Sound of Grace, Issue 195, March 2013

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help him get home alive. He made it and to the dismay of

his parents, he became an Augustinian monk and quickly

developed a deep awareness of his own fallenness and

need for grace. He viewed God primarily as judge and was

constantly confessing his sin. Eventually, he was sent off to

become a doctor of theology where he lectured rst on the

Psalms, then Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians.Luthers initial problems with the Roman Catholic

Church arose due to his pastoral concern. The Roman

Catholic Church had become corrupt doctrinally and

morally. Perhaps the greatest illustration of this was the

selling of indulgences to reduce time in purgatory. John

Tetzel was a famous preacher of indulgences. He would

say things like, Dont you hear the voices of your wailing

dead parents and others, who say, Have mercy on me,

because we are in severe punishment and pain. From this

In our last article on Christ, Our New Covenant High Priest, we compared

a statement by John MacArthur with a statement from the Westminster Confes-

sion of Faith on the same subject. Let me repeat part of each quotation.

One of the key theological themes in Hebrews is that all believers now have di-

rect access to God under the New Covenant and, therefore may approach the throne

of God boldly (4:16; 10:22) believers under the covenant of law did not have

direct access to the presence of God (9:8), but were shut out of the Holy of Holies.1

Compare that statement with the following statement from the Westminster

Confession of Faith.

1 John MacArthur, Author and General Editor, The MacArthur Study Bible (Dallas: Word

Publishing, 1997), 1895.

Issue 195 Ma rch 2013

It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9

Christ, Our New Covenant High

PriestPart 2

John G. Reisinger

Today we are living in the land of Protestantism without

the Reformation, as Bonhoeffer put it. Most Protestants

have ceased protesting long ago. Sadly, most Protestants

are also ignorant of our Reformation forbearers. I want to

seek to remedy that in part through a look at the spirituality

of Martin Luther. Lest anyone accuse me of exalting men,

let me point out that Luther was a fallen man. I disagreewith him on many issues (his treatment of the Jews later in

life, his treatment of some rebellious peasants, his views on

church/state relations, baptism, and communion). Having

said that, I still believe there is much to learn about the

Christian life from him.

Martin Luther was born in 1483. Later in life, on his

way home from law school he ran into a terrible storm.

He fell from his horse and prayed to St. Anne (the patron

saint of minersat this point he didnt know any better).

He prayed and vowed to become a monk if she would just

Luthers SpiritualityPart 1 of 2

A. Blake White

ReisingerContinued on page 2

WhiteContinued on page 13

In This Issue

Christ, Our New Covenant HighPriest Part 2

John G. Reisinger

1

Luther's Spirituality Part 1 of 2

A. Blake White1

God, Humans and Responsibility:Three Famous Texts

Steve West

3

The Cross and the Lord's Day Part 3

Steve Carpenter

5

New Covenant Theology SoWhat?

A. Blake White

7


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Page 2 March 2013 Issue 195

Sound of Grace is a publication of Sovereign

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ReisingerContinued from page 1


The liberty which Christ hath

purchased for believers under the

gospel consists in their freedom from

the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath

of God, the curse of the moral law;

and in their being delivered from this

present evil world, bondage to Satan,and dominion of sin, from the evil

of afictions, the sting of death, the

victory of the grave, and everlasting

damnation; as also in theirfree access

to God, and their yielding obedience

unto him, not out of slavish fear, but a

child-like love and willing mind. All

which were common also to believ-

ers under the law; 2

The rst half of the statement in

The Westminster Confession of Faith

listing the blessings of believers liv-ing under the gospel is an excellent

and accurate summary of what the

New Testament teaches. It sounds like

all of these blessings are unique to

New Covenant believers living under

the gospel; however, that is not what

the Confession means. The Confes-

sion then upends everything it has just

stated by insisting All which were

common also to believers under the

law.The Confession is insisting that

both Old and New Covenant believershave all of the same blessings includ-

ing free access to God. Not only is

there not a stitch of textual evidence

for that statement, but the statement

clearly contradicts Pauls theology in

Ephesians and Hebrews of New Cov-

enant access to God. That statement is

what covenant theology calls a good

and necessary consequence. The

one covenant with two administra-

tions advocated by covenant theology

is essential to that system of theology.

The Old Covenant and New Covenant

cannot actually be different covenants

in that system. They must be the same

covenant in nature and substance and

are merely two administrations of

that one and same covenant. What

the Bible calls the Old Covenant,

2 The Westminster Confession of Faith,

Chapter 20, Of Christian Liberty, and

Liberty of Conscience.

covenant theology calls the older

covenant of grace and what the Bible

calls the New Covenant, covenant

theology calls the newercovenant

of grace. The Bible specically uses

the words old and new covenant

and never once refers to a new and

old administration of the samecovenant. This forces that theology

to insist that Israel had every spiritual

blessing, including free access to

God, or entrance into the Most Holy

Place, that the church enjoys today.

This contradicts everything the veil

in the tabernacle separating the Holy

Place from the Most Holy Place was

meant to teach.

Direct access into the presence of

God, the heavenly Most Holy Place, isa New Testament doctrine. The book

of Ephesians and the book of Hebrews

make that very clear. Look at three

New Testament verses that speak of

the new and total access into Gods

presence that New Covenant believers

have, but Old Covenant believers did

not have. We not only have a total and

permanent peace with God, but we

have a free access into the heavenly

Most Holy Place that Old Covenant

believers did not have. You cannot

understand the meaning and purpose

of the veil in the tabernacle and at the

same time insist that Old Covenant

believers had access inside that veil.

We will come back to the theology of

the veil. That subject is vital in under-

standing the priestly work of Christ.

Therefore being justied by faith,

we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we

have access by faith into this gracewherein we stand, and rejoice in hope

of the glory of God(Rom. 5:1- 2).

The access into the presence of

God, the Most Holy Place, described

in these verses is a blessing peculiar

to the New Covenant believers. This

blessing is in contrast to the Old

Covenant believer being shut out of

the Most Holy Place. This is described


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Issue 195 March 2013 Page 3

WestContinued on page 9

because it was to save lives that God

sent me ahead of you. For two yearsnow there has been famine in the land,

and for the next ve years there will

not be plowing and reaping. But God

sent me ahead of you to preserve for

you a remnant on earth and to save

lives by a great deliverance. So, then,

it was not you who sent me here, but

God. He made me father to Pharaoh,

lord of his entire household and ruler

of all Egypt. (NIV)

The details of the Joseph narrativeare well known, and do not need to

rehearsed. It is a paradigm for many

rich theological truths: mercy, forgive-

ness, the covenant faithfulness of God,

etc. But it is also an enormously im-

portant text for the doctrine of Gods

providence. What is very clear in the

text itself (if read without a theologi-

cal agenda or rigid systematic grid) is

that God does notcome on the scene

afterJosephs brothers sin by selling

him into slavery. God is not depicted

as a master chess player, countering

the moves of his opponents. He is

similarly not depicted as a hands-off

righteous God who has no control

over what sinful people do, but then

swoops in to salvage things as best he

can. The clear thrust of this passage

is that when the brothers were selling

Joseph into slavery, God was bringing

about his plan to send him to Egypt.

It is important to see what the

text does not say. The text does not

say: You sinned by selling me into

slavery, but then God worked it out

for good. It does not say: God is

so resourceful that despite your sin he

found a way to accomplish his pur-

pose. And it certainly does not say

anything like: God didnt want you

to sell me into slavery, and he didnt

even know that you were going to,

There is no disputing that the Bible

teaches that human beings are respon-sible for what they do, and are justly

punished by God for their wicked-

ness and sin. At some level this

must mean that humans are therefore

responsible for their actions. But in

what way are we responsible? Are

we responsible only when we act

unilaterally apart from Gods plan or

ordination of events? Could we be

responsible even if God is ultimately

purposing our behavior for his ownglory and ends? Obviously Calvin-

ists and Arminians will have different

ways of answering these questions,

and different ways of dening their

terms, but both agree that the Bible

is the nal court of appeal. There are

denitely some passages which teach

that humans are responsible for what

they do. There are also denitely

some passages that teach that God

is sovereign over all things. Taking

those passages as data for theologymeans that different schemes for relat-

ing them are possible. But, critically,

there are also passages which bring

Gods sovereignty and human respon-

sibility together, and whichshow how

they are related. God is undeniably

sovereign, and human beings are

undeniably morally responsible, and

in some places these two themes are

brought together in the same passage.

Of the various passages which could

be examined, I will constrain this dis-

cussion to three of the most famous.

1. Genesis 45:4-9; 50:19-20

Genesis 45:4-9 reads: Then Joseph

said to his brothers, Come close to

me. When they had done so, he said,

I am your brother Joseph, the one

you sold into Egypt! And now, do

not be distressed and do not be angry

with yourselves for selling me here,

but he kept working all these years

and nally brought some blessing outof it. What the text does say is that

you sold (v. 4), but also, God sent

(v. 5), God sent (v. 7), and it was

not you who sent me here, but God

(v. 8).

Verse eight is really extraordinary.

Without suggesting that the brothers

were not responsible for selling him

into slavery, Joseph sees that God is

the one who sent him to Egypt. How

was it that God sent Joseph to Egypt?It was through the sinful act of his

brothers. But after years of reec-

tion Joseph has come to realize that

everything in his entire life, including

the event of being sold into slavery

through an act of wickedness, is

ultimately part of Gods plan. Parts of

Gods plan may use the sinful actions

of sinners to accomplish his purposes,

but he is in sovereign control every

moment and every step along the way.

In fact, upon closer reection it

seems obvious that God has to be in

meticulous control over these events

to accomplish his purposes of sending

Joseph to Egypt to save many lives.

The brothers originally planned on

killing Joseph: why didnt they carry

out that plan (at rst they did leave

him to die)? What would have hap-

pened if Reuben had come back and

freed Joseph from the well (before a

caravan passed by), as he had planned

on doing? What if the caravan that

happened to pass by wasnt going to

Egypt? In Egypt, with all the slaves

for sale, what if someone else bought

Joseph, and he lived out his days in

ignominy, serving a small-time master

in a backwater? These, and literally

thousands of other contingencies, had

to be controlled by God in order for

God, Humans, and Responsibility: Three Famous Texts

Steve West


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Page 4 March 2013 Issue 195free from the law (Rom. 6:14) in a

way that an Old Covenant believers

conscience could never be, and (2) an

Old Covenant believers conscience

was under the law in a way a New

Covenant believer must never al-

low his conscience to be. A New

Covenant believer can sing, He hashushed the Laws loud thunder, he has

brought us near to God. You cannot

be under the law without hearing its

thunder. It is freedom from the law in

the conscience that gives freedom of

access into the heavenly Most Holy

Place. That is what it means to come

boldly to the throne of grace without

fear. An Old Covenant believer had

to wait until the coming of Christ to

fulll the promise made to the fathers

before he could sing the terrors oflaw, with me have nothing to do. My

Saviors obedience and blood hide all

my transgressions from view. Under-

standing the access to God given to us

by the atoning work of Christ begins

with understanding the hanging of the

veil in Exodus 40:21 and the rending

of that same veil in Matthew 27:51.

Scoeld has an interesting footnote on

Exodus 26:31.

The inner veil, type of Christshuman body Matthew 26:26 ; 27:50;

Hebrews 10:20. This veil, barring

entrance into the holiest, was the most

expressive symbol of the truth that

by the deeds of the law shall no esh

be justied (Romans 3:20, Hebrews

9:8). Rent by an unseen hand when

Christ died (Matthew 27:51) thus giv-

ing instant access to God to all who

come by faith in Him, it was the end

of all legality; the way to God was

open. It is deeply signicant that the

priests must have patched together

again the veil that God had rent, for

the temple services went on yet for

nearly forty years. That patched veil

is Galatianismthe attempt to put

saint or sinner back under the law. (Cf.

Galatians 1:6-9)Anythingbut the

grace of Christ is another gospel,

and under anathema.4

4 The First Scoeld Reference Bible (Ul-

richsville, Oh.: Barbour and Company,


in the books of Exodus and Leviticus.

The Old Covenant message of stay

away upon pain of death has been

replaced with the New Covenant

message of come and welcome. The

message given under the Old Cov-

enant (Lev. 16:1-2) was both clear andemphatic. No one except Aaron was

allowed access into the Most Holy

Place, and he was only allowed to

enter on one day of the year, the Day

of Atonement. The radically different

message under the New Covenant is

just as clear and emphatic. It says:

Having therefore, brethren, bold-

ness to enter into the holiest by the

blood of Jesus, By a new and living

way, which he hath consecrated for

us, through the veil, that is to say, his

esh; And having an high priest over

the house of God;Let us draw near

with a true heart in full assurance of

faith, having our hearts sprinkled from

an evil conscience (Heb. 10:19-22a).

What an amazing difference be-

tween the Old Covenant message of

stay away and the come boldly

message of the New Covenant. Our

boldness to come into the Most Holy

Place (Rom. 5:1-2) is based on ourassurance that Christ, in his atoning

death, has forever abolished in his

esh the enmity, even the law of com-

mandments.

Having abolished in his esh the

enmity, even the law of command-

ments contained in ordinances; for to

make in himself of twain one new man,

so making peace; And that he might

reconcile both unto God in one body

by the cross, having slain the enmity

thereby: And came and preachedpeace to you which were afar off, and

to them that were nigh. For through

him we both have access by one Spirit

unto the Father(Eph. 2:15-18).

The shed blood of Christ abol-

ished in his esh (his sinless human

nature) the enmity (wrath) of the law

of God against us. The free access

that New Covenant believers have

into Gods presence is possible only

because the tables of the covenant in

the ark of the covenant (the Ten Com-

mandments) have been done away

in Christ. The peace preached in the

New Covenant is possible because the

enmity against us as lawbreakers has

been born by Christ on the cross. This

peace is now preached to the Jew asthe true gospel, and the same Gospel

is preached to the Gentiles, those who

were afar off. We should mention

that you can reconcile enemies, but

you cannot reconcile enmity. Enmity

must be removed before there can

be true reconciliation. The enmity of

God against us was removed by our

blessed substitute on the cross. He

was made to be sin (2 Cor. 5:17)

for us. The enmity in us against God

(Rom. 8:7) was removed by the HolySpirit in regeneration. He removed our

stony hearts that hated God and his

authority and gave us a heart of esh

upon which was written the law of

Christ. Robed in the righteousness of

Christ, we now have boldness andac-

cess with condence to enter the Most

Holy Place. I repeat, I agree with John

MacArthur that this is a New Cov-

enant blessing that the Old Covenant

believer did not have.In whom we have boldness and

access with condence by the faith of

him (Eph. 3:12).

The boldness and condence to

enter the very place an Old Covenant

believer was forbidden to enter upon

pain of death is the liberty of con-

science that enables us to say, Abba,

Father. The Old Covenant believer

thought of God primarily as the cov-

enant God and not as Father. Jesustaught the New Covenant believer

to think and pray in terms of our

Father.3

There are two biblical facts that

must be understood. (1) The New

Covenant believers conscience is

3 For an excellent development of this

fact see J.I. Packer, Sons of God,

chapter 18 inKnowing God(Downers

Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1993). ReisingerContinued on page 6


5/20


you may know that I am the Lordyour God. There is testimony from

both the law and the prophets that

the Sabbath is the sign of the Mosaic

Covenant.

Meredith Kline has done some im-

portant work in analyzing the signi-

cance of the fact that the sign of the

Mosaic Covenant was the Sabbath.

Kline has demonstrated in his Treaty

of the Great King, which is now out of

print, and in his more recent work TheStructure of Biblical Authority that the

form of the Mosaic Covenant closely

resembles the treaty form common

in the ancient Near East between a

conquering king and a vassal people.

The parallels are exceptionally strik-

ing in the treaties of the great king of

the Hittites and his conquered vassal

subjects. In those covenant treaties

there would appear in the midst of the

stipulations being imposed upon the

vassal people a ceremony which actedas a sign of covenantal obedience and

allegiance on the part of the vassal

to his conquering king. If the vas-

sal forsook that ceremonial sign, the

covenant as a whole was viewed as

broken. The position or the placement

of this sign was also signicant. Kline

explains in his Structure of Biblical

Authority that the sign or the seal of

the covenant was usually placed right

in the middle of the covenant itself-

right in the middle of the stipulations.

That raises a very important ob-

servation regarding the stone tablets

themselves. The common view that

we have grown up believing, because

its been the usual interpretation of

things, is that the two tablets were

used in the giving of the Decalogue to

distinguish between the duties to God

in commandments 1 through 4 andCarpenterContinued on page 11

The second question we want to

pursue in isolating the Old Testament

data on the Sabbath is this: Does the

placement of the Sabbath command-

ment in the Decalogue make it moral

and therefore binding on all men? The

Puritan reasoning was that this com-

mandment was binding. They said that

one ceremonial injunction in a list of

nine other moral presets was con-

trary to the uniform nature of the Ten

Commandments. Either all ten were

moral, or none of the ten were moral.Arguing this way, of course, was also

a way of rebutting the position that the

Sabbath was strictly a Jewish ordi-

nance

This idea can be examined in three

ways. First, looking at the nature of

the Sabbath commandant itself, the

Sabbath is stated to be the sign of the

Mosaic Covenant. In Exodus 31:13

The Lord speaks to Moses and says,

But as for you, speak to the sons ofIsrael saying you shall surely observe

my Sabbaths, for this is a sign be-

tween me and you throughout your

generations that you may know that

I am the Lord who sancties you.

Exodus 31:17 shows the testimony of

the law: It is a sign between me and

the sons of Israel forever for in the six

days the Lord made heaven and earth

but on the seventh day He ceased

from labor and was refreshed. Lets

examine the testimony of the proph-ets. Ezekiel 20:12 states, And also I

gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign

between me and them that they may

know that I am the Lord who sancti-

es them. In verse 20 the Sabbath

is in the context of an exhortation to

walk in the statutes and to keep the

ordinances, It says in verse 20: And

sanctify my Sabbaths and they shall

be a sign between me and you that

the duties to man in Commandments

5 through 10.There are two tablets:

tablet one containing duties to God,

and tablet containing duties to man.,

Kline points out that it was normal

procedure in establishing suzerainty

covenants to prepare duplicate cop-

ies of the treaty text therefore, eachstone tablet was complete in itself.

Each stone tablet had Exodus chapter

20 verses 1 through 17 on it, and what

comes right in the very middle is the

Sabbath. The Sabbath falls right in

the middle. In the Hebrew text there

are a total of 142 words that make

up the historical prologue I am the

Lord your God who brought you out

of the land of Egypt, the house of

slavery, on down through the Ten

Commandments themselves. It is most

interesting that 55 of the 142 words

are devoted to the giving and the

exposition of the Sabbath command-

ment. Well over one-third of all of the

space in the Decalogue is given to the

Sabbath commandment. No wonder

the Puritans emphasized it so much.

Furthermore, it falls strategically right

in the middle. God is saying that here

is the sign of this covenant that I am

now cutting with you, the people ofIsrael.

We can also answer the question

as to whether it is morally binding

because its in the Decalogue from

the use of the Sabbath commandment

by the prophets. It is interesting that

according to the prophets of Isaiah,

Jeremiah and Ezekiel keeping the

Sabbath is made the test of covenantal

allegiance, and it was the sign of the

covenant. In Ezekiel 20:10 -24 there isan extended section where the Sabbath

occupies a unique and central posi-

tion. It says in Ezekiel 20:10-12: So

I took them out of the land of Egypt

and brought them into the wilderness.

I gave them my statutes and informed

them of my ordinances, by which, if a

man observes them, he will live. Also

I gave them my Sabbath It is in-


6/20



built. Its hanging is described in Exo-

dus 40.

Third: Why was the veil hung?

The veil was an integral part of the

Levitical system of worship, and as

such, it contributed to the overall

purpose of that system of worship.

We do not have to guess at what thatpurpose was. God does not always tell

us why he does, or does not, do a cer-

tain thing. Preachers and writers often

speculate and ll in what God chose

to leave out. This is especially true in

the area of typology. As the Dutchman

says, some weird and wonderful

theology has been peddled by building

a doctrine on your idea of what God

meant but did not state. In the case of

the hanging of the veil, we are speci-cally told what the purpose of the veil

was as a part of the Levitical system

of worship, and we are also told what

the specic purpose of the veil was in

its own right.

Look rst at the veil as part of the

Levitical system of worship. Hebrews

is quite clear about what God was

seeking to teach in that old system of

worship. In Hebrews 9:1-8, the writer

gives a short summary of the ritual onthe Day of Atonement. He emphasized

the High Priest entering the Most

Holy Place with blood and sprinkling

the mercy seat. Hebrews 9:8 then tells

us what God was teaching in those

symbolical actions.

The Holy Ghost this signifying,

that the way into the holiest of all was

not yet made manifest, while as the

rst tabernacle was yet standing(Heb.

9:8).

Contrary to the Westminster

Confession, the whole Old Covenant

system of worship was designed to

teach that the way into the Most Holy

Place was totally off limits prior to the

rending of the veil. Let me quote that

verse in two other versions.

By these things the Holy Spirit

means us to understand that the way

to the holy of holies was not yet open,

that is, so long as the rst tent and all

When we rst started this series

on Our New Covenant Prophet, Priest

and King, we noted that in each case

when the New Testament rst intro-

duced Christ as fullling one of these

three ofces, it also accompanied each

fulllment with a miraculous sign.The sign showing Christ fullling

and replacing the Aaronic priesthood

is the rending of the veil recorded in

Matthew 27:50-51. I never realized

how important this miraculous sign

was until I started to write this ar-

ticle. Lets try to unpack the theology

behind the hanging and the rending of

the veil. The rending of the veil is one

the greatest object lessons that God

ever gave! Israels failure to learn the

lesson taught in the rending of the veilshows how thick the veil of willful

ignorance was that blinded them to the

Gospel that their Messiah had come (2

Cor. 3:14-15). We will ask and try to

answer some obvious questions. Our

key text will be Matthew 27:50-51.

Jesus, when he had cried again

with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

And, behold, the veil of the temple was

rent in twain from the top to the bot-

tom (Matt. 27:50-51).First: What veil is Matthew

talking about? He mentions it was

the veil in the temple. He is refer-

ring to the veil that separated the Holy

Place from the Most Holy Place in the

tabernacle that God instructed Moses

to build.

And thou shalt make a veil[of]

blue, and purple, and scarlet, and

ne twined linen of cunning work:

with cherubims shall it be made(Ex.

26:31).

Exodus 25-40 records the instruc-

tions, and the subsequent carrying out

of those instructions that God gave

Moses in exactly how to build the

tabernacle.

Second: When was the veil hung

in place? The veil was the last thing

put in place when the tabernacle was

1986), 104.

that it stands for still exist(Heb. 9:8

Phillips).

The Holy Spirit is making clear

that the way into the holy place had

not yet appeared as long as the old

tabernacle was standing(Heb. 9:8

NET).

I do not want to beat a dead horse,but I nd it hard to understand how

anyone can believe that the Old

Covenant believer had the same free

access to God that a New Covenant

believer has when the Holy Spirit has

made it clearthat the way into the

holy place had not yet been opened

by the atoning work of Christ. He-

brews 9:8 is clearon the subject. The

Holy Spirit specically used the word

clear.Exodus 40:21 tells us exactly

what the purpose was in hanging the

veil. It acted as a shield or protection

of the ark of the covenant. The veil

not only kept the people from enter-

ing the Most Holy Place, but it also

kept God in the Most Holy Place. If

an Israelite would have beheld God

face to face, that person would have

been consumed. The cloud and re

that hovered over the Most Holy

Place day and night was proof that

God was dwelling among his people.

The veil kept them from entering the

Most Holy Place and being consumed,

and the veil also enabled God to be

literally and visibly among his people

without consuming them. We will

come back to this point and show why

this was essential.

And he brought the ark into the

tabernacle, hung the protecting cur-

tain, and shielded the ark of the testi-mony from view, just as the Lord had

commanded Moses (Ex. 40:21 NET).

Fourth: Scripture makes a

special point of establishing exactly

when the veil was rent in half. No-

tice how careful the Holy Spirit is. At

that moment pinpoints preciously

the time of the rending of the veil as

immediately, at that moment, when



7/20


Sometimes theology is derided

because it is too abstract and doesnt

make a difference in real life. Thisobjection does not stand with regard

to New Covenant Theology. I doubt

it really stands with any theology. As

Schaeffer reminded us, ideas have

consequences, but I think this is par-

ticularly the case with New Covenant

Theology. It really does make a differ-

ence where the rubber meets the road.

Though much more could be said, I

think there are four areas of life and

ministry that are shaped signicantlyby New Covenant Theology: assur-

ance, ethics, eschatology, and ecclesi-

ology.

First, even though this point is not

unique to New Covenant Theology,

I would be remiss if I didnt mention

the primary and foundational bless-

ing of the new covenant: assurance of

our acceptance before God because

of the forgiveness of sins, provided

by the new covenant initiated throughthe shed blood of Christ. This is the

heart of the Christian faith. Because

of the death, resurrection, and exalta-

tion of the Son of God, we can boldly

approach the throne of grace with a

clean conscience because in Christ we

are clean! This truth makes allthe dif-

ference in the world.

Second, New Covenant Theology

makes a huge difference in Christian

ethics or in other words, how Chris-

tians ought to live. The Christian life

is not to be a law-centered life but

a Christ-centered life.He is our norm

and his Spirit is the guiding principle

of the Christian life. The primary call

for the Christian is to walk by the

Spirit. Freedom is fundamental. This

is not to down-play the many impera-tives of the New Testament, but to

emphasize the centrality of Christ and

the Spirit for new covenant ethics.

Third, New Covenant Theology

makes a difference for ones eschatol-

ogy. All of the promises of God are

yes in Jesus Christ. Christ is cur-

rently reigning on the Davidic throne.

Through his resurrection from the

dead he has yanked Gods future into

the present so that the kingdom is nowand not yet. He is thesingularseed of

Abraham and all those who are united

to him are Abrahams offspring the

eschatological Israel heirs according

to promise. Christ wins the new cre-

ation for all those whom he represents

regardless of ethnicity.

Fourth, New Covenant Theology

makes a big difference in ecclesiology

The community of the new covenant

is the community of the Spirit. Every

single member of the body of Christ is

indwelt by the Spirit. The new cov-

enant is just that: new! It is not like

the old covenant. In the new covenant

community, all know the Lord. All

are believers. The church is a regen-

erate community. The new covenant

is inaugurated now in the church. Itis not merely renewed and it is not

mainly for ethnic Israel in the future.

We are called to celebrate and remem-

ber our Saviors death that brought

about the new covenant in a weekly

fellowship meal that includes bread

and wine.

So what difference does New

Covenant Theology make? Quite a bit

It will affect your conscience and con-

dence before God; it will affect howyou live; it will affect your view of the

future; and it will affect how you do

church life. Pretty important stuff in

my opinion!

New Covenant Theology So What?

A. Blake White

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8/20

Page 8 March 2013 Issue 195ReisingerContinued from page 6

Christ cried out, It is nished and

yielded up his spirit to the Father.

And when Jesus had cried out

again in a loud voice, he gave up his

spirit. At that moment the curtain of

the temple was torn in two from top to

bottom (Matt.27:50-51).

Fifth: Why was it torn from top

to bottom? Probably to show it was

the work of God and not man. Since

Scripture does not specically answer

this question, we used the word prob-

ably.

Sixth: What was God teaching

by rending the veil, or put another

way, what is the theology behind the

rending of the veil? God was show-

ing that the Old Covenant, and everything it brought into being by that

covenant, was now done away and has

been, in each case, replaced by some-

thing better under the New Covenant.

We will develop this point more fully.

A short review of the dimensions

of the tabernacle would be benecial.

The actual tabernacle was made up of

three sections and measured 150 feet

by 75 feet. Inside the tabernacle is

divided into two sections. The largersection was called the Holy Place. It

was 30 feet by 15 feet. Most of the

priestly work was done by the sons of

Aaron in this room. The smaller room

was called the Most Holy Place. It

was 15 feet square. A veil separated

the Holy Place and the Most Holy

Place. The only thing in the Most

Holy Place was the ark of the cov-

enant. No one was allowed to enter

the Most Holy Place except the High

Priest, and he could enter with blood

only on one day a year, the Day of

Atonement.

We will begin to understand the

ministry of the High Priest by looking

at the theology of the veil. What is its

primary theology signicance? We

have already noted the veil separated

the Holy Place and the Most Holy

Place. The Most Holy Place was

literally the holiest and most sacred

spot on earth. The hanging of the veil

closing off the Most Holy Place was

the last thing done in building the tab-

ernacle. We read, So Moses nished

the work, and when the veil was

hung, the glory of the Lord lled the

Most Holy Place. This meant that Godhad entered the Most Holy Place, and

his immediate presence was seen in

a cloud by day and a re in the cloud

by night. God was literally dwelling

among his people.

And so Moses nished the work.

Then the cloud covered the tent of

meeting, and the glory of the Lord

lled the tabernacle. Moses could not

enter the tent of meeting because the

cloud had settled on it, and the glory

of the Lord lled the tabernacle. In allthe travels of the Israelites, whenever

the cloud lifted from above the tab-

ernacle, they would set out; but if the

cloud did not lift, they did not set out

until the day it lifted. So the cloud of

the Lord was over the tabernacle by

day, and re was in the cloud by night,

in the sight of all the Israelites during

all their travels (Ex. 40:33-37).

In order to understand the meaning

and importance of the veil, we can-

not start with the veil. The veil itselfwas not holy. What was holy was

what the veil shielded (Ex. 40:21).

Remember Scripture says the veil

shielded the ark of the covenant.

The ark was a box 3.75 feet long, 2.25

feet wide and 2:25 high feet and was

overlaid within and without with pure

gold. The lid of the box was called the

mercy seat and was made of pure

gold. There were two cherubim fac-

ing each other with outspread wings

and made of pure gold. One cherub

was placed at each end of the ark

(Ex.25:10, 11, 17-21). The ark of the

covenant was designed so it could be

picked up and carried without the ark

itself ever being touched by human

hands. It had four gold rings, one in

each corner, and two staves overlaid

with gold were put through the rings.

The staves were like handles and were

left in the ark and never removed.

Four men would pick up the ark by

the staves and carry the ark without

actually touching it (Ex. 25: 12-15).

We need to ask why the ark of the

covenant was so holy that a special

room was built just to house that one

piece of furniture, and a special veil

was hung that acted as a shield for it.

The ark was not allowed to even be

touched upon pain of death. The pri-

mary reason that the ark of the cove-

nant, or as it often called in Scripture,

the ark of the testimony, is so holy

is clearly stated in Scripture. Exodus

25:22 states the mercy seat, or lid of

the ark, was the one and only place

that God would meet with his people.

The Most Holy Place in the tabernacle

was the dwelling place of God amonghis people. When the lid of the ark

of the covenant, the mercy seat, was

sprinkled with blood, God would meet

with Aaron as the peoples representa-

tive. We will come back to this point

when we look at Aarons work on the

Day of Atonement. The New Cov-

enant mercy seat is the cross. That is

the only place that God will meet the

sinner.

And there I will meet with thee,and I will commune with thee from

above the mercy seat, from between

the two cherubims which are upon theark of the testimony (Ex. 25:22).

Very few commentators emphasize

the fact that the explicit message of

the religion of the Old Covenant was

not come and welcome. It was God

is holy; you are a sinner, stay away.

It is true that the sacricial system,

feasts and rituals offered ceremonial

cleansing that temporally coveredsin and gave a promise of a future

redeemer who would solve the sin

problem by actually paying its debt,

but there was nothing in the whole

Mosaic religion that could give the

conscience assurance to enter the

Most Holy Place behind the veil. That

must wait until the time of reforma-

tion. That must wait for a religion



9/20


God to send Joseph to Egypt, and then

to position him in a place where he

really could be instrumental in saving

many lives.

The foregoing interpretation is

made explicit at the end of Genesis

50. Jacob has died, and now Josephsbrothers are worried he will nally

take revenge on them. They ask for

mercy and Joseph replies: Dont be

afraid. Am I in the place of God?

You intended to harm me, but God

intended it for good to accomplish

what is now being done, the saving of

many lives (50:19-20, NIV). Again,

Joseph rests the responsibility for his

lifeincluding being sold into slav-

eryin the hands of a sovereign God.But an extremely important contrast is

drawn between the intentionsbehind

the event. Josephs brothers truly

tried to harm him. They acted wick-

edly and meant their actions for evil.

God, on the other hand, superintended

the same actfor good. Historically

this has sometimes been referred to as

the doctrine of concurrence. Through

one act a sinner works evil and God

concurrently works good. There is

a profound difference at the motiva-tional level or at the agents level of

intentionality. So the sinner sins and

God acts righteously, but through the

same event. The sinner is responsible

for the sin and the evil, but God is

responsible for the good, even though

both are working simultaneously in

and through the same event. I do not

profess to fully understand this rela-

tionship, but it seems clear to me that

this type of relationship is the only

way to make sense of the biblical data

concerning Joseph.

2. Isaiah 10:5-19

I will not take the space to repro-

duce this passage in its entirety, but

it is well worth opening a Bible and

reading it. I will also be briefer in

expositing the relevant verses than

with the Joseph material, since many

of the same basic points are transfer-

able. This text will be seen, I trust,

to support the lines of interpretation

drawn above.

Assyria is laying waste to the

known world, and is marching against

Israel. Nevertheless, God claims that

I send him and I dispatch him (v.

6). Assyria is being sent by God, butcritically, at the level of intentional-

ity, this is not what he intends, this is

not what he has in mind; his purpose

is to destroy, to put an end to many

nations (v. 7). Just like with Josephs

brothers, God is working with human

agents to accomplish his will, but

there is a crucial difference in what

they are intending, and what they

think they are bringing about. Blunt-

ly, Assyria is trying to do evil, whereasGod is righteously using them to

accomplish his purposes of judicial

retribution. In the same act Assyria

intends evil, and God intends good.

An additional wrinkle is added

in this passage when Assyria is not

only said to be accountable for their

actions, they are punished for them.

Note the amazing relationship in verse

12: When the Lord has nished all

his work against Mount Zion andJerusalem, he will say, I will pun-

ish the king of Assyria for the willful

pride of his heart and the haughty

look in his eyes. What happens in

Israel is called theLords work, but

nevertheless the king of Assyria is

so responsible for what he does that

God punishes him! There is simply

no facile playing Gods sovereignty

off human responsibility, as if Gods

meticulous providence someone con-

travenes human freedom or agency.No, what happens in Israel is the work

of the Lord, but the king of Assyria is

justly punished for his part in it. This

is the case despite the fact that God

can picture the Assyrians like an ax in

his hand, or a club (v. 15). They were

his tools, but because of their inten-

tions, and their pride (v. 12-14), they

deserve to be punished. Sovereignty

and human freedom are compatible;

God and human agents work concur-

rently in the same events through dif-

ferent levels of intentionality in trying

to bring about different ends. Humans

are responsible enough to merit pun-

ishment for their sin, even when God

is working it into his providential plan

for good.3. Acts 2:23-24; 4:27-28

If anything, these New Testament

verses are clearer than Genesis and

Isaiah, and hardly need commentary

of any kind. Preaching at Pentecost

Peter states: This man was handed

over to you by Gods set purpose and

foreknowledge; and you, with the

help of wicked men, put him to death

by nailing him to the cross. But God

raised him from the dead, freeing himfrom the agony of death, because it

was impossible for death to keep its

hold on him (Acts 2:23-24). Notice

the theme of concurrence again: Jesus

was only crucied because of Gods

purpose and plan, but he was cruci-

ed by wicked men who sinned by

nailing him to the cross. Their full

responsibility is made evident with the

conviction that comes upon them, and

Peter telling them they need to repent(v. 38). Peter does not say that since

the cross was part of Gods plan, and

God ensured Christs crucixion, the

human agents are not responsible for

what they did. On the contrary, they

are wicked, and need repentance.

Similarly, Acts 4:27-28 says:

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate

met together with the Gentiles and

the people of Israel in this city to

conspire against your holy servant

Jesus, whom you anointed. They did

what your power and will had decided

beforehand should happen. The

sinful actors meet with the intention

of conspiring to kill Jesus, and in so

doing only bring about what God had

intended. In fact, Gods intention and

plan was prior to their meeting. Long

before they gathered together, God

had already decided what was going

WestContinued from page 3

WestContinued on page 11


10/20


based on sovereign grace brought into

being by the once for all sufcient

sacrice of our New Covenant Great

High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Old Covenant religion was based

on a just, holy, good law. Its func-

tion and purpose was to close mansmouth in shame and make him admit

his guilt. The Old Covenant believer

had a hope in a coming Messiah, but

only the actual coming of the Messiah

could fulll hope. The Messiah would

fulll and replace the Old Covenant

with a new and better covenant. The

New Covenant believer has a better

hope, but that hope also awaits a fu-

ture fulllment when faith gives way

to sight at the second coming.

Hebrews 9 is a summary of what

we have been saying. An understand-

ing of the writers argument in this

chapter will answer a lot of theologi-

cal questions.

Then verily the rst covenant had

also ordinances of divine service, and

a worldly sanctuary. [Dont confuse

the covenant with the ordinances of

divine services that were essential to

administer the covenant.] For there

was a tabernacle made; the rst,wherein was the candlestick, and the

table, and the shewbread; which is

called the sanctuary. And after the

second veil, the tabernacle which is

called the Holiest of all; Which had

the golden censer, and the ark of the

covenant overlaid round about with

gold, wherein was the golden pot that

had manna, and Aarons rod that bud-

ded, and the tables of the covenant;

And over it the cherubims of glory

shadowing the mercyseat; of which we

cannot now speak particularly. Nowwhen these things were thus

ordained, the priests went always into

the rst tabernacle, accomplishing the

service of God. But into the second

went the high priest alone once every

year, not without blood, which he

offered for himself, and for the errors

of the people: The Holy Ghost this

signifying, that the way into the holi-

est of all was not yet made manifest,

while as the rst tabernacle was yet

ReisingerContinued from page 8 standing: [The tabernacle building

stood until 70 AD. The tabernacle

system of worship ended with the

rending of the veil. Judaism was Gods

ordained religion; however, when our

Lord ratied the New Covenant with

his atoning blood, the Old Covenant

system of religion was no longer

Gods religion. It was now just anempty shell. What was once Gods

revealed religion has now become

only the Jews religion (Gal. 1:14).

Any animal sacrices offered after the

rending of the veil was done in open

rebellion to Gods revelation.] Which

was a gure for the time then present,

in which were offered both gifts and

sacrices, that could not make him

that did the service perfect, as pertain-

ing to the conscience; [The sacricial

system could cover sin for one year,

but it could not make atonement,

actually pay for sin and cleanse the

conscience. The conscience cannot

be satised until we are sure that God

is satised, and nothing but the blood

and righteousness of Christ will satisfy

Gods holy character and covenant.]

Which stood only in meats and drinks,

and divers washings, and carnal ordi-

nances, imposed on them until the time

of reformation. But Christ being come

an high priest of good things to come,

by a greater and more perfect taber-nacle, not made with hands, that is to

say, not of this building; Neither by the

blood of goats and calves, but by his

own blood he entered in once into the

holy place, having obtained eternal

redemption for us. For if the blood

of bulls and of goats, and the ashes

of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,

sanctieth to the purifying of the esh:

How much more shall the blood of

Christ, who through the eternal Spirit

offered himself without spot to God,

purge your conscience [Satisfying theconscience is essential to a valid assur-

ance of eternal security in Christ. This

is impossible as long as the conscience

is under the Old Covenant. Nothing

in the Old Covenant could satisfy

conscience.] from dead works to serve

the living God? And for this cause [To

effect the purging of the conscience]

he is the mediator of the new testa-

ment[the better covenant], that by

means of death, for the redemption of

the transgressions that were under the

rst testament, they which are called

might receive the promise of eternal

inheritance (Heb. 9:1-15).

In our next article we will look at

the Day of Atonement as set forth in

Leviticus 16. All agree that this chap-

ter is setting forth the Gospel in typol-ogy. Aaron was a clear type of Christ.

Several things are important when

emphasizing that Aarons ministry

could not accomplish a real atonement

for sin. Aaron and his ministry, along

with the Old Covenant upon which it

was based, had to be replaced. This

does not mean that Aarons ministry

was in any way wrong or defective or

that Aaron was not faithful in doing

what God told him to do. Replacing

an Old Covenant with a new and bet-

ter covenant is in no sense replacing a

bad covenant with a good cov-

enant. The Old Covenant and Aarons

ministry totally fullled the purpose

for which God gave it. Nothing in the

Old Covenant was ever intended to

satisfy either Gods holy character or

the sinners conscience. The covenant

and all of Aarons work was perfectly

successful in that it accomplished ex-

actly what God designed and purposedit to do. It was designed to convince

the sinner that he was totally shutout

from God because of his sin. The veil

could not possibly show that fact any

more clearly.

In order for a Jew to be saved

under the New Covenant, he would

have to give up nearly every thing in

his religion. The priest, the covenant,

the sacrices, the holy days and feasts,

etc. were all gone and everything wasnow based on faith instead of sight.

Aaron, the Israelites high priest, was

visible in his work. The sinner could

see Aaron go into the Most Holy Place

with the lambs blood in a basin. He

would look in awe at the beautiful

special robes that Aaron only wore

on the Day of Atonement. The sin-

ner could see the cloud and re in



11/20


West Continued from page 9

Carpenter Continued from page 5

to happen.

At this point it can probably just be

stated that these passages all dovetail

together perfectly in their teaching

about sovereignty and responsibility.

Acts adds one more valuable piece to

the picture, however. There could notbe a more evil event than the cruci-

xion of Gods anointed and dearly

loved son. Yet God ordained it and

brought it to pass. If God can stand

behind the most evil event imagin-

able, then he can work in any event

of lesser evil without guilt. Frankly,

the exact relationship God sustains

to human actions and evil that allows

him to be without guilt is beyond my

comprehension. It seems to involvethe level of intention in the act, as

well as the ends to be brought about.

But beyond this I think we simply

have to rest in the Bibles teach-

ings. Clearly God does not sin; the

judge of all the earth does right; God

does not act wickedly. But God still

works concurrently through the sins

of sinners. Older theologians morefrequently used the Aristotelian cat-

egories of nal and efcient causes, or

primary and secondary causes. In the

end, however, I think that these issues

are simply beyond our ken. God has

given us enough data to make gestures

in the right direction, but it is not

given to us (and may not be possible

for us given our capacities) to exhaus-

tively understand.

Like the rest of Christian theology,however, all lines run to the cross.

Ponder Gods eternal purposes in the

crucixion, as well as the role of the

human agents. God acts righteously

and they act wickedly in the exact

same event. They perpetrate the

greatest injustice and evil in his-

tory: God perpetrates the greatest act

of love and provides atonement atexactly the same cross. They gather in

time to conspire together, but only do

what Gods eternal plan had ordained.

The greatest good imaginable ows

out of the greatest evil imaginable. It

is not ours to fully comprehend, but

that is perhaps not the point. It is ours

to respond in worship, and to be over-

awed at a God who works like this. It

is also ours to have great encourage-

ment of hearteven evil is controlled

by God for our good and his glory.

teresting that it says I gave them my

statutes and my ordinances, and then

he singles out this one single com-

mand in verse 12: I also gave them

Sabbaths to be a sign between me and

them that they might know that I am

the Lord who sancties them, but

then in verse 13 The House of Israel

rebelled against me in the wilderness.They did not walk in my statutes,

and they rejected my ordinances, by

which, if a man observes them, he will

live; and my Sabbaths they greatly

profaned. The prophet Ezekiel is

quoting God. While the people of Isra-

el are being brought in, they are being

brought before God, and a covenant

lawsuit is taking place. As they are be-

ing sued for their covenant violations,

they have profaned the Sabbath, the

very symbol and sign of covenant loy-

alty. It was the ceremonial sign which

was the test of covenantal loyalty.

They broke the statutes and ordinanc-

es and they profaned my Sabbath. It is

the test of covenantal loyalty because

it is the sign of the covenant.

Finally, we might study this from

the nature of the Mosaic Covenant

itself. It is observed that the Mosaic

Covenant has moral, ceremonial and

civil elements, but it cannot be di-

vided into moral, civil and ceremonial

sections. There is a very important

distinction between elements and

sections. There are scores of precepts

that are as moral as any that are found

in the Decalogue in sections that are

clearly and historically been known as

ceremonial sections. As an illustration,

Exodus 22:21-22 says, You shall

not wrong a stranger or oppress him

for you were strangers in the land of

Egypt, you shall not afict any widow

or orphan. Whats ceremonial about

that? In Exodus 23:2, You shall not

follow a multitude in doing evil. is

not ceremonial, but moral. In Leviti-

cus 19:2: You shall be holy, is right

in the middle of a ceremonial section,

but that phrase is not ceremonial.

Leviticus 19:16 says, You shall notgo about as a slanderer among your

peoplewhich represents a moral

law. Leviticus 19:18 says, You shall

not take vengeance nor bear any

grudge against the sons of your people

but you shall love your neighbor

as yourself. That section is de-

nitely moral. The point is that we can

observe moral law intertwined with

ceremony.

All of these precepts and many like

them to be considered, are they to be

considered ceremonial simply because

they do not appear in the Ten Com-

mandments? One of the best lines of

reasoning in this whole matter of the

nature of the Decalogue, and particu-

larly as it relates to the rest of the law

, is to observe that the two command-

ments that Jesus said are the ones on

which all the law of the prophets hang

do not appear in the Decalogue. Jesus

said we are to love God with all our

heart, mind, soul and strength and

thats right in the middle of ceremony

in Deuteronomy 6. Jesus says youre

to love your neighbor as yourself and

thats right in the middle of ceremony

in Leviticus 19. Neither is found in the

Decalogue. Jesus said This is that on

which all of the law and the proph-

ets hangs. Neither was engraved instone, neither was put into the ark, yet

these are the two precepts that Jesus

said are the greatest of all. Concluding

the study of the Old Testament we are

lead to this conclusion. A command-

ment positioned in the Decalogue does

not necessarily mean it is moral any

more than a commandment outside

of the Decalogue necessarily makes it

ceremonial.


12/20

Page 12 March 2013 Issue 195ReisingerContinued from page 10

the cloud that assured him of Gods

presence in the camp. All of that is

gone with the coming of the Messiah.

The true High Priest has ascended into

heaven, and we no longer see him vis-

ibly. We have his promise that he will

return and take us to heaven, but inthe mean time we face difcult times.

It is only as we believe Gods promise

that we can have hope in this present

evil age. The book of Hebrews as-

sures the Jewish Christian that he has

gained more than he has lost in losing

everything in the Old Covenant; he

has gained in Christ more than we

lost in Adam. He had to give up his

special covenant, his priest, the whole

sacricial system, his special national

privileges and many other things, butin every instance he received some-

thing better. He lost Aaron and gained

Christ. He lost an altar and a sacri-

cial lamb and gained the cross and the

true Lamb of God. John MacArthur

has stated this clearly.

The epistle to the Hebrews is a

study in contrast, between the imper-

fect and incomplete provisions of the

Old Covenant, given under Moses,

and the innitely better provisions of

the New Covenant offered by the per-

fect High Priest, Gods only Son, and

the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Included

in the better provisions are: a better

hope, testament, promise, sacrice,

substance, country and resurrection.

Those who belong to the New Cov-

enant dwell in a completely new andheavenly atmosphere, they worship

a heavenly Savior, have a heavenly

calling, receive a heavenly gift, are

citizens of a heavenly country, look

forward to a heavenly Jerusalem, and

have their names written in heaven.5

We will, like an Israelite, only

grasp the wonder and glory of the

New Covenant as we see how that

New Covenant surpasses the glory

of the Old Covenant. The Jew could

not move into the New Covenant

until he left the Old Covenant and all

it brought into being. We must not

try to Judaize Christianity by put-

ting the Christians conscience under

the law, and, likewise, we must not

try to Christianize the Old Covenant

by reading distinctly New Covenant

blessings like the free access into

Gods presence back to the Old Cov-

5 MacArthur, Study Bible, 1895.

enant experience. The rending of the

veil was essential before there was

access into Gods presence.

A Christian lawyer was witnessing

to a young student. The boy said, I

could never become a Christian be-

cause you have to give up so much.

The lawyer asked the boy if he hadany nickels, and the boy asked the

lawyer why he wanted nickels. The

lawyer said, I will give you a half a

dollar for each nickel you have. He

boy went through his pockets care-

fully. After looking in vain for a nickel

he said, I have two dimes and a

quarter. The lawyer said, Would you

give me a nickel for this half a dollar

if you had a nickel? The boy said, I

would be a fool not to trade a nickelfor a half dollar. The lawyer said,

But you would have to give up your

nickel. The boy said, But look what

I would be getting in its place. Many

Jews, and some theologians, want to

hold on to the nickels of the Old Cov-

enant and miss the half dollars of New

Covenant.

PridePride is the worst viper in the heart. It is the rst sin that ever entered into the universe. It lies lowest of all in the

foundation of the whole building of sin. Of all lusts, it is the most secret, deceitful, and unsearchable in its ways ofworking. It is ready to mix with everything. Nothing is so hateful to God, contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, or of sodangerous consequence. There is no one sin that does so much to let the devil into the hearts of the saints and exposethem to his delusions.

Jonathan Edwards

The Truck CollisionDriving along a highway, you are stopped by an accident. A truck driver lies in the wreckage. Half a dozen men

from passing cars place themselves shoulder to shoulder to try to lift the bumper. They tug and they pull until you seethe veins standing out in their necks, but they cannot free the man. Still they keep straining at the impossible task.Finally, a wrecker drives up and is placed in position to hoist the weight of the disabled truck. But the only availablespot for the wrecker to attach its hoist is that bumper at which the men are tugging. If the wrecker is to do its work, themen must get out of the way. If they persist in monopolizing that place, the wreckercannotget in to do its work. Thereis no moral charge against these men; their strength is simply insufcient for the task.

The law must be abolished in order to let grace do the job the law cannot do.

Donald Grey Barnhouse


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WhiteContinued on page 18

WhiteCont inued from page 1

you could redeem us with a small

alms and yet you do not want to do

so or as soon as the coin in the

moneybox rings, the soul direct from

purgatory springs.1 Luther saw poor

people giving away all they had and

immoral people using the indulgencesas a license to sin. Surely these

practices did not reect the gospel of

Christ.

Luther had previously invited

others to debate, but it was his

Ninety-ve Theses that truly ignited

the people. At age 33, he nailed

his statements to the door of the

Wittenberg Church. At this point,

he had no intention of splitting from

the Roman Catholic Church. In theprovidence of God, the printing press

was readily available to disseminate

Luthers writings. A papal bull was

sent to Luther, but rather than heeding

it, he burned it. He was eventually

summoned to and questioned at

the Diet of Worms before Emperor

Charles V. When asked if he would

recant of his writings, he said the

following:

Unless I am convinced by thetestimony of the Scriptures or by clear

reason (for I do not trust either the

pope or in councils alone, since it is

well known that they have often erred

and contradicted themselves), I am

bound by the Scriptures I have quoted

and my conscience is captive to the

Word of God. I cannot and I will not

retract anything, since it is neither safe

nor right to go against conscience.2

Tradition says that he concluded

with Here I stand. I can do no other.God help me! Amen.3

So what can we glean from

1 Quoted in Graham Tomlin,Luther and

His World(Downers Grove, IL: IVP,

2002), 70, 73.

2 Graham Tomlin,Luther and His World

(Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002), 109.

3 See http://www.chriscastaldo.

com/2010/10/25/luthers-stand/#_

ftn8_1703. Accessed 5/10/11.

Luthers spirituality for our own lives?

The rst and most important thing

we can learn from Martin Luther is

the centrality of the gospel.4 Luther

writes, The cross of Christ is the only

instruction in the Word of God there

is, the purest theology. Luther is a

one issue theologian. It is temptingto nd a hobby horse. It is easy to get

distracted by other seemingly more

relevant issues. We can learn from

Luther that the gospel must always

be at the center of all we do and think

about as Christians. He writes, The

Gospel cannot be preached and heard

enough, for it cannot be grasped well

enough. We preach nothing new;

but we are forever and incessantly

preaching about the man called JesusChrist, true God and man, who died

for our sins and was raised from

the dead for our justication. But

although we are forever preaching and

repeating this message, we shall never

be able to grasp it sufciently. In this

respect we always remain babes and

little children who are just learning to

read and are hardly able to form half

of a word, nay, scarcely a quarter of a

word.5 Luther centered on the gospel

in part because he knew his sin sowell. If we are honest, most days we

think we are good. We dont feel the

sense of desperation we should before

our holy and awesome God. We think,

Of course God loves and forgives

me. Isnt that what he does? Luther

knew better. He knew better because

he knew the human heart better and

because he knew the Scriptures better.

He had a keen self-awareness. He

knew he was a sinner. He knew God

was holy. Hence, he knew the value of

the gospel.

Of course it was not always this

way for him. Lets hear it from his

pen:

4 I assume, along with historic evangeli-

calism, that justication by faith is at

the heart of the gospel.

5 Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says

(Saint Louis: Concordia, 1959), 564.

Meanwhile, I had already during

that year returned to interpret the

Psalter anew. I had condence in the

fact that I was more skillful, after I

had lectured in the university on St.

Pauls epistles to the Romans, to the

Galatians, and the one to the Hebrews.

I had indeed been captivated with an

extraordinary ardor for understandingPaul in the Epistle to the Romans.

But up till then it was not the cold

blood about the heart, but a single

word in Chapter 1 [:17], In it the

righteousness of God is revealed, that

had stood in my way. For I hated that

word righteousness of God, which,

according to the use and custom of

all the teachers, I had been taught to

understand philosophically regarding

the formal or active righteousness,

as they called it, with which God

is righteous and punishes the

unrighteous sinner. Thought I lived

as a monk without reproach, I felt

that I was a sinner before God with

an extremely disturbed conscience. I

could not believe that he was placated

by my satisfaction. I did not love,

yes, I hated the righteous God who

punishes sinners and secretly, if not

blasphemously, certainly murmuring

greatly, I was angry with God, and

said, As if, indeed, it is not enough,

that miserable sinners, eternally lostthrough original sin, are crushed by

every kind of calamity by the law of

the Decalogue, without having God

add pain to pain by the gospel and

also by the gospel threatening us with

his righteousness and wrath! Thus

I raged with a erce and troubled

conscience. Nevertheless, I beat

importunately upon Paul at that place,

most ardently desiring to know what

St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy

of God, meditating day and night, I

gave heed to the context of the words,namely In it the righteousness of

God is revealed, as it is written, He

who through faith is righteous shall

live. There I began to understand

that the righteousness of God is that

by which the righteous lives by a gift

of God, namely by faith. And this

is the meaning: the righteousness of

God is revealed by the gospel, namely

the passive righteousness with which


14/20


The 2013 John Bunyan Conference is scheduled for April 22-24

at Reformed Baptist Church, 830 Buffalo Road, Lewisburg, PA 17837

Speakers and Topics:

Gary George New Covenant Theology and Pastoral Ministry - 2 Messages

James M. Hamilton, Jr. Biblical Theology - 3 Messages

David Robinson Preaching Sovereignty in the Old Testament - 2 Messages

Kirk WellumJesus Christ: the Architect and Apex of the ChurchThe Wisdom of God

A. Blake WhiteTowards a Missional Ecclesiology - 2 MessagesThe Abrahamic Covenant in Galatians

Lodging for the conference is available at a reduced rate at the Country Inn and Suites by Carlson in Lewisburg, PA.Just mention that you would like accommodations for the John Bunyan Conference to receive a double occupancy

room for only $90.00 per night which includes a nice continental breakfast.

Reservations must be made by no later than April 6, 2013 to receive this reduced rate.

Reservations at the Country Inn and Suites may be made by calling 800-456-4000 or 570-524-6600. Their website is

www.countryinns.com/lewisburgpa and the address is 134 Walter Drive, Route 15, PO Box 46, Lewisburg, PA 17837.

Meals for lunch and dinner will be available at the church.

The registration is $75.00 per individual and includes ve meals.

Space for meals is limited and registration will be restricted to the rst 80 individuals who register. Please register by

no later than April 6, 2013. Sign-in for the conference will be from 9:30 to 10:45 am Monday, April 22, 2013

at Reformed Baptist Church.

Please call 301-473-8781 or [email protected] register; Discover, Visa or MasterCard accepted.Please register by no later than April 6, 2013.

REGISTRATION FOR THE 2013 JOHN BUNYAN CONFERENCE, LEWISBURG, PA

APRIL 22-24, 2013

Register me for the 2013 John Bunyan Conference. Enclosed is a check for $75.00.

Register me for the 2013 John Bunyan Conference. Enclosed is a check for $30.00; I will pay the remaining $45.00

upon sign-in.

Make the check payable to Sovereign Grace New Covenant Ministries with a note For 2013 John Bunyan

Conference and mail to 5317 Wye Creek Dr, Frederick, MD 21703-6938.

Name: _________________________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________________City: ___________________________________________________________________

State/Province Zip/Postal Code: ________________________________________________

VISA MasterCard Discover ______ ______ ______ ______ Exp Date ____/____ CCV No. _____

Phone: _______________________ Email: ____________________________________

If you would like to make arrangements with another individual to share a room and its costs, please so indicate and

we will maintain a list of any who may be interested in such an arrangement.

Name: _____________________________________ Gender: __________________________

Phone: __________________________________ Email: ___________________________

The John Bunyan Conference


15/20


Speakers2013 John Bunyan Conference

Gary George is a life-long resident of Worcester County, Massachusetts in the heart of New England. He has been

the pastor of Sovereign Grace Chapel in Southbridge, MA since 1992. Gary and his wife Michelle have ve grown

children.

Jim Hamilton is Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at Southern Seminary and Preaching Pastor at Kenwood

Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. He previously taught at the Houston Campus of Southwestern Seminary and is the

author ofGods Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments (B&H 2006), Gods Glory in

Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology (Crossway 2010), andRevelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches

(Crossway 2012).

David Robinson is pastor of Grace Bible Church in Cambridge Ontario. He has been pastor for the last eighteen

years and recently planted a church (Redeemer Bible Church) in nearby Kitchener. David is married to Eva and they

have three children.

Kirk Wellum is the Principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College where he also teaches Systematic and

Pastoral Theology. Before coming to TBS Kirk served as a pastor for a total of 24 years in three churches in SouthernOntario. He has written numerous articles for a variety of Christian magazines and has spoken at conferences in Canada,

the United States, the UK, and Africa. Kirk is married and has four children.

A. Blake White is currently working on a PhD in Systematic and Biblical Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theo-

logical Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has authored seven books and is married to Alicia. They have two boys,

Josiah and Asher.

Kirk Wellum will present two pre-conference messages Sunday, April 21 at 9:30 and 10:45 am atReformed Baptist Church.

For further information, please contact the church directly:Reformed Baptist Church, 830 Buffalo Road, Lewisburg, PA 17837.

Phone (570) 524-7488; Website: www.rbclewisburg.org; Email: [email protected]

John Newton's Tombstone

In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John Newton, the author of "Amazing Grace" heard someone recite this verse,"By the grace of GodI am what I am." 1 Corinthians 15:10. He remained silent a short time, and then said:

I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and decient.

I am not what I might be, considering my privileges and opportunities.

I am not what I wish to be. God, who knows my heartknows I wish to be like Him.

I am not what I hope to be. Before long, I will drop this clay tabernacle, to be like Him and see Him as He is!

Yet, I am not what I once wasa child of sin, and slave of the devil!Though not all thesenot what I ought to be, not what I might be, not what I wish or hope to be, and not what I once wasI think

I can truly say with the apostle, "By the grace of GodI am what I am!"

At the age of 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinnerand that Christ isa great Savior!"

John Newton's tombstone reads: "John Newton, once an indel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercyof our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored todestroy!"

"By the grace of God I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10

Courtesy of Grace Gems:www.GraceGems.org


16/20


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