JOHN 3:16 ("For God so loved the world")

JOHN 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Introduction

John 3:16 is probably the most well-known verse of Scripture there is. Every young man who fancies himself as a preacher heads straight to this verse for his text. Martin Luther says that John 3:16 is the Bible in miniature. John 3:16 is the Gospel in a nutshell, isn’t it? However, I’ll let you into an open secret. John 3:16 is not the easiest verse in the Bible to preach. It’s not the easiest to preach because it’s not the easiest verse to understand.

On the surface John 3:16 looks as smooth as a baby’s – face! But under the microscope it’s full of hidden valleys and crevasses.  However, be that as it may, I thought we might have a wee look at John 3:16 from two perspectives, viz., contextually and covenantally.

Contextually

Let’s begin by looking at the immediate context of this verse. It’s part of Jesus’ speech to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a ruler of the Jews and he is the teacher of Israel. He has come to Jesus under cover of darkness. Notice what Nicodemus has already said to Jesus back in verse 2 of John 3, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”

So Nicodemus is off to a good start. He’s recognized something special about Jesus on account of the signs. The Holy Spirit has already descended like a dove and remained upon Jesus, John 1:32-33. Jesus has already told Nathaniel that He saw him under the fig tree, John 1:48. Jesus has already turned water into beautiful wine at the wedding in Cana, John 2:9. Wine, as you know, is a picture of the Gospel, (e.g. Isaiah 55:1).

In John 2:11 we’re told that the “water into wine” was the beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. Jesus has already cracked the whip by driving the moneychanger’s out of the Temple. He upended their tables and scattered their sheep and oxen. So, Nicodemus has come to Jesus under cover of darkness knowing these things. Jesus has been talking to Nicodemus about the kingdom of God. He’s been telling Nicodemus that he must be born again, born anew, before he can enter or even see the kingdom of God. Jesus has told Nicodemus about the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to regeneration. It’s the Holy Spirit who enables people to be born again. He regenerates.

So, that’s some of the immediate context of John 3:16. It’s part of a conversation Jesus had with a teacher of the Jews. Still looking at the context, let’s now look at the words of John 3:16 in the context of the actual conversation.

The verse opens with the word “for” – “For God so loved the world…” That little word “for” immediately alerts us that this verse doesn’t stand alone. That little word tells us that this verse is part of what has been said before it. However, before we look more closely at the preceding verses we should note that in the original Greek the very first word of this verse is “so”. Literally it’s “So, for loved God the world…” That little word “so” is so very, very important to our understanding of this verse. It’s not “For God loved the world…” It’s for God so, i.e., in this manner God loved the world. Or thus God loved the world, or, this is how God loved the world.

So the question immediately springs to mind: In what way did God love the world? Is that word “so” referring to what precedes it or what comes after it? Well, we’ve already taken note of the little word “for”. That little word “for” forces the reader to take the preceding verses into consideration. So the question is this: In what manner does God loves the world?
Has it to do with Jesus being lifted up like Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness? Or is it to do with God the Father giving His Son? Well, from what I can see it’s to do with God giving His only begotten Son. However, this giving is to be understood in the context of the preceding verses.

John 3:14-15 are the immediate preceding verses, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Of course the New International Version misses out the “should not perish” bit. However, in the Received Text all of verse 15 is repeated word for word in verse 16. The word “eternal” and “everlasting” are exactly the same word in the original Greek. We can see therefore the manner in which God loves the world. It is in the giving of His only begotten Son who will be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So that’s how God loved the world. He loved the world by giving the world His Son. Therefore God’s love is a practical love, it’s a doing love, a giving love. God’s love is a sacrificial love.

What is meant by the word “world” in this verse? Well, surely it’s speaking of people in this context. It’s not necessarily talking about birds and bees and trees and seas. It’s primarily talking about people – all kinds of people, rich, poor, old, young, Jew and Gentile. However, it’s talking about fallen people, sinful people, people in need of salvation. We know this because we know why God gave the world His only begotten Son. God gave His Son so “that whoever believes in Him [His only begotten Son] should not perish but have everlasting life.”

So, right about now we and Nicodemus should be making the connection with Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. Numbers 21 records a time during Israel’s wilderness years when the Hebrews began to complain against Moses and God. They were complaining about the food God was providing – the Manna. Numbers 21:6, “So the LORD fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many of the people died.”

However, the people came to Moses confessing their sins to God. So God being God provided them an out – an escape from this temporal judgment. The LORD had Moses make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. The idea was that whoever was bitten could look at the brazen serpent and live! As God gave the Hebrews in the wilderness a brazen serpent to cure them from snakebites, so He is giving the world His only begotten Son. Those who looked at the snake on the stake escaped temporal judgment of the fiery serpents. Whoever looked at the snake on the stake escaped physical death.

But why has God the Father given His only begotten? So that those who look unto Jesus can escape eternal judgment, even eternal death God gave the whole world, and not just the Hebrews, His only begotten so that the world might not perish everlastingly, but rather have eternal life.

Covenantally

Let’s look at this in terms of God’s Covenant. Covenantally, there are God’s blessings for obedience and God’s curses for disobedience. The Hebrews were grumbling and complaining against God in the wilderness. Grumbling and complaining about the providence of God is disobedience. So God at that time sent them a temporal curse – fiery serpents.

Now, as you know, there are only two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Sacraments are signs and seals of God’s Covenant of Grace. The Lord’s Supper by its very nature is a clear picture of God’s providing for His people. It is God who provides the bread and wine. And it is God who provides the reality of what the bread and wine represent. In other words: A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. That’s how our Catechism puts it.

Now, what happened to some of the Corinthians who treated the Lord’s Supper as a common meal instead of a holy meal? Referring to the Lord’s Supper, we’re told in 1 Corinthians 11:29, “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” So, what happened to those who didn’t discern the Lord’s body in the Holy Meal? What was God’s judgment on them? 1 Corinthians 11:30, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” So, even though the Manna from heaven was not an Old Testament Sacrament, it was part God’s provision for His people in the wilderness. And those who treated it in an unworthy manner received God’s temporal judgment, as did the Corinthians regarding the Lord’s Supper.

However, the escape from the penalty was to look to God’s covenantal provision for their sin – Christ! God is ever faithful to His everlasting covenant. He provided those in the wilderness an out, an escape from the temporal punishment or chastening. Look at the brass serpent on a pole and be healed from the curse. All of mankind knows in its collective heart and individually that we grumble and complain against God’s providence, Romans 9:20. Therefore all mankind has a sense of guilt for its sin, Romans 2:15-16. All of mankind knows that there is to be a Final Judgment on the Last Day, Romans 1:18-19. But God has provided a means of escaping from remaining eternally cursed. That escape is in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! However, just as the wilderness Hebrews needed to look at the brazen serpent, so must the world look at Christ on His cross!

The brazen snake on a stake was a reminder of God’s curse as well as His blessing. For the LORD God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:14, “You are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field.” So, the serpent of the pole was a picture of the most cursed creature there is. But didn’t Christ on the cross become the curse? Didn’t He become the curse for us? Didn’t He become the curse to remove the curse from us? Paul says to the Galatians in Galatians 3:13, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”)

Now, I’ll try not to have us jumping all over the Bible. But keep in mind that Jesus is talking to a man who knows the Old Testament Scriptures. Nicodemus knows all about the LORD sending the fiery serpents in the wilderness. And he also knows what is written in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

We see Nicodemus a little later in John’s Gospel upholding God’s covenant stipulations regarding a man who was accursed by being hung on a tree. John 19:38-39 says, “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.”

So, Nicodemus would most certainly make the connection between the brazen serpent hanging on a pole and the Son of Man hanging on a tree. For God so loved the world that He gave, (not a brazen serpent this time), but He gave His only begotten Son. As Aaron’s rod swallowed up the sorcerer’s rods, so the rod of God, which is Christ’s cross, swallowed up death.

God loved the world. The manner in which He loved the world was by giving the world a gift. The gift of God is Jesus Christ. The purpose for God giving His Son is that whoever looks believingly to Him should not keep on perishing forever, but rather keep on having life.

So, what we see then in John 3:16 is God’s everlasting Covenant revealed. We see that God eternal plan of salvation unveiled. The mind of God is visualized for us in this verse. Those in the world who look to Jesus Christ will not perish along with the cursed Serpent and his demons, but will receive healing from their sins. For, to look at Christ’s cross is to look at the removal of God’s curse. For Jesus Christ is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world! It was our sin that brought the curse in the first place. And it was Jesus Christ who removed our sin from us in the last place.

The cross is the place where the curse is exchanged for blessing. The cross is the place where death is transformed into life. The cross is the place where light conquers darkness, where life conquers death. Death is swallowed up in victory at the cross!

It’s covenantal. God blesses obedience. God curses disobedience. Christ was obedient unto death. He was obedient for us. Therefore His life brings all the blessings of life for those who believe in Him. And His death brings all the curses of death to those who hate Him.

God’s love is a covenantal love because the God who is love is in eternal covenant with Himself. Therefore God’s love for the world is a covenantal love. As those who refused to look to God’s provision for healing in the wilderness perished temporally, so those who refuse to look to Christ and His cross will perish eternally. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that the people of the world see the manner in which God loved the world.

God’s love is covenantal. His love for the world is in the giving of His only begotten Son. This giving of His eternal Son was planned in eternity past. In other words, the Father had covenanted with the Son to do this before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8b speaks of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Which Lamb is that? The Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Now, just one last, but important thing under the heading Covenantally. It’s to do with the words in John 3:16, “that whoever believes in Him.” Always keep in mind the context of these words. Jesus is speaking these words to Nicodemus, a man well-familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures. Keep in mind that Jesus has been telling Nicodemus that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God. John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” Now jump ahead to verse 5, “Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” “‘Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” “‘Unless one is  born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”

Being born again is the same as being born of the water and the Spirit. It’s the Spirit that gives birth to spirit, flesh can only give birth to flesh. In other words, it’s the Spirit of God who must, if you will, do the work of a spiritual midwife. You can’t deliver yourself, God must do it! Flesh gives birth to flesh, those who are spiritually dead. But the Holy Spirit gives birth to those who are spiritually alive – those who are able to see and to enter the kingdom of God. 

Some have looked at the “water and the Spirit” there in verse 5 and have concluded that the water is speaking of baptism. Now, keep in mind that Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. And keep in mind that He is speaking to him Covenantally. Nicodemus knows that John the Baptist has been baptizing in the wilderness. If you need a verse for that try Mark 1:4, “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

Now, Nicodemus knows that the Holy Spirit is likened to water. He knows this because he knows the Old Testament Scriptures. E.g., Ezekiel 36:25-27 is a place that speaks of God’s Covenantal promise regarding His Spirit. Ezekiel 36:25-27, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them.”

Notice the cleansing action being spoken of. “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you…” The Holy Spirit is the one who does the cleansing – “I will put My Spirit within you.” Therefore the “water and the Spirit” Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus in verse 5 is simply a reference to the Old Testament Covenant promises. And, keep in mind that Jesus is rebuking Nicodemus “the teacher of Israel” for not understanding these things. So, the “water and the Spirit” in verse 5 is simply referring to the Person and work of the Holy Spirit in bringing people to new life. And, of course, Covenantal baptism beautifully pictures this. As John the Baptist says in John 1:33, “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”

So you see the connection between the water and the Spirit. The sprinkling of water in baptism is a picture of what the Holy Spirit will do. According to God’s Covenantal promise, “The Spirit will cleanse you from all your filthiness.” Therefore the water in verse 5 is not so much the water of water baptism, rather it’s the Spirit who is pictured by the water in water baptism.

Anyway, meanwhile back at John 3:16. The “whosoever will” – the “whoever believes” – must be read in light of what we’ve just looked at. In other words, to be properly understood it must be read in context and Covenantally. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that a person must be born again before he can see the kingdom of God. He’s saying that he must be born of water and the Spirit before he can enter the kingdom of God. He is telling Nicodemus that only the Spirit can make a person born again. He is not saying that a person with the assistance of the Spirit can be born again. No. It’s all of God because that which is flesh can only give birth to flesh. Therefore if a person is going to believe unto everlasting life he must first be born of the Spirit! That is God’s Covenantal Plan of Salvation from all eternity.

God’s love for the world is demonstrated in the gift of His only begotten Son. His purpose for the gift of His only begotten Son is to have those He is saving believe in Him who takes away their sin. But they must be born again, born of water and the Spirit before they will truly believe. So, we might read John 3:16 periphrastically thus, “For God the Father loved the world by giving the world His Son, so that those born of the Spirit should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 is Trinitarian, isn’t it? Our salvation is the work of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore Jesus taught Nicodemus the Pharisee that man is not saved by his own works, rather by the triune God, i.e., the Triune God alone saves by His grace alone.

Conclusion

We’ve seen that in order for John 3:16 to be properly understood must be looked at contextually and covenantally.

TOWARDS A RECONSTRUCTED SOCIETY

Therefore I exhort first of all that…prayers…be made for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. 1 Timothy 2:1-3.

If Christians wish to demonstrate love for God and neighbour they ought to pray for the governing bodies having authority over them. For what hope do Christians have of living quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence if the civil authority is ungodly and irreverent in its use of its God ordained authority? Governing authorities exist to promote man’s good and to execute wrath on practisers of evil (Romans 13:4).

This being said, it necessarily follows that we beg the question: By what standard? How ought the Civil Authority measure good and evil? After all he has the authority to use both the flat and the sharp edge of the sword, as the case may require. To put the question another way: What types of things ought Christians to pray for regarding these authorities whose existence is in order to promote good, restrain, and even punish evil?

Should the Christian expect non-Christian authorities to pass laws in accordance with God’s immutable Moral Law? He should if the State Constitution the Civil Authority is under requires it. But what of those nation’s whose Constitution is not founded or based upon God’s Law? What should the Christian pray for then? Surely he should pray for the same as the former. Which is to say that Christians everywhere ought to pray that they may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence. Therefore Christians need to be under, and need to seek to be under, the civil authorities who honour God’s Ten Commandments.

Christians therefore must pray that the civil authorities will indeed promote good and punish evil in accordance with God’s Word. For only then will peace and quiet be possible for Christians in any nation.

Speaking very generally, this was, to a certain extent, the case in most Westernised countries prior to the 1960’s. Civil authorities in the West used to promote, for example, the Christian Sunday Sabbath (4^th Commandment) by preventing department stores and the likes from opening, and keeping the pubs closed; and regulating the bar hours in hotels etc.

Also, people were required to take oaths on the Bible (3^rd & 9^th Commandments); and respect those in authority such as parents, teachers, police, judges etc. (5^th Commandment). Murderers, (6^th Commandment) in many cases, received the death penalty; adultery (7^th Commandment) was certainly frowned upon (and sometimes punished), theft (8^th Commandment) was abhorred and punished accordingly, lying (9^th Commandment) was likewise abhorred as shameful. New “citizens” of Western nations made their oath ‘under God’ (1^st Commandment). It would seem then, that only the 2^nd and 10^th (Graven Images and Coveting respectively) Commandments were not openly countenanced. Interestingly, Roman Catholicism attempts to absorb the 2^nd Commandment (the use of images) as part of, or an appendix to, the 1^st Commandment (no God but God). And, in order to maintain the number of Commandments as the traditionally accepted ten, Rome divides the 10^th (coveting) in two.

All in all, before the sixties, the governing authorities in the West generally stood on the solid ground of God’s Law for promoting the good in society and punishing evildoers. With this in mind, Christians should pray that the civil authorities to whom they are subject will once again return (in the West) to the solid bedrock of God’s Law and begin to wisely implement it.

But what if there are some who do not wish to come under the implementation of God’s Law? What is there to guard their ‘civil liberties’? How is the governing authority to promote their good and punish their evil doing? To ask this question another way, should any one individual or group in society be exempted from keeping God’s Law as properly administered and upheld by its lawful authorities? For example, what about the criminally insane? Should they be punished for their crimes? Are they even eligible to commit crimes? What about refugees? etc. etc.

Surely the answer to these and like questions is that justice must remain blindfolded? Otherwise there will be no justice for all! After all, God’s Law is God’s Law for all; whether Jew, Mohammedan, Hindu, Atheist, Secularist, etc., even the criminally insane. Therefore the Christian must answer these and like questions in the affirmative. Yes, there should be no person or group above God’s Law. Each must be held accountable for his own actions. Which is not to say that the infantile and the imbecilic are expected to comply to the same degree as the mature-minded. Hence special consideration needs to precede any punishment for their wrongdoing.

God’s Word says that the Civil Authority receives his authority from God (Romans 13:1-7; John 19:10&11). Therefore “he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” Romans 13:4. To be God’s minister at law one must honour and strive to uphold God’s Law, even when meeting out due punishment.

So, who goes to jail? Only those, who have broken God’s Law, as it is read (interpreted?), and applied, by the civil authority for the good of society. But, more to the point, what is jail? Is jail not simply a secure holding place for those accused and awaiting trial for crimes? and also, for those awaiting punishment for their crime, such as murderers? Jail, itself, does not seem to be a biblical form of punishment for evildoers. Indeed, God Himself is keeping fallen angels “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day…” Jude 6. Restitution or death are apparently the only two biblical options for guilty criminals.

 Christians need to pray then for their Civil Authorities. Christ is building His kingdom from the inside out. Therefore Christian must also seek to evangelise their Civil Authorities so that their hearts might be changed by the power of the Gospel. Reconstructed hearts means a reconstructed society.

A LETTER ON COVENANT THEOLOGY

The following is a letter I wrote a number of years ago on the subject of Covenant Theology.

 

Dear…

 

I wish I had more time to delve into some of the things written in the "Covenant Theology" paper (more accurately, Dispensationalist Theology). However, I've got seven new potential members coming to a membership-class tonight with Bible Study hard on its heels!

Anyhow, no disrespect to the great O Palmer Robertson, but it astounds me that such a learned man denies the basis of all covenants, i.e. the Eternal Covenant. He seems to deny it because it doesn't fit his definition of a covenant as "a bond in blood sovereignly administered." I wonder if he has considered the meaning of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Rev. 13:8b when looking for blood (not that I want to go down that road). Anyway, it's also unhelpful to Covenant Theology to hear another great such as John Murray tell us not to confuse "promise" with "covenant". He needs to tell this to all the Westminster Divines, and also Charles Hodge who says that "a covenant is a promise suspended upon a condition". If viewed as a "conditional promise" the Eternal Covenant, the Covenant of Works, the Covenant of Grace, or any other covenant for that matter, Biblical or otherwise, is not easily misunderstood or confused.

That the Eternal Godhead (represented by the Father) made an everlasting covenant (or conditional promise) with the Son (representing the elect) is spelled out very clearly, e.g., in John chs. 14-17. Try John 17:6 where Jesus says to the Father, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word". When did the Father first plan to give Jesus these men? What was the condition set for Christ to receive them from the Father? Why was Jesus obedient to the Father unto death on their behalf?

Robert Lewis Dabney in his Systematic Theology is very good at spelling out the fact that Christ represented the elect in the Covenant of Grace. Fallen man does not and cannot represent himself - he needs a Mediator! Before the Fall Adam needed no mediator in the sense that we need one after the fall. Adam represented man(kind) in the conditional promise or covenant God made with him. To say that there was no covenant here is to say that the covenant was never made with the Seed of the woman, Christ. In the Covenant of Works we should never look at Adam apart from Christ, because Christ is the second man, the Last Adam. Yes, everlasting life was offered or promised to Adam upon condition of works, i.e. perfect obedience to God's Law, which Ten Commandments were written upon his heart (albeit in positive terms) see Rom. 2:13-15 e.g. The tree was the outward test of his obedience.

The quote from Klooster in the paper is a good one. Covenant Theologians DO believe in two ways of salvation. 1. By keeping our God's Law perfectly. 2. By Christ's keeping God's Law perfectly. Gen. 2:16b, 17 "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die", Lev. 18:5, "You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgements, which if a man does, he shall live by them...", Gal. 3:12 "Yet the law is not of faith, but 'the man who does them shall live by them'" etc. Of course Adam blew it by breaking the conditional promise of life (everlasting life) thereby closing the door to all his sinful offspring, e.g. Isa. 5 "The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant". However, the door for this way of salvation was closed ONLY for sinners: but the good news is that the Last Adam, the Seed of the woman is not a sinner. Unlike the first Adam He kept the everlasting covenant. He saves us THROUGH faith in His good works, not BECAUSE of faith.

In summary, all Christians whether Dispensationalist or Covenantal need to always look to Christ to understand Covenant Theology (see e.g. Westminster Confession of Faith, 7:3). After all He is the Mediator of the covenant, He IS the Covenant (Isa. 42:6, 49:8). He is God and man in an everlasting covenant in One Person with two natures. When did God decide He was going to become also a man? Or put another way, when did He decided to covenant with man in the Person of Jesus Christ? The two natures of Christ cannot and must not be separated by us. No doubt the everlasting covenant in eternity past has a different application to the Son of God as God than it does to the Son of God as the Son of Man. However, Christ is not divided. However, as far as the covenant concerns us, He is God's representative to us and our representative to God - the Mediator.

Whichever way we look at it, the conditional promise of the covenant of Works or the covenant of Grace is all the same to you and me. The condition is faith in the One who keeps on keeping, and has kept the covenant of Works, i.e. our blessed Saviour and covenant keeper Jesus Christ. Faith in Him and His good covenant works is the condition for our salvation. This "conditional promise" is the same before and after Christ. 

The "Old" covenant was that made with Adam which he broke, but is again clearly spelled out and pictured in the Mosaic administration of the covenant of Grace showing the impossibility of fallen man keeping it perfectly. The "New" covenant was that which began to be revealed to Adam and Eve directly after the Fall, continued with Noah, confirmed with Abraham, and yes, Moses, also David, etc.

So, yes, as the Scriptures say, the Old Covenant is the Mosaic covenant, which is simply a dispensation (better to say "administration" because of the confused Dispensationalists) in which the way of salvation by works was shown to be still open BUT ONLY TO THE RIGHTEOUS ONE OF PROMISE, i.e. the promised covenant keeper, and not to those shown up to be bankrupt sinners by the Law! The Mosaic Covenant shows the great need of a Saviour, a Substitute, a Representative, a Mediator, i.e. a covenant keeper.

In conclusion, to claim that there is no "Eternal Covenant" is to open up the pit and release the hydra-serpent of Dispensationalism. However, the sword of defence is the unadulterated Gospel which cuts off all of its ugly heads. The Gospel is merely the proclamation of the Covenant of Grace (Hodge). This covenant is the Eternal Covenant formed in the Godhead in eternity past and overarches all those renewed and confirmed promises or covenants in Scripture.

 

For Christ's Crown and Covenant,

 

Neil

 

PS. A useful summary of Covenant Theology and of how the Westminster Divines understood it is given in "The Sum of Saving Knowledge" at the back of the Free Presbyterian edition of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

See also my e-book "Covenant Simplified" - http://www.amazon.com/COVENANT-SIMPLIFIED-Neil-Cullan-McKinlay-ebook/dp/B008AGU2KY/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408868793&sr=1-8
 

GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY (Part 1)

(I inadvertently deleted this post which is Part 1 of a three part series)

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY (Part 1)

Who can speak and have it happen
    if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that both calamities and good things come?
Why should the living complain
    when punished for their sins?

Lamentations 3:37-39 (NIV)

Introduction

In the army there is a hierarchical system that runs all the way from the Commander-in-Chief right down to the Private. If you were to view the rank structure as a ladder, the Private is at ground level. First rung up would be Lance Corporal. The next rung would be Corporal, then Sergeant and so forth all the way up to Warrant Officer Class One. From there it’s Sub-Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major and so forth all the way up the ladder to the General who is the Chief of Army.

That is roughly how it is in the Army. Everyone all the way down to the ground level, whether they realise it or not, is in the process of implementing the Chief of Army’s intent. The Chief of Army calls the shots and the Army implements them.

However, in ordinary everyday life, as Scripture says, “God is in heaven and you are on earth” (Ecclesiastes 5:2), which is to say that you are on the ground level and God is in Heaven. Therefore, you are not even on the ladder! But, every last one of us, whether conscious of it or not, is in the process of implementing the Most High’s intent.

The bottom line is that God is sovereign. He is the Most High. There is none above Him. There is none His equal. He is the Creator. We are His creatures. God is God and we, His creatures, need to learn to let God be God! However, letting God be God is easier said than done!

In the following, as we consider God’s sovereignty, we shall attempt to let God be God. We’ll see that God’s sovereignty is confronting, covenantal and comforting.

1. God’s Sovereignty Is Confronting

God is the great Commander-in-Chief. He is the One that calls all the shots.
“Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?” Lamentations 3:37. This is a rhetorical question, which is to say that no one can speak and have it happen if the Lord Himself has not commanded it!

Think about it: The eternal Triune God spoke creation into being from nothing: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. Why? Why did God create the heavens and the earth? Was it because He was lonely? How can the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ever be lonely when They have each Other from eternity unto eternity?

This is where it starts to get confronting. The Almighty, all-knowing, and ever present God created the heavens and the earth for His own glory, full stop; period; end of story. What? As the line in the pop-song asks, “What about me? It isn’t fair…” Well, not so fast with all your “It isn’t fair” talk! It’s not about you. It is about God!

I hear you say, “Well, if I were God there would be no tears, no death, no mourning, no crying and no pain! God can’t be sovereign. He can’t be in control because I can see suffering all around. There’re wars going on. There’re people killing and raping, kidnapping and robbing. God is not sovereign. For a sovereign God would not allow evil to flourish!” Such is the thinking of some.

God’s sovereignty is very confronting. How can Scripture say, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” Lamentations 3:38. If you were to look at the way this verse is worded in ye olde KJV you’d read, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil proceed?” Good and evil coming from God? Surely this cannot be!

Before any of us start doing mental gymnastics and brain contortions to try to make sense of the idea of evil proceeding from the mouth of God let us try to get things into some sort of perspective.

The population of Australia has the highest incidence of melanomas. Sorry for anyone who has had one, but was the doctor being evil by surgically removing it? From the doctor’s perspective he was doing a good thing. And every sensible human being understands that the surgeon is inflicting pain for the greater good. However, let’s say you are a little baby, infant or a young child getting inoculated against measles or chicken pox or whatever. All you see is someone coming at you with a needle and inflicting pain on you. You do not understand why someone is causing you pain.

The doctor wants a world without disease. Therefore, he/she has to inflict some pain and some suffering to bring about that end, doesn’t he? Well, so it is with the Sovereign God. God is working all things together for good, including evil things or calamities. 

So then, right from the very first word God uttered when He spoke creation into existence He knew that there would be pain and suffering. “Then,” I hear you ask, “Why did He do it? If God knew that there was going to be all this pain, suffering, death and misery, why did He go ahead with creation?” Now, we all, I’m sure, know someone who has died or has suffered or is presently suffering. God’s sovereignty is really confronting when we think about someone suffering, isn’t it? Why God? Why the pain?

Perhaps something of an answer may be found in the words of Joseph when he said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery in Egypt, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Or as that verse is rendered in ye old KJV, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Genesis 50:20.

So we see then that, even though people do bad things, evil things, to each other, the sovereign God means that evil or calamity for good.

Let’s summarise before we move on: The sovereign God created a creation in which evil, calamities, pain, suffering and death presently exist. He created creation for His own glory. And even though we suffer in this life and die, as Paul puts it in that well-known verse of Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Bottom line: Even if we do not understand why, whatever evil or calamity comes upon us comes upon us for our own good (at least for those who love Him), from out of the mouth of the sovereign God. He is the One who decreed or commanded it.

In the Book of Job neither Job nor his wife understood why God did what He did to them (albeit by permitting Satan free-rein and open slather). Job’s wife said to him, “‘Curse God and die!’ He replied, ‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble [“evil” KJV]?’” Job 2:10.

Okay, we’ve seen that everything that happens happens because God has decreed, i.e., commanded it to happen. God is Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, everything that happens happens because it is His intent.

How are we to make head or tail of this? How are we to understand God’s intent at a ground level?

RIVERS

Rivers

Rivers flow all through the Bible. Beginning in the Garden in the second chapter of the first book they end in the Garden City in the last chapter of the last book. I grew up next to a river, the River Leven which flows out of Loch Lomond and into the River Clyde. The Clyde made possible the great commerce of the 18^th and 19^th centuries and the shipbuilding of the 20^th in the City of Glasgow. Many towns and villages sprang up along the banks of the Clyde. Rivers can play an important role in cultural development. They can bring whole cities to life.

Long ago someone wrote a curious jingle about Glasgow’s city crest upon which are a bird, a tree, a bell and a fish, Here is the bird that never flew / Here is the tree that never grew / Here is the bell that never rang / Here is the fish that never swam. Glasgow’s motto is a microcosm of what God had in mind for His creation beginning in the Garden of Eden. It is, Let Glasgow flourish. The full version, (which in 1631 was embossed on the Tron Church’s bell), says, Lord, let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of Thy Word and praising Thy name!

Perhaps it is symbolic of God’s Cultural Mandate to mankind to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ that the river that watered the Garden, (in which was the Tree of Life), flowed out and split into four riverheads. As mankind flowed out of the Garden to the four corners of the earth the whole planet was to flourish through the preaching of God’s Word and the praising of His name. However, the dynamic of the Cultural Mandate changed because Adam rebelled against God and ate of that other tree in the Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, God expelled mankind and barred the way back into the Garden. Then came the judgment of God in the form of a global flood. Only Noah and seven others crossed over from the old pre-flood creation into the new (with the animals) aboard the ark. ‘In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism…” 1 Peter 3:20b-21a, NIV. Noah and his family were dry in the boat while those outside of the ark perished in the flood waters (as did the Egyptians at the parting of the Red Sea when the people of Israel crossed over on dry land.) At the time of Moses those babies the Egyptians submerged in the Nile perished. However, Moses was saved in an ark. Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses, ‘Because I drew him out of the water’ Exodus 2:10b.

Rivers are barriers. At the time of Joshua the flooded Jordan River separated Israel from the Promised Land. Their crossing over on dry ground (after God had stopped the river’s flow) is reminiscent of our entrance into Eden’s Garden. After Christ was baptised with the Spirit and with water from the Jordan River He began to preach God’s Word and praise His name. He then went to the cross where ‘the flaming sword which turned every way’ (Genesis 3:24) was turned upon Him. Thus, He opened the Garden gate, so that ‘he who believes and is baptized will be saved’ Mark 16:16a. Baptism symbolises crossing over, going from the old to the new, from death to life, entering into the City of God where there is ‘a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’ Revelation 22:1-2.

GO WITH THE FLOW

It’s far easier to exit a stadium at the end of a big game than to enter it. It’s the same with a busy one way street. Go with the flow and life will be easier and safer. Christians are being trampled underfoot by Secular Humanism in the West and Islam in the East. Christians face ridicule and are even being martyred for the Faith! What else is new? Christians have always gone against the flow! Wouldn’t it be easier if we all just conformed to this world and went with the flow instead of against it? Jesus said to His audience, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who go by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13. Jesus was correcting the false teaching of the Pharisees when He said these words. They were leading the people of Israel to the destruction of Hellfire back in those days.

If, as the Bible clearly teaches, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, then how come the way that leads to life is so hard? The short answer is that it is because it is far easier to go with the flow, but that way leads to destruction! The Pharisees were going with the flow and they wanted everyone else to go with them. However, according to Jesus, they were taking the easy way. He illustrated this when He said, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’ Matthew 19:24b. Can a camel fit through the eye of a needle? Only if you shred it and mince it! This was what the Pharisees had done to God’s way of salvation. They had replaced it with their own way. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death’ Proverbs 14:12.

God’s remedy for our sin is paradoxical. Every human being believes that whatever we have worked for deserves payment. This is the way of the world. This is even taught in the Bible: ‘The labourer is worthy of his wages’ Luke 10:7. The trouble is that this does not apply to salvation! Salvation never ever could be worked for! Working for salvation is akin to a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle! It is impossible! ‘When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”’ Matthew 19:25-26. Entering by the narrow gate to the way that leads to life is difficult because, as human beings, we go with the flow, we labour for wages. Therefore, we work for the reward of salvation. But, ‘“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD’ Isaiah 55:8.

What’s our way of salvation? Through the things we do. What’s God’s way of salvation? Through the things He has done. Surely this must mean that if God has done His bit then now I need to do my bit? No! That’s to go with the flow! It is difficult, isn’t it? Why can’t we simply believe the Good News of our salvation? Well, it means that we have to enter by the Gospel-gate, and that gate’s too narrow for us! You’re the camel and the gate’s the needle’s eye! You won’t fit unless God makes you fit! Through Jesus Christ and His cross He has done what is humanly impossible. He saves everyone who believes in Him for salvation!