Thinking is a tool for faith. It is not against faith.

It is often said that faith and reason (thinking) don’t go together; that Christianity is based on faith not thinking.  Those who think this way think faith and reason are opposites, contradictions, or enemies.  This is not true at all.  Today I was reminded of this while reading in Richard Muller’s, Post-Reformation Dogmatics vol.1, pages 401-405.

Faith can only occur in rational human beings.  Faith is given by God the Spirit to creatures with minds.  He gives faith to the mind as that mind is illumined, brought to an understanding of Jesus Christ through Scripture.  It’s like turning the lights on in a dark room.  As soon as the light is switched on, your mind begins to work.  You see what is in the room; you understand where you are etc.  The Spirit is the one who turns on the lights so we can see Jesus Christ as he is taught in Scripture and offered to us in the gospel.  In his illumination we see, understand, believe, and think about God and all his grace.  Faith happens only when people think.  Conversely, true thinking and knowledge happens only where there is faith; because where there is faith there is God the Spirit who has first turned the lights on.

Thinking, according to the design of God (we were created in his image after all; and God thinks), is a tool.  It serves us for God’s glory.  Thinking is not the foundation of our faith, God’s revelation in Scripture and Christ has that role.  Rather, thinking discerns truth and recognizes heresy.  Our thinking has no authority to denounce the Trinity, or the incarnation.  These teachings are incomprehensible, yet are revealed as true by God himself.  Nevertheless, our thinking can identify transubstantiation and the perpetual virginity of Mary impossible because it goes against proper thinking.  Faith and theology do not embrace fideism.

There is a difference between truth statements of the bible like “Jesus is Lord,” and the corresponding human explanations and ramifications of that truth.  Faith says “Jesus is Lord” based on the Bible.  The axioms of faith are always provided by God’s revelation in Scripture and Christ.  However, the “connections or relationships between these axioms is apprehended by right reason.  Reason then, does not introduce into the text of Scripture a meaning that is not present there, but rather serves faith by drawing out legitimate conclusions from the text, by making explicit those truths which are presented implicitly.”  Pg., 401.  Scripture always comes first.  The Spirit turns the light on to that revelation so we can think properly.

So the truths of God given in Christ and Holy Scripture, though above and beyond reason, are not unreasonable or contrary to reason.  Thinking is a tool given by God, empowered and illumined by him to draw the conclusions, explanations, and applications intended by Scripture.  These conclusions, explanations, and applications, nevertheless, belong to faith since the subject is from God and his revelation.  Faith seeks understanding.

Thinking and Theology

The Christian church has talked for a long time on the use of human thinking in theology.  Augustine’s great book On Christian Doctrine is one of the first books I read on this subject.  It’s true, faith seeks understanding.

Here are some thoughts on the use or part human thinking (often called “reason”), has in connection with reading the bible and doing Christian theology. 

First, human thinking is never above Scripture.  Rather, Scripture is above our ideas.  To put it another way, our thinking must be directed by Scripture if we are going to understand God Almighty correctly.

Secondly, it is a tool given by God.  We think and know because we were made in his image.  So as we let Scripture teach us we can make Scriptural conclusions, defend the faith as given in Scripture in dialogue and writing, and be built up in the true faith.  Faith is a gift to us from God.  Well, this faith fuels into flame our desire to know and understand the world and theology as God has revealed it.  So by faith we seek to understand and as we understand we live more and more by faith, and as we live more and more by faith, we understand more and more, and so on.  This happens until we come to the full measures of the statures of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13).  The tools of thinking and faith are gifts God will give us for all eternity.

Thirdly, how is this tool of thinking helpful?  One, it can be used to make the teaching of the bible clear to people.  Preachers have to be “apt to teach,” so they need to think about how to make the bible understandable (Neh 8:8). Two, thinking critically helps us to understand what is bad and good theology.  Remember the Berean Christians?  They searched the Scriptures to see if what Paul was preaching was biblical (Acts 17:11).  Three, when error comes into the church, or when the church needs to ask herself if she is biblical, thinking is involved.  The church must take heed to her doctrine and approve the things that are excellent (Phil 1:10). 

Romans 12 says, “Be transformed by the renewal of the mind.”  God the Spirit does this transforming work and he doesn’t do it without our thinking.  Thanks be to God for giving us himself and our capacity to think. 

Who's kiss will we accept? Christ's or Satan's. Dostoevsky would say Christ's

Here is a good post on that awsome book by Dostoevsky.

We priase God for Jesus Christ who overcame that aweful accuser, Satan.

http://centerforgospelculture.org/resources/articles/incarnation/

There is a resurrection body…how will it be raised?

Last week’s post described what kind of resurrection body we will have when the resurrection happens.  This post answers the question of how.  How will God’s people in Christ Jesus be given a physical but glorified body? Answer: By the grace and power of God.  See 1 Corinthians 15:51-57.

In this Scripture we are taught first that, resurrection, like the forgiveness of sins is of God’s free gift.  We can see this grace from the time when God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin, and when God kept them from the tree of life by a flaming sword.  God did not want them to live forever in their sinful flesh, but he would cloth them with his grace through the sacrifice of Son.  This included a new body.  For this reason none of God’s people cremated themselves, like the pagans did.  Their bodies were always buried in faith.  They believed creation would one day be renewed.  The grace of resurrection is full pinnacle of this promise!  Notice grace in this passage.  (v.38a, 45b, 47b, 49b).

Secondly Scriptures teaches that this resurrection happens by the power of God! (v.51-57) Presently we are made of corruptible decaying material; but one day by God’s power who through the victory of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, will transform us into non-corruptible, un-decaying material and we become people who will never again feel the sting of death. 

Jesus Christ overcame death’s power and sting because he grappled with the power of sin, which God’s law exposed time and time again.  That is, Jesus fulfilled all the law even the law that says, “The soul that sins, shall die.”  However, because he was God, this law could not condemn him.  He took the law’s condemnation away from us by taking our sins on him, and the death we deserved, and defeated them at the cross and resurrection.  By the power of God’s gospel comes the resurrection of our bodies.

Very few think long and hard about life after death.  But the church should call people to do so.  All the dead will rise, but not all will rise to a life worthy to be called life.  Sinners outside Jesus Christ will spend eternity in the lake of fire with a body that will never die.  But God is his great love has given sinners the gift of Christ to save us from the wrath of God.  (1 Thess 5:9-10).  Today is the day of salvation.

The Spirit concludes his teaching here with v.58.  Because Jesus did rise from the dead, all who are in him, risen with him in union with him by faith have their sins are forgiven and will received a glorified body like his.  Therefore, Christians can serve the Lord with steadfastness, immovability, and abundance.

Here I quote John Piper.  He preached this many years ago. “‘Steadfast’ means steady as you move forward. Keep on going and don’t let up. Don’t be given to fits and starts. Put your hand on the plough and don’t take it off till your work is done. Steady movement forward till your work is done.

‘Immovable’ means don’t get knocked over by sudden blows. Keep your balance. Stand strong and unshaken when the rains come down and the floods come up and the winds blow and beat against your house. Be like a boulder that can’t get washed away. Be like a tree that can’t get blown down.

‘Abounding in the work of the Lord’ means do lots of it. ‘Abound in’ means ‘overflow with.’ Fill your days with things that count for Christ. Pray and dream and plan and then work, work, work while it is day.”

There is a resurrection…so what will our body be like? (Description #1)

It’s been a long time since my last blog entry.  I’ve been busy obviously; and with busyness come tiredness.  I’ve been tired too.  But thanks be to God Almighty that through the gospel of Jesus Christ I, and all the Lord’s people will receive a resurrection body like Christ’s resurrection body.

Of course many people don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, let alone the resurrection on Christ.  However, as we have seen in past blogs, the Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15 makes it clear that if there is no resurrection then: 1) Christ is not raised and we are still in sin (v.12-13),  2) there is no point in believing in Jesus Christ (v.14-17) , 3) our loved ones who have died have perished permanently (v.18-23), 4) the world would not be sorted out and put right (v.24-28), and 5) the Christian life would not have any meaning (v.29-34).  If there is no resurrection then Christianity is blank.  However, it is not blank!  In fact Christ has been raised, and at his coming all his people will be raised too as he proclaimed in v.12-34. 

Well, these same people who denied the resurrection of the dead antagonistically asked two questions. (v.35). Thankfully, Paul for their benefit, and ours, was led by the Spirit to answer these questions in v.36 – 57.  We will deal with the first question in this blog.

Question:

What kind of body will God’s people come with at the second coming       of Christ? 

Answer:

The Resurrection body.  (v.36-50). Well, what will this resurrection body be like?  Here are Paul’s three descriptions of the resurrection body.

One.  The resurrection body comes from our normal physical body; death cannot prevent this from happening (v.36-38).  Paul shows this with the illustration of the seed.  In seeds we see that death is not the end of new life!  Instead, out of death new life springs forth.  These Corinthians experienced this when they sowed.   In a few months millions of corns seeds will go into the ground…there they will rot, but from them will come new corn.  Our body is a seed so to speak.  Death will not thwart God’s purposes of new-life in us.  God gives it a new body as he has chosen (v.37).  In God’s great day…in his spring time all in Christ will raise from the ground!

Two. The resurrection body is different from the body we have today (v.39-41).  The point is pretty simple.  We are all used to different kinds of material. From rubber, to ice, to a star; from the fish, to the Moose, to the pork they are all different.  So it is between our body now and our future resurrection body.  They are different!  But to what degree?  Not in kind…our resurrection body will still be our body…but the difference will be in glory! (v.41-42a). 

Three.  The resurrection body is a body, but glorified body (v.42-50).  A tulip bulb is sown in ugliness, but it comes to life in beauty.  So with our bodies.  Our present body is subject to decay….the resurrection body is imperishable.  Our present body is in dishonour (sin affects our bodies)…the resurrection body will be raised in glory.  No shame, no blindness, no ailments.  Our present body is weak.  We become emotionally and physically tired.  But the resurrection body is raised in God’s peace and health.  Our present body is physical, but the resurrection body is spiritual.  (v.44). 

OK, let’s talk about this last point a little.  What does it mean that our body is a spiritual body?   I need to alert us at this point to a heresy.  Yes, there are heresies!  It is the tenant that the resurrection body is not a physical body.  And they get in from v.44. They think Paul is saying the R is not a physical body, but some other spiritual thing; maybe from un-invented material called mushmug!

But this is exactly what Paul is not saying.  Here God’s word contrasts how the body lives in one existence and then in another.  Our present body is made alive by the normal life which all humans share – the soul.  Paul uses the Greek word for soul here.  We all depend on the soul for our bodies to live.  But the body we will be given in the resurrection will be made alive by God’s own Spirit.  It will be a Spirit-made-alive body.  Paul says in a simpler way in Rom 8:10-11.

             

Paul shows this in v.45-49, and v.51-53 with the Adam and Christ comparison.  Adam whose body was made of dust had to come first, and so our bodies of dust have to come before the resurrection body.  Adam passed on the soul to all mankind, so our bodies have to be made alive by soul before the resurrection body.  But then God gave us Christ.  He is from heaven, who is the full image of God, who makes his people of heaven because he gives us the Spirit who makes our body’s alive in the resurrection. (v.45-49). 

Conclusion:           

So the resurrection body will be different from our present body, but it will be a body!  It will be like Jesus’ body (Phil 3:20-21).  Think of the resurrection as something like a person taking off one set of clothes and putting on another, exchanging an old suit for a new tuxedo; or, even think of the body itself changing its clothes - taking off the old garments of this life (weakness, sinful desires, decay) - and putting on the new set of clothes (power, purity, and immortality and the perpetual filling of the Spirit).  We won’t be tired anymore.

Our highest good is God, so let’s study theology

Studying theology by reading our bibles, bible study, reading books, listening to sermons, talking with others, and partaking of the sacraments is for our ultimate good.  Why, because our ultimate good is God.  Polanus (1561-1610) put it clearly is this nice syllogism.  You can find it in volume one of Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics page 246.

            1.  That which is our salvation, glory, strength, shield, and, indeed, all things whatsoever are necessary to our blessedness, that is our highest good.

            2.  God alone is our salvation, glory, strength, shield and all things whatsoever are necessary to our blessedness:

            3.  Therefore God alone is our highest good.

The blessedness of all rational creatures then, is the contemplation of and communion with God the Father, Son, and Spirit in eternity, consisting in the vision of God, conformity to God, sufficiency in God, a freedom from all evils, and a possession of all true good.

Here are some Scriptures which show this.  Psalms 27:1; 28:7; 62:2,7; 3:3; 18:2; 1 Corinthians 15:28; Colossians 3:11.

Of course good works and loving our neighbour as ourselves would come under the category of true good.  Being in fellowship with God, and being shaped into conformity to him involves doing the good works of God.  We come into fellowship with God through the good work of his good Son, and therefore we are created in Christ for good works.  Ephesians 2:10   For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God gives us theology, but how do we get it?

Reading in Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics I came across an excellent explanation of where theology comes from and how we get it.  The short answer is God Almighty.  However, a two sentence blog post is to short so here are the little-bit-longer answers.

God Almighty is the cause of our knowledge about God and his world. That is to say, by the grace of God the Father in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit’s teaching work, we come to know God.  God has the perfect theology of God, “for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:10-11).

Well, how do we get this knowledge?  Answer: God by his grace.  This comes in basically three parts.  Muller only lists two in the section I read today, but in other places he cites the third part. 

Part one: “God as he wills, gives us to know the mysteries of his heavenly kingdom by means of his Holy Spirit”  (Muller. vol.1, Pg.242). 

Part two: “An attentive meditation on the divine Word, by the grace of the Holy Spirit’s illumination.”  (Muller. Vol.1, Pg.242).    Getting the knowledge of God is a supernatural blessing.  God the Spirit gives it by grace as he speaks through the Scriptures which he has also given by grace. 

Part three and best of all: Jesus Christ the Word of God.  Through him, the eternal and immutable Word of God we come to know God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son. 

John 14:9-11  “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

Matthew 11:27  “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Praise God Almighty.  He gave us theology!  We can worship him and love our fellow man because of his gift of theology.