G R

SOUND OF
A C
… it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace … Hebrews 13:9
E
Issue 156 April 2009
In This Issue
Studies in Galatians—Part Twenty-Four Studies in Galatians
—Part Twenty-Four 1
John G. Reisinger John G. Reisinger
We often have noted that both legalism and antinomianism pose constant We Have a Great High
threats to the true gospel of sovereign grace. In Galatians 5:1, Paul warns Priest —Part Two 1
against the first, and in 5:13–15, he cautions against the latter.
Stan F. Vaninger
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let your- Studies on the Resurrection
selves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…You, my brothers, were called to be of Lazarus—Part Twenty-Three 3
free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one an-
other in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neigh- Dr. Philip W. McMillin
bor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you A Biblical Theology of
will be destroyed by each other. (Gal. 5:1, 13–15, NIV) Evangelism and Worship 5
In a previous study, we demonstrated that the “yoke of slavery” to which A. Blake White
Paul refers in Galatians 5:1 is the law, as a covenant, pressed on the conscience.
New Covenant Theology sees the salient connection between freedom and law, as Paul expresses it in Galatians 5:1, as
the effect of that freedom on the conscience. This is one tenet that distinguishes New Covenant Theology from Cov-
enant Theology. Covenant Theology divides the law into three categories—moral, civil, and ceremonial—and views
the law from which the Galatians are free as the ceremonial law. This interpretation preserves Covenant Theology’s
commitment to the perpetuity of the Decalogue, but misses Paul’s point in the allegory
of Sarah and Hagar, which immediately precedes his exhortation in 5:1. Thus, Covenant Reisinger—Continued on page 2

We Have a Great High Priest

A ‘New Covenant Theology’ Exposition of Hebrews 4 – Part Two
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than
any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul
and spirit, joints and marrow: it judges the thoughts and at-
titudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from
God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the
eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:12-
13).
The thought conveyed here is powerful and profound.
The word of God searches the soul of those who read it
and hear it. It penetrates to the very depths of our being. It
exposes the innermost thoughts of the mind and the secret
intents of the heart. Our writer uses a graphic picture of
a sharp two-edged sword that can penetrate the flesh and
muscle and easily reach our joints, even pierce the bones
Stan F. Vaninger
and reach the marrow.
Today we might use the analogy of X-rays which ef-
fortlessly penetrates any region of the body and exposes
the innermost parts. The X-ray analogy conveys the same
thought expressed in verse 13. All is laid bare before the
eyes of God. But the analogy of a razor sharp knife pierc-
ing the body really grabs your attention!
Notice that verses 12 & 13 express a similar thought 3
times, probably for both emphasis and clarity. The writer
could have gotten by with just saying it once, but this is
a vital point that he wants to nail down. Notice the com-
mon element in all three statements is the penetrating and
revealing action of the word of Vaninger—Continued on page 12
Page 2
Reisinger—Continued from page 1
Theology fails to consider the text
on its own terms. Paul has compared
Sarah and Hagar to two covenants, not
to two categories of one covenant.
A second interpretation of “free-
dom from the yoke of slavery” reads
Paul as reminding his readers that
Christ has freed them from their for-
mer bondage to sin. In this view, Paul
is referring not to the conscience, but
to the will, which previously had been
bound by sin, but now is bound to
Christ. This is indeed the point that
Paul makes in his letter to the Romans
(Rom. 6:1–23), but it is not his point
in Galatians. John Stott nicely cap-
tures the essence of Paul’s argument
in Galatians about freedom from the
law. The bolding in the following
quotation is mine; italics are in the
original.
This freedom, as the whole Epistle
and this context make plain, is not
primarily a freedom from sin, but rather
from the law. What Christ has done
in liberating us, according to Paul’s
emphasis here, is not so much to set our
will free from the bondage of sin as to
set our conscience free from the guilt of
sin. The Christian freedom he describes
is freedom of conscience, freedom
from the tyranny of the law, the
dreadful struggle to keep the law, with
a view to winning the favour of God. It
is the freedom of acceptance with God
and of access to God through Christ.1
1 John R. W. Stott, The Message of Gala-
tians: Only One Way, BST (Leicester,
England: IVP, 1988), 132.
April 2009
The key words in this quotation are
freedom, conscience, acceptance, and
access. As Stott describes the tyranny
of the law, he includes the essential
qualifier, “the dreadful struggle to
keep the law with a view to winning
favor with God,” and so must we. We
must not sever the last phrase from
the first. Paul never understands being
free from the law to mean being free
to discard God’s will, clearly revealed
in Christ, and to be ruled instead by
our wicked hearts.
Throughout the letter to the Gala-
tians, Paul wages his war against the
Judaizers on two fronts: sanctification
and justification. He appeals to sanc-
tification—acting in accordance with
the truth of the gospel—as he criticiz-
es the manner in which believers who
have adopted the Judaizing position
respond to each other (Gal. 2:11–14).
He grounds appropriate in-group
behavior in the fact of justification,
reminding his readers that justifica-
tion is by faith, and not by observing
the law (Gal. 2:15, 16). In 5:1, Paul
applies the truth of justification that
he has been laboring to establish: sin-
ners are put right with God by faith in
the merit of Christ’s atoning work and
not by their own works. Assurance of
salvation, or acceptance with God, is
what gives the sinner both the sincere
desire, as well as the joyous boldness,
to enter into the most Holy Place. Ac-
cess into God’s presence is tied to the
conscience’s being set free from the
law. The assurance that we are eternal-
ly secure in Christ and can never be
condemned (Rom. 8:1) because God
has buried our sins in the deepest sea
and will remember them against us no
more, is the freedom of the conscience
that comes only from the knowledge
of full and free justification. In Christ,
we have the very justification we so
desperately need. No one can revoke
our access into God’s holy presence.
This knowledge and experience
of free access comes to believers
Reisinger—Continued on page 4
Issue 156
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Issue 156
The Resurrection of Lazarus−Part 23
D r. P h i l i p W. M c M i l l i n
Then they took away the stone from
the place where the dead man was ly-
ing And Jesus lifted up His eyes and
said, “Father, I thank You that You
have heard Me. And I know that You
always hear Me, but because of the
people who are standing by I said this,
that they may believe that You sent Me
(John 11:41-42).
I want to approach these verses
with a short consideration of the
sacrifices that God the Eternal Son,
made in his hypostatic union with
the humanity of man. “Therefore, in
all things He had to be made like His
brethren, that He might be a merciful
and faithful High Priest in things per-
taining to God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people. For in that
He Himself has suffered being tempt-
ed …” (Heb 2:17, 18a). How impon-
derable for the human mind to grasp
that God was subject to and tried by
the human circumstance!
Though he was no less God than
in eternity past, he willingly became
flesh to “…give aid to the seed of
Abraham” (Heb 2:16b).
In doing this he laid aside the man-
ifestation of his essential glory that he
had with his Father before the world
was. Listen: “who being in the form
or God, [we can say “in that essence
which is true God”] did not consider it
robbery [something to hold onto self-
ishly] to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation [emptied
himself of his privileges] taking the
form of a bondservant, and coming in
the likeness of men. And being found
in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even the death of the
cross” (Phil 2:6-8). He emptied him-
self―the magnitude of the thing may
grip you if you realize that he who is
April 2009
Christ Prays
God, Adoni, was ignored, mocked,
spit upon, struck, blasphemed and
crucified by mere men, and those men
would have died in the blink of an eye
if his glories were displayed. God told
Moses, “…You cannot see My face;
for no man shall see Me and live”
(Exo 33:20),
So what glory are we seeing as
we look upon Christ in his humilia-
tion? Who is this high priest, this one
who is “…holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and has become
higher than the heavens” as Hebrews
7:26 describes our Lord? What is the
glory manifested? It is the glory of the
Redeemer, the one in whom and by
whom God reconciled the world unto
himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19).
When he had finished the work his
Father gave him to do, he was given a
name far above every name, that at his
name all should bow.
Through Daniel’s eyes we can see
the coronation of our king; “I was
watching in the night visions and
behold, One like the Son of Man,
coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days, and
they brought Him near before Him.
Then 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 the one which shall
not be destroyed” (Dan 7:13, 14).
When we read of man, whom God
created upright, who in open rebel-
lion against his creator, sinned and
plunged himself and his world into
futility we might lose all hope. Man
who was created to rule, whom God
set over the works of his hands, sinned
and made himself a slave to the forces
Page 3
he had controlled. The beast now at-
tacks the man, his world of light has
become a kingdom of darkness, and
he wrestles against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in heavenly places. Sinful
man is a subject, enslaved to another.
He walks; “…according to the course
of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who
now works in the sons of disobedi-
ence” (Eph 2:2).
Yet, dark as the skies are, terrify-
ing as the impending storm is, there
is still God’s rainbow in the clouds.
All seems lost, “But we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than
the angels, for the suffering of death
crowned with glory and honor, that
He, by the grace of God, might taste
death for everyone. For it was fitting
for Him, for whom are all things and
by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons to glory, to make the cap-
tain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both He who sanctifies
and those who are being sanctified are
all of one, for which reason He is not
ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb
2:9-11).
Like a comet lights up the night
sky, the Son of God’s accomplish-
ments floods souls with life and light
everlasting. Glorious is our Redeemer-
Mediator.
A second glory of this man was his
obedience. He who can saddle the hur-
ricane for a steed, rebuke a raging sea,
speak and a sun shines, yes he who
speaks and “…upholding all things
by the word of His power,” (Heb 1:3)
practiced obedience in his humanity.
Early in his ministry he said: “Do
not think that I came to destroy the
McMillin—Continued on page 14
Page 4
Reisinger—Continued from page 2
only through the New Covenant. It
did not, and could not, be known or
experienced by believers under the
Old Covenant. As long as the veil of
the Tabernacle was in place, no one
except the High Priest could enter the
Most Holy Place, where God’s pres-
ence was manifest. Even he could not
enter without blood, and then, only on
the Day of Atonement. Access to God
was severely restricted. The day the
veil was rent from top to bottom was
the day that established free access
into the most Holy Place. The only
conscience that is free, however, is
one that grounds its freedom in the act
that caused the rending of the veil—
the sacrifice of Christ that satisfied
the just demands of God. A free con-
science sees a sign that says, “Come,
and welcome,” that has replaced the
sign that said, “No admittance upon
pain of death.”
Paul brackets his argument about
freedom from the law by appealing to
both justification (5:4) and sanctifica-
tion (5:13–15). The conscience that
is free from the demands of the law
as a means to earn favor with God
is free to love others as God loves
them—unconditionally in Christ. In
the case of the Galatians, circumci-
sion had become a condition for peer
acceptance. Those who saw it as nec-
essary for salvation could not accept
those who professed faith in Christ
but lacked circumcision. Loving and
accepting fellow believers is an in-
herent part of sanctification. Biting
and devouring (v. 15) is contrary to
sanctification. The practical aspects
of sanctification Paul mentions in
verse 15—the knowledge and experi-
ence of freely loving and accepting
each other, regardless of circumcision
or the lack thereof—also come only
through the New Covenant. Under the
Old Covenant, fellowship between
Jews and Gentiles was restricted. The
Old Covenant erected a barrier—a
dividing wall of hostility—between
Jews and Gentiles. That wall remained
April 2009
in place as long as the covenant that
established it remained in place.
When Christ abolished the law with
its commandments and regulations,
he broke down that barrier and ended
that hostility (Eph. 2:14, 15). The New
Covenant brings freedom for Jews and
Gentiles to love and serve one another
in Christ. The only conscience, how-
ever, that is free to love others this
way is one that grounds its freedom
in the act that caused the demolished
wall—the sacrifice of Christ that sat-
isfied the just demands of God and
gives both Jews and Gentiles access to
the Father (Eph. 2:18).
By recognizing sanctification as
part of Paul’s argument (especially as
it is manifested in horizontal behav-
ior), we are downplaying neither the-
ology nor the vertical aspect of sancti-
fication. Paul’s finely-tuned theologi-
cal arguments are not academic and
unrelated to real life. Paul’s theology
provides the rationale behind both the
desire and the blood-bought privilege
of the worst of sinners to come boldly
to the throne of grace to find help in
time of need (Heb. 4:14–16). That
rationale is the fact of a new and liv-
ing way of access to God (Heb. 10:19,
20), opened up by the atoning work of
Christ. To argue, as Paul does, for the
doctrine of freedom from the law is
to argue for the freedom of the gospel
itself. It is to fight for a full and free
justification that frees the conscience
and allows the redeemed sinner to
take advantage of that new access.
What can be more desirable for a child
of God than the knowledge that there
is a welcome mat at heaven’s gate
with his or her name on it? What can
be more practical and essential than
the privilege of visiting the throne of
grace to find grace to help in times
of need? God’s grace is available for
help in both the vertical and horizontal
aspects of sanctification. John Stott
explains the apostle’s exhortation:
Since ‘Christ set us free’ and
that ‘for freedom’, we must ‘stand
Issue 156
fast’ in it and not ‘submit again to a
yoke of slavery’. In other words, we
are to enjoy the glorious freedom of
conscience, which Christ has brought
us by His forgiveness. We must not
lapse into the idea that we have to
win our acceptance with God by our
obedience. The picture seems to be
of an ox bowed down by a heavy
yoke. Once it has been freed from this
crushing yoke, it is able to stand erect
again (cf. Lv. 26:13).
It is just so in the Christian life.
At one time we were under the yoke
of law, burdened by its demands
which we could not meet and by its
fearful condemnation because of
our disobedience. But Christ met the
demands of the law for us. He died for
our disobedience and thus bore our
condemnation in our place. He has
‘redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us’ (3:13).
And now He has struck the yoke from
our shoulder and set us free to stand
upright. How can we dream of putting
ourselves under the law again and
submitting to its cruel yoke?2
I wish every sovereign grace
preacher understood what Stott
means by, “set our conscience free
from the guilt of sin,” “freedom of
conscience,” “freedom from the tyr-
anny of the law” and “the glorious
liberty of conscience which Christ
has brought us by His forgiveness.” If
more preachers understood, believed,
and preached these phrases, joy, assur-
ance, and the power of the Holy Spirit
would replace gloom, despair, and
the lack of assurance so prevalent in
many Reformed circles. The freedom
of conscience from the law is the great
New Covenant blessing, predicted in
the Old Testament and fulfilled in the
New Testament with the advent of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The church
needs a clear and exhaustive study on
the role of the law in the conscience in
New Covenant sanctification.
In previous articles, I have men-
tioned that John Bunyan’s teaching on
2 Ibid., 132-33.
Reisinger—Continued on page 6
Issue 156
A Biblical Theology of Evangelism and Worship
I don’t think I have met a single
follower of Christ who does not ac-
knowledge that they should share the
gospel more than they do. Evange-
lism is usually difficult, but this fact
is no reason to avoid this God-given
responsibility by leaving it to the
pastor or those “gifted” to do evan-
gelism. This article will summarily
walk through the high points of the
story-line of Scripture and see that
the blood-bought new covenant com-
munity is to be a “sent people,” evan-
gelistic to its core, who honor God as
they proclaim and live out the gospel
in their particular context. I will use
the terms evangelism, and mission
interchangeably. The term missional
will be used simply as “an adjective
denoting something that is related to
or characterized by mission,”1 follow-
ing OT scholar Christopher Wright.
In other words, to be missional, is to
consider oneself as sent on mission to
one’s particular geographical context,
wherever that may be.
The Story-line of the Bible
Creation is foundational to un-
derstanding God and understanding
mission. Though many things could
be said, it must be emphasized that
God did not have to create. He did not
need us, or anything else in this world
“since he himself gives to all man-
kind life and breath and everything”
(Acts 17:25b ESV). He is the a se2
Lord, self-sufficient and completely
content in the fellowship of the Trin-
1 Christopher J.H Wright, The Mission
of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand
Narrative (Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic, 2006), 24.
2 The theological term used by the Pu-
ritans, aseity, comes from the Latin
phrase a se, meaning “from himself.”
Sadly this attribute of God has fallen
from the minds of many modern evan-
gelicals.
April 2009
Blake White
ity. This understanding of God must
frame one’s understanding of the
call to evangelize. To be involved in
kingdom work is a privilege! God the
Father is meticulously sovereign, but
has ordained means to accomplish his
ends and his people get to be a part of
his mission!
New Testament scholar Greg
Beale, has made the case that when
God created Adam in his image in
the garden, Adam was to serve God
as priest-king in the temple-sanctuary
of Eden. Beale writes, “The intention
seems to be that Adam was to widen
the boundaries of the Garden in ever
increasing circles by extending the
border of the garden sanctuary into
the inhospitable outer spaces. The
outward expansion would include the
goal of spreading the glorious pres-
ence of God.”3 Hence, Genesis 1:28
with the command to “Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it and have dominion” can be seen
as the first ‘Great Commission” that
was repeatedly applied to humanity
as history progressed.4 It will be seen
later how this commission is different
than our commission to evangelize.
But Adam failed miserably opting for
a “quest for autonomy” rather than
obedience to the Creator. Although
not outside of God’s plan, this cosmic
tragedy changed the way God would
fulfill his mission on Earth. Rather
than honoring and giving thanks to the
Creator, all of humanity exchanges
the glory of God for created things
(Rom 1:21-23). Now evangelism and
“missions exists because worship
3 G.K Beale, The Temple and the
Church’s Mission: A biblical theology
of the dwelling place of God (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004),
85.
4 Ibid., 117.
Page 5
doesn’t.”5
God could have justly destroyed
the world, but instead he promises that
the seed of the woman will ultimately
triumph over the seed of the serpent
(Gen 3:15). Later, God preserves
Noah and eventually calls out Abram
in Genesis 12. Abram, a sort of new
Adam, is called out of his idolatry
to serve the one true and living God
(Josh 24:2) as the agent God will
use to undo the curse from Genesis
3. God calls a new phase of history
into being and promises Abram land,
seed, and blessing (Gen 12:1-3). This
covenant has been called the original
Great Commission. Biblical Theo-
logian Graeme Goldsworthy writes,
“That the nations of the world will
find blessing through the descendants
of Abraham is the central missionary
motif of the Bible.”6
Later in the meta-narrative, God
raises up Moses to deliver the nation
of Israel from Egypt. Exodus 19:5-
6 says, “Now therefore, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my
covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession among all peoples, for all
the earth is mine; and you shall be to
me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation.” God not only elects the nation
(Deut 7:6-9), but determines her voca-
tion. Israel was to be in communion
with God, reflecting his character,
and mediating his presence to the na-
tions. Israel was called to be a priestly
5 John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad:
The Supremacy of God in Missions
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993),
11.
6 Graeme Goldsworthy, “Biblical Theol-
ogy and the Shape of Paul’s Mission,”
in The Gospel to the Nations: Perspec-
tives on Paul’s Mission, ed. Bolt, Peter
and Mark Thompson (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 7-18.
White—Continued on page 7
Page 6
Reisinger—Continued from page 4
law and grace opened my understand-
ing of the relationship between the
two and their effect on the conscience.
In his work, “The Law and the Chris-
tian,” Bunyan insists that the Christian
must dismiss the law out of his or her
conscience the same way that Sarah
dismissed Hagar from Abraham’s
house. He then clarifies exactly what
he means by that analogy.
My meaning is, when this law with
its thundering threatenings doth attempt
to lay hold on thy conscience, shut it
out with a promise of grace; cry, the
inn is took up already, the Lord Jesus is
here entertained, and there is no room
for the law.3
The word conscience here is the
key word. We must remember that
conscience is not a lawgiver. It does
not teach us what is right and wrong.
It functions as a judge to apply the law
that has been given to it. Conscience
is not an infallibly safe guide, because
it can be trained to obey wrong stan-
dards. Some people can commit the
most horrible deeds and feel they are
doing what is right. John 16:1–3 is a
clear example of this.
“All this I have told you so that
you will not go astray. They will put
you out of the synagogue; in fact, a
time is coming when anyone who kills
you will think he is offering a service
to God. They will do such things be-
cause they have not known the Father
or me.” (NIV)
Jesus is saying that people can,
with clear consciences, kill someone
who disagrees with them about reli-
gion. The Apostle Paul, by his own
admission, is a classic example of this
truth.
Paul looked straight at the Sanhe-
drin and said, “My brothers, I have
fulfilled my duty to God in all good
conscience to this day.” (Acts 23:1,
NIV)
3 John Bunyan, The Works of John Bu-
nyan (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1977), 2:388. Emphasis added.
April 2009
What did Paul mean by “his duty
to God?” Prior to his conversion, it
was to beat Christians, to put them in
jail, and in some cases, even to put
them to death. Paul’s conscience as
a Jew who did not follow Christ not
only allowed him to give vent to his
hatred, but also demanded that he do
what he did. Hear his testimony: “I
believed it was my duty to persecute
and kill Christ-followers (because
they were aberrant Jews) and I did
my duty with zeal and a clear con-
science.”
We see this also in twenty-first
century religious terrorism. When a
militant Islamic terrorist beheads a
“pagan” American or Canadian, his
conscience does not in the least pro-
test. In fact, his conscience cheers and
applauds his action! How can that
be? His conscience, instructed by his
religion, is trained to wrong standards,
from the perspective of Christianity.
The terrorist thinks he is doing a ser-
vice to God, but his action is wicked
when viewed from a conscience
instructed by Jesus’ teaching. When
we apply Jesus’ words to the Muslim
terrorist, we understand him as do-
ing what he does because he is one of
those who “do such things because
they have not known the Father or
me.” It is impossible for a person to
know God the Father, or Jesus Christ,
his Son, and commit wicked acts in
the name of God.
A person born and raised in a ter-
rorist household will not feel any
qualms of conscience when he kills in
the name of religion. Yet if that person
is a devout Muslim, he would feel ter-
rible guilt upon eating ham or bacon,
or consuming alcohol. A person born
in a Christian home will feel no pangs
of conscience at all when eating pork,
but if that person is a devout Chris-
tian, he could not kill in Christ’s name
without offending his or her con-
science. The Muslim’s conscience will
‘condemn’ the person who eats pork,
but the Christian’s conscience will
Issue 156
‘approve’ someone who eats pork.
The Muslim terrorist’s conscience
will approve of killing in the name of
Allah; the Christian’s conscience will
condemn that action. The difference
does not lay in a good or a bad con-
science, but in the standards given to
conscience.
Conscience accuses, “You are a
hypocrite” when you do what you
believe to be wrong or fail to do what
you believe to be right. Likewise,
conscience applauds, “You are a
good person” when you do what you
believe to be right and refrain from
doing what you believe to be wrong.
The Muslim terrorist’s conscience
says, “You are a good Muslim” when
he beheads a pagan, but will scream at
him for sinning when he eats pork.
Conscience does not, and cannot,
tell you what is, or is not, the right
thing to do. That is the role of par-
ents, society, education, and for the
Christian, the Bible. All human beings
have a conscience, but the law that a
specific conscience uses to accuse or
excuse certain actions or intentions
will vary greatly according to the indi-
vidual’s environment and background.
Obviously, the higher the standard
that trains the conscience, the more
conscience will ‘accuse.’ When the
law of God trains the conscience, it
is impossible for that conscience ever
to approve completely, since that law
demands sinless perfection.
Paul, in Romans 2:14, 15, address-
es this very point.
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do
not have the law, do by nature things
required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not
have the law, since they show that the
requirements of the law are written
on their hearts, their consciences also
bearing witness, and their thoughts
now accusing, now even defending
them. (Romans 2:14, 15, NIV).
Too often preachers and teachers
misuse this text because they misun-
Reisinger—Continued on page 8
Issue 156
White—Continued from page 5
kingdom, serving the world by being
separate from it. Her calling was fun-
damentally missiological! They were
to represent what it looked like to
live under the rule of God and fulfill
Adam’s mandate to expand his pres-
ence as his king-priests. Of course,
that is not to say that Israel was to be
involved in cross-cultural evangelism.
Hence, to say that Israel was to be a
nation of evangelists and missionaries
(centrifugal) goes beyond the bibli-
cal Text. Israel was to be a light to
the nations (Isa 49:6), witnessing “to
the saving purposes of God by expe-
riencing them and living according to
them” (centripetal). As the story-line
continues, Israel fails time and again
in her vocational calling. Eventually,
God raises up King David and promis-
es him a son and an eternal kingdom.
This is in fulfillment of the promise
made to Abraham (Gen 12, 17:6), so
that now the blessing for the many is
mediated by Israel’s king. Israel, how-
ever, doesn’t have the heart to obey
(Deut 30:6, Ezek 36:26), and soon
after the installment of the monarchy,
Israel is in exile. Israel is eventually
freed from exile, but things aren’t the
same as they were under Solomon’s
reign (Ezra 3:12). The OT narrative
ends with promises unfulfilled (Hag
2:9, Isa 65:17). A new covenant is
desperately needed (Jer 31:31-34,
Ezek 36-37).
Jesus
Jesus is presented in the NT as the
fulfillment of all God’s promises in
their initial stage (2 Cor 1:20, John
5:39, Luke 24:27). Jesus is the last
Adam, who obeys God and restores
our humanity (Rom 5:12-21). Jesus
is Abraham’s true seed, by which the
nations will be blessed (Gal 3:16).
Jesus fulfills Israel’s vocation (Matt
1-5), and is David’s greater Son (Matt
1) who will rule from sea to sea (Ps
72:8). The beginning of Jesus’ min-
istry is focused on Jews (Matt 10:6),
but after his cross-work, the gospel is
April 2009
to be proclaimed to all peoples (Mark
16:15, Luke 24:47). The death of
Christ inaugurated the new covenant
(Matt 26:28, Luke 22:20, Mark 14:24,
cf. 1 Cor 11:25), and through Christ’s
resurrection, God has brought the new
creation to pass, but there is more to
come. The already/not yet tension
pervades the entire New Testament.
Christ’s kingdom is presently here, but
the final consummation is still future,
awaiting his second coming when he
will put the world to rights.
Church
After Christ ascended to the right
hand of God, the Holy Spirit was sent
in fulfillment of OT prophecy (Joel
2, Ezek 36:26-27, Isa 61:1-2). Now,
unlike the mixed community of the
old covenant, the entire new covenant
community is fully forgiven and bears
the unique presence of God through
the Spirit (Jer 31:34). The fact that ev-
ery member of the covenant commu-
nity is actually a believer drastically
changes her mission. To this mission
we now turn.
Evangelism as Worship
All of life for the Christian is to be
viewed as worship (Rom 12:1), not
just the Sunday morning service. In
fact, the level of Christian maturity
can be gauged by how much worship
takes place outside of the Sunday
morning worship service. Evangelism
is indeed an act of worship. It is an act
of worshipful obedience to the Great
Commission of the risen Christ: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all na-
tions, baptizing them in 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” (Matt 28:19-20, cf.
Acts 1:8).
Believers should count it a great
joy and privilege that they get to be a
part of God’s great redemptive work.
Rather than speaking of our mission,
the church should speak of God’s
Page 7
mission that the church gets to be a
part of. We have seen how God began
in the garden, and has progressively
revealed and worked out his plan in
history (Eph 1:11). God is a mission-
ary God, and the new covenant com-
munity is the instrument of that mis-
sion. Jesus told his disciples, “As the
Father has sent me, even so I am send-
ing you,” (John 20:21). God uses his
blood-bought people to draw others
to faith through the Holy Spirit when
his gospel is proclaimed. The church
must view itself as doubly apostolic—
robustly committed to the apostolic
teaching contained in Scripture and as
authoritatively sent, as apostle means
“sent one.” It is interesting to think
of why God has structured history
the way he has. Why two comings?
Why the already/not yet tension? The
victory has been won, but the church
remains on the fallen earth surrounded
by fallen people. One reason is doubt-
less for evangelism. God saw fit to
use his redeemed people to spread
his presence and grow his kingdom.
We live between the two comings
of Christ, in what Lesslie Newbigin
calls, the “age of witness.” We must
take into account our place in redemp-
tive history, knowing where our story
fits into God’s story. The church has
been placed in this place at this time
(Acts 17:25) to proclaim and exem-
plify the gospel of Jesus Christ. God
promised Abraham that the nations
would be blessed through his seed,
and the church is granted the amazing
responsibility and privilege of being
the means God uses to keep his prom-
ise! We participate in Christ’s seeking
and saving of the lost (Luke 19:10).
The victory has been won, and the re-
deemed people of God now are called
to witness to that victory. Oh, how
we should be a confident, joyful, and
evangelistically zealous people, eager
to make opportunities for irresistible
grace! We are not called upon to be
slick, eloquent, or persuasive, but we
are called to be faithful to the gospel
White—Continued on page 19
Page 8
Reisinger—Continued from page 6
derstand it. Rarely do they even quote
it correctly. I have heard many preach-
ers say, “Romans 2:14, 15 states that
the law is written on the hearts of all
people.” They then use this text to try
to prove that the Ten Commandments
are written on the hearts of all people,
Jewish and Gentile. Paul does not
teach that the law itself is written on
the heart, but that the work of the law
is written on the hearts of all men and
women. Later, in Romans 4:15, Paul
tells his readers explicitly what that
work of the law is. “The law worketh
wrath” by defining transgression.
This proves that all people have some
law, and a conscience that condemns
them when they fail to obey that law.
When the law comes as clear and un-
mistakable revelation from God, the
conscience informed by that law will
condemn offenses against that specific
law.
At Sinai, God put Israel’s con-
science under a codified law and made
that law the terms of a covenant. The
primary purpose of that law was to
work wrath, or to convict people that
they were guilty sinners in need of
grace. Nothing could satisfy a con-
science that was under the law, since it
was impossible for sinners to meet the
covenant demands of sinless perfec-
tion. When even unavoidable, invol-
untary bodily experiences such as an
infectious skin disease, a swelling, or
a rash counted as transgressions that
rendered one unclean and required a
sacrifice to purify the afflicted person
(Lev. 14:1–32), the people would have
realized that they were helpless to
refrain from transgressing. One of the
greatest mistakes of Covenant Theol-
ogy is their insistence that the law
aids in sanctification. Paul’s allegori-
cal interpretation of the casting out of
Hagar and Ishmael proves that God
never meant the law to be the mother
of holiness. Hagar was a handmaid,
just as the law is a handmaid to the
gospel, but she was never meant to
be the mother of the children of the
April 2009
promise any more than the law was
meant to produce the children of the
promise or the fruit of the Spirit.
The law of God had a definite
function in the history of redemption.
It still has a function, but it is not the
same function as it had in Israel’s ex-
perience. The law that worked wrath
in Israel’s conscience has been fully
silenced and does not work, in any
sense, either wrath or blessing in the
Christian. The law of God can neither
curse nor bless a Christian. It cannot
curse a Christian because Christ has
endured every curse the law threat-
ened, and it cannot bless a Christian
because even with a new heart, the
child of God cannot earn the blessing
that is the reward for perfect obedi-
ence. However, just as Christ endured
every curse the law threatened, he also
earned every blessing the law prom-
ised. If you read the law and feel guilt
and despair, you do not understand
justification, and if you read the law
and feel good about your progress
in sanctification, you are a deceived,
self-righteous hypocrite.
Bunyan saw this two-fold work of
the law in justification and sanctifica-
tion. He was both clear and emphatic
that law and grace could not room
together in the heart or conscience of
a child of God under the New Cov-
enant. Moses was a faithful servant
in the old house, but he has no place
or service in the new house our Lord
built (Heb. 3:1–6).
After writing that we must not
allow the law to lay hold of our con-
science, but must instead shut it out
with a promise of grace, and cry that
the inn is full, there is no room for the
law, because Jesus occupies the inn
completely, Bunyan goes on to write
words that should be written with gold
ink.
Indeed if it [the law] will be
content with being my informer, and so
lovingly leave off to judge me; I will
be content, it shall be in my sight, I will
also delight therein; but otherwise, I
Issue 156
being now made upright without it, and
that too with that righteousness, which
this law speaks well of and approveth;
I may not, will not, cannot, dare not
make it my saviour and judge, nor
suffer it to set up its government in my
conscience; for by so doing I fall from
grace, and Christ Jesus doth profit me
nothing. Gal. 5:1–5.4
First, Bunyan sees that with the
coming of the New Covenant, the
function of law to work wrath or to
accuse and/or excuse has ceased. The
law is now helpful as a teacher, or as
Bunyan says, “it shall be in my sight.”
However, he insists the law dare not
“set up its government in my con-
science.” The law, along with the rest
of Scripture, helps us to understand
our Father’s will for our conduct, but
we dare not allow it to rule our con-
science. Our Lord Jesus Christ alone
is our lawgiver; actually, he himself is
the law for the child of God.
Bunyan is clear as crystal that
the law can no more sanctify us than
it can justify us. The old Tinker felt
deeply about this point. His language
is quite passionate. “I may not, will
not, cannot, dare not,” is deliber-
ately emphatic—and what is it that he
“may not, will not, cannot, dare not”
do? Again, Bunyan is clear. He sees
that there are two things involved in a
right understanding and use of the law
of God in the Christian’s life. First, I
must not treat the law as a savior or a
judge. Bunyan is here talking about
justification. The law cannot be my
savior; it cannot bring me salvation.
It cannot be my judge; it cannot tell
me whether I am saved or lost. In this
respect, I am beyond the reach of the
law. It has no authority over me. Sec-
ond, I dare not allow the law to “set
up its government in my conscience.”
Bunyan is now talking about sancti-
fication. He is saying, “The law can
neither justify me nor can it sanctify
me.” I must not allow the law to dwell
in my conscience as a welcome guest.
4 Ibid.
Reisinger—Continued on page 13
Issue 156 April 2009 Page 9
The 2009 John Bunyan Conference
is scheduled for April 27-29
at Reformed Baptist Church in Lewisburg, PA.
The theme of the conference will be New Covenant Theology as well as the Atonement with an emphasis
on reaffirming the classic view of Limited Atonement.
Gary George will speak twice on evangelism. The first is on the ministry of George Whitfield as an
evangelist blessed by God. The second is on Calvinistic or biblical evangelism today.
Kirk Wellum will deal with two texts that are extremely important in any discussion of New Covenant
Theology. The first is Matthew 5:17-20, “Christ and the Law” and the second is Matthew 9:14-17, “Wine Skin
Patches.”
Blake White will speak twice on the subject of the Newness of the New Covenant.
David Morris will speak three times on the Doctrine of the Atonement.
John Reisinger will speak three times. Once on, “Why Call it the ‘John Bunyan’ Conference?” This will
include Bunyan’s view of law and grace. The other two messages will deal with imputation especially as it
involves limited atonement.
Discussion periods will be held for each topic/session.

Lodging for the conference is available at a reduced rate at the Country Inn and Suites by Carlson in
Lewisburg, PA. Just mention that you would like accommodations for the John Bunyan Conference to receive
a double occupancy room for only $89.00 per night which includes a nice continental breakfast.
Reservations must be made by no later than April 10, 2009 to receive this reduced rate.
Reservations at the Country Inn and Suites may be made by calling 800-456-4000 or 570-524-6600. Their website is
www.countryinns.com/lewisburgpa and the address is 134 Walter Drive, Route 15, P.O. Box 46, Lewisburg, PA 17837.
Meals for lunch and dinner will be available at the church.
The registration is $75.00 per individual and includes four meals.
Space is limited and registration will be restricted to the first 100 individuals who register. Please register by no
later than April 10, 2009. Sign-in for the conference will be from 12:30pm to 1:30pm on Monday, April 27, at Reformed
Baptist Church. The last session ends at approximately 4:00pm on Wednesday, April 29.
Please call 301-473-8781 for registration; Visa or MasterCard accepted.

Please register by no later than April 10, 2009.

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Page 12
Vaninger—Continued from page 1
God, not the dividing action (which
only occurs in the first):
 For the word of God is living and
active. Sharper than any double-
edged sword, it penetrates even to
dividing of soul and spirit, joints
and marrow
 (The word of God) judges the
thoughts and attitudes of the heart
 Nothing in all creation is hidden
from God’s sight
Notice the expression in verse 12,
“it penetrates even to dividing soul
and spirit.” Some contend that this
verse teaches that the human soul
and human spirit are distinct entities.
This view asserts that Hebrews 4:12
teaches that the word of God can dis-
tinguish between what comes from
the soul of man and what comes from
the spirit of man or can in some sense
actually separate man’s soul from his
spirit. Definitions are usually given of
what the soul is and what the spirit is.
Charles Solomon writes, “the soul
might be called our self-consciousness
or the vehicle through which we relate
to others, actually our psychologi-
cal makeup. The spirit is our God-
consciousness or the facet of our
makeup by which we relate to God.”1
Watchman Nee in his massive 700
page, The Spiritual Man writes, “Our
spirit comes directly from God for it is
God given. Our soul is not so directly
derived; it was produced after the
spirit entered the body.”2 A few pages
later he brings Hebrews 4 into the
discussion and says that after the fall,
“Adam’s spirit (as well as the spirit
of all his descendants) fell under the
oppression of the soul until it gradu-
ally merged with the soul and the
two parts became closely united. The
1 Charles R. Solomon, Handbook to Hap-
piness, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House,
1971), 38.
2 Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man,
(New York, NY: Christian Fellowship
Publishers, Inc., 1968), 45.
April 2009
writer of Hebrews declares in 4:12
that the word of God shall pierce and
divide soul and spirit. The dividing is
necessary because spirit and soul have
become one.”3 The Spiritual Man is
full of all sorts of bizarre, unbiblical
statements similar to the above.
We sometimes see diagrams
showing man’s body, soul, and spirit
and how they relate to one another.
Charles Solomon has written almost a
dozen books about counseling and the
Christian life. In the one referenced
above, there is 7 different diagrams,
all circles divided into three pieces
of pie labeled body, soul, and spirit.
Additional labels and arrows and text
show an amazing array of complex
relationships between the body, soul
and spirit. In a sequel, we find 7 more
circle diagrams of a similar nature but
more complex showing relationships
of soul, spirit and body to other parts
of man’s makeup such as his mind,
brain, will, emotions, conscience, in-
tuition, etc.4 This same book has other
non-circular diagrams showing addi-
tional details of man’s makeup. There
are several reasons why we should be
very cautious about adopting the view
that soul and spirit are distinct and
well-defined parts of man:
First, as we have just seen, our
author makes a very powerful point in
verses 12 and 13 and makes it three
times in rapid succession. All three
statements make the exact same point
putting it in different terms to add
clarity and emphasis. To argue that
our writer has slipped a totally unre-
lated point in the first of these three
statements to distinguish soul from
spirit is highly speculative.
A second reason involves the
Greek construction of the statement.
Dr. Robert Reymond gives a very
clear explanation of what is being said
in this expression, ‘it penetrates even
3 Ibid., 51.
4 Charles R. Solomon, The Ins and Out
of Rejection, (Littleton, CO: Heritage
House Publications, 1976).
Issue 156
to dividing soul and spirit.’5 The
construction in the Greek expresses
the thought that the Word of God
penetrates even to dividing of soul
and also to dividing of spirit. The con-
struction does not express the thought
that the Word of God penetrates even
to the dividing of the soul from the
spirit (to separate them). That would
require an additional word and a dif-
ferent sentence construction. This
same construction applies also to the
words, joints and marrow. Joints and
marrow do not need to be divided
from one another. They are distinct
parts of the body structure and if we
want to get technical, we could say
that they do not come in direct contact
with one another.6 The point of verses
12 and 13 (made 3 times) is that the
Word of God penetrates and reveals
man’s innermost being. It penetrates
his soul, it penetrates his spirit just as
a sharp sword can penetrate a person’s
joints or bone marrow. The latter part
of verse 12 makes the same point us-
ing a third term. The word of God
penetrates man’s heart. It penetrates
our innermost being. This part of the
verse does not mean something dif-
ferent just because heart is used in-
stead of soul or spirit. The thought is
precisely the same despite a different
word being used. So the construction
of verse 12 shows that it was never in-
tended to make a distinction between
soul and spirit in man. Both words
are used probably to add clarity and
emphasis in the same way joints and
marrow are both used.7
5 Robert L. Reymond, A New System-
atic Theology of the Christian Faith,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Pub-
lishers, 1998), 421-422.
6 Paul Ellingworth, NIGTC: Commentary
on Hebrews, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd-
mans, 1993), 263.
7 The attentive reader will realize that
an argument for distinguishing soul
from spirit can still be made even if
one concedes Dr. Reymond’s point.
The writer of Hebrew lists joints and
Vaninger—Continued on page 16
Issue 156
Reisinger—Continued from page 8
The inn—a metaphor for our heart
and conscience—is “took up already,
the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and
there is no room for the law.”
The goal of many Reformed
preachers is to plant Moses in the
believer’s conscience in order to help
him fight and conquer sin. They be-
lieve that God gave the law to curb
sin. Yet that is precisely what the law
cannot do. It cannot help a believer to
fight sin. In fact, the law hinders sanc-
tification. In the fight against sin, the
law takes the wrong side. Paul tells his
Corinthian readers that the law gives
strength to sin.
The sting of death is sin, and the
power of sin is the law. (1 Cor. 15:56,
NIV)
In Romans 7, Paul writes that sin
was dead without the law (v. 8). The
coming of the commandment, instead
of giving life, killed (vv. 9, 10). Sin
used the commandment to declare
Paul guilty and thus to condemn him
to death.
In Romans 5:20, we find Paul’s
classic summary of God’s purpose for
the law. He states that the purpose of
God in giving the law was to make
the “offense abound.” This is the op-
posite of what Covenant Theology
teaches about the purpose of the law.
Moreover the law entered, that
April 2009
the offense might abound. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. (KJV)
If Paul had taught what Covenant
Theology thinks he taught—that God
gave the law to curb sin— then Paul’s
question in Romans 6:1 would not
make sense. Here he responds to an
imaginary, but obvious, objection
to his teaching about the purpose of
the law. Paul’s question in Romans
6:1 seems, on the surface, the logical
conclusion to his “where sin abounds,
grace abounds even more” theology.
What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? (Rom. 6:1, KJV)
Paul realizes that his teaching
on this subject lays him open to the
charge that he is promoting sin. The
obvious course, it would seem, is for
the law to remain so that it can con-
tinue to increase sin. Then, grace can
increase to meet the need, and God
will be glorified. Paul answers this
objection, not by explaining that what
he really meant was that the law aids
in sanctification, but by declaring that
the law does not have that effect on
a person who is dead; i.e. not under
it, and that it therefore is impossible
for sin to reign over a Christian. The
Christian is both “dead to sin,” (v.
2) and “not under the law, but under
grace” (v. 14).
Page 13
We must protect the glorious truth
of our freedom from misunderstand-
ing and abuse. The question is how
to do so. Can we believe that we are
totally free from the law and eternally
secure in Christ and cannot lose our
salvation, and at the same time avoid
a careless, casual attitude toward both
sin and righteousness? In other words,
in escaping from legalism and the
“bondage to the law,” which destroys
the freedom of the gospel, how do we
stay out of an antinomian life style
that also destroys the gospel of grace?
Biblical grace must reign in righteous-
ness or it is not true grace. Paul an-
swers this question for us in both Ro-
mans 6–8 and Galatians 5:13–26. He
calls the fruit of true liberty “walking
in the Spirit” and the abuse of liberty
“walking in the flesh.”
In Galatians 5:1, Paul exhorted
his readers to stand fast in their lib-
erty and to not become tangled in
the bondage of the law. In 5:13, Paul
shows that Christians can destroy
their liberty in ways other than by suc-
cumbing to legalism. Please note that
legalism, as we are using it here, does
not describe the attitude of a Christian
who earnestly seeks to please God,
but uses the law as a means to that
end. A sincere desire to please God is
not legalism. Nor does it cause legal-
ism. Legalism results from the actual
Reisinger—Continued on page 18

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August 5-8, 2009 Doctrinal Conference
The featured guest speaker will be Dr. Thomas J. Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology at the Southern Baptist
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For more information see our website at www.ptsco.org or contact us by email: info@ptsco.org;
Office 719-434-4872; Cell 719-930-3690
Page 14
McMillin—Continued from page 3
law or the Prophets. I did not come
to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17).
Those dead in sin and under the law
need a perfect obedience in order for
forgiveness to come. We cannot jus-
tify ourselves by the works of the law,
for our mind “…is not subject to the
law of God, nor indeed can be” (Rom
8:7). Paul, godly Paul, said this: “I
delight in the law of God according to
the inward man. But I see another law
in my members warring against the
law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members” (Rom 7:22, 23).
But so straight was the path of
the Just One that without a blush he
could say: “…I do nothing of Myself;
but as the Father taught Me, I speak
these things. And He who sent Me is
with Me. The Father has not left Me
alone, for I always do those things
which please Him” (John 8:28b, 29)
The Jews accused Christ of breaking
the law in healing the paralyzed man
at Bethsada, “But Jesus answered
them, ‘My Father has been working
until now, and I have been working”’
(John 5:17). Theirs was a single divine
purpose and a single divine work. His
was an unsullied obedience and ful-
filled every jot and tittle of the law.
The third way in which he emp-
tied himself, which I want to touch
on, is his dependency. He said: “I
can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I
judge; and My judgment is righteous,
because I do not seek My own will
but the will of the Father who sent
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April 2009
Me” (John 5:30), The 19th verse of
the same chapter reads: “… Most as-
suredly, I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He sees
the Father do; for whatever He does,
the Son also does in like manner.” He
ascribed the authority of his message
to his Father in John 14:10. In John
6:57 we learn that he was sent by the
Father and lived because of his Fa-
ther. John 12:49, 50 ascribe his mes-
sage and its authority to grant eternal
life to have come from his Father. In
Matthew 12:28 the Lord ascribed his
power to cast out demons to the Spirit
of God and that it manifested God’s
kingdom come down upon man.
Why do I bring these things out?
Because some might ask: “If he was
God, why did he pray before He
raised Lazarus?”
It is because he was dependent
upon God the Father and the Spirit of
God. It is because they had not emp-
tied themselves of the manifestation of
their divine attributes and used them
fully, while he had humbled himself as
a true man for a time. Willingly, hum-
bly he laid aside personal glory and its
privilege, to glorify his Father. “I have
glorified You on the earth. I have fin-
ished the work which You have given
Me to do” (John 17:4).
That is why he is the ultimate ex-
ample of the praying man.
We can see the priority he gave
to prayer in his plans for each day
in Mark 1:35: “Now in the morn-
ing, having risen a long while before
Issue 156
daylight, He went out and departed to
a solitary [deserted] place; and there
He prayed.” I think this shows that he
had entered into a time of prayer to
seek his Father’s will in his ministry.
He had been ministering in Caper-
naum with great success. His doctrine
astounded the people (v. 22). He cast
out a demon who witnessed who he
was. He became famous in Galilee (v.
28), and the whole city was gathered
at the door (v. 33). The next day the
disciples looked for him and upon
finding him said, “Everyone is looking
for You” (v. 37).
If we ever had success like that, we
would be most reluctant to leave and
go to another place. “But He said to
them, ‘Let us go into the next towns,
that I may preach there also, because
for this purpose I have come forth”’
(v. 38). Why was Christ of such a dif-
ferent purpose from his disciples? Be-
cause in prayer his mind was fixed on
his Father’s purpose.
In Luke 6:12b we are told of a day
on which the Lord “… went out to a
mountain to pray and continued all
night in prayer to God.” Then it states
this: “And when it was day, He called
His disciples to Himself; and from
them He chose twelve whom He also
named apostles:” (v. 13).
There can be no question I think,
that having been made like us in all
points—yet without sin—that he
would not make great decisions with-
out prayerfully seeking his Father’s
will in them. What a mystery, but also,
ON
C R IPTI AL
S W
SUB R/RENE
E
ORD FORM
Issue 156
what a lesson to us who dwell in a
tabernacle of flesh!
One more reference I want to
mention is in Luke 23, verse 46. But
before I do, do you remember the ut-
terance from our Lord on the cross?
Matthew records it in 27:46, “… Jesus
cried out with a loud voice, saying,
… ‘My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?’” And the heavens
were silent, the voice of God did not
answer as at other times. Faith alone
must sustain him. Did he despair
when heaven remained silent, when
the curse of God upon our sin-bearer
restrained God from speaking comfort
to his son? No, as his life ended he
again cried with a loud voice: ‘“Fa-
ther, into Your hands I commit My
Spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed
His last” (Luke 23:46).
It was not enough to satisfy his
soul to just say, “I rest in the promises
of God.” No, he wouldn’t die without
reminding God of his faithfulness and
that that alone was what he trusted in.
Can we afford to not follow his ex-
ample?
In John 11:41a we read: “Then
they took away the stone from the
place where the dead man was lying.”
Look into the tomb and see Lazarus’
still form and smell the stench of
death. As he lies, so will we someday.
As the odor of death issues from the
tomb, so it will from our last earthly
abode. As corruption had begun its
work in his body, so it will do to us.
As we said in an earlier lesson, the
scene is one so common in the world
and mankind has no answer, no solu-
tion for a world that sorrows without
hope.
But listen to the words of Jesus
which follow in John 11:41b: “Father,
You can tell how big a person is
April 2009
I thank You that You have heard Me.”
When had he spoken to his Father?
We considered three references con-
cerning the prayers recorded when he
faced difficult circumstances. There
are other prayers of his recorded, but
are they his only times of prayer? To
answer that question let’s look at 1
Thessolians 5:17-18: “pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus for you.” Does God command
us to do what Christ did not do? No,
Jesus prayed without ceasing. Did not
he pray as he approached the tomb
groaning in Spirit, (vs. 33, 38) and
when He wept, (v. 35). Would we dare
to say that these thoughts and these
emotions were not shared with the
Father of whom in verse 42 he says,
“I know that You always hear Me.” I
think the Son of God communed with
God every moment of every day he
spent on this sin-wracked earth. Af-
ter all, he “… continued in prayer all
night.”
I want to close out this little lesson
with the last two phrases of verse 42.
In the first phrase he said that this
prayer, these words, were uttered
because of the people standing there.
In John 17:4 we read a statement that
he would soon make as he uttered his
high priestly prayer for his people. Je-
sus said: “I have glorified You on the
earth. I have finished the work which
You have given Me to do.” His whole
purpose in life was to glorify his Fa-
ther and being a true man, he would
not attempt to do that without prayer.
Jesus looked upon the people of
the world with compassion for they
were like sheep without a shepherd
and he was that great shepherd of the
sheep. It was for the people’s sake that
he prayed audibly. Every day should
by what it takes to discourage him.
Page 15
start with a prayer to God that as he
always heard Christ, so his ear would
be open to our cry. And that is his
promise to us, for Isaiah writes of God
in chapter 65, verse 24: “It shall come
to pass that before they call, I will
answer; and while they are still speak-
ing, I will hear.”
Zechariah’s prophecy gives a
graphic picture of God’s pleasure in
our prayers and their necessity for
the safety and comfort of our soul.
Speaking of particular redemption, the
Lord says in 13:8, 9: “’And it shall
come to pass in all the land’, says the
Lord,’that two-thirds shall be cut off
and die, but one-third shall be left in
it: I will bring the one-third through
the fire, will refine them as silver is
refined, and test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name and I will
answer them.’ I will say, ‘this is My
people;’ and each one will say, ‘The
Lord is my God.’” The picture is of
father and child, the father correct-
ing and disciplining the child in love
and teaching him wisdom. When old
enough to understand it, the child sees
that the unpleasant things have turned
out for good. In difficulty the child
learns to call on the father first and
the father waits for the child’s voice,
always ready to answer. “This is my
son’s voice” he says “…and so he
calls for me in his need.”
What a treasure prayer is, a gift
to us from God, who sets himself to
hear that cry, when it is but a thought.
Christ said, “…I know that you al-
ways hear Me, but because of the
people who are standing by I said this,
that they may believe that You sent
Me” (John 11:42).
“He who says he abides in Him
ought himself also to walk just as He
walked” (1 John 2:6). Ω
Page 16
Vaninger—Continued from page 12
Thirdly, if we get out our exhaus-
tive concordance and do a little dig-
ging, we find out that the words soul,
spirit and heart are frequently used in
the same or very similar way. Word
studies show that these words are all
frequently used to refer to man’s in-
nermost being and that it is impossible
to write distinct definitions of these
terms based on biblical statements.
So where do people get their defini-
tions of soul, spirit, heart, mind and
other similar anthropological terms? I
can tell you this; not from the Bible!
Its helps to have a fertile imagina-
tion and from what I can tell a large
dose of pop-psychology. These are
ordinary words. They each have their
own range of meanings. While not
totally synonymous, there is a large
overlap in their meanings. Forcing
each of these terms to fit into a box
of our own making is a mistake. And
these forced definitions can be proven
wrong from the Bible itself. The Bible
was written for ordinary people and
uses ordinary language. It uses com-
mon words in an ordinary way for the
most part. It is not a scientific treatise
or philosophical textbook where each
term has a single precise definition. A
good-natured, healthy skepticism can
serve us well at times. We should not
take another’s word for it when we
are dealing with our understanding
the Bible. As the Bereans, we need to
prove all things from Scripture.
Our writer has just completed an
exposition of Psalm 95 and is now
in verses 12 and 13 reflecting on the
penetrating power of God’s word.
He fully expects to see the passage
marrow which are distinct parts of
man’s physical body. Thus, one could
argue, when he lists soul and spirit
in the same context, they by analogy
should be thought of as distinct parts
of man’s spiritual makeup. The issue
can only be decided by how the terms
soul and spirit are used in Scripture.
Thus the following point carries the
most weight.
April 2009
he has just expounded from the Old
Testament have a profound effect on
his readers. His purpose is to apply
David’s warning regarding the fatal
results of unbelief and rebellion to
his own generation. There is no hint
anywhere in this passage that he is
attempting to teach the fine points of
what theologians call ‘anthropology’
(the doctrine of human nature). We
have no warrant in attempting to use
this passage as a ‘proof text’ of any
theory of man’s nature.
Therefore, since we have a great
high priest who has gone through the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold firmly to the faith we profess (He-
brews 4:14).
This verse is the beginning of a
very long section in Hebrews about
Christ’s role as high-priest. It does
not end until about half way through
chapter 9 and thus is almost 5 chapters
long. It is clearly an important subject
for the writer. Because of the great
interest shown in the priesthood of
Christ, some have suggested that our
author had been a priest himself and
thus had great knowledge and insight
into the whole concept of the priest-
hood and priestly duties.
It has been suggested that Barn-
abas is the author. Barnabas was
Paul’s companion on his first mis-
sionary journey and we are told in
Acts that he was a Levite. There is no
way of knowing for certain but it is
very likely that our author had been
a Levite or a Priest before becoming
a Christian. Luke tells us in Acts that
many Jewish priests became Chris-
tians (Acts 6:7). They, more than any-
one, would have been able to appreci-
ate those changes that occurred with
the coming of the Messiah. They had
the incredible privilege of seeing their
life’s work take on a whole new and
better meaning and significance.
So the author could have been any
one of these or someone else who was
learned in the Old Testament Scrip-
tures. The high-priest theme is seen
Issue 156
several times earlier in Hebrews (1:3,
2:17, 3:1) but now our writer begins
a comprehensive exposition of the
theme.
Verse 14 alludes to 1:3 where we
read concerning Christ that, “when
He had by Himself purged our sins,
sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high” Christ is called our
great high priest. This would have
great significance for Jewish readers.
In the Old Testament, the priest was
the only official access the common
man had to God. The priests offered
sacrifices to God on behalf of the
Jewish worshippers or presided over
sacrifices that the worshipper himself
performed. The high priest was the
only one who had access to the Holy
of Holies which represented the very
presence of God. How could a sinner
approach the Almighty and thrice holy
Creator God during the Old Covenant
era? Only through the priesthood and
especially the high priest. Designating
Jesus Christ as the great high priest
implies that Christ has replaced and
superseded the Old Testament priest-
hood and all the associated ritual.
While only implied here, this truth
is stated explicitly in chapters 7-9 of
Hebrews.
The Levitical priesthood was given
to Israel as part of the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 8:13 says it as clear as can
be: the New Covenant has made the
Old Covenant obsolete. It’s not com-
ing back; not during a future millen-
nium or any other time. And this is
perhaps why our writer devotes almost
5 chapters to the priesthood of Christ.
The coming of the Messiah and the
New Covenant brought about dra-
matic changes for the devout Jew who
had been faithfully observing Mosaic
Law, participating in the Levitical rit-
uals, bringing animal sacrifices to the
temple, making pilgrimages to Jeru-
salem, and observing the solemn Day
of Atonement when the High Priest
entered the Holy of Holies with the
blood of a young bull. All of that was
Issue 156
swept away. All the symbols and shad-
ows and types of the Old Covenant
are gone – gone forever – the rituals,
the sacrifices, the altars, the priests,
and the Levitical high priest. All were
superseded by the spiritual realities
that they were symbols of. That would
have been difficult for many Jewish
people to understand and adjust to.
Our writer makes a key state-
ment in 8:6 which is certainly one
of the most important statements in
Hebrews. He is speaking of the high
priesthood of Christ and comparing it
to the ministry of the Levitical priest-
hood that it superseded. Then he says
this,
But the ministry Jesus has received
is as superior to theirs as the covenant
of which he is mediator is superior to
the old one and it is founded on better
promises.
Yes, everything has changed. All
the old has been swept away by the
new. But here is his point. The new
is not just different from the old;
the new is better than the old. The
ministry of Christ as high priest is
better than, more excellent than, the
ministry of the Old Testament priests
because Christ is the mediator of a
better covenant. Better because it is
established on better promises than
the old covenant. This is the kernel of
the message of Hebrews. This verse
summarizes the message of the entire
13 chapters in just 25 words.
The words “who has gone through
the heavens” probably refers to the
ascension of Christ into heaven. The
Old Testament priests presided over
sacrifices offered to God here on earth
at the altar in the temple. The high
priest ‘approached’ God by entering
into the Holy of Holies which repre-
sented the presence of God. But the
great high priest Jesus Christ has truly
ascended into heaven – into the real
Holy of Holies – into the very pres-
ence of Almighty God. The Jewish
priests, the Jewish altars, the Jewish
temple, the Holy of Holies – all these
April 2009
were physical types of spiritual truths
and realities. The sacrifice of Christ,
his resurrection, and his ascension into
heaven in order to present his sacrifice
to God the Father is the real thing
that the types prefigured.
It is helpful to compare the words
“let us hold firmly to the faith we pro-
fess” to Hebrews 10:23,
Let us hold unswervingly to the
hope we profess, for he who promised
is faithful.
The thought in 10:23 is, let us
be faithful because Jesus Christ our
High Priest is faithful. In both verses,
the thought is not so much to cling
desperately to your salvation lest you
lose it but rather to maintain our con-
fidence and assurance in God’s salva-
tion in view of Christ’s faithfulness to
his promise to us.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we
are – yet was without sin (Hebrews
4:15).
There are several other verses in
the New Testament that also state that
Christ was without sin:
2 Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin for us”
1 John 3:5 “In Him there is no
sin”
1 Peter 2:22 “Who committed no
sin…”
Heb. 7:26 “one who is holy,
blameless, pure, set apart from sin-
ners”
It is very significant that Paul, John
and Peter all state this important truth
so simply and clearly.
Let us then approach the throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help
us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
To the Jewish reader of the 1st cen-
tury, this was a new opportunity. For
1500 years, the Hebrew people were
excluded from the presence of God
Page 17
(symbolically). They were excluded
from the Holy of Holies which was
the symbol of the very presence of
God. We know (and they knew) that
the Almighty Creator of the universe
did not really dwell in the Temple in
Jerusalem. But, now for the first time,
they could approach the very throne
of God. Again this is a symbol. Our
writer is using figurative language.
Believers do not literally walk up to a
physical throne where God is seated.
So, what does the writer mean then?
What does he mean when he tells his
readers they can come to the throne of
grace?
The New Covenant believer has a
much closer relationship to the Lord
than during the Old Covenant era.
Old Testament believers approached
God through ritual and sacrifices. For
them, God was behind the veil in the
inner-most room of the temple. They
could not approach past the outer
court. God was symbolically in the
Holy of Holies where they could not
enter. The true Old Testament believer
“knew” God but they knew him large-
ly through types, shadows and rituals.
New Covenant believers now have
access to God in a more complete and
better way.
It is interesting to compare verse
16 to the first eleven verses of the
chapter. In both cases, our writer bor-
rows very powerful and meaningful
images from the Old Testament. In
the first part of the chapter, he repeat-
edly uses the image of rest, both the
rest Israel achieved when they entered
the Promised Land and also the Sab-
bath day rest they enjoyed at the end
of each week. This image would have
been very meaningful to the Hebrew
people who were very conscious of
their history. They never forgot that
they had been slaves in Egypt for
hundreds of years and that the Exodus
was redemption from that slavery (see
Deut. 6:21). One purpose of the Sab-
bath day was to perpetually remind
Vaninger—Continued on page 18
Page 18
Vaninger—Continued from page 17
them of their redemption from slavery
in Egypt. In the first 11 verses of this
chapter, we saw that our writer very
skillfully shows that the Old Testa-
ment concept of rest was a picture of
salvation in Christ. Salvation in Christ
is deliverance from the slavery of sin.
Salvation in Christ is also resting from
our own efforts to be righteous before
a Holy God.
Now in verse 16, our writer uses
another powerful image that also
would have been very meaningful to
any Jewish person who was familiar
with their history and ritual obser-
vances. Exodus 25 speaks of the con-
struction of the Ark of the Covenant
and the Mercy Seat both of which
were in the Holy of Holies initially in
the tabernacle and later in the temple.
The law books of Moses were to be
placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.
And the Mercy Seat was to be placed
on top of the Ark. Exodus 25:22 and
Exodus 30:6 tell us the mercy seat
of God was the point of contact with
God. The Lord would speak to Israel
from the mercy seat. In reality, God
met with Israel at the mercy seat
through their representative, the
high priest.
There is a lot going on here that
would be worth meditating on. The
Ark of the Covenant was in the Holy
of Holies where only the high priest
could approach and then only once
a year. Inside the Ark was the Law
of Moses with its hundreds of laws
and statutes that proved to be Israel’s
downfall throughout her history. All
very forbidding and intimidating.
Yet on top of the Ark was the
Mercy Seat of God. Don’t you won-
der what the people of Israel thought
about all this? Was the God they
worshipped a righteous, thrice-Holy
God who hated and punished sin? Or
was he a merciful, loving God who
forgave sin? Or was God somehow,
some way both? Holy and just on the
one hand but merciful and loving on
April 2009
the other hand? There was a tension
there that persisted throughout the en-
tire Old Covenant era. Could God be
both? How could God be both?
That tension was of course won-
derfully resolved at the cross where
the thrice-Holy God punished sin and
at the same time had great mercy on
the sinner. The holiness and justice
of God converge at the cross with the
love and mercy of God. The cross
made sense out of everything that pre-
ceded it. The cross brought the many
themes of the Old Testament into
sharp focus. The cross was the climax
of the historical progression of God’s
plan of redemption through the ages.
So in Hebrews 4 we have two
powerful images. The first, having
to do with entering God’s rest (the
Promised Land), is a picture of salva-
tion. Our writer is intent on exhorting
any of his readers who have not yet
believed on Christ to enter into that
rest. The second image has to do with
entering the Holy of Holies, very pres-
ence of God and boldly approaching
the throne of grace. This image is a
picture of the believer’s relationship
to God. Entering the promised land of
Canaan and approaching the throne
of grace are two powerful images;
two types of spiritual realties fully re-
vealed in the New Covenant era.
The expression “throne of grace”
occurs nowhere else in the Bible, Old
Testament or New Testament. In a
marvelous revelation of spiritual in-
sight directly from God himself, our
writer created this wonderful expres-
sion. Only three words, yet it says
so much. For the believer, the throne
of God is not a judgment seat but a
throne of grace. For this reason, we
can approach this throne with confi-
dence rather than fear. Ω
Issue 156
Reisinger—Continued from page 13
misuse of the law. Nor does legalism
in any sense diminish the goodness of
the law. There is nothing wrong with
God’s holy law. Woe to the person
who disparages the holy law that God
wrote on stone with his finger. We
must, however, use the law properly,
as the author of the letter to Timothy
explains.
The goal of this command is love,
which comes from a pure heart and a
good conscience and a sincere faith.
Some have wandered away from these
and turned to meaningless talk. They
want to be teachers of the law, but
they do not know what they are talk-
ing about or what they so confidently
affirm.
We know that the law is good if one
uses it properly. We also know that law
is made not for the righteous but for
lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly
and sinful, the unholy and irreligious;
for those who kill their fathers or
mothers, for murderers, for adulterers
and perverts, for slave traders and
liars and perjurers—and for whatever
else is contrary to the sound doctrine
that conforms to the glorious gospel of
the blessed God, which he entrusted to
me. (1 Tim. 1:5–11, NIV)
Note that these words imply that
there is a right and wrong use of the
law for the Christian. The author does
not explicitly explain what constitutes
the proper or improper use of the law,
but he spells out in detail whom the
law is for. It is not for the righteous.
Righteousness comes by faith, not by
performing works of the law. There-
fore, it is wrong to make the law our
“savior or judge,” as Bunyan affirmed.
However, it is not wrong for us to al-
low the law to “instruct our minds,”
as long as we filter that instruction
through the New Covenant. The final,
authoritative, yardstick that validates
any truth or law for the child of God is
the gospel. Sound doctrine is doctrine
that conforms to the glorious gospel of
the blessed God. Every truth that we
Reisinger—Continued on page 19
Issue 156
White—Continued from page 7
of Christ, which is the power of God
for salvation (Rom 1:16-17)!
Evangelism, as with all acts of
worship, is always a response to di-
vine revelation. Because of what God
has done for us in Christ, we should
be eager to let others know about this
good news. We were once children of
wrath (Eph 2:1-3), blinded by the god
of this age (2 Cor 4:4), but the Holy
Spirit removed the blinders (Acts
16:14), and we trusted in Christ, by
whom the wrath of God has been pro-
pitiated (Rom 3:21-26). We should be
controlled by the love of Christ, be-
cause he has reconciled us to God and
given us the ministry of reconciliation
(2 Cor 5:14-18). The apostles, and by
extension, the church has been called
to be ambassadors for Christ, so that
God makes his appeal through us (2
Cor 5:20). It is shameful that we are
ashamed to share this infinitely good
news.
Our culture is becoming increas-
ingly pluralistic, and any exclusive
claims are frowned upon. Scripture
is clear that there is no salvation, no
access to God apart from Jesus Christ
(Acts 4:12, 1 Tim 2:5, John 14:6). Je-
sus is the true temple (John 2:19-21);
Reisinger—Continued from page 18
accept as sound doctrine and part of
our rule of life must conform to that
gospel.
In Galatians 5:13, Paul begins
to unpack the nature of true gospel
freedom. He describes true liberty
in terms of, (1) manifesting itself in
service to my brothers and sisters in
genuine love, (2) subduing the flesh
by the grace of God and the power
of the Holy Spirit, and (3) joyfully
seeking to obey the law of love. In
our next article, we will follow Paul’s
argument about living in the liberty
of conscience to the glory of God’s
grace. Ω
April 2009 Page 19
As NT scholar David Peterson notes, Conclusion
“The glorified Lord Jesus is the new The need of our day is a Christ-
point of contact between heaven and centered, gospel-loving, missional
earth for people of every race with- people who are zealous to see our
out distinction.”7 God’s people are
Triune God exalted in the salvation of
also the true temple by virtue of their sinners. This article has briefly walked
union with Christ (2 Cor 6:16-18, 1
through the story-line of Scripture
Cor 3:16, 6:19, 1 Pet 2:5-9, Eph 2:19- focusing on Adam and Israel, and then
22). There is a sense in which we now
showing that God’s new covenant
inherit the roles of Adam and Israel of community is uniquely called in this
old and are mandated to spread God’s
period of redemptive history to be
presence by living and proclaiming missional. The church must take a
the gospel. Greg Beale writes, “We
missionary posture in our current con-
are to realize that the Church’s place text in post-Christian America. We are
in the eschatological redemptive-
united to Christ, empowered by the
historical story is that of being the Holy Spirit, and called to proclaim the
inaugurated temple, which is designed
gospel of God until Christ returns.9 Ω
to expand and spread God’s presence
throughout the earth. This is that part
9 Six books that are particularly helpful
of the biblical storyline in which the for the task of personal evangelism
role of Christian ‘witness’ and ‘mis- are: Mark Dever, The Gospel and
sions’ is to be understood.”8 As God Personal Evangelism (Wheaton:
regenerates and fills the hearts of his Crossway Books, 2007); Will Metzger,
elect, his presence is expanding. The Tell the Truth (Downers Grove, IL:
church, as a kingdom of priests (1 Pet InterVarsity Press, 2002); J.I. Packer,
2:9), is a steward of this precious gos- Evangelism and the Sovereignty of
God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
pel and too often Christians are more
Press, 1961); Randy Newman, Ques-
concerned about their “personal peace tioning Evangelism (Grand Rapids:
and affluence” than with dying people Kregal, 2004); Mark Driscoll, The
and the glory of Christ. Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2004); D.A. Carson, ed.,
7 Peterson, Engaging with God, 143. Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Post-
8 Beale, “Eden, the Temple, and the moderns (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
Church’s Mission,” 30. 2000).
LETTERS:
To all who labor so faithfully in getting out the Sound of Grace paper; I
thank you in Jesus’ name for your labor.
May the Lord bless the word as it goes out. Keep up the good messages.
KK
Enclosed you will find my check covering the cost of my current subscrip-
tion to Sound of Grace. Please congratulate Pastor John Reisinger on his
series on Galatians. I anxiously await each new installment. I hope that
when he completes Galatians that he will move on to another book of the
New Testament.
Thank you very much
LJK
We enjoyed the last Sound of Grace so much. I think each one gets better.
FS
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