Maranatha!

Bernard says that…

• churches are “in Christ”
• people are “in Christ”
• they are “found in Christ” and ” preserved in Christ”
• they are “saved” and “sanctified in Christ”
• they are “rooted, built up,” and “made perfect in Christ”
• their ways are “ways that be in Christ;” their conversation is “a good conversation” in Christ
• their faith, hope, love, joy–their whole life is “in Christ”
• they think, they speak, they walk “in Christ”
• they labor and suffer “in Christ“
• they sorrow and rejoice “in Christ“
• they conquer and triumph “in the Lord”
• they receive each other and love each other “in the Lord”
• the fundamental relations, the primary duties of life, have been drawn within the same circle:
  • “The man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord.”
  • wives submit themselves to their husbands “in the Lord”
  • children obey their parents “in the Lord”
  • the broadest distinctions vanish in the common bond of this all-embracing relation:
    • “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ; there is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; they are all one in Christ Jesus.”
• the influence of it extends over all of our activities:
  • men “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”
  • the truth which they hold is “the truth as it is in Jesus”
  • the will by which they guide themselves is “the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them”
• this character of existence is not changed by that which changes everything else (death):
  • those who have entered on it depart, but they “die in the Lord”
  • they “sleep in Jesus”
  • they are “the dead in Christ”
• “when he shall appear,” they will appear; and when he comes, “God shall bring them with him,” and they shall “reign in life by one — Jesus Christ.”

With good reason Bernard tries to press upon us the staggering significance of the truth of our position in Christ:

“[Believers] are not merely professors of his name, learners of his doctrine, followers of his example, sharers in his gifts…. They are not merely men ransomed by his death, or destined for his glory.  These are all external kinds of connection[s]…. But it is assumed in the Epistles, that believers in Jesus are no longer living a life that is only external, and, as it were, parallel to his life. They are in Christ Jesus, and he also is in them…. Believers are in Christ, so as to be partakers in all that he does, and has, and is. They died with him, and rose with him, and live with him, and in him are seated in heavenly places.”

Why does this matter for me? Because…

“When the eye of God looks on them they are found in Christ, and there is no condemnation to those that are in him, and they are righteous in his righteousness, and loved with the love which rests on him, and are sons of God in his sonship, and heirs with him of his inheritance, and are soon to be glorified with him in his glory. And this standing which they have in Christ, and the present and future portion which it secures, are contemplated in eternal counsels, and predestined before the foundation of the world.”

Great material for meditation!  I think I’ll copy the bullet list above into my journal for continued, repeated reflection.

Let Go and Let God? is now available for the pre-publication price of $17.95 through Logos [purchase here].

Here are some related links:

• You can read the 21 endorsements for the book here.
• To read Kevin DeYoung’s interview with Naselli about the book, visit Kevin’s blog at the Gospel Coalition.
• You can read Thomas Schreiner’s forward to the book here.
• You can download  the book’s front matter in this 31-page PDF, which includes the endorsements, the table of contents, Schreiner’s foreword, and Naselli’s preface.

Union with Christ is often expressed by Paul with the words “in Christ” (or some variation thereof like “in him’ or “with him”).  It would be hard to overestimate the significance of the doctrine of union with Christ, but it’s equally difficult to adequately summarize the all-encompassing importance of the doctrine. Last week, however, I came across a chapter that I think does as good of job of summarizing the doctrine’s significance as I’ve ever read.   It comes from T.D. Bernard’s excellent nineteenth century classic, The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. In Bernard’s chapter on the epistles, he expounds the significance of Paul’s words in 1 Cor 1:30: “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.”  I encourage you to thoughtfully read the following excerpt from Bernard’s exposition.

Bernard begins by stating that the epistles are dedicated to teaching and explaining the significance of the believer’s and the believing community’s life in Christ.  “The Epistles,” he says, “presuppose the existence of this life, both in the community and in the individual, and their doctrine is directed to educate and develop it. The fundamental thought in every page is that expressed in my text, ‘Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.’”

“In Christ Jesus”…. They are little words, but they make an announcement of vast significance and boundless consequences…. It is no symbolical form of speech, but the statement of a fact, as real in regard to the spirit as the fact of our being in the world is real in regard to the body…. Christ has been manifested, preached, received; and what is the state which has ensued, as exhibited in the consciousness of those who have received them?  They are not merely professors of his name, learners of his doctrine, followers of his example, sharers in his gifts. I may go further. They are not merely men ransomed by his death, or destined for his glory. These are all external kinds of connection, in which our separate life is related to his life only as one man’s life may be related to another’s by the effect of what he teaches, of what he gives, and of what he does. But it is assumed in the Epistles, that believers in Jesus are no longer living a life that is only external, and, as it were, parallel to his life. They are in Christ Jesus, and he also is in them…. [The] writers know that believers are in Christ and Christ in them, and show that knowledge, not only by frequent assertions and a universal supposition of a close and vital union between the members and the head, but by a full development of both the aspects of this union, which the words of the Lord present.

Believers are in Christ, so as to be partakers in all that he does, and has, and is. They died with him, and rose with him, and live with him, and in him are seated in heavenly places. When the eye of God looks on them they are found in Christ, and there is no condemnation to those that are in him, and they are righteous in his righteousness, and loved with the love which rests on him, and are sons of God in his sonship, and heirs with him of his inheritance, and are soon to be glorified with him in his glory. And this standing which they have in Christ, and the present and future portion which it secures, are contemplated in eternal counsels, and predestined before the foundation of the world.

As the sense of this fact breathes in every page, so also does the sense of the correlative fact, that Christ is in those who believe; associating his own presence with their whole inward and outward life. They know that Jesus Christ is in them, except they be reprobatesl (rejected ones). They live, yet not they, but Christ liveth in them, and he is their strength and their song.  This indwelling of Christ is by the Holy Ghost, so that the same passages speak interchangeably of the Spirit being in us, and of Christ being in us; or of the Holy Ghost being in us, and our members being the members of Christ: and so this word, “in you” includes the whole life of the Spirit in man, with all its discoveries, impulses, and achievements, its victory over the world, its conversation in heaven, and earnest of the final inheritance.

Thus, through the different but correlative relations represented by the words, “Ye in me, and I in you,” human life is constituted a life in Christ; and, through the still higher mystery of the union of the Father and the Son, is thereby revealed as a life in God. ” At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” Yes! as we pass through the Epistles, we see that that day is come, and that the consciousness thus predicted has been attained. It is no flight of mysterious rhetoric, but the brief expression of the settled, habitual, fundamental view of the state of those who are here addressed, “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.”

This idea underlies all that is said, gives the point of view from which every subject is regarded, and supplies the standard of character and the rules of conduct…. The Churches are “in Christ;” the persons are “in Christ.” They are “found in Christ” and ” preserved in Christ.”  They are “saved” and “sanctified in Christ;” are “rooted, built up,” and “made perfect in Christ.”  Their ways are “ways that be in Christ;” their conversation is “a good conversation” in Christ; their faith, hope, love, joy, their whole life is “in Christ.”  They think, they speak, they walk “in Christ.”  They labor and suffer, they sorrow and rejoice, they conquer and triumph “in the Lord.”  They receive each other and love each other “in the Lord.”  The fundamental relations, the primal duties of life, have been drawn within the same circle. “The man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord.”  Wives submit themselves to their husbands “in the Lord;” children obey their parents “in the Lord.”  The broadest distinctions vanish in the common bond of this all-embracing relation. “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ; there is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; they are all one in Christ Jesus.”  The influence of it extends over the whole field of action, and men “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”  The truth which they hold is “the truth as it is in Jesus;”  the will by which they guide themselves is “the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them.” Finally, this character of existence is not changed by that which changes all besides.  Those who have entered on it depart, but they “die in the Lord,” they “sleep in Jesus,” they are “the dead in Christ;” and “when he shall appear,” they will appear; and when he comes, “God shall bring them with him,” and they shall “reign in life by one — Jesus Christ.”

Simply magnificent.  “Hallelujah, all I have is Christ!  Hallelujah, Jesus is my life!”

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (2 Pet 2:1)

The argument goes like this: Peter here teaches that false teachers in the early church who face a “swift destruction” are clearly said to have been “bought” by Jesus Christ.  So clearly, even unbelieving false teachers were beneficiaries of the atonement, and therefore it wasn’t “limited.”

I’ve heard a number of responses to this argument, most of which are inadequate.  I even heard a nationally respected reformed pastor-theologian state that the word translated “bought” (agorazo) does not refer to the atonement because it’s never used elsewhere in Scripture to refer to Christ’s redemptive work.  While it’s true that agorazo is not a usual word used in the NT to describe what takes place in redemption, his claim was patently untrue (cf. 1 Cor 6:20, 7:23).

I think the answer is much simpler than that.  It’s clear that Peter is speaking of unconverted false teachers.  Notice some of his descriptions of them:

• They face a “swift destruction” (v. 1)
• The are “under punishment until the day of judgment” (v. 9)
• They were “born to be caught and destroyed” (v. 12)
• The are “accursed children” (v. 14)
• “For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved” (v. 17)

So clearly, Peter is speaking about unconverted false teachers who will spend eternity in hell.  And I think it’s equally clear that Peter is using real redemption language in verse 1 to describe these same false teachers.  But that’s not all there is to it.  Interestingly, Peter does something similar at the end of the chapter when he describes them:

“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” (2 Pet 2:20-21)

So not only does Peter use real redemption language in verse 1 to describe the false teachers, he also uses real salvation language in verses 20-21 to describe them.  My point is that 2 Peter 2 presents not just a difficulty for the doctrine of limited atonement, but also for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints (a.k.a., eternal security).  If you want to argue from verse 1 that these false teachers had been truly purchased by Christ’s blood, thereby disproving particular redemption, then you must also concede that verses 20-21 teach that these false teachers at one time had experienced genuine salvation and had subsequently “lost” it.

So we have two options.

1. Concede with our Arminian brothers that salvation was accomplished by Jesus Christ but ultimately hinges upon the will of the individual (thereby denying all 5 points of the Doctrines of Grace), or
2. Presuppose that Peter is not speaking here of the true, actual conversion of the false teachers, but of a false, apparent salvation that is ultimately demonstrated to be counterfeit (by their departure from sound doctrine).

Of course, I prefer the second option.  As in other NT passages (eg., Hebrews 6:4ff), Peter is dealing here with people who confess to be followers of Jesus Christ and who even at one time gave evidence of having known Jesus as Lord (v. 19), having been bought by him (v. 1), having known the way of righteousness (v. 20), and of having escaped the defilements of the world (v. 19), but who have since departed from the truth and who, therefore, demonstrate that they never were truly followers of Christ to begin with.  Their redemption by the “master who bought them” was apparent, not real, just like their salvation and righteousness were apparent, not real.

Jesus’ atonement for individual sinners cannot be separated from their salvation.  The atonement provides, secures and ensures the final salvation of its beneficiaries.

And as is usually the case with arguments against particular redemption, the one from 2 Peter 2, when followed to its logical conclusion, goes further than my 4-point-Calvinist friends are willing to go.

HT: Justin Taylor

The similarities are striking and bear important implications for the question of the timing of the rapture.  Several observations here:

1. It seems clear that in 1 Thessalonians 4-5 Paul is deliberately drawing from Christ’s teaching on the second coming.*  Both the details concerning the coming itself along with the statements about imminence and the importance of readiness align very closely.
2. Everyone agrees that the coming of Christ in Matthew 24:30-31 describes the second coming (as opposed to a pre-tribulation coming for the Church).  This is clear because:
   • The event is said in v. 29 to take place “after the tribulation of those days.”
   • It follows cataclysmic and cosmic disturbances (v. 29)
   • It will be visible to all the tribes of the earth (v. 30).
3. So if Paul in 1 Thess 4-5 is deliberately following the flow of events in Jesus’ sermon (as the table above indicates that he is), then it seems clear that Paul understands that the coming of Christ described in 1 Thess 4:15-17 (the “rapture”) is the same event as the one that Jesus describes in Matthew 24:29-31 (the Second Coming).
4. That the church is not gathered to Jesus until the second coming is consistent with a couple of other details in these passages.
   • The Second Coming of Christ in glory following the tribulation in Matthew 24:29-31 is explicitly said by Jesus to be accompanied by a gathering of the saints (v. 31).  Paul agrees in 1 Thess 4:17.
   • The Second Coming of Christ in glory following the tribulation in Matthew 24:29-31 is explicitly said by Jesus to be something that will take people by surprise.  It will come as a thief upon those who are not prepared (v. 43; cf. vv. 36-50).  Again, Paul agrees in 1 Thess 5:2-3.

So I conclude that the flow of Paul’s exposition in 1 Thess 4-5, when compared to Jesus’ eschatological discourse in Matthew 24, makes a strong case for the post-trib rapture.  To read a rapture into Matthew 24 separate from the coming of Jesus in glory in vv. 29-31 is to violate the clear and plain meaning of the text.  And to argue that the rapture of God’s people in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 is anything other than the Second Coming of Jesus in glory is to ignore the implication of the clear parallels between 1 Thess 4-5 and Matthew 24.

*NOTE: Since 1 Thess was probably written before Matthew, I’m assuming that Paul had access to a pre-Matthean oral or written form of Christ’s teaching in the Olivet Discourse.