Ascension Sunday

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Joshua

Daniel 7 and Revelation 5 both deal with the ascension of Jesus Christ to the Father.

First, some background. Daniel lived most of his life during the seventy year exile of the Jews following the fall of Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had destroyed the city and the temple and had carried off most of the Jews into exile, scattered throughout his empire. Daniel is given several visions concerning what will happen to the Jews from this point on. In chapter 7, he sees a vision of four beasts rising out of the sea. These are four empires rising out of the surrounding Gentile world: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Daniel sees the court assembled, the books opened, and the Ancient of Days judge the beasts and take away their dominion.

Then one “like a son of man,” who comes with the clouds of heaven, the glory cloud of the Spirit, is presented before the Father. To Him is given an everlasting kingdom that will not pass away and will not be destroyed. This certainly goes far beyond the merely Jewish-Davidic kingship. All peoples, nations, and tongues – the whole Gentile world – serve Him.

Revelation 5 fills this scene out a little. The court is assembled, but the book is not opened because there is nobody in heaven or earth who is able to open the seals. John begins to weep until he hears that the Lion of Judah, the King, has conquered and is able to open the book. This is what the Jews had been waiting for, a King to deliver them. But when John looks, he doesn’t see a Lion; he sees a Lamb standing as though it had been slain. This is Christ as High Priest, who has offered Himself up on behalf of His people. And just like the lambs under the sacrificial system, after He is slain, He ascends up into the presence of the Father.

Because He has done this, because He has conquered by giving Himself up, because He has ascended to the Father, He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  It is interesting to note the ESV translation of Daniel 7:27, “the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” Most other modern translations read “His kingdom” and “obey Him,” which is certainly right and true. But the ESV reading is fully supported and backed by the parallel passage in Revelation 5, “by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” We must turn our backs on the lie that tells us to sit tight and wait for our death to reign with our Lord. Christ has died and we have died with Him. He has risen and we have been raised with Him. Christ has ascended to His throne, and we are a nation of kings and priests now. We have been seated with Christ and we rule the world now.

This is what Jesus said to His disciples at His ascension, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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Yea, hath God said?

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Joshua

The serpent could say, from a certain point of view, that he didn’t really lie to the woman. They ate the fruit and did not immediately fall over and stop breathing. Their eyes were opened and God affirms that since they have eaten, they have “become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” The death, then, that God meant was not the death that usually comes to our mind, the “returning to the dust from which you came.” God meant a far worse death than the merely physical. We have a hard time understanding the gravity of this.

Man was cut off from the tree of life, driven out from the presence of God, cursed, and bound under sin. God gave the law, “you shall not eat,” knowing that sin would find an opportunity through the law to put man to death. Paul says that God “consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.” But rather than flee to that mercy, we hide ourselves in darkness or under the cover of the work of our own hands. As much as we bear the image of the man of dust, we are enemies of God – what foolishness! – and walk about dead in our trespasses and sin.

Of course, the resurrection is the undoing of this death. We eat from the tree of life which is Christ’s body. In Christ, we approach the throne of grace with confidence. In Christ, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. In Christ, we are set free from the bondage of sin. In the resurrection, we put on the imperishable, we put on immortality. The resurrection is the covering of our nakedness – it removes our shame and clothes us in glory.

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Creation and New Creation

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Joshua

Adam was created as the head of humanity. He was placed in the garden to work and keep it, that is, to serve and guard the sanctuary as a priest and to meet with God on the Sabbath day. He was blessed and given dominion and authority over all of creation. Adam’s transgression brought sin, condemnation, curse, and death to himself and all who were in him, all who were born in his likeness and under his headship.

But now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no condemnation because the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ. There is no condemnation because God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. He sent His Son in the flesh to condemn sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the Spirit.

Paul uses the term “flesh” to speak about a lot more than just the physical body. When he draws the distinction between those who walk according to the flesh and those who walk according to the Spirit, it is not so much a discussion of the body and soul of a man. Peter Leithart points out that “‘Flesh’ and ‘Spirit’ are two dominating principles for life, two ways of life, two ‘cultures’ we might say… ‘Flesh’ in Paul’s terminology is aligned and allied with Sin, Death, the Old Order, the Old Creation, Adam, the ‘elementary principles of the world.’  To live by the flesh is to continue living in that old world. On the other hand, to live in the Spirit is to live in righteousness, in the new creation, in the new Adam, in maturity. Each of these ‘regimes’ comes with a particular ‘mindset,’ a particular set of aims, beliefs, goals, plans, aspirations, desires. Those who are living in the flesh have their minds filled with certain ideas, but also aspire to certain kinds of accomplishments in life, have fleshly plans and goals and desires.  Dittos for those who have the mindset of the Spirit.”

These goals and desires are not just looking out to the end of all things, but have very much to do with how we carry on here and now. Christ is heir of all things and we are fellow heirs with Him.  All is ours because all is Christ’s and we are in Him. He taught in the sermon on the mount that we inherit the earth. The whole old creation under Adam was subjected to futility – to vanity or vaporousness, as Solomon says. But the new creation is in Christ and all things are being made new. As the sons of God, the true Israel, are revealed, the creation is freed from its bondage to corruption. We can see the heavenification of earth – just as He taught us to pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the great commission being fulfilled, the discipling and baptizing of the nations, the growing of the kingdom of God to fill the earth.

And we have been given assurance that this will certainly take place. “We can be confident that our groanings, and the groanings of the Spirit with us, will be heard, and that the creation will be delivered from its bondage to futility, because God is causing all things – the sufferings of the present age in particular – to work together for good for those who are called. The righteous God will accomplish His righteous purpose of bringing righteousness to fruition on earth. Verses 29-30 make it clear that this whole program is not a whim on God’s part. The goal is to bestow glory on the sons of God, to raise them to the throne never reached because of Adam’s sin, and this glorification fulfills the purpose of God from the foundation of the world. He has a fixed predestined purpose to form a body of believers who are conformed to the image of His Son, who are sons of God, and who therefore participate with Jesus in the deliverance of creation. (Leithart)”

Peter Leithart has expounded much more on Romans 8 in this great set of commentaries, which are very much worth reading:
Romans 8:1-4
Romans 8:1-11
Romans 8:5-17
Romans 8:18-30
Romans 8:31-39

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Sit at My Right Hand

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Joshua

Yahweh says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Psalm 110 starts with the Father calling the Son to sit on His throne until His enemies are made His footstool. This is of course a position of victory; His enemies are under His feet. But the footstool is just that: a footstool, a resting place for the feet. David said in 1 Chronicles 28, “I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and for the footstool of our God.” Yahweh is enthroned above the cherubim, and rests with His feet on the cover of the ark. Psalms 99 and 132 say, “let us worship at His footstool.” His people come to Him in His house of rest to worship at His feet. So, even His enemies will be made a resting place for His feet.

It also says that His scepter goes out from Zion. It is not a limited reign; He doesn’t just rule over His own people, but over the whole world, even in the midst of His enemies. This King is not like other kings over Israel, who were separated from the priesthood. He is made priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Gentile priest-king who blessed Abraham with bread and wine and received from him a tithe after his victory in battle. The book of Hebrews points out that this necessitates a change in the law, and in fact sets aside the law and the Aaronic priesthood as weak and unable to bring perfection. But the priesthood of the Christ is perfect and is able to perfect those who draw near.

He fills the nations with corpses. This same picture is used in Revelation 19, where Jesus rides out as a king conquering the nations by the sword of His mouth. It is the word, the gospel, that strikes down the nations. They must die, but Christ has mastered death. What He kills, He also raises to new life.

Verse 6 says, “He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.” This “chiefs”, although not necessarily an inaccurate translation, obscures the wordplay between the last two verses. He will shatter heads, and He will lift up His head. Christ is the head-crusher, the seed of the woman that crushes the head of the serpent. And because He humbled Himself to death, God raised Him up, lifting up His head, and seated Him at His right Hand.

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Conquering the nations

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Joshua

When Joshua meets the commander of the army of the Lord, He is standing with His drawn sword in His hand. This is a military conquest, a war against flesh and blood. In Revelation 19, this same commander sits on His horse with His sword in His mouth. This is not a war against flesh and blood. Christ rides forth killing men and conquering the nations by His gospel.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6

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Meeting God

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Joshua

The book of Hebrews shows how the Old Covenant types and shadows are all fulfilled in Christ. The Old Covenant saints received the promises, but “did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” This “something better” that these saints looked for and did not receive is that which God has now provided for us. We have “a better priest, a better hope, better promises, a better covenant, because the heavenly things have been cleansed by a better sacrifice.”* This “something better” is the “fulfillment of the Old Covenant promises and types in Jesus Christ.”*

“Hebrews 7:19 tells us that the law made nothing perfect, but that with the coming of the Messiah, we have a ‘better hope,’ by which we draw near to God. The implication is that, though the Old Covenant types and shadows did not perfect, the New Covenant reality does perfect, with the result that we are qualified to draw near to God. The connection between the perfection wrought by Christ and our qualification for drawing near to God is even clearer in 10:1: ‘For the Law . . . can never . . . make perfect those who draw near,’ with the obvious implication that the New Covenant can make those who wish to draw near perfect. Hebrews 10:14 draws a close connection between perfecting and sanctification, which has to do with access to the presence of the Holy God: By offering Himself once-for-all, Jesus ‘has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.’”*

We have a better mountain. “Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.” Mount Sinai was good and right and necessary, but it was terrifying. It was “a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.” It is certainly true that the people came out to meet God, but only at a distance. They could not draw near without being shot. The same held for the tabernacle and temple. But we who are in Christ do have access to the Father.  We “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

This mountain on which we now gather is the kingdom of the Son which is growing to fill the earth. This great mountain shakes the earth, but cannot itself be shaken. It is that same kingdom of the Son that Daniel saw, “to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

*Peter Leithart, Biblical Horizons Newsletter No. 23

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Devoted to Destruction

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Joshua

When Jericho falls, the city is devoted to destruction. It is a whole burnt offering. The entire city is put to the sword and burned with fire as an offering to Yahweh. This is not something that is handled by a soldier or regular citizen. An offering could not be burned with fire lit by men, as God made very clear in Leviticus 10, with Aaron’s sons. This fire came from the altar and was only handled by the priests. This served as a kind of firstfruits of the land, an offering entirely given to God of the harvest of spoils from conquest. After this, all the people could join and eat the harvest.

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Jericho’s Jubilee

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Joshua

Joshua 6 is the account of the fall of Jericho. The people were to march around the city for a week while the priests blew trumpets until the walls came down. It is interesting to note that the trumpets used here are not the silver trumpets normally used to call the camp to action. These are the showphar yowbel, the ram’s horn trumpets used to announce the year of jubilee. This whole procedure, this beginning of the conquest, is an announcement that the land is being released from its bondage. It is being put to rights, restored to its rightful owners.

 

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Commissioning

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Joshua

Joshua was commissioned to lead the people of Israel over the Jordan into the land that God had promised to give them. His obedience is required. God says, “be strong and courageous… be careful to do according to all the law…do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left…the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it…Have I not commanded you?” But it is also very clear that it is God who works and gives the victory. “Go, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them…No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” At the end of Joshua 5, the commander of the army of Yahweh comes to do the work that God had laid out for Israel. What God commands, He accomplishes. He uses means; he used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, and he used Joshua to lead them into the land. But it is God who accomplishes the work.

 

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The Gift of Testing

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Joshua

It is instructive to look at God’s call to Abraham to offer up Isaac in light of James. James says, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Isaac, the son of the promise, was certainly a much anticipated and long-awaited gift.It had been 25 years from the time Abraham left Haran to the birth of Isaac. It is also a great gift when Abraham receives his son back “from the dead” as the writer of Hebrews points out.

But James also says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” So even the trials, or maybe even especially the trials, are gifts from above, from the Father of lights. It is by these trials that we are tested and revealed. It is because of Abraham’s response to the trial that God said, “now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me… because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

“Because you have done this, because you have obeyed my voice,” God said, “I will bless you.” It is not for us to try to avoid the trials. The trials are not against us. They are from the Father and they are very much for us. They are tailored especially for each of us where we are. Who else but Abraham could go through that trial? For whom else would it have made sense? Ben Merkle very helpfully points out that, “when we are in a trial, the temptation in the flesh is to set all our hopes, all our prayers, all our expectations on the other side of the trial. We think that deliverance in the trial will always come in the form of getting to the other side. We put all of our hopes in the future and we completely miss the principle thing – getting wisdom, becoming Christ-like.”

James continues, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” We can remain steadfast under trial not because we know how all these things work and fit together, but because we know that everything the Father does is the right thing, it is the good thing. Abraham didn’t have to understand why God asked him to offer Isaac. He could do even this thing in faith, trusting the God who does good. And this is the principle thing, this is wisdom; knowing that all God does and all He asks and requires of us is for our good. This is why our obedience is absolutely necessary. He is reforming us into the Image of His Son, bringing us into His perfection, His glory, and His life.

P.S. The Ben Merkle video linked above is very much worth watching. All of his stuff is very good. Check it out.

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