than gold, and sweeter than honey” (Psa 19:7-9; 119:140). Such descriptions point to the verbal, plenary, unlimited inerrancy and infallible nature of the Bible (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9-13). Note the following verses where the argument hinges on one word (Gal. 3:16, “seed”; Matt. 22:31-32, “am”).

Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Matthew 22:31-32 Now as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living!

Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say, “and to the descendants,” referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ.

Regarding the true nature of inspiration and the attack that has gone on for years over the truth of inspiration, Ryrie writes:

While many theological viewpoints would be willing to say the Bible is inspired, one finds little uniformity to what is meant by inspiration. Some focus it on the writers; others, on the writings; still others, on the readers. Some relate it to the general message of the Bible; others, to the thoughts; still others, to the words. Some include inerrancy; many don’t. These differences call for precision in stating the biblical doctrine. Formerly all that was necessary to affirm one’s belief in full inspiration was the statement, “I believe in the inspiration of the Bible.” But when some did not extend inspiration to the words of the text it became necessary to say, “I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible.” To counter the teaching that not all parts of the Bible were inspired, one had to say, “I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible.” Then because some did not want to ascribe total accuracy to the Bible, it was necessary to say, “I believe in the verbal, plenary, infallible, inerrant inspiration of the Bible.” But then “infallible” and “inerrant” began to be limited to matters of faith only rather than also embracing all that the Bible records (including historical facts, genealogies, accounts of Creation, etc.), so it became necessary to add the concept of “unlimited inerrancy.” Each addition to the basic statement arose because of an erroneous teaching.⁷⁶

The Value of Inspiration

Since all Scripture is God-breathed, being the product of an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful and loving God, the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16 goes on to state that the entire Bible is profitable for four things: for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

(1) Teaching—“Teaching” is the Greek didaskalia and means “doctrine” or “teaching.” It is used in both the active sense (i.e., the act of teaching), and in the passive sense (what is taught, doctrine). In the pastoral epistles, Paul uses it of the act of teaching (1 Tim. 4:13, 17; 2 Tim. 3:10), and of what is taught as in sound doctrine (cf. 1 Tim. 1:10; 4:6, 16; 6:1, 3; 2 Tim. 4:3; Tit. 1:9; 2:1; 2:7, 10). As many of these passages show, especially Titus 2:1, our teaching must be in accord with sound doctrine. And for doctrine to be sound, it must be in accord with the inspired Word. Ultimately, teaching or doctrine—the content—refers to God’s fundamental principles for man’s life, both eternal and abundant, the basics, the fundamentals upon which life is to be built.

(2) Reproof—This is the Greek elegmos which means “proof, conviction, reproof.” The mos ending shows this is a passive noun which looks at the result of the process of the convicting ministry of the Spirit through the Word—personal conviction through exposure to truth. One might compare elegmos to another Greek word, elenxis, an active noun which looks at the process of reproving or exposing. Both need to go on in the life of a believer. The goal, however, is not simply the process. It’s the result—personal conviction. Like the light it is, the Bible reproves and exposes us to the various ways we violate the plan and principles of God in all the relationships of life, with God and with people such as in one’s family, in the church, and in society. Once we have been reproved and experience conviction (reproof) to the violations, we each face a very important decision. We can move toward God and respond to His correction and training, or we can rebel and resist. If we resist, then, as a Father, He disciplines us to draw us back to Him.

(3) Correction—This is the Greek epanorqwsis which means “setting up straight, setting right.” It stresses the restorative nature and capacity of Scripture and points to the more immediate work of the Word to set our feet back on course. The Psalmist wrote, “The law of the Lord is perfect and preserves one's life” (Psa. 19:7a).

(4) Training in righteousness—“Training” is paideia which basically means “training, instruction, discipline,” not in the sense of punishment, but in the sense of the disciplines that train and develop character, strength, skill, etc. This is undoubtedly more long range and refers to those truths that develop godly character and spiritual strength—growth truths and procedures like Bible study, meditation, and prayer.

The Purpose of Inspiration

The purpose is that “that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:17). The Bible offers us God’s comfort and His peace as it reveals His love, care, and mercy, but this is always in the context of conforming us into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29) and equipping us for a life of good works (Eph. 2:10). Equipping us is designed to produce righteousness and ministry rather than self-indulgence.

Being “fit” looks at the result or the intended result of a process, the aim in view. I think the process itself is seen in the word “equipped.” Note these three points about this word:

(1) “Equipped” is the Greek exartizw which means “to outfit, fully furnish, fully supply” as in fitting out a wagon or a ship for a long journey. It was actually used of outfitting a rescue boat.⁷⁷ We might compare our Coast Guard vessels and their crews that are so well equipped to go out and rescue ships in trouble.

(2) “Equipped” is an adverbial participle which points us to the mode or the means of becoming “adequate,” “capable,” or “competent.” We might translate the verse as “that the man of God may be capable, by having been thoroughly equipped.”

(3) Finally, the verb is in the perfect tense which, in Greek, often looks at the results of preceding action or a process. In the context, the process is that of studying, knowing, and applying God’s inspired Word while the result is ability for ministry through spiritual growth.

God’s goal, in giving us His Word and our goal in studying and knowing God’s Word, is to thoroughly fit us out that we might become fully competent servants of God for every kind of good work in the midst of a dark and needy world, like thoroughly equipped rescue vessels on missions of mercy.

The How of Inspiration

2 Pet. 1:20-21 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

No passage of Scripture tells us as much about the how of inspiration as does this passage in 2 Peter. Though all of 2 Peter 1 does not deal with the how of inspiration, there are four important things that it would be well to note about this first chapter and its context.

First, there is the context and purpose of this passage. Since God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the great and precious promises, i.e., the Word of God, Peter was writing to challenge his readers to diligence in becoming fruitful in their knowledge of the Savior (1:3-11). In other words, faith must not stand still; it must grow. Further, he wanted to remind them and us that our faith does not stand on the shifting sands of man’s cleverly devised fables or human ideas. Rather, it is grounded in the marvelous revelation of God in the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the written Word, the prophetic Word of God to which we do well to pay close attention.

2 Peter 1:12-21 Therefore, I intend to remind you constantly of these things even though you know them and are well established in the truth that you now have. 13 Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder, 14 since I know that my tabernacle will soon be removed, because our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me. 15 Indeed, I will also make every effort that, after my departure, you have a testimony of these things.
16 For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted.” 18 When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

In the process of setting forth this focus, Peter mentions his personal experience of seeing the majestic glory of the transfiguration of Christ when he heard from heaven, “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted” (vss. 16-17). But He goes on to teach us something that is tremendously important, especially in our day when so much is made regarding personal experiences which often take precedence over Scripture. Note that in verse 19 Peter writes, “Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this…” We need to ask, “More sure than what?” More sure than even his experience of seeing Christ’s transfiguration. Now that which Peter, James, and John saw has become a part of the record of the Word and provides important revelation of the person of Christ. But the point is, our experiences, as bonafide as they may be, never take precedence over the authoritative Word of God because it is more sure, steadfast, and reliable. The Word is our authority and it alone must judge our experiences and determine faith and practice.

The NIV’s translation of verse 20 is much closer to the original Greek, more in accord with the preceding and following context, and clearly expresses the truth to be gleaned here. It reads, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.” This simply declares that whatever the prophets wrote or whatever we find in the Word, it was not the product of the author’s own ideas or human opinion. In verses 16-19, the issue being discussed is the source of the apostolic message. Was it human fable, or was it from God? Verse 20 answers the first part of this question. It was not from man. The second part of the question is found in the next verse. Note the connecting and explanatory “For” of verse 21.

Verse 21 teaches us that both God and man were involved in the production of the Bible, but in such a way that God was not only the ultimate source, but He both directed the writing and guaranteed the accuracy of the product. The human authors actively spoke God’s Word and they were more than dictation machines, but to insure the accuracy of what was spoken, the human authors were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit. “Moved” is feromenoi, a Greek passive participle meaning, “to be carried, be borne along.” This word was used of a ship being carried along by the wind in its sail in Acts 27:15, 17.

Catching the import of this, Ryrie writes:

Though experienced men, the sailors could not guide it so they finally had to let the wind take the ship wherever it blew. In the same manner as that ship was driven, directed, or carried about by the wind, God directed and moved the human writers He used to produce the books of the Bible. Though the wind was the strong force that moved the ship along, the sailors were not asleep and inactive. Similarly, the Holy Spirit was the guiding force that directed the writers who, nevertheless, played their own active roles in writing the Scriptures.⁷⁸

This verse, then, teaches us two things regarding the “How” of inspiration: (a) The will of the human authors never directed the writings of the Bible and (b) the Holy Spirit as the ultimate source ensured the accuracy of what they wrote in every way.

The Breadth of Inspiration

2 Pet. 1:3-4 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.

It is clear from verse 4 and the reference to “his precious and most magnificent promises” that Peter has the Word of God in view in these two verses. First, there is the declaration that God “has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness.” Second, life and godliness come through the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus, but such knowledge comes through the Word, the precious promises. In essence then, this points us to the breadth of what God’s Word covers, “everything pertaining to life and godliness.”

While God does not reveal everything that He could reveal, many things He has chosen to keep to Himself (Deut. 29:29), the Bible does cover all that man needs for life and godliness through its revelation of God and of Jesus our Lord. We have everything we need, nothing is missing. Consequently, being God’s inspired Word, the following is also true …

It Is Alive and Powerful

In this attribute of the Bible, we see the quickening and energizing power of the Word of God to regenerate and change or transform the lives of men as it reveals the very wisdom of God and brings men into a vital relationship with Him through its truth.

1 Peter 1:23 You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

It Is Perfect, Without Defect

(1) It is without blemish, complete, pure, tried, and thus truth, true.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect
and preserves one’s life.
The rules set down by the Lord are reliable
and impart wisdom to the untrained.

(2) It is uncontaminated, flawless.

Psalm 12:6 The Lord’s words are absolutely reliable.
They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground,
where it is thoroughly refined.

(3) It is thoroughly tested and found flawless by testing.

Psalm 119:140 Your word is absolutely pure,
and your servant loves it.

(4) Scripture declares its own inerrant and unadulterated character, unblemished by the myths and fallacies of man.

Psalm 19:8-9 The Lord’s precepts are fair and make one happy.
The Lord’s commands are pure and give moral insight.
9 The commands to fear the Lord are right and permanent.
The regulations given by the Lord are trustworthy and completely just.
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.

James 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

It Is Sure and Trustworthy

The testimony of God’s Word is sure, that is reliable, trustworthy, with the inherent capacity to impart God’s wisdom to the simple, to those who come to him in childlike openness rather than depend on their own human wisdom.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect
and preserves one’s life.
The rules set down by the Lord are reliable
and impart wisdom to the untrained.

It Is Right (Righteous)

As the righteous revelation of God, Scripture enlightens and brings men into a right relationship with the God for whom man was created. Nothing can give joy to the heart like knowing God through His righteous Word.

Psalm 19:8-9 The Lord’s precepts are fair
and make one happy.
The Lord’s commands are pure
and give moral insight.
9 The commands to fear the Lord are right and permanent.
The regulations given by the Lord are trustworthy and completely just.

It Is Great and Precious,
More Valuable Than Gold, and Sweeter Than Honey

In these pictures we see the inherent value of the Bible and our need to evaluate our priorities and pursuits.

2 Peter 1:4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.

Psalm 19:10 They are of greater value than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from honeycomb.

It Is God’s Channel of Faith and Deliverance

It is through the Scripture that God builds our faith and is able to bring us into the power of His life through the person of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 10:17 Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.

2 Peter 1:4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.

Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young person maintain a pure lifestyle?
By following your instructions!
10 With all my heart I seek you.
Do not allow me to stray from your commands!
11 In my heart I store up your words,
so I might not sin against you.

It Is Inexhaustible

No matter how deep we dig into the rich treasures of the Word, we barely scratch the surface. This is only to be expected since it is the revelation of an infinite God to finite man. Have you not said or heard others say, “You know, I have studied that passage for years, but I never saw that truth until today.”

Ephesians 3:2-8 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that by revelation the divine secret was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. 4 When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into this secret of Christ. 5 Now this secret was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, 6 namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 7 I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power. 8 To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ (italics mine).

Actions of the Word
(What It Does )

Picture 1: A Sword

The Greek word for sword is macaira, the short, two-edged sword of the Roman soldier. With this weapon a soldier was never left off balance, nor was he as vulnerable to the thrusts from the weapons of his enemy because it was easier to use.

Passages:

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

Principles Portrayed:

(1) The fact of our warfare or conflict: This is the emphasis in Ephesians 6. The Word of God is our offensive and defensive weapon against all of our enemies—the World with its anti-God influences, the Flesh and its many strong desires, and the Devil with his devilish schemes. With this picture God is warning us that without the Word we cannot defeat any of these enemies. The Scripture is our sword, a sharp two-edged sword, one we can wield effectively and actively without being thrown off balance as with the weapons of the flesh. It is significant that when the Lord was tempted by the Devil, He repeatedly parried the thrusts of Satan’s temptations with “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10).

(2) This picture also portrays penetration: It portrays the capacity to cut deep and penetrate into the innermost part of our being and meet our innermost needs, the spiritual needs of the soul. This is the emphasis in Hebrews 4:12. The Word has the capacity to deal with our deep-seated problems of guilt, fears or anxieties, wrong motives, angers, frustrations, and our need for significance, meaning, and purpose.

Problems We Face—Use and skill:

In Ephesians 6:17 Paul is telling us we need to take up our armor. This means learning to know our sword and how to use it by daily practice.

In Hebrews 5:12 the author is dealing with the problem of negligence. Because of the amount of time these believers had been saved, they should have been teachers of the Word. They had neglected the assembling of themselves together to hear the Word, however, and were woefully unskilled in the use of Scripture.

Hebrews 5:11-12 On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. 12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.

Picture 2: A Critic, Judge

Passage:

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

Principles Portrayed:

This teaches us that the Word is God’s personal analyzer of our lives. It is a critic, a judge of what is right and wrong. It tells us how we are doing, where we are going wrong, why, and how to correct it. Just as a performer has critics of his performance, so the Word is a critic of both our attitudes and actions, our performance, our inner life, and our overt behavior.

Problems We Face:

We must be a people who have ears to hear and submit to the judgment of the Word on our lives. We need to be a submissive people, but as John R. Stott accurately writes,

Seldom if ever in its long history has the world witnessed such a self-conscious revolt against authority. … What seems new today, however, is both the world-wide scale of the revolt and the philosophical arguments with which it is sometimes buttressed. There can be no doubt that the twentieth century has been caught up in a global revolution … All the accepted authorities (family, school, university, State, Church, Bible, Pope, God) are being challenged. Anything which savors of ‘establishment,’ that is, of entrenched privilege or unassailable power, is being scrutinized and opposed.⁷⁹

Questioning what people say, if we use God’s Word as our index, is not always bad and is even commended by Luke in Acts 17:11. But if we are not careful we can be caught up in the mood of the day and become insensitive and unresponsive to the preaching and teaching of the Word. We treat it as though it were merely someone’s opinion and we can become too impressed and filled with our own opinions. Stott continues,

Now everybody has his own opinions and his own convictions, and considers them just as good as the preacher’s. ‘Who does he think he is,’ people ask—silently if not aloud—‘that he should presume to lay down the law to me?’⁸⁰

But the issue is does the message (whether in a book, on a tape, or from a pulpit) reflect the truth of Scripture? Is it based on Scripture and sound exegesis according to grammar, context, and the analogy of Scripture, or is the preacher or teacher abusing the Word? Is he guilty of eisegesis, reading into it his own ideas to promote his own agendas?

Picture 3: A Lamp, Light

Passages:

Isaiah 5:20 Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead,
who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,
who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter.

Isaiah 50:10-11 Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys his servant?
Whoever walks in deep darkness,
without light,
should trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God.
11 Look, all of you who start a fire
and who equip yourselves with flaming arrows,
walk in the light of the fire you started
and among the flaming arrows you ignited!
This is what you will receive from me:
you will lie down in a place of pain.

Psalm 36:9 For you are the one who gives
and sustains life.

Psalm 119:105 Your instructions are a lamp that shows me where to walk,
and a light that shines on my path.

Psalm 119:130 Your instructions are like a doorway through which the light shines.
They give insight to the untrained.

Proverbs 6:23 For the commandments are like a lamp,
instruction is like a light,
and rebukes of discipline are like the road leading to life,

Principles Portrayed:

The purpose of a lamp is its light-bearing capacity. In Scripture, light has a three-fold use and significance:

(1) The Operational Use: This use of light emphasizes the action of light. Light gives illumination or sight. Light shines in our lives to dispel darkness, to illuminate our path or our walk step-by-step. Light keeps us from stumbling and running into those things which can harm us. Light, as such, is protective.

(2) The Intellectual Use: This use of light stands for the concept of truth and is opposed to error and that which deceives and deludes. It is through the light of the Word that we are able to recognize and avoid the myths and heresies of a satanically-inspired and deluded world. A reporter asked a pedestrian if he knew what the two greatest problems in the world were. The man answered, “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” The reporter replied, “You’re right, how did you know?”

What we do not know about God’s Word not only can hurt us, but in time it will. Why? Because throughout history people have fallen victim to lies—myths that become accepted as truth. Say it often enough and in the right setting and people will eventually begin to believe it—believe it or not! Where do these myths come from? They come from the brainwashing we receive daily from our cultural environment as well as the rationalizations (a nice word for the lies we often tell ourselves to get our own way).

Let me share a few myths:

• The myth that God is pleased with our religiosity—that all we have to do is put in our appearance at church once a week, sing a few hymns, get a rosy glow, and look interested in what the preacher has to say. But as one whose life was meshed with God’s Word and speaking to the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus quoted Isaiah and said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.” (Mark 7:6-7; 1 Cor. 11:17ff).
• The myth that we can ignore God’s Word and be okay. But the Word says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.” (Hebrews 3:7-8a). The author is showing us that if we do not listen to the Spirit of God daily, we are going to be influenced and hardened by sin.
• The myth that temptation is some overt, momentary solicitation to evil and that our strength lies in what we do at that moment—when the truth is that victory is based upon growing in faith, in attitudes, conditioning, and patterns, that have been forming for weeks, months, even years.
• The myth that because we hear thunder and don’t see the immediate wrath of God that we are getting away with sin and can neglect spiritual priorities.

Note the following illustrations:

Because they wanted to settle east of the Jordan where they could pasture their herds, Moses warned the tribes of Reuben and Gad concerning failure to help the rest of the nation drive out the inhabitants of the land,

Numbers 32:23 But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.

In Galatians Paul wrote,

Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, 8 because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

In Ecclesiastes 8:11-12 we read these words,

When a sentence is not executed at once against a crime,
the human heart is encouraged to do evil.
12 Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes and still live a long time,
yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people—for they stand in fear before him.

(3) The Moral Use: In this use we see the final product of light is righteousness. In Isaiah God reminds us that our ways are not His ways—and they are not because our thoughts are not His thoughts. Righteousness and morality simply cannot exist in a doctrinal vacuum where God is not known in truth because it is the truth, it is the light of Scripture which sets us free (Isa 55:8f).

Problems We Face:

No lamp is useful unless it is switched on and directed to one’s path or on the details of one’s life (cf. Matt. 5:14f). Being a light to others begins by living in God’s light (the Word) ourselves. We must know how to use our lamp. It is not really our lamp until we have studied it and are willing to apply it. The world is full of darkness, but the lamp of the Word—God’s truth—dispels the darkness of the world. It is instructional for us to note Paul’s warnings and commands in Ephesians 5 where he warns us that it is all too easy for us to walk in darkness even though we are children of light. It requires an active response and commitment to the Word before we will expose our lives to the light of Scripture.

Jeremiah 10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny.
It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.

In Philippians 1:10 the word sincere is the Greek eilikrinhs . While the entomology and derivation of this word has been questioned, one suggestion is that it is composed of $eilh , sunlight, and krinw , to judge. It means to judge or see by the light and describes what can stand the judgment of the light of the sun. It refers to a man whose life is free from falsehood and deceitfulness. In ancient times the word was used of the practice of shoppers concerning articles in the marketplace. Ancient shops were dark and imperfections in a piece of furniture or a vase could easily be hidden and covered over with wax or paint. Because of this practice, shoppers would take the article out into the sunlight to see if the merchandise was free from flaws, to see if it was eilikrinhs . Friends, this is what we all need. We need to daily and weekly expose ourselves to the sunlight of God’s holy Word.

Philippians 1:10 so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ,

Picture 4: A Mirror

Passages:

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

James 1:22-25 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he will be blessed in what he does.

Principles Portrayed:

A mirror is a reflector of one’s likeness. It reflects our image. Fortunately, unless it is twisted or deformed in some way, a mirror does not lie. The Bible is a perfect mirror—it reflects reality, the reality of what we are. A color photograph can be touched up here and there to hide a mole, wart, wrinkle, or scar, but a mirror shows us exactly what we are. But fortunately the Bible, as a mirror, has a dual purpose or a dual reflection.

When a little boy stands in front of a mirror with his dad, he sees himself and his dad whom he would like to be like when he grows up. It provides him with a model for how he would like to look. God’s Word is like that. It not only shows us who and what we are, but it also shows us the Lord Jesus—our example and goal. But this only happens as we learn to focus on Him in the mirror of His Word and walk by the Spirit.

Problems We Face:

Like the other pictures of the Word, a mirror must be used properly or it has no benefit. By the non-use or misuse of our mirror, we can fail to benefit by this marvelous gift of God for our transformation and healing. I am reminded of the morning miracle my beautiful wife performs daily in the presence of a mirror. In fact, think about what most people would look like if they gave no heed to what they saw in the mirror each morning before they washed, brushed, curled or used a little makeup.

The emphasis in James 1:19-25 is that we cannot afford to be superficial believers who take just a casual look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word. It is too easy for each of us to do that through mere religious activity like going to church and Sunday school or spending ten minutes in a daily devotional booklet. Contextually, James is talking about having a faith that is active and productive so that it results in spiritual deliverance and practical demonstrations of righteousness in transformed living.

Note James 2:21 where James asks the question, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?” James is not contradicting Paul. When Paul talks about justification by faith he is referring to justification before God, but James is writing about justification before men, the practical proof and manifestation of real fellowship with God in contrast with mere religiosity.

The Greek word for “justified” is dikaiow . This word has two main uses. (a) It may mean “to declare, pronounce righteous or treat one as righteous.” In this sense it means to declare guiltless, to acquit of a charge. Paul uses dikaiow or the idea of justification in this sense. Because of the work of Christ and through personal faith in Christ, our sins are forgiven, the penalty of sin is removed, and we are declared or pronounced righteous in Christ. (b) But dikaiow may also mean to show or exhibit or prove that one is righteous.⁸¹ This is the sense in which James uses the term. With this in mind, read James 1:19-21.

The subject here is the positive production of God’s kind of character, positive righteousness or transformed living accomplished through faith in our new regenerated life in Christ. As regenerated people who have faith in Christ, our lives should be different.

James 2:1 My brothers and sisters, do not show prejudice if you possess faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

James 1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

But if our faith in the living Christ is to actively appropriate His life in ours in a consistent life-changing way that demonstrates our justification, the new life must be brought into a right relationship with the living Word, which, like seed that is planted, germinates and takes root, grows and produces (another picture), resulting in spiritual deliverance. This is the thrust of verse 21.

In James 1:22-25, James tells us that unless we are carefully using God’s Word to bring about personal deliverance and spiritual change, we are deceiving ourselves and circumventing (bypassing) God’s purpose and design.

“Prove” in the NASB is a present imperative of the Greek verb, ginomai. It means “become” and refers to a process of learning to apply the Word consistently. The KJV reads, “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only …” “Doers” is poihths and refers to productive action according to a design.

“Not merely hearers” is literally “and not hearers only or alone.” “Only” or “alone” is the Greek monos which means “to be without a companion.” Bible study and religious activity must be married to application and positive righteousness and ministry or it leads to deception.

“Who delude themselves.” “Delude” is paralogizomai from para, “along side” or “by, past,” plus logizomai, “to think, reckon, calculate.” James is warning against thinking in such a way that one passes by the truth and its design or purpose and thus becomes deceived.

How do we deceive ourselves? We deceive ourselves when we think one thing while the opposite is true (cf. vs. 26). In this way we actually circumvent the truth and annul its design. Scripture is designed to bring Christlike change. If this is not happening, then, we become further deceived by remaining dupes and pawns for Satan’s tricks and the world’s deceptions because we refuse to get with God’s Word (cf. vs. 27). If we don’t live deeply and reflectively in the Word, we are going to be affected deeply, even subliminally by the world. So what is God’s design?

• Reading and Hearing the Word which should lead to …
• Reflection as in meditation on the Word, contemplation which should result in seeing our image and His (revelation from God).
• Response (positive response to God) should lead to …
• Reformation (transformation and production through personal application).

But

• Revelation without an adequate response (meditation and application) leads to …
• Rebellion through misconception, deception, pretense, indifference, and betrayal, etc.

Or we face the alternatives:

• Rote—catechistic religion, mechanically learned religion (Isa. 29:13). This is the mere memorization of rules and regulations or doctrines and precepts. It looks at a fixed course or routine and repetition without attention to meaning and application. This leads to:
• Rut—mere religious habits, going through the motions without spiritual reality. Rut is walking in a religious routine of ritual and memorized sayings and ideas, but without spiritual and personal appropriation—failing to become hearers and doers. This leads to:
• Rot—failure to produce. Christians who are basically nonproductive and may eventually experience God’s discipline. Rot can of course be caused by the spiritual deadness of religious unbelievers, like the Pharisees of Christ’s day—white washed tombs. They were painted white on the outside, but rotten and dead on the inside. The concept is also applicable to carnal Christians who, though saved, fail to abide in the Vine (John 15) and thus fail to produce.

Picture 5: Rain, Snow, Water

Passages:

Isaiah 55:10-11 The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
11 In the same way, the promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 The Lord says,
“I will put a curse on people
who trust in mere human beings,
who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength,
and whose hearts have turned away from the Lord.
6 They will be like a shrub in the desert.
They will not experience good things even when they happen.
It will be as though they were growing in the desert,
in a salt land where no one can live.
7 My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.
8 They will be like a tree planted near a stream
whose roots spread out toward the water.
It has nothing to fear when the heat comes.
Its leaves are always green.
It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought.
It does not stop bearing fruit.

Ephesians 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word,

Principles Portrayed:

(1) The Picture of Cleansing: The word “prunes” in John 15:2 is the Greek word, kaqairw, literally, “to cleanse.” It was used of pruning useless branches. Read Matthew 15:1-20 and 12:33-35. Do you get the picture? The Pharisees were meticulous about their external religious activities, but they were filthy inside because they were neglecting the water of the Word which would cleanse their hearts and fill them with what was good.

Psalm 119:9 How can a young person maintain a pure lifestyle?
By following your instructions!

John 15:2-3 He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. 3 You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Scripture reveals what is wrong with us and provides the proper motivation for change. But it also provides us with the power for change through the truth that it reveals to us in Christ, thus, cleansing our lives from sin and the defilement of this world.

(2) The Picture of Refreshment, Renewal: Like a cool drink of water on a hot day, the Word refreshes and renews the inner man.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison 18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

(3) The Picture of Production: Apart from the Word of God, we are like a man wandering in the dry, parched desert, exhausted, sapped of energy and spiritual strength, dried out by the heat of life as he is faced with its pressures and his own inability to count for God. Without the Word to guide, renew, refresh, and inspire us, we will invariably end up expending our energy for the husks of the world.

We may gain much of the world and its riches, or perhaps spend life in its pursuit, but, either way, if God’s Word is not the wellspring of our lives, we will waste our lives as far as God’s purposes are concerned. But with the Word as the river or wellspring of life, we become like the man who trusts the Lord in Jeremiah 17:5-8 and Psalm 1:2-3.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 The Lord says,
“I will put a curse on people
who trust in mere human beings,
who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength,
and whose hearts have turned away from the Lord.
6 They will be like a shrub in the desert.
They will not experience good things even when they happen.
It will be as though they were growing in the desert,
in a salt land where no one can live.
7 My blessing is on those people who trust in me,
who put their confidence in me.
8 They will be like a tree planted near a stream
whose roots spread out toward the water.
It has nothing to fear when the heat comes.
Its leaves are always green.
It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought.
It does not stop bearing fruit.

Psalm 1:2-3 Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands;
he intently studies his commands day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by flowing streams;
it yields its fruit at the proper time,
and its leaves never fall off.
He succeeds in everything he attempts.

Problems We Face:

We tend to be like a man in the desert who sees a mirage and thinks it is the means of quenching his thirst. Similarly, men often pursue what they think will give them happiness and fulfillment, and the pleasures and possessions of the world. But it is a mirage. It is an illusion placed there by Satan which men believe because they aren’t properly rooted by the streams of the Word. Such have sought to live their lives by trusting in their own resources and have cast themselves out into, as it were, a wasteland of human solutions and delusions. They haven’t learned to recognize the difference between true happiness and mere pleasure.

A man may commit adultery or fornication and experience sexual pleasure, but by no means does he experience true happiness. And, as it is true in sexual fornication, so it is equally true with every form of spiritual fornication where men prostitute themselves to the world and turn away their ears and hearts from their God. Are you a tree planted by the streams of living water? Or are you like a tumbleweed without stability being tossed about by every wind of influence and temptation?

Picture 6: Food, Bread

Passages:

Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.

Jeremiah 15:16 As your words came to me I drank them in
and they filled my heart with joy and happiness.
That is because I belong to you.

Ezekiel 2:8 As for you, son of man, hear what I say to you: Do not rebel like that rebellious house! Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you—eat this scroll—and then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, fill your belly and your insides with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Principles Portrayed:

(1) Sustenance, Strength, Endurance: Just as man needs physical food to sustain his health and life and give him strength, so God has created us that our spiritual life must be fed and nourished on the spiritual food of the Word. The following are two passages that attest to this.

Job 23:12. “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.” In answer to the accusations of Eliphaz, Job declared he had faithfully followed the path of God. How? Because of his relationship with God’s Word. To him it was like the necessary food of life.

Jeremiah 15:16. “As your words came to me I drank them in and they filled my heart with joy and happiness. That is because I belong to you.” Jeremiah found strength in the midst of his persecution by the nation because, unlike the nation who had repudiated God’s Word, Jeremiah eagerly welcomed it like food and enjoyed it as the nourishment of his soul.

These two passages demonstrate the necessity of a life fed and sustained on the resources of God’s Word in order to run the race that is laid out before us—God’s plan and purpose for each of us in the midst of the ups and downs of life.

Under this same picture of the Word as our necessary food, these verses demonstrate the importance of God’s Word for motivation, courage and strength, and capacity for ministry. Living on the Word, because it tunes our ear into God’s voice, produces the burden, the willingness, and the courage necessary for ministry regardless of our fears or the obstacles we face. Scripture brings us in touch with the heart of God.

See Appendix 1 for a short exposition of Ezekiel 2:8; 3:1-3, 14.

When we aren’t living in the Word and allowing it to saturate our hearts and minds, we will either (a) fail to minister or, (b) we will minister for the wrong reasons and always without a sense of God’s purpose and without the joy of the Lord.

One of the things which hinders our response to God, to His Word, and the ministry God wants us each to have as He works and leads in our lives is slavery to the details of life or preoccupation with the “good life.” The parable of the sower, the soil and the seed illustrates this in Mark 4:18-19:

Mark 4:14-20 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately Satan comes and snatches the word that was sown in them. 16 These are the ones sown on rocky ground: As soon as they hear the word, they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root in themselves and do not endure. Then, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 Others are the ones sown among thorns: They are those who hear the word, 19 but worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing. 20 But these are the ones sown on good soil: They hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirty times as much, one sixty, and one a hundred.

(2) The Insufficiency of the Details of Life: This picture of the Word as our necessary bread is also designed by God to portray and teach the fact of the insufficiency and futility of the so-called details of life, or even the normal physical necessities of life. It teaches us that man cannot (and was never designed to) live by bread alone. Bread stands for the normal necessities and details of this life by which man attempts to find happiness, fulfillment, or strength.

Deuteronomy 8:3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. He did this to teach you that mankind cannot live by food alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth.

“He humbled you by making you hungry.” God led Israel into the desert where they had no alternative but to trust Him or murmur against Him. In the desert they could not produce their own food: they had to depend entirely on the Lord. This was both humbling and instructive. But God had a special purpose—“that He might teach you (and so also us) that mankind cannot live by food alone …” This meant that their food, their clothing, everything (vs. 4) was the result of the decree or command of God and His sovereign provision.

God speaks and our needs are either provided or withheld. Man is dependent not just on bread, but on God who makes our bread available. But that’s not all.

This also included God’s purpose for Israel as a nation. The Word that proceeded out of God’s mouth not only set forth His decree as to provision for the physical needs of life, but it included His purpose for Israel to function as a nation of priests to the nations of the world. Remember, the nations had, under Satan’s lies and delusions since the garden of Eden, turned away from God. They had sought to live, in essence, by bread alone, independently of God. They sought to act as though God did not exist (Gen. 3:11). It was because of this that God called Abraham out of Ur through whom would come the nation of Israel who in turn would be: (a) God’s representative to the world, (b) the custodians of God’s Word, and (c) the channel of the Redeemer (Ex. 19:5, 6; Deut. 4:4-8; Rom. 9:4-5).

One of the great motivations and reasons for living is an awareness of God’s purpose, to know life has meaning and goes beyond the day-to-day details and routine. For life to have meaning, men need to sense the destiny and hand of God on their lives. Life without that is a life of futility, as the book of Ecclesiastes makes clear.

Man is totally dependent on God and His Word—on that which proceeds from His mouth. We are dependent on His commands, promises, and purposes, not just for our daily bread, but for an adequate sense of living. Since this is so, shouldn’t we be living in constant dependence on the Lord by living in His Word? God’s Word is our source of faith and our means of occupation with the Lord and His heart.

Romans 10:17 Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.

We were not created to simply make a living and luxuriate on the physical blessings of life independently of God, or even in dependence on God. We were created to function according to God’s purposes, to live through Him and for Him. Anything other than that is utter futility. It’s the picture of the gerbil on the proverbial wheel—constantly on the go but going nowhere. To drive this picture home more convincingly, let’s look at a few more passages.

The place where the events of Numbers 11 occurred was called Kibroth-hattaavah, “graves of craving.” Craving the details of life led to the untimely death of a large number of the people. But more importantly, the people were nostalgically yearning for Egypt and their past in the world rather than focusing on getting into Canaan and God’s purpose for the nation. The complaining of verse 4 started with the rabble, those who were not Israelites and had come with Israel out of Egypt. But as verse 10 shows, this was like leaven, soon spreading throughout the camp.

As Americans with the abundance of food and variety of choices we have, we might be tempted to sympathize with the complaints of the Israelites, but neither God nor Moses did (cf. vss. 1, 10). Please note that with this complaining and these nostalgic remarks concerning the past, the people were actually expressing their opposition to God’s purposes: (a) to bring Israel into Canaan so they could accomplish His priestly purposes for the nation, and (b) to learn the lesson of Deuteronomy 8:3—that they must learn to live in joyous dependence on the Lord, His holy purposes, and in what He was doing (cf. 11:20).

Psalm 106:14-15 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving for meat;
they challenged God in the desert.
15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease.

Luke 12:23 For there is more to life than food, and more to the body than clothing.

(3) The Principle of Hunger: As Deuteronomy 8:3 and Numbers 11:4f show us, God often has to let us experience trials and the emptiness and the indigestion of the world’s diet before we will become hungry for His truth and dependent on Him.

Numbers 11:4-6 Now the mixed multitude who were among them craved more desirable foods, and so the Israelites wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now we are dried up, and there is nothing at all before us except the manna.”

(4) The Principles of Mastication and Digestion: We need to slowly chew the Word and thoroughly digest it. This means not only study, but careful reflection and meditation with a view to application. We need to ask questions such as: what does this mean? What does it mean to me? How should it affect my life?

Problems We Face:

Satan, the old serpent who deceived Eve (like the snake in the grass that he is) works night and day to deceive men into thinking they can live by bread alone, that man can get by without God and His Word. This is secularism—seeking to live without God in arrogant dependence on ourselves and the details of life.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses, 13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 14 be sure you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, 15 and who brought you through the great, fearful desert of venomous serpents and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow from a flint rock and 16 fed you in the desert with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you and eventually bring good to you. 17 Be careful not to say, “My own ability and skill have gotten me this wealth.” 18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, even as he has to this day. 19 Now if you forget the Lord your God at all and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated. 20 Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you because you would not obey him.

Today, for the most part, our nation has forgotten God. It has turned away from the absolutes of the Word to a secularistic outlook that seeks to live on the details of life and the husks of the world. Unfortunately, this outlook and condition is not limited to the unbelieving world, but like Israel of old, it has saturated the mindset of much of Christianity. Because of this, Israel failed in their ministry as a nation of priests to the nations, and like Israel, the Christian community is failing in its ministry of outreach to a lost and dying society. The following are some important questions we should ponder:

• Are we more hungry for the material goods of the world than for the spiritual food of the Word?
• Do we have time to eat our physical food daily, but no time for the spiritual food of the Word?
• Do we have time for the news, but no time for the Bible?
• Do we have time for our favorite TV shows, but no time for Bible class on a regular basis?
• How is our appetite? When the dinner bell is sounded, when it is time to assemble together to feed on the meat of the Word, are we eager to come and put our feet under the table of Bible study? Or are we ruining our appetites for the Word with the junk food of a secular society?

Picture 7: Gold and Silver

Passages:

Psalm 19:10 They are of greater value than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from honeycomb.

Psalm 119:72 The law you have revealed is more important to me
than thousands of gold and silver shekels.

Psalm 119:127 For this reason I love your commands
more than gold, even pure gold.

Proverbs 8:10-11 Receive my instruction rather than silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies,
and desirable things cannot be compared to her.

Proverbs 8:19 My fruit is better than pure gold,
and what I produce is better than choice silver.

Principles Portrayed:

In none of these passages is Scripture actually called or directly likened to gold or silver, yet, because of the comparisons and contrasts with gold or silver, these precious metals form another picture with which we may liken God’s Word.

(1) Supreme and Intrinsic Value: Two of the most valuable and precious commodities of the ancient near East were gold and silver. To compare God’s Word with either formed an obvious picture that would dramatize the supreme and intrinsic value of His Word. The Word—like gold and silver—has value the world over. Both are rare and beautiful metals with intrinsic value—especially gold. While other things may lose their value, the Word, like gold, is valuable any place and at any time. In fact, the biblical emphasis is that Scripture is much more valuable than gold, even the purest of gold.

Why is it so valuable? The Psalmist writes, “The law you have revealed is more important to me than thousands of gold and silver shekels.” (Ps. 119:72). In Psalm 19:1-6 the Psalmist discusses the glories of the creational revelation of God and how creation reveals the fact of God and declares His glory. But then, he goes on in verses 7-14 to discuss the inscriptural revelation of God, the Scripture and its character and nature—what the Bible is and does. Because of the attributes and actions of the Word, in the midst of this the Psalmist exclaims, “For this reason I love your commands more than gold, even pure gold”

Scripture is the supreme value of life because it is the Word of God’s own mouth. It is the very revelation of the living God. It is inerrant, infallible, true, tried, and completely trustworthy. It is God’s Holy Word and contains the words of life.

But there is even more that this picture portrays. This picture comparing Scripture with gold teaches us that the Bible, even more than gold, has a redemptive value and a purchasing power that gold or silver can never have.

(2) Redemptive Value or Purchasing Power: Because gold has value, it has purchasing power. Things can be acquired with gold. You can have possessions, land, houses, clothing, gadgets, jewels, furnishings, power, and pleasure with gold. But there is a limit to what money or gold can buy. That which actually counts the most, money or gold is unable to buy. For this we need a different kind of gold, the gold of the truth of the Word of God. In fact, a preoccupation with the gold of this world and what it can buy will keep us from the gold of God’s Word and from the blessings of God.

It is through the Word that we find the Gospel message of our redemption purchased for us, not by the gold and silver of the world, but by the precious blood of Christ. Money can buy neither salvation from sin’s penalty nor deliverance from sin’s power, only faith in the grace of God in Christ can give that. And it is the Word—more precious than gold that perishes—that produces faith.

1 Peter 1:18-19 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ.

Further, as a part of the salvation which the Word gives, it is through the Word that we are able to redeem the time and acquire those things which the world cannot give like security, true happiness, forgiveness of sin, freedom from guilt, an adequate purpose for living, and insight for living. The wisdom of God’s Word is available for all. It is there for the taking, but only those who love her and seek her will find her. Proverbs 8:17 says, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Only those who, recognizing the Bible’s value, will go digging for the gold and silver ore of the Word will be able to enrich their deposits of spiritual discernment and capacity for life.

Proverbs 2:4-12 if you seek it like silver,
and search for it like hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand how to fear the Lord,
and you will discover knowledge about God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom,
and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up effective counsel for the upright,
and is like a shield for those who live with integrity,
8 to guard the paths of the righteous
and to protect the way of his pious ones.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity—every good way.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and moral knowledge will be attractive to you.
11 Discretion will protect you,
understanding will guard you,
12 to deliver you from the way of the wicked,
from those speaking perversity,

This picture of the Word as gold, indeed, as more valuable than gold, necessitates another action on our part—the reevaluation of our values and priorities.

(3) The Reevaluation of Our Values: What do we do when we find something valuable? Read carefully Matthew 13:44-46. This picture of the value of the Bible as gold and silver instructs us to seriously examine and evaluate our values and priorities in life. It challenges us to ask some heart-searching questions.

• What do I value most? If I say it is God, the Bible, my family, etc., do my actions and the use of my time demonstrate it?
• What am I pursuing and what am I expecting from the so-called good life?
• What are we expecting from the world? Are we expecting too much? Are we putting our trust in its gold rather than in the gold of the Word which teaches us about the Lord and draws us to Him?

Isaiah 55:1-3 Hey, all who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come!
Buy and eat!
Come! Buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!
2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you?
Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me and eat what is nourishing!
Enjoy fine food!
3 Pay attention and come to me!
Listen, so you can live!
Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you,
just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David.

This Old Testament passage in Isaiah 55:1-3 has a very special message for us. It does three things: First, it issues a special invitationthat God offers all men. Second, it challenges us to a careful evaluationof the places we have placed our trust, and of our values and pursuits. Finally, it calls us to an investigationof God’s Word to find the real values of life. (See Appendix 2 for a brief exposition of Isaiah 55:1-3.)

Picture 8: Fire

Passages:

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my message like a fire that purges dross? Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? I, the Lord, so affirm it.

Jeremiah 20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.
I will not speak as his messenger any more.”
But then his message becomes like a fire
locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul.
I grow weary of trying to hold it in
and I just cannot do it.

Principles Portrayed:

Fire is used for the concepts of warmth, for tempering and hardening metal, of the smelting process in the production of precious metals like gold and silver, of burning away stubble in preparing a field for production, of burning and consuming what is worthless and to be destroyed, and of cooking food for palatability and consumption. When God compares His Word to fire, what’s the point? What does He want us to learn from this figure or picture? Fire is a picture of:

(1) Warmth: God has designed His Word to warm our hearts for Him, to change hearts that are cold or lukewarm to hearts that are on fire for God, that are burning with His truth, with His values, purposes, and concerns, and sovereign love, grace and control.

(2) Cleansing: The Word burns away and cleanses what is impure and superfluous (useless) in our lives as it is allowed to purify our values, priorities, purposes, attitudes, thinking patterns, and standards of right and wrong (Jer. 20:9).

(3) Judgment: In Scripture, fire is often associated with judgment. God’s Word judges our lives but if we do not judge our lives by the Word, we will eventually be judged by the Lord through His fatherly discipline and eventually at the Judgment (Bema) Seat of Christ in connection with receiving or not receiving rewards. (For a study on the Bema, see Part 1, Lesson 7.)

1 Corinthians 11:28-32 A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. 31 But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 each builder’s work will be plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done. 14 If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

“Is not my message like a fire?” declares the LORD? (Jeremiah 23:29 ). The context of Jeremiah 23 is that of false prophets who refused to spend time in the counsel of God listening to His Words, giving heed in personal obedience, and proclaiming His truth to the people (23:18, 21-22). Instead, they were pronouncing a vision of their own minds. They were rejecting the warnings of Jeremiah claiming there would be peace and prosperity and no Babylonian captivity. God, therefore, declares that His Word would be to them like a fire, efficacious and powerful and the basis of their own downfall or destruction. Just as a fire consumes chaff, so God’s Word would consume the false prophets.

Problems We Face:We too often fail to judge our lives by God’s Word. We fail to allow the Word to burn away the stubble of our own ideas, agendas, goals. If we fail to allow the Word to do its work, then we will face the consequences.

Picture 9: A Hammer

Passages:

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my message like a fire that purges dross? Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? I, the Lord, so affirm it.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments 5 and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.

Acts 20:32 And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Principles Portrayed:

Besides being good for busting your finger, we all know that a hammer has two main uses— construction and destruction. But when God likens His Word to a hammer, what is He portraying by this picture? Again in the Jeremiah passage, the problem is the same as seen above, the problem of false prophets who were operating on the vision of their own minds. This meant they were rejecting God’s Word through His true prophets, that they were trusting in their own viewpoints, and that this would ultimately result in their own destruction. They were refusing to build their lives on the sure and infallible truth of God. So what are the principles?

(1) Construction, building up: Only the Word, combined of course with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, has the power to build us up in Christ and to develop spiritual maturity and stability (cf. Acts 20:32). We must be constantly building and erecting the spiritual structures of God’s truth into our hearts and minds or we will be building carnal and worldly structures of the false and destructive and humanistic ideas of man. All such humanistic and arrogant ideas first exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. They are ultimately anti-God and anti-man. They hinder our capacity to be what God has designed us to be as His people. In addition, man’s ideas, the visions of man’s own heart, always result in his ruin. They leave us at the mercy of the spiritual elements—the storms and winds of the world just like a man who builds his house on the sand rather than on the rock, Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture.

(2) Destruction, tearing down: Often, in fact generally, before we can build, we must first do demolition work. We must tear down old structures, the human viewpoint, that stand in the way of new construction.

The Problem We Face:

A “fortress” is something arrogantly raised up against the knowledge of God and what that knowledge means to man in its implications, blessings, and responsibilities. It is anything that hinders authentic Christianity. These include anything that works against the application of the knowledge of God and its impact on the life of man. This would include all forms of selfism, humanism, religionism, emotionalism, secularism, cultism, materialism, etc. But it would also include wrong mental attitudes that simply fail to act on the promises, principles, and purposes of the Word.

In other words, the fortresses or strongholds are the arguments, attitudes, and designs which present an obstacle to a proper impact of Scripture and its revelation of God. Through prayer and accurate study of the Word, we should be accomplishing two things: (a) the destruction of any attitude, viewpoint, or thinking that is opposed or is contrary to the viewpoint of Scripture, and (b) in its place, we must be building God’s viewpoint as both the foundation and superstructure of our thinking and living.

Picture 10: Seed

Passages:

Mark 4:14 The sower sows the word.

Mark 4:26-28 He also said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. 27 He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

Colossians 1:5-7 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 7 You learned the gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave—a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf—

Principles Portrayed:

(1) The Need of Cultivation: The preparation of the human heart for the Word.

(2) The Goal of Production: The capacity to produce spiritual fruit for God.

(3) The Fact of Automation: The capacity to work automatically, spontaneously.

In Mark 4:28, the words, “by itself,” are the translation of the Greek automatos from which we get our word, automatic. It means “self moved, spontaneously, without external aid, and also beyond external control.” This word is used only one other place in the New Testament, Acts 12:10. There the gate of Peter’s cell opened of its own accord, automatically, without human intervention.

The stress here is that the earth, really the seed planted in the earth, produces fruit automatically. It does so because it is within its nature as created by God to do so. Without the living seed, all the other ingredients, the soil, sun, rain, and cultivation would be futile. These are all cooperative factors, but the life principle, the power for reproduction, is in the seed.

This parable is about the power of the Word of God and how God brings about production and harvest in the lives of men. The Word of God, when sown in the hearts of men, produces fruit. The soil needs cultivation and the seed needs watering, but without the Word, nothing happens. The all important ingredient is the Word which is alive and powerful, the very power of God unto salvation.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In witnessing God may use our lives and often does to prepare the soil of the hearts of others for the seed of the Word, but ultimately it is the Word that men must hear, the message about Christ.

In our own lives, God may use many things for our spiritual blessing and to aid our growth—singing, encouragement, and the love and fellowship of other believers. But ultimately, it is only the Word sown and cultivated in the heart and mind that results in true and complete spiritual change and fruitfulness.

We each need to ask ourselves some questions: How is my attitude toward God’s plan and will for my life, for the things happening to me, for the ministry God has for me now or in the future? Am I cold, depressed, wanting to run away? Do I lack incentive, motivation, vitality, excitement with what God has for my life? If so, then clearly, my spiritual furnace needs stoking with the hot coals of the Word through daily time in God’s Word.

Am I lacking in stability? Do I tend to fold every time I come under pressure? Is my life and understanding of God’s Word and what He wants for my life marred by bad mental attitudes, preconditioned ideas, background, human tradition, or past ways of doing things? Then again, I need to start both a demolition and a building program.

How is my response to the Word? What kind of soil am I? Am I like a beaten path or like rocky soil with no depth? Or am I like a patch of earth filled with weeds and briars which choke out the growth of the seeds of God’s truth? If so, I need to prepare the soil of my heart. And how can we do that? Let me make some suggestions:

(1) Be in fellowship—we must come to the study of the Word having confessed all known sin.

1 Peter 2:1-2 So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation,

James 1:21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

(2) Be prayerful, dependent, and expectant of God to teach us and make His truth clear—we need to be like the Psalmist who prayed, “Uncover my eyes so I can gaze at marvelous things out of your law!” (Psa. 119:18).

(3) Be open, teachable, but objective—allow the Word to speak for itself according to the facts of the passage so it is free to teach us the truth. Otherwise, because of our background or prejudice, we will be forcing our ideas on the text and what we end up with will be only error.

(4) Be studious—learn and apply yourself to the principles of methodical Bible study.

2 Timothy 2:15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.

(5) Be diligent—in applying and judging our lives with the Word by faith.

Picture 11: Honey, Honeycomb

Passages:

Psalm 19:10 They are of greater value than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from honeycomb.

Psalm 119:103 Your words are tastier
in my mouth than honey!

Psalm 81:16 “I would feed Israel the best wheat,
and would satisfy your appetite with honey from the rocky cliffs.”

Proverbs 24:13 Eat honey, my child, for it is good,
and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you—eat this scroll—and then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.
3 He said to me, “Son of man, fill your belly and your insides with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Principles Portrayed:

(1) Honey portrays the Bible as one of the greatest blessings and sources of sweetness and joy in life. Fifty-eight verses in the Bible contain the word “honey.” Some of these verses may refer to a syrup made from boiled down grape juice called dibs and may well be what was called honey in many places in the Bible.⁸² The honey that “flowed” in the land may refer to this syrup. Though the Egyptians kept colonies of bees in hives, this was not developed by the Jews until Roman times. One reason, however, may be that the reference to the land being full of the honey was a reference to the honey of wild bees rather than to the syrup. Honey could be found in a hollow tree (1 Sam. 14:25-27), in a hole in a rock (Ps. 18:16; Deut. 32:13), and even in an animal carcass (Judges 14:8-9).

Honey was a symbol of blessing, of prosperity, value, luxury, and was viewed as one of the basic commodities of life. It gave sweetness to food and was even used as food itself. To stress the value and blessing of the land which the Lord was giving Israel, He described it over and over again as a land flowing with milk and honey.

(2) Like honey, the Bible has its ultimate source in God alone.

Despite extensive scientific research, modern man has been totally unsuccessful in finding a way to synthetically fabricate anything that even remotely resembles the properties of honey. Only God can handle the highly complex process of hatching honey through buzzing bees and honeycombs. Nutritionists agree that God has uniquely hand crafted honey as one of nature’s purest and most complete foods. It contains some of every nutrient required to maintain good health. In the same way only God could craft and preserve His completed Word, the Holy Bible. It is a supernatural book that man can neither better nor imitate, refine, take away from, nor add to in any way. It is pure, spiritual food containing every spiritual vitamin and nutrient we need in this life concerning our walk with God.⁸³

(3) Like honey, the Bible is given through instrumentality.

When God created the earth He gave bees the exclusive contract for honey. They alone are licensed to make and market honey to the world. No birds, buffaloes, or bugs, just bees. Technically, bees don’t really make honey. They’re simply the airborne cargo ships that transport flower nectar to the warehouse division of the hive, called honeycombs. The process of pure nectar becoming honey is a total mystery to man. Though its constituents come directly from nectar, bees neither add to nor take from the nectar they ferry from flower to comb. The color, flavor, and aroma of honey however, depends directly on which kind of flower nectar the bees predominantly draw from. Similarly, the human authors of Scripture were simply conduits of pure revelation without negating their own peculiar style and personality. The emphases, word choice, and style of each author depended on their particular background, education, and knowledge.

Like bees, human authors were God’s exclusive agents for writing, collecting, and preserving the Bible. These human authors of Scripture, somehow, through God’s sovereign superintendence, in no way corrupted the precise revelation He was giving through them.

The parallel to God’s mystery of honey is striking. Agricultural scientists have tested honey produced from plants heavily sprayed with pesticides, and found it never contains even a trace of any foreign chemical.⁸⁴

(4) Like honey, God’s Word and the revelation it gives us is selectively chosen.

Bees don’t reap every flower they see. In fact, they are very particular about what brand of nectar fills their tanks. They’re connoisseurs, specializing in certain flavors only.

Once they find what suits their fancy, they lock ‘n load. Over two million round-trip nectar-gathering bee flights are required to produce just one pound of honey! They carefully store their hand-picked honey in one central place, the honeycombs. It’s always fresh and ready to eat for quick get-up-and-go. Just think, eating only one teaspoon of honey is tapping into the best energies of the lifework of hundreds of bees.

God too is a specialist. He hasn’t given us the whole ball of wax. He’s selective, revealing only the essentials securing our salvation through Christ and growth in Him. John, at the end of his Gospel, says it best. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written.”

I can’t wait to one day read and browse in the great library of heaven. But for now, God has personally and painstakingly chosen one Book to be enough. Like honey, His Word is conveniently stored in one central place, the canon of Scripture, ready to eat for quick spiritual energy. Eating even one little devotional nugget from the Bible is tasting some of God’s most exquisite spiritual revelations, brought to us by hand-picked human authors. Just holding a copy of the Bible is an act of receiving the best energies of tens of thousands of people who gave their very lives to its careful preservation down through the centuries.⁸⁵

(5) Like honey, God’s Word is delicious, attractive, and invites us to come and eat, but it is only beneficial if personally eaten and used for the specifics of one’s life (Psalm 19:9-10).

When a boy first went to school in New Testament times, he went down to the synagogue while it was still dark to listen to the story of how Moses received the law. Then he was taken to the teacher’s house for breakfast, where he received cakes with letters of the law written on them. In school, the boy received a slate with passages from the Scriptures written on it. The slate was smeared with honey. He had to trace the letters through the honey with his pen, and it was natural to lick the nib of the pen as he proceeded. The idea was that he would realize that the purpose of his going to school was to absorb the Scriptures. This learning practice seems to have been based on an old custom that David refers to in the Psalm.⁸⁶

Perhaps this custom was also designed to communicate how God’s Word adds sweetness to life as it reveals God and His grace. The Psalmist encourages us to taste and see that the Lord is good in Psalm 34:8. Where do we taste of God’s goodness but in God’s Word? Similarly, using the analogy of milk, Peter implores us to desire the pure milk of the Word of God, and then, as a motivation, he adds, “if (or “since”) you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Problems We Face:

(1) Proverbs 5:3, “For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than oil,” reminds us that Satan and the world system have their counterfeits, that, like honey, are used to allure us away from the Lord and into sin. Thus, there is the need for constant diligence to pay attention to God’s Word (cf. Pro. 5:1-2).

(2) Proverbs 27:7, The one whose appetite is satisfied loathes honey, but to the hungry mouth every bitter thing is sweet.

(3) Proverbs 25:16, “When you find honey, eat what is sufficient for you, lest you should become filled with it and vomit it up.” This can only apply to the Word when we fail to properly digest it and apply it to our lives.

Attitudes Toward the Bible
(How We Should View It)

We Should View It as Sufficient and Authoritative

The Bible is our final authority for belief and practice and is absolutely sufficient to deal with the non-organically caused spiritual and emotional problems of life (cf. also Ps. 19:7-14).

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And so we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe.

James 1:21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

1 Peter 2:2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up to salvation,

2 Peter 1:3-4 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.

2 Peter 1:19-21 Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, 21 for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

However, there are other sources of authority people use which often nullify the Scripture’s authority on their lives. Some of these are human tradition (including history), institutionalism, reason or rationalism, mysticism, emotionalism, empiricism, moral conscience and situation ethics, human philosophy, psychology, and fan clubs (cf. Mark. 7:6-13; Col. 2:16-23; 1 Cor. 3:3-5).

We Should Guard Against Other Sources of Authority

Human Tradition

First we need to distinguish between biblical tradition and human tradition. Biblical tradition is that which is handed down through the teachings and writings of the apostles and prophets and this, of course, is authoritative because it is inspired revelation from God. Human tradition, however, consists of the mere teachings of men. This is not authoritative and must never be allowed to take precedence over and so nullify the Word of God. We see the two types of tradition in the verses below.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 But we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who lives an undisciplined life and not according to the tradition you received from us.

Colossians 2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Where there is conflict or disagreement, the Scripture must be our authority. But so often church or religious tradition, family tradition, and various forms of secular tradition are given priority over the Holy Bible. Many times the Scripture is simply ignored. People often give lip service to the Bible while treating their tradition as though it had its foundation in the Word and was scriptural when in reality it is not. Whenever that happens, we make void or invalidate the authority of the Word.

Matthew 15:1-6 Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said, 2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” 6 he does not need to honor his father.’ You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition. (emphasis mine).

All traditions are not bad or contrary to the Word. Our need is to distinguish human tradition from biblical truth by examining our beliefs and practices under the light of Scripture. We need to examine all the varied types of human tradition, not just some, under the light of our inspired authority, the Bible.

Some illustrations or sources of traditions are:

(1) Church Councils: The formulation and definition of Christian doctrines did not all occur at one time or at an equal rate. Sometimes the spotlight would focus on one doctrine and then another as issues and questions arose through various movements or teachings that began to occur. To establish what the Bible actually taught on these varied issues, councils were held by church leaders to examine and establish what the church should believe on various doctrines. Some illustrations are the councils of Nicea (318), Constantinople (381), Chalcedon (451), and the Synod of Toledo (589). Such decisions must be investigated in light of the Word. Many times their decisions were in accord with the clear teaching of the Word of God. The point is our authority is the Word—not the councils.

(2) The Pope: We are referring to that which has been set down by the various Popes over the centuries and then handed down from generation to generation as law and gospel. The pronouncements or teachings of the Pope (or any man) should never be our authority—only the Bible.

(3) Denominational Creeds and Church Doctrinal Statements: This consists of creeds or statements of denominations or individual churches concerning their doctrinal beliefs. These are designed to present what they believe the Bible to teach, but since only the Bible is inspired, these statements must never be viewed as a substitute for the Bible or as its equal.

(4) Church Programs or Structure: In practice, these often become traditions that are treated as though they were written in stone like the Ten Commandments. Try to change the program or the way things are structured and it is like denying the faith. Many times these programs become virtual “sacred cows” and more important than anything else. We hear statements like, “That’s not the way it ought to be done. We have never done it that way before.” I remember hearing about a deacon who was upset with the pastor one Sunday morning when they were about to enter the pulpit area in the auditorium for the eleven o’clock service. They had a visiting speaker and when the pastor decided to enter through a different door, the deacon remarked to the pastor they shouldn’t enter from that door. Perhaps he was thinking it would be too big a surprise to the people who were expecting them to come in from a different entrance. At any rate, the deacon muttered under his breath, “Highly irregular, highly irregular.” We laugh, but this sort of thing happens in a thousand different ways—many of them involving things much more serious.

(5) The Talmud, Mishna: Jewish writings which contain Jewish tradition.

(6) Political or Scientific Theories as Evolution: Evolution is, of course, nothing more than man’s theory based on a strictly secular interpretation of certain geological data and man’s bias against the knowledge of God. But evolution has become a tradition that permeates our society regardless of the data that stands against it. As such, it often colors man’s interpretation of the first chapters of the book of Genesis.

(7) Church Constitutions: Church constitutions have their place, especially if they were framed with the Word as the guiding authority. But they can become straight jackets that hinder biblical goals, actions, and ministry if they are treated with the same authority as the Bible. For instance, let’s say that the bylaws or constitution of a church states that it must have a certain number of elders. What happens if there are not that many men in the church who are truly qualified according to the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1? Does the church follow the Word and wait until the Lord raises up qualified men to serve? Or, does it ignore the Word and select the number called for by the Constitution regardless of their qualification? The answer should be obvious, but I have known churches that ignored the Word and followed their Constitution.

(8) Church History: We can learn much from history, and we should never ignore it. Church history and the thinking of those who have studied the Word before us represents the work of God among His people in ages past. Regardless of the value, however, what God’s people thought and taught in times past was not inspired. We should not ignore their voice, but neither should we make it our authority for only the Bible is inspired. This historical argument sometimes becomes a straw man that is used to argue against certain doctrinal positions no matter how clearly they may line up with the sound exegesis of Scripture. The straw man goes something like this:

If something was taught by the early church, then it must be true. If a teaching is more recent, then its truthfulness is at least suspect, if not untrue. …

The antiquity or recency of a teaching and the number of people who are for or against it make for interesting study, but neither factor proves or disproves the truth of that teaching.

The charge of newness was leveled against the teachings of the Reformers. With characteristic straightforwardness, John Calvin responded to it this way:

“First by calling it ‘new’ they do great wrong to God, whose Sacred Word does not deserve to be accused of novelty. … That it has lain long unknown and buried is the fault of man’s impiety. Now when it is restored to us by God’s goodness, its claims to antiquity ought to be admitted at least by right of recovery.”⁸⁷

(9) Numbers: In the quote above, Ryrie calls our attention to another straw man and another form of authority that can nullify the authority of the Bible. It is very similar to the straw man regarding history. It goes like this:

Not only does the antiquity of a view make it truthful but the number of people who held or hold it makes it true. The more the better, to substantiate its truthfulness.⁸⁸

Ryrie shows the fallacy of this:

Of course, the smoke screen this straw man and its mate throw up can be easily dispelled. The fact that something was taught in the first century does not make it right (unless taught in the canonical Scriptures), and the fact that something was not taught unless, of course, such teaching is clearly unscriptural. Baptismal regeneration was taught in the early centuries, but it is wrong. The majority of the church believes in nonimmersion. Does that make immersion wrong? The majority of the church is not premillennial. Does that make that doctrine wrong?⁸⁹

(10) Fan Clubs: This issue here is too often people place more stock in what their favorite preacher says than in the Word itself. Luke reminds us that the need is to search the Scripture as to whether the matter taught is true (Acts 17:11).

1 Corinthians 1:11-14 For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? Or were you in fact baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, 3 for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? 4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. 7 So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work. 9 We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Self or Subjectivism

This also takes a number of forms:

(1) Reason or Rationalism: This refers to:

The theory that the exercise of reason, rather than the acceptance of empiricism, authority, or spiritual revelation, provides the only valid basis for action or belief, and that reason is the prime source of knowledge and of spiritual truth.⁹⁰

As is obvious from this definition, human reason becomes one’s authority or criterion which governs what one believes or thinks. Human reason is the absolute criterion. If truth is to be found it must be found by human reason alone; faith is excluded on the grounds it is not reasonable or scientific.

(2) Empiricism: This is the view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only valid source of knowledge.

(3) Scientific and Psychological: Scientific empiricism is the:

… philosophical doctrine holding that all knowledge is derived from experience, whether of the mind or of the senses. Thus it opposes the rationalist belief in the existence of innate ideas. A doctrine basic to the scientific method, empiricism is associated with the rise of experimental science after the 17th cent. It has been a dominant tradition in British philosophy, as in the works of LOCKE, HUME, and George BERKELEY. Most empiricists acknowledge certain a priori truths (e.g., principles of mathematics and logic), but John Stuart MILL and others have treated even these as generalizations deduced from experience.⁹¹

Obviously, such a system makes the experience of experimentation, or what one learns or observes through sense phenomena—touch, taste, smell, sight, etc., the criterion or authority for what one believes or accepts as true. Again, such a system is very subjective, obviously limited, and dependent on man’s powers of observation. This is the system of science and social studies. It has its place and use in society, but the God who is eternal, all-wise and knows all things has given us His Holy Word and this must remain our authority where God has spoken.

(4) Religious Experience, Mysticism: This is the system of authority whereby the criterion for one’s religious convictions or ideas is based primarily or solely on feelings, emotions, or someone’s personal religious experience.

Several years ago when the Neo-Pentecostal movement was just beginning on the west coast one of the movement’s leaders, Father Dennis Bennett, was speaking on Ezekiel 37 to the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship in Portland, Oregon. He told the people, “There are many different interpretations of this passage, but I believe that this passage is a prophecy of the present glosalalia movement. This is a vision of the rise of the gift of tongues in our day. But because the interpretation of Ezekiel 37 is so diversified between so many people; because there is not agreement as to what Ezekiel 37 means, I will therefore give you my experience and then we will have something solid to base our thinking on”⁹² (emphasis mine).

Those were Bennett’s words. His statement—as ridiculous as it may seem—is not all that unusual in contemporary evangelicalism. A person has an experience and regardless of what the Word of God says, their experience is the final authority for them. They judge the truth or interpret the Bible by their experience rather than judge their experience by the Word of God. Remember Peter’s declaration in 2 Peter 1:16-19.

2 Peter 1:16-19 For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted.” 18 When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

(5) Practical Experience: Many people today depend more on what they think they have learned by practical experience than on the Bible. But what if one’s experiential knowledge seems to contradict Scripture? Some would then elevate their experience to the level of Scripture or even above it. If you are following the teaching of Scripture in raising your children and one of them becomes rebellious, do you then turn from the authority of Scripture to follow the ideas so prominent in the world today? Or do you, recognizing the inspired and infallible nature of Scripture, evaluate your understanding and application of the Bible as it applies to raising children, or look for and evaluate other factors that could be involved? Does the problem lie with the Scripture or with my understanding and application of the Scripture?

(6) Moral Conscience or Situation Ethics: Here again, the authority is not the Bible but the situation. In this system the authority or criterion is that we must do the most loving thing. But what is that? In this system, there is no absolute guide for the most loving thing, only the narrow, and very often the self-centered viewpoint of the person.

We Should View It With Love, Value, and Respect

We should view the Bible with the kind of love, value, and respect that leads to desire and a diligence to know and apply it.

Psalm 119:72 The law you have revealed is more important to me
than thousands of gold and silver shekels.

Psalm 119:140 Your word is absolutely pure,
and your servant loves it.

Isaiah 66:2 "My hand made them;
that is how they came to be,” says the Lord.
I show special favor to the humble and contrite,
who respect what I have to say.

2 Timothy 2:15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.

Axioms (Principles) For Using the Bible

One Needs the New Birth

People need spiritual regeneration to understand and relate to the spiritual truth of Scripture. First Corinthians 2:14 says that a natural (i.e., the unregenerate) man does not accept (welcome) the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Understanding the spiritual truth of the Word requires the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. Prior to salvation, the Spirit of God works to enable the unbeliever to understand the issues of salvation and to bring people to faith in Christ.

John 16:8-11 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment— 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 But we ought to give thanks for you always, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 14 He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before salvation, however, and the new spiritual capacity it provides, the unsaved person cannot open up the Bible and personally understand and relate to even the simplest truth. To the unsaved person, it is foolishness. This is not to imply the unbeliever cannot use the Bible in a moral way such as a code of ethics. Many do this very thing. They use certain parts of the Bible like the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount to establish their own righteousness or gain a standing with God, but miss the truth of man’s depravity and need of the righteousness that comes only by faith. The Pharisees did this very thing. They were blind leaders of the blind and did not truly understand the truth of the Scripture and their need of a suffering Savior.

Matthew 15:12-13 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?” 13 And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.

Romans 10:1-4 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation. 2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth. 3 For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.

John 16:8-11 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment— 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

John 16:8-11 teaches us the Spirit’s work of illumination for the unbeliever is primarily restricted to overcoming the unregenerate person’s blindness to those truths that are pertinent to salvation through faith in the person and work of Christ. When a person trusts in Christ, however, they are regenerated, given new spiritual life, and their innate spiritual blindness is removed. This seems to be what the apostle has in mind in Ephesians 1:17-18,

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, 18 —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

In verse 17, Paul prays for the Ephesian believers to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Verse 18 gives us either (a) the reason why Paul can pray for their understanding, “since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened” through spiritual regeneration so they may know and truly grasp God’s truth, or (b) he is looking at the results of his prayer in verse 17—enlightened hearts for the purpose of understanding. Either way, he prays for them because they are new spiritual creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) who can now grasp spiritual truth. Literally, the Greek text reads, “the eyes of your heart having been (or being) enlightened, that you may know …” “Enlightened” is a perfect participle which looks at past completed action with present results. The Greek perfect participle may focus on the completion of the action, on the results, or both. In the first view mentioned above, the focus is on both through spiritual regeneration, while in the second, the focus would be on the results anticipated through the apostle’s prayer.

One Needs to Be in Fellowship

The Spirit of Truth is a special title of the Spirit because of His ministry of teaching us the Word of Truth (John 4:24; 15:5; 1 Cor. 2:15-3:3; Eph. 3:16-19).

Spiritual illumination to the Word of Truth is always a work of the Spirit of Truth. The born again believer, though now spiritually alive and possessing a new spiritual capacity, still needs to be under the control of the Spirit if he is to experience the teaching ministry of the Spirit. The disciples were regenerated men, yet they faced the need of the indwelling and controlling ministry of the Spirit. Christ told them, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come.” (John 16:12-13).

Compare also Paul’s words to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 3:16-19:

I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, 18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Since known sin and spiritual apathy grieves the Spirit’s person and quenches His power, it is evident that a carnal Christian (one in whom the Spirit is grieved and quenched) will not be able to understand the deeper things of the Word nor truly relate his or her life to even the simplest truth. “The appalling ignorance of many Christians concerning the things of the Word of God is directly traceable to their carnality and failure in seeking the blessings of a life filled with the Spirit.”⁹³

Both the Apostle Paul and the author of Hebrews wrote directly to this issue in 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3; and Hebrews 5:11-14.

One Needs to Read, Study, and Meditate With the Right Attitude

(1) We need to be expectant.

Psalm 119:148 My eyes anticipate the nighttime hours,
that I may meditate on your word.

(2) We need to be teachable.

Psalm 119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes,
so that I might observe it continually.

Acts 17:11 These Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so.

(3) We need to be prayerful and dependent.

Psalm 119:18 Uncover my eyes so I can gaze at
marvelous things out of your law!

(4) We need to be believing.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.

One Needs to Handle God’s Word Accurately

As skillful and accurate handlers of the Word, we need a method of study and interpretation that allows us to come away from the text with the true meaning and intent of the passage. This would necessitate an approach which allows Scripture to be authoritative and speak for itself.

2 Timothy 2:15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.

2 Peter 3:16 speaking of these things in all his letters. Some things in these letters are hard to understand, things the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures.

Our tendency is to read our own ideas and prejudices into Scripture. This means we need to study the Bible inductively (reasoning from the particular, the details of the text, to the general, the meaning of the text).

In our interpretation of Scripture we must discover the meaning of a passage, not attribute one to it. Luther wrote that “the best teacher is the one who does not bring his meaning into the Scripture, but brings it out of the Scripture.” Exegesis is bringing the meaning of a text to the surface; eisegesis is reading our ideas into the text. Induction in exegesis means that the Scripture is allowed to speak for itself.⁹⁴

The method that best promotes induction or good exegesis is the literal or normal method of interpretation. We need to prayerfully and dependently investigate and observe a passage for details drawn from the context, cultural, and historical background, the normal meaning of words, grammar, and the analogy of the Bible as a whole, then based on these details, prayerfully seek to interpret the passage for its meaning. With this derived meaning clearly in mind, we then need to formulate biblical concepts and principles. (See diagrams at the end of this lesson.)

One Needs to Study With a View to Application and Internalization

The revelation of God’s Word deserves a response that is in keeping with its character as God’s Holy Word to man. The goal of all Bible study must always be the careful application of God’s truth by faith, i.e., truly hearing the voice of God in Scripture. Spiritual growth and maturity—the right objective of knowing God’s truth—is obviously impossible apart from its application and internalization to deepen intimacy with God, bring conviction where needed, develop faith and the obedience of faith, and display the character of Christ in one’s life (cf. also 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Col. 1:9-12; Luke. 8:21; 11:28).

Proverbs 20:27 The human spirit is like the lamp of the Lord,
searching all the innermost parts.

Psalm 139:23-24 Examine me, and probe my thoughts!
Test me, and know my concerns!
24 See if there is any idolatrous tendency in me,
and lead me in the reliable ancient path!

Psalm 119:59 I consider my actions
and follow your rules.

James 1:22-27 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he will be blessed in what he does. 26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

We must always remember that our goal in the study of Scripture is its application in obedience to the living God, however, there is a word of caution that is needed here. Zuck, who has an excellent chapter on applying God’s Word today, writes:

Christians tend to make one of two errors in applying the Bible. Either they give too little attention to application or they give too much attention to it.

In the first error some feel interpretation is enough, that Bible study is complete when a passage has been interpreted. In the second error others tend to move toward application before fully and accurately interpreting the passage. However, application without interpretation leaves us open to applying the Bible improperly.

Neglecting to apply the Scriptures reduces Bible study to an academic exercise in which we are concerned only for interpretation with little or no regard for its relevance for and impact on our lives. It is wrong to think of the Scriptures as only a source book of information, as a book to be examined merely for the knowledge we can gain from it.⁹⁵

In addition to knowing God more intimately and loving Him more deeply, may we never forget that another of the crucial goals of the study of God’s inspired Word, as Paul exhorts us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, is to become a people of God who are thoroughly equipped for good works of ministry. As a people for God’s own possession, we are to be a people zealous for good works (Tit. 2:14).

While academics are an important part of a careful and accurate study of God’s Word, it is also, of course, a spiritual exercise since the Spirit of Truth is our ultimate teacher who convicts and enables us to relate our lives to Scripture’s truth. For some thoughts on preparing the heart to hear God’s Word see Appendix 3.

May God bless you in your study of His most holy and powerful Word.

“And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32).

⁷³ Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, Victor Books, Wheaton, IL, 1987, electronic media.

⁷⁴For a thorough explanation of such evidence and as a sampling of what has been written on this subject, see Evidence That Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell, Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, and When Skeptics Ask, by Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, pp. 141-161.

⁷⁵ Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, When Skeptics Ask, Victor Books, Wheaton, 1990, p. 143.

⁷⁶ Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, Victor Books, Wheaton, 1986, p. 67.

⁷⁷ Fritz Rienecker, A Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, edited by Cleon L. Rogers, Jr., Regency, Grand Rapids, 1976, p. 647.

⁷⁸Ryrie , Basic Theology, p. 69.

⁷⁹ John R. Stott, Between Two Worlds, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1982, p. 51.

⁸⁰ Ibid., p. 52.

⁸¹ Abbot-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1937, p. 116.

⁸²Ralph Gower, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times, Moody Press, Chicago, 1987, p. 108.

⁸³ Emmett Cooper, “Sweeter Than Honey,” Kindred Spirit, Dallas Seminary, Autumn, 1991, p. 14.

⁸⁴ Ibid., p. 15.

⁸⁵ Ibid., p. 15.

⁸⁶ Gower, p. 86.

⁸⁷ Charles C. Ryrie, So Great Salvation, Victor Books, Wheaton, 1989, pp. 32-33. Quoting John Calvin, “Prefatory Address to King Francis,” Institutes of Christian Religion, p. 3.

⁸⁸ Ibid.

⁸⁹ Ibid.

⁹⁰ The American Heritage Dictionary and Electronic Thesaurus, Houghton Mifflin, 1986, 1987.

⁹¹ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, 1989, 1991.

⁹²This account was taken from a booklet entitled “Controversial Spiritual Gifts” by Dr. Earl Radmacher who at that time was president of Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Portland.

⁹³ John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, Dunham, Grand Rapids, 1958, pp. 220-221.

⁹⁴Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, W. A. Wilde, Boston, 1956, p. 119.

⁹⁵Roy B. Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation, Victor Books, Wheaton, 1991, p. 279.

Principles of Prayer From Luke 11

Introduction

It has been rightly said, “the secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer.” Not just our failure to pray, but our failure in prayer. In the story of the Pharisee and the publican the Pharisee is one who prayed long and often, but he was a miserable failure. His prayers were never heard by God because neither he nor his prayers were ever right with God.

I think it was Oswald Smith who said, “when we work, we work, when we pray, God works.” Throughout history, the men and women that God has used mightily have been people who knew how to pray and for whom prayer was both a priority and a necessity. As we study the gospels and the training of the disciples by the Lord, we find that prayer is to be a vital part of a disciple’s life. For a couple of illustrations compare the following verses:

John 14:12-13 I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.

An electronic concordance quickly shows the importance of prayer in the Word of God. Variations of the word “pray” such as “prayer” and “praying,” etc., occur 331 times in the NASB, 545 in the KJV, and 375 times in the NIV. The difference in numbers is caused by the fact some Greek and Hebrew words are translated differently in the different translations. For instance, the KJV might use the word “pray” while the NASB or NIV might use “ask.”

Most Bible believing Christians recognize and accept, at least intellectually, the need and importance of prayer. We read books on prayer, we talk about it, we ask for prayer from time to time, but somehow, the church today is anything but a praying church. We may have a few real prayer warriors, but the VISION AND DISCIPLINE of biblical praying as committed disciples of the Lord Jesus has somehow escaped the body of Christ. We talk of its necessity, but too often we fail to accomplish its reality.

The disciples had this same experience. They too fell short in their prayer life and they felt it deeply. In this lesson we want to look at Luke 11:1 and the request of the unnamed disciple who was probably asking on behalf of the entire group. Here is a very important passage for learning some of the key issues of prayer that are so crucial to our walk with the Lord and the fulfillment of His purposes.

Luke 11:1-4 and the parallel passage in Matthew 6:9-11 is sometimes called the Lord’s Prayer, but in reality it is the disciple’s prayer, a model prayer teaching them important principles of prayer.

The Plea of the Disciple
(11:1)

Luke 11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

The Motivation for the Question

The disciples had obviously heard that John had taught His disciples on prayer and they too wanted instruction (11:1). But was there not something more, something much deeper that provoked this request? It was Howard Hendricks who, several years ago in a message at a pastor’s conference, called our attention to the fact that if we were to open our Bibles and read starting with Matthew and were to read through John we would never find an instance where the disciples asked, “Lord teach us how to witness,” or “teach us how to perform miracles,” or “teach us how to teach.” But in this passage, we do find one of the disciples asking, “Lord, teach us to pray …” Wow! How significant!

This was a very wise question, a very needed question, and from these disciples who were sometimes so slow about spiritual values, this question becomes extremely significant. What was the motivation behind this question, and why is this so important?

Again, I am reminded of something Professor Howard Hendricks once said. Can you imagine what life with Jesus Christ was like during His ministry on earth? One amazing experience after another! He was forever a source of joy and bewilderment, and I am sure people were constantly trying to explain Him to their own satisfaction with their own kinds of answers. (Cf. Mark 4:41.)

For a long time I can imagine they tried to explain Christ with typical human explanations—training, IQ, natural abilities, or whatever. At least at first. They regularly saw demonstrations of His power. They both heard His wise words and saw His wonderful works. They saw the lame walk, the blind see, the sick healed, the deaf hear, and the demon possessed dispossessed. Furthermore, they had all experienced the emptiness of the religion of their day and so, through all of this, you know they were watching the Lord and seeking answers to the miracle of His life.

As they studied His life one of their conclusions was that He was God incarnate (John 1:14). But is that conclusion what evoked this question? I don’t believe so. It was something else they constantly saw in the man Jesus that they began to suspect was part of the answer to His life. What was it? Our immediate response is of course, “It was prayer.” Right? Not exactly! It was not just prayer.

The Pharisees prayed and so did the disciples. It wasn’t just prayer; it was the way He prayed in relation to all that He was and all that He did in His life on earth. It was His manner and attitude in prayer that saturated His total being and living, His every step and action, and that manifested the intimacy of His relationship with and dependence on the Father. Prayer was never just a religious responsibility nor exercise Christ engaged in because He was obligated to do so.

Then what? Prayer for our Lord proceeded out of a basic attitude of deep dependence that resulted in a very intimate fellowship that He always had with the Father because, from the standpoint of His humanity, He was totally convinced He could do nothing of His own resources. It is this that undoubtedly brought deep conviction and longing in the lives of the disciples. They came to recognize that, while they could be believers in the Lord, they could not be true disciples who became like their teacher (Luke 6:40) unless they learned to pray to the Father like the Lord Jesus in the intimacy and dependency that He constantly demonstrated.

Christ’s Attitude in Prayer

This incorporates one of the basic principles that governed the life of the Savior. In John 5:19 Christ said, “the Son can do nothing on his own initiative.” Then, in John 8:28-29 and 14:10 He repeated the principle. The principle should be obvious for us. For Jesus Christ, prayer was a way of life, an absolute necessity: it was a means of communion with the Father and the means of bringing the power of God the Father to bear on the humanity of Jesus Christ moment by moment. We see this in Matthew 12:18 and 28.

Note that for the most part, it appears the Lord performed His works and spoke His words by the power of God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit whom the Father had given Him. Though God of very God Himself, Jesus generally did not perform His works independently of the Father nor the Spirit’s leading (Acts 2:22). It was the Father working through Jesus, the man.

As we study the life of Christ in the gospels, we note a consistent pattern:

(1) In the midst of a busy schedule, when men were clamoring in their need for His attention, Christ retired to pray and to draw upon the resources of God the Father for He knew that “the Son can do nothing on his own initiative” (Mark 1:32-37).

(2) When it was time to choose the disciples we don’t find Christ reviewing the qualifications of each of the disciples. Rather we find Him retiring to pray. This is clear in Mark 3:13 and Luke 6:12-13. Why? Because “the Son can do nothing on his own initiative.” He needed the direction and provision of the Father.

(3) When Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus He raised His eyes heavenward in dependence and thanksgiving for what the Father was about to do (John 11:40-42). The actual prayer of Christ is not given, only the fact of His dependence, thanksgiving, and confidence that His prayer had been heard. The words of verses 41 and 42 imply, however, that not only did He pray to the Father, but that He wanted all those standing around to know it as well that they might learn the secret of dependence. This teaches us that when performing miracles, though not always heard by men, Jesus the man was praying in dependence upon the Father from the standpoint of His humanity.

(4) When He fed the five thousand. The words “and looking up to heaven” demonstrate the Lord’s prayerful dependence (Mark 6:41). Also, “he gave thanks” which shows He thanked God the Father for it and for what He, the Father, was about to do through Jesus, the man, a God-dependent, God-approved man.

Think of Jesus Christ. He was the Son of God, God incarnate, the perfect man and the absolute Creator God who also as the God-man adequately and continuously fulfilled every expectation of God for man. He was the constant delight and joy of the Father’s heart. He always pleased the Father. Now, thinking of Him as such, ask yourself this question. How much did He personally, as man, contribute to His mighty works, deeds, and ministry? NOTHING! Christ Himself gives us the answer, “…but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds” (John 14:10). And how did that come about? Through prayerful dependence on the Father!

When we work, we work. When we pray, the Father works. So out of this conscious and constant sense of need, there arose a continuing attitude of prayer: a continual expectation in the Lord Jesus that if anything was to be done, the Father must do it both by way of initiative, and wisdom, and power. Now if this was true of Jesus Christ, how much more shouldn’t this also be true for us? Indeed, prayer according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus is to be a vital goal of true disciples.

The disciples saw in Christ’s life, not only prayer, but a prayer life which demonstrated a dependency upon and intimacy with the Father unlike anything else they had ever seen and they wanted to know the secret of this.

What was the request posed by the unnamed disciple? It was, “teach us to pray.” Not just how to pray, the MECHANICS, but how in the sense of the MOTIVATION. The how aspect is included by Christ in His answer in Luke 11:2-13.

(1) Prayer should demonstrate a total consciousness of our need, a sense of our complete inadequacy along with a sense of God’s complete adequacy and willingness.

2 Corinthians 2:16 to the latter an odor from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

(2) Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of God’s ever present willingness.

(3) Prayer is not for emergency use only, when we get in a pinch and need someone to bail us out.

(4) Prayer is not an “Aladdin’s Lamp” or a trip to a wishing well for our wants.

(5) By contrast, prayer is a means of intimate communion, fellowship, and dependence upon God the Father who has promised to work in and through us through His Son, just as God worked through Him.

(6) Prayer is for everyday living, moment by moment.

(7) Prayer is a means of claiming God’s promises and knowing and becoming abandoned to God’s will.

In John 14:10-14, note the relationship to prayer mentioned in verses 13-14 and the works we, as disciples, are to do in verse 12.

John 14:10-14 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves. 12 I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

There is no activity in the life of a believer which does not require a prayerful attitude—a prayerful dependence on and an expectation that God is at work and will work according to His purposes and leading. In ourselves we can do nothing. Christianity is living by faith in the Creator God who dwells in us, and prayer is God’s means for us to draw upon Christ’s miraculous life. Christianity is as Paul expressed it in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Faith for a committed believer is expressed in intimate, prayerful living.

In practical terms what exactly does this means?

• We can’t really handle the phone call we are about to make, at least not in Christ’s power and life, apart from prayer.
• The lesson we are preparing to teach, we can’t do effectively without prayerful dependence.
• It means that while we usually recognize our need of God’s enablement in things like witnessing, we nevertheless tend to take God for granted and operate in our own abilities in other areas because we think a task doesn’t seem too difficult or it is within our area expertise.

As an illustration let’s look at the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5:5-11. What was Peter thinking in this passage? Probably something like, “Lord, you’re a great teacher, you’re the Son of God and Messiah, but we can handle this ourselves; we are expert fishermen. We have been fishing these waters for years. Besides, Lord, we fished these waters all night and we know the fish are simply not biting now.” But you see, biblical Christianity is living by faith and prayerful dependence upon God and under the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of how things appear to us.

Biblical Christianity is never a matter of living by who and what we are—our insight, our background, our experience, our training, our giftedness, etc. Rather it is a matter of living by faith in God’s Word, biblical insight, and by faith in Jesus Christ, the Creator God and His availability to work through us as we are available and submissive to Him. But such only happens when we live by intimate prayerful dependence upon the Father through a life of prayer, a life of praying without ceasing, and a life devoted to special times of prayer alone with the Father and His Son in the power of the Spirit.

The Pattern for Prayer
(11:2-4)

Luke 11:2-4 So he said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, may your name be honored,
may your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And do not lead us into temptation.”

We have observed something of the prayer life of our Lord which undoubtedly was a large part of the motivation behind the request of the unnamed disciple in verse one, “Lord, teach us to pray.” For our Lord, prayer was the most natural and necessary aspect of His existence. In answer to this request of Luke 11:1, our Lord gave what is popularly known as the Lord’s Prayer. In reality, it was the disciples’ prayer and provides us with a model or pattern for biblical and effective prayer.

This is an excellent passage in teaching new believers about prayer because it covers a number of categories which are important to prayer.

Two things this prayer is not:

(1) It is not and was never intended to be a ritual prayer to be formally and liturgically recited. It was a model designed by our Lord to show the nature of prayer and what prayer should consist of by way of content. There is nothing wrong, of course, with reading or reciting it together as we would any passage of Scripture for a certain focus or emphasis or as a reminder of truth. I am convinced, however, it was never meant to be simply recited as a prayer to God in place of personal prayer poured out to God from the heart. Compare the translation of the Living Bible: Luke 11:1b reads, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

(2) It was never intended to be used as an amulet or special words to protect someone when in danger. Perhaps you have seen films where people were in some kind of danger and they prayed the Lord’s Prayer in this fashion.

The prayer divides into two sections marked out by the pronouns “your” and “us.”

• The “your” section points us to God and concerns our relationship with Him regarding His person, character, being, purposes, and activity on earth.
• The “us” section deals with our needs as they are related to God and His activity and purposes in our lives here on earth.

This is no accident. First, we start with God and then we go to ourselves. Here is an important principle in all worship of which prayer is but one mode and means. In prayer, as in everything, our Lord teaches us to put God first. Why? Because this puts everything in the right perspective, it gives us the right viewpoint about life, one that sees beyond our own very limited scope. This is important so that we might genuinely focus our hearts and minds on the who and what of God, that we might seek first the rule and righteousness of God, and that we might walk with Him in obedience and under His enablement, direction, and protection.

As a tear magnifies sorrow and as laughter magnifies joy, so prayer (a form of worship wherein we count on the worth of God) must first magnify the Lord if our prayers are to have the proper result in our lives—confidence, faith, and direction into the will of God.

Prayer is a means of entering into the joy and confidence of God’s love, provision, direction, and presence. It is a way to focus on the Who and What of God—God’s person, plan, principles, promises, and purposes. This kind of praying glorifies the Lord and demonstrates our desire for relationship with God, along with obedience. It is comforting to our hearts because it brings God into our vision along with His purposes.

This first emphasis by our Lord exposes what is often a fatal weakness in our own prayers. We tend to begin with “us” rather than with “Your.” We rush into God’s presence pleading for “our” petitions, “our” needs, “our” problems and, as a result, we become problem oriented and frantic rather than God oriented and relaxed in His sovereignty (cf. Ps. 46:10, "Stop your striving and recognize that I am God!”).

We need to focus on the Lord first to get the perspective of Jeremiah 32:27. Concerning the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel and to keep the Prophet’s eyes on the Lord, we find this word to the Prophet: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. There is, indeed, nothing too hard for me.” (Jer. 32:27).

We need the praise and focus of God in Psalm 100 before the petitions of Psalm 102.

When We Pray: The Time Element (v. 2a)

“ When you pray say.”

It is significant, I believe, that no commands are given as to time or how often. Why? Because prayer is more than a mere religious routine we go through as it is in some religions in which worshippers recite certain words and bow in a certain direction specified times of the day. Scheduled prayer is certainly scriptural and a godly pattern to have as with Daniel (Dan. 6:10), and David (Ps. 55:16-21), but, as with both David and Daniel, it should always be the response of a heart which desires communion with God and depends on Him in the same way man naturally takes in oxygen through the process of breathing. This is seen in the cry of the Psalmist, “As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God!” (Ps. 42:1).

Two things about this cry of the Psalmist: First, his entreaty expresses our need. We need the Lord and we need to drink from His fountain of life through the Word and prayer—our means of hearing Him and responding to Him. But second, his entreaty also expresses what should be a recognized reality in each of us. As the Psalmist, we should long to communicate with our God. Prayer is to be an expression of our longing for intimacy with God and to enter into His strength and will.

Why We Pray: The Nature of Prayer (v. 2a)

“When you pray say.”

“Pray” is the Greek word proseucomai from pros, stressing direction, closeness, and eucomai, “to ask, request.” The basic meaning of this word (along with its uses) looks at prayer as an avenue of drawing near to God in worship and dependence because we see Him as the all-sufficient one and ourselves as insufficient. Prayer becomes one of the means by which we draw near to the Lord and His sufficiency and submit to Him.

“Say” is the Greek word, legw. It gives prominence to the thought processes in choosing the words spoken because of their meaning. Originally, it meant “to pick and choose” and this is precisely what we generally do in speech unless we are talking gibberish. Legw reminds us of our need to carefully choose our words as opposed to praying as mere religious rote without careful thought. It should remind us of the conversational nature of our prayer or communication with God.

“Say” is what we call in Greek grammar, a present iterative imperative. As an iterative present it describes an event which is, as a command, to occur repeatedly, over and over again. The idea is when you pray, consistently pray in the following manner or example, but not repetitiously by rote, reciting these words as a mere repeated ritual, the problem Jesus addressed earlier in Matthew 6:7.

Reasons why it does not refer to a prayer to be merely recited.

(1) Matthew 6:5-7 is a specific warning against praying in a repetitious manner and the warning there is followed by this teaching which gives us a model for prayer. To view this as a prayer to be repetitiously repeated would be in conflict with the previous command.

(2) The parallel passage of Matthew 6:9 adds the words “this way.” This is the Greek outws which could very will be rendered, “in this manner” or “after this manner.” In other words, what follows is to be taken as a model for prayer, not as a prayer to be memorized and merely recited.

(3) In the epistles of the New Testament, this prayer is never repeated though its pattern or principles are basically followed in one way or another.

(4) This understanding fits with the warning of Isaiah 29:13 which the Lord quoted against the religious externalism of the Israelites of His day.

Prayer is the thoughtful exercise of the heart and the mind through which we seek to draw near to God in worship and dependence on Him because of who He is as our sovereign God and support.

How to Pray (vv. 2b-4)

Pray as a Child

This command demonstrates the need of the new birth or spiritual regeneration. Scripture teaches us that prayer, other than the call to know God or for salvation, is really only applicable to believers in Jesus Christ who are brought into a relationship with God as His children through faith in Jesus Christ. This is accomplished by the new birth, the regenerating work of the Spirit of God (cf. John 1:12; 3:3-7; 14:6).

Our prayer is to be addressed to God using the term, “Father.” The basic plan of prayer for the New Testament saint is not to Jesus, but to the Father. He is the one to whom we are to pray, THE GIVER, through the name of the Son, THE ACCESS into God’s presence, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, THE MEANS (cf. John 14:6; 16:23-24; Eph. 2:18; 3:14; 1:17; 6:18; Jude 20; Col. 1:13; Heb. 7:25).

“Father” is a term of honor or reverence and relationship. Coming to God in prayer as “Father” is designed to demonstrate: (a) our attitude toward God as one of honor, respect, and trust, and (b) our understanding of the relationship we have with Him as a child; God is a father kind of God who cares for us as only a parent can care for a child.

How should this affect our prayer life?

(1) When we pray as New Testament believers, we are to talk with God as our Father, not simply about God in a theological monologue of high sounding and pious phrases and tones. True, we should exalt the Lord in our prayers through praise, adoration, and thanksgiving for His person, His essence, and His works in creation, history, and salvation. Our need, however, is to come to God as a child and talk with Him as our Father (Ps. 103:13).

(2) It means we are to talk with Him as a Father who loves and cares for us as His children. We will praise Him for His divine essence and being, and for His wonderful and mighty works, but ultimately it means praying with the frankness of a child while counting and resting in God as a Father who has a father’s heart, love, understanding, wisdom, and strength. To pray to God as our Father means recognizing that He is a person who is intimately concerned about us more than we could possibly be concerned about ourselves. He is not a blind or impersonal force.

(3) Calling God our Father means believing Him to be so. Such a relationship and conviction could never really be expressed if we were to address God as simply, “Almighty God, the great and terrible one,” or “Dreadful Creator and Ground of all Being.” This kind of approach to God would actually betray one’s ignorance of the nature and relationship of God to us in Christ, or one’s unbelief in Him as a loving heavenly Father.

How easy would it be to pray or how confident would we be if we could only approach God as an impersonal “ground of all being” or as “the great and terrible one?” The word “Father” draws our attention to the nature of our relationship with God as a result of the new birth and our access to God through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus it emphasizes the ease and willingness with which we should come into His presence, boldly, with the confidence of a child who knows he or she is loved with an unconditional love (Heb. 4:16). By ease, however, I do not mean disrespectfully and without regard to His holiness and majesty or without concern about sin in our lives. We dare not ignore our responsibility to deal with our sin by confession (Ps. 66:18). Rather, by ease, I mean an awareness of this fatherly kind of care, the love of God, and our provision and access through the finished work of Christ.

Pray to honor God’s name

In Scripture, much more so than today, names represent who people are and what they represent—their reputation. This clause means, “may your person be hallowed.” “Hallowed” is the verb agiazw “to set apart, make holy, venerate, or treat as holy.” But how can we do this? As God’s children we bear his name and represent him before the world. How we act affects His name and reputation before others.

Paul reminded the Jews of this very concept in Romans 2:23-24, "You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 24 For just as it is written, 'the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'"

To hallow God’s name or sanctify it means to turn my life over to Him for sanctification. This means opening up my life and all its closets to His work of making me like His Son. Surely this is to be a prayer of surrender or commitment for God’s name is never going to be hallowed (at least by us) as long as we are walking in rebellion and self dependence. Compare Ephesians 3:16-21 which expresses a desire and a request for the veneration of God’s person in general throughout society.

Pray for God’s will on earth

This is a prayer for God’s reign on earth, that soon the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our LORD. It demonstrates a belief and recognition that this world is a fallen world that has rejected its Creator (Rom. 1:18f), that this world is not God’s ultimate goal, and that a new and glorious world is coming (cf. 1 Pet. 1:3-8, 13-17; Rev. 11:15).

Praying for God’s kingdom also shows a longing and a hope for the return of Christ to earth and the fullness of our inheritance. It means living in view of the blessed hope as sojourners who love and pray for His kingdom (Titus 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:17; 2:11).

It is also a prayer for the reign of God within us so that God’s will can be done now in and through our lives. It is a desire to fit into His plan no matter how small and in accord with what he is doing through the various trials, defeats, successes, provisions, and circumstances He brings. I am reminded of a line in a poem by Cowper which reads, “Deep in unfathomable mines of never failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will.”

In the parallel passage, Matthew 6:10, “your will be done” is added. This teaches us to pray as our Lord did when facing the cross. “your will be done” means help me to surrender my life to that which will further your kingdom, your will on earth, and your purpose for me. I am to prayerfully accept the truth that “out of darkness God calls forth light; out of despair, hope. From death comes resurrection.” It is often “by means of defeat the kingdom of God is born in human hearts.”⁹⁷

Pray for daily, physical needs

In verse 4 the Lord deals with forgiveness and thus, the needs of the immaterial man, the soul and spirit. If you or I were giving these instructions we would probably have inverted the order to spiritual needs first and then we would turn to physical needs. So, why this order?

The Lord created our bodies—the body is important to the function of men. The body is not evil; it is a vehicle of service and of good. In another place he says in relation to the physical needs of the body, “seek first the kingdom of God …” There He shows that the spiritual man is a priority and does take precedence over the physical. But this does not mean the physical man or the needs of the body are unimportant, that they are to be neglected, or that it is spiritual and more holy to neglect the body and to treat it carelessly. The Lord may have used this order to deal a blow against some of the pagan ideas of his day and to some of the imbalances believers can so easily slip into—and always have.

The Greeks regarded the body as evil and believed pure spirit was of greater value. Many rejected the idea of the resurrection because they believed all matter to be evil. They taught it didn’t matter what you did with the body. They either tortured it in various forms of asceticism, or misused it in licentiousness. This is why some of the Greeks at Corinth did not want to believe in the resurrection and part of the reason why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15. Concerning their attitude about the body and resurrection, Ryrie writes: “In general they believed in the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body. To them, the body was the source of man’s weakness and sin; death, therefore, was the welcomed means by which the soul was liberated from the body.”⁹⁸

Even today many Christians take their bodies for granted. We over-feed them, under-exercise them, often fail to give them enough rest, and in general, many times fail to take care of the body’s daily needs. In Philippians 3:21, the translation of the KJV could leave a wrong impression about the body. It reads: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” The translation, “vile body,” can suggest the body is evil, but literally, the Greek text means “body of humility,” i.e., a non-glorified body. This body is mortal and subject to age, disease, death and decay—so it needs special care if we are to maintain it as a useful tool of God.

First Timothy 4:8 puts this into the right perspective, "For 'physical exercise has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way. It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.'” It reminds us that bodily discipline is profitable for a little while. It keeps the old machinery in good working order as long as it is being exercised and cared for properly on a daily basis. But of course, godliness is profitable both for now and for eternity.

Man is a unity of body, soul and spirit. What affects one part affects the other. Neglect the body and it can affect the spiritual life. Neglect the spiritual life and it definitely will affect the body. So our Lord here teaches us balance—to care for both, to pray for both body and soul. The prayer for daily bread represents the whole concept of the needs of the body—food, clothing, shelter and whatever the human body needs to function effectively for the Lord. Our bodies belong to Him; He has bought them with the price of His Son (1 Cor. 6:19).

Note that He teaches us “give us today our daily bread.” This is a prayer for daily supply to be made available to us for our physical needs. This is to be prayed daily. We should never take the Lord for granted. Compare Paul’s emphasis in 1 Timothy 4:4 “For every creation of God is good and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”

This also teaches us that our primary concern is to be our daily needs—day by day living as sojourners rather than storehouse living like the rich fool.

Luke 12:16-21 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”

1 Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be haughty or to set their hope on riches, which are uncertain, but on God who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment.

The purpose of this request is to get us to consciously place our security and our trust in the Lord’s hands on a daily basis as a protection against: (a) false security, and (b) the wrong pursuits for life, i.e., living life with a view to one day at a time can help us maintain the right goals or purposes (cf. 1 Tim. 6:8-19; Matt. 6:19-34).

The prayer is designed to help us realize that the daily supply of the physical needs of life come from the Lord regardless of our resources or reserves, or how wisely we think we have planned for the future. Planning for the future has its place, but only as we keep such plans in proper perspective.

It is also designed to remind us that though God is the transcendent and sovereign God of the universe, He is also our personal and immanent heavenly Father who is concerned for and the Provider of even our daily physical needs. But wait a minute, didn’t Jesus Christ also say, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matt. 6:8, 32).

If He knows, why ask daily?

(1) Prayer is obviously not something by which we inform an omniscient God of our needs. Prayer is for us, to influence us and to keep us depending on Him.

(2) The principle of prayer is not that God needs to be told, but that we need to tell Him because of what true prayer does to us. It is a means by which we submit to God’s will and learn to wait upon God as we delight our hearts in Him (Ps. 37:4-6).

(3) Prayer is a means by which we draw close to God so that He may draw close to us to bless us, not just with our needs as we may conceive them, which may not at all be what we need, but with the awareness of God Himself (James 4:8). What happens when we fail to praise and thank God and fail to bring our needs to the Lord? We begin to pull away from Him, to take Him for granted, and eventually we succumb to the delusion that we can handle life alone.

God is influenced by biblical steadfast praying, not because we have informed Him of something or because we have influenced God to change His mind, but because it has affected our lives, demonstrated our faith, obedience and submission to Him (Ps. 33:13-22; 34:4-9). God answers and honors trust.

Pray for spiritual needs

(1) Regarding personal sin—“and forgive us our sins,” (11:4a)

First of all this verse deals with the subject of the forgiveness of the child of God, not the forgiveness of the unbeliever. The unbeliever is not forgiven by praying this prayer or by confessing his sins as though that would win his forgiveness. Instead, the Bible reveals that he must acknowledge his sinfulness, that he is a sinner separated from God, helpless in himself, and in need of the saving grace of God through faith in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ.

The passage is addressed to disciples, to believers who can call God their Father as the regenerated children of God through faith in Christ. Judicially, for those who have trusted in Christ the penalty of sin has been settled by the cross (Rom. 3:21-24; 5:1-2; Col. 1:14), but as we see in John 13, we all face the problem of personal sins that we incur as we walk down the defiled streets of this world. Known sin hinders our fellowship with God, it quenches His power and control of our lives, and it hinders our ability to grow and be truly changed by the grace of God. Therefore, in this model prayer, the Lord shows us that we must deal with the problem of personal sin.

We must remember that this prayer gives us a pattern for prayer in its general content. Here, it deals with the subject of forgiveness as a very important part of our prayers if they are to be answered and significant in our lives and our walk with God. This passage does not give us an explanation of the mechanics or details by which the believer is to handle sin and experience forgiveness. For this, God expects us to turn to the rest of the Word for instruction and insight. Rather, this model of prayer reminds us of our sinfulness, shows us our need of cleansing for fellowship with God, and demonstrates our responsibility to deal with the problem of personal sin in all its many categories as:

• Mental attitude sins—resentment, envy, jealousy
• Sins of the tongue—lying, gossip, criticism, abusive language
• Overt sins of every kind—stealing, fornication, adultery, murder, substance abuse, fraud, etc.
• Root sins—failure to appropriate God’s grace and live dependently on Him, false values, false motives, and false patterns of thinking and dealing with life. This involves the defense and escape mechanisms and the independent strategies of self protection or self management that we all tend to use to control our lives and protect ourselves rather than trusting in the Lord.

Let’s look for a moment at Luke 11:4a “And forgive us our sins.” The verb, “forgive,” as it is first used in this verse, is a construction in the Greek text (an aorist imperative) which adds a note of urgency—undoubtedly because of the consequences of sin. The Lord spoke here of specific sins. The word sins has the article and is in the plural. In light of the analogy of Scripture, the Lord is talking about specific personal sins that we are responsible to acknowledge as sin because of what it does to our fellowship with the Lord and our capacity as believers to love and minister to others.

This means we are not to take this request, “forgive us our sins,” as just a broad all inclusive and sweeping prayer for forgiveness of sin in general, i.e., “Lord, forgive me of all my sins.” That would avoid specific conviction and acknowledgment of specific sin, and leave us with non-convicting generalities. Such a prayer would simply sweep sin under the rug. It would clean up the outside of the cup but ignore the filth on the inside.

Matthew 12:34-35 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart. 35 The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.

Matthew 23:25-26 Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may become clean too!

The verb is afihmi and means literally, “to send away, let go.” It comes from a preposition, “from” and a verb, “to be.” It had, however, a legal use and meant “to cancel, remit, or pardon.” It was used of a loan or debt and also of the guilt or debt of sin which, as a result of forgiveness, removed the penalty or consequences of sin. The consequence in view here is broken fellowship which is restored by honest confession. (See Appendix 5 for an overview of the key issues in forgiveness for the believer.)

(2) Regarding relationships with others—“For we also forgive everyone …” (v. 4b)

Here and in Matthew 6:12b this is stated in the form of a principle rather than a request, but it deals with a subject which certainly needs to be a matter of prayer. It is an area we each need to turn over to the Lord for management. God holds us responsible for our relationships with others and the focus here is when we think we have been mistreated and would tend, then, to hold grudges and seek revenge.

In relation to forgiving others, there are always two dimensions involved: the Godward or vertical element, and the manward or horizontal element.

In relation to God: All sin against others is first of all a sin against God because it is a transgression against the law of God to love one another. Therefore, when we sin against another human being, we must first confess the sin to God.

In relation to men: In the horizontal relationship, we have a dual set of obligations: those of the offended party (the one sinned against), and those of the offending party (the one sinning against another).

The offended party, as a forgiven person in Christ, has a two-fold obligation. First, he or she is to show the same unqualified forgiveness they received from Christ. This is the point of the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-35. Second, if the offending party does nothing, then in obedience to Scripture and for the purpose of unity, restoration, and healing, the one offended should go to the offending party to correct the problem even if it means rebuke (Luke 17:3-4). If the offending party does not repent, then the offended party may need to follow the procedures of Matthew 18. This, however, never means the right to harbor resentment or anger.

If God by His grace and mercy has forgiven us such an enormous debt, one we could never pay because of our own sinfulness, how much more shouldn’t we forgive others the debts or sins against us as mere fellow-servants regardless of how much we have been hurt. What we suffer cannot compare to what Christ suffered for us. But forgiving others is never to be viewed as a work by which we seek forgiveness for our own sins because our debt is too great for any of us to pay by what we do.

On the part of the offending party the obligation is also twofold: First, to deal with the wrong done by repentance or confession before God. This reestablishes the vertical relationship. Then go to the offended party and correct the problem by asking their forgiveness and by doing the right thing as called for by the circumstances. Compare the following passages on forgiveness (cf. also 18:21-35; Luke 17:3-4; and 1 Peter 3:7).

Ephesians 4:31-32 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. 32 Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

Matthew 5:23-26 So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift. 25 Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 I tell you the truth, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny!

Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

Principles to keep in mind:

• Failure to forgive demonstrates our unwillingness to treat others on the same basis of grace that God has treated us. We must be willing to extend forgiveness as freely to others as God has freely extended it to us (Matt. 18:21-35; Eph 4:32).
• Failure to forgive others stems from our failure to turn the matter over to the Lord and trust in His sovereign purposes and control. The Lord who rested totally in the Father’s love and plan is our perfect example in this (1 Pet. 2:21-25).
• Failure to forgive others keeps the Lord from forgiving us, not because our act of unforgiveness becomes the basis for our own forgiveness, but because unforgiveness, like any known sin, stands as a barrier to fellowship. The basis for our forgiveness is always the cross and Christ’s presence before the Father as our advocate (1 John 1:9-2:2). It is important for us to understand, however, that failure to forgive others is not only sin, but a sin which is a contradiction to the heart of the gospel message (cf. Matt. 5:23-24; 1 Pet. 3:7; Ps. 66:18).
• Failure of people to forgive one another results in a sick church—one without the power and blessing of God on its ministry and life.

(3) Pray Regarding Personal Temptation—“And do not lead into temptation.” (v. 4c)

This particular request has troubled many. Exactly what does this mean? One thing for sure, it is not a request out of fear that God might lead us into some form of temptation. James 1:13 specifically reminds us that God tempts no man. Temptation to sin always comes from sources other than the Lord. This request stems from recognizing certain principles and spiritual realities. It reminds and warns us of:

• The principle of our own inherent weakness and our inability to always recognize temptation or to be able to handle certain temptations due to our particular spiritual state or phase of maturity.
• The principle of our three enemies, the real sources of our temptation—(a) the sinful nature or indwelling sin, (b) the world around us, and (c) Satan against us. Satan and the world have many snares and traps to which we are susceptible because of our own desires and proneness to turn to the many tempting offers made by these sources for significance and happiness.
• The principle of our desperate need of the protection and guidance of the Lord—our only strength against temptation (cf. Eph. 6:10f).

This prayer request is a matter of recognizing these principles that we might turn to the Lord and lean on Him to protect us and to keep us from temptation, especially the unrecognizable forms.

The Parable of the Persistent Friend
(11:5-8)

Luke 11:5-8 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine has stopped here while on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 Then he will reply from inside, ‘Do not bother me. The door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though the man inside will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s sheer persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

In this parable we see the certainty of God’s answer and supply through persistent prayer.

Certain questions repeatedly pop up in the minds of believers regarding prayer. For instance: Why are we to continue to pray for something if the first time we pray we believe God for our request? Isn’t that unbelief? What about those times when we pray and are certain of an answer, and no answer is forthcoming? We believe and are confident it is God’s will, yet nothing happens. What are we to do? What are we to think?

Such questions are often a discouragement to prayer because people do not understand enough about prayer and its place in God’s plan and in our lives. Further, believers know they are to pray and to pray in faith, but this is hard. They say, “I know God can, but is it His will?” After all, God’s will is an important ingredient to the way we pray and receive answers.

Please note Mark 11:22-24:

Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Now compare the above promise with the following passages:

Matthew 6:10 may your kingdom come,
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”

Ephesians 5:17 For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is.

The Lord’s story of the friend who refused to take no for an answer is given to counter feelings of doubt and to become a reason and motivation for continuous and persistent prayer that believes God for what we ask. What do we mean by “persistent prayer”? Sufficient to say it means more than keeping on in prayer.

Why this parable? (Luke 11:1 cf. 18:1, i.e., the context). The disciples had asked the Lord to teach them to pray. In essence they were saying, “Bring us to the point, Lord, where prayer is not an option or for emergency use only. Bring us to the place where you are Lord and where prayer becomes an indispensable and irresistible reality.”

These verses, consisting of the parable, the prescription, the promise, and the principle, were given to answer questions and to motivate them (and so also us) in the struggle of prayer. In Luke 18:1, Christ undoubtedly had the principle of persistent prayer in mind as well. Note that we have only two options: Either we pray biblically in faith or we faint and fail to pray which is itself a form of failure.

This parable, in answer to the unnamed disciple’s request regarding prayer (11:1), is designed by the Lord as further instruction on the subject of prayer. It is developed around three people whom we will call friend A, B, and C, and five circumstances.

Friend A, coming from a long journey, visits friend B late at night, evidently seeking help. Friend B, possessing insufficient resources himself, goes to his neighbor, friend C, for help on behalf of friend A. Friend C, however, though he possesses sufficient resources, is reluctant to rise and give help to friend B, but he is persistent and continues to ask on behalf of friend A. Finally, friend C who has the resources provides the requested resources because of the persistence of friend B.

Let’s note several lessons or principles we can learn from this parable about prayer:

The Principle of the Need of Others

Here is where prayer has its origin. Prayer is designed to fill the needs of needy man (Heb. 4:16). But the parable illustrates praying for the needs of others, not just for our own needs. Friend B was making requests for his friend who came to him at midnight, hungry and without bread. Here also is where the church seems to have lost its vision in the ministry of intercession. Remember there are basically two kinds of prayer requests: (a) prayer for our own needs (petition) and (b) prayer for the needs of others (intercession).

As believers, we are all priests of God (1 Pet. 2:5). To us has been given the ministry of intercession through which we can bring untold power and blessing into the lives of others by praying for the lost, for laborers to be sent out, open doors for the Word, and the basic needs of fellow believers (cf. 3 John 2; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2-4, 12). To pray properly is to become sensitive and open to the needs of others. It is to care for others rather than be occupied with ourselves.

When on the cross, our Lord prayed for His own deliverance, but he never forgot those around Him. From the meaning of the Greek text, which uses the imperfect tense of continual action in past time, we know the Lord repeatedly prayed, “Father forgive them …” during those hours on the cross.

Closely related to the above is our next point found in this passage.

The Principle of Sacrificial Love

It was Andrew Murray who pointed out in With Christ in the School of Prayer, that intercessory prayer is part of God’s training school (p. 49). Here our sonship, fellowship and friendship with God is tested as well as our love for others. Our prayer life is a good barometer of the true condition of our spiritual life and our maturity and fellowship with Jesus Christ.

What happened in this parable? A man took the weary traveler and friend into his home at midnight. He did not excuse himself with “I’ve had a hard day, have no food—go elsewhere.” He sacrificed his night’s rest and went out in the darkness to find the needed bread. “Love seeks not its own,” love gives of itself, its time, its comfort for the needs of others.

This kind of love in word and deed is not natural to any of us. It requires supernatural capacity or ability and motivation. It requires the mind of Christ (the Word of God in the soul and the control of the Spirit controlling and motivating the life). John 15:5,7-8 and Ephesians 6:18 remind us that genuine fellowship with the Lord is vital to our prayer life just as prayer is vital to our fellowship. In a way, each feeds the other. Without the vertical focus, prayer becomes self-centered and based on wrong motives (James 4:2). So, in a very real sense, intercessory prayer is a test of our love, of our fellowship with God and our friendship with others. What kind of friend am I?

The Principle of Our Impotence

The man we have called friend B said, “I have nothing to set before him.” People often speak of the power of love, of what love can and does do for others. But it is important for us to realize another truth. In ourselves we are extremely limited. We may want to help another, but because of our puniness as man we are unable or at least very limited in our ability to help. In ourselves we are nothing.

No matter how much we may want to lead a person to Christ, you and I can’t open their eyes, we can’t force them to see the light. Only the Spirit of God can do that (Acts 16:14). Evangelism, then, if it is going to be effective must be preceded by prayer. The same principle applies to building people up in the Word. Consistently, the Apostle Paul prayed for the spiritual enlightenment of the people to whom he ministered (Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-20; Col. 1:9-14; Phil. 1:9-11). Doctors may do all they can for someone who is ill, and still not alleviate the problem, but God can.

The principle is that we are inadequate and weak, but God is the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent One who is able to do above all that we can ask or even think. In His wisdom He knows what is best, in His love He always cares, and in His power He is able to do anything. So the more we come to see and sense our impotence and need, the more indispensable and irresistible prayer should become to all of us.

The Persuasion Regarding the Friend Who Can and Will Supply

Though this man cannot supply the need himself, he knows there is another who can and will supply this need. He has a super rich friend nearby who will be both able and willing to supply.

The following are important principles concerning faith:

• Faith must have the right object,
• The object must be available,
• The object must be able, and
• The object must be willing.

Knowledge of these truths is a great incentive to prayer (cf. Neh. 1).

Faith and knowledge made this person leave his home at midnight to go to the house of his friend to get bread for the weary traveler who had come from the long journey and was tired and in need of food. As mentioned above, prayer is a test of our friendship with God, of how well we really know Him and so of how confident we are that eventually God will answer and supply. Such faith leads to prayer: knowing God and His promises and our access to Him in Jesus Christ, we can be confident in His supply—that he won’t turn us away, that He feels and cares for our needs and the needs of others.

This illustrates and teaches us the simple truth that our loving heavenly Father and “Friend” will give what is needed if we ask. When a need really exists, there can be no mistake, our God will supply! Why? Because our God who cannot lie, who is immutable, who is loving and faithful, has given us promise after promise to that effect. Compare also Matt. 21:22; 18:19-21; and Luke 11:9-10.

Psalm 9:10 Those who are loyal to you trust in you,
for you, Lord, do not abandon those who seek your help.

Psalm 10:17-18 Lord, you have heard the request of the oppressed;
you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer.
18 You defend the fatherless and oppressed,
so that mere mortals may no longer terrorize them.

Psalm 34:4 I sought the Lord’s help and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.

Psalm 145:18-19 The Lord is near all who cry out to him,
all who cry out to him sincerely.
19 He satisfies the desire of his loyal followers;
he hears their cry for help and delivers them.

Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

How well do we know our God? How many of the principles and promises dealing with prayer do we know?

We hear people say, “but sometimes God’s answer is NO.” Yes, that is true and 2 Corinthians 12:7f is an example. But the point I believe we must see is this: too often this kind of attitude is a cop out on intercessory prayer or on personal petition and real praying. Too often people give up before they have prayed according to the prescription of persistent prayer.

The Perplexing Answer (v. 7)

In the parable the man who could meet the need is reluctant to do so. What is the point of this part of the parable? The God who has told us to pray, who cares for us, and who has promised to supply and answer, often holds back the answer and the gift. Sometimes we meet with what appears to be His refusal. Why? What is involved here? What is Christ teaching us about intercessory prayer? That we must keep knocking on God’s door as the reluctant friend until He can stand it no more and finally gives in? NO!

What about those times when we are sure of God’s will, when there truly is a genuine need and we ask in faith, believing, and yet we seem to meet with silence or an apparent NO? What then? Let’s look at the next principles for our answer.

The Persistence Which Takes No Refusal

In our passage friend B met with a refusal—“don’t bother me,” but he wouldn’t take no for an answer and he shamelessly persisted until he got what he asked for. Was he wrong in this? Should he have simply said, “Well it must not be God’s will, brother. Sorry, I just can’t help you.”? Obviously not because Christ followed up this parable with verse 9, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; …” a very definite and firm promise.

Persistent intercessory prayer is part of God’s training school. Here again, as Murray reminds us, it is a test of our friendship with God, of how well we know Him as our heavenly Friend and Father, and of how committed we are to knowing the Lord and finding His will. Note that the passage emphasizes the need of persistence in prayer, and that, as Luke 18:1 teaches, we should never give up.

Steadfast prayer like this requires faith and knowledge of what God wants to accomplish—knowing God and His plan. Steadfast and continuous prayer is to become a time of testing and training, a time of searching and discovery as we will see below.

Persistent praying is self-revealing

Persistent prayer demonstrates our knowledge and confidence in our Friend and heavenly Father. It greatly glorifies God because it shows we are resting in His wisdom and love. The lack of an immediate answer does not turn us away in disgust or cause fear or doubt and frustration. Why? Because we know our heavenly Friend and Father. Do we understand all that God is doing? No, not really. Is it easy ? No.

Persistent prayer demonstrates the maturity of our faith or the lack of it and so also our need of understanding God, His plan, principles, promises, and purposes. It demonstrates our need of faith, of wisdom and biblical values and priorities along with patience and an eternal perspective. A mature or growing faith sees and believes the promises of God, embracing them with persistence even though the answer is not immediately forthcoming (Heb. 11:13, 39). Mature faith knows that God will answer in a better time and in a better way.

This is no place better illustrated than in the prayers of our Lord both before and on the cross. Had the Father taken the cup of the cross from Him or called ten thousand angels to deliver Him from the cross, we would still be in our sins. God answered His Son, but in a better time and in a better way.

Persistent praying becomes a time of discovery regarding God’s will

Persistent prayer is often needed to bring our prayers into the will of God, i.e., to correct and make them such that they will glorify God and become a greater blessing to us (cf. Luke 18:38-41).

This story of the blind man in Luke 18:35-41 shows that the blind man was crying out for mercy, a very general request which he repeated, believing and knowing that Jesus Christ could and would heal him. But what did Christ do? Did He heal him immediately? No. Instead He said “what do you want me to do for you?” Of course Christ knew the man was blind just as our heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask them (Matt. 6:8). So why the question?

The Lord’s question to the blind man teaches us that God wants us to pray specific requests by which we bring God’s person, promises, principles, and purposes directly to bear on the details of our lives and the lives of others. This kind of praying fits with the basic concept we have seen about prayer. It is not just a religious exercise or ritual divorced from our mind, emotions and will, and the specifics of our lives. Why? Because prayer is a means of fellowship and growth by which we are to seek and discover more about the Lord and His will.

Through true persistent prayer we are forced to investigate the needs and requests as to their nature and motive and as to God’s purpose in the situation. This demands time, thought, soul searching, and fellowship with God. It demands that I ask and think about some crucial questions that help me to discover what God is seeking to teach me, questions like: What are my motives? What are the real needs? What does God want me to do? What does God want to accomplish? God, how do you want me to pray?

Persistent praying and searching in prayer causes us to see our own needs and inadequacies or those of others more pointedly. It helps to bring the real issues to the surface which cause us to more fully depend on the Lord in specifics. So we don’t just say “Lord, help me, or help Bill today.” But “Lord, strengthen me in this area, or in this specific problem or weakness.”

Persistent prayer that forces us to search out and investigate the specific needs aids our personal walk with God and our growth in faith and obedience. When we get specific we are forced to deal with specific areas and root problems in our lives or in the lives of others. We don’t just pray, “Lord, deliver me from sin,” but “Lord, enable me to deal with my temper, or my lack of love, or my fear regarding taking a stand, etc.” It forces us to face what we really are and how God is sufficient for our specific needs.

What then are some of the provisions of persistent praying?

The Provisions of Persistent Praying

Remember we are talking about times of delay in God’s answer and what persevering prayer provides in believers through the process of searching and discovery.

(1) It develops our relationship with the Lord. Through the search/discovery process, our understanding of God, our faith, our confidence, our joy and peace (Phil. 4:1f), and our strength and courage to go on in the joy and strength of the Lord in the face of continued pain or persecution are all enhanced (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7-10; 4:16-18).

(2) It provides specific answers from God, but in His timing. And, as we look back, we can often see the hand of God working out His wise purposes through which we can praise Him for specific answers (2 Cor. 9:11-12). Being specific enables us to wait for specific answers and to more clearly identify them when they come so we can praise and thank God for the answers.

The main principle of the parable is this: If the unfriendliness of a selfish earthly friend can be overcome by persistence—how much more will not persistent praying bring an answer and reward from our heavenly Friend who is also our heavenly Father?

The passage is not saying that God holds back answers because He is unfriendly or doesn’t want to be bothered. As we will see from the context, He is the all wise heavenly Father and holds back answers in His perfect wisdom and goodness because He cannot give us anything but what is best for all concerned.

The Prescription for Persistent Praying
(11:9)

Luke 11:9 So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

The Greek text employs the continuous present with each of the commands (“ask, seek, knock”). But as you can tell by what has already been said, by persistent praying Scripture is not telling us to just keep on asking or repeating the same request. There is a great deal more to it than that.

“So I tell you” in verse 9 is kagw ( kai + egw) and legw which means “and I, I say.” Or “now I, I say.” This was used as a kind of special formula to introduce a point of truth or doctrine which needs to be gleaned from the parable. It is like saying, “here is the point.” This is followed by three commands, which, in the context give us the following principles.

Keep on Asking

This is a command to keep on bringing our request, keep on coming to the Lord with the need and the issue. Don’t give up or faint. Don’t throw in the towel. We are to persevere before the Lord in our requests. But how?

Keep on Seeking

Some see this as just another way of saying the same thing, but I believe this is a call for searching and discovery in the midst of continuing to pray. I believe this means more than just asking or seeking for the thing requested. This means, in our prayers and through the prayerful reading and study of the Word, we are to search for God’s will and the lessons He want us to learn. Pray for spiritual wisdom and understanding and for that which God is doing in the situation (James 1:5). We need to ask questions like: What is God seeking to teach me or us? Is the Lord wanting to take us in another direction or is the timing just all wrong for now? Is He wanting to develop our patience, trust, change our values, or reveal the wrong sources of happiness or sources of self-trust and self-management?

Keep on Knocking

This is a call for expectant waiting in our prayers. Don’t give up and go away. Don’t stop. Stay, wait and rest the matter in the Lord’s hands and timing. We have here the principle of waiting on the Lord, of the faith-rest life—resting patiently by faith in God’s wisdom and love. The answer and revelation of what God is doing will come. Just trust in the goodness and wisdom of God.

With that in mind, the Lord quickly focuses our attention on the nature of God and our relationship with Him as our heavenly Father as believers in Christ. Why? To encourage us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. God is a faithful father kind of God.

The Promise of God’s Sure Answer
(11:10)

Luke 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

This verse simply states that those who keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, who persist in prayer, will receive answers from the Lord. They will receive, they will find, and God will open the door.

It is helpful to note that the present tense is used with each of these verbs regarding God’s sure answer (“receives, finds, knocks”). In verse 9, the future was used, but not here, at least not with the first two. There is a manuscript problem with the third and it is difficult to determine from the evidence if this should be the present or the future. Probably the present as with the first two verbs.

The present tense stresses the actuality of God’s sure answer even more emphatically. This may be what we call the future present which denotes an event that has not occurred, but which is regarded as so certain that in thought it may be viewed as a present reality. Or, it may be the gnomic present of what is a general, timeless principle. The Lord consistently gives to those who persist in prayer. It’s God’s pattern. The Lord is emphatically assuring us of God’s concern and involvement in our lives to direct us, transform us, and answer our prayers.

Now to strengthen our faith and to demonstrate why we can be assured of God’s answer and concern, the Savior focuses our thoughts on God’s MUCH MORE GRACE by calling our attention to God’s infinite and holy love as our heavenly Father.

The Principle of God’s Much More Grace
(11:11-13)

Luke 11:11-13 What father among you, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

The Comparison to Human Fathers (vv. 11-12)

God is our heavenly Father who can do no less for his children than would our earthly father.

Matthew 7:11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Romans 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.

Romans 8:32 Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

The rather extreme examples given in these verses 11-12 represent the norm, the general pattern among men. When societies degenerate and morally go bottom up, child abuse follows, but in general, fathers do not break with these principles. They do not give harmful gifts or gifts that mock their children’s requests. They will often be unwise in their gifts, but they generally do what they think is best.

These examples reinforce the point that God, because of who he is as a holy and infinitely wise God, can only respond in perfect kindness and love.

The Contrast to Our Heavenly Father (v. 13)

Because God is perfect and infinite in all aspects of His character and being, He can do nothing less than the most and the best. He will do much more than our earthly fathers who, though they generally seek to give good gifts, are also sinful and finite in their wisdom.

In this verse we see a contrast of nature and a contrast of gifts. In contrast to the limited and material gifts of earthly fathers, our heavenly Father gives the highest and greatest gift, one that involves and is important to every other spiritual gift—He gives the Holy Spirit.

But what about asking for the Holy Spirit? Can this prayer be legitimately prayed today? NO! Either one of two things apply:

(1) In the Old Testament, the gift that God had promised His people was the Holy Spirit (cf. Ezek. 36:25-27; Joel 2:28-29). So the Lord was here telling the disciples that during this interim period, before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as promised in the Old Testament, if they would ask in persistent prayer, they could then have been indwelt and empowered by the Spirit.

(2) Or, our Lord was saying that what the Father had promised would one day be realized once Israel turned and repented. At that time Christ was being rejected, so the promise would have to be postponed. Christ was saying they should not give up hope, but should continue praying and wait for the gift that would come after His glorification or death and resurrection (cf. John 7:37-39). In the upper room, this is precisely what the disciples did (Acts 1:14).

I personally prefer view number one above.

Conclusion and Application

Because of our lack of wisdom and finite human condition, and because of our sinfulness, if God answered all our prayers just as we ask them we would receive that which would be equivalent to either a stone, a serpent, or a scorpion. But God as our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ (as the one who knows best, who knows all the facts, and who can give only what is best) waits until, through persistent asking, searching, and knocking, our prayers are changed into the will of God (if against it) or until we have learned the lesson(s) He is seeking to teach us through the training ground of persistent intercessory prayer.

The capacity to have this kind of faith in God is dependent upon our knowledge of Him and our confidence in His will. Until God’s will is known and sensed on a request, prayer will have to fall into two categories:

(1) The prayer of confident expectation and faith knowing that God will answer in His own time and according to His wisdom.

(2) The prayer of submission and trust as the Lord prayed, “Nevertheless Father, not my will but Thine.”

One aspect of our prayer should involve asking the Father to help us know His will about the issues for which we are praying. Another aspect involves giving thanks to the Father for answering according to His will. In the meantime, our prayer should be that God would enable us rest in Him and to grow and learn from what He is doing.

⁹⁷Ray Steadman, Jesus Teaches on Prayer, Word Books, Waco, TX, 1975, p. 63.

⁹⁸ The Ryrie Study Bible, NASB, Expanded Edition, Moody Press, Chicago, 1995, p. 1839.

A Definition

Without a doubt, everyone needs, wants, and seeks assurance in all realms of life—in matters of human relationships, finances, job security, retirement, government, and especially in our beliefs about God, man, salvation, and spirituality as it is described for us in the New Testament. In his thought provoking book, No Condemnation, a New Theology of Assurance, Michael Eaton writes about the absence of assurance in Asahel Nettleton. Nettleton was a powerful evangelical preacher in 19th century America who said of himself, “The most that I have ventured to say repsecting myself is, that I think it possible I may get to heaven.”⁵ A few pages later, in describing his quest for an encouraging theology, Eaton wrote:

On one occasion the mistake of a British Museum librarian meant that instead of the words of Tobias Crisp I found myself reading about the death-bed experiences of 17th century Puritans. I was shattered to discover that their assurance of salvation at such a time was not what I would have expected. Then I came across the remark of Asahel Nettleton, quoted above, which expressed the very essence of everything I felt was wrong with the approach to grace that I had grown up with.… Surely, I thought to myself, there is more joy and assurance in the New Testament than that…⁶

But what is assurance? Basically, assurance is freedom from doubt; a sense of certainty that something is true, will occur, or that all is okay. Synonyms for assurance consist of words like certainty, certitude, conviction. All these nouns ultimately mean freedom from doubt.

Assurance is not a foreign concept of the New Testament. In Acts 2:36, Peter said, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (NIV) The word assured is the Greek ajsfalw'", “sure, certain, secure.” It is used of the concept of guarding something or someone securely (cf. Acts 16:23; Mark 14:44). It comes from a verb ( asfalivzw) which means “to guard.” From that it developed the meaning of “that which is sure, certain,” or “assurance.”

The noun form of this word, ajsfavleia, means, depending on the context, “firmness, securely locked” (Acts 5:23), “safety, security” (1 Thess. 5:3), or “certainty, truth,” (Luke 1:4).

Writing to Theophilus in the first of his two-volume treatise on the person and work of Jesus Christ, Luke wrote,

Luke 1:1-4. Now many have undertaken to compile an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 like the accounts passed on to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word from the beginning. 3 So it seemed good to me as well, because I have followed all things carefully from the beginning, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know for certain [ ajsfavleia] the things you were taught. From the meaning and use of the Greek word ajsfavleia, we can clearly see some of the issues involved with the concept of assurance. We want and need a sense of certainty, based on the evidence of Scripture, regarding the truth because such a sense of certainty or assurance also gives a sense of security.

Furthermore, this is something which God wants us to have and which church leaders, using the truth of God in Christ as revealed in the Bible, ought to be diligent to provide through the study of the Word. With this in mind, note what Paul wrote to the church at Colosse when they were facing false teaching (Col. 2:1-5). These false teachings were on the verge of undermining the assurance of the Colossian believers with regard to what they had believed about the person and work of the Savior. Note the development of Paul’s argument here:

1. Verse 1 expresses Paul’s concern and effort expended on their behalf: “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,”

2. Verses 2-3 express his first and fundamental purpose—to give the full assurance which comes from understanding what is theirs through Christ: “that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

3. Verses 4-5 express his second purpose, which is also the result of the first. He says “I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.”

In Galatians 1:20, to assure his readers of the truth of what he was writing, Paul wrote, “I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie” (NIV). Literally, “behold” or “take note, before God …” Here the apostle was setting forth historical evidence and calling God as his witness as well. The fact is people need and should have assurance, but it should, of course, be based on credible evidence that what they are asked to believe or have believed is the truth.

Two Types of Evidence

1. Scientific, that which can be repeated in a laboratory or under scientific controls.

2. The legal-historical, that which is based on showing something is beyond a reasonable doubt based on oral and written testimony and exhibits or other forms of evidence like a gun, a bullet, archaeological findings, manuscripts, etc.

Sometimes people try to argue against the Bible or Christ with the statement, “You can't prove that by scientific method,” with the implication that believing in the Bible and in Christ is therefore unreliable and unbelievable. Such a claim is false.

Historical events and issues cannot be proven by the scientific method because they cannot be repeated. That’s true. But it is not true that this makes the claims of the Bible and its testimony to Jesus Christ false. Why? Because the scientific approach is totally inadequate to prove things about a person or an event in history. It cannot prove whether or not George Washington lived or if John Kennedy was assassinated or if Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead. However, there are other forms of evidence that can be brought forth that are used every day in courts all over this country to give evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that certain things either happened or did not happen, or are true even though they cannot be repeated.

Thus, the Savior said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” He said, “You shall know,” and not just hope or feel it’s true. Through the resurrection and many other infallible proofs, God has given us credible evidence for the genuiness of the claims of the Bible as being God’s Word and for the certainty of the claims of Christ.

Acts 17:30-31 Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead (emphasis mine).

With this in mind, compare Romans 4:13-21 and note the element of firm assurance that Abraham had. God wants us to have assurance and to know the peace that comes from assurance, but we must be sure that our assurance is based on the truth of Scripture or our assurance will be empty.

New Christians, and even many older believers for that matter, need assurance concerning the very message of the gospel they have believed and of the new life they have in Christ as believers. With the many winds of strange doctrine blowing across the landscape, people are often assailed by all kinds of doubts and fears about their decision to trust in Christ.

Is what I believed really the gospel? Just what does my decision to believe in Jesus Christ mean in my life? What are the ramifications and consequences? Can salvation be lost? If I commit this sin or that sin, does it mean I was never saved? Some evangelists or preachers give the impression that once you accept Christ all your problems will be over, when in reality a whole new set of problems begin with hostile forces on the attack. The Christian has moved from Satan’s kingdom into the kingdom of Christ, which Satan hates. This also tends to unsettle a person’s assurance (see 1 Thess. 3:1-8).

Our Objectives

1. To give personal assurance concerning what the gospel message is.

2. To give personal assurance concerning the results of personally believing in Jesus Christ.

3. To cover biblical promises essential to gaining assurance of what believers have in Christ.

4. To provide ability to deal with any doubts regarding God’s provision for all areas of life.

Areas of Assurance

Assurance deals with the confident realization of what the Christian has in Christ and who he or she is in Christ. It covers a number of aspects of the salvation God gives to those who trust in Jesus Christ. For our purposes, these lessons on assurance will consider the following areas:

1. Assurance Regarding the Gospel—Is what I believe the true gospel?

2. Assurance of Salvation—On what do I base my assurance?

3. Assurance of Eternal Security—Is there some sin that can cause me to lose my salvation?

4. Assurance of God’s Daily Provision—Will God really care for me?

5. Assurance of God’s Provision for Sin—How do I deal with my sin problem?

6. Assurance of God’s Guidance—Can I count on God’s guidance in the many decisions I face daily?

7. Assurance of Eternal Rewards—Since my salvation is secure, are there no ramifications if I fail to walk with the Lord?

⁵ Michael Eaton, No Condemnatin, A New Theology of Assurance, InterVaristy Press, Downers Grove, 1995, p. 3.

⁶ Eaton, p. 8.