Category: Sermons

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

As we continue to consider Genesis 12:1-3, what is called the Abrahamic Covenant, we want to review where we were at last week.

We said that last week there are three promises here

1.) Promise to be a Great Nation
2.) Promise of a Particular Land
3.) Promise of Blessings upon the Nations

We will later see in Genesis 15 that these promises are irrevocable. There in Gen. 15 we find a covenant cutting ceremony. Normally, in Ancient East culture when important agreements are made the parties entering into the covenant would bind their agreement by cutting beasts in half and walking together between the beasts half. This was to communicate the idea of; “May it be done unto me what has been done to these beasts should I break this agreement we have made.” However, when God makes covenant w/ Abraham God takes the penalty of covenant breaking on Himself alone as God puts Abraham to sleep and walks Himself alone through the halves of the cut beasts (Gen. 15:17). This communicates that these promises of God are dependent upon the eternal character of God alone. These promises will come to pass because God is faithful to His promises.

#1 Last week we considered that God did keep His promises to Abraham. Abraham did become a great nation. Abraham was given a particular Land. Abraham would become a blessing upon the nations. We also learned last week that this promise had a telescopic effect. God’s covenant promise to Abraham expanded further and were clarified a given more definition with covenant Promises given to Moses, given to David.

However, we also said that consistent with NT Revelation we learned that these covenant promises were only ever penultimately to Israel. We see that later these covenant promises find their ultimate and final fulfillment in Jesus Christ and His Church.

We said last week that the promise of a Great Nation was ultimately fulfilled in Christ and His Church. We looked at Galatians 3 where Paul is writing to both Jew and Gentile believers. There Paul says;

26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. … 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Elsewhere in the NT we learn consistent with the promise to Abraham that his descendants will be as the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach that there was in heaven a number so great that no man could number (Rev. 7:9). The promise to Abraham to be a Great Nation was only about Israel penultimately. Ultimately it was about Christ and the Church.

#2 Last week we talked about the Land and again said that the land promise was only penultimately about Israel. Israel did inherit a particular land but that wasn’t what the promise was about. Ultimately, the promise is about Christ and the Church inheriting the Earth. We saw from Scripture how it was always God’s plan that the nations are Christ’s inheritance (Psalm 2)

The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

Now combine this with Christ’s promise that the Meek (that is God’s people) shall inherit the earth and it is clear that the promise to Abraham about land was ultimately about Christ and the Church.

So, together we learned that all these promises to Abraham are about Jesus the Christ. He is the fulfillment … the ultimate destination of all these promises. This is said explicitly in Gal. 3:16

 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 

This was way by review and reinforcement. The rest of the time today we want to spend looking at the promise to Abraham 12:3 that;

3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

We have only to look at Scripture to see that curse part certainly had a penultimate fulfillment. Egypt cursed Israel and Egypt was cursed. The book of Esther likewise is a book where we see that those who cursed Israel were cursed. Likewise in the book of Daniel we see those who cursed Daniel ended up being tossed to the Lions. Likewise in the NT we see Christ promising that those who cursed Him would be judged – a promise kept with His judgment coming in AD 70.

“They will demolish you-you and the children within your walls-and they will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:44)

And their response eventually was, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” (Mt. 27:25).
So, the cursing part is clear – penultimately, those who cursed Israel were cursed. And ultimately the cursing is clear … those who cursed Jesus were cursed and continue to be cursed.

The Blessing part “I will bless those who bless you,” was a singular failure of Israel. God called Israel to be a light to the nations and instead of Israel being a light to the nations …a blessing to those who blessed them Israel did not walk as a light to the nations. Instead they became insular and insisted that they were alone special because God had chosen them.

God had conferred on Israel as a whole people the role of being a priesthood people in the midst of the nations. As the people of God, they as a whole had the historical task of bringing the knowledge of God to the nations, and so being a blessing to the nations.

“The Abrahamic task of being a blessing to the nations also put them in the role of the priests in the midst of the nations.” Christopher Wright (The Mission of God)

Israel was not a blessing to the nations because it was too busy claiming exclusivity for themselves. The one large exception to this is the book of Jonah and Jonah has to be coerced into be a blessing to the Ninevites.

But remember … God’s covenant with Abraham was irrevocable. God’s promise to bless the Nations would be fulfilled. And that promise is fulfilled through the promised Christ. Jesus is God’s blessing on the nations through Israel. Because of Christ it is true that all the nations are blessed. The global blessing promised in Gen. 12:3 comes to pass as Christ brings the Gentiles in to the new and better covenant – new and better because all that was promised as been fulfilled.

Now we need to pause here before pushing on and understand that because in blessing Christ we are blessed it is no longer the case that we are required to bless Israel. There is no blessing of God that remains on Nations if they bless Israel. And no cursings of God that remain on Nations if they curse Israel. I bring this out because, as I noted last week we are trying to go back to the old covenant shadows in saying that we have to bless Israel.

In 1967 there was an updated version of the C. I. Scofield Dispie Bible released. One of its most significant updates was a note on Genesis 12:1-4 where the Holocaust (TM) was introduced into the notes. The new note clarified that God’s promise to Abraham- “I will curse those who curse you” – it read as such;

“A warning literally fulfilled in the history of Israel’s persecutions. It has invariably literally fulfilled in the history of Israel’s persecutions. It has invariably fared ill with the people who have persecuted the Bagel – well with those who have protected him. For a people who commit the sin of Antisemitism brings inevitable judgment.”

Mega church pastor Rev. John Hagee, on this point, as gone so far as to blame American decline on our insufficient support for Israel and he uses this Gen. 12 passage to sustain his claim. America is declining because we haven’t blessed Israel enough.

Also, this brushed up against the Judeo-Christianity issue. We only have that hyphenated monster because we think that somehow pagan Israel and its religion has to be married to the Christian faith. Hardly a more abominable phrase exists than this one that is born of the need to bless current Israel.

Pivoting, we remember the passages teaches that God will bless those who bless Christ and so
we might well ask, how can we bless Christ today that we might continue to be blessed and the answer to that is found in walking in obedience out of gratitude for being included in the covenant. If we want the continued blessings of Christ we become champions for His cause… and we seek to find the blessing of God in being persecuted for His name’s sake. We understand that with God as our Father all things come in to our lives, by the Father’s hand as a blessing of God who loves us for the sake of Jesus Christ.

On this issue of the intent of God to bless the nations we find it everywhere spoken of in the NT. The message of the NT is that which was once mystery is now made known… and that mystery now exposed is that God intends to call all the nations into the Abrahamic covenant fulfilled in Christ.

As the resurrected King the last words Jesus gives His disciples

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 28:19) The Church is now God’s means to bless the nations.

The Book of Acts is the story of God blessing the nations. Paul’s Missionary journeys and intent at the end of his life to go to Spain bespeaks God’s ongoing intent to bless the nations.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans 15:9-12 , cites several Old Testament passages to affirm that the Gentiles’ acknowledgment of God was always part of the divine plan: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.” Paul sees his mission to the Gentiles as a fulfillment of these ancient promises to Abraham.

The book of Revelation teaches that God’s intent to bless the nations through the SEED of Abraham comes to full expression. Over the centuries Christ collects His Church so that in Revelation 7 we see the fulfillment of Isaiah 2. In Isaiah 2 it is promised that the nations will stream to the mountain of the Lord

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And in Revelation 7 we see that streaming taking place

“After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb… And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”

And then in Rev. 21 and 22 we see the Nations flowing in to the new Jerusalem. We read that
24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

Now remember what we said at the beginning. The promises of God are irrevocable and inevitable. God promised to make a great Nation out of Abraham and when we get to the end of the singular Bible Narrative we see that God made a great Nation out of the one to whom the promise was ultimately given … to Christ. God has kept His promise that Abraham’s seed was as the stars of the sky and the sand on the sea shore. We are Abraham’s inheritance, not some retro-fitted Israel.

And we have been caught up in this kept promise. God, who is rich in mercy made a promise to Abraham that was fulfilled in Christ and the Church. It is believers in Christ who are true children of Abraham (Romans 4:16-17), and not physical Israel. As Zechariah noted in his prophecy of the coming of Christ “God hath remembered His promise to Abraham” thus showing the continuity of the one promise from Abraham to Christ and then from Christ to His people.

Look … it is why we teach the children to sing.. “Father Abraham had many sons… many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. So lets all praise the Lord.” The seed of Abraham is Christ and His Church and no other seed counts in terms of God’s covenant promises.

Now, what does this teach us about our God

1.) God is faithful to His promises. He did not forget His promises to Abraham and He will not forget His promises to us.

2.) God was so faithful to His promise that He who was very God of very God took upon Himself the covenant curses of Gen. 15 in our place for our failures in keeping covenant. The covenant was cut. God alone passed through the covenant parts. God takes the promised punishment for the covenant not being kept. Just as He walked through the covenant pieces Himself so He bore the penalty of our breaking of the covenant and that on the Cross. God makes promises alone and God keeps promises alone. We are the beneficiaries of God’s incredible covenant keeping character.

3.) This in turn drives in us the ability to trust God…. to trust Him when it is beyond our capacity to trust. God will be true to His promises to be with us always … He will be true to His promises to never leave us or forsake us … He is true to His promises to ever live to intercede for us at the right hand of the father … He is true to His promises to bless us and our generations. And God will be true at the time when we must trust Him the most … the time of our death. God can be trusted. God’s nature is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

4.) All of this teaches us that that the foundation of our trust is Redemption by Faith.

Romans 4:3 notes that Abram

“believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

This teaches us again that believers receive the promise of Abraham as fulfilled in Christ through faith alone in the God-Man alone. We enter into the covenant by being covered in the imputed righteousness of Christ alone as Christ alone is the one who kept the requirements of God’s covenantal law and who paid the covenantal penalty for our breaking of the covenantal law. We are in covenant with God because we are in Christ our covenant keeper.

But not only are we blessed we continue to be a blessing. As parents we seek to be a blessing to our seed that they too may be sons of Abraham. As Christ’s people we seek to be a blessing to those who don’t know Christ or know Him in a strange way by being Heralds and champions of His cause. To our enemies we seek to be a blessing by praying that God would open their eyes to God’s wrath that they might flee to Christ alone for safety and redemption.

This irrevocable blessing of God continues today through Christ as Christ continues to build His church so that when He returns He finds that the nations of the world have become the nations of God and His Christ.

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

As we consider this passage this morning we want to note that this passage is one of the peaks of the Old Covenant. Here in chapter 12 there is a turning to a new theme from what has gone on previously. In the past few weeks you have been with me as I have tried to teach the children that the Bible can be read in terms of macro themes as Creation, Fall, Redemption and Glorification. In Gen. 12, the acorn promise of Redemption in Gen. 3:15 begins to be fleshed out. There in Gen. 3:15 we learned that the seed of the woman, being wounded by the Serpent, would eventually crush the head of the serpent.

After that glimmer of hope though the first 11 chapters of Genesis for the most part, following the Creation account and the Fall brings to light the horrid consequences of the fall and sin. However, when we arrive at Gen. 12 w/ God’s promises to Abram there is a turn to a focus on what Redemption, blessing and reconciliation w/ God will look like. At Gen. 12 there is growth in the acorn of redemption that was first stated in Gen. 3:15. We learn here that God intends to bless His people through the progeny descending from Abraham. We learn that Redemption and reconciliation and blessing is going to be related to the offspring of Abraham.

So, as we launch into this we would say that this call of Abram here, rightly interpreted per the witness of Scripture, is a sneak preview for the unfolding of Redemption. Here we find the beginning of the story of how God intends to bring salvation to all the tribes and nations of the earth through God’s keeping of these promises to Abram. The parameters of this promise to Abraham will be further expanded with subsequent covenants with Moses, and David but those subsequent covenants are always rooted in these promises to Abraham and God’s promise to raise up a Redeemer to crush the serpent’s head. All of these promises are then fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ to whom they all ultimately refer.

The elements of Abraham’s call are reaffirmed to Abraham (12:7; 15:5–21; 17:4–8; 18:18–19; 22:17–18), to Isaac (26:24), to Jacob (28:13–15; 35:11–12; 46:3), to Judah (49:8–12), to Moses (Exod. 3:6–8; Deut. 34:4), and to the ten tribes of Israel (Deut 33). They are reaffirmed by Joseph (Gen. 50:24), by Peter to the Jews (Acts 3:25), and by Paul to the Gentiles (Gal. 3:8).

In this promise to Abram we find four promises that we will look at briefly. We will consider how God kept His promises penultimately … and then how those promises were ultimately focused on Christ and how they are kept in Christ. Then we will seek to spend a little bit of time noting how badly this Scripture has been mauled by modern Evangelicals.

Very well then … in this promise of Redemption we see four promises. As we go into this remember the context. Gen. 11 is the tower of Babel where men are seeking to make a name for themselves Independent of God. In Gen. 12:2 God promises to make Abram’s name great as a means of making God’s own name great. As a macro consideration this is the great anti-thesis we find in Scripture. Fallen men apart from God are forever seeking to make their name great while God’s people are blessed with a great name as they pursue the greatness of God’s name.

As we get into the text we see here that God makes four promises. God promises to

1.) Bless Abram Himself
2.) To give Abram a Land 12:1 made explicit in vs. 7

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your seed I will give this land.”

3.) To give Abram offspring – 12:2 (I will make you a great nation)
4.) Bless nations through Abram 12:3 (In you all the nations of the world will be blessed.)

As we said a few seconds ago, these promises are reiterated to Abraham’s descendants in the Pentateuch.

Now as we consider the fulfillment of these penultimately we note that

1.) God did indeed bless Abram. The man was given a son in old age who in turn had two sons who in turn had many many sons. Abram was the head of a large household and was considerably wealthy. God did make the name of Abram great via the triumph of his later Son King David. Abram died in peace seeing God’s blessing upon him.

2.) As to the land promise Abram was given the land of Canaan. In vs. 7 we see Abram in Canaan building an Altar

And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (7)

The building of altars is not insignificant. That altar was a means of claiming the land. It was the equivalent of an explorer planting his nation’s flag on newly discovered soil and claiming it for one’s people. In the building of that Alter Abram was claiming the land as his.

3.) Abram promised offspring was emphasized in Gen. 15, a few chapters later;

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

And of course as we read the record of the old covenant we do see that Abraham’s seed was prolific. God kept his promise.

4.) Now as to the promise to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, well, that comes to pass but only eventually.

Now, keep in mind that we said at the outset that there were two fulfillments here. There is a penultimate fulfillment that we have just considered but there is also a ultimate fulfillment that we are about to consider. But before we consider the ultimate fulfillment let us say here we live in a time and have for some decades now where many if not most Christians consider the penultimate fulfillment as the ultimate fulfillment. They misread the text in Gen. 12 errantly because they have been convinced that Gen. 12 does not have an ultimate fulfillment that makes the previous penultimate fulfillment obsolete.

In this regard much of the church in America reminds us of the problem that the writer to the book of the Hebrews was dealing with. There in the book of Hebrews the writer is dealing w/ people who want to go back to the old covenant, leaving Christ who was the fulfillment of the old covenant. Over and over again the writer to the Hebrews reminds them that Christ has fulfilled the Old covenant and so provided a new and better covenant.

The fact that people want to live in terms of the old covenant is seen in our time by the fact that people want to see Israel – The descendants of Abraham – as still being the nation that we Gentiles are required to bless. People want to understand Genesis 12 as if it is still operative in its old covenant penultimate sense.

This errant reading of Gen. 12 was put on display recently when being interviewed by Tucker Carlson, Sen. Ted Cruz said, seeking to clarify his reasoning for his support of Israel;

“The reason for supporting Israel is twofold. No. 1, as a Christian, growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, ‘Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.’ And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things…  “So that’s in the Bible. As a Christian I believe that.”

This kind of errant understanding is prolific among the Church today. Indeed, I would hazard to say it is the majority reading of Scripture today. But this reading of Scripture like this was never done in all of Church history until the rise of a heretical teaching beginning in the mid 1800s or so that went by the name “Dispensationalism.”

To see how the errant reading of Scripture has taken hold take an informal poll among your own Christian friends. Ask them if, according to Scripture, it is important to support modern Israel. Don’t argue with them. Just listen to their answer and then change the subject on to something else.

We are contending here that Genesis 12 has now to be understood in light of its ultimate meaning and to read it according to its penultimate meaning is to go back to the shadows of the old covenant. The great witness of Scripture and of most of the Church through the centuries until the mid to late 1800s is that these temporal fulfillments found in the OT expansion of Israel were not the ultimate teleos or end or goal of the promise in Gen. 12. In other words, as we are going to learn, the ultimate goal of the promises of Gen. 12 was not the rise of the nation State of Israel, or the continuation of the nation State Israel. The ultimate teleos or end or goal of Genesis 12, as we are going to see from Scripture was the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and by extension the building up of His church.

As we turn to the new covenant so as to rightly interpret the old covenant we see that these promises in Genesis 12 were always located in Christ and by extension His Church.

As we turn to the NT we see that the promise to Abram to have a land we find in Gen. 12 was never ultimately about Canaan but pointed to something more that is provided in Christ. As we consider the land promise we are reminded that the land promise indicated that God was not going to abandon his plan to establish His concrete Kingdom on earth. God had a land in Eden that was violated and so the land was given up when our first parents fell. God had a land in Canaan but with the disobedience of Israel God vomited them out of the land.

Paul tells us in Romans that this land promise is still in play;

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. Romans 4:13

God still has a Kingdom though and that Kingdom and the land of that Kingdom is answered in Christ who says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” The earth is now God’s Kingdom. Yes, there remain rebels in His Kingdom but God’s people shall inherit the land in due time. We find this articulated subtly again in Ephesians 6 where the promise from the 10 commandments that honoring Father and Mother will mean living long in the King’s land that He is giving them is now applied to New Covenant children in the context of obeying their parents. The promise of land is now unto the meek who shall inherit the earth. The earth is God’s land and God’s people as the King’s subjects are promised to inherit the earth. So the promise to Abraham is not limited to Old Covenant terms. The middle East is not a land that belongs to Jews by divine right. The Jews violated that covenant and God via the Romans Vespasian and Titus cast them out of the land. The middle East and the whole earth belongs to God’s people… To Christians. The promised land to Abraham finds its ultimate fulfillment in God’s people inheriting the earth under the authority of King Jesus.

To read the promise to Abraham that the modern Jews, if you can genetically find any, still have a divine right to the land, per Gen. 12, is to warp the meaning of Scripture. It is to set Scripture on its head so that the New and better covenant no longer exists.

So, that is the land promise. We have the promise that we shall inherit the earth, and we know that in glorification we will move on to that eternal city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10).

II.) Seed

We move on to the next promise that was penultimately fulfilled for Abram but which always had a grander fulfillment in view. That promise is the promise of offspring. God tells Abram that He is going to make of him a great nation.

In Genesis 22:18, after Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, God reaffirms His promise of future seed;

“And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:18)

The penultimate fulfillment of God keeping His promise is seen in the growth of the Hebrew people. Abraham has one son… that one son (Isaac) has two sons (Jacob & Esau) and Jacob has 12 sons and eventually the Hebrews become so many that the Egyptians are worried about the Hebrews would become too powerful and become an internal threat to them resulting in Pharaoh enslaving them and they continue to grow as a people from their forward.

However, that is not the ultimate fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that he will be made into a great nation. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise to Abraham of having a seed we are later taught by Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ;

“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning One, who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

The ultimate fulfillment then of this Gen. 12 promise to Abraham of future seed is Jesus Christ and His people with Him, which we learn a few vs. earlier in Galatians;

7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Now what impact does this have on us in 2025. Well, if Christ and His people are the ultimate fulfillment of the promised seed to Abraham then by necessity that means Jews who still embrace their false religion should be in no way referred to as “the chosen people.” Talmudic Jews or secular Jews are not God’s chosen people any more or any less than unbelieving people group. In point of fact it really is blasphemy to own a theology which speaks of unbelieving Jews as if they remain God’s chosen people. God’s chosen people …. His seed … are those who are of faith who are blessed with believing Abraham. This is so true that we can rightly say today that God’s promise to Abraham to make a great nation finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Church where God draws people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to create a redeemed nation of nations.

The Scripture thus requires us to abominate any theology that teaches that God loves Talmudists or secular Bagels any more or less than He loves Hindus, Mooselimbs, or Satanists. The Scripture thus requires us to abominate any theology that teaches that God loves ethnic Bagels (if you can find any) any more or less than He loves ethnic Mongolians, Intuits, Venezuelans, or Hutus. It is Christ and His people whom are God’s chosen. It is Jesus Christ and His Church that are beloved of God.

We dishonor Christ when we own a theology that prioritizes Bagels simply because they are Bagels (if indeed they genetically are).

If the Church is ever to return to health it must give up this line of thinking that somehow it is incumbent upon us to bless those who hate Christ.

The mind of Christ will plead with all men – unbelieving Bagels or Gentiles — Han Chinese or Ethnic Bagels, to understand their peril before a Just God and to repent before it is too late. This is the greatest love can give to unbelieving Jews. This is the greatest blessing I can bless upon Jews.

Conclusion

Promise and fulfillment.

The Old Covenant is a book of promises that will often find penultimate fulfillments that await ultimate fulfillments that reveal Jesus the Christ and His Church. Once that ultimate fulfillment has come the penultimate fulfillment slips away.

Now, however, this once standard way of reading the Scripture – a way of reading the Scripture that is required by the Scriptures – is now derisively labeled by some as “replacement theology,” where the accusation is that we who read the Scriptures, Scripturally on this subject are guilty of the crime of replacing God’s intention towards nation-state Israel with God’s intention towards Jesus Christ and His Church.

The irony here is that those who accuse Biblical Christians of replacement theology are the ones guilty of what they accuse us of doing. Those who bring this charge against us are guilty of replacing the substance of the covenant Promise (Christ and His Church) with the shadows. They are replacing the ultimate with the proximate.

James 2: 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

As I will be on Holiday for the 508^th celebration of the Reformation, I thought I would take a couple Sundays focusing on truths that the Reformation restored. These truths are still abominated by much of the Church world. Indeed, when one becomes Biblical and so Reformed one is immediately on the wrong side of the popularity game – even within the Church.

And so there is a ongoing need to return to these treasures in order to understand the Biblical foundation of Biblical Christianity. To do so we look to James 2 this morning in order to take up the matter of Salvation – Justification and Sanctification.

The enemies of Biblical Christianity, whether Arminian, Eastern Orthodox, or Roman Catholic, will come to James and say… “Ah … here we have proof that the Biblical doctrine of Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that you Reformed type come up with is utter nonsense.”

Well, is that the case? Is James contradicting Paul who could write explicitly in Romans

Romans 4:2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[a] 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those

whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the one

whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”[b]

9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

So, the question is, is James contradiction Paul? Is God of two minds when it comes to this issue of how it is one is right w/ God. Paul says

5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

Yet here comes Randy Rome insisting that James says it is faith plus works wherein men can become right with God eventually.

As we come to James 2 we have to keep before ourselves what the problem is that James is dealing with. This is essential in order to understand this passage aright thus avoiding the soul damning mistakes that Rome makes when it comes to this passage.

James is dealing with the problem who claims to have faith in God. They would insist they are Christian but there is no evidence in their lives of this vital living faith. What does James say… The Holy Spirit says that such people are clearly lying to themselves about this so-called faith they have, because, the Holy Spirit says, genuine faith (as opposed to mere claims of faith) manifests itself in the person who has been declared righteous by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Seeking to be succinct and pithy so as to be memorable…

Paul deals with how it is a person is Justified … how it is they are right w/ God
James OTOH is dealing w/ how it is a person’s claim to being right w/ God is vindicated

Do you see the difference there? If we were to boil this down even more we would say;

Paul teaches how a man is justified
James teaches how a man’s justification is justified.

They are two completely different issues and so not in contradiction in the least. In point of fact Paul will say repeatedly in His writings what James says here. Paul will say…

Eph. 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Titus 2:13 Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Paul agrees with James because Paul and James are being inspired by the same Holy Spirit of God to write what they write and God does not embrace contradictions.

Of course this matter of how a man is accepted by God became one of the main contentious points of the Reformation. Rome then, and still today, insists that man will eventually be accepted by God, in some measure, by man’s cooperation with grace – by his behavior, while the Reformers insisted that man is now accepted by the behavior of Christ for Him.

And so Rome connects man’s behavior … his cooperation with the grace found in the sacramental system, with man’s eventually becoming right with God. While the Reformers following Scripture insisted that man does not become right with God over the course of time in concert with the Roman sacramental system combined with purgatory. The Reformers following Scripture insisted that God declares man right with God by God’s alone grace, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The alone are significant. They were placed there for the very reason of cutting out the ground beneath all claims that somehow man’s cooperating behavior is contriubtive to being right with God.

That is why to this day Rome, and Remonstrants, and Eastern Orthodox will howl whenever a Reformed chap comes along with the Gospel message. This is why to this day a Reformed person who stands on God’s Word on this matter will be greeted with hostility and will be considered a pariah. Especially if said person insists that this is the ONLY way of understanding how we are right with God and that all other ways may well lead to a person being eternally damned.

There is another matter we should note here in order to hopefully clarify matters in our mind. When we say that being right before God is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we are at the same time saying w/ Paul in Romans 4:5 “that God justifies the ungodly.” Heathen Romish ways that misinterpret James teach that God only justifies the godly.

Why do I say that … well, it is due to the fact that the Roman sacramental system combined with purgatory is a system of salvation wherein a person is only finally declared righteous once they finally are righteous. By continuing to attend to the sacraments of Rome … followed by the time spent in purgatory burning off remaining sin, Rome teaches that the believer is finally justified in and of himself so that God can now say … “Well, because you are now just, I justify you.”

This is exactly contrary to Scripture. In the scriptural account God declares man, for the sake of the finished work of Jesus Christ to be be justified – man is right with God. Not because the redeemed man is now in and of himself all that God demands of Him, but because Christ put to the account of the ungodly His righteousness.

So … seeking for the pithy and memorable again …

Rome teaches that one is declared right with God because they have become right with God by cooperating with grace found in the sacramental system.

Scripture teaches that one is declared right with God because justifies the ungodly because of Christ’s finished work.

If we examine this in another way we would say that Rome, Remonstrants, and EO, have given us what we might call Christian Humanism. In this Christian Humanism man saves himself by his good works, his behavior, and his attendance on the sacramental system. This isn’t grace. This is self-salvation w/ God getting a hockey assist.

You see my friends as we consider James again, Rome looks at James and says it confirms their position. For them James is insisting that God works are combined with faith to the end of being right with God. For them these good works are seeking to attain something (being declared right with God) that is uncertain without their contribution. For the Reformed these good works are not in the least contributory to being declared right with God. For the Reformed these good works are the consequence of knowing that they have been declared right with God.

What does this mean? Well one thing it means is you could have two people (One who is Roman Catholic and one who is Reformed) doing the same exact good works and one is on their way to hell while the other is heaven bound? Why would that be? Well it is because Rome is working to obligate God to given them a salvation they cannot have apart from their cooperation while the Reformed is working out of gratitude to God for the salvation that can never be revoked or taken away. The difference is found in the motivation. Rome is motivated by gaining salvation. The Reformed are motivated because they have been freely given salvation.

This is why James can say marry faith and deeds. James insists that faith is dead without good works not because faith and works are required in order to be right with God, but rather because the consequent product of genuine faith that rests in Christ alone for being right with God is a zealousness for good works. When James complains of Faith unaccompanied by works he is not teaching that our behavior contributes to our being right with God. It is Jesus’ behavior alone that finds us declared right by God. James is saying that Faith unaccompanied by works is dead because such a faith is not faith. Even the demons have that kind of faith.

Look… we need to remind ourselves here that even after conversion our good works without being accepted for the sake of Jesus Christ still fall short of God’s standard for being good. It’s all a matter of God’s favor my friends. God accepts me for the sake of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. God accepts my good works only for the same reason. The Spirit of Christ is daily increasingly conforming me to Christ in my thinking and behavior but even when my thinking and behavior are at their top level best they are still received and delighted in by God, not for the sake of their intrinsic righteous value but for the sake of the Father being pleased by Christ.

My friends, people who think that God accepts their good works as contributory along w/ Christ’s finished work unto the end of eventually one day in the future being right with God have not ever really understood the sinfulness of their sin.

This is why Christ is center for the Christian. It is why we hang crosses everywhere. My only hope is nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness.

Last week I had a Eastern Orthodox ask me;

Where do you even get this unbiblical idea that you are righteous simply by trusting Christ alone? My answer was, “Why, from Scripture alone of course.”

Galatians 2

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified[a] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[b] were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Look, when Rome comes to James insisting that James proves that our works are part of our being right with God what they are saying is that Christ doesn’t by Himself save His people by His righteousness imputed but instead people must add their additional works to Christ’s incomplete work and if they don’t add their additional works they will forever be damned? As such Christ doesn’t save but gives us the opportunity to save ourselves with maybe a little help from Him. That’s very good of God to allow us to save ourselves.

This is why I said earlier that this is nothing but religious humanism. It is a man centered religion where Christian language is used in order to cover up the fact that men are involved in an enterprise dedicated to saving themselves.

Now having said all this what do we do with James 2

24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

The Roman Catholic here will run to this verse in triumph insisting that our idea of salvation by Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is nonsense.

But again, remember the context here. The context is people claiming to have faith but not having correspondent works. The question that James is answering is … “How is that Christian faith is seen as vindicated.”

The Greek word in vs. 24 for “Justified” has a range of meaning that includes the idea of vindicated. This same word is translated that way in I Tim. 3:16. So, James is saying that if man claims to have faith (which is the context of this passage) then the vindication to that claim is the justified man’s behavior. However, has we have been laboring to explain, teaching how a man’s faith is vindicated is far different than teaching how a man is made right with God.

A person’s justification needs vindicated in James, as we see in James 2, because false claims are being made. People are saying they are justified (declared right w/ God via forensic declaration through faith alone in Christ alone) when there was no evidence to their claim. The evidence of which is good works. But good works are the evidence of Justification and NOT the foundation of Justification.

All of what we have said was zeroed in on by our own catechism in LD 11;

Q. Do such then believe in Jesus the only Savior, who seek their salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or anywhere else?

A. They do not; for though they boast of Him in words, yet in deeds they DENY Jesus the ONLY deliverer and Savior; for one of these two things must be true, either that Jesus is not a COMPLETE Savior, OR that they who by a true faith receive this Savior must find all things in Him necessary to their salvation.

Scriptural Support

1 Cor. 1:13, 31. Gal. 5:4 Col. 2:10. Isa. 9:6, 7. Col. 1:19, 20

Rome does not give us a complete savior. In the Romish system that insists that James is teaching our works are required for being declared right w/ God we find the denial that Jesus Christ is a complete savior.

With that in mind we now read James 2

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

And with this all Protestants agree. Our only insistence is that works are the inevitable consequence of a living and vital faith and not contributory in the least to being right with God. As I cast my eyes across the dead churches of the West, I would say to our modern dead Church as James writes here … “You claim faith but your lack of good works as defined by God’s law means your faith is dead.”

Conclusion

I have tried to demonstrate, once again, that the religion of Rome and the religion of Geneva really are two completely different religions. Perhaps they both are not Christianity but it is certain that they both can NOT be Christianity.

We each own two different chaps both named Jesus. We both embrace completely different ideas of salvation. We both have completely different understandings of Church. We each have completely different worldviews.

And all this despite using the same words. It really is quite amazing and demonstrates how Worldviews affect EVERYTHING.

13 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”

I Peter 3

Here Peter returns to a point that he had dropped earlier;

I Peter 2:12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The ideas being communicated in each of these passages is that Christians will be challenged by the wicked as to their beliefs … indeed they may even suffer persecution … and in those situations Christians both by their conduct and by their words are responsible to give an apologetic … a defense of the faith. They are to provide a reason for the hope that is in them.

Peter begins here by bringing up

I.) The Possibility of Suffering/Persecution

The Apostle opens in vs. 13 by suggesting that generally speaking those who are followers of good, will be left alone. In vs. 14 though Peter does allow that there will be times when Christians suffer for righteousness sake. Of course we see that throughout the Scriptural record as well as throughout Church history. There are times, especially when the surrounding culture and visible church goes into steep decline, when Christians will suffer for righteousness sake. That is, Christians will suffer because they are doing or speaking the right thing… they are living and speaking consistent with their Christian faith.

II.) Next Peter Enjoins The Proper Response to Suffering/Persecution

Peter says that in light of that unjust persecution and suffering that the response is to first realize that we are blessed. Peter is perhaps recalling here the words of our Lord Christ who also anticipated that Christians would suffer and be persecuted;

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So, the first response that we are to have should it ever be the case that we are unjustly persecuted and so suffering is to realize that we are blessed. We can rejoice and be glad in the midst of unjust suffering because we know that such suffering is promissory of future great reward and we can rejoice and be glad in the midst of unjust suffering and persecution because we know we are keeping the very best of company being counted as among the prophets. I mean, who doesn’t want to be identified with the great prophets of God who went before us?

Peter then combines the reminder that those are blessed who suffer persecuted for righteousness sake with the admonition to “not be afraid of their threats.” This is the second response we are to have in the face of persecution and suffering. Fear not.

The last few weeks we have been considering the why behind these word “do not be afraid of their threats.” The reason for knowing no fear in light of suffering, persecution, and threats, is that the Lord God omnipotent reigns. God is sovereign and has called His people, “The apple of His eye.” The Holy Spirit has reminded us that all things work together for the good of those God loves and are called according to His purpose. God has explicitly told us that He has engraved our names on the palms of His hands (Is. 49:16). For these reasons we are not to be afraid of their threats. God is our God due to the fact that we have been united to Christ.

The third response Peter writes here to the flock as it pertains to people breathing out threats and persecuting us is to

Sanctify (Set Apart) The Lord Christ in your hearts

This call echoes Isaiah 8:13 where we read;

13 The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

This call from Peter then to Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts in the face of persecution and suffering seems to counsel on how to overcome the fear that Peter warns against. Peter writes in essence, “very well, there is this possible persecution and suffering and in light of that there is a natural response to have fear. Well, little flock, the way to deal with the understandable fear of man is to replace it with the fear of God. Sanctify (set apart – hold as holy and distinct) the Lord God in your hearts.”

You see a genuine fear of God – a genuine setting apart God will calm the swells that can overwhelm a understandable fear of men who are breathing out threats against us.

So to “sanctify Christ” as most versions have it or to “sanctify God” was to count His Name as holy (sanctified) above all other names. To “Sanctify Christ” means to own the fear of God, as the only fear which men ought to cherish, resulting in the safeguard against all undue fear of men.

This is not easy. I know I have failed at this in my past. I know if I had sanctified God in my heart and so feared God more than men the harassment and persecution of men would have not knocked me off my center. So, learning the fear of God… learning to set apart God is an arrows that warriors should have in their quiver because warriors are inevitably going to have to deal with persecution and suffering at one level or another.

One more word here. Peter says we are to sanctify God in your hearts.

Moderns tend to want to drive a dichotomy between head and heart. We have all kinds of silly sayings

Follow your heart
Affairs of the heart
In the 1960 Prez campaign Americans heard constantly, “In your heart you know he’s right.”

However the idea that there is this vast dichotomy between head and heart is just nonsense if we are going to understand the language in its Biblical context.

Gordon Clark dealt with this issue two generations ago. After collating all the Scripture that referred to heart Clark noted;

In eighty percent or more of (Bible verses)… the context shows… that the intellect or man’s mind is intended. Maybe ten percent mean volition (will). Another ten percent signify the emotions. Hence the actual usage very nearly identifies the heart with the intellect.

So, it would be a mistake to imagine that Peter is speaking of the “heart” here as though it is referring to the center of our emotions over against the mind with which we think. That kind of dichotomy is a stranger to Biblical thinking. In Biblical terminology the “heart” is the location of our reasoning (Romans 1:21), meditation (Psalms 19:14), understanding (Proverbs 8:5), thinking (Deuteronomy 7:17; 8:5) and believing (Romans 10:10). It is just here—in the center of our thinking and reasoning—that Christ is to be consecrated as Lord, when we are suffering and being persecuted.

So, biblically speaking, “set apart Christ as the Lord in your hearts,” means think as a Christian on this matter. It means to resolve to think properly. We are take ourselves into our hands and talk back to ourselves saying,

“Very well then, matters are getting difficult here. I am surrounded by the Philistines and they are breathing out threats and are persecuting me. I am languishing here. Very well, I must take myself in hand and at this very moment think properly about Christ as being Lord … I must sanctify God as Lord and be done with this fear of man and get on with the battle at hand.”

Then Peter gives some counsel on what more should be done in these situations;

III.) Be Ready to Give an Apologetic

and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” I Peter 3

Now here we should first note that there is only one possible way to always be ready to give this kind of defense and that is by knowing what we believe and why we believe it and what we don’t believe and why we don’t believe it. There is no defending the Gospel hope … there is no defending the reason for the hope that is in us that is absent of knowing our undoubted Catholic Christian faith.

This verse is why I drill your children so much on the catechism. It is why we have worldview classes with the covenant seed. It is why I try while in the pulpit to get into the doctrine the way I do. All of that is explained by this first. I want you and the children and myself to have the ability to give a defense for the hope that lies within us.

It explains why I write the volumes I write on Iron Ink. It explains the existence of Iron Rhetoric. It explains my reading habits. Frankly, I am scared to death that some time will arise when I am not able to give a reason for the hope that is in me. As a minister I likewise daily wonder if I have done enough to help people likewise to be able to give a reason for the hope that lies within them.

This passage teaches us that Christianity is just not a label we wear. Christianity should be seen as a vocation much like being a Doctor or a Lawyer is a vocation. It should be our jobs … our callings to be Christian and like being a Doctor or a Lawyer that requires hard and long study. It requires putting our shoulder to the wheel of learning. Only in such a way can we be ready to give an apologetic … a defense for the reason for the hope that lies within us.

And never was there a time that this was more needed than our time. We are living in a church and cultural insane asylum. The proof of that was brought forth by the renown pollster George Barna in 2021 as he spoke in a Church in Virginia. I can only imagine that matters have deteriorated since then… Barna

Cited recent data indicating that just 6% of American people have a biblical worldview, despite 51% believing they do. The Cultural Research Center, which did the survey, concluded that 94% of Americans do not have a biblical worldview… According to Barna’s research, the worldview problem is in the church as well, with just 21% of evangelicals holding to a biblical worldview. Quick math tells us that 79% of Evangelicals do NOT have a Biblical worldview.

If one does not have a Biblical worldview, whatever one might be giving as the reason for the hope that lies within him it won’t be reasons that are reflective of what is taught in God’s Word.

Consider just one very recent piece of evidence of this lack of a Christian Worldview existing in the Reformed Churches.

Not many weeks ago a ordained minister named Littlepage in a PCA Washington DC church recently announced during a sermon that he was leaving the PCA church because the Lord had led he and his wife to become Roman Catholic. The head of the Home Missions department in the PCA was setting in the service and he along with the Elders and congregation cheered when Littlepage made the announcement. The head of the Home Missions called for the Leaders and Shepherdesses to come forward and lay hands on this departing minister. In the course of all this the now Roman Catholic but still ordained PCA minister was allowed to administer the Lord’s Table.

Talk about not having a Christian Worldview… not only as pertaining to the Minister, but as pertaining to the head of the Mission to North America and as pertaining to the Church Elders and as pertaining to the congregation. It would exhaust me to count all the different ways that this whole show was blasphemous. Do you think any of those people could give a acceptable reason for the hope that lies within them?

So, I return to the thought that we need to start thinking of our Christian faith as a vocation. To those of you here (and I know you’re present) who do constantly seek to sharpen your blade, I salute you. I salute you because you are so rare and as your Pastor allow me to commend you and to urge you to press on. I know what it means to work 80 hours a week, raise a family, and try to continue to pile up the ability to give reason for the hope that lies within me. I know it is not easy… but as you can learn your faith, learn it. While driving around listen to lectures/sermons. While preparing meals in the Kitchen or while in the laundry room pursue the knowing of what you believe and why you believe it and what you don’t believe and why you don’t believe it.

And then when God opens a door, step through it. There is such a need for godly reasoning in private conversations and in the public square.

Be ready to give a defense. There was a time when we might have been able to just let the professionals be the ones giving a defense, but we are living in a time when what is required is “all hands on deck.”

And what of that “hope that lies within us?”

Well clearly that hope is the magnificence of our Lord Jesus Christ who out of love for the Father and for His people took upon Himself a human nature and as the God-Man paid the just penalty for our sin so that God’s name would be cleared of any accusation and so that we could have peace with God. He who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The hope that lies within us means that the grave holds less terror because we belong to Christ. Then the hope that lies within us means that we no longer walk as the pagans do with their darkened understanding.

Indeed, as we increasingly understand our undoubted Catholic Christian Faith our whole lives become a testimony of the hope that lies within us.

Friends, the visible church and culture desperately needs folks who can give a reason for the hope that lies within them. More important than that even though is that this is what we are called to in order to honor our master and liege-Lord… our great Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ.

³³ Pilate therefore entered again into the ^[q]Praetorium, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? ³⁴ Jesus answered, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning me? ³⁵ Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? ³⁶ Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my ^[r]servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. ³⁷ Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, ^[s]Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. ³⁸ Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?

And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in him. ³⁹ But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? ⁴⁰ They cried out therefore again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

According to one of the Important ECF, Cyril of Alexandria,

“Christ, has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but his by essence and by nature.”

As Jesus Christ is very God of very God, He shares in Sovereignty with the Father and the Spirit.  As such Christ, by way of His divinity, is King over all creation. As we have seen this is what Scripture teaches. Christ is King over all men and over all Creation.

II.) Christ is the King by Acquired Right

I Cor. 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body

1 Peter 1:18 

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

I. Cor. 7:23You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

‘ We are no longer our own property, for Christ has purchased us as Peter teaches, “with a great price” and so our very bodies are the “members of Christ.”

The heart of our Catechism presupposes Christ’s Kingship,

Here the emphasis is that Christ has paid the Ransom-price which grants Him the Divine Right of Kingship.

III.) Christ is the King by Divine Inheritance

A third ground of sovereignty is that God bestowed upon Christ the nations of the world as His special possession and dominion.

In the Great Commission Christ, Himself testifies to this,

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18)

John 3:34For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35TheFather loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.

John 5:22 Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, 23so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.…

So what are the Implications of Christ being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Thus far, I think one could get most of the Church on board with what has been said. But it is the implications of the Kingship of Christ which begins to stir the proverbial pot and so it is on the tangible impact of the Kingship of Christ wherein Christians begin to fall out with one another.

Implication #1 — Caesar must bow to Christ’s Kingship

If Christ is King over all then all must bow to the authority of Christ.

According to McGoldrick, in his book on Reformed giant Abraham Kuyper,

Kuyper believed that, “Christians must served God within the world, and not flee into seclusion as Monks and some Anabaptists have done. When Christians obtain positions of civil authority, they must operate in obedience to God, since the Lord has ordained their authority (Rom. 13:1-7). This, Kuyper argued, means that the civil government must “restrain blasphemy, where it directly assumes the character of an affront to the Divine Majesty.” The constitution of the state should acknowledge God as supreme ruler, and governments should set aside its regular activities on a Sunday and protect it as a day of worship. Magistrates… should regard themselves as responsible to God in the discharge of their duties. They should punish public attacks upon God as crime against civil law, which acknowledges God as the source of the state’s authority.”

Contrast, this Christian conviction with something just written recently by Baptist Minister John Piper,

So how do we express a passion for God”s supremacy in a pluralistic world where most people do not recognize God as an important part of their lives, let alone an important part of government or education or business or industry or art or recreation or entertainment?

Answer: We express a passion for the supremacy of God… 

5) by making clear that God himself is the foundation for our commitment to a pluralistic democratic order-not because pluralism is his ultimate ideal, but because in a fallen world, legal coercion will not produce the kingdom of God. Christians agree to make room for non-Christian faiths (including naturalistic, materialistic faiths), not because commitment to God”s supremacy is unimportant, but because it must be voluntary, or it is worthless. We have a God-centered ground for making room for atheism. “If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight” (John 18:36). The fact that God establishes his kingdom through the supernatural miracle of faith, not firearms, means that Christians in this age will not endorse coercive governments-Christian or secular.

So, we are considering the implications of the Kingship of Jesus Christ and already we have come to a huge fork in the road between those claiming Christ. One expression holds that the implication of Christ’s Kingship is the Christians should rule as Christians. The other holds that the implication of Christ’s Kingship is that Christians should rule in such a way to make room for Atheism. Both would affirm the Kingship of Jesus Christ. Each is defining Kingship very differently.

The upshot of this is that while Christians each may affirm statements that are linguistically the same, they may very well being affirming very different things.

Implication #2 — Our Law Order must reflect the Law Order of the King

Christians and non-Christians alike fail to understand how much of the fabric of the Law Order that created Western Civilization was Christian in its beginnings.

Harold J. Berman’s Massive two  Volume Set “Law and Revolution,” notes this repeatedly.

“The Church … would work for… the reformation of the world through law, in the direction of justice and peace…. Law came to be seen as the very essence of faith. ‘God is himself law, and therefore law is dear to him, ‘ wrote the author of Sachsenspiegel,  the first German law book, about 1220…. Law was seen as a way of fulfilling the mission of Western Christendom to begin to achieve the Kingdom of God on earth.”

Elsewhere Berman notes,

“The Law of King Alfred, for example, start with the ten Commandments and a restatement of the Law of Moses, a summary of the Acts of the Apostles and references to the monastic penitentials…. Christianity broke the fiction of the immutability of folk law.”

And again in Vol. II Berman notes,

“The English Puritans… shared the belief that human history is wholly within the providence of God, that it is primarily a spiritual story of the unfolding of God’s own purposes…. They believed, further, that God willed and commanded what they called the ‘reformation of the world,’ and they emphasized the role of law as a means of such Reformation.”

Time does not permit to mine all the rich quotes from Berman’s two volumes that demonstrate that our Father’s understood that one of the implications of the Kingship of Jesus Christ was that social orders were to be governed by His Law Order. In the words of G. K. Chesterton, we are discovering anew that if ‘man will not be ruled by the Ten Commandments he will be ruled by ten thousand commandments.”

This denial of this implication of the Kingship of Jesus Christ is all very recent comparatively speaking. We have grown up in this rebellion so we tend to see the rebellion as the norm but up until about 100 years ago men understood the connection between God’s law and the law that guided the civil order in the West.

Harold O. J. Brown notes,

If there are no laws made in heaven, by what standards should human society organize itself? We do need laws by which to organize and structure our lives, but if God has not given them, where shall they come from? There is only one answer: We must make them ourselves. Of course, if we make our own laws they will have no more authority or force than what we ourselves possess and can assert by means of the power at our disposal. In other words, law comes to represent not the will of the Creator but the will of the strongest creatures. This became the widespread view, sometimes unexpressed but frequently explicit, of most Western societies in the first part of the twentieth century. America’s great legal statesman, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., thought no differently in this respect from the great dictator, Adolf Hitler. Both of them believed that laws simply represent the will of the dominant majority. Holmes was a courteous, urbane, sophisticated gentleman, but his idea of law would have offered no opposition to the enactments of Hitler, who for a time reflected the will of Germany’s dominant majority.

Harold O. J. Brown, The Sensate Culture: Western Civilization Between Chaos and Transformation (Dallas, TX: Word, 1996), 88.

Implication #3 — We will be considered intolerant because we are intolerant

Illustration — To make this concrete let’s consider that the same can be said of the relationship in physical organisms. Your body can’t develop a tolerance to a deadly parasite in your body. That parasite is trying to take over your whole body and kill you, while your body’s autoimmune system are doing their flat level best to kill the parasite. The two are at war. To tolerate an alien law system into your social order is to court death.

We are the King’s men. As the King’s men we cannot abide the King’s law and character being set aside and so we will oppose all that which opposes the King. Concretely, this means, as we have taken Christ as King, we live in a time as the loyal opposition. In this epoch, so set against Christ the King as it is, we must practice the virtue of intolerance. We must practice a confrontational disposition out of love for Christ the King and for other people.

There can be no tolerance in a law-system for another religion. Toleration is a device used to introduce a new law system as a prelude to a new intolerance… Every law-system must maintain its existence by hostility to every other law system and to alien religious foundations or else it commits suicide.

R.J. Rushdoony