Those "Arm Chair Theologians!"

Many Christians, today, are being spiritually malnourished. Pastors all across the world are lamenting, what they believe is, the impracticality of doctrine. Therefore, they refuse to fulfill the sacred obligation of the under -shepherd to "be diligent," "study," "make every effort," "do your best," to show ourselves approved cutting straight the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:15) and proclaiming it to those in the pews ( 2Tim. 4:1-, Tit.1:9).

But the notion that theology and doctrine are impractical is very misleading. I would go so far as to say that any elder in the Church of Christ that utters such things should resign since it is impossible to shepherd the sheep of Christ, of whom He purchased by His won blood, apart from doctrine. Observe how Paul instructs Titus to appoint elders and gives the qualifications for such a noble esteemed position, "He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it" (Tt 1:9). And how he writes to Timothy, "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith"  (1 Ti 1:3–5).


Doctrine matters. It matters because it should be founded on the truth of Scripture. But what of the allegation that it is impractical or only produces "arm chair theologians?" Well, the majority of people that proclaim such accusations are typically the people that attempt to practice what they do not understand. Here's what I mean. Many people will proclaim an unoffensive gospel that simply says, "God is love and He loves you. Trust Him." This kind of "evangelism" is an attempt to to put into practice the Great Commission. However, since those proclaiming such things or something similar know we are to share Christ with others they attempt to do so yet their understanding of the Gospel is grossly lacking as is there purely humanistic definition of the Divine love.

People that often deride the necessity of doctrine and assert theology leads to apathetic inaction have obviously not studied Church history. Let me quote from one of those "dead orthodoxy" guys that well understood how practical theology is and how it helps us. John Owen in his massive writing on the doctrine of justification and at the beginning of his defense and exposition of it writes:

THAT we may treat of the doctrine of justification usefully unto its proper ends, which are the glory of God in Christ, with the peace and furtherance of the obedience of believers, some things are previously to be considered, which we must have respect unto in the whole process of our discourse. And, among others that might be insisted on to the same purpose, these that ensue are not to be omitted:—

1. The first inquiry in this matter, in a way of duty, is after the proper relief of the conscience of a sinner pressed and perplexed with a sense of the guilt of sin. For justification is the way and means whereby such a person doth obtain acceptance before God, with a right and title unto a heavenly inheritance (emphasis mine).

So much for doctrine being impractical. Understanding that our acceptance with God is dependent on the substitutionary (penal) death of Christ and His perfect righteousness, or as stated by the Apostle Paul this way- " For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Co 5:20–21) is of the highest comfort. When Christians sin, especially in serious matters, our consciences can be tormented; one of our first inclinations is to think that we must now turn to the law in order to gain God's favor once again. That we must be more obedient to make up for such serious offenses against God. But the docrtrine of justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, teaches us that we are ever to reflect on the cross of Christ. He has satisfied the Father perfectly by taking our just punishment at the cross and fulfilling the righteous demands of God by keeping the law perfectly for sinners.

The doctrine of justification gives rest for the soul. The weary are no longer burdened by trying to hopelessly keep more law for their right standing before God. It has been accomplished for him by Christ our justification. The sinner finds rest. This is what is meant by our Lord when He cries out, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light "(Mt 11:28–30).


This pillar of Christian doctrine (justification by faith) does not lead to licentiousness. Rather instead of trying to be more godly to gain acceptance with God, we do so because we are accepted by Him in Christ and long to please and honor Him with our redeemed lives. We now love and strive to keep and honor His laws and commands to glorify His holy name among an ungodly people. Or as Iain Campbell writes:

The Ten Commandments are the same: they are moral absolutes, given us by our Creator God, in order that we may know fulfilment, purpose and direction in our lives. None of us can keep the commandments perfectly, which is why we need a Saviour. And those of us who trust the Saviour have more reason than most to keep the commandments. The God who gave them at Sinai was none other than Jesus.*

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Mt 11:28–30)  


Oh what rest! Rest my friends, rest in Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Owen, J. Vol. 5: The works of John Owen. (W. H. Goold, Ed.) (7). Edinburg: T&T Clark.
*Campbell, I. D. (2005). On the first day of the week : God, the Christian and the Sabbath (181). Leominster, UK: Day One Publications.

THE PERFECT MAN - Part 1

Is being created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) enough to insure that man will act according to that image in a manner that proclaims and shines forth the image he was created in?

Before answering that question, consider what and who the Triune God of Scripture is, not what He does (though this will come into play later in the article).

God is infinite and eternal and self-sustaining, needing nothing outside Himself to be perfectly good, and perfectly satisfied, according to His character, which is so transcendently good that man cannot even stand in the presence of that glory He is without being struck dead (Exodus 33:18-20); moreover, in His perfection, God dispenses both His mercy and His justice as He sees fit within Himself to do, without any being able to call such into question (Exodus 34:6-7; Job 38:1-2; Daniel 4:34-35; Romans 9:14, 20).

Therefore, the God of Scripture – the Triune God we who are His are able to know to the degree to which He has revealed Himself – is, by dint of His very nature, incapable of doing wrong, acting in injustice, and cannot, in validity, be questioned as to what He does or does not do by man.

Now, man was created perfect, and in the image of God, which God declared, along with the rest of the perfect creation He had made, “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

The fact that God created man in His image does not mean that man was created as an infinite, eternal, always existing being, self-sustaining in himself, as, by definition, man was created, and so finite, while God is uncreated (Exodus 3:14), yet determined to make Himself known to His creatures in myriad manners, of which we read to the church-nation Israel, was both through special revelation and the connect to their Patriarchs (Exodus 3:15-14:31).

Getting to know the Triune God of Scripture as He presents Himself in it, is a most important truth, for though the Father, Son and Spirit share the same infinite, eternal, uncreated essence, there is subjection in the Triune God according to the manner in which He works within Himself: the Son is subject to the Father, and the Spirit is subject to the Father and the Son.

Thus, we have God, perfectly content within Himself, loving Himself, needing nothing. This is important to note, for in creating, God, who has no needs outside of Himself, is seen not to have created to fulfill any need He has, since all such are perfectly, infinitely, satisfied, within His nature, and the divine relations of the Persons of the Triune God. Thus, as stated in the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 regarding our Triune God, in Chapter 2, Of God and of the Holy Trinity, we have:

Paragraph 1. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God;¹ whose subsistence is in and of Himself,² infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be  comprehended by any but Himself;³ a most pure spirit,⁴ invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;⁵ who is immutable,⁶ immense,⁷ eternal,⁸ incomprehensible, almighty,⁹ every way infinite, most holy,¹⁰ most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will,¹¹ for His own glory;¹² most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,¹³ and withal most just and terrible in His judgments,¹⁴ hating all sin,¹⁵ and who will by no means clear the guilty.¹⁶

¹ 1 Cor. 8:4,6; Deut. 6:4
² Jer. 10:10; Isa. 48:12
³ Exod. 3:14
⁴ John 4:24
⁵ 1 Tim. 1:17; Deut. 4:15,16
⁶ Mal. 3:6
⁷ 1 Kings 8:27; Jer. 23:23
⁸ Ps. 90:2
⁹ Gen. 17:1
¹⁰ Isa. 6:3
¹¹ Ps. 115:3; Isa. 46:10
¹² Prov. 16:4; Rom. 11:36
¹³ Exod. 34:6,7; Heb. 11:6
¹⁴ Neh. 9:32,33
¹⁵ Ps. 5:5,6
¹⁶ Exod. 34:7; Nahum 1:2,3

Existing as He is, completely other than, unique, and needing nothing to add to His completeness, yet He willed to create first one, then another, creature; the first in His image, the second after the image of the first (1 Corinthians 11:3), according to the infinite, eternal order of the three divine Persons within the Triune God, but without His absolute autonomy and total completeness, for these created, finite beings were to be willingly dependent upon Him.

I would refer the reader also to paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Confession in the chapter:

Paragraph 2. God, having all life,¹⁷ glory,¹⁸ goodness,¹⁹ blessedness, in and of Himself, is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them,²⁰ but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things,²¹ and He hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleases;²² in His sight all things are open and manifest,²³ His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent or uncertain;²⁴ He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works,²⁵ and in all His commands; to Him is due from angels and men, whatsoever worship,²⁶ service, or obedience, as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever He is further pleased to require of them.

¹⁷ John 5:26
¹⁸ Ps. 148:13
¹⁹ Ps. 119:68
²⁰ Job 22:2,3
²¹ Rom. 11:34-36
²² Dan. 4:25,34,35
²³ Heb. 4:13
²⁴ Ezek. 11:5; Acts 15:18
²⁵ Ps. 145:17
²⁶ Rev. 5:12-14

Paragraph 3. In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit,²⁷ of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided:²⁸ the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father;²⁹ the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son;³⁰ all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.

²⁷ 1 John 5:7; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14
²⁸ Exod. 3:14; John 14:11; I Cor. 8:6
²⁹ John 1:14,18
³⁰ John 15:26; Gal. 4:6

This section of the Confession shows the submission of, not inequality (since all three divine Persons, or “subsistences,” share the same essence completely, as put in the confession), of each divine Person, without changing the fact that God is One in essence.

This is where it gets confusing for those who do not know what the Scripture teaches about man, as he was first created, and as he was to operate, and how in Adam, all humanity was being tested – there are those today who deny this cardinal doctrine of original sin resulting in the fall of the race, who think they can live a life of sinlessness, and this is from a fundamental ignorance of what took place in the fall.

Such is usually from being taught the Scriptures, or teaching one’s self, without the benefit of the Spirit of God being the one who teaches, and if done purposefully, is the height of arrogance against God, resulting in such a misunderstanding of His Holy Word that it leads many astray into a Pharisaic legalism, and the Lord addressed this, during His first advent, directly: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15 – ESV)

To God alone be the glory - Bill Hier

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Heritage of Autosoterism

I have chosen to name this post The Heritage of Autosoterism because of exactly this fact:

The damage that has been done to the great doctrines of God, as He has placed them indelibly in His Scriptures, by holy men of old as directed and moved along by His Holy Spirit, showing His infinite perfection in all things, that those whom He wills may read of, and understand, that which He has been pleased to reveal of Himself, the nature of man, and how He alone has conquered that deathly self-reliance that places any of it's trust in other than Christ alone, for those so chosen, is, by our estimation, incalculable, in human terms.

Still, the damage is not complete, and this by those same perfecting graces inherent in His grace, and we have yet a remnant that realizes "Salvation is of the Lord," and of Him alone.

As He did not need any cooperation of the creatures in His creation of the world, and all that is in it; as the fetus in the womb holds no power over whether it will come into the world or not, so it is with the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

The late B.B. Warfield states this in words which, while perhaps difficult for some to understand (but we do have dictionaries and encyclopedias, do we not?), are nonetheless well worth the read in this excerpt of his book The Plan of Salvation, which you may find online under his name on Wikipedia, in four links - one for each part; better still, I found the work on Monergism.com, and will include the link, for those who do not have this book and would like to read it - Part 2 is where the excerpt comes from in this post.

To God alone be the Glory - Bill Hier

http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/06/autosoterism.php  This is the excerpt only. The link to the full book follows.

  

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/warfield/warfield_plan.html

Ordained Crisis – The necessity of the Tares

The church today is in crisis, but this is a divinely ordained crisis.

This is what many Christians fail to see, although it was laid out so by not only our Lord, but His apostles.

Consider the parable of the tares told by our Lord: What did He teach here?

Matthew 13:24-29: Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 “The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' 28 “And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves *said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' 29 “But he *said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. (NASB - * stands for an ongoing action with no terminus mentioned.)

Is this not teaching that there will be true confessors and false professors in the same assembly, and that as long as the false professors “act” like the wheat, we are not to uproot them?

Then, consider what the apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 11:17-19: But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

It is a needful thing that there be factions among the assembled saints, so that those who are true in the faith (body of doctrine) may be shown as true by God, and those who are false are His means of showing those who are true. The KJV is not so kind in v. 19, for it uses the word “heresies,” which are what causes almost all, if not all, schisms in the first place. In the case of obvious heresies, or obvious sins brought about by sin that is visible and an affront to God, the offender is removed, as we have elsewhere in Scripture, until and unless repentance takes place, then restoration also takes place (1 Corinthians 5; cf. 2 Corinthians 7).

Finally, we see the reaction of many of those who are of the tares: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). So, in many cases, we do not have to enact church discipline, as the Lord Himself ensures that such “go out from among us."

There is much more that can be written on these things (and perhaps will be), as it pertains to fellowship, true and false, among the company of those who in truth, or falsely, profess Christ, as well as the vital necessity of church discipline, which is largely a lost means of the restraint of false doctrine and moral impurity being among those who would call themselves the saints of the most High God.

To God’s glory alone – Bill Hier

OF GOD, AGAINST MOLINISM: FIRST CAUSE DICATES ALL SECOND CAUSES

 Genesis 1:1:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And so following the account of the creation of all there is extant.

John 1:1-3:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The “all things” here is immediately apparent.

Colossians 1:16-17:  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The context shows this to be Christ, again the “all things” is immediately apparent to those who are regenerate, and even the claim can be recognized, if not accepted, by those profane who believe not the Scriptures. Also, the fact of this is that those things created are “held together;” they cohere, by the will of God in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune God.

Colossians 2:3:  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Again, the context shows this is our Lord Jesus Christ, and these are but some of the “invisible things” created by and for Him. Logic and reason, therefore, have their foundation and basis in God, and do not exist outside of Him; they are a part of His creation, as He precedes all things, being the First Cause, that is, the Creator, of “all things, visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth.”

Hebrews 1:3:  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

The radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature cannot be understood to be a limited exhibition or definition of such, especially since He upholds “all things” (rendered universe in the ESV, but more properly, “all”) by the word of His power, the “all” being that which He created, the “upholding” properly the “moving along.”

Ephesians 1:3-4:  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

2 Timothy 1:9:  who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

Of God this is said, and “before the ages began” is understood as from all eternity, which God, being infinite, did not exist in, but apart from, having created it. This is also the meaning of “before the foundation of the world” in the previous verse – before the world, and time, and man began, reason, logic, good and evil, were fixed in the mind of God, as to who He is, and what they should be, once He created man, in the image of Himself, who failed the test of simple obedience, knowing nothing of these things (refer again to the Genesis account, where Adam was “innocent” without the knowledge of “good and evil” until he purposely sought the devil’s advice to be as God, in complete innocence, yet of the ability to make choices, when wrong choice is shown to be passed onto His progeny throughout history, God showing the perfect man could not save himself without the grace, new birth, and indwelling of God’s own Spirit Himself in that gracious rebirth).

Titus 1:2:  in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.

Again, of God, the promise was made of eternal life to those whom He willed to be “in Christ Jesus,” and the words here “before the ages began” specifically use the word for ages and time together, to show they did not exist before they were created by God.

Soli Deo Gloria - Bill Hier

THE TRADITION OF MEN

THE TRADITION OF MEN

At any time, during the history of the church, when the traditions of men have reared their ugly heads, seeking to substitute as the doctrines of God, there have been those who have fought against such.

The first and foremost examples we have is from the record of the New Testament itself:

It is here we find those who sought to reintroduce the Law of Moses and circumcision as necessary to salvation, which prompted the apostle Paul to write Galatians, and the writer of the Hebrews to mention the true purpose of those things of the Old Covenant, which was a foreshadowing of the actuality of the New.

It is also in the New Testament that we find Paul writing against the heresy of the proto-Gnostics in Colossians, as well as the apostle John in his letters.

However, man is hard pressed to let go of that which identifies him, and quick to pervert it.

What identifies man is a simple two-part equation, one part of which was lost when the first man God made, Adam, gave into the temptation to be more than what he was; that is,  God’s Creation.

What was lost was the ability to be in communion with God – to walk in the light, as He is in the light. This is the true meaning of fellowship; a joining with one’s Creator that is perfect.

In order to make Adam capable of such fellowship, God created him with the capacity to choose, and placed him in the circumstances that led to the death of faith; that is, the other, necessary capacity of being in perfect harmony with his Creator.

No man could ever be like God, yet that is the greatest temptation of all men, and that was the greatest temptation that faced Adam, which he failed to conquer.

The fact of the matter is this: no man can conquer this temptation; he cannot conquer it because it is at the root of his very being. Man was created to be like God; not in infinite essence, but as representative of the perfections of his Creator. Every temptation that takes a man has this at its core, for every temptation is a lust to be one’s own creator, king, and emperor.

No matter how impossible such is, that is what drives men, from the meanest to those who appear most noble; from the most vile of sins to the one which appears to be good, which seems altruistic and philanthropic to others; however, the very terms define that rebellion to be servants of the only good and perfect Creator, for they mean humane and humanitarian, with the reward of hiding the inherent corruption of the creature.

After all, if something seems good, it must be good, man reasons. If a series of actions result in the well-being of others by one or more individuals, acting alone or in concert, the creature’s rationale, given by God, yet separated by the first effort of the first man to be equal to his Creator, is that it is good, though no thanks is directed towards the One who made him, or them, capable of such things, and the satisfaction is, at its very center, rotten, for man was created to serve and worship God in a harmony that is unknown in this fallen world, even among the church (and here, I mean the true, catholic church, not the various visible representations of that church that have lost and saved people within their various walls).

That which is corrupt by the desire to be equal to the only infinite, perfect, God, can never hope to represent Him in true fellowship, a service of love by the creation to its Creator, for without knowing God for what and who He IS, one can never adequately represent, in even the finite form (which note, God created to continue forever, in one state or another) of man, the flawless perfection that God always IS.

God knew this; He foreknew, actively, exactly that which He created, and how, making man is His image, man, by the very capacity He gave him to choose good or evil, when confronted with that choice, would choose evil; even the best motives of man, which result from the providence of God (often called “common grace”), hold this concept inherent: I can be like God.

In this way, even the worship of God has been perverted throughout the history of the church, as we said: It is true evil when men think that something they observe and enable from their own selfish power and desires is good, without crediting and thanking the God who made them, and sustains them, and when those who have been born again of God’s mercy do such, it is only that grace that can forgive them of their folly, for that grace is given by virtue of the unique God-Man, Jesus Christ, Himself very God of very God, consubstantial with the Father.

Unsaved man foolishly thinks himself capable of good without crediting it to his Creator: how much more heinous is it, in God’s sight, that those saved by His Son’s sacrifice think that they are keeping themselves in observance of righteousness – a righteousness that Luther rightly called “a foreign righteousness,” for it is the very righteousness of Christ our Lord – by thinking that duty-faith somehow obtains that which it can only receive, mirror, and emanate by that new nature in union with God’s Spirit, and so their Lord and Father, and this, without giving of thanks; without any recognition of the One who brought their very essence into being by His unlimited, perfect, infinitely good power.

This is not to say that duty-faith is not required; the very fundamental nature of man, regenerated, is made to be in fellowship with the One True God. This fellowship can only be partially realized while the regenerate spirit is yet housed in the carnal flesh we yet live in, for the reason of testing: obedience that is true partakes of abiding in Christ our Lord; partakes of the very grace He gave us, to perform its works – works hidden in Him and prepared in Him from beforehand (Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 3:1-3).

That which was born of Adam dead is brought to life in Christ, yet these bodies – and by this I mean the carnal flesh, in which the deadness of that which was has yet to be regenerated – cannot partake of that regenerated life, except by obedience from a pure heart of loving thankfulness to the Creator, who made such possible; not only that, but in a manner where the life to come will always be obedient, truly worshipping God, who created us, in the perfection He intended, by the only Person who could ever fulfill that obedience; His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This has not happened yet, but it is in the process of happening (Colossians 3:4-17).

However, we fail – which is to say sin – often, and this is why it is all of grace that we even have the faith to obey, for without abiding in Christ, duty-faith becomes carnal duty only, and we again are guilty of trying to be like God by our works, which could not save us, and most definitively cannot sanctify us, for as faith without works is dead, so works without faith partake of the same death that we were saved from.

Faith is defined as that which is unseen and yet true, partaking of the very righteousness of Christ our Lord by that faith which His Spirit engendered in us when He regenerated us; this is the solid foundation on which the apostles rested, and upon which we must rest (Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 11:1); this is the faith that is of our Lord Jesus Christ, that sees those things of God that are beyond the sight of carnal flesh (Colossians 3:1-3), the faith that counts that flesh as crucified, and our Lord as living – this is the vital union which could not be provided by the most perfect man, but only the Perfect God-Man (Galatians 2:20-21).

When believers think that anything that they do – anything – has any power outside of Christ, at that point, they are living according to the old nature, even though it exists only in the flesh, for that nature which was carnal through spiritual inheritance from Adam was made alive in Christ, having also died with Him, by God’s working, not man’s (Romans 6; Ephesians 2:1-10).

Yet notice: The faculty of choice was not eliminated by this divine union with our God and Creator, and it is exactly at this point where the desire to be like God again rears it’s ugly head, seeking to live to be justified, instead of living by faith granted of God because we are declared to be justified (Romans 5:1); and at this point, peace flees, carnality reigns over our members, and we fail to realize the fellowship, or union, with our Creator that He alone has placed us into. Knowledge of the things of God is divorced from the faith that such knowledge must be combined with, and we literally commit acts of treason against our King, who redeemed us from such a curse. There is no wisdom great enough to be counted as more than mere information imparted, much as a computer stores information, without faith, for the knowledge of God is only wisdom when trusting in Him by that power He gave us to do so, and that type of trust is faith, which, when combined with the knowledge of the things of God, will fear a wrong representation of Him to any others, saved or unsaved (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Honoring God on the Lord’s Day become a duty, an obligation, and so an abomination, for we do so in the way of those God abhorred for doing so (Isaiah 1:10-21); we make His commandments burdensome, instead of entering into that Sabbath rest which is not static (as He is not static in maintaining His creation), but lives by the very faith He gave to us, that we might truly honor Him (and it must be observed that some believers seem to think one day more holy than another, when the fact of entering His Sabbath rest is to not only observe the Sabbath, but to observe every day to proclaim and promote His glory).

If we add our own works, instead of ceasing from them, we behave in the abominable manner of those whom the Lord rebuked for performing the very sacrifices and convening the very assemblies that He Himself has commanded, because, like them, we are “working out our own salvation,” yet not with that fear and trembling that knows we do so by a faith given of God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, not our own sense of obligation and the power of our flesh, by which that grace of God is nullified. We therefore not only do not enter into His Sabbath rest on the Sabbath; we profane the Sabbath, and all other days in which we are to remain in that rest, and we are the reason the nations and their peoples speak ill of our God – these things ought not to be!

Notice, then, that duty-faith follows out of entering into that Sabbath rest, not secures it (Hebrews 4:9-16).

Let us not fall into the same trap as Adam, the fathers, and so many others have fallen into, which lead to sectarianism, despising one another, lack of peace, hate in place of love, esteeming ourselves better than others instead of the reverse, and all manner of the works of the flesh.

It is an abomination to God to see those whom He has redeemed so at war with one another, and I do not speak of apostates and heretics here, but those whom He has truly redeemed, by His promise, which He is faithful and just to carry out; therefore, let us walk in love that issues from a pure heart, which love is concurrent with loving the brethren, and manifests, by His power, that form of doctrine that is of true and sincere faith; let us regard the traditions of men that seek to replace the doctrines of God as what they are – abominations in His sight, for they deny both Him and the love He gives us to have towards one another (John 13:34-35; 1 Timothy 1:5-11).

To God's glory alone - Bill Hier