Hoekema on the Kingdom of God

Just finished teaching on the Kingdom of God at our church.  In my opinion, Anthony Hoekema still has the best definition of the Kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God, therefore, is to be understood as the reign of God dynamically active in human history through Jesus Christ, the purpose of which is the redemption of God’s people from sin and from demonic powers, and the final establishment of the new heavens and new earth. It means that the great drama of the history of salvation has been inaugurated, and that the new age has been ushered in. The kingdom must not be understood as merely the salvation of certain individuals or even as the reign of God in the hearts of people; it means nothing less than the reign of God over his entire created universe.

Hoekema, The Bible and the Future, p. 45

The Gospel and Biblical Theology

Graeme Goldsworthy summarizes the relationship and history between the two.

Because the gospel concerns the work of the historical Jesus Christ as the one who fulfils the OT promises, it is at the heart of biblical theology.  When the plain meaning of the OT was lost to parts of the early church, often through the adoption of a dehistoricizing, allegorical interpretation of the Bible, the gospel ceased to be regarded as primarily what God has done in the historical Christ.  The emphasis shifted to what God does inwardly in the human soul through piety and sacramental ministrations of the church.  The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century recovered the historical meaning of the OT and, with it, the historical gospel.  A biblical theology which had its roots in the apostolic gospel was thus re-established. 

Goldsworthy, “Gospel” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 523

Forgetting You Are a Sinner

To the degree that you forget you are a sinner, you will underestimate your daily need for Christ and the relationships in his body that are his tools of change.

Timothy Lane & Paul Tripp, How People Change, p. 12

The Man Nobody Wanted

When God came to earth in Jesus Christ, he was the son of Leah.  Oh yes, he was!  He became the man nobody wanted.  He was born in a manger.  He had no beauty that we should desire him.  He came to his own and his own received him not.  And at the end, nobody wanted him.  Everybody abandoned him. 

Why did he become the man nobody wanted?  For you and for me!  Here is the gospel: God did not save us in spite of the weakness that he experienced as a human being but through it.  And you don’t actually get that salvation into your life through your strength; it is only for those who admit they are weak.  And if you cannot admit that you are a hopeless moral failure and a sinner and that you are absolutely lost and have no hope apart from the sheer grace of God, then you are not weak enough for Leah and her son and the great salvation that God has brought into the world.

Tim Keller, “The Girl Nobody Wanted” in Heralds of the King, p. 70

Jesus Christ is the Gospel

The best examples and instructions–the best doctrines–will not relieve me of the battle with indwelling sin until I draw my last breath.  Find me on my best day–especially if you have access to my hidden motives, thoughts, and attitudes–and I will always provide fodder for the hypocrisy charge and will let down those who would become Christians because they think I and my fellow Christians are the gospel.  I am a Christian not because I think that I can walk in Jesus’s footsteps but because he is the only one who can carry me.  I am not the gospel; Jesus Christ alone is the gospel.  His story saves me, not only by bringing me justification but by baptizing me into his resurrection life.

Michael Horton, Christless Christianity, p. 117

Quote of the Week

I just finished reading Milton Vincent’s short book, A Gospel Primer.  I highly recommend it.  Here is a quote that sums up the purpose of the book.

The gospel is so foolish (according to my natural wisdom), so scandalous (according to my conscience), and so incredible (according to my timid heart), that it is a daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should.  There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.  (Vincent, A Gospel Primer, 14)

Quote of the Week

What does the gospel mean to us?  It should mean everything.  It is not just merely the message of salvation, but sanctification and glorification.  The gospel is not something I believe and then graduate to something “deeper” and “better.”  The gospel is everything we need for the Christian life.  To be gospel-centered means to be Christ-centered.  I appreciate what Goldsworthy says about the gospel.

When we speak of the centrality of the gospel we refer to the fact that every aspect of our salvation stems from the gospel.  We mean that the gospel is truly the power of God for salvation in that it is through the gospel we are called, regenerated, converted, sanctified, and finally glorified.  We mean that Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh, as he lived, died and rose again, gave meaning to all history and human existence.  We mean that the gospel is the only means we have of beginning, continuing, and persevering in the Christian life . . . . When we approach sanctification as attainable by any means other than the gospel of Christ–the same gospel by which we are converted–we have departed from the teaching of the New Testament.  (Goldsworthy, The Gospel in Revelation, 171)

Quote of the Week

I like what Doug Moo has to say about the Transfiguration.

Lloyd-Jones on Holiness

I appreciate these words by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Quote of the Week

It has been quite awhile since I’ve posted a quote, let alone write anything substantial on my blog.  I’ve had some major life events over the last few months, which you can see at my About page (new baby son, new ministry).  I will get back to writing more soon.  However, in the meantime I am reading Peter Leithart’s Old Testament survey again (A House for My Name) in preparation for a class I am teaching and appreciate this statement from his introduction.