All of that was great, and I am so thankful and blessed for my upbringing, but the Old Testament was always a disconnect for me to the Gospel and the New testament. I wasn’t ever taught false doctrine but I believe that the emphasis was put in the wrong place. As far as I knew, Jesus’ life was just another story of the Bible among others like Daniel, Abraham, David, Esther, etc. You get the idea.

My friend recently described it as if you were given a box full of parts and told to assemble them not knowing that you were supposed to be building a motorcycle.

I think that this comes from an over emphasis on “Bible Study.”  I am not saying that there is anything wrong with Bible study or having a good hermeneutical foundation. Obviously, these are important for context so we don’t miss the original meaning and message. We correctly exegete the word and do not perform the big no no of eisegesis.

When Paul the Apostle refers to the Gospel or sometimes even “the Mystery” he isn’t just talking about the “The Romans Road” or some easy steps to understanding salvation. When Paul uses these terms he is talking big picture; he is looking at the whole story of historical redemption. He is thinking of Creation to New Creation and everything in between. This is where a proper understanding of the Old testament fits in. All the stories, and historical events of the Old Testament are pointing forward to something greater – to some one greater! Jesus himself said to the religious leaders and students of his day:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

- John 5:39-40

You see Jesus himself is the great theme and story of the Bible; all other stories point to him! I want to share seven ways to get to Christ from the Old Testament. Hopefully these will help you avoid the mistake that I (and others) have made as you study the scriptures.

Vaya Con Dios

1.  Redemptive-Historical progression

• Redemptive-historical progression trace God’s history with the world from his good creation (Gen 1), to the human fall into sin and God’s plan of redemption through the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15), to a long history of God continuing the line of the seed of the woman (Gen 3- Malachi), to Christ (the Gospels), the Church (Acts and the New Testament Letters), and finally to the new creation (Rev 22).
• In other words, in the bible we can trace a continuous redemptive history which centers in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who then ascends to rule his church from heaven until he comes again. Creation to New Creation.

2.  Promise Fulfillment

• If the text contains a promise of the coming Messiah, then you can easily move to the New Testament to show the ultimate fulfillment of the promise in Jesus Christ.
• Example: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.” – Gen 49:10
• Show the fulfillment in Matthew 1:1-17 Jesus Christ, the king of kings born of the tribe of Judah and the House of David.

3. Typology

• Old Testament events, persons, or institutions can function as types which foreshadow the great Antitype – the person and work of Jesus Christ.
• Examples: The fall of adam and eve adam is the human race’s representative, he prefigures Christ the Second Adam, who also is a representative of a New human race.
• The ark, the tabernacle, the rock in the wilderness, Joshua, King David…etc

4. Analogy

• Analogy exposes parallels between what God taught israel and what Christ promises the Church; what God demanded of Israel (the Law) and what Christ demands of his Church.
• Example: Genesis 12:1-9 Israel must claim Canaan for the Glory of God; in the New Testament Jesus mandates his Church to claim all nations for God (Matt 28:18-20)

5. Longitudinal Themes

• Although similar to redemptive-historical progression in some ways, it is distinct in focusing on the development of theological ideas rather than development in redemptive history. Longitudinal themes refers to themes that can be traced through the scriptures from the Old Testament to the New – Themes such as God’s coming kingdom, God’s covenant, God’s redemption, God’s presence, God’s love, God’s faithfulness, God’s grace, God’s judgment, God’s providence.
• Every major Old Testament theme leads to Christ

6. New Testament Reference

• The New Testament reference makes a direct bridge to Christ.
• Example: God created his good creation by his powerful “word”; John in his gospel tells us that that “Word” is Jesus Christ (John 1:1,3)

7. Contrast

• Because of the coming of Christ the text’s message for the contemporary Church may be quite different from the original message for Israel. So we preach by contrast.
• Example: circumcision was a commanded by God for every Jew; but for us we know that Christ is our circumcision and circumcision is a heart issue. Circumcision was the outward sign of the Old covenant, but in Christ baptism is the sign of the New Covenant- which is an outward expression that we have died with Christ and have been raised with him to new life.. So we contrast the the Old and the New.

He was not rushing to the cross or running away from it, but willingly submitting to the Father’s ultimate timing.

I often think of how Jesus must have felt during His earthly years and ministry. Did He desire to be back with the Father? Did He do His ministry and work at the appropriate time or was He distracted by getting to the cross? The answer is no. We see Him constantly telling His disciples and followers not to fully declare who He is until the appointed time. In these instance, Jesus is being obedient to the time and place in which the Spirit was leading Him according to the Father’s will. He was not rushing to the cross or running away from it, but willingly submitting to the Father’s ultimate timing.

I am not saying either that you should and will be in complete bliss in every season of your life. Every place the Lord moves you will never be perfect and will often not feel right. As Christians we are wanderers, which means your life will be uncomfortable if you call Jesus Lord. Every memory I have of past trips, travels, or wanderings it is consistently uncomfortable after a certain point in time. Home is desired and uncomfortableness can really set in. I imagine Jesus was very uncomfortable during his earthly ministry, but He did it anyway to make a relationship with us possible.

I would encourage you to be motivated by Jesus’ actions. To be present in your situation, place, life, and city. Just as Jesus was present with his disciples, followers, and ministry. The Father’s timing in your life is purposeful, which means you are exactly where He wants you right now. Do not be apathetic and look ahead when you can do great things for Jesus now. Jesus did not come and die for you so you can passively look for and hope in a better season in your life. Your hope should be fully on Jesus and His return, and doing everything you can now to grow His kingdom and usher His return.

Paul says if Christ is not risen, Our preaching is in vain, your faith is in vain, we are misrepresenting God, we are still in our sins, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished, and we are of all men the most pitiful.

The resurrection is an essential part of the Gospel. Many people today object to the resurrection… Dead men don’t rise they say. This doctrine is under attack in among the so called higher criticism camp. It is so important that we know what the Bible says about the resurrection, what secular history affirms about the resurrection, and what Jesus’ resurrection means.

1. What do we mean by resurrection?

a. When we talk about resurrection we aren’t simply talking about revivification. Revivification occurs when somebody comes back to life again only to die again.

b. Resurrection is a new life after death, a life with an eternal quality.

2. Isn’t resurrection an idea taken from Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian worship?

a. Many people nowadays make the claim that Christianity borrowed the death and resurrection of their God from the surrounding pagan cultures.

i. The idea of resurrection is denied in ancient paganism from Homer to Aeschylus, who wrote, “Once a man has died, and the dust has soaked up his blood, there is no resurrection.”

ii. N.T Wright who is a master on the subject says, “Christianity was born into a world where it’s central claim was known to be false. Many believed that the dead were non-existent; outside Judaism, nobody believed in resurrection.”

iii. Again N.T. Wright sums up the teachings of Cicero who was a roman philosopher. “Cicero is quite clear, and completely in the mainstream of greco-roman thought: the body is a prison-house. A necessary one for the moment; but nobody in their right mind, having got rid of it, would want it or something like it back again. At no point in the spectrum of options about life after death did the ancient pagan world envisage that the denials of Homer, Aeschylus and the rest would be overthrown. Resurrection was not an option. Those who followed Plato or Cicero did not want a body again; those who followed Homer knew they would not get one.”

iv. Although a great majority of ancients believed in life after death: outside of Judaism and Christianity nobody believed in resurrection.

v. Accounts of different deities rising from the dead in other religions were based on the vegetation cycle, or if there was after life it was spiritual and physical. Judaism and Christianity stand alone in regards to resurrection until after the second century. It is believed that many of the mystery religions then borrowed the resurrection idea from Christianity.

vi. Edwin Yamachuai says, “There is no possibility that the idea of a resurrection was borrowed (by Christianity) because there is no definitive evidence for the teaching of a deity resurrection in any of the mystery religions prior to the second century.” What is found in pagan religions is accounts of gods reviving or living on in the underworld – but there is nothing of actual bodily resurrection.

3. The Biblical Evidence of Jesus Resurrection

a. The scriptures foretold it. – Isaiah 53; Psalm 16

i. After Isaiah speaks of the suffering and death of the Servant of Jehovah he says this, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.”

ii. Likewise psalm 16:11 “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

b. Jesus foretold his death, burial and resurrection:

i. Mark 8:31-32 “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly.”

ii. Mark 9:30-31“They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”

iii. Mark 10:33-34 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

c. Jesus died on the cross: Fact!

i. No swooning. No possibility of reviving.

1. He had no sleep the night prior to his death, He was beaten multiple times, Roman scourging – which often killed a man, beaten again, a crown of thorns pressed into his skull, nailed to the cross by a professional executioner, a spear pierced his side and into his heart – outflowed blood and water, he was wrapped in over a hundred pounds of spices and linens, and laid in a tomb with no medical attention. Jesus died.

d. Buried in a well known tomb:

i. If he didn’t really rise people could have checked it out… The body was gone, the tomb was empty.

e. Jesus was seen alive by many witnesses:

i. 1 Corinthians 15 declares that Jesus Christ was seen alive from the dead by Peter, and the twelve (apostles, including Matthias) to over 500 brothers at one time, he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles, then Paul says that he appeared to him as well.

f. He was declared to be alive from the dead and “The Lord” by his family and skeptics.

i. Jesus’s brothers James and Jude, as well as his mother Mary worshipped Him as God. Formally they thought He was out of His mind, but not after they saw Him risen from the dead.

ii. Finally Paul the Apostle was the most unlikely convert. He persecuted the church, he caused people to blaspheme the name of Jesus, and thought that he was working for God in persecuting Jesus name. What happened to this man that Changed Him so much???? He saw Jesus Christ alive from the dead.

g. These are only a few facts we find in the Bible for Jesus resurrection.

4. Historical evidence of Jesus resurrection:

a. Josephus – “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.”

b. Suetonius – refers to the persecutions under Nero and indirectly refers to the resurrection. “punishment was inflicted on the christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition (the resurrection).

c. Pliny the Younger – “I have never been present at an examination of Christians. Consequently, I do not know the nature of the extent of the punishments usually meted out to them, nor the grounds for starting an investigation and how far it should be pressed… They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day (Sunday in remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection) to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god.”

i. The Christians are recorded as meeting on Sunday- the day Jesus rose from the dead.

d. Jewish Opponents: claimed that the body of Jesus was stolen, thus admitting the fact of the empty tomb. This explanation is unsupported for the following reasons:

i. The tomb was closed with an enormous rock and sealed by the government, and there is no explanation for how the rock was moved while being guarded by armed roman soldiers.

ii. If the body had been stolen a large ransom could have been offered the thieves, and they could have been coerced to produce the body. Or if it had been taken by the disciples, then the torture and death they suffered should have been sufficient to return the body.

iii. Even if the body was stolen, how are we to account for the fact that jesus appeared to multiple crowds of people, proving that he was alive? The theft of the body is unlikely and still does not account for Jesus returning back to life.

e. These are secular sources that stand in agreement with what the scripture confirms.

5. The Resurrection Affirms:

a. If Jesus in fact rose from the dead: it carries huge implications.

i. Romans 1:3-4 says, “concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. – the resurrection affirms Christ deity.

b. If Jesus in fact rose from the dead: it is proof that He is God, therefore, he should be feared worshipped and obeyed….

c. If Jesus Christ rose from the dead: then he is not to be compared with the other great men of earth. Jesus is unique. He is not on an equal playing field with, Mohammed, Vishnu, Buddha or any other icon or religious leader, because He alone has risen from the dead!

d. Jesus didn’t just come back from the dead: The bible states that Jesus went through death, defeated it, and came out the other side victorious! He did not rise from the dead to die again, but rose to never die again. Also Christ rose not with his same body but a glorified body; walking through doors and walls, disappearing and reappearing, and then finally ascending into the heavens in a cloud.

Conclusion: There are other theories we could consider like the swoon theory or the twin theory or the hallucination by the disciples theory but these are absurd in the face of so much evidence. “Anyone who denies this explanation is rationally obligated to produce a more plausible cause Jesus’ resurrection and to explain how it happened.” -William Lane Craig.

Vaya con Dios!

Here are three specific take aways form the Last Supper as seen in Scripture.

1. Fulfillment of Prophecy

From the time of the Hebrews exodus from the land of Egypt and slavery Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread has been celebrated. In Exodus 12 the first Feast of Unleavened Bread is celebrated during the night when the plague of the death of the Firstborn. Later in the Law (Lev.23), the Israelites are instructed to celebrate the feast annually for the purpose of transmitting to future generations the significance of the the pivotal event in their past.

The last time Jesus and the twelve disciples celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread (they had celebrated it together three times previous), the night took on a special significance. During the meal Jesus halts the normal progression of the evening at the third cup and changes the multi-millennia old tradition. He brings a sense of chronology to the meal. He stops there and states that the the wine represents His blood. The whole Passover meal, though it commemorated an event in history, was in a reality a prophetic retelling of the plan of redemption of all people, not only the Jews. Jesus was explaining to the disciples where they presently were in the larger context of redemption.

2. Establishment of a New Feast

Jesus halted the meal at the third cup of Passover, referred to as the Cup of Redemption. Jesus equated the Cup of Redemption with His work on the Cross. The third Cup represented His own blood poured out as the sufficient sacrifice necessary to appease the judgement of God, just as the blood of the innocent lamb in antiquity placated the Angel of the Lord’s necessity to exact judgment on the first born.

This is the institution of communion, a memorial remembrance of the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ which allows the judgment of God to passover those are covered by it. This is what is remembered every time believers “take communion”. We are essentially re-enacting the larger symbol of the Passover in its keystone symbol: the Cup of Redemption.

3. The Promise of a Feast to Come

Jesus stated at the institution of communion, the remembrance of His sacrifice, that He would not drink wine again until He did in the Kingdom with His disciples (Matt 26:29). We are commanded by Jesus to remember the third Cup of Redemption continually until He returns. He promises to not drink of the vine again until the Kingdom, which will be the fourth cup in the Passover meal: the Cup of Restoration.

The third cup of the Last Supper is the last cup, but there is a promised cup yet to be drunk. The fourth Cup of Restoration should not be forgotten in the Last Supper narrative. It is the promised hope of the return of Jesus and fulfillment of all things. In one sense, the Last Supper is a meal on pause, a meal we continue to remember and celebrate until it picks up again in the Kingdom and the culmination of all things.

In our remembrance of the Last Supper, let’s end not only with a sobering reality of the cross, but also in the sure promise of Jesus return and the fourth cup: the celebratory Cup of Restoration.

The Bible makes it clear, but we often do not like the answer. We often desire a list of actions.  Putting them into a nice list and daily taking stock, checking off actions we feel are completing our role as part of the Church. Unfortunately, thinking like that is unbiblical. What then is Jesus’ work and ministry if it is not a list of actions to accomplish? Jesus’ work and ministry was to simply preach the good news of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 4:17, Mk. 1:15, Lk. 5:43). That’s it. It appears general and that’s because it is. Often when things are defined generally it is difficult to get traction and start going in the right direction. Most of us become frustrated and give up all together. This is big though. This is what Jesus’ work and ministry was about and we are supposed to emulate it, so it cannot be tossed aside.

Now, think about the vastness of God, and then think about the kingdom that God would rule over. It would be big. The Kingdom of God is a big enough playing field for His followers to play well. It is by the grace of God the Father that the Kingdom of God is large enough for his followers to respond to the wide grace shown to us by King Jesus. If you want a wide and big enough view of the Kingdom of God then get to know King Jesus whose sacrifice and love for you is wide and big. Then we as a Church can begin to play in the general, big, and wide Kingdom of God. Just as Jesus did.

That being said, we will be submitting material to the blog that deals with (what we would see as) secondary issues and questions that are commonly raised about the accounts of Genesis.

In this post I want to share with you twelve reasons why I believe in a  world wide flood. There are probably more that one could come up with but twelve should suffice.

• Historical evidence- virtually every culture has a flood tradition.
• Geological evidence- fossils are millions of dead things, incased in rock, laid down by water all over the face of the earth. Marine life fossils are found in some of the highest mountain ranges in the world.
• Many geologist now believe that the earth’s present topography is best explained not by gradualism, but suddenly through catastrophic events like floods. Why not go one step further and admit that one great catastrophic event like the Flood is really the best explanation?
• Could all the animals fit on the Ark? The Ark- 450/75/45. The volumetric capacity of the ark would have been approx. 1,400,000 cubic feet. This is equivalent to 522 standard livestock cars used on modern American railroads. 522 cars could hold 125,000 sheep. Only 11% of land animals are larger than a sheep. Since Noah took two of each kind (and seven of every clean animal) and didn’t need all the varieties with-in the kind, the total amount of animals on the ark could have been as low 16,000 and need be no more than about 40,000.
• Noah would not have been able to gather all the animals to the ark because many of them would have been in different parts of the world.
  - The dry land was at that time one mass, and the period of time for the completion of the ark was over one hundred years.
  - Many animals have a migration instinct and there’s no reason that God couldn’t have moved the animals in that way.
  - Noah couldn’t have cared for that many animals for more than a year on the ark.
  - Hibernation- God created many animals with the hibernation instinct and there’s no reason to believe that he couldn’t have extended that to all the animals on the ark during that time.
• The wording of the text leads one to believe the flood was universal.
• The construction of the ark would be an utter waste of time and resources if the flood were but a local flood. Migration would have been a much better solution to the problem, for Noah, as well as the birds and beast.
• All flesh died that moved upon the earth. In a local flood, most of the fauna can escape death by fleeing the rising waters or by swimming to dry ground if necessary (or by flying away, as in the case of the birds); but this would be impossible in a universal flood.
• God’s promise never to send such a flood again has been broken repeatedly if it were only a local or regional flood.
• The N.T. uses the unique term (kataklusmos, “cataclysm”) instead of the usual Greek word for flood.
• Later Biblical writers accepted the universal Flood- “The world that then was perished…”
• Jesus accepted the historicity and universality of the Flood, even making it the climactic sign and type of the coming worldwide judgment when He returns.

As I said, the debate of whether there was a local flood or a world wide flood is a secondary issue, the primary theme of scripture is to record for us God’s dealings with mankind and his salvation through Christ that he has faithfully wrought and offered to all. I do believe that there is some importance to believing in a world wide flood and my main reason for doing so is that I believe that the Bible clearly states it.

Being an uneducated man myself, I firmly believe that the Bible is written not for the scholar, or the philosopher, not for the elite with higher education. I believe that God’s word was written for the common man, that all may hear and understand. We should be able to read the bible literally when it speaks literally, and poetically when it speaks poetically and metaphorically when it speaks metaphorically.

That being said, we should be able to read most passages (not all, see Deuteronomy 29:29) of scripture under the inspiration of the Spirit and understand what is being taught, without having a PHD or a THD.

I’ll end with this, Paul said, “I commend you to God and the word of His grace that is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Amen.

Vaya con Dios!

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

- Genesis 2:1-3

In this passage we see the very first allusion to the Sabbath, which we understand as the Day of Rest. The word Sabbath carries baggage in English. The word has been packed with lots of meaning that is not necessarily in the Bible or intended by the Word of God. In these first few verses of Genesis Chapter 2 we see the uniqueness of the Seventh Day as recorded in the Creation account. It begins with the fact that all the creating was completed; finished. Verse 2 makes it clear what we are supposed to understand concerning what God did on the Seventh Day, He does nothing. He rests on the Seventh Day. This word Seventh is where the Word Sabbath comes from. It doesn’t linguistically mean rest… it means seventh. However, the word Sabbath has become synonymous with rest because of this verse as well as later passages which we will get to in later posts. From this particular text and the context surrounding we can learn a few things about the Seventh Day which will later be simply called Sabbath.

1. Rest is tied to ceasing from work rather than a need for a recharge.

I have actually heard theological discussions questioning whether God was really omnipotent because He had to rest on the Seventh Day. It is quite clear from the context that God was not straining Himself when it came to creation. He didn’t take six days to create because He was pacing Himself. All of creation was to display His character of holiness. The essence of holiness is separation or better called sanctification. Each day God creates something and separates it out from other things even if that separation is simple declaration of distinction. And each day of creation is separated from the next. The pinnacle of this is the Seventh Day which is separated out from every other day of creation. It is made holy, or in other words, sanctified. Since this text does not explain this fact any further, we will also go no further. We will pick this idea up in other texts dealing with this particular subject. For now, take away the idea that the Sabbath Rest is not a rest to be able to work more, it is simply a ceasing from striving and labor.

2. The only thing that actually makes the Seventh Day special is the fact that God sanctifies it. 

God is the one that makes the day holy. There’s nothing cosmically supernatural about the number seven. Verse 3 says it’s set apart because God rested it was not set apart so God could rest. It becomes by quality a different kind of day from all the others days of the week, separated out, and that’s what God intended.

3. Humans were not even involved in the first Rest.

The first Sabbath, even though Adam and Eve had been created and given their charge to fill the earth and to subdue it, God is the One who rests on the Seventh Day. There is not even a record of God telling Adam and Eve about the concept of the Sabbath Rest or commanding it. We don’t actually hear about the concept of Sabbath Rest again until the time of Moses in Exodus 12.

4. God lives out the example He wishes us to employ.

This is the first time we see the God modeling behavior before humans. He shows them the concept of resting from laboring. This might not seem like a terribly important point for God to have to model before mankind. However the fact that He does might indicate to us that we have failed to see the great importance Rest plays in the understanding of the Gospel.

It’s good for us to research and weigh our decisions so that we make wise decisions, but I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about being guided by fear. I’m talking about our thoughts condemning us over the decisions that we make; saying things like, “you made the decision, and come what may, you must bear the consequence.” Sometimes this is the case. When we sin there are consequences. When we make poor decisions there are consequences to those decisions. But even in the midst of the consequences we must remember that the Lord Jesus is with us, walking us through these lessons, giving us the grace we need to overcome.

I was encouraged this morning as I read C.H. Spurgeon’s morning devotion from his devotional Faith’s Check Book. I thought it would be good to share it with all of you as a reminder that the Lord is a shelter for us in times of trouble. I encourage you whatever the circumstance might be, hide yourself in Him. Remind yourself of his faithfulness and power, and you will be protected from the arrows that the enemy seeks to throw at you.

Vaya con Dios!

And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest. (Isaiah 32:2)

Who this Man is we all know. Who could He be but the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, the man of sorrows, the Son of Man? What a hiding place He has been to His people! He bears the full force of the wind Himself, and so He shelters those who hide themselves in Him. We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our Lord? Let us this day run to Him and be at peace.

Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it. Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. Our Lord Jesus, the glorious man, is a covert which is never blown down. In Him we mark the tempest sweeping by, but we ourselves rest in delightful serenity.

This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding place and sit and sing under the protection of our Covert. Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love Thee! Well we may, for Thou art to us a shelter in the time of storm.

- Spurgeon

Last post we discussed how often our views of the Gospel are narrow, and how they should be widened to a fuller understanding because the Gospel is vast and deep. We touched on the Gospel being the entire Bible or the story of God not just Jesus’ life & ministry. What we want to do now is move into Gospel implications.

What are Gospel implications? Gospel implications are seeing Gospel truths and allowing them to affect your heart. Gospel implications are a process not necessarily a thing. Jonathan Edwards called them religious affections, which today John Piper, Tim Keller, and Jonathan Dodson tip their hat to Edwards by incorporating them into much of their theology. Gospel implications are one of three steps in what I call the Gospel journey. As Christians, we encounter Gospel truths (step 1), Gospel implications (step 2), and Gospel actions (step 3). The order is key and unfortunately most Christians do a great job with Gospel truth, but fail with Gospel implications. The scary part is many Christians do not realize that misunderstanding Gospel implications voids Gospel actions. Let me explain.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says the heart is the primary source of motivation, which will eventually become known from one’s actions. In the Bible, the heart encompasses the mind, emotion, and will of a person not the internal organ. Ultimately, the heart is the motivational center of human action. When Gospel truth does not reach the heart, the motivational center of human action, it voids Gospel action, or even worse, distorts it. Gospel actions require Gospel implications.  Otherwise the actions have no power because there is no heart motivation. We call this legalism or moralism. Doing actions because of fear, tradition, or easiness. In the life of Jesus both the Pharisees and even his disciples were prone to act in this legalistic manner.

This is why at times you do not feel close to God. Jesus is not a delight to you. Jesus is not an appetite you crave. Jesus is not the one you trust fully and consider His counsel before anyone else. This is not what Jesus wants. Jesus desires to be intimate and close with you, not distant and foreign. You need to allow Gospel truths to really affect and motivate you from your heart by letting the story of God penetrate your emotions, will, and mind. You need to be an individual who is controlled by Gospel motivations, so you do not fall into the sin of the Pharisees. How do we allow Gospel truths to affect our heart and then motivate us to Gospel action? That is for the next post.

Having a narrow view of the Gospel is detrimental for two reasons: First, God has revealed in His word that the Gospel is deep and is something we can revel in the rest of our lives.  Second, as we diminish the Gospel we diminish its power and effect in our lives. So what are we to do then to have a deeper understanding of the Gospel? How do we allow its effectual power in our lives?  Ephesians 4:15 tells us by speaking the truth in love will bring about Gospel power. The truth Paul is talking about here is the Gospel.  As Christians we need to be speaking, pointing, and directing each other back to the Gospel.  It is more than just having communion.  It is having daily conversations with each other about Jesus and his Gospel.  Only when we are honest and open about our need or rebellion against the Gospel will transformation happen in our lives individually and corporately.

This is the first post of many to come, in which I will be discussing the Gospel.  I will be discussing everything from how to stretch our ideas of the Gospel, how we rebel against the Gospel, how to incorporate the Gospel in our daily lives, how to communicate the Gospel, and much more.  The Gospel is the only thing we have as Christians, therefore we should do everything we can to understand it fully.  That is my prayer.