Justifying Ourselves

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most popular and well known parables of the Bible. It is so well known that the phrase “good Samaritan” has worked itself into our culture to describe anyone who goes out of their way to help a stranger in need. As well known as that parable is, what sometimes goes unnoticed is the motivation behind Jesus’ telling of the parable.

The narrative account — found in Luke 10:25-37 — begins with a lawyer coming up to Jesus and asking him what he must do to inherit eternal life. There are several things to note right off the bat. First, this man is a lawyer. The concept of a lawyer back then in first century Palestine is much different than the concept of a lawyer here and now. A lawyer in Jesus’ time was someone who was an expert in Jewish law — more of a scholar than a lawyer in the modern understanding.

Secondly, this lawyer was putting Jesus to the test (v. 25). In other words, as an expert in Jewish law, he wanted to see how Jesus would answer his question; whether or not he would give the orthodox reply. This highlights the tension that existed between Jesus and the religious authorities. Oftentimes when Jesus taught, the crowd was astounded at the authority with which he taught. It was said that Jesus taught unlike the Pharisees; he spoke with his own authority. It is clear that this lawyer’s motives in asking this question were not honest. He wasn’t truly seeking an answer to the question. Rather he wished to discredit Jesus and expose him as a false teacher.   Continue at Carl Gobelman

What is the Basis for God’s Eternal Decree?

After what seems like an eternity, we are returning to a mini-series in our overall series on Reformed Theology on the topic of the eternal decree of God. In our last post on this subject, we answered the question “What is God’s eternal decree?” The eternal decree of God is that by which God ordained everything that comes to pass — all past, present and future events are all part of God’s eternal decree, and they are unchangeably so.

In this post, we will be concerned with the question: What is the basis for God’s eternal decree? In other words, what grounds the eternal decree of God? This is an important question because when we say that God’s eternal decree covers every event — past , present and future — people begin trotting out the “F” word (“Fatalism“). That’s why some in the history of Christian doctrine developed a foreknowledge view of God’s knowledge of future events. God knows future events because, in his foreknowledge, he peers down the halls of time and sees the future. This is very different than saying that God foreordains future events, and the difference leads to radically different applications in Christian life and practice.

Here are two major problems I see with the foreknowledge view of God’s knowledge of future events:

1. It renders God as a passive observer of future events rather than as the One who sovereignly ordains their coming to pass
2. It depicts God as taking in knowledge rather than already possessing an exhaustive and complete knowledge of all things - Continue at Carl Gobelman

How Should We Understand the “Lion and the Lamb” Passage?

Question: How should we understand the “Lion and the Lamb” passage?

Answer: The “Lion and the Lamb” passage in reference here is from Revelation 5:5-6, which reads:

“And one of the elders said to me, ‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”

The context of this passage is the heavenly throne room (Revelation 4-5). After receiving the command to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor, John is “caught up in the spirit” to the throne room in heaven where he is to receive a series of visions that culminate in the ultimate victory of Christ at the end of the age. Revelation 4 shows us the endless praise that God receives from the angels and the 24 elders. Chapter 5 begins with John noticing that there is a scroll in the “right hand of him who was seated on the throne.” The scroll has writing on the inside and is sealed with seven seals.

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