The Doctrines of Grace and The Regular Guy - pt 1 - Introduction

I am a regular guy. And I mean that in every sense. I like football (go Steelers!), ultimate fighting, and red meat. I have an inordinate obsession with the remote control that is commensurate with others that tote the Y chromosome. (By way of full disclosure, I should say that it may be a little bit more out of balance in me than some. You see, I don't just like the remote control; as soon as I get a new remote control in my hand, whether it is mine or someone else's, I must immediately acclimate my fingers to it so that I can operate it by touch. I know, that's weird, but what can I do? I love the remote.) I don't like Bed and Breakfasts (more can be said on that, but I'll leave it alone). I do like watching TV with my wife, but (and don't tell her this) most of the time I'd rather watch a sit-com than HGTV or TLC. I'm bald, but I really don't mind, because when I consider the energy that women have to expend just to do their hair in the morning--no thank you!

And that's just the "guy" part of the "regular guy" statement. As far as regular goes, they don't get much more non-descript. Some might even say that I have the typical "baby of the family" syndrome. My brother was noteworthy in almost everything he did. He was an excellent swimmer, Homecoming King in high school, voted best looking in his class, and even now as he nears the twighlight of his 30's, he has achieved All-American status in the amateur triathlon rankings. Me? I finished first in my age-group at the Western Days 5K and Fun Run two years ago! Impressed? Don't be--I also finished last in my age-group. Nobody else in my age-group entered (It was still pretty cool to get the medal at the awards ceremony). Don't get me wrong. This isn't a pitty party. I like being a regular guy. I have long since come to terms with the fact that I'm pretty average. I know that I won't be an All-American triathlete, or write the Great American novel, or break a 3-hour marathon. I'm comfortable with the fact that I'll have to live to be 112 to shoot my age in golf, and pretty confident that by then I won't care. In truth, I don't really care right now--I mean seriously, who shoots 112 and stays awake at night worrying about it?! Not me. I've got other things to worry about, like how to operate the satellite remote and the surround sound remote with just one hand. Let's face it. I'm a regular guy, and I'm comfortable with it.

It's with that in mind that I begin a series of posts on the Doctines of Grace. Because I am a regular guy and not a theologian, the question on the table will not be, "Are the doctrines of grace true and scripturally supported?" If you are interested in that question I will refer you to smarter people than myself, like Sam Storms and John Piper. But if you are anything like me, your objections to the doctrines of grace most likely center around two thoughts. 1) "I don't want to believe the docrines of grace because I don't want to believe that God is like that (specifically with regard to predestination)" or 2) "I don't want to believe in the doctrines of grace because I don't see what difference it makes. After all, once I am saved, what difference does it make if God predestined me for salvation, or if I exercised free will to choose Him?" It is on this second objection that I will focus in the coming days as we explore the doctrines of grace from the perspective of the regular guy.

Starting next time.

Soli Deo Gloria!

The Necessity of Grace in Illumination and Strength

Today I am going to post one more entry on Psalm 119 before beginning the series, "The Doctrines of Grace and the Regular Guy" next week. Remarkably, though, this post and the series next week are not unrelated.

Before I get ahead of myself, let's get to the passage and some background. The passage for today is Psalm 119:25-32, the section titled "Daleth" in our accrostic poem. What I would like to point to from this passage again is the insufficiency of human effort and the absolute necessity and incomparable beauty of God's grace. It is a wonderful picture of a kind, merciful, and loving God that we find here in the Old Testament hymnal, and it should inspire gratitude in the heart of every New Testament Christian. Let's begin:

Verse 25 begins with a dramatic statement, "My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!" What a beautiful picture of salvation! But let's explore this a bit further by asking a couple of questions.

First of all, what does the Psalmist mean when he says, "My soul clings to the dust"? After all, most of the time when there is a complaint in the Psalms, or an agony of soul expressed, I can really relate to it. For instance, in the last post we noted the question from Psalm 73, "Why do the wicked prosper?" Surely we can all relate to that question. Or what about the cry of the David in Psalm 25:17-18, "The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins."? I must admit that I have read that many times and not thought of David at all, for the prayer seemed to come directly from my own heart. And how many times have I made David's prayer my own in Psalm 51:3, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."? But here in Psalm 119, we have a strange lament--"My soul clings to the dust". I can't relate to that. I don't even like dust, much less like it enough to cling to it. In fact, I'm allergic to dust--makes me sneeze my fool head off. Now that I think about it, I don't know anyone that likes dust. And I've known some really messy people before. But dust?! Surely nobody likes dust enough to say that their soul clings to it like a spouse to their beloved or a mother to their child. You can see why the less literal translations soften the metaphor. Like the NIV, "I lie in the dust" (yuck, nobody likes that), or The (subliminal) Message which chucks the imagery all together in favor of, "I'm feeling terrible—I couldn't feel worse!" Who couldn't relate to that?

But isn't there something that the Psalmist is trying to say by choosing this imagery? And don't we lose that when we depart from the literal? Let's answer the first question here, and I'll let you draw your own conclusions on the second. So, what is he trying to say? I believe that the dust is a metaphor of the lifeless existence apart from God. In a word, death. Consider Genesis 2:7, "then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." In this case the Psalmist would in effect be saying, "I am a dead man in my sin, and my soul loves it. It clings to it. Please deliver me from this death and give me life according to your word." Would this be consistent with other salvation statements that are made in Scripture? Certainly Ephesians 2 springs to mind. "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins...But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." (2:1, 4-5a). (Notice that it does not say, "And you were feeling really terrible in your sins.") Now, does the picture of salvation become more stark, and more amazing? Because of the work of Christ on the cross, we are no longer dead, but alive in Christ! R.C. Sproul says it better:

"Man...is stone cold dead at the bottom of the ocean. That’s where you once were when you were dead in sin and trespasses and walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. And while you were dead hath God quickened you together with Christ. God dove to the bottom of the sea and took that drowned corpse and breathed into it the breath of his life and raised you from the dead. And it’s not that you were dying in a hospital bed of a certain illness, but rather, when you were born you were born D.O.A. That’s what the Bible says: that we are morally stillborn." (in The Pelagian Captivity of the Church)

Here is the truth that I believe that the Psalmist is trying to convey: we have a powerful bent towards sin. Our soul is drawn to it like a magnet. As illogical as it may seem, we love to sin, even when it means choosing death ("dust") over life. Consider what Paul says in Romans 7:18-19, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." That is how powerfully we are drawn to sin.

So what is the solution to this? Paul says it in Romans 7:24-25, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" But amazingly, we find the solution in the Psalms, too! In verse 26 the Psalmis says, "When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes!" In his commentary on Psalm 119, Augustine says, "For he seems to me to say this; I have confessed my sins, and You have heard me; that is, so that You would remit them. 'O teach me Your statutes.' I have acknowledged my ways: You have blotted them out: teach me Yours." In other words, God not only saves us, but He changes us too. What a wonderful hope we have in the gospel. When we are dead in our sins and loving it, God brings life to us through Christ! And then he teaches us how to live!

Following this is a series of strong statements of the inability of man in comparison to the ability of God. "Make me understand the way of your precepts." "Strengthen me according to your word!" "Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!" This is more than a statement of weakness; it is a cry of dependence. Now, with God's intervening grace, the Psalmist is able to change his statement from "My soul clings to the dust" to "I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame!" (v. 31)

Cast yourself on the Lord and see the wonder of His benefits. According to this Psalm, some of them are: life, God's gracious answer, the gift of meditation and understanding, strength and purity. And that is Good News!

Soli Deo Gloria!

God's Great Word

A short week of posting this week because we have some family visiting from out of town. Next week I am going to begin a series called, "The Doctrines of Grace and The Regular Guy", but for now I am going to give just a few more thoughts on the Psalms. Psalm 119 is the subject for today, and what a glorious one it is. Most know it as the longest chapter in the Bible (coincidentally, my last post was on the shortest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 117). Most also know that it is mainly about the Word of God. It is also fairly common knowledge that this Psalm is an acrostic poem that follows the Hebrew alphabet. Within each section or stanza, each verse begins with the same Hebrew letter. Because I am already prone to long postings, I will not comment on the entire length of the passage, just the second portion, "Beth" (the Hebrew letter, not the female nickname for "Elizabeth").

The passage begins with a familiar question, "How can a young man keep his way pure?" This question may be familiar to you because you have heard it from this passage before. But it also may be familiar to you because it is a question that you have asked yourself in your own spiritual walk. This type of honest and relevant questioning is one of the things that I appreciate most about Scripture. Scripture is chock-full of questions that all of us ask ourselves at some point or another. At our church we just heard an excellent sermon on Psalm 73, which asks, "Why do the wicked prosper?" What Christian hasn't struggled with this question? Indeed the Bible doesn't even shy away from the most difficult of questions. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul asks 85 questions, many of them about some of the most challenging theological issues that all Christians face. In the marvelous providence of God, He has included these questions in Scripture so that we know where to turn when we are exasperated by them. I point this out here because I think that it is a natural temptation to read a question like, "How can a young man keep his way pure?", and see the answer that immediately follows ("By guarding it according to your word"), and imagine the author to be a young man that has always kept his way pure. I think that is a mistake. I don't think that we should imagine a young man that has always kept his way pure, but a young man like us (37 is still young, isn't it?) that has repeatedly struggled with this question in the face of temptation. It is possibly a young man that has exerted much effort in the pursuit of purity (see v. 10), yet has also experienced the sinful cravings of a wandering heart. In exasperation he wonders, "How can a young man keep his way pure?!?" (italics and extra punctuation mine). And in sweet inspiration the Holy Spirit brings the answer, "By guarding it according to your word." It is an "a-ha" moment brought about by struggle and grace. So powerful is the word that it can even overcome the sin-chained heart with grace.

The next verse also shows the tension in that struggle. "With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!" This is almost a variation of Augustine's famous prayer, "Command what thou wilt, and grant what thou commandest", that became so offensive to Pelagius. Though it is not entirely the same, it does show the insufficiency of human effort. The Psalmist is essentially saying, "I am trying my hardest, but even that isn't enough. Don't let my sinful heart stray!" Isn't that the way it is? We can white-knuckle our way through our Christian walk with great effort and determination only to find our sinful hearts leading us consistently astray. It is not enough to only seek God with all of our effort; we must thrust ourselves upon His grace to carry us.

Lastly, I would point out the wonderful ways that we can appropriate Scripture in our lives, and the importance of it.

• Desiring to know God's word - "I have stored up your word in my heart" (v. 11)
• Humbly seeking to learn it - "teach me your statutes!" (v. 12)
• Boldly proclaming God's word - "With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth." (v. 13)
• Delighting in the Word - "In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches." (v. 14) "I will delight in your statutes;" (v. 16)
• Meditating on it - "I will meditate on your precepts..." (v. 15)
• Focusing on it - "...and fix my eyes on your ways." (v. 15)
• Remembering the Word - "I will not forget your word." (v. 16)

Remember, Scripture is Sufficient for all of your life. Appropriate it! That's all for now.

Soli Deo Gloria

God's steadfast love and faithfulness

I read Psalm 117 this week as a part of my journey through the Psalms. In comparison to some of the Psalms it is tiny. A mere pair of verses completes it, but it is packed with good stuff. It would serve us well in observing this congregational hymnal to note that even the "lighter" Psalms are still intensely God-focused and packed with strong truths. So here it is:

"1 Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!"

Here are my thoughts...

- God's steadfast love and faithfulness

• In a post on Psalm 115, I alluded to the prominence of God's steadfast love. Interestingly enough, I found a full text of Augustine's Expositions on the Psalms, and he makes a similar statement in his commentary on Psalm 115, "Observe how often these two qualities, loving mercy and truth, are joined together in the holy Scriptures." Poor Augustine. He didn't have fancy online Bibles where he could simply type in a search, and in mere moments know exactly "how often" something like this occurred. Here are the real numbers. The ESV contains the phrase "steadfast love" 196 times in the Old Testament. 126 of those occurrences are in the Psalms.
• But before the accountant in me obliterates the power and warmth of this truth with statistics, let's go back to the phrase. "Steadfast love." Amazing--I can't even type it without being captivated by it. There are many powerful phrases in the Bible, but I am hard-pressed to think of two words together that are more powerful than these two. "Steadfast". Think of the word. What image does it conjure? An anchor? Maybe, except an anchor sways in the water and drags along the soft ocean floor. This is not like God at all. More like a solid iron post--12 feet in diameter and 100 feet tall, planted in concrete a mile wide and 50 feet deep. Strong enough to absorb a head-on hit from a semi-truck and not be shaken. Multiply that times a billion and you are coming close to the idea of "steadfast" when it is used about God. Now pair that with the second word. "Love". No word is so over-used in the English language, and yet no word is so often misapplied and misunderstood. This is not the same as loving ice cream (although I am very affectionately attached to it) or even loving a spouse or a child (I am also affectionately attached to them). This is the benevolent affection of God, who invented love, toward his creatures. This is not a desire or an emotional attachment, it is an intention by the Creator towards His creatures. And it is kind and affectionate.
• Now put the two words together--"steadfast" and "love". Steadfast love. This is God's revelation of Himself to me in Scripture. Steadfast love. Unchanging, unwavering, constant, kind affection toward me. And He reveals himself in this way 126 times in the Psalms. And verse 2 says that His steadfast love is "great". Indeed it is.

Praise the Lord!

Soli Deo Gloria!

"Simple" Thoughts

After one day back on the blog, I have remembered some things from blogging before. The first is that I have a tendency to post long blogs. That's an understatement. It is rumored that some Senators are considering reading from my blog in their next philabuster. The second is that posting long blogs discourages me from posting on a regular basis. So, I am making conscious effort to walk before I run here. When I don't have time or energy to post a lengthy discourse, I am going to try to pare down my thoughts and make a "simpler" contribution.

Along those lines, Psalm 116 was very helpful this morning. A couple of quick thoughts... Psalm 116:5-9 (ESV), "5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living."

My thoughts (in order of how they struck me, not in order of importance, or in textual order)

1) The Lord preserves the simple - v. 6

• I don't know about you, but that speaks to me. Because most of the time I feel like the mayor of the Simpletons when it comes to actually having some meaningful insight into life. Thank God that brilliance is not a requirement for salvation!
  
• The gospel is so powerfully presented here too. "When I was brought low, he saved me." Do not despise the low places because they cause us to lean on the Savior.

2) Return, O my soul, to your rest - v. 7

• What wonderful comfort there is, not in my strength, but in the Lord's unchanging ability to preserve the simple. It appears that we are to rest in this knowledge.

3) The Lord has dealt bountifully with you - v. 7

• It is quite honestly a temptation for me to think that the Lord is dealing sparsely with me--holding my by the thinnest of threads until I "get it". Teaching me one hard lessen after another in His school of hard knocks. But if I step back for just a moment, I realize that even in the most challenging of times the Lord has dealt bountifully with me. In fact, it is His lavish kindness that upholds me day by day. Considering the fact that I deserve Hell, not in the future, but right now, anything else is a remarkable display of the kindness of the Lord. On top of that, when I consider that he uses each of those circumstances to draw me to Him for His glory and my good--that is even a greater display of His bountiful kindness.

That's all for now. Thank God for His kindness.

Soli Deo Gloria

Psalm 115

Back to blogging again after a long layoff. If you had read the blog at the end of last year you may be wondering what happened to the Websters since my last post. Many great things have happened, but I'll have to save those for another time. One of the great things that I have discovered about blogging is that it helps me to remember what the Lord has done in my life and what the Lord has been speaking to my heart. I spent some time over the last couple of days re-reading some of my old entries and thanking the Lord for all of the wonderful ways that He has worked. Some of the things that I wrote as lessons from the Lord are still being repeated in my life, but He is exceedingly faithful and exceptionally patient.

When I started to blog a couple of months ago, I did so with two goals: 1) to post news of our transition for our friends to read, and 2) to post devotional thoughts from Scripture. Today I will quickly try to accomplish the second goal. Our church is going through the Psalms this summer, and it has been a wonderful study of God's greatness and glory. Because of this, Cheryl and I have been reading through selections of the Psalms in our devotional times too. What an amazing exercise it has been! Today I read Psalm 115, and I'll post just a few thoughts--not an exposition by any means, just a few ramblings.

1) What an amazing opening statement in verse 1, "Not to us...but to your name give the glory."

• What I have discovered in my own life is that I tend to view God in a reciprocal manner. That is, I tend to think that if my highest thoughts are toward God, then His highest thoughts should be toward me. When I am worshipping God and giving Him glory, He should be returning some glory my way. When I bring people to church or talk about Him in the marketplace, I should expect to get a little public recognition my way as well. The only problem is that the Bible says that when we are giving God glory, He is giving His name glory as well. That is to say that His highest and best thoughts are on Himself. There is no one more glorious for Him to exalt, and so He gives glory to His own name.

2) God's commitment to glorify Himself is good news for us. Verse 1 continues, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"

• What wonderful news this is! God's commitment to glorify Himself is not at odds with His kind intention towards us. This is utterly mysterious to me but also wonderfully comforting. We can draw great strength and hope from the fact that there is no one more glorious than God for Him to glorify. Why? Because as His glory is displayed, so too is His steadfast love and faithfulness. This was pointed out excellently in the sermon at our church on Psalm 138. Also, we see this very clearly in Philippians 2:8-9, "8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Here we see Christ being supremely exalted by the Father. He is given the name that is above every names. But why? Because Christ humbled himself by becoming a sacrifice for our sins. God's glory and His steadfast love on full display, working together. Even so, Lord, glorify yourself!


• Side note: I love to see the phrase "steadfast love" in the Psalms. It is amazing to see the regularity and diversity with which it is used. When you read the Psalms you realize that the steadfast love of the Lord is the drumbeat of life. Nations rise and fall under the steadfast love of the Lord. Kings get enthroned and kings hide in caves under the steadfast love of the Lord. Worshippers faithfully praise their Creator, and soberly repent of sin. Wealth and riches are acquired, but poverty and desolation are too. Children are born, and family members die. Battles are won and lost. God's Word is righteously proclaimed and sometimes His face is hidden. All under the steadfast love of the Father. This leads me to believe that God uses all circumstances in our lives to incline our hearts toward Him.

3) God tells the 400 lb Gorilla where to sleep.

• Verse 3, "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." Notice His position. He is exalted in Heaven--enthroned above us (see also v. 16). Notice the extent of His sovereignty. Truly there are some on earth that do as they please, and even some that do mostly as they please. But even the most powerful person on earth has to do some things that they are not pleased to do (doctors visits, sit in traffic, Thanksgiving with the in-laws, etc.). And even the most powerful person on earth does not do all that he is pleased to do. No amount of money can buy the ability to slam-dunk a basketball or hit a curveball in the majors or create a planet or cause someone to love them. But only one does all that He pleases.

4) You are what you worship.

• The foolishness of idolatry is plainly stated in verses 4-8 (I wonder why I still am trapped by it?). Idols are made by human hands, and they can do nothing (speak, see, hear, smell, feel, or walk). But the interesting thing is what it says about the people that make the idols in verse 8, "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." (see Matthew 13:13-16)

5) Trust in the Lord--He is your help and shield.

That's all my thoughts for now.

Soli Deo Gloria!