The End of Ignorance, A Call to Missions

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
–Acts 17:30-31

In Acts 17, we find Paul in Athens, beholding the many gods of the Greeks at the Areopagus, or Mars Hill. It was a center of religious learning and discussion, and among the altars erected to the many heathen gods, Paul found one designated simply “To the Unknown God.” It was a precaution in case there were a god that they had not discovered so that they might be careful to give him due reverence. Paul seized the opportunity to speak to them of the One True God, and began by proclaiming the supremacy and sovereignty of God, and His right to rule as He pleases over the nations, having determined their bounds and habitations. As a race of men that had rejected Him, Paul says that God had created all men that they might seek after Him, if indeed they could feel their way in the dark and find Him whom they had rejected.
Having established God’s sovereignty, Paul begins to explain the purpose of God in history. In the times of man’s ignorance, when he did not know of God, Paul says that God overlooked them. So the question is, what does Paul mean when he states that God overlooked the nations? Is he referring to their sin, or is it something for which we must probe a little bit deeper? And what are the implications of understanding this truth?

The Mystery of Christ

In the book of Ephesians, Paul begins by an in-depth exposition of the work of salvation, beginning with the sovereign grace of God in eternity past to its present manifestation of works in the life a believer. Beginning in Ephesians 2:11, Paul starts to take a slight turn and focus on the Gospel and its relation to Israel and the church. This line of thought continues on into chapter 3, where Paul makes some insightful statements. In Ephesians 3:4-6, Paul says:
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
So Paul tells us that the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Gospel is a mystery, by which Paul means that it was something that was not previously revealed. Paul states very clearly in verse 9 that “the plan of this mystery was hidden for ages in God.” Therefore, God had not intended to reveal His purpose in Christ to redeem for Himself a people among the Gentiles.

Examples in the Early Church

Throughout the New Testament, we find the early church seemingly in a bind over the subject. We as the New Covenant church read through the New Testament with our presuppositions about the church and take for granted the inclusion of the Gentiles in that promise, and often overlook the cultural and religious thought patterns that a first century Jew would have had. The Jews did not think in terms of Jews and Gentiles. Even the ministry of Christ was to the Jews, and not primarily to the Gentiles. Even when we get to the ascension of Christ, we find the Jews still asking if Christ would at this time establish the kingdom. Jewish believers still thought of the kingdom in carnal, nationalistic terms. That is why in the book of Galatians Paul addresses those who are seeking to “Judaize” the Gentiles. We find Peter marveling at the conversion of Cornelius and his household. We find that Peter’s report to the church was accepted with amazement and praise to God, that He had granted repentance to the Gentiles. In the meeting of the church leaders in Acts 15, James determined that, indeed, the Gospel was also for the Gentiles.

Implications

God’s intention in the New Covenant and in the promise of the Gospel through Jesus Christ was to redeem for Himself from among the nations a people for His glory and His praise. The outgrowth of the Gospel is missions. As we see in our text in Acts 17, although God in the past worked through Israel and overlooked the nations, now with the advent of Christ and the message of the Gospel, God has repented men from all nations to repent. We find this contrast in verse 30, in God’s overlooking of the nations is contrasted with His calling of all nations of men to repent. Whereas in the past, God’s people were from one nation of men that He called forth for His glory, in this New Covenant age God is calling for Himself a people from all nations. He no longer works through a physical, carnal nation, but through a spiritual people. The end of the age of ignorance is a call to missions. God is calling a people from all nations for His praise and glory. His call will go forth through the proclamation of the Gospel, and will redound to His glory and praise throughout all eternity.

How Will He Not Freely Give Us All Things?

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
-William Cowper

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" -Romans 8:28-32

One dimension of the Gospel that is often neglected and under-emphasized is that part of the Gospel wherein we experience satisfaction through Jesus Christ. Among the things that God secured for His people in the death of Christ, He secured a lasting joy and satisfaction for them through Jesus Christ. One of the things that happens in regeneration is that we are made alive to perceive spiritual realities and to taste spiritual pleasures and, upon seeing with new eyes by the grace of God, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are captured in a sense of joy and satisfaction to Christ with that satisfaction as the basis of our faith. So essentially, one important element of faith that must not be neglected is the element of joy in faith. In this life we see the glory of God through faith, as in a dim mirror, but one day in heaven we shall see that glory face to face. As Paul tells the Galatians, "We walk by faith, and not by sight."

In this passage, Paul makes the statement that "All things work together for good," which he clarifies in stating that it is for "those who love God" and "those who are called according to His purpose." Paul then begins his line of logic to support the statement that all things work together for good. He begins verse 29 with the word "for," and then proceeds with a chain of reasons that we know all things will ultimately work for our good.

1. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
First of all, it must be made clear that we must not soften Paul's intention in using the word "foreknew." There is a deep Biblical background for the use of "know" and "foreknow" in the Bible. God used it of Abraham when he said "For I have known him." He did not mean simply academic knowledge, but a knowledge in a loving, relational sense. In Amos 3:2, God says of Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." Again, not in simply knowing them ahead of time, but of a loving relational kind of knowing. As a last example, the Bible says of Jesus that He was "foreknown before the foundation of the world." So we understand that foreknow is not simply God looking down the corridors of time and seeing faith, but is actually synonymous with the term "fore-loved." It is a relational term. God knew us before the foundation of the world, chose us apart from and distinction in us, and according to that foreknowing, He predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ. The predestining has a two-fold purpose.

1. That all whom God has chosen will ultimately become like Christ
2. That through our conforming to Christ, He will be the firstborn, or the preeminent one,
among many brethren.

Both of these are ultimately for the glory of Christ. When we become like Christ, we enlarge our capacity to love and glorify and delight in the manifold perfections of Christ. We will be one day perfect as we behold Him, and we will reflect His glory in our bodies. Then also Christ will be magnified as the firstborn, or the prominent One among His people. He will be the crown of His good and glorious creation, and all will worship Him as Lord and King.

2. Those whom He predestined, He also called
This call is in reference to the effectual call of God to His people. Those who are God's people will experience this effectual call and brought to faith and delight in Christ. It is sure, and it is irresistible.

3. Those whom He called, He also justified
Those whom God has chosen need not worry about providing their own righteousness. That righteousness has already been purchased for them in Christ. It is something that is purchased by Christ for all who will believe. As we believe on Christ, we are imputed His righteousness, and God declares us to be righteous because of our faith. Not that we are righteous in and of ourselves, but God declares it to be so.

4. Those whom He justified, He also glorified
We have the sure hope that those in whom Christ has begun the good work of salvation will continue in that until the day in which He glorifies us and we are like Christ. Our enjoyment of Him will be complete on that day that we will be glorified, for we shall be like Him, and we shall truly see Him as He is.

This is what is often called the "Golden Chain of Redemption." It is how we know that all things will ultimately work for our good-because God is sovereign, and His thoughts are always good towards His people. All things are aimed at the ultimate purpose of making us satisfied in Christ, whether it is by suffering or by comfort. All things are to bring us our ultimate satisfaction by making us like Christ so that we may better enjoy Christ.

The final verses in this section assert, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Indeed, if we are one of those who love God and that He called according to His good purposes in grace, who can do us evil when God purposes it for good? It is this faith and delight in the future grace of God that should transform our life.

The logic of verse 32 is especially beautiful- If God did not spare His Own Son, the greatest treasure in the universe for us and for our joy, why would He not with Christ freely give us the things that are best for us? If God has already given the best, the Object of the most supreme worth in the universe, why would He hold back now? If He has determined that He will be for His people and invest the life of His own precious Son for our joy, to enable us to taste and see His glory and be captured by it, why would He not with Christ always give us the best gifts? Christ died to secure our joy. And our joy finds ground in the fact that no matter what happens, though all of hell and principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this age should encamp round about us, why should we fear their intentions? As we see in the testimony of Joseph, "You meant it to me for evil, but God intended if for good." May we by faith see that God will always give us the best gifts, whether it be the gift of suffering, or the gift of martyrdom, or the gift of the death of your children. Whatever it may come, we stand sure by faith on the sovereign goodness of God, and thereby we are made to be "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." May we live in this kind of a serious joy in Christ.

The Freedom of God

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” -John 3:6-8

Although the Bible clearly teaches that man is a morally responsible agent, it does not emphasize the freedom of man's will. On the contrary, the writers of Scripture repeatedly tell us of the bondage of man's will. The fine line in Scripture is that even though man is free to choose what he wills, in reality man's will is still in bondage. Man's will is a slave to his desires. In the fall, man lost all ability to desire spiritual things. In life, there are mainly two kinds of desires- natural desires and spiritual desires. As Paul tells us in I Corinthians 2, the natural man cannot accept the spiritual things that come from God, for because are spiritually discerned. Man is born a morally dead agent. It is not the matter of imploring your enemy to come to you, it is the matter of imploring a rotten cadaver to rise and come to you. In order for a man to be brought to faith and see and savor the glory of God in Christ, we must first be made alive by the Spirit of God. So regeneration and the new birth is a necessity to come to Christ.

In this text of Scripture, we find Jesus explaining to Nicodemus how man is to enter the kingdom of God. It is not, as Paul puts, of him who wills or him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. And in this text, Jesus tells us of the One who truly does have a free will- God. Jesus tells Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wishes... so is everyone who is born of the Spirit of God." God always acts freely and justly and out of His own concerns and interests. God is under no obligation to extend mercy to Whom He pleases. So the implications of this text are (1) that the new birth is needful to enter the kingdom (vs. 6), (2) that the new birth grows out of the sovereign goodness of God and not by any necessity outside of Himself, and (3) that no one is excluded from this grace, neither by personal merit nor demerit. God's mercy does not depend on our ability or inclination to come to Him, because without His work of regeneration in our heart, there is no taste of His goodness and glory, and thereby no desire to come to Him. Left to himself, man will never be able to taste the goodness and the glory of God. God is not a respecter of persons. God is able to save all whom He will for His glory. Because God will always freely do what He wills, no man is too evil or too opposed to God for His goodness to lead them to repentance. His glory, when we are freed by the Spirit of God to see it as it truly is, is self-authenticating, and will grow a delight in our hearts to help us by faith see His glory and to bring our hearts to repent of those things that blaspheme and defame His glory. Let this truth of the freedom of God bring our hearts to delight in His glory and righteousness and become the axe that destroys the root of human pride. Let us not say that "I by my own might have delivered me," but that "salvation belongs to the Lord." Let us praise Him for grace upon grace.

Thoughts on the Resurrection

"And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying,‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” -Mark 12:26-27

As Jesus is correcting the Sadducees on their wrong view of the resurrection, He uses a very interesting argument to prove the resurrection. He refers to the story of Moses encountering God in the burning bush. As God spoke to Moses, He said, "I am the God of Abraham..." The use of the present tense in this verse is most interesting in its implications. Certainly Jesus is speaking of the fact that the benefits of God's covenant promise are not nullified through death, and therefore there is still the promise that one day Abraham's body will be physically raised. But Jesus does not simply stop there. He continues and says "He is not God of the dead, but of the living." Therefore, in tying this statement back to the resurrection, we conclude that Jesus is stating more than simply God's faithfulness to His covenant, but also the truth that there God's people are living. This resurrection of which Jesus' speaks must surely be a spiritual resurrection in heaven. We know that Abraham is not yet clothed in his glorified body, yet Jesus says that Abraham is living, and therefore God can say that "I am the God of Abraham."

In comparing this passage with Revelation 20, we find much illumination on what Jesus might mean when He makes this statement. For instance, in Revelation 20, John refers to the "first resurrection," by which I take it he means life in the intermediate state. So it seems to me that this quotation by Christ may be in reference to that spiritual resurrection which takes place before the final resurrection, the resurrection of the body.

The Glory of God

Throughout the Bible is one central theme that binds all other themes. Thousands of topics ranging from business to family life to personal holiness are all unified by one theme that can be found no matter what page of the Scripture that you may light upon. That theme is the glory and supremacy of God.

It becomes clear as we study and meditate on the Bible that the great causation of all things is God, and all things exist and have their being for His purpose. Romans 11:36 sums up this truth as well as any other- “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” God makes it clear throughout His Word that His motivation in all that He does is to bring Himself glory. God created man for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7), God chose Israel for His glory (Isaiah 49:3), God chose His people for His glory (Ephesians 1:4-7), and God’s aim is to fill the whole earth with the knowledge of His glory (Habakkuk 2:14). In all things God works to show forth His glory and have it seen and enjoyed by His creation. For God, it is the most loving that He can do for us is to affect our hearts so that we might see and savor His glory, as it is the greatest and most delightful pleasure in the universe.

Despite the great emphasis that God gives in His Word to His glory, explicitly and implicitly, many people still read the Bible and almost totally miss it. The Bible becomes a book of what God can do for us instead of a book displaying His glory for us to see and enjoy, especially His glory that is displayed in His marvelous grace given to undeserving sinners. Instead, we have turned the Gospel into an escape from a less than ideal situation, and the cross into a show of the worth of man, that God would sacrifice His only Son to rescue us. If we are to preserve the glory of God in the Gospel, there needs to be a drastic overhaul in the way that we understand the Gospel, and in the way that God works in the Gospel to draw sinners to Himself. If we are to exalt and glorify God in our hearts, we must settle some things in our minds concerning the factual elements of what makes the Gospel good news and how it is worked out practically in our lives.
One of the greatest texts to show the glory of Christ and the necessity to see that glory in the Bible is found in 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In these verses, Paul is clarifying the reason that he conducts His ministry in the way that He does- because salvation is the revelation of the glory of God, not simply of a mental assent to a list of facts or adherence to some sort of a moral standard. Paul gives in verse 3 a reason for why some respond negatively to the Gospel, because their eyes are blinded from seeing the glory of Christ. The wording Paul uses is similar to that he uses to describe the veil that is upon the hearts of the Jews when they read the Old Testament that keeps them from seeing Christ in the Old Testament. So Paul says that if people do not believe, it is because they cannot see. In verse 4 Paul says that Satan is doing his best to keep people from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. So it seems in this verse that Paul is trying to draw a connection between belief and the ability to see the glory of Christ. In Paul’s mind being able to see the glory of Christ has a causal tie with faith. So Paul in this verse precludes our thinking that faith is merely believing facts, but that faith grows out of seeing and delighting in glory.

Paul goes on to tell us how true faith is born. In verse 6, Paul begins by referencing God’s creation of light in the beginning. He speaks of the same God who commanded, “Let light shine out of darkness.” Using this analogy of God’s supernatural, creative work, Paul says that this same God has shined a light in our hearts to give us the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” So God, through His supernatural creative act of light, gives us knowledge of the glory of God. I see three main things that are implicit in this text:
1. This creative act of light is supernatural, and part of the sovereign working of God.
2. We are made to perceive this glory in beholding Jesus Christ with unveiled hearts that we might see in Him the beauty and glory of God.
3. In contrast with Satan’s attempt to blind people from seeing the glory of Christ with a result in unbelief, God creates this light for us to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and we are drawn irresistibly to faith in God. Nowhere in this text does Paul imply that we can truly behold the glory of God and turn away from it.

So in this text we see that the good news of the Gospel is that God transforms our hearts in the new birth so that we can perceive spiritual beauty and delight in it (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) as we could not when we were in our flesh. He has brought us to faith in Him by opening our eyes to see His self-authenticating glory and tasted in some measure by faith His goodness and His glory. So the Gospel is essentially God’s display of His glory in mercy for the good and delight of His people.