Baptism for the Dead

Many interpreters generally regard 1 Cor 15:29 as one of the most difficult verses in the New Testament.  It was certainly not difficult for the Corinthians, but two millennia later, it is difficult for modern Christians.  In fact it was a source of discussion even for the Greek Fathers.  There are over 40 different interpretations of the verse.  Each one usually finds a way to redefine one of three words: Baptism, For, or the Dead.  However, one of the pitfalls when approaching such a verse is to miss to forest for the trees.  The details of the verse are quite difficult since it seems to teach baptism on behalf of those who have died, but the meaning of the verse in the argument should not be missed.

Paul is clearly saying that there is something about the baptism that the Corinthians were practicing that demands a recognition of a future physical resurrection of all believers.  This is a wonderful truth we should never overlook.  As a pastor, when I visit someone who has lost a loved one, I have the opportunity to encourage them with this truth of a future resurrection.  As a Christian, this truth is a motivation for my Christian walk.  This life is fleeting, but there is a time in eternity that I will be free from sin and death.  What a wonderfully motivating truth.

Christian Love

I have been meditating on Christian love as I work my way through the book of 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul confronts the spiritual pride of the Corinthians by calling them to a Christian ethic of love. He reminds them that all of their ministry should be motivated by love. The King James Version uses the word charity throughout 1 Corinthians 13, probably because the translators were following the example of the Vulgate which used the Latin word caritas. My best guess is that Jerome avoided the more common word for love, amor, because he did not want its romantic conotations. However, we have a similar problem in English. The word love as used in modern English has a very broad range of meaning. We say, “I love pecan pie.” Or we breathlessly say, “I love you,” to a person with whom we are infatuated. We also use the word love to communicate niceness. When a person is nice we think they are loving. In each case we are using the English word love correctly, but we do not mean 1 Corinthians 13 self-sacrificing love. We may mean lust, or infatuation, or sentimentality, but we do not mean biblical love.

Thankfully, the Lord defines love for us in 1 Cor 13. The descriptions are full of verbs; love is active. It is never merely a sentiment or emotion, although it never lacks heart-felt emotion. The other clear characteristic is that love is self-sacrificing; it acts for the good of others. Paul describes love in a way that targets the selfishness of the Corinthians. The Corinthians were puffed up, tolerating sin, and behaving selfishly. Paul under inspiration tells the Corinthians that their wisdom and gifts have no eternal value if they lack love. We must remember this. Ministry toward others is never about our gifts, but about the good of others for the glory of God. Although 1 Corinthians 13 sets the bar higher than we can reach in our fallen state, it is nonetheless God’s standard for us and the biblical pattern for ministering to people.

The Nature of Our Fallen World

I am beginning a series of Sermons on Ecclesiastes.  As I was studying for the first sermon in the series the message of the book reverberated within me.  There is no doubt that Ecclesiastes is a difficult book to interpret.  However, just like any other passage of Scripture we must interpret Scripture with Scripture.  The ultimate context of Ecclesiastes is the whole Bible, but especially Genesis.  It is in the context of the fall of humanity into sin and the resulting curse that Qoheleth (the author of Ecclesiastes, Solomon) examines life under the sun.

In this fallen world life is a confusing riddle (Heb. hebel, KJV “vanity”).  Apart from eternity and a recognition that we must fear God and keep his commandements, life in this fallen world is a frustrating riddle.  In the first paragraph Qoheleth notices that nature follows its cycles, yet humanity comes and goes without making any real lasting change on this fallen world.  Ultimately, apart from eternity our lives have no permanent impact.  Generations come and go, but the cycles of nature go on.  We invent and contrive, yet there is nothing new under the sun.

Ultimately, Ecclesiastes calls us to enjoy the life God has given to us here.  Not because it is meaningless, but because that is God’s desire for us.  Living for good things in and of themselves will only lead to frustration, but enjoying good as from God’s hand is exactly God’s plan.

How Much Does God Think About Me?

Recently as I was meditating on Psalm 139, I was startled by verses 17 and 18. As a study in Theology Psalm 139 is rich in content about God’s infinite presence and infinite knowledge. However, we can sometimes allow Theology to become a sterile study that has no personal meaning. This is not how the Bible presents Theology; truth about God is the Scripture is always set in a historical and literary context that is full of personal implications. David clearly views God’s knowledge of him as more than an infinite amount of facts about him. David affirms that God not only knew about him, but that God thought about him in a loving way. In fact David says God’s thoughts toward him were numberless like sand on the shore.  God took notice of David, not once or twice, but in numberless incidences.

This is really awe inspiring.  Clearly God thinks about his children far more than they think about him.  We can often think that God is so busy with the details of the Universe that he never takes much notice of us unless we really need him.  However, that is not what Psalm 139 says.  God does take notice of us, more than we think of him.  This is exactly backwards.  God, who is the center of the Universe, pays more attention to humans on a small planet in an insignificant solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy, than those creatures pay to him.  God’s love is demonstrated not in our value or taking notice of him, but in his great care for us.

The Nature of Real Faith

Currently in America many people claim to be Christians, even Evangelicals. The problem is that the behavior of America is less and less Christian each day. People profess to believe in Christ and yet by their actions they denounce him. It is not just Hollywood and Television that have declined in the last several decades; the basic behavior of Christians has declined. While thinking about this trend, I recently rediscovered a quote by Jonathan Edwards that I found quite helpful. Edwards noted that many who claimed to be religious lacked a real sense of sin in their lives. In his work Religious Affections he said,

“All gracious affections are broken-hearted affections.“

Let me take a moment to explain how Edwards uses the various words in this quotation. The term affections refers to emotions, but not the base visceral responses cheaply conjured up or manipulated. Edwards primarily uses the word affections to refer to the profound emotions commanded in Scripture (Love, Hope, Compassion, etc.). By using the word, gracious, to describe the affections, Edwards is indicating those affections that are the result of saving grace in the life of a Christian. In other words those affections toward God that come not from human will, but from the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Edwards maintained that real love for God, real hope in God, real joy in God is rooted in broken-heartedness. In other words, only an understanding of a our real sinful standing gives us the true deep love, joy, and hope commanded in Scripture. Any emotion that a person claims to have toward God, if it is not rooted in a profound remembrance of sinfulness, is not truly a work of God’s grace, but a counterfeit. It is possible–and quite common in our media culture–to arouse cheap emotions that are not rooted in God’s grace or genuine faith, but are simply sentimental. They are the equivalent of a Hollywood tear-jerker. They may move people, but they are not the kind of emotions God is pleased by. It is not because they are too emotional. It is because they are not emotional enough, they are counterfeit.

Thanksgiving for the Scriptures

I have been teaching our church a series on How We Got Our Bible.  The story of how the Bible came from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek originals to modern languages is a study in the providence of God.  The wealth of material that testifies to the Bible exceeds any other ancient document by thousands.  The ancient witness of manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls or the New Testament Papyri destroy any conspiracy theories about the Bible being changed.  The Dead Sea Scrolls for example predate the New Testament in some cases and predate the next oldest Hebrew manuscripts by almost one thousand years.  Yet, the earlier manuscripts are essentially the same as the later manuscripts.  There is absolutely no evidence or even chronological opportunity for tampering to take place.

As we consider the Bible in English we can be thankful for the great price that was paid to insure we would have the Bible in our own language.  Wycliffe, the first man to translate the entire Bible into English (actually with a lot of help from assistants), was persecuted for his translation work.  After his death his bones were burned at the stake and his ashes were scattered.  He was considered excommunicated by the Roman Church.  I have always found this humorous; as if an angel tapped him on the shoulder in heaven (he was originally buried in “holy ground”) and informed him that he was allowed into heaven by mistake.  Later men like Tyndale and John Rogers translated the Bible into Modern English.  Both men eventually paid with their lives for their work on the Bible.  Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake.  John Rogers was executed by Mary Tudor during her attempt to return England to Roman Catholicism.  Men in the past paid with their blood to give us a Bible in our own language.  By God’s providence, these sacrifices were paid great dividends.  Today, most American homes contain a Bible.  Many Christians own several copies of the Bible, often with choices of various translations.  During this Thanksgiving time we can give thanks to God for many things, but the Bible should be near the top of our list.

The Purity of the Church

As I have been preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians I have realized how much emphasis Paul places on the purity of the church. 1 Corinthians is simultaneously a very difficult book for us today and a very need message for American Christians. Those two things are probably linked. Its needfulness is probably what makes it difficult for us.

I noted in an earlier post that Paul warned the Corinthians that if they destroyed the church, God would destroy them. Paul repeats his emphasis and concern for their church in 1 Corinthians 5. He has moved away from the factionalism of the earlier chapters and now moves on to a very touchy subject. One of the men in the church was involved in immorality. In fact, he was involved in a kind of immorality that even the “sexually liberated” pagans of his day would blush at. Paul encourages the church to remove the man from their midst and to place him in Satan’s domain (“deliver to Satan”) that the man’s soul might eventually be saved. This seems like a radical and arrogant action for pluralistic Americans today. Many pastors tell me that when they practice church discipline today, they have members leave the church because they were offended at the action of church discipline. This shows how far we have moved from the New Testament concern for a pure church and testimony to a nacissistic American Christianity that cares more for the feelings of individuals than the precepts of God. Of course we must balance the concept of church discipline with the intended result Paul names–the ultimate repentance of the person. In fact if church discipline is done correctly and with proper motives, nothing is more loving. This sounds crazy today, but it is neither crazy nor mean-spirited. It is biblical.

If You Live Like Each Day Is Your Last, One Day You’ll Be Right

I remember hearing a quotation recently that said, “If you live like each day is your last, one day you’ll most certainly be right.” That is a sort of humorous way to emphasize an important concept. We do not know when the Lord will return, or when we will die, but we must live each day prepared for eternity. James 4:14 says, ” Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” None of us can be confident of tomorrow. Instead James reminds us that we should make plans in light of God.

I have recently been reading a book by Pastor Matthew Recker. I was recently in New York with our Calvary Baptist Church youth group and he gave me a copy of his new book, Living on the Edge of Eternity. I have not yet completed the book, but I have enjoyed the first half of it. It is not intended to be a scholarly exposition of the life of Elijah, but it is well-researched and grounded in good exposition. It is a devotional examination of the last day of Elijah’s life. The emphasis of the book, like the quote I mentioned above, is that we should live each day in light of eternity. Elijah lived his last day knowing God would take him and he would turn his prophetic ministry over to Elisha. In the same way we should live our lives each day realizing we are not guaranteed another. We must make each day count for eternity. I recently heard an unsaved man say that when he spends too many days living as if they were not his last day, he reassess his life and makes the necessary changes to his behavior. If an unbeliever with no confidence in eternity lives that way (obviously his values are different), shouldn’t we Christians live in light of eternity?

God’s Church

I occasionally read out of Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening along with my normal time of Bible reading. My copy is a little leather-bound edition that sits on my shelf next to my computer. I picked it up at the Metropolitan Tabernacle bookstore in 2003 as a keepsake of my visit. However, God has used Spurgeon’s words in that little book in my devotional life, despite my earlier intentions for the little volume. The entry for May 5th speaks of God’s people from the text of 2 Corinthians 6:16. Spurgeon emphasizes the uniqueness of being a part of the people of God. He states, “Canst thou read thy title writ in precious blood? . . . If thou canst, then God saith of thee, and of others like thee, ‘My people’; for if God be your God, and Christ your Christ, the Lord has a special, peculiar favour to you; you are the object of his choice, accepted in His beloved Son.” I hope we all find this a humbling truth to meditate upon. Due to no merit of our own, we are the people of God and have a “peculiar favour” from God.

This truth complements the passage I have been studying for this coming Lord’s Day sermon. Paul emphasizes, in 1 Corinthians 3:10–17, that the Corinthian church (“you” is plural) is the temple and building of God. Oftentimes preachers miss the plural “you” and take this passage as a declaration of individuals as the temple of the Spirit, a truth taught elsewhere in Corinthians. However, the local church at Corinth is the focus of Paul’s statements. The statement is very strong in regard to God’s concern for his church. Paul says, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Cor 3:17). This is a sobering statement. Destruction from God comes on those who destroy local churches. If more Christians understood this they would be much more careful about pushing their personal agendas and fighting over petty issues in their local church. How many churches have been damaged by the selfish and sinful choices of those who decide to split the church in order to get their own way, or because they did not get their own way. On the other hand, this also applies to those who teach false-doctrine and destroy the local church through winning disciples to their unbiblical teachings. We must always remember that the cause of Christ in his local churches is bigger than us. It is not about our agendas, but about Christ’s mission.

Hostile Criticism

I was recently reading C. J. Mahaney’s book, Humility: True Greatness. I found one section in particular very helpful. Mahaney encourages his readers to invite and pursue correction to deal with sin and build humility. Near the end of the chapter Mahaney states, “And don’t be put off when a friends observation may not be 100 percent accurate. I’ve found that there’s truth to be gleaned at times even from an enemy’s critique. Humility doesn’t demand mathematical precision from another’s input. humility postures itself to receive God’s grace from any avenue possible” (Humility, p. 134).

I find this is a very difficult application. My first response to criticism is to be defensive. That is especially true when the criticism comes from someone who is not interested in helping me, but who is out to get me. When an opponent criticizes me, he usually goes after a real weakness. However painful this may be, it is really God’s grace at work. If I can respond humbly to this criticism, I can learn from it. It is pride that turns it from a positive to a negative. When it is all about me, it is an attack on me. However when I realize it is about Christ and not me, I can let it have the impact in my life Christ wants it to have. It will humble me, but it will also make me more like Christ. Ultimately those two things, humility and Christlikeness, cannot be separated, for humility is an indespensible element of Christlikeness (Phil 2:5–11).