Loveland Protestant Reformed Church

709 East 57th Street; Loveland, CO 80538

Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)

Vol. 6, No. 1 Pastor: Rev. Garry Eriks Phone: (970) 667-9481

Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org

Content:
The Church Militant
  An Intercessory Prayer for the Elect (1)
  Was Jesus Tempted?

The Church Militant

Then there are the elect who have fought the good fight, finished their course, and gone to glory. They are the "church triumphant" (II Tim. 4:7, 8, Rev. 6:10). Last, there are those who belong to the church by election, but who are yet to be born and brought to repentance and faith. We call them the "church latent" (hidden - II Pet. 3:9).

The church on earth is rightly called the church militant - fighting. She is described in Scripture as a mighty army (Song 6:4, 10, Rev. 1911-16). Her calling is warfare (II Cor. 10:3-4, I Tim. 1:18, II Tim. 2:4), her members are to put on the armor of God (Eph. 6:10-18), Christ is the captain of her salvation (Heb. 2:10, Rev. 19:11-16).

Militant means, however, she is not just ready to fight. She is always engaged in warfare. That is her whole calling and her whole life (II Tim. 2:4). And, as Scripture suggests, the battle is not over until we leave this life and go to be with Christ in glory (II Tim. 4:7-8). She is not the church military, but the church militant.

Nor is her warfare merely defensive. The church and her members are called to take the battle into the territory and camp of the enemy - to take the offensive. Surely this is what the Word means in II Corinthians 10:4-5: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, . . . and bringing into captivity every thought. . . ."

As II Corinthians 10:4-5 also suggests, that battle is spiritual. The enemies (Eph. 6:12), the weapons (Eph. 6:13-17), the warfare itself are all spiritual. This does not, however, make the struggle any less real or difficult.

The enemies are Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh - sin and temptation in all their guises and wherever they are found, even in ourselves. The weapons are not the weapons of this world. That battle cannot be fought with political, social, economic or military might. It is fought by faith and the Word of God (Eph. 6:13-17, I Jn. 5:4).

Revelation describes the course of that warfare throughout the NT. Chapters 1-11 describe that warfare as we experience and are part of it. Chapters 12-22 describe the spiritual background to that battle, the great warfare between Christ and Satan.

It is a battle for the minds and souls of men - a battle against false ideas and heresies, as well as against wickedness and temptation (II Cor. 10:4-5, Jas. 4:7). It is a battle against everything unfriendly to God and to the knowledge of God!

In that battle, however, we do not fight for the victory. We fight in it as those who already have it through the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us! (Rom. 8:37). But we must fight. We are not here to enjoy ourselves but to be soldiers (II Tim. 2:3-4).

Are you fighting or playing? Rev. R. Hanko

An Intercessory Prayer for the Elect (1)

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Lk. 23:34

The reader of our Newsletter who sent in a question concerning this text, phrased the matter this way: "This verse seems to have two problems associated with it: (1) It seems as if Christ is asking his Father to forgive all who hear him, indiscriminately. Does this mean therefore that Christ wants all who hear, indiscriminately, to be saved? Do we preach the gospel in this manner? (2) Christ seems to be suggesting that the people do not know what they are doing, and so therefore are not responsible for their actions. Is this really so?"

These are good questions which deal with important truths, not the least of which is the nature of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross.

We must, first of all, picture the scene. Christ and the two malefactors had been led away to Calvary, and the soldiers in charge of the execution were nailing the three to their respective crosses prior to setting the crosses up in holes dug to support them. When the nailing was completed and the holes were dug, then the crosses were raised and dropped into the holes, and earth packed around their bases to hold them erect.

This was a time when criminals about to be crucified would pour out all their hatred and venom with fierce words of cursing and blasphemy, against their executioners and against society in general. At that moment (and it may very well have been at the moment the nails were being driven through His hands and feet as the cross lay on the ground with its bottom end near the hole that had been dug) Jesus, instead of joining the criminals in their shouts and cursings, prayed: "Father forgive them; for they know not what they do." What a contrast! What a surprising word from the suffering Savior!

It was the first of seven crosswords. And, as is the case with all the crosswords, this one too tells us something about the nature of the work Christ was doing when He died on the cross.

The first question of the reader really is a question concerning the ones for whom Christ is praying: "It seems as if Christ is asking the Father to forgive all who hear him, indiscriminately. . . ." And the reader suggests that this could possibly be deduced as proof that Christ wants all men to be saved. And, as a further conclusion, the reader suggests that it is possible that Christ's intention or desire to save all men be proclaimed in the gospel.

And that is, of course, the basic idea in what has become known as the well-meant gospel offer. The reasoning as such is sound. If Christ is praying for all men without distinction then all the rest surely follows. And so the question is: For whom is Christ praying? Is He indeed praying for all who heard Him at this moment when He uttered the prayer? and does this prayer have significance for all men?

Before we answer that question, however, it is well that we ask a prior question. That prior question is: For what does Christ pray? Perhaps if we understand for what Christ is praying, we can understand for whom Christ is praying.

Or, to put the question a bit differently: Is Christ really praying here for the forgiveness of sins? If He is, that makes a difference. If Christ prays for the forgiveness of sins and Christ is praying for all men, then Christ is also praying that His Father forgive the sins of all men.

But that leads to great difficulties. If Christ asks His Father to forgive the sins of all men, then, quite obviously, this is one prayer of Christ which God is not pleased to hear. God refuses to grant Christ His request! That would be a most dreadful thought!

There are plenty who hold to the position that Christ is praying for all men. In fact, I would venture to say that this is probably the interpretation adopted by most commentators. But those who claim that Christ prays for all men recognize the terrible problem that is involved in this interpretation. And so they proceed to adopt another interpretation of Christ's prayer. That interpretation is that Christ is here only praying for a postponement of judgment.

The wicked have committed a terrible crime in nailing to the cross the eternal Son of God. If these wicked would receive their just due, heaven would open and God's fury would pour out upon them. But that would also be the end of them, and of the nation of Israel, whose sin it primarily is that Christ was crucified. And so Christ asks God for a postponement of judgment so that God will restrain His anger for a bit.

Such an interpretation is also adopted by those who hold to the fact that Christ beseeches His Father for a postponement of judgment in order that these very wicked, who deserve to be stricken from the earth, may receive a second change to believe in Christ. Now they crucify Him; but perhaps, if given another chance, they may still believe in Him. Prof. Herman Hanko

Was Jesus Tempted?

Our question for this issue concerns the temptations of Jesus. A reader asks: "Jesus, we accept, was born to be like us - except that he was without sin. But in Hebrews we read that he was tempted in all ways like us. If he was without sin, he couldn't really be tempted, surely? And if not tempted, how can he be an example to us?"

The difficulty here is obvious and the attempts to answer it have been varied. One explanation (Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah) is that Jesus was able to sin as far as His human nature was concerned, but that His divine person kept the human nature from sin - "a peccable (able to sin) nature but an impeccable person."

This, we believe, is really a denial of the unity of Christ's two natures in one Person and of Christ's sinlessness. If He was One "who knew no sin" (I Cor. 5:21), how dare we even suggest that Jesus was in any sense of the word able to sin?

Yet the Bible insists not only that He was tempted (Matt. 4:1-11, Lk. 4:1-13), but that He was tempted "at all points like as we are" (Heb. 4:15). Scripture emphasizes the reality of those temptations in other ways as well. When they were over, Jesus required the ministry of angels (Matt. 4:11), something that was necessary only again after His agony in Gethsemanae, just before He was crucified.

Also, Scripture deliberately uses the same word in reference to Jesus' temptations and ours (I Cor. 10:13, James 1:2, etc.). We must believe, therefore, in the reality of Christ's temptations.

Our difficulty in understanding, it seems, lies partly in the fact that we are sinners and cannot conceive of temptation without at least the possibility of sin. For us temptation is the struggle against our own sinful inclinations, and we can hardly imagine it otherwise.

But take away that possibility of sin, as with Christ, and there may yet be a severe spiritual struggle. Remember that Jesus' temptations were aimed at turning Him aside from doing His Father's will in dying for the sins of His people. Is it not possible, then, that without any thought of turning aside, He nevertheless agonised about that way?

He Himself says, literally, in Luke 12:50: " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am in agony until it be accomplished." Gethsemanae shows us that same struggle. Just the thought of the cross made Him sweat drops of blood there.

Do we not ourselves experience something of that in some of our temptations? When we are by grace preserved from temptation, do we not even then experience a certain spiritual exhaustion from the hard struggle to remain vigilant, watchful and praying, even if we were not drawn to the particular sin with which Satan was attacking us?

Furthermore, there is in all temptation the work of God in trying and testing as well. Remember, we use different words, trial and temptation, where the Greek and Hebrew use only one - trial and temptation are the same word in those two languages!

In all of His temptations, therefore, Christ was being tested and tried (the word means "to be put into the fire") by God - not to break Him, but to prove to us that He is our sinless Savior! And that, of course, is the purpose of His temptations for us. Looking to Him we must take courage, resist the Devil, flee temptation, not grow wearied and faint in our minds, and persevere in obedience. Rev. R. Hanko