P2 Getting Beyond The Christian Life’s Beginning.

Introduction:

Last time I began a short series that will cover the richness of beginnings of the Christian life here Growing Christian Resources: The Richness Of The Christian Life's Beginning. My goal in this series is to help readers to get a grasp of what not only takes place at salvation, but also what the Christian life actually is. Salvation isn’t only about the beginning (everything I just wrote about in the last post). Salvation is meant to be an ongoing experience of the Christian living and growing in Jesus Christ. The diagram below will illustrate what I am talking about here.

 

Getting beyond the Christian life’s beginning.

In 1971 Francis Schaeffer wrote a classic book on Christian living entitled “True Spirituality”. I was reminded of something he said near the beginning of that work that is relevant to today's post:

“We must also realize that while the new birth is necessary as the beginning, it is only the beginning. We must not think that because we have accepted Christ as Savior and therefore are Christians, this is all there is in the Christian life.”

Shaeffer continues later: 

“In one way, the new birth is the most important thing in our spiritual lives, because we are not Christians until we have come this way. In another way, however, after one has become a Christian, it must be minimized, and that we should not always have our minds only on our new birth. The important thing after being born spiritually is to live. There is a new birth, and then there is the Christian life to be lived. This is the area of sanctification from the time of the new birth, through this present life until Jesus comes or until we die.”

The Apostle Peter is one of my favorite authors in the New Testament. The reason I gravitate toward Peter is because we have the most detailed record of one Christian's life from the time He was born again in faith in Jesus Christ up until the near-end point right before his execution in 66 A.D. Peter wrote his first letter (1 Peter) under the Divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit sometime after 62 A.D. Peter helps us  to grasp this wondrous (and too often) neglected truth of sanctification. 

If we were to boil down the whole book of 1 Peter, it would be 1 Peter 5:12b “I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!” That verb translated “stand firm” conveys the idea of having started something and remaining in it to this day. As I said in the last post, Sanctification speaks of the Christian life lived from its beginnings in regeneration until the believer’s homegoing at death or the rapture of the church.  

Another Apostle, Paul, emphasizes this doctrine of sanctification in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10. Notice how often he mentions the word "sanctification" in the text:

 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

As Paul stresses the importance of Christian sanctification, so does the Apostle Peter. In the next post, we will look more at what Peter says as he has us look at sanctification as it was planned by God in eternity. 

The Richness Of The Christian Life's Beginning

Introduction:

    I thought I'd do a little series of posts that walk the reader through the Christian life from its beginning, middle, and ongoing persistence into eternity from this world. Currently, I am preparing to preach a series of messages at our church's Sunday night service on the doctrine of Christian sanctification. In that series I define sanctification as follows: Sanctification speaks of the Christian life lived from its beginnings in regeneration until the believer’s homegoing at death or the rapture of the church. It has been my intent for quite some time to dig deeper into this Biblical truth, since sanctification is what the Christian life is all about! With that said, today's post and the next couple will detail how the Christian life starts. In today's post we will first look at what I am calling "the richness of the beginning of the Christian life".  

The richness of the Christian life’s beginning.

     I first want to depict in a diagram below a visual representation of what will follow in today's post.

 

     

This diagram summarizes most of what takes place when the Holy Spirit calls a sinner to be born again in saving faith. We could say this is "ground zero" for the beginnings of the Christian life! What follows is an exposition of what all occurs in a moment of time in the soul of the sinner as he or she is called by the Holy Spirit to saving faith.

A. Miracle call to salvation.

This “general call” of the Gospel is commanded to all people everywhere to “believe, repent, and follow Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (see Matthew 11:28; 22:9-10;  Luke 14:16-24; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:13; 2 Corinthians 5:16-20; 6:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:4 and many others). Within that “general” or “external call” is the working of the Holy Spirit to affect specific hearts of specific sinners internally to open their otherwise closed hearts and minds. This work of the Holy Spirit, the “internal call” is brought to our attention by Jesus in John 6:37-44 (especially verse 44) and by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27 as well as many other Scriptures (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Matthew 11:15; 13:9,43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8; 14:35; Acts 2:37; 26:18; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 3:1-6; Revelation 22:17 and several others). That’s the miracle call of salvation.

B. Marvelous consequence that is salvation.

When the Holy Spirit affects a sinner with conviction of sin and opening of the heart and mind, such a work is called “the new birth” (John 3:3,5; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:4-5), regeneration (Titus 3:5), and a new creative work of God (2 Corinthians 5:17) just to mention a few descriptions. Consequently, what follows from the New Birth (or what we could say is near-simultaneous with it) is saving faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) and repentance (Acts 2:37-38; 2 Timothy 2:24-25). Once the individual exercises those God-given gifts of faith and repentance, they undergo conversion.

C. Majestic graces for our salvation.

What follows immediately upon one’s faith and repentance are three enormous bestowals of Christian identity. There is union with Christ, spoken of by Paul in over forty places in the New Testament alone (Galatians 2:20 a chief example) and explained by Jesus in John 15. In addition to union with Christ, the born-again Christian is credited with Christ’s righteousness, known also as “justification by faith” (Romans 3:25-26; Galatians 3:16). The third grace bestowed, and perhaps the crowned-jewel, is that of adoption, making God our Father and Christ our elder-brother according to the flesh (see Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:4-6).  Everything I just wrote in these last three paragraphs give detail to the above diagram. Truly the beginning of salvation is a wondrous work of God!

More next time.....

Why did Jesus use the words “the new covenant in my blood” at the Lord's Table?

Introduction:

    Why did Jesus state in His institution of the Lord's Table in Luke 22:20-22 that the cup represented "the new covenant" of His blood? This post will set out to answer that question. Let's first look at the text itself. Luke 22:20-22 “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” 

    So, again we ask: why did Jesus describe the cup of the Lord’s Supper as “the new covenant in my blood”? To guide us in our thinking, I'll have us keep in mind what a covenant is first of all. Then, we will briefly tour what the Bible teaches about covenants, as well as noting the Biblical terminology of “Old Covenant” and “New Covenant”. We will then conclude our observations with how these words from Jesus actually shape Christian identity, and why it is spiritually beneficial for believers in the local church to partake of the Lord's Supper. 

Defining a covenant.

    A covenant is a binding agreement made between two parties, or one party fulfilling the agreement and bestowing its benefits on another. Included in covenants are oaths, promises, sanctions in the event one party breaks the covenant, and a sign or symbol reminding the participants of the covenant (compare Hebrews 6:18-20). Covenants are throughout the Bible.

God never relates apart from covenant.

    Whether God’s relationship with creation (Jeremiah 33:20), Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:16-17; Hosea 6:7), or even with the original couple following their disobedience in the garden (Genesis 3:20-21), God has never done nothing in our world apart from covenant. When God had ordained Abraham and his descendants to be His chosen people, He ratified that choice by covenant (Genesis 12:1-7). 

    

    The sign of the Abrahamic Covenant was circumcision to remind him and his descendants of their need to be born again or to have a heart change by faith (Genesis 17; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Romans 2:29). This Covenant with Abraham was God’s promise of a nation (Israel) and ultimate descendant (Jesus). Also, God’s later covenant with David was that of an ultimate descendant (Jesus) in 2 Samuel 7:13-16. Both covenants forecasted what would be the New Covenant (see Genesis 17:6; 2 Samuel 7:13-16; Jeremiah 31:23-26; Galatians 3:16). Once Abraham’s descendants, through his grandson Jacob, made their way down to Egypt, they became enslaved by the Egyptians for over 400 years. God called Moses to deliver them and to bring them to Mount Sinai.

C. The Old Covenant.

     In Exodus 20, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Hebrew people, would become a nation, Israel at Mount Sinai. To administrate or provide a context for God and the people to relate, God instituted a temporary arrangement, a covenant, which the books of Hebrews and Galatians called “the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:1,18); God’s covenant through Moses (Hebrews 9:19); and “The Law” (Galatians 3:15-16).

    God ratified this particular covenant by the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:18-19), through Divinely administered signs or symbols (sacrificial system, commandments, circumcision, various Jewish festivals), and by the giving of Divinely revealed books (Luke 24:44).

    Although this “first covenant” had all these components, it was not meant to bring salvation, but to point the people to their need for heart changed by grace through faith in God’s promise of salvation. God used it as a temporary prototype to guide the people as He revealed His promises and salvation by grace through faith by way of the Abrahamic and eventually New Covenants (Galatians 3:23-25).

    Israel and the Jews under the Old Covenant were redeemed as we are today – by a changed heart, faith, and repentance (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; John 3:3-5; Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1-3; Isaiah 30:15; Acts 2:37).

    To illustrate. The Old Covenant was like a set of training wheels on a child’s bike (this borrows in principle from Paul’s illustration of a tutor in Galatians 3:23-25). The child has to trust their parents as they learn to ride the bike as they ride with the wheels. The time comes though when the parent takes the wheels off. The child is told to still trust the parent as they learn to ride the bike without the wheels.

    The principles of trust (faith) are the same in each situation, even though the way the parent administrated their time with the child is different (with training wheels, without them). When Jesus came, the promised New Covenant was inaugurated, meaning the ceremonial aspects of that first covenant were rendered obsolete or “old” (hence “the Old Covenant, Old Testament” Hebrews 8:18). 

    Nonetheless, the principle of a changed heart, made even more robust in the New Covenant by the Spirit’s work of the New Birth or regeneration, is identical whether Old Covenant or now New Covenant believers.

The New Covenant.

      The prophets Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:25-27), as well as other prophets, foretold what would be a future second covenant, a “New Covenant”, wherein God would bring salvation and heart change to sinners from the nations (called Gentiles) and restore Israel as a nation upon the return of Messiah to earth (see Isaiah 11; Jeremiah 23; 31-33; Ezekiel 11; 36-27 and many others). They predicted the Holy Spirit Himself, being God, would dwell in the hearts of His people – Jew and Gentile.

Why did Jesus call the Lord's Supper a covenant meal?

    

    We've looked at the meaning of a covenant in the Bible. We've noted some examples of covenants, as well as defined and compared the Old and New Covenants. This leads us to the night our Lord instituted His covenant meal for His church and the homestretch of today's post. Four implications follow from Jesus' identification of the Lord's Supper as a covenant meal.

1. The Lord's Table indicated the New Covenant was inaugurated by Jesus. 

    When you read Jesus stating that “this cup is the blood of the New Covenant in my blood”, it was a sign that the predicted New Covenant was spiritually underway, with the Lord’s Table being one of the two premier signs (baptism being the other) administered to believers. We saw already that all covenants in the Bible always have some sort of symbols or signs to signify the promise of God, the believer's need to relate to God by faith, and His covenantal commitment to the believer. 

2. The New Covenant was to be ratified by Jesus' work on the cross.   

    As the Old Covenant was certified by blood being sprinkled on the people and the revelation of the Law of God (see Exodus 24:8), so too the New Covenant needed ratified by the shedding of Christ’s blood (Hebrews 9:27; 1 Peter 1:17-18; 3:18). Jesus was already associating this covenant meal with His then pending substitutionary atoning work on the cross with the bread and the cup. 

3. The Lord's Supper conveyed its association with God's Word and the revelation of the New Testament books. 

    Just as the revelation of 39 inspired books served God's people to expound and remind them of their covenantal relationship to Yahweh from Mount Sinai through the Kingdom years to their exiles to their return to Jerusalem at the end; God revealed 27 additional books to expound on the implications of the New Covenant work of Jesus Christ (see John 14:16-17). In other words, this is why we have 27 additional books to indicate Jesus’ getting the New Covenant spiritually in motion. The Lord's Supper is never separated from the preaching, teaching, and mediation on God's Word - the Bible. 

4. The Lord's Table as a covenant meal reminds the Christian of their spiritual identity in Jesus Christ. 

    

    Finally, when we participate in the Lord’s Supper as a covenant meal, we are expressing our identity with Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. born-again Christian enjoys unity due to their union with Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The Lord’s Supper conveys this truth of our union with Him as we already noted (see 1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Some 40 or so places in the New Testament we find reference to Christians being “in Christ” or “with Christ” as tell-tale signs of union with Him. Such union with Christ is captured in the ultimate sense of the great “marriage of the supper of the Lamb” feast spoken of yet-future when we’re with Christ in Revelation 19, all pointed ahead in the Lord’s Supper. 

    His Holy Spirit has written God’s Law in our hearts (Romans 2:29), and has brought about our New Birth in saving faith. Furthermore, we would even say that God’s promise to redeem Israel still holds as the final expression of the New Covenant (Romans 11:25). The covenant meal proclaims the central message of New Covenant Christianity in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”