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Snippets: I Will Not Believe In Something I Cannot See

Have you ever heard this one: ‘I won’t believe in something I cannot see’?

If the requirement for something being real is the fact that you can see it then:

1. You will never be consistent. You believe in air (and lots of other things you cannot see). Your eyesight is actually very selective.

2. You have made yourself into a god. You are all seeing and therefore all knowing. Reality is your eyesight and your eyesight is reality.

3. You have made the universe very small – much of it non-existent. You really believe that if a tree falls down in a forest, and no one is present to hear it, it doesn’t make a sound.

In short then, you are an inconsistent idolator who has made yourself very big and the universe very small.

  • Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Snippets: Creation Will Be Set Free From Its Bondage to Decay (Rom. 8:20-21)

*In these snippets posts I share some of the fruits of my study in a given week as I prepare to preach. These are brief outlines of main points. Think of it as a short commentary on a passage without the application that would be made in preaching.
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  • Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

1. ‘Creation’ refers to irrational and inanimate creation. Not rational humans, angels, or fallen angels.

2. Irrational and inanimate creation, as we saw in the previous post, is personified as  ‘on tiptoe’ and ‘groaning’ for the return of Christ and the resurrection and glorification of mankind.

3. The creation has been subjected to futility and decay because of man’s sin, yet, personified again, it has hope of renewal

4. Objection: Isn’t everything going to burn?

  • 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 ¶ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

We must finish the passage:

  • 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

This ‘burning,’ then, must be the fire of purification and refinement rather than complete destruction. The ‘dissolved’ heavens and earth will become, or be replaced by, a ‘new heavens and a new earth.’

5. Jesus Christ speaks of this as ‘the regeneration’:

  • Matthew 19:28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world (regeneration), when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The old heavens and earth will be regenerated, born again, and become new.

6. Biblical sketch of the regeneration:
A. The Heavens

  • At least four times in Scripture we read of ‘new heavens’ (Isaiah 65:17,22; 2Pet. 3:13, Rev. 21:1).
  • Four times in Revelation Christ is said to hold the ‘seven stars’ in his hand (Rev. 1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1). These stars are explicitly said to be ‘the angels of the seven churches’ (1:20). Yet the symbolism involved is possibly that of the seven planets of ancient cosmology (C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy is built loosely on this concept. The important idea is that the image displays Christ closeness to, and care and concern for, the galaxy. Many other passages of Scripture could be quoted to describe God’s intimate knowledge of, and care for, the heavens.

B. The Earth

  • As above, a ‘new earth’ is spoken of multiple times in Scripture.

The earth is often personified as playing apart in the coming of that Day, for example:

  • Psalm 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together 9 before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
  • Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

C. Things of the earth: Animals (for extended treatment see HERE)

1. Animals are included in the Covenant of Grace via the Noahic Covenant and are protected from the waters of wrath in the ark. The ‘bow in the clouds’ is just as much a sign for them as for us:

  • Genesis 9:12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations

2. In the new covenant, Jesus explicitly declares all animals ceremonially clean:

  • Mark 7:19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” ( Thus he declared all foods clean.)
  • Acts 10:15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

3. Language of animals in the new created order is repeatedly used in Scripture:

  • Isaiah 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
  • Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
  • Christ himself is depicted in the vision of Revelation as both a Lion and Lamb (Rev. 5:5-6), which would be nonsensical without the existence of the actual creatures. There continuing existence will point to his glory.

D. Things on the earth: Plants

  • We are invited to the future ‘marriage supper of the Lamb’ which will, of course, entail food (Rev. 19:9), and specifically plants. Grapes and grain will surely be involved:
  • Luke 22:15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

Objection: What about death? Don’t plants have to die to become food? Answer: Biblically, death entails the shedding of blood:

  • Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood…

Plant death is in a different category than that spoken of so often in Scripture. It is considered natural rather than unnatural, since plants were eaten in pre-fall Paradise:

  • Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden…”

But the great hope: God and the Lamb will be in the midst:

  • Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

That is the day that all of creation is on its tiptoe, and groaning, to see. On that day all creation will experience the liberty of the sons of God. The gospel is for us, but it is much bigger than us – it is for all of creation in some sense. In our renewal, the creation will be renewed on account of the work of Christ.

Snippets: The Mindset of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5-6)

  • Romans 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1. Translation Issues
Romans 8:5, for the student of Greek, can be either a nightmare or a dream. I have just enough knowledge and ability in Greek to be dangerous, but even I can see that the translators have caused quite a bit of confusion through their work on this text. The phrase in question, which is used twice, is, as the ESV puts it, along with the NASB, ‘set their mind…’ Those of the flesh ‘set their mind’ on the flesh, those of the Spirit ‘set their mind’ on the Spirit. The KJV translates this phrase, instead of ‘set the mind,’ ‘being carnally minded’ and ‘spiritually minded.’

The obvious issue with these translations is that the quoted phrase includes a genitive definite article, and a genitive definite article expresses ownership. Thus the NET Bible translates the phrase more literally: ‘For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace.’ And I would offer up the translation, which I’m sure is not original:

  • ‘The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace.’

The issue in Romans 8:6, then, is not simply what the mind is set on, but what the actual paradigm of the mind is. What’s your basic point of view? What governs your way of thinking? The way you answer this will determine whether or not you are a Christian.

2. The Mindset of the Spirit vs. The Mindset of the Flesh
Those who are ‘of the flesh’ have a certain way of thinking which is opposed to the ‘mindset of the Spirit.’ Therefore we have to ask, What is the mindset of the Spirit?

The Mindset of the Spirit is a Gospel Mindset

For instance,

  • John 16:14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you
  • Or consider the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. What does He do, what is His work? He causes men to praise God. He causes Peter to preach a sermon all about Christ and his gospel. He causes men to believe the gospel.
  • Or consider 2 Corinthians 3. The work of the Spirit is to enable us to behold the glory of Christ in the gospel and thereby be conformed to Christ’s image.

The work of the Spirit is to cause us to believe the gospel and be transformed accordingly into the image of Christ. Particularly relevant here are the great texts of the New Testament that point to Christ humbling himself, serving others, giving himself as a sacrifice, and offering, and granting, forgiveness to his enemies.

This was the mindset of Christ, and it is likewise the mindset of the Spirit. Is it yours? This is the real test:
Is your mindset built upon, centered upon, humility, selflessness, service, self-sacrifice, showing mercy to those who do not deserve it, making peace? Is your mindset that of the blessed man in the beatitudes – poor in spirit (humble), mourning (hating your own sin, lamenting the fallenness of the world), meek (forgiving others and repaying evil with good), etc?

The mindset of the flesh is ‘me first.’ It is a mindset of pride, of counting myself as the greatest, of looking out for my own needs, of begrudging those who don’t line up with my wants. It is the mindset of hostility, enmity, anger, bitterness, resentment, jealousy, and the like. That’s the way of the world in a nutshell.

If you would have the mindset of the Spirit you must possess the Spirit. The new birth is essential. Man will not naturally humble himself. He will not be inclined to put others before himself, to sacrifice, to serve, to forgive.

So which mindset is yours? If you would have the mind of the Spirit you must know the gospel, exult in it, meditate upon it, and return to it over and over. It must be the controlling paradigm of your thoughts.

One of my old professors likes to paraphrase John Owen’s comments about this verse (from The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded):

  • ‘What are you thinking about when you’re not thinking about anything at all?’

And to paraphrase Matthew Henry, we could say,

  • On what do you dwell with the most satisfaction?

What’s the default mode of your mind? What thrills you? What excites you? Is it, ‘Me, me, me,’ ad infinitum? Is it MY likes, MY desires, MY interests? MY team? What can I buy next? What TV show can I watch? What game can I play? Or is it, How can I glorify my Savior? Who can I serve today? Where can I bring peace? Where can I show mercy?  Who can I encourage with gospel encouragement?

This is the work of the Spirit in justification – to make us believe this gospel, and in sanctification – to conform us to this gospel from the inside out. To have the mindset of the Spirit is to have a gospel mindset, and a gospel mindset leads to life and peace.

Introducing ‘Snippets’

Beginning tomorrow, and, hopefully, on a fairly regular basis, I will begin a blog series I’m calling ‘Snippets.’ These will be brief Bible meditations (mostly those I have preached on and/or thought extensively about). I hope they’ll be edifying for others, and useful to me (as writing down your thoughts usually is).

My ‘Recent Reading’ series of posts is lagging a bit at the moment. The reasons for this are pretty simple: (1) I’ve read a couple of duds lately. I profit from nearly everything I read, but don’t always feel that it is worthy taking the time to write down. (2) In family reading we’ve been hitting Grimm’s Fairy Tales pretty hard. I find that only about 1 out of 10 of these stories are worth writing about. (3) Most of the reading I do is of the Bible and various theological and commentary type books. If I wrote on this regularly it would take up all my reading time.

So, in the hopes of being a little more active in my writing I’ll start sharing some snippets.