Caleb’s Baptism — The Scriptures Placard To Us Christ (Heidelberg Catechism Q. 19)

Question 19. Whence knowest thou this?

Answer: From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs (b) and prophets, (c) and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; (d) and lastly, has fulfilled it by his only begotten Son. (e)

In question 19 Caleb, the authors of the Catechism (Zacharias Ursinus & Caspar Olevianus) finish Lord’s Day #6 asking from where we know what they taught us in questions 16-18 regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. The answer they give is insightful on several accounts.

First, the Catechism’s answer indicates that we know what we know about Christ and the Christian faith from the Scriptures, and yet the way they give the answer indicates that the Catechizers (Zacharias Ursinus & Caspar Olevianus) wanted to impress upon the student that the Gospel is inclusive of all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. This overturns the notion that the Gospel is somehow to be restricted to what we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; those books of the Bible known as “The Gospels.” It is true that in the Gospels we get the life and work of Jesus Christ but the Catechism wants to impress upon us that ones finds the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ everywhere in the Scripture. It is because this is true Caleb that during the Liturgy at Charlotte CRC we will give “God’s Absolution of Sin” from week to week from different portions of Scripture, Old and New Testament.

This observation reminds us that when we read the Scripture we need to read all of the Scripture understanding discovering Christ. Put negatively, if we read Scripture, all the while missing the person and work of the Lord Christ we are not reading Scripture aright. To miss Christ while reading the Scripture is like reading Tolkien and missing the One ring. Some portions of Scripture will emphasize Christ in His work as our Great High Priest who does all the rescuing (saving) of His people. Some portions of Scripture will emphasize Christ in His work as our Great High King who leads us in dominion taking under His authority; a dominion that incarnates our freely given salvation into whatever we are called to. Some portions of Scripture will emphasize Christ in His work as our Prophet speaking to us words of comfort and challenge. But all of Scriptures proclaims our great Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This truth that we have just examined can be a plumb line for you in years to come when it comes to deciding what Church you may or may not attend. If you are not being given Christ from the Pulpit and from the teaching lectern but are being given therapeutic psychology feel good piffle then the Church is no Church. The Church’s call is hold out Christ to God’s people in all its preaching and teaching from Scripture.

Second this answer emphasizes that God’s revelation is about redemption. When God spoke to man He spoke a revelatory word that explained redemption both as to how God saves man and as to how God would have man manifest His saved life. It is true that God acts throughout Scripture but His acting would mean nothing to us if we did not have his explanatory word in revelation. That Jesus dies on a cross would mean nothing if God did not give a revelatory word that explains that the death of Jesus was for sin. The God who acts in redemption is the God who speaks in revelation.

Third this # 19 answer reveals that redemption is progressive. By that we mean that redemption grows and expands, in terms of its contour with the passage of time. Think of it this way. If you were to plant a tulip bulb without knowing what it would produce ahead of time you would have no idea what that bulb would eventually look like without the passage of time. Redemption, like the tulip bulb, begins as a bulb in Genesis and grows incrementally, stage by stage, to a tulip throughout Scripture, blooming to full flower in the Springtime that is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look back now seeing the whole tulip in springtime and see more clearly the whole unfolding process from bulb to bloom. This process, as we see it unfold in Scripture is called “the progress of redemption.” The first glimmering we get of the Gospel is found in Genesis

Gen.3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This is our proverbial tulip bulb of the Gospel. We look back now and see how this promise of God is the beginning of the Gospel. This is Gospel because in it we learn of the great conflict between the seed of the serpent (Satan’s co-laborers) and the seed of the woman (ultimately, the Lord Christ and penultimately, His people) that ends in the Messiah being bruised by the serpent and the serpent being crushed by the Messiah. In the Cross the serpent bruised the Messiah but in the Resurrection and Ascension the head of the serpent was crushed. This theme of conflict and of bruising and crushing is a theme the developed throughout the Scriptures.

One example, of the development of the this Gospel conflict theme between, is David vs. Goliath. David is a picture of the Lord Christ fighting solitary for His people against the serpent champion Goliath. Goliath is decked out in scale armor, the Hebrew word literally meaning “scales”. (1 Sam. 17:5) Typologically this harkens back to the scales of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. David posits a stone between the Serpent representative’s eyes and proceeds to cut his head off. Goliath was dressed like a serpent with his scale armor, and he died like a serpent, with a head wound. David, as a type of Christ has crushed the head of the serpent.

In the New Testament this theme is likewise taken up after Christ’s resurrection and ascension. In Romans, the Holy Spirit, hearkening back to this theme began in Genesis can say in 16:20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

I have given you just one example but this is a theme we find repeatedly developed in Scripture. Think of Jael crushing the head of Sisera, the serpent representative opposing God’s people (Judges 4). Similarly there is Judges 9:52-53.

52 So Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it; and he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 But a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull.

These are all instances where we see the theme of God’s representative crushing the head of the serpent developed and we find it ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Christ crushing the head of Satan in His resurrection and ascension.

Of course there are other themes that the Scriptures develop that are typological of Christ who is the fulfillment of all the Gospel that is promissory in the Old Testament. The Gospel is first pronounced in Paradise as a tulip bulb but through the rest of Scripture we see the Gospel continued to unfold and develop. What this reminds us is that a proper reading of the whole of Scripture is like watching a time lapsed film that shows the growth of a acorn into a great oak condensed into a comparatively short book. Centuries passed in the progress of Redemption and the Scriptures give us the necessary information to understand the whole — if we read the Scripture understanding that we needs see Christ.

This video might give you an idea of what I’m trying to get at. Who would have ever guessed that the baby at the beginning of this time lapsed video would be the 12 year old at the end.

Similarly, no one would have been able to identify the Gospel from Genesis 3 unless the Scriptures gave us the progress of redemption in a time lapsed form, condensing vast amounts of time into a comparatively small book. The baby of Genesis 3 is the same Gospel message all grown up in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

A few scriptures that are given from the prophets that pronounced Christ,

Gen.22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Informs us that all the nations that remain distinct nations are blessed by the seed of Abraham who is Christ. The New Testament begins by tell us that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Gen.12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In Revelation 7:9 we see all the different nations — nations which retain yet their national identity — blessed by having been saved by the work of Christ. Many different blessed nations and yet one spiritual people of God.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Gen.49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Gen.49:11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

The Kings (sceptre standing for Kingly office) in the OT were from Judah and Christ is from the tribe of Judah. Likewise in the Sermon on the Mount we see the Lord Christ as a Lawgiver, the anti-type of Moses the great lawgiver who last gave law from a Mountain context. The whole notion of this King and lawgiver gathering people is spoken repeatedly about in the OT,

“Now the predicates of the covenant are applied in Isa. 19 to the Gentiles of the future, — “Egypt my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance,” Egypt, the people of “Jehovah of hosts,” (Isa. 19:25) is therefore also expected to live up to the covenant obligations, implied for Jehovah’s people. And Assyria comes under similar obligations and privileges. These nations are representative of the great Gentile world, to which the covenant privileges will therefore be extended.”

Martin J. Wyngaarden, The Future of the Kingdom in Prophecy and Fulfillment: A Study of the Scope of “Spiritualization” in Scripture (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2011), p. 94.

“More than a dozen excellent commentaries could be mentioned that all interpret Israel as thus inclusive of Jew and Gentile, in this verse, — the Gentile adherents thus being merged with the covenant people of Israel, though each nationality remains distinct.”

“For, though Israel is frequently called Jehovah’s People, the work of his hands, his inheritance, yet these three epithets severally are applied not only to Israel, but also to Assyria and to Egypt: “Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance.” 19:25.

Thus the highest description of Jehovah’s covenant people is applied to Egypt, — “my people,” — showing that the Gentiles will share the covenant blessings, not less than Israel. Yet the several nationalities are here kept distinct, even when Gentiles share, in the covenant blessing, on a level of equality with Israel. Egypt, Assyria and Israel are not nationally merged. And the same principles, that nationalities are not obliterated, by membership in the covenant, applies, of course, also in the New Testament dispensation.”

Wyngaarden, pp. 101-102.

And then this King and Lawgiver gathering people is fulfilled in the New Testament, as on the day of Pentecost, people hear the Gospel pronouncement in a multitude of languages, thus revealing that the distinct peoples are gathered unto Him just as written in Genesis 49 as a Gospel declaration. That the Apostles understood it this way is seen in how they quote the Scripture. In Acts 15:14 forward they quote a Old Testament text (Amos 9:11-12) to prove that the coming in and gathering of the Gentiles into the Church and unto Christ is a fulfillment of the promise to rebuild David’s fallen inheritance. Christ is the one who has gathered the people unto Himself as the greater David who holds the eternal scepter and is the eternal lawgiver. This greater David shall continue to bear His scepter and publish His law until all the nations are gathered under the shade of His great rule.

The writers of the Catechism then go on to give Scriptural texts to show how the Gospel was promised in the Prophets and by the sacrifices and ceremonies of the old covenant. Everywhere we turn in Scripture we find the Lord Christ placarded. I won’t wear you out with teasing each passage out in order to develop the theme of how all Scripture proclaims Christ. This is the material that gives us a lifetime of study and preaching.

Prophets Proclaiming the Gospel

Isaiah 53.

Isa.42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Isa.42:2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Isa.42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Isa.42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. Isa.43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Isa.49:5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. Isa.49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Isa.49:22 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. Isa.49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Jer.23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Jer.23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jer.31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: Jer.31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jer.32:39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: Jer.32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Jer.32:41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

Mic.7:18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Mic.7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Mic.7:20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Acts 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

Rom.1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Heb.1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Acts 3:22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. Acts 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Acts 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. John 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

NT Insistence that the OT Sacrifice and Ceremonies Proclaimed the Gospel

(d) Heb.10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Heb.10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Col.2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

John 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

Fulfillment

(e) Rom.10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Gal.4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, Gal.4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Gal.3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Col.2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The Scripture gives us Christ. It gives us Christ as the great High Priest who is also the suffering servant. It gives us the ascended King leading His people from triumph unto triumph. It gives our great Prophet who speaks God’s word to us. The Scripture was and is given to give us Christ.

Ask The Pastor — Hasn’t Constantinism Long Ended & Isn’t That A Good Thing?

Dear Pastor,

Wouldn’t you agree that there is no longer church and state unity / marriage, as it was from Theodosius (380-392 AD) to the Reformation and French Revolution (beginning of secular Europe culture which is hostile to the Christian religion) and American Revolution (separation of church and state, but not hostile to the Christian religion). Since then it has become more and more secular and pluralistic.

First, any reader of Iron Ink would know that I do not believe there is such a thing as “secular” if by secular someone means a culture, government, social order, economy, family life, education, law order, etc. that is un-governed and not beholden to and reflective of some theology, faith, or faith system. There never has been, nor will there ever be a secular something that is un-normed or un-conditioned by some theology or worldview. There is no view nor implementation of that view from theologically nowhere.

Second, the idea that there is no longer Church and State unity is utter nonsense. There never has been a time when Church and State hasn’t cooperated and there never will be. The Crown and the Mitre always walk together. It is never a question of whether Church and State will be joined at the hip but only a question of which religion Church and State will both be serving. Now, this is not the same thing as saying that Church and State will have the same functions or role. Biblical Christians have never advocated that. The Church has a role and function (dispenser of Word and Sacrament holding the Keys to the Kingdom) and the State has a role and function (dispenser of Justice while holding and handling the sword) but they always walk together.

In our current setting Church and State are walking together under the influence of the religion of humanism. The State, being the hammer for the humanist gods, determines how far the other Gods of the other religions are allowed to move in the public square. As such the State is the god over the gods. And the Church serving the State (in league with the State) are the government schools as the Priests there (Teachers) work with the catechism (curriculum) in order to catechize the children into their undoubted catholic humanist faith. There in the Government schools we find Word and Sacrament (free Lunch from the God – State in order to strengthen body and soul unto work in the humanist eschaton). Similarly, the State handles the sword and dispenses justice according to the humanist standard. The goal of both is to create a reality in defiance of God where the citizenry can live, and move, and have their being.

Church and state are not Separate in American culture and it is a unique R2K mistake to suggest that they ever were or are.

The New World Order And The War Against God Ordained Distinctions

“The age of boundaries is closing, and we are approaching a nobler era when nations shall be no more; when the lines of race and caste shall be wiped out; when the whole earth shall be under one order, one government, one administrative body.”

~Manly P. Hall
“Lectures on Ancient Philosophy,” published by the Philosophical Research Society Inc, Los Angeles (1970)

“God’s plan is dedicated to the unification of all races, religions, and creeds. This plan, dedicated to the new order of things, is to make all things new — a new nation, a new race, a new civilization, and a new religion, a nonsectarian religion that has already been recognized and called the religion of “The Great Light.”

~C. William Smith
“God’s Plan in America”, The New Age – Sept. 1950, Official journal of the Supreme Mother Council, 33 degree, of the Scottish Rite

From the French Revolution, to the War of Northern Aggression, to the Communist Revolution in Russia, and everywhere in between where you find various expressions of ontological Revolution against the God of the Bible, there you find the desire to erase God ordained distinctions as one of the methods used to attack the God of the Bible.

“… It’s a good thing that we no longer live in an era where Christianity is a culture.”

‎”… it’s a good thing that we no longer live in an era where Christianity is a culture.”

~Michael Horton, R2k architect

The reasons why Horton’s statement is absurd.

1.) According to Horton and the R2K lads it is IMPOSSIBLE for Christianity to be a culture. If it is impossible for Christianity to be a culture then no one at no time as ever have lived in an era where Christianity was a culture, and this even if they were so deluded as to believe that they were living in a Christian culture. To admit that there was a time when Christianity was a culture completely eviscerates the whole theorem of R2K.

2.) This reveals that the R2K theological neophytes don’t see an intimate relationship between cult and culture. Culture is merely the living out of the belief system inculcated by the cult as embraced by the adherents of the cult. R2K gives us a Christianity that is all personal conversion with no impact by those persons converted upon the culture they live in unto a social order that could rightly be designated as “Christian.”

3.) If #2 is true (and it is) Horton is confessing that it is good thing that we no longer live in an era where Christianity is the predominant belief system. He is saying it is a good thing that other belief systems are the belief systems that have won the day and so are producing non Christian culture. Horton is saying that it is good that the God of the Bible is no longer taken as God by the West. This is treason by Dr. Michael Horton.

4.) The West was what it was, and yet remains what it is because of the (now waning) influence of Biblical Christianity on people, peoples, and then how those people and peoples incarnated the High Priesthood and Lordship of Jesus Christ into their everyday living. As the West throws off Christianity as both cult and culture, due to teachings by both R2K advocates and the cultural Marxists. (Politics does indeed make strange bed-mates. Who would have ever thought that putatively Confessional Christianity would have served the agenda of cultural Marxism?) The R2K project is guaranteed to finish off what is left of both the West and Western Christianity. R2K, in pulling down the West with this God awful theology, will pull down its own house and be as relevant to what they create as the Russian Orthodox Church was relevant in Communist Russia.

5,) Since R2k is amillennialism run amok this agenda of R2k to divorce Christian theology from culture is a self fulfilling prophecy. R2k believes and teaches a suffering Church where Christian are pilgrims in this world. This so called theological pursuit of R2K thus absolutely guarantees what their theology insists upon. They believe that Christianity is only a suffering religion and so they have created a theology that will guarantee that suffering will come to pass.

God’s 10th Word

“Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s house; thou shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour’s.”

There are not two commandments here though interestingly enough those in the Roman Catholic Church and our brethren in the Lutheran Church number these as two different commandments since there are two “Thou shalt nots,” in the passage before us. The Reformed community, and Protestantism in general, as well as the Orthodox church community ha not agreed with this counting style because the NT itself combines the commandment as one.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

The same unified speaking of the 10th commandment is seen in Romans 13 as well. So, it is a small thing but this is one of the differences we would have with some other “Church” communities.

As we consider coveting we would note that while 6-9 (Murder, Adultery, Theft, False Witness) all have to do with the act. The 10th Word has to do with the sinful inclination behind the sins of adultery or theft or idolatry.

Indeed it would not be too much to say that coveting is the sin behind all sin, if we understand coveting to include that we sin in order that we might satisfy our coveting for ourselves to be preeminent in all things.

We see clear connections of coveting in Scripture that allows us to see the sin of coveting in its obvious manifestation

Genesis 3,

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Achan’s sin,

Joshua 7:21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.”

Ahab desiring Naboth’s vineyard (I Kings 21)

These three are perhaps three of the most obvious examples of coveting with find in Scripture. But I would contend that coveting (misplaced sinful desires) is the sin behind all sin. It is the sin of motivation that drives the behavior that violates God’s Law.

Even the primordial sin of all sins was connected to coveting. Satan fell because he acted on his coveting of God’s position,

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;[a]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

So the argument might be made that in coveting you have the prohibition against the sin of disposition that is always present before the actual act in willful sin.

Listen to James on this

James 4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

So, with the 10th commandment we find the mother lode of sin.

Indeed, it may not be a stretch to see the 1st and 10th as bookends having a certain symbiosis.

What is the consequence every time of taking other gods? Answer — Coveting.

What is the consequence every time of coveting? Answer — Taking other Gods.

The 1st commandment gives you the theocentric beginning of Sin. The 10th commandment gives you the anthropocentric beginning of sin.

This is why, I believe there is such a close connection between greed and idolatry in Scripture. If we understand greed as a subset of coveting then God establishes the same close connection between coveting and idolatry that I have established here,

Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Clearly there is an intimate connection between coveting and idolatry and I suggest that they are much the same sin viewed alternately from the Theocentric and the anthropecentric perspective.

So, every time you meet someone guilty of coveting you meet an Idolater and every time you meet an idolater you meet someone guilty of coveting. The violation of #1 and #10 go together like marriage and children. They are bookends.

Moving on, when we talk about the desire that is implicit in coveting we must make distinctions here.

Keep in mind that it is not desire itself that is coveting.

God has built us to be a people who desire and so our goal in dealing with coveting is not to somehow (as if we could) cease desiring.

Were we to pursue that course of action in conquering covetousness — the course of action that would have us seeking to eliminate all temporal desire — we would by necessity become Buddhists. Buddhism teaches the necessity to have freedom from everything temporal and the complete suppression of all desires. The desireless person who is free of everything temporal as arrived at Nirvana.

(Buddhism, of course, is a contradiction in as much as it teaches you to desire the end of desires. Buddhism teaches one to pursue the end of all desire and yet in teaching that is sets up as the chief desire the end of all desires. Even if one is successful as a Buddhist, one fails.)

It is not proper desires that God prohibits in the 10th commandment but improper desires.

An improper desire (a coveting) is when you desire anything but God and His Kingdom so much that its fulfillment becomes God to you. But as our temporal desires find their proper place in the context of God and His revelation those desires are perfectly God honoring.

So, not all desire is coveting though all coveting is desire (misplaced).

The prohibition then against coveting is not a prohibition against being passionate and desirous. It is a prohibition against being passionate and desirous about the wrong things, or if you prefer, it is a prohibition against being a passion and desire that does know its proper place.

The kind of passion and desire that is acceptable before God, our Savior, lies in placing our passions and desires so that they are in service to the desire and passion to glorify and serve the Lord Christ, which should be the animating passion and desire of all other Christian passions and desires.

The Scriptures teach us that God and His Kingdom is to be our ultimate desire.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you.

Let us press just a little more beneath the surface regarding this matter of coveting.

Calvin and other Reformed men distinguished between the idea of passing desire for something which they did not count as coveting and the desire that wasn’t passing but give birth to plans on how to secure the thing to be desired.

For example — Very recently in the Midwest there was a former Pastor convicted in a court of law of seducing several women in his congregation. He will be going to jail. Now, that Pastor at some point, obviously had a desire but that desire could have been confessed as sin and resisted without the kind of harm that came to be to the women, his family, himself, and the Church. But instead the passing desire moved into concrete planning along the way. According to Calvin and others, it was the planning out wherein the covetousness lay. What is happening with the planning is that the will co-operates with what otherwise might have been a mere fleeting desire (still sin in itself) in order to work together to disobey God.

And, in order to reinforce what was said earlier this is obviously Idolatry as well as covetousness, in as much as the idol god in charge is now the self and not God.

So some of the older writers suggested that there are stages of desire and James 1 might be appealed to for that,

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

You see the lust starts with being enticed and it moves from being enticed to full conception and once you have lust conceived sin in birthed. The full conception part would be the planning part and the birth of sin would be the act itself.

So, a desire is nursed, the will is surrendered to the desire; a plan is developed to satisfy the desire and the plan translates the desire into a deed. According to Calvin, the commandment focuses on the first two stages of desire.

However it must be said here that there is outward behavior that is being condemned by the 10th commandment. The planning itself is a outward behavior. In the illustration given earlier about seduction, a plan was made, there were arrangements made and matters attended to that led up to the actual act itself and all of that previous action was outward acts which were sin.

Contrary to Calvin, it is better to hold that all inordinate lusts as coveting and are necessary to be repented of and the sooner the better. The minute a covetous desire for something that is not ours to be had we would be wise at that very moment to confess as sin and ask for contentment.

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Cure for coveting

1.) Admit your inordinate desires to yourself

That may sound funny but people lie to themselves all the time. They have desires that they know are inordinate and yet they will not admit that to themselves and so since they will not admit that to themselves they follow through on those inordinate desires.

2.) Confess your covetous inordinate desires as sin to God and ask both for forgiveness and for the ability to put off these sinful desire and to put on Christian contentment.

3.) Talk back to yourself. We see this kind of behavior in the Psalms frequently. One example,

Psalm 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

The example here has the Psalmist talking back to himself regarding his discouragement. But the principle holds true across the board. We need to talk back to ourselves when we see matters in ourselves that are not right. We need to remind ourselves that we are a Christian people and that certain desires, behaviors, and internal dispositions are not meet for a Christian people. We need to remind ourselves of God’s promises and and of God’s sufficiency.

Once you’ve admitted these inordinate desires take yourself in hand and remind yourself that the getting is never so pleasurable as the wanting. Remind yourself that sin is always a cheat and that the fulfilling of your desires never delivers that which it promises.

4.) Praise God for what He has provided and return to seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, being confident that God will continue to give you what you stand in need of.

5.) Thank God for the forgiveness that we have in Christ. Yes it may be true that we are great in coveting … that we struggle with coveting … but we can be confident despite the covetous desires we see in ourselves we stand as beloved by God because of the acceptability of our Elder Brother — The Lord Christ — who has put to our account His 10th commandment keeping righteousness.