It’s a little rough, but here’s my attempt at an Advent poem. They say you only get better with practice, right?
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He had finally arrived! The time had come!
Gather the shepherds, their sheep; who knows where from?
They saw a baby, in swaddling clothes he was placed.
What God saw was his loving extension of grace.
Bethlehem; “The House of Bread.”
Only on Him can we be fed.
A humble King born in a trough;
It was on his beaten back that God’s wrath was wrought.
A son born; Jesus his name.
He had come to give his Father glory and fame.
His advent foretold through clear prophecy,
“Cursed are those who hang on a tree.”
His soft newborn skin with that beautiful baby glow;
A lowly stable the place where God’s mercy was shown.
Then one day with blood trickling down his side,
He took the death that should’ve been mine.
Mary caressed him while all others were asleep,
Kissing the cute wrinkles in his feet.
In those same feet a nail would be driven;
But unto us a Savior was given.
Counting others more significant, in humility he came;
A servant to all in the form of a babe.
Though in the form of God, equality would not be grasped.
Emmanuel, “God with us,” had come at last.
The angels came, in the fields they sang;
A heavenly chorus and trumpets rang.
Dying for sinners, he stood in our place.
Now we can see him with unveiled face.
This gentle baby, the wise men did admire;
Of giving praise and worship they did not tire.
But then it came when he was hoisted up for all to see;
All laughed and mocked at this Jew from Galilee.
Some thirty years he spent living with us;
A King coming off his throne to crawl in the dust.
The empathetic High Priest, with him we can relate.
Drawing near with confidence, and someday entering Heaven’s gate.
Lo and behold, there is news of great joy!
It is only found in this newborn boy.
They saw a baby, in swaddling clothes he was placed.
What God saw was his loving extension of grace.
Photo Credit: Tambako the Jaguar via Compfight cc
This post is an excerpt from a hilarious book that I love and would highly recommend, called Younger, Restlesser, Reformeder: A Good-Natured Roast. If you want an easy and fun read about the new Reformed movement, pick this up here.
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Who Gets to be Called Reformed?
Before we get to specifics, there is the not-small question of who gets to be called reformed. This is a tough one. If you don’t sprinkle babies, are you really reformed? And without the “Reformed,” you’re just the Young & Restless, which sounds exceedingly worldly. Hmmm.
John Piper and Collin Hansen are both Baptists, just saying. For what it’s worth, Zach pastors a Baptist church and Ted (the authors) goes to a Reformed church – but neither of us sprinkle babies. However, Zach is Dutch, which gives him added cache. Ted, on the other hand, is German (his ancestral name is Von Kluck, not Van Kluck or even Vander Klucksma)…aaargh! This is all so complicated. And while we’re being honest, we both still read the NIV from time to time.
An easy out is to continually make the distinction between reformed and Reformed, but do you really want to walk around, saying, “I’m lowercase-r reformed?” Neither do we (so we’ll just stick with the lowercase to keep things simple).
At the end of the day, we needed a concrete formula. We needed certainty. We’re not postmodern, after all. So just grab a pencil and paper, and work through this simple equation:
CW + Ch(Rf) + RCL + CCC + @ – 10(TV) – 20(RW) – ($TBN/10) – (xWB) – 10Em = RQ
The Equation Explained
Number of Crossway books in your collection; plus number of children; times number of children named after reformed personalities; plus number of reformed conference badges/lanyards (T4G, Desiring God, Next, Gospel Coalition); plus Number of Confessions, Catechisms, and Creeds you subscribe to; plus number of hours weekly spent on challies.com, Deyoung’s blog, or any other Gospel Coalition blog; minus 10 if you have cable; minus 20 if you un-ironically have a Rick Warren or Joel Osteen book on your shelf; minus number of dollars pledged to TBN (divided by 10); minus number of times you’ve been watchblogged; minus number of years spent in your emergent phase (times 10); equals your reformed quotient.
Ben’s Note: This is a pretty harsh standard, so if you need to curve your number, add in the beard modifier (your appreciation for beards on a scale of 1-100, divided by 2).
Go ahead and figure out your number. Remember, God is watching…alllllways watching.
Once you have your number, here are the ranges where you might fall:
<0 If you’re elect, that’s news to God
1-5 You’re reading this book to trash it in your emergent blog.
6-20 Enjoy the climbing wall and gourmet coffee bar at your megachurch. You’re fooling no one.
21-50 There’s potential here, but we suggest that you stop coaching your kids’ Little League team, stop surfing ESPN.com, and start spending all of your free time (when you’re not spending time with your Proverbs 31 wife), trolling the YRR blogosphere. We also suggest spending a little bit more of your debt-free expendable income at the Monergism bookstore. Oh, and it’s time to at the “L” to your TULIP. You know who you are.
51-100 What do you think of someone who just does the bare minimum? Seriously, what do you think? Minus ten more points if you get that reference.
100-200 You’ve probably spoken or led a breakout session at a regional reformed conference. Congratulations! Things are looking up for you. Have you considered submitting a book proposal? We know you’ve got 50,000 words stashed away somewhere that you’ve never told anyone about. Maybe you can recycle some old blog posts.
This scene gets me every single time.
My favorite movie of all-time is Forrest Gump, and it has been since high school. I have always loved the relationships in this movie and its unique take on history. I am totally that guy you don’t want to watch this movie with because I will quote every line. Growing up this film made me laugh and it made me curious about history, but one thing it never did was make me cry. I knew there were moments where I was supposed to, but it just never struck a chord with me. However, now I can’t sit through this movie without crying at least two or three times!
So what gives?
At the end of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi – while he is cold and unkempt in a Roman jail – he writes these words:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. – Philippians 4:11-13
Paul has a secret to being brought low, and he has a secret to abounding in his circumstances. That secret is Paul has Christ. In Christ our valleys and mountains need not be seen as such, but instead they are leveled out. Through the gospel we find a balance*, through the gospel we become more complete as redeemed people because we are being conformed to the image of Christ.
If you take one look at Paul’s first letter to Timothy, you can hardly back away without realizing Paul is seriously ticked off at certain people. Just look at the end of the first chapter alone and Paul is calling dudes out; he’s handing them over to Satan! Compare Paul’s tone in 1 Timothy to what he says in 2 Corinthians:
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open…In return, widen your hearts also. – 2 Corinthians 6:11, 13
This second passage almost sounds like Paul is a romance novelist! Your heart is say what!? How can this be the same guy who in his other letters is handing people over to Satan, or who urges us to contend and fight strongly against false teaching? The picture we get from Paul’s ministry is that he could convey a wide range of emotions when they were appropriate; he was leveled out and more complete as a redeemed person. The saving mercies and grace of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit were growing Paul to become more like his Savior.
The same should be true for us today. For those of us who were completely hard-hearted and unemotional prior to Christ giving us a new heart, we find that we begin to be more expressive and open to emotions. On the flip-side for those of us who were complete emotional train wrecks prior to Christ, we begin to find that we have a better control of ourselves and don’t lose ourselves in emotions as often. This is the power of the gospel at work in us, balancing and completing us.
It is for this reason Paul is able to tell the believers in Thessalonica not to grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). We have our faith and hope in Christ, and that levels us out. In Christ we are given the strength to respond to all circumstances as Christ would. It should give us strength when necessary, as well as show us when it is appropriate to be weak. We have a King whose strength was shown in weakness, and it is that duality which should come alive in us.
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*I give credit where credit is due, and I must say I owe most of this narrative to my Pauline Epistles professor Dr. Jeon. Doc, if you ever read this…thanks!
This is the conclusion in a series of three post.
Click here for the first post.
Click here for the second post.
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So Does God Really Desire for All to Be Saved?
As we have seen, it is biblically correct to say that God desires the salvation of all. It is biblical to speak of many of God’s desires, such as his desire for us to obey his commandments, cast out idols, etc. God wills and desires that I would be a faithful and loving husband, a committed disciple, and compassionate towards others. However, this is certainly not always the case.
We have also seen that there are certain things which God wills that necessarily and always come to pass.
If we bring these two concepts together, we begin to see how we can have a biblically faithful answer to the original question “Does God desire the salvation of all people?” What we begin to see is that God does, in a general sense, desire for the salvation of all people. It is good for him to do so, and it is therefore consistent with his character and goodness.
However, we also see that God in his providence, sovereignty and mercy brings about the actual salvation of specific individuals through his decretive will. God speaks life, and dead men come out of the grave (John 11:43).
It may be helpful for us to circle back to the original text of 1 Timothy Chapter 2, as well as Isaiah 45:22. Let us consider these verses:
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. – 1 Timothy 2:3-6
Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other. – Isaiah 45:22
Notice how in both of these passages there is movement from God’s desire that all be saved to the exclusiveness of his salvation. In both these passages there is an overarching inclusiveness in God’s heart for all people, but also an overwhelming sense of his exclusiveness in that there is no other apart from God. He desires all to be saved and provides a ransom for all peoples in a sense that there is no other way of salvation (Frame, Systematic Theology 352). The gospel will always be the most inclusive yet also the most exclusive message the world will ever know.
In the first post, I showed scriptural evidence for God’s desire for all people to be saved, for God’s omnipotence, and his sovereign election of sinners who will come to repentance. The most prolific and popular answer to these three facts is that God’s election depends on the foreknowledge of man’s free will. In the first post we saw how this conclusion of the facts is necessarily unbiblical and leaves us with all kinds of contradictions and problems.
In the second post, we saw how properly understanding God’s will leads us away from the previous unbiblical and contradictory answers and leads us towards a biblically sound answer that takes no liberties with the text.
Finally in this last post we conclude that God’s desired will for all people to be saved and his sovereign election of sinners based on his own choosing is in glorious harmony.
Let’s not fight about it, but see the glory of his will and worship him together!
It is necessary for us to view this intersection of God’s sovereignty and his desires as a glorification of his character and nature. All God does is for his glory and that we might share in it, and in this understanding of his desired will and sovereign will we see how God is most glorified in us. Yes he desires all to be saved because it is good for him to do so. He is all-good and worthy of praise and glory. However, it is only through his mercy and grace that some come to faith by the working of his divine and decretive will through the work of His Spirit. Rather than debating with each other why God would desire all but only save some, we should instead be praising and giving thanks to him for his mercy and grace towards sinners through Jesus.
It is my hope and prayer that this answer to the question “Does God desire all to be saved?” is biblically faithful and God-honoring. All of my claims and answers in this text were not and should not be made based on metaphysical or philosophical assumptions, but rather simply on the text of God’s Word and what they teach. As John Piper says, there is no room in the Bible for human beings to have the ultimate power of self-determination.
I also acknowledge that the information in these posts probably raises as many questions as it answers, such as “Does God will evil?” and “What does it mean to say God can do anything?” Perhaps those will be addressed in future posts.
May God be glorified and worshiped for his grace and mercy towards us!