Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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The Unshakeable God

The Unshakeable God

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Introduction

Unless God humbles him, man won’t be humbled. Mankind has a hyperextended elbow from patting himself on the back. We look upon all the undeserved blessings which God has bestowed—our health, our financial stability, our routine, our safety, our full cupboards––and assume He owed them to us. Scripture is full of illustrative warnings against assuming the blessing of God as automatic (cf. Jdg. 7:2). If it is something God owes us then it is no longer grace. But if it is a gift, then the only thing to do is to humbly receive it all as grace upon grace.

The Text

Heb. 12:18-29

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

Summary of the Text

The entire book of Hebrews is directed to Jewish Christians facing dark clouds of impending persecution. In their fear, they began casting longing looks back at the way things were under the old Mosaic order. Throughout the book they are admonished to look through the Mosaic order and see the superiority of Jesus. As the book comes in for a landing, these early Christians are told how they ought to behave in the midst of sovereign chastisement (12:6-11).  They were to look diligently so as not fail of the grace of God (12:15).

Remembering OT history is to aid us in clinging to this grace. We’re told to remember where we have come: not to Sinai (12:18-19); with all its thunderous glory and holy fear (12:20-21).

Rather, these early Christians are told they’ve come to Zion. They’ve come to a city populated by angels, the church, and the righteous Judge (12:22-23). They have come to Jesus and to His blood (12:24). While Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, the better word of Jesus’ blood cries out that “It is finished.” 

Because of this, they need to prick up their ears and hear and heed. God spoke the Law to Israel at Sinai, upon the earth. But now God speaks from heaven, in the person of the ascended Christ. 

When God spoke at Sinai, Israel was simultaneously worshipping the Golden Calf, and they didn’t escape God’s wrath. So if you fail to come to Jesus by heeding His Gospel voice you will not escape (12:25). God’s voice shook the earth at Sinai, but Haggai had prophesied of another shaking yet to come (Hag. 2:6). This shaking was upon them. The Mosaic order was to be removed by this shaking, so that the unshakeable things might remain (12:26-27). 

These children of Abraham were receiving the immovable kingdom promised to Abraham (Heb. 11:10). So, they were to have grace so that they might bring acceptable service to God. This service was to be marked by reverence and godly fear (12:28), and they were to do so because of Who God is: a consuming fire (12:29).

God Likes to Shake Things Up

Think of a chalk-artist drawing on a sidewalk in some big city. While he’s drawing the chalk dust obscures the art. But when he finally blows away the excess, what emerges is the masterpiece. 

Moses’ law was like scaffolding which was soon to be shaken off to reveal the immovable city of the Unshakeable God. God’s voice shook Sinai when the Law was given. But He was about to thunder once more from heaven.

We ought not to think of the current shake-up of the world as “on par” with the shaking which is referred to in this text. However, we should think of our shaking as the aftershocks of that shaking. What happened when Jesus shed His blood, died, rose again, and ascended to the throne of majesty (Heb. 1:3)? In short, God shook the whole world. The result was that rebel principalities and powers were overthrown, and their jurisdiction was now handed over to Son of Man.

Fear, Folly, or Faith

The early Jewish Christians were faced with very uncertain times. They stood between the  beast of the Roman Empire, and the seduction of the Judaizers. Worldly fear leads to folly. And folly has many faces. One temptation was to return to the familiar structure of Moses’ law. It would have let them “belong” again. On the other hand, they could simply renounce it all and blend in with the pagans. 

We see this fear leading to folly playing out in real time. Over-reactors and under-reactors. Nail-biters and conspiracy theorists. Hoarders and protesters. There is folly in cowardly panic. There is folly in thinking you’re invisible. COVID-19 may very well be the means of your death. It might also be the means of peeling open your heart to show you a festering fear of earthly things.

But what it is not is a meaningless blip. It is a warning that God has shaken the world from heaven. You don’t get to ignore the rumblings. When God shakes the world, unbelieving men run to folly, because they won’t receive the gracious humbling from the hand of the Lord. 

But for Abraham’s children, we feel the aftershocks of Christ’s kingdom being established throughout the world, and we fear not the face of man, or war, or plague, or economic disaster. God is our good King, and we serve Him.

Like Paton in the Tree

John G. Paton, a Scottish missionary to the cannibals of the South Pacific, once had to spend a whole night in a tree while hiding from the savages who were hunting for him. He said of that night, “If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship.” In another close encounter with death he said: “With my trembling hand clasped in the hand once nailed on Calvary, and now swaying the scepter of the universe, calmness and peace abode in my soul.”

  That is what genuine faith in the midst of trial is able to declare. Faith stays its mind on the Lord, and therefore is kept in perfect peace. Faith knows that when all around my soul gives way, Jesus is all your hope and stay. Faith comes to the City of Zion, and knows that no matter how topsy-turvy the world may be, the King of the World is unshakeable. God calls through such trials for proud man to repent. He humbles you in order to lift you up. He shakes away the impermanent things, so that you might cling to the only permanence to be found: King Jesus. 

God is shaking this whole world up so that you would look to Christ. So that your hope in all earthly deliverance would fail, and that you might turn in humble faith to trust in Him Whose Kingdom cannot be shaken. He has humbled us to the dust, so that in the midst of the dust of this great shaking we might look to an unshakeable Christ, who lifts us up with Him into His glory. 

A Stream Yet An Ocean

A Stream Yet An Ocean

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A Dutch theologian, Wilhelmus á Brakel, once said, “[The Word of God] is a brook from which a lamb may drink and an ocean in which an elephant can drown.” Whether it is hearing God’s Word preached, reading the Bible in private, or eating the Word made flesh in the Lord’s Supper we should always remember this twofold reality. God’s Word is a gentle brook of sweet comfort to those who come in faith to drink of it. But it’s also vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling like a mighty ocean. The Christian finds comfort in the sheer vastness and thunderous power of God’s Word, but also finds stunning glory in its simple truth: God sent His Son to save sinners. 

The non-Christian sees the exact opposite. Wherever they turn, God’s Word is an ocean of His justice confronting them with the guilt of their sin; and when they are invited to the brook of God’s grace, their pride sees an insulting abyss which will swallow all their self-righteousness. To the unbeliever, the Word is a raging tsunami of judgement. To the believer, it is a bottomless, shoreless, endless stream of comfort, healing, forgiveness, and love. The unrepentant sinner finds it a horror; the repentant saint finds it an unspeakable joy. 

So This Word we are about to eat is meant as a warning to those who take it without faith, yet it is nourishment to those who believe. As a Narnian might put it, “the safest place to be is between the wild paws of the Lion.” The great and incomprehensible glory of our union with Christ is set before us today in these simple signs of bread & wine. The body and blood of our Savior.

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

To the Victor Go the Spoils

To the Victor Go the Spoils

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LISTEN HERE

Introduction

Our culture is infected with oath-breaking, reneged campaign promises, defaulted debts, divorced marriages, & fake news. Promises are only as good as the promiser. The Gospel promise is salvation from sin & eternal life. It insults the idolatrous religion of self-sufficiency. It tears down & defiles the altars of works righteousness. It fills the believer with swagger. And the world despises it. So, should we believe it?

Summary of the Text

Believing that Jesus is the Christ & being born of God are inseparable, you can’t have one without the other. The new birth results in both love for the Father who begot you and love for all those whom the Father begets (v1). Loving God’s people flows from love to God & obedience to His Word (v2). Loving God means obeying God. This doesn’t make God a dystopian tyrant, because His commandment—to believe upon His Son—results in our eternal life & joy (v3, cf. 1 Jn. 1:4). Whoever is born again is assured of their victory over the world, because they trust in Jesus—who has conquered sin, the devil, the world (vs.4-5).

The incarnation & death of the Word has Trinitarian fingerprints: the Father sent His Son, & the Spirit bears witness to the truth of this Gospel (vs. 6-8). God Almighty is witness to the eternal Sonship of Jesus; this doctrine wasn’t cooked up in the lab of man’s cranium (v9). Refusing to trust that Jesus is the Christ makes God out to be a liar, because God has testified that eternal life is given only through His Son. Without Jesus you do not have life (vs.10-12).

John repeats his slogan: all this is written that your faith––and assurance of eternal life––may be strengthened (v13). The practical cash-out of this assurance is that we can pray like Calvinists (vs. 14-15). Prayerful intercession for a brother in sin isn’t a hopeless cause; however, a warning is here: rejecting Jesus as the Christ is a sin that most certainly ends in eternal death (v16). Unrighteousness is sin, but Christ is our promise of cleansing (cf. 1 Jn. 1:9), our assurance of eternal life, & our salvation from the wicked one (vs.17-18). The world’s humanistic doctrine ensures it remains in league with the wicked One & his wickedness. Only through the light of Christ can we behold the truth of our union with the true God, the source of eternal life (vs. 19-20). All other saviors are idols. So John adjures his little children to forsake idolatry’s many forms (v.21).

Water & Blood

John is rebutting the rising heresy of Cerinthus: the eternal Christ merely came upon Jesus at His baptism, and left him at the cross. If Cerinthus was right, the water & blood from Jesus’ side meant the man had died, but his death was pointless & retained no promise of resurrection or eternal life.

The Jews knew that covering for sin & entrance into God’s presence were only through the ceremonial washings & bloody offerings of Moses’ Law. John sees in Jesus the fulfillment of the Law’s ceremonies & offerings. John is the only Gospel writer who recorded how after a soldier pierced Jesus’ side, blood & water came pouring out (Jn. 19:34). John pauses to add this commentary:

He that saw it [John] bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced (Jn.19:35-37).

This episode was a big deal for John. It not only showed that Jesus was a real man who had really died. It also revealed that His death was pregnant with redemptive meaning. The questions which the OT raised were answered by Jesus’ death. He was the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:46). He was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s cryptic prophecy (Zec. 12:10).

The Jews quibbled & puzzled over what in tarnation Zechariah could have meant. Surely he didn’t mean God was pierced by the sins of His people. How could you even pierce God? John’s eye-witness account of Jesus being pierced by the spear, cinches up this question. Contrary to Cerinthus, it wasn’t a phantom on the cross. It was a man who was also God. He was the final sacrifice for sins. All who look upon Him find salvation & life. John bore record that you (the reader) might believe; and then bear record yourself.

Living Like a Martyr

We think of a martyr as someone who dies for the faith, but that only describes what happens to a martyr. It doesn’t tell us what a martyr is & does. A witness (martys) declares what it is they have witnessed (martyreō)––that is their testimony (martyria); a martyr testifies regardless of personal consequences. John is bearing witness to the fact that “the life was manifested (1 Jn. 1:2).” But John makes it plain that his testimony is second fiddle to the witness of the triune God. In believing upon Jesus for salvation & eternal life, it is not man’s witness, but the witness of God which we believe (1 Jn. 5:9-10).

John calls Jesus Christ “the faithful witness/martys (Rev. 1:5).” Jesus washes us from our sins in his own blood, He makes us kings and priests unto God & his Father (cf. Rev. 1:5-6). Those who trust in Him are joined with Him, made new, & are made witnesses of the miraculous power of His life, death, resurrection, & ascension to all dominion. Christians live like living martyrs. We declare the power of the Gospel. No matter the cost. John is joined by Paul in making this clear: our testimony doesn’t come from us, nor is it about us. “You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (2 Cor. 3:3).” Our witness is carved on our heart by the Spirit.

The Victory Lap

The Word was made flesh (Jn. 1:2) that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8). But since we fight a sore loser, we’re told that we’ve “already overcome, in order that [we] may fight more courageously & more strenuously (Calvin).”

As John concludes this letter of assurance, he takes us on a victory lap of what Jesus—the Word made flesh, the true Christ, Whom the Father sent to be our Savior, Propitiation & eternal Life—has done for you. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh (nikaō) the world: and this is the victory (nike) that overcometh (nikaō) the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh (nikaō) the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God (1 Jn. 5:4-5)?”

[epq-quote align=”align-left”]Your union with God is not dependent on your ability to solve the problem. Your salvation from sin & hope of obtaining eternal life are found in a man who was God in the Flesh.[/epq-quote]John doesn’t hand us the chalk, fold his arms, & watch to see if we can solve the theological calculus problem on the board. Your union with God is not dependent on your ability to solve the problem. Your salvation from sin & hope of obtaining eternal life are found in a man who was God in the Flesh. Your salvation is in Christ, who was the eternal Word, the life, the propitiation, the life, the Spirit Who indwells you, the Father Who secures you.

What does it mean to be born again or born of God? It means you believe that Jesus is the Christ. How can I be sure? Because God Almighty––Father, Son, Spirit––says so. What about the penalty of my sin? It is covered. What about when I die? You are given eternal life. What if I sin again after believing in Jesus? Look to Jesus, only, ever, always. Are you sure about all this? John’s answer, “Oh, yeah!”

The Shapeshifting Fear of Man

The Shapeshifting Fear of Man

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Fear of man is a shapeshifter. It may take the form of braggadocios cockiness; the sort of guy that–– while walking down the street––flexes in the shop windows to admire the ripple of his own muscles. It may take the form of a dietary regimen disguised as “health-consciousness,” but in reality is a lust-filled pursuit of a beauty standard derived from air-brushed Instagram models. It may take the form of talking too much, and it may take the form of talking to little. It may speak up when it should shut up, and keep quiet when it should speak up. It may sit when it should stand, and stand when it should sit. It may look like confidence or it may look like insecurity. It may seem like timidity or like bombast. In some people the fear of man turns them into a quaking leaf, in others it turns them into a raging bull.

But the Word rebukes pride in all its forms. The promise is that pride will fall. Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall (Pr. 16:18). Here’s why pride––in all its guises––always falls: it is raw unbelief.

Pride thinks self is sufficient for righteousness and salvation. It thinks it can be good enough. Conversely, if it takes the façade of self-loathing, it talks itself into believing that it hates itself more than God hates its sin; and thus, it thinks it can punish the sinner more effectively and with fiercer wrath that the Holy Judge of the universe. Pride appropriates to man what only God is capable of. You will never loathe your sin as much as God. You will never be as good as God’s law requires. You will never deliver yourself. Pride will always fall.

Which is why the fear of God is the antidote to the unbelieving pride of the fear of man. It opens our eyes to the sheer glory of God’s holiness, the ugliness of our sin, and the preciousness of the Gospel. The glorious Gospel delivers us from all our sin––in all its insidious faces––and clothes us with righteousness of Christ, so that God looks on us and sees the face of Jesus.

Book Review: “Feelings and Faith” by Brian Borgman

Book Review: “Feelings and Faith” by Brian Borgman

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Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian LifeFeelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life by Brian S. Borgman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Borgman lays out in the first part a basis for understanding the rightful place and perspective for our emotions. He looks at God’s character, and although God doesn’t have passions (as Westminster Confession puts it), the Bible is full of language demonstrating that God is a feeling God. Not that He is dependent on them, or controlled by them in any way. Rather, our fallen natures, and the fallen emotions we thus experience, “answer” to a similar thing in God. Borgman does a really great job with such a delicate topic of God and emotions. 

Part two shows how we are to not merely intellectualize our faith, and be cool and stiff in regards to truth. He shows how emotions are a part of the scope of our sanctification. 

Part three deals with how we ought to mortify unbiblical emotions. 

Part four is on how to cultivate godly emotions.

All in all, very helpful. Part One in particular was very good, insightful, soul-stirring. The other sections have many helpful insights for understanding where our feelings fit within our faith. Borgman gets it right, on the whole. 

View my other reviews

“Which” not “Whether”

“Which” not “Whether”

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I have asserted before, and will certainly do so again, that faith is not a question of “whether” but of “which”. It isn’t “will I have faith?”, but rather, “where will I place my faith?” In Eden, Adam & Eve were under the command of God (Gen. 2:15-17), and at least for some time functioned in obedience to Him.

Then came the serpent, deceived Eve into eating the fruit, who then gave it to Adam. At the heart of this temptation was that by eating it they would be as gods (Gen. 3:5), and thus their rebellion from God’s authority was largely a departure of faith in God to faith in self.

One of the effects of the fall most clearly delineated in Scripture is that man, in rebellion to God, insists on trusting his own good works to merit Salvation; after the fall, it didn’t take long before we were found scrounging for fig leaves to cover us. We see the story of mankind is one of continually placing his faith anywhere other than Christ in God.

The examples of this are manifold; but I want to zero in on a particular breed of unbelief in God. All other objects of faith are by definition an act of unbelief in God. As Christians, we are often tempted to trust in our track record of “good behavior” as the barometer for our spiritual health. This usually breeds a trepidation in the soul as to whether one is in “right standing” with God. We think that because we’ve gone a “while” without cussing, without lusting, without jealousy, without pride, without envy we are especially in God’s favor.

What this really is, is a faith in our performance and merit. It is a misdirected faith. Is God pleased by our good works? Or is He pleased in His Son, who is working in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Phi. 2:13)? Our faith must never be rested upon our good or bad behavior. Otherwise, if your doing “well” (by your standard, I’ll point out) you will soon be vain-glorious, arrogant, prideful. If–or when–you fail, you will certainly fall into doubt, insecurity, ungodly fear, and a toxic, timorous introspection.

As believers in the Lord Jesus, we must recognize that our justification is by faith alone, and so is our sanctification. In the process of sanctification, we often forget the very basic truth of our justification (by faith alone), and pin our confidence before God on our measurement of how far along we’ve been sanctified. From top to bottom, Salvation is a work of God; unbelief only gums up the work.

Fight against the pull to hope that your performance can ever win you “cred” with the Almighty; this is simply a cover for self-love, self-worship, self-glory. You don’t actually care about His glory because you’d prefer to rest your faith in the mighty fine track record you’ve got going. The saint’s faith is in Christ (yes, we need to be often reminded of this); and because of this, the result is that the saint desires the glory of God. This means that self will be humbled and abased, self-righteousness is something to be repented of and not boasted of, and the aim will be: “that God will be glorified”.

In the first instance the faith is in self’s merit, in the second case, it is in the only One worthy of faith; again it isn’t “whether” we will trust in a god, but “which” god will we trust? It’s either man-worship or the One True God-worship. One is damnation; the other, Salvation.

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Headlong Into Worse Sin

Headlong Into Worse Sin

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The Text

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (1 Samuel 8:4-7)

Samuel’s Ministry

Samuel began his ministry with a denunciation of the sinfulness of the sons of the High Priest, Eli. Amongst the many transgressions of these wicked sons, perhaps the most poignant one was bringing the ark of covenant into battle with the Philistines (1 Sam. 4-6). Essentially, they wanted to pretend at piety, but their prior lifestyle showed them to be apostates of the worst kind.

Skipping forward, Samuel’s position as the highest leader of Israel is capped off in 1 Samuel 7 when it tells us of another battle with the Philistines: “And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel (1Sa 7:10).” This is followed by the intimation that Samuel’s sons were exhibiting corrupt behavior; and the people of Israel, not wanting a repeat of the defeat brought about by the wickedness of the sons of Eli, insist on having a visible King lead them in battle.

God the Warrior

Here’s the important thing to remember. From the conquering of Canaan under Joshua & Caleb, to the deliverances recorded in Judges, down to the account of this victory over the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7, God is presented as fighting for His people. Despite their idolatry, God would always raise up a deliverer; but it was God who was viewed as the Warrior on behalf of His people (Deu. 1:30, 3:22, Ex. 14:14).

It strikes me that part of the Israelites desire for a king was in one sense a reaction to the immediate failures of Eli’s wicked sons, and the prospect of a seemingly similar failure on the part of Samuel’s sons. Either way, their response was not to turn to God in faith, entrusting themselves to His care. Rather, we are told–from the Lord Himself–that this act was an act of rejecting His reign (1 Sam. 8:7).

The Narrow Way

In an attempt to avoid a known evil (corrupt leaders, i.e. Eli’s sons & Samuel’s sons), they chose the unspeakably worse evil of rejecting God’s reign over them, choosing rather to place themselves entirely in the hands of fallen men. So, do not flee in fear from one temptation into the arms of another one; the most secure path is the narrow way of holiness and faith in Christ alone.

Ben Zornes