Catholicity, Orthodoxy, and Lordship
Recently an old acquaintance requested an old sermon of mine on Genesis 6. This gentleman and I had discussed the strange elements of the text many years ago, and recently he wanted to re-acquaint himself with my thoughts on this passage. So, I dug out my sermon from 2005. Here it is.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
One of my goals this year is to read through Genesis 12 times. It has been quite a profitable exercise. The Genesis story reveals the story of all redemption with pictures and images of things to come.
Joseph’s authority in Egypt points to the authority of Jesus over all things. In Genesis 45:26, Joseph’s brothers return to their father from Egypt and declare: “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” Joseph was dead to his brothers, yet he was alive. It is hard not to consider the parallel of Joseph and our Lord. The gospels reveal the disciple’s absolute anguish and defeat at the death of their Lord. It was the proclamation that Jesus is alive by the women that began to undo the spiritual starvation of the nations.
Unlike Joseph, Jesus truly did die–though Joseph does go through a death experience in the pit (Gen. 37:22)–and the joy of a resurrected Jesus has far greater repercussions than the salvation of Egypt. “Jesus is alive” means He is ruler over all.
Much of the Sacred Scriptures deal with food. Food has both a nurturing dimension and a testing dimension. When eaten accordingly, it nurtures; when eaten at the wrong time it is a sign of failure. Adam and Even fell as a consequence of eating at the wrong time. Eating uncontrollably leads to gluttony; so too, eating at the right time leads to nurture.
Food is given to us for our enjoyment and pleasure, but it is truly pleasurable when it is given by the Father at the right time.
Jesus understood this lesson in the wilderness. He could turn stones into bread and satisfy his hunger, but He acknowledge that faithfulness to the Father’s word (Deut.8) is far more beneficial than food. The principle then is that faithfulness precedes food.
At the Lord’s Table, Yahweh provides for us a meal. He tells us when to eat. The meal is given for us after we have been faithful in our call, our confession, and consecration. We only eat when God says so.
Here are a few thoughts to consider when reading and preaching the gospels during this Easter season:
First, we need to be very cautious not to overlook the biblical details in the text. Details like a face cloth (John 20) or other items left in the tomb serve an instructive purpose. Always remember that God has placed these details in the Scriptures for a reason. Therefore, we should ask the question: why is this detail here?
Second, remember that the gospels assume knowledge of redemptive history. It assumes a great deal of knowledge of Old Testament history and details. This is why we are always somewhat befuddled by connections made throughout the Bible. We may be puzzled because we do not know our Old Testament history. For instance, when Jesus says that if the people are silent these stones will cry out (Luke 19), we typically assume that the stones crying out mean that the stones will cry out in praise of the Coming Messiah on Palm Sunday. But a quick look at how this phrase is used in the Old Testament, particularly in Habakkuk, will show us that the stones cry out in judgment. As James Jordan has observed, the stones cry out in judgment against the people of Israel…indeed they did cry out because the temple was destroyed in AD 70. These types of connections are all over the gospels, and we need to be careful not to overlook these important details.
Finally, as I have mentioned in my Good Friday homily, these resurrection scenes are deeply embedded in Creation language. Thus, there will be some obvious and some not so obvious connections with Genesis that we need to consider. I have said in the past that the secret to understanding Revelation is to understand Genesis. I affirm once again that the secret to understanding many of these gospel scenes and images is to understand the language and the typology of Genesis.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
Jacob humbled himself and served Laban so that he could have his bride. Christ humbled himself and served his Father unto death, so that He would receive His bride, the Church.
As I prepare for a sermon this coming Lord’s Day, I have searched for music that would express the peace of being overcome by the power of God. Jacob’s wrestling with God is a war for identity and only God can give Jacob a new identity. Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli is one answer to this war. At the end, when the chorus ends and the orchestra pauses, the bells commence is their cry for peace and restoration.
Old Testament scholars generally differ in how God should be addressed both in the liturgy of the church and in doing Biblical or Systematic theology. James Jordan has argued that in Genesis 14:18-20 “the name of God in use among the nations was God Most High’” (Hebrew, `el `elyon; in Through New Eyes, p. 176). Though, as Leithart has argued convincingly “‘God Most High’ or simply ‘Most High’ are frequently used by Israelites as titles for Yahweh.” The main point being that both names manifests “that the covenant-keeping God of Israel, is also the Highest, the exalted King of the nations and their gods, who casts down all who exalt themselves against Him.”
In Waltke’s Old Testament Theology, he argues that the title “LORD” has messianic implications since Paul refers to Christ as Lord in Romans 10:9-13, nevertheless, it establishes a less intimate “relationship with a person than using his or her name” (Bruce Waltke, An Old Testament Biblical Theology, 11). He prefers to use God’s name as it proceeds from His own mouth, namely, “I AM.” Since the gospels reveal that before Abraham was born, “I AM” existed, hence, God is both present and eternal. As Waltke summarizes: “He is both ‘I am here” and ‘I am eternal’ ” (Ibid. 11).
Do not fear, Futato is not a fundamentalist! In the middle of one of his lectures in Hebrew exegesis he made this striking comment about a conversation he had with a friend. The friend mentioned to him that the difference between Reformed Theology and Fundamentalism is that Reformed theology begins with creation and Fundamentalism begins with the fall. If that is the case, Futato remarked, then many Reformed people are Fundamentalists.
For those who did not understand the profundity of this remark, allow me to explain. The strength of the Reformed tradition, stressed most powerfully by Abraham Kuyper, is that Reformed theology understands the dignity of man. In the words of Richard Pratt, we are “Designed for Dignity.” The continual stress of some pastors concerning the depravity of man is misaligned with the chronology of Redemptive history. Man, particularly redeemed man, is created for dignity; a dignity given to Him by God himself when He breathed life into a dead corpse.
Covenant members are not to be addressed (though there is an appropriate time for this) on the basis of their old humanity (their continual sins and hatred of God) but on their new humanity (their gift of perseverance and joy to worship their Creator). Consider the Apostle Paul’s address to the less than spiritual Corinthians. He begins his letter by addressing them not as rotten sinners, but those united to Christ and in fellowship with God’s son. Fundamentalism stresses the depravity and sinful nature so strongly that it leads to a message of sadness –inconsistent with the gospel of redemption. Reformed thinkers who dwell on their sinfulness, and forget their new status, lose sight of the powerful resemblance we have with our heavenly Father.
Fundamentalism is alive and well in Reformed churches. The lack of emphasis on dominion (part of the Creation mandate; Genesis 1) and the new creation (II Corinthians 5:17) while stressing the sinfulness and inability to live righteously brings about an impotent gospel. We are called to address our people where God began–Creation–not where we were–lost in sin. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.