Bulletin for October 20, 2024

The Covenant of Life

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

At its most fundamental level, a covenant is an agreement between two parties. Throughout Scripture, covenant is the way that God interacts with his people. This is how the Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes it:

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. (WCF 7.1)

Previously, we talked about the Creator-creature distinction, and here we have one of its many implications. Because God and man are so different, there is no way for man to interact with God unless God meets us in the middle, and covenant is his prescribed way of doing that.

The very first covenant between God and man has taken many names. In the Shorter Catechism, it is called the covenant of life. More often, it is called the covenant of works. Even in his perfect state of innocence, Adam was unable to access God, so God immediately meets him in covenant from the very beginning. The word “covenant” never appears in the Genesis narrative, but Scripture elsewhere speaks of this relationship as a covenant (Hosea 6:7). In the Genesis story, we can also detect each part of a covenant: parties, stipulations, and blessings and curses. Consider Genesis 2:16-17.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The two parties are God and man, but God is clearly in charge of the situation. Most of the time, when agreements are made, someone has the advantage in terms of strength, power, and authority. The covenant of life is no different. God is the sovereign here, and so he is the covenant initiator.

Next, we see stipulations, what Adam is required to do. God singles out the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the rest of the trees and tells Adam not to eat it. But this specific command is just a sign of the whole of what Adam is expected to do. It’s not as if Adam can commit all sorts of other sins as long as he doesn’t touch the tree! So we say that perfect obedience is the standard, including obedience to this specific command.

Finally, there are blessing and curses associated with Adam’s obedience. The curse is laid out as death. If Adam disobeys, he will surely die. But one principle of Scripture interpretation is that whenever a promise is given, the opposite threat is implied, and vice versa. In other words, when God says Adam will die if he eats the forbidden fruit, he is also saying that Adam will not die if he does not. In fact, he will live forever.

One thing to notice is that Eve is not yet present when this covenant is made. This helps us understand the concept of covenant headship. In the garden, the covenant was not only made for Adam, but for all people in Adam. That’s one reason Eve was made from Adam’s rib instead of being individually created, because she was under the covenant headship of Adam. And since we are all descended from Adam, he is our covenant head as well. He is our representative before God.

As a result, in man’s natural state, he is born into this covenant of works. God requires all people in all places to be perfectly obedient to all his commands. The same promise of eternal life and curse of eternal death applies to us all. But as we know, Adam did not continue in obedience to God, and neither do we. But we’ll unpack that in the next questions!

Updates

1. Next week, we’ll be having our Reformation Day Youth Fellowship! Be sure to invite children and youth who may want to join us!

2. Starting November 6, our adult Bible study is going to transition into a weekly prayer meeting. If you haven’t been joining us for Bible study, this is a great opportunity to join in on our midweek fellowship.

3. The Session has scheduled a congregational meeting for Sunday, December 7. More details are forthcoming, but be sure to mark your calendars!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for October 13, 2024

The Providence of God

Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?
A. God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

The Shorter Catechism here lists two actions of God directed toward two objects.

First, God preserves all things. We have a tendency to think like the scoffers in 2 Peter 3:4, who say “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” We take for granted the fact that the sun will rise, that the ground will hold our feet, and that our lungs will breathe. These are just facts of life; even the atheist believes them. But rarely do we ask the question, “Why?” Hebrews 1:3 gives us one answer:

[The Son] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

The Universe is held together by the word of Christ. There are some significant things to unpack there, but it suffices to say that the world only continues to exist, you only continue to exist, because Jesus says so. This becomes even more clear when we look at God’s judgments throughout Scripture. When God judges, he stops preserving; judgment is decreation. What happened when God judged the earth in Noah’s day? He removed the firmament that divided sea from sky, and he removed the land that divided the seas, and all flesh was destroyed. When God removes his preserving presence from humans, they lose their humanity and become like beasts (see Romans 1). Therefore, the inverse is true as well. When things are working the way we expect them to, it’s because God is holding them together by his grace.

Second, God governs all things. We talked about God’s decrees previously, but government is how a king executes his decrees. Just like a king has servants and officers, so does God. In Romans, Paul tells us that the civil government is God’s minister, and Jesus himself gave the apostles and their successors–church elders–the keys to the kingdom. He also places fathers as heads over households. In this way, God reigns and rules through appointed servants. But, at times, God also directly intervenes. When Sennacherib threatened King Hezekiah, God personally destroyed the Assyrian army without the help of any earthly servant. He caused the Sun to stop its course in the sky while the Israelites were in battle under Joshua. These are just a sampling of how God governs.

Finally, there is nothing outside of God’s providence. When the catechism uses the term “all creatures,” it’s just not referring to what we normally refer to creatures. It is talking about all created things. That includes men and angels, beasts and plants, and seas and mountains. Even Satan himself is under the control of God’s providence. The book of Job makes this clear. But Job also indicates that God is not merely in control over creatures generally; he is also in control of their specific actions. In Job 1:11, God sets clear boundaries on what Satan is and is not able to do.

In the past and even in our day, some have skewed this doctrine to make God seem tyrannical, but this is far from the truth. Remember that God providentially orders things so that they work together for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28). God’s providence is not arbitrary; instead, it is most exemplified in his tender care for his people. God’s providence is why you are able to believe. It’s why the church of God is not crushed. It’s why we can have hope, even when we are oppressed from evil within and without.

A Word on Miracles

It’s worth mentioning that we often use the term “miracle” when we should really be talking about God’s providence. Strictly speaking, a miracle is something that God does against the laws of nature, and usually through a mediator. Their main purpose in Scripture is to confirm the authority of one who claims to speak for God. It may not seem like it, but if you pay attention, miracles in Scripture are exceedingly rare. Only a handful of people are able to perform them, and they are almost always prophets of God.

So to take one example, on July 13, 2024, when an assassin’s bullet narrowly missed the head of former President Trump, many were lauding it as a miracle. Now, I am not for a minute suggesting that God was not governing that situation. He most certainly was. Everyone and everything was under God’s governance. Everything that happened that day was determined before the foundation of the world and executed according to God’s plan. But was it a miracle? No. It doesn’t meet the standard. No laws of nature were violated, and no prophet of God was confirmed.

So I would simply urge you to consider how you use these words. I would love to see the word providence reappear in our Christian vocabulary because I think when we see how God’s providence is at work in these extraordinary situations, it helps us to see how God’s providence is at work in ordinary situations. Our God is alive and active in the world, and we ought to pray for eyes to see his work in all things.

If you want to read more about God’s providence, I highly recommend a look at Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity. This book is an extended commentary on the Shorter Catechism, and on this question, he gives a superb explanation and application of this doctrine.

Updates

1. Don’t forget our fellowship lunch after worship this Sunday, and be sure to bring a dish to share!
2. Operation Christmas Child is coming up! See the note in the bulletin for more information.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for October 6, 2024

Presbytery Updates

Last weekend, Madeleine and I attended the 31st Stated Meeting of the Gulf South Presbytery at Hope Church in San Antonio, TX. By far, the most important thing we did all weekend was examine three ministers for transfer into our Presbytery. First, I’ve made mention a few times of the planned church plant in Hattiesburg, and at this meeting, we received the church planter, Rev. Ro Taylor, from the PCA. He has spent several years serving in RUF ministries at various universities, most recently at Delta State, but now we have extended a church planting call to him. An installation service is scheduled for January at Covenant Presbyterian in Jackson, MS. We also interviewed two pastors coming to us from the Los Pinos Nuevos denomination in Cuba. (Our church is already connected with churches in Los Pinos Nuevos through Living Waters for the World.) Both men have over twenty-five years of pastoral experience, including teaching and training pastors in Reformed theology. Rev. Miquel Broche has been called as an Assistant Pastor at Hope Church in San Antonio, and his ministry will be focused on the Spanish speaking community there, especially the Cuban refugees who are already a part of Hope Church. Rev. Alfredo Forhans, previously the president of their seminary in Cuba, will be joining the EPC Church Planting Network team in their work.

How to Help Hurricane Helene Victims

There are several good organizations that have been mentioned in various channels this week, but I just want to highlight the EPC’s own efforts. In this video, Dean Weaver gives some information on what our churches are dealing with in North Carolina.

Click on the button below to go to the donate page.

This afternoon, we’re in Brookhaven for Madeleine’s brother’s wedding, but we are very excited to be back with you tomorrow!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for September 29, 2024

Created in the Image of God

We dealt last week with creation generally. Now the catechism deals with the creation of man specifically.

Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

There are four basic propositions in this answer. First, man (that is, mankind or humanity) was created male and female. For most of human history this fact was obvious, but in our culture, this truth has come under attack. Our culture wants to dissolve gender differences, making men and women interchangeable, but the very nature of God’s creation makes this a futile effort.

In Genesis 2, we see Adam in a sad state. The first thing that God calls “not good” is Adam’s loneliness, so God sets out to make a “helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18). To call Eve a “helper” is not to diminish her, but in fact, to elevate her. In the Bible, nearly every other instance of the word help or helper is used in reference to God. Whenever man is insufficient for something, God provides help. In creation, Adam is insufficient for the task set out before him, so God sends help in the form of Eve. Eve fills up something lacking in Adam. She is also fit for him in a way that the moon is fit for the sun, the sea for the sky, and the land for the sea. Throughout the creation, God makes pairs, and man is no exception. Man and woman need each other to carry out God’s commission. This is true in marriage, but it’s also true in the church and in society generally. No sphere of human life, family or church or society, functions without men and women working in tandem.

Of course, this is a distinction in role, not value. As Matthew Henry notes that Eve was “not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” In fact, if anything, woman is accounted more precious than man. Adam was created out the dust as the glory of God, but woman was created as the glory of man (1 Corinthians 11:7). She is the glory of the glory, the dust double refined.

The curse disrupts this pattern. Eve is told:

“Your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over.” (Genesis 3:16)

The curse pits men and women against each other. Instead of coming together side-by-side, woman seeks to rule over man and man seeks to crush woman. Instead of working with another for greater glory, the curse degrades both men and women, blurring the distinction. As Christians, we are called to something higher. We are called to love and respect one another as in original creation. This means men ought to be men and women, women. Men are called to cherish women like the glory they are, and women are called to be a help to men because men are incomplete without women’s help!

Second, man is created after the image of God. The word for image is most commonly used in the Old Testament to refer to idols. These idols are intended to be representative of pagan gods. But the true God is not worshipped by these false images. Instead, he creates his own image to represent him; that image is mankind. (This, by the way, is one of the reasons both the early church and the Reformed churches oppose the making of images to represent God.)

Third, since man is created in God’s image, he shares in some of God’s attributes. Namely, he shares in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Historically, the image of God has been understood as our rationality and moral responsibility. Animals don’t think like we do. Humans can think in abstractions and produce things. That’s why you’ll never find animals writing books or building houses beyond the rudimentary. God as creator has endowed man with the ability to create after him. Animals also are not capable of sin. They don’t have moral responsibility. Humans do, and we are called to righteousness and holiness.

Finally, God created man in his image, sharing in his attributes, for a purpose: to have dominion. Throughout history, God has worked through mediators. Of course, at times, he intervenes directly, but he primarily calls men and women to rule over the world for him. Man is the vice-regent of God. The pinnacle of this is found in Christ, the God-man who is crowned the true king over all creation. That’s why Jesus leaves his Church with the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Since Christ has come, what does it mean to have dominion over the world, to reign with him (2 Tim 2:12)? It means we call all creatures into subjection, proclaiming the gospel to all who will hear. This is what the Church is for.

Updates

This weekend, I’ll be in San Antonio for our Gulf South Presbytery meeting. Please be in prayer as we consider how best to carry out God’s mission through home and foreign missions, and be sure to give a good welcome to Pastor Ron Pierce as he fills our pulpit this Lord’s Day!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for September 22, 2024

The Work of Creation

Last week, we considered the decrees of God, his eternal plans for all things. Now we come to a natural follow-up:

Q. 8. How doth God execute his decrees?
A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

These two things, creation and providence, are distinct ways that God works, so the Catechism treats them separately. One way to think about it is that God starts things off in creation so that things move forward according to their natural processes. But in providence, God intervenes in the world to ensure that all things finish where they’re supposed to. Let’s start by looking at creation in detail.

Q.9. What is the work of creation?
A. The work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

There are five propositions here. First, God made all things. In popular evolutionary theory, “things” (like trees and bird and us) were not distinctly made. Those who hold to this theory say that all life has a common biological ancestor. But Christians cannot affirm this for a variety of reasons. In Genesis 1, we see God making things “according to their kinds.” God created a plethora of distinct species, distinct things. The Bible is crystal clear on this:

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3)

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16)

Second, God made all things of nothing. The fancy term you may have heard is ex nihilo. When you and I make things, we have to use pre-existing materials. If you’re going to build a house you need wood and concrete. That’s how the laws of physics work: matter cannot be created or destroyed. But God is not like us. He didn’t create out of some primordial goop; instead, he simply brings things into existence. In some ways, the fact that God made all things proves this immediately. If God made all things, he also made the things that all things are made from!

Third, God created by the word of his power. Normally, when we make things, we use our hands. On occasion, we can make things with just our words (like speeches and marriages), but God is even beyond that. When we speak, words come out. But when God speaks, creation comes out. Even now, God is speaking through Christ, “upholding the universe by the word of his power.” God’s word also brings about new creation. When we are saved, it is by the Word of God calling us and creating faith in us (but we’re getting ahead of ourselves there).

Fourth, God created in the space of six days. There is obviously much debate about this, but I believe (along with the vast majority of the church down through the ages) that we’re talking about six literal, twenty-four hour days. Of course, God didn’t have to do this, but he had a purpose. The pattern of six days of work and one day of rest is built into creation for the good of man. As Jesus said, the Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath. In God’s creation in six days, we already see God’s heart of love toward his creation in giving us rest. If you deny that God created in six days, you deny the basis for God’s gift of Sabbath.

Finally, God created all very good. In talking about creation, we can’t forget about God’s decrees. God’s work in all things is for his glory and our joy. Sin may mar the creation now, but it wasn’t that way from the start, and it won’t be that way in the end. That means that we can affirm the goodness of creation, even while sin reigns. Just as an artist’s painting is still good art despite years of wear and tear, God’s creation is still good while it awaits the day of restoration.

This reminds us that creation is going somewhere, just as we are. As the Apostle Paul says:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:20-23)

This Week’s New Song

This week, we’ll start learning a new song, Psalm 100. This version of Psalm 100 comes from the 1650 Scottish Psalter and is the most common setting of the Psalm is churches around the world, but especially in Presbyterian churches. Be sure to listen and get ready to sing!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for September 15, 2024

The Sweet Flower of Providence

Having discussed the nature and persons of God, we now move onto his works.

Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?
A. The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Q. 8. How doth God execute his decrees?
A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

The answer to question 7 draws heavily on Ephesians 1:11 which tells us that God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” So let’s consider that text in detail.

First, Paul points to God’s work. The Greek word there is energeo from which we get our word energy. To work is to apply one’s energy or power to something. Some Bible translations say that God “works out” all things, but this doesn’t capture the meaning of the word well. God is not simply given a problem that he has to solve; he is actively engaged as the first cause of all things. This work is divided into three categories by the Shorter Catechism: foreordination, creation, and providence. We’ll consider creation and providence in the next few questions. But in foreordination, God voluntarily binds himself to carry out what he wills. This is the exactly what the divine decrees are: God’s commitment to execute his plan for creation.

That brings us to the phrase “all things.” Of course, that includes everything! God’s decree extends even to things like sparrows and the number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:29-30). When a bird dies or when a hair falls out, it is because God has decreed it from before the foundation of the world and is now working out that decree. But the primary concern biblically is about how God’s decree effects salvation. In context, Ephesians 1:11 is about how God in complete control of our salvation: he has predestined/foreordained us to salvation. The inverse is also true (and this is a difficult pill to swallow for people today): God is also in complete control of reprobation. The Bible tells us that some are “destined” to fall (1 Peter 2:8), that the wicked are made for the day of trouble (Proverbs 16:4), and that God hardens the sinners for judgment (Romans 9:10-33). There is absolutely nothing, good, bad or in-between, that is outside of God’s control.

Finally, Ephesians 1:11 tells us that God works all things “according the counsel of his will.” The word “counsel” here refers to the plan of God. A lot of people think of God as a big version of us, and that he’s just playing with us like a toddler plays with his toys. But nothing could be further from the truth. God’s activity in the world isn’t random; it’s all going somewhere. There are two main things God is aiming at. First, Ephesians 1:12 tells us that God is working for his own glory. Second, in Romans 8:28, Paul uses almost an identical phrase as the one he uses in Ephesians:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

In other words, God’s eternal purpose and plan for all creation is that believers would glorify God and enjoy him forever! God works all things for his glory and our good!

At the end of the day, although it is often difficult to understand, the doctrine of God’s divine decrees is intended to be a comfort and hope for Christians. Note how the Westminster Confession of Faith speaks of of this doctrine:

The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel. (WCF 3.8)

As one last closing remark, I encourage you to listen to or read this talk on the life of William Cowper. Cowper, a close friend of John Newton, lived a miserable life. He even spent time in an insane asylum. But in all of his struggles he took great comfort in the doctrine of God’s complete providence. This attitude is best encapsulated in his famous hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Here’s a sample:

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for September 9, 2024

The Threeness of God

Questions 4-5 of the Shorter Catechism were talking about the whatness of God, but when we get to question 6, we finally move to whoness of God.

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

The doctrine of the Trinity can be summarized in four simple propositions:

1. There is one God.
2. The Father is God.
3. The Son is God.
4. The Spirit is God.

Of course, the doctrine of the Trinity is a very deep well; there’s quite a lot we could say about it. But if you hold fast to these four truths, you’ve got the basics down. We’ve already dealt with the oneness of God, so let’s focus on the last three propositions.

When we say “Father, Son, and Spirit,” what we’re really doing is naming the three persons of the Trinity. More precisely, we’re receiving the names that God has given us. A name does several things, but principally, it communicates something of a person’s nature and of his relationships. Consider your own name. When someone hears your name, they think about what you’re like, how they perceive you, and they think about who you’re related to (you’re a Smith or a Jones or something else). The same is true of the names of the persons of the Trinity.

The Father is the origin or source of the Trinity. A father is one who begets others. This, then, is part of the particularity of the Father: he begets. But this also implies that someone in begotten. That is the Son. The Son receives his divine life from the Father.¹ That is why he is called the Son, because sons are begotten of their fathers. Finally, the Spirit is breathed out by both the Father and the Son. We call this spiration or procession.

So the Father is Father because he is unbegotten. The Son is the Son because he is begotten. The Spirit is the Spirit because he is breathed out. Got it? Probably not, but remember that we’re dealing with something beyond our understanding. At the same time, Christians must affirm these things; otherwise, we deny fundamental truths about God, and ultimately about the gospel.

But why does this matter? What’s the point? The answer is that the doctrine of the Trinity is closely related to God’s self-sufficiency. We can illustrate this with one simple example. The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). But that fact about God means that there must be an object of God’s love. Relationship is of the essence of God; he cannot be love is there is no beloved. Reflecting on this reality in the fourth century, Augustine described God’s persons in terms of love. He said the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Spirit is the Love they share. That is, of course, an imperfect analogy, but it gets an important reality: God exists in relationship.

This also has gospel implications. Our salvation rests on this love in God expressed in creation. The Father saves us because he loves his Son and has promised to give him a people for his Bride. That’s why salvation is grounded on union with Christ. Because we are covenanted with Christ in the New Covenant, we are actually made beneficiaries of the love that is shared within the Trinity. The love that God has for us is the same love he has for the Son. So we can rejoice in this truth: in Christ, we have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that is, we have been invited into this eternal relationship.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for September 1, 2024

The Oneness of God

Question 4 of the Shorter Catechism considered God’s divine nature, his whatness, and question 5 continues that discussion.

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

The key text for the oneness of God is Deuteronomy 6:4.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

This verse is often referred to as the “Shema,” which simply means “hear.” Under the Old Covenant, and even in Judaism today, this verse has been cited as a kind of creed, not unlike our Christian Creeds. It is immediately followed by the greatest commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” If there is a centerpiece, a starting point, of theology, this is it. Proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and this is the first thing we ought to know about God.

What’s interesting is that this idea of the oneness of God wasn’t unheard of at the time of Moses. In most other cultures, there was usually one god who was considered the highest god in the pagan pantheons. Think of something like Zeus in the Greek pantheon. To refer to a god as “one” was to signify his unique and special role as the king of the gods. But Deuteronomy leaves no room for such an idea because, in the verses, that immediately follow, Israel is commanded to serve no other gods at all. This is not only a claim to a special role; it’s a claim to exclusivity.

That’s why the catechism goes on to describe this one God as “the living and true God.” The Lord, unlike the pagan gods, does not depend on any other being for his life. Rather, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). The other gods, whether spiritual beings dependent on god or imaginary beings dependent on man, are capable of death. But to live is part of the very nature of God. A god who can die is no god at all. Therefore, the Lord is the only true God. Any being that can suffer death is not God, but a liar. Any being that depends on another for its life is not God, but a falsehood. As Jeremiah says, “Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:20).

This, of course, makes the cross a radical scandal because, as Christians, we believe that God did die. That’s the core of the gospel, that though Christ was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, God the Son took on human form for the purpose of dying. Death was necessary for atonement, but since God can’t die, Christ had to step down into creation to make it happen. This is an incredibly difficult doctrine, and its difficulty led to all sorts of heresy in the early church. Most notably, Arianism denied that Jesus was God at all. But when we understand who Jesus is (and we’ll get a clearer picture of that as we work through the catechism), we are able to see the radical love of God on display for our salvation.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for August 25, 2024

What is God?

Question 3 of the Shorter Catechism told us what Scripture was about: what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. Beginning in question 4, the catechism gets started dealing with that first element.

Q. 4 What is God?
A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

Now, this is almost a ridiculous question to ask because God is so beyond our understanding. All the books in the world don’t have enough pages to answer this question sufficiently, so we certainly shouldn’t expect to exhaust it in eighteen words! But in his kindness, God has chosen to reveal himself to us both in nature and Scripture, and the catechism gives us a good start at understanding that revelation.

Before we even get to the answer, you may notice the unusual way the question is phrased. We normally think of God as a “who,” but the catechism talks about God as a “what.” The reason is that we need to answer the what before we can get to the who. Christian theology teaches that God is a single divine nature in three divine persons. This question is particularly interested in the divine nature. There are lots of people that are happy to speak about God as Father or about Jesus, but they completely whiff on understanding what that means. For a lot of people God is like a bigger version of us, a big bearded man in the sky who sometimes tinkers with things around us. This is exactly how the ancient pagans thought of their gods. They were essentially bigger people who had relationships with one another and flaws of their own.

But even the pagan philosophers realized this wasn’t enough. Plato, for example, believed that these so-called gods weren’t really gods at all, that there must be some higher being behind it all. That’s what Paul is dealing with in Acts 17 when he encounters the altar to the “unknown god.” Paul says that “unknown god” that these philosophers were talking about was actually the one, true God of the Bible. They had learned a little bit about him through nature, but their knowledge was corrupted by sin. The Bible, therefore, takes what we can know from nature and corrects and expands it.

So what is God? The we can break the answer up into three parts.

First, God is a spirit. That sounds good, but what does that mean? This is how the Children’s Catechism expands on that idea:

Q. 9. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.

In other words, when the catechism says God is a spirit, it means that God is completely other. Unlike what you find in paganism or even some of the Christian cults like Mormonism, the biblical view is that God is not like us. Reformed theologians like to call this the Creator-creature distinction. In other words, we might say that there are fundamentally two kinds of things: God and not God.

This leads us to the second part of the question, what we call the incommunicable attributes of God. These are the things that belong to God only that never extends to that which is not God. The Shorter Catechism says God is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.” God is not bounded by space and time, and he never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be acted on or moved by mere creatures. A technical way to say it is that he has no causes. Furthermore, in some sense, we can say that these incommunicable attributes are definitional of God. Anything that is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable is God.

But the Catechism continues by saying that God is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” These are what we call communicable attributes. God has being, wisdom, power, etc., but we can also have these things. The difference is that God’s version of these is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, while yours is not. You can have holiness, but your holiness is not eternal. You can have power, but your power is not infinite. But this is one of the first places that God comes into contact with his creation. Since God is the creator of the universe, his creation reflects him. And God’s highest creation is man who is made in his image!

This idea is one of the primary drivers behind all of Scripture. God is completely unlike us, but in his mercy, he has deemed it fitting to meet with us, adopt us into his family, and even make us like him. The prime instance of this is of course in the incarnation of the Son, but we’ll unpack that as we work through the first section of the Shorter Catechism.

Teaching Series on the Doctrine of God

If you want to dig a little deeper into the doctrine of God, I did a three part teaching series a couple years ago.

Thank You!

We had a great time last weekend with our special guest Ron Horgan! Thank you to everyone who worked to make that happen! If you have any more pictures, be sure to send them to me.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

Bulletin for August 18, 2024

This Weekend at VPC

Remember that Rev. Ron Horgan will be joining us this weekend.

First, we’ll have a church health workshop from 9AM to 12PM on Saturday. Lunch will follow.

Then, Ron will be with us again on Sunday to preach and serve communion, so come prepared! Remember Larger Catechism 171:

Q. 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?
A. They that receive the sacrament of the Lord’s supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.

If you want a little preview, here’s an interview Stated Clerk Dean Weaver did with Ron earlier this year:

Doctrine and Duty

Last week, we considered the sufficiency and authority of Scripture, and this leads us naturally to the next question in the Shorter Catechism:

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Notice there are two parts. These two parts get all sorts of names: faith and life, doctrine and duty, dogma and devotion, etc. This two-part structure is how the Shorter Catechism itself is outlined. Questions 1-38 deal with doctrine, and questions 39-107 deal with duty. The same structure is used in the Larger Catechism and Confesssion of Faith as well. Also, a good sermon will engage these two parts, explaining the meaning of the text (doctrine) and giving application (duty). You can even find this in the Children’s Catechism:

Q. 4. How can you glorify God?
A. By loving him and doing what he commands.

But why are we using this division? Because it’s the same division Scripture uses! You find these two parts all over Scripture. If you look at the book of Romans, for example, chapters 1-11 deal with doctrine, and chapters 12-16 deal with practical application. The same structure is in several of Paul’s other letters.

But the clearest statement of this structure is found in 2 Timothy 3:16.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

We looked at the passage last time, but now, I want to hone in on these four things: teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. If you pay attention, you’ll see the doctrine/duty pattern in these four. First, teaching and reproof are the positive and negative elements of doctrinal instruction. Along the same lines, correction and training are the negative and positive elements of instruction in duty. So this verse gives four things the Bible can say to us:

1. “Believe this” (teaching)
2. “Don’t believe that” (reproof)
3. “Don’t do that” (correction)
4. “Do this” (training in righteousness)

What all this means is that the Bible is where these two things meet. It’s where doctrine meets duty. Most people are wildly inconsistent. Our words don’t line up with our actions. One prime example of this is when politicians make a distinction between their private views and public views. But the Bible is perfectly consistent and calls us to the same consistency. Consider Romans again. The practical application in the last part of the book starts with a big “therefore” in 12:1. Why? Because our actions are supposed to be founded on our beliefs.

So that’s the journey on which the Shorter Catechism takes us, from belief to action.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid

• ««
• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »
• »»