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Breathed Out By God

The Holy Spirit works through the Word, therefore, understanding his work in the Word is the vital starting place for discussion. Since Scripture is the means of God’s revelation of his character and will, the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of Scripture is foundational to illumination and obedience.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” This is the one occurrence of theopneustos (translated “breathed out by God,” “given by inspiration of God,” or “inspired of God”) in the New Testament. Erickson defines inspiration as “that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God” (Christian Theology).

Inspiration is a supernatural influence on a few selected persons, the result being the divine product of God’s creative breath: Scripture. Grudem notes the metaphoric use of “inspiration,” since the word is referring to the writings, and prefers the rendering “God-breathed” for the authoritative Scriptures (Systematic Theology). The Holy Spirit’s influence on the authors thus makes the writings both trustworthy and authoritative since God himself is attributive authorship (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology).

Inspiration vs. Illumination

Inspiration differs from illumination in that inspiration was to a select group of divinely appointed authors whereas illumination applies to all believers (Systematic Theology Index). Both are works of the Holy Spirit, thus inspiration is foundational to illumination in that the Holy Spirit does not illumine the minds of believers apart from the Word. As Luther states, “We must…recognize the ‘God-breathed’ character of Scripture, and the ‘Spirit that makes alive.’ Only so will the Scripture be profitable.” Likewise, Calvin states, “…only when God shines in us by the light of his Spirit is there any profit from the Word” (Saved by Grace).

Since the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, the illumined understanding and empowered obedience can only come from him as well. As J.I. Packer notes, “Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament… there would be no faith and no new birth… without the Spirit there would not be a Christian in the world” (Knowing God).

The Holy Spirit’s work in Scripture is the vital starting point for his work through Scripture to the believer, what we know as “illumination.”

To be continued.

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Check out this interview with Matt Chandler from the SBC Pastor's Conference. He talks about how a pastor can refocus his church on the gospel and how cancer has affected his family.

Doctrine Book

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe is available now. Read a free chapter and find out more.

Dr. Michael Horton will be speaking at the John 10:16 Conference August 4-5 in New York.

When it comes to interpreting Christ's saving work, everything turns on our view of God's character and the seriousness of sin. God's law is not merely a reflection of his will but of his moral nature. God cannot relax his holy will or righteous demands. Death is not merely an example of his displeasure or an arbitrary punishment. Rather, it is the legal sentence for violating his covenant (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23).

Losing Substitution

Yale theologian George Lindbeck says that at least in practice, Abelard's view of salvation by following Christ's example (and the cross as the demonstration of God's love that motivates our repentance) now seems to have edged out any notion of an objective, substitutionary atonement. "The atonement is not high on the contemporary agendas of either Catholics or Protestants," Lindbeck surmises. "More specifically, the penal-substitutionary versions...that have been dominant on the popular level for hundreds of years are disappearing."

This situation is as true for evangelicals as for liberal Protestants, he observes. This is because justification through faith alone (sola fide) makes little sense in a system that makes central our subjective conversion (understood in synergistic terms as cooperation with grace), rather than the objective work of Christ. "Our increasingly feel-good therapeutic culture is antithetical to talk of the cross" and our "consumerist society" has made the doctrine a pariah....

(Click here to keep reading.)

You can download this article with footnotes as a PDF.

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Recently a firefighter in our church was told by one of his colleagues that belief in Jesus was for weak people. I found that ironic coming from a firefighter.

I have a fire hydrant in our side yard. I have never looked at the fire hydrant and felt any shame. I drive by a firehouse every day. I never think, “If this community didn’t have weak people than we would never need firehouses.” Every month when I pay my property taxes, which go towards financing fire departments, I never get angry at myself, thinking, “if I could just handle fire myself I wouldn’t have to write this check.”

Imagine a person whose house is on fire. The fire is raging out of control and the fire truck pulls up, sirens blaring. The person runs out of his house in a rage and says, “How dare you come to my house and think that I can’t handle this fire myself! Firefighters are for weak people, not for me.”

What would you think of someone like that? Insane.

We know that fire departments are for “weak” people because a power exists that we simply can’t deal with on our own: fire. Actually, we admire firefighters because they are people who have committed themselves to take on the power of fire at personal expense.

Christians are weak in the same sense that a community is “weak” for having fire departments. They are people who acknowledge that a power exists that they can’t confront and live — the holiness of God. This, however, is not cause for shame, because there was one man who dealt with that power at personal expense, on a cross. And, as every firefighter can admit, when someone is rescued from the flames, they’re not thinking about their weakness; they’re overjoyed that someone would risk it all to save them.

Gospel-Centered Discipleship

In this book, Jonathan Dodson calls us to fight the good fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. Read a free chapter and get the book here.

From the recent sermon Jesus Heals a Centurion's Servant, on Luke 7:1–10.

There are ten things we learn about Jesus from his healing of the centurion's servant in Luke 7:1–10.

1. He is a sovereign ruler

I love the fact that the centurion gets this. He says, “I understand chain of command. I rule over a hundred warriors, and you, you’re in a completely different rank.” God becomes a man. He has complete authority. He is sovereign ruler. The Bible says he is king of kings, lord of lords. For some of you, your Jesus is way too small. He’s just a helper, a counselor, a comforter, a friend. He’s not Christ. He’s not ruler, Lord, savior, God, king, and judge. This man, the centurion, the soldier, he understands who Jesus is. “I understand chain of command. You’re at the top. Creator, that’s who you are.” That’s who Jesus is.

2. He is a humble initiator

This sovereign king comes into human history as the man Jesus Christ. He goes on a tour to preach in towns. He goes to people. When requested to go to the home of the centurion, he is on his way. He’s a humble initiator. He is going out to serve. He is going out to help. He is going out to preach, teach, cast out demons, and heal. And unlike religion, where we go looking for God, Christianity is about God looking for us because we’re lost, and he’s not. Some of you don’t know it, but Jesus is looking for you. He is seeking you. He knows you. He loves you. He died for you. He’s pursuing you. He’s a humble initiator. He doesn’t owe us anything, but he pursues us in love.

3. He is a global savior

We see Jesus in this story serving Jew and Gentile, rich and poor. . . (Click here to keep reading.)

How Jesus Made Disciples

Reflections from the book of John on How Jesus Made Disciples.

Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt seem to prize the Bible more as mystery than knowable, propositional, eternal truths about God and man. If by mystery it means they are acknowledging the glory and ways of God that reigns supremely over mankind’s finitude (Isa 55:8–9; Job 42:2–6), or reacting against the downsizing of God to a mere box of propositions, then fine. But, as Kevin DeYoung’s critique of the movement asserts, if mystery is somehow linked to an “implied doctrine of God’s unknowability,” and used as a way to jettison taking responsibility for the clear truth claims of Scripture, then something has gone awry with how these preachers are interpreting, or to draw from emerging church vernacular, dancing with mystery.

Dancing with Mystery?

For example, Pagitt claims, “Mystery is not the enemy to be [conquered] nor a problem to be solved, but rather, the partner with whom we dance.” He continues, “We are called to show each other the way into mystery.” This may sound postmodern and spiritual, but does it sound biblical? The Apostle Paul, one who proclaimed the words of God (1 Cor 14:37; 1 Thess 2:13), called believers into a meaningful, joyful, hope-centered relationship with God; not by leading them into some vague spirituality or existential maze of mysticism, but rather into the revelation, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of the revealed mystery—the person and finished work of God in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:17–18; 3:1–12; Col 1:24–29).

Get Your Preaching Directives from Jesus

Paul’s teachings did not focus on humanity coming into the way of mystery; Paul’s teachings, according to David Wells, focused on humanity coming to the “knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25; cf. 3:7–8; 4:4). Where did Paul receive such an idea as objective, rational truth, having not lived in the age of enlightenment or modernity? Paul claims to have received his directives from Jesus (Gal 1:12), the full embodiment of truth, who naturally taught truth and established his followers in truth (John 17:17). Jesus himself even ties the believer’s joy to the knowledge of truth: “These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13, emphasis added).

Preach the Mystery Revealed—Jesus

McLaren and Pagitt, in contrast to Jesus, seem to relish tethering joy to mystery, not knowable truth. Doctrine, dogma, and deliberate truths are out; mystery is in. For both preachers to continue down this postmodern epistemological path, one that Wells claims cherishes a “studied uncertainty,” it might imply (or expose?) that conversing about mystery, as a biblical trait to treasure, is nothing more than an emergent cloak to cover a denial of the knowable “knowledge of truth”—at least as revealed in Scripture and understood (down through the ages) as “God’s perfect knowledge of himself and of all reality.” Mystery is a beautiful thing, but so is mystery revealed, “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

From Preaching and the Emerging Church, Chapter 9. Emerging Church Revisionists: McLaren and Pagitt (pgs. 211-214). Get it here.

Preaching & the Emerging Church

This ebook offers a thorough critique and evaluation of the preaching of four leaders of the emerging church movement. Get it here.

You can download this article, with footnotes, as a PDF here.

According to numerous studies, most Americans consider themselves “spiritual, not religious.” In other words, they dabble in whatever beliefs and practices they find intuitively valid and useful for daily living, but they resist any threat to their individual autonomy. Consumers in the spiritual marketplace they are willing to be, but not disciples of Jesus Christ. In spite of all the evangelistic efforts over the last several decades, including sprawling megachurches catering to every niche market, there has been no growth in reported conversions. In fact, church attendance is on the decline. Most Christians cannot articulate what they believe, much less why they believe it, and these tragic statistics include evangelicals as well as Unitarians.

We do not lack impassioned pleas for being more “missional.” A plethora of programs for outreach, discipleship, and spiritual disciplines are available at any Christian bookstore and on countless websites. Yet what we need most is a renewed understanding of and commitment to the Great Commission. We assume that we already know the nature of this Commission. We assume that we know its message, although the statistics do not bear that out. We assume that we already know the appropriate methods, although our feverish activism seems to lack the power of previous missionary movements.

In this brief space I want to explore some of the radical aspects of the mandate that Jesus gave to his church before he ascended to the Father.

1. The Indicative: Jesus Has All Authority

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

Every new covenant command is grounded in the gospel... (Click here to keep reading)

You can download this article, with footnotes, as a PDF here.

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Doctrine: Click | View Series

God's response to our sin was covenant—saving, glorious, loving covenant. This is because God is, by nature of being Trinitarian, covenantal. As the Father, Son, and Spirit are a covenantal community as one God, so too they are graciously covenantal with the elect, despite the fact they are sinful enemies and rebels. . . .

When the Bible speaks of God's covenant with his people, it is explaining how our relationship with God is made by his provision and exists by his terms. That God deals with his people in covenant includes all of these glorious truths. Through covenant with God we enjoy a relationship with him that is akin to marriage and includes protection from Satan our enemy, peace with God though we declared war on him through sin, material provision in this life and the life to come, and a coming perfect kingdom as our home where Jesus will forever rule over all as our gracious covenant king. . . .

In a covenant with God there is no bargaining, bartering, or contract negotiations regarding the terms of the covenant. Neither is God's covenant something we must earn by our good works. It is always a gracious provision from the loving Lord to his people. The sovereign Lord of heaven and earth dictates the terms of God's covenants. It is God's covenant in that it is conceived, devised, determined, established, confirmed, and dispensed by God himself, who often says, 'I will establish my covenant with you.' This aspect of God's covenants reveals his sovereign rule as Lord.

From Doctrine, Chapter 6. Covenant: God Pursues (pgs. 175–175). Doctrine is out now.

Doctrine Book

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Missing Any Homiletical Gears?

In my search for a used Jeep at a great price I came across just the right one—well, sort of. It had the right mileage, the right color, the right look, and the right price. Only one problem: it was missing a gear. In my research on the emerging church, I found that some pastors, similar to this Jeep, were either reluctant to engage the homiletical gear of heralding confrontationally, or they were missing it altogether.

Confrontational Preaching Can Be Offensive

For example, in an interview with Preaching, Dan Kimball asserts that a messenger of Jesus cannot just say, "We'll, you've got Jesus wrong. He ain't like Gandhi. That's offensive. He's the Son of God!" His reasoning, he argues, is this philosophy or method of confrontational preaching has the potential to "shut people out." His conclusion implies that it is unfortunate that "a lot of preaching forms have been like that."

Confrontational Preaching Can Be Effective

Ironically, Kimball's relevant counterpart (Mark Driscoll) often heralds in this exact manner—seeing it used by God to bring people into the church by the hundreds, if not thousands. Better yet, Kimball's missionary model, Jesus, likewise used direct and provoking language to expand his kingdom (John 4). His voice through Scripture continues this trend by commanding preaching that by definition will require confrontation, contending, and, yes, what Al Mohler refers to as the "cringe factor" (2 Tim 4:1–5). As D.A. Carson contends, there are multiple examples of confrontation in Scripture, "not only from the ministry of Jesus, but from the ministries of Peter, Paul, John, and others.... Think, for instance of Jude!"

In an attempt to contextualize the message to a postmodern culture, in hopes that non-Christians might come to love Jesus and like the church, Kimball's non-confrontational homiletic might just inadvertently be itching the ears of those he is trying to reach.

Confrontational Preaching Should Be Biblical and Balanced

Therefore in light of Scripture and the role of the Holy Spirit, discarding or diluting this form of preaching might actually be an offense to God instead of an offense to man. As Greg Heisler notes, "The Holy Spirit of God is confrontational, and his conviction is powerful. He will not empower nonconfrontational preaching that waters down the gospel, compromises the Word, and takes sin lightly." Heralding with compassion, love, grace, and kindness is a biblical mandate, but no dichotomy need exist between these homiletical aims and the necessity of timely confrontation and/or purposeful contention. A balance then is called for in preaching that guards against what Brian Chapell refers to as getting "stuck in one gear," or just as detrimental, refusing to engage some homiletical gears all together.

From Preaching and the Emerging Church, Chapter 10. Emerging Church Relevants: Kimball and Driscoll (pgs. 308-312). Get it here.

Preaching & the Emerging Church

This ebook offers a thorough critique and evaluation of the preaching of four leaders of the emerging church movement. Get it here.

Here is the full video of our interview with Dr. Michael Horton.

To watch or share shorter clips from the interview, use these links:

• What Is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism?
• Why You Can't "Be" the Gospel
• What We Should Learn From the Mainline Denominations
• Is the New Perspective on Paul Dangerous?
• Why Is the Resurgence of Reformed Theology Encouraging?
• Michael Horton's Advice to the Young Reformed
• What Is the Greatest Theological Challenge Facing the Next Generation of Pastors?
• Building a Kingdom vs. Receiving a Kingdom
• The Gospel-Driven Life

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