He That Has the Son Has Life

“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12 ESV).

A foretaste of the future kingdom and its indescribable joy

When God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, it was the life of the eternal age invading this present world. The power and vibrancy of life seen in the resurrection is the normal life in the future kingdom of God. But for us, it’s shocking. Our world is death, not resurrecting life.

It is this same life through which the Christian experiences life eternal in the present world. That is why we can say that we have it now but it’s not all that it will be. The future life will be the same, only greater and more wonderful. Fully expressed. It’s like how the seed of a flower is the same as the flower but the flower becomes much more than the seed. We have the seed of eternal life now. But the full flower will be far more beautiful and wonderful than our present experience of it. You just wait and see.

Now with the terms understood, let’s look back at the verse, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). What is clear is that there is a bundling of having the Son of God and having eternal life. If you get the one, you get the other. They always go together. There are other things like this in life:

• If you get struck by lightning, you’ll get thunder with it. Get the one, you get the other.
• If you marry a Siamese twin—you get the one, you get the other.
• No matter who you marry, you get your spouse’s family as a bonus. You get the one, you get all the others too. Amen?

And whoever gets the son, gets eternal life too. No one gets Jesus and misses out on eternal life. It is a package deal. They come together. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The bottom line of this verse is the exclusivity of salvation and eternal life ONLY for those who have Jesus by faith. If I were a math nerd, this is how I would diagram this verse.

Me ≠ ∞Life (Me by myself does not equal eternal life)

Jesus = ∞Life (Jesus equals eternal life)

Me + Christ ≠ ∞Life (Me plus anything other than Christ does not equal eternal life)

Me + Χ/Faith = ∪Christ (Me plus faith in Christ equals union with Christ)

Me + Christ = ∞Life (Me plus Christ equals eternal life)

Some of you are like, I didn’t like that stuff in high school and I still don’t. I’m not excited about getting it at church. Hang with me. You will like this. Here is the math of 1 John 5:12:

Me + Son = ∞Life, Me – Son of God = ∞Life (Me plus the Son equals eternal life)

What is difficult for many is the absolute exclusivity of this statement. That’s why it’s a bottom line of the Bible. In the end, after all the religious shouting and preaching and philosophizing and living and dying, in the end, here’s the bottom line: If a person has Jesus by faith as Savior they get—with Jesus—life eternal. If a person does not have Jesus by faith, they do not get life eternal. That is to say, they experience the opposite of life eternal, eternal death. Eternal destruction. Eternal judgment. Eternal hell.

This is why this verse jumps off the pages of the Bible. Some passages sound confusing or leave some ambiguity. The Bible can seem so confusing. Many people just hope for the best. Not 1 John 5:12. You either have Christ and eternal life or you don’t. All humanity will forever be divided into these two categories. Life or death. Heaven or hell.

Sobering, isn’t it? Our church is presently divided the same way. We have lots of diversity here in lots other of categories. Varying ethnic backgrounds. Male and Female. Young and old. White collar, blue collar. On and on we could go. But the only diversity that truly matters in the end is this one. This is the one that determines your eternal destiny. It’s cut and dry. There’s no middle ground. It’s so absolute.

I read this story about the old faithful theologian Dr. Gresham Machen and it stuck with me over the years. As he ended one of his lectures on sin and humanity from the Bible…

“A woman reporter ventured to ask, “Dr. Machen, you do not seem to think very much of man. What reason do you have for so belittling him?”

Without hesitation he replied, “All I did was to present what the Bible says.”

“But really Dr. Machen,” the woman reporter rejoined, “It doesn’t make any difference what anyone believes, does it? Just so he believes something?”

The eyewitness [to this event] told me that the chills shot up and down his spine as he watched this great man of God. Dr. Machen could have passed it off with some innocuous reply, but that was definitely not Machen’s way of doing things! He leaned over the lectern and looked the questioner right in the eye.

Then he said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him!”[1]

Liberal expressions of Christianity and secularism always downplay this division. They do so because it’s embarrassing to some that biblical Christianity would draw such a narrow circle of salvation. They will say, but God’s love is wide or there are many paths to God, or all religions contain truth, or this is just our perspective or opinion, or some other dodge. Dear friends, that is false teaching by false teachers who mislead people to hell. Pluralism says there are many ways to God and all religions can get you there. It is arrogant to make absolute claim to truth, which is of course, an absolute statement itself.

I remember in my youth pastor days teaching our kids about these things. One of our brighter students was in a high school class where her teacher said, “There is no such thing as absolute truth.” The student raised her hand and asked, “Is that absolutely true?” I was proud. That was 25 years ago. Our culture has moved even further. Tolerance today is itself a kind of religion that deems any claim to exclusive truth of any kind as narrow-minded and bigoted.

“Much of contemporary pluralism is driven by the desire to affirm the increasing cultural diversity of our times…And thus, for many in today’s society, acceptance of cultural diversity becomes largely indistinguishable from endorsement of religious diversity—endorsement not simply in the sense of legally and socially accepting the place of non-Christian religions in American society but also in the sense of affirming the beliefs of such religions.” (D.A. Carson)[2]

How can you be a pluralist with biblical statements like these?

• “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
• “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).
• “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5).

The logic law of non-contradiction states that two opposite statements cannot both be true. The opposite of what is true must be false. They can both be false and wrong. But they cannot both be opposite and true. Christianity can be completely wrong in its claim. But if 1 John 5:12 is true, then it cannot be true that you can have eternal life apart from Jesus.

This bottom line of the Bible urges us to ask, where in this verse am I? Am I in the first clause or the second? Do I have the Son of God? Have I trusted in Jesus as the Son of God and Savior who died on the cross for my sins?

Or am I in the second clause, I don’t have the Son and so I don’t have eternal life. It’s either one or the other. And that’s the bottom line.

You say, well what is the point of talking about this? It seems unduly off-putting or frightening. Why write it? Why preach it? You have the whole Bible to choose from Pastor Steve and you choose a divisive verse like this? Why? The why for John and Pastor Steve is the same. Here is the very next verse, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

The point is to give assurance to those who have Christ that life eternal comes with him. And to urge those who do not have Christ to turn in faith to him and with him, to get eternal life. Might that be you, today?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

[1] Henry W. Coray, J. Gresham Machen: A Silhouette (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1981), p. pxif.

[2] D.A. Carson, Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 54.

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Hating What God Hates by Loving What God Loves

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16–19 ESV).

One who sows discord among brothers

Here how The Message version of this passage begins, “Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion” (Proverbs 6:16 MSG). Which one does he especially loathe? One who sows discord.

This is an agricultural example. Sowing is planting seeds. Here is where sowing illustrates a good point with disunity. When you drive by a field of corn, do you know who planted the seeds? No. All you see is the effect.

Disunity is like that. You may not personally see the shifting feet or hear the malcontent speak, but the effect is obvious. Mysteriously it would seem, squabbles and quarrels erupt. People that used to like each other no longer trust each other. Where there had been oneness and unity, now people are looking at each other with a jaundiced eye. One of my favorite and nearly inspired quotes that I say around the office is, all is yellow to the jaundiced eye. Once people get a jaundiced eye toward someone, now everything about them is yellow. Things that before were tolerated are now intolerable. People who were trustworthy, are now suspect. What was viewed positively, is now viewed negatively. All because somebody with shifting feet and an evil heart whispered something.

• “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28 ESV).
• “Whoever winks his eyes plans dishonest things; he who purses his lips brings evil to pass” (Proverbs 16:30).
• “The scoundrel is someone who works to undermine social and personal relationships for his own benefit” (Garret).[1]
• “The chief of all that God hates is he who takes a fiendish delight in setting at variance men who stand nearly related” (Keil and Delitzch).[2]

That is the surprising discovery for me this week studying it. I thought this would be a summary of seven things God hates. In reality, it’s six things we already know God hates and one thing God really, really hates.

Why? Why does God hate divisive people so much? Because he is a Tri-unity. Remember what Jesus prayed in his high priestly prayer in John 17, “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). Jesus longs for unity in the church, a oneness that reflects the oneness in the Trinity. The glue for this is love. Love and unity are the opposite of hatred.

Here is a portion of Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!” (Psalm 133:1–2) Oil is a sign of blessing. How good it is when we love unity so much that we hate discord and those who sow those seeds.

I think we all agree with this in principle, but how many of us love unity enough to shut down the person who says, “Did you hear?” What? Now their feet begin to shift. Their finger begins to point. This could be a friend; it likely is. It’s not a stranger. Likely a family member.

“But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:9–11).

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Additional Scripture quotations taken from The Message, Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

[1] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing, 1993) 97.

[2] Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Vol. 6 (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1966) 149.

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What God Requires of Us

Do Justice

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV)

I learned this verse in the KJV, so it’s hard to not say, do justly, love mercy. Old, hard habit to break. “Do justice.” What is justice? Justice is an attribute of God rooted in his holiness and absolute glory.

• “To do justly” is to act with equity, fairness and deference to those who are in a weaker social position – the opposite of the violence, oppression, fraud, lying, and injustice described in Micah 6:10-12. Thus “justice” is a comprehensive term for a way of life that finds its expression in the covenant of God.” (Kaiser)[1]
• “In the Bible, justice means fulfilling mutual obligations in a manner consistent with God’s moral law. Biblical justice creates the perfect human society.” (ESV Study Bible)[2]
• “[Justice] insists on the rights of others.” (Allen)[3]

You may remember that the justice of God in Romans undergirds our own justification. God’s absolute commitment to his own glorious holiness meant he must count our sins against us. Yet on the cross, Jesus completely paid the moral price our sins required. God’s justice against sin was unleashed against Jesus instead of us. With God’s justice satisfied by Christ, God is free to declare us innocent upholding his own status as God the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). God’s justice terrifies us in Romans 1 and assures us in Romans 3-11.

Have we heard a little about justice over this past year?

Pastor Steve’s Pensées

Pensée #3 – Are You a ____ Christian or a Christian ____?

So much of this past year’s rancor has centered on identities and narratives. Narratives try and explain why things are and who we are. Political, racial, and sexual identities are front and center in our society. What is troubling is my perception is that many Christians are choosing these secondary identities as their primary identity over who they are in Jesus Christ. To be a Christian requires that my Christian identity be my primary identity and my racial, political, and sexual identities are clearly secondary.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Look at this verse with me. Jew or Greek. Racial identity. Slave nor free. Economic identity; you could argue political identity. Male and female. Sexual or gender identity. The Apostle Paul says these are not primary anymore. Not in the gospel. Not in the church. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

You can know what your primary identity is because it’s where your true belonging, significance, and passion lie. You can tease people about secondary identities. I do it all the time as a Dutch guy making Dutch jokes. I’m safe doing so because being Dutch isn’t my primary identity, and people laugh about it if being Dutch isn’t their primary identity either. But you joke about someone’s primary identity, and they are quickly offended. You don’t mess with a primary identity.

There are way too many professing Christians who have as their primary identity their political or racial ideology. That was on full display this past election cycle. Were you devastated? Triumphant? Who is your Messiah actually? Where is your hope actually placed? Is even my saying this offending you? Are you kind of proving my point? Similarly, our racial identity as Christians can’t be the center locus for everything either. What is the Lordship of Jesus if not the enthronement of Jesus in my life and who I am in him as my primary identity? My spiritual identity transcends my racial identity.

Make sure your noun is Christian and all the other identities are adjectives. When adjectives become nouns, you tribalize around something other than Christ alone.

Am I an American Christian or a Christian American? Am I a Christian Hoosier or a Hoosier Christian? Democrat Christian or Christian Democrat? Republican Christian or Christian Republican? Am I am Latino Christian or a Christian Latino? Christian Caucasian or Caucasian Christian? Christian African American or African American Christian? Christian Presbyterian or Presbyterian Christian? Christian Baptist or Baptist Christian? You get my point?

This year was filled with adjectives turned into nouns. Even our racial identities are secondary to who we in Christ. Revelation 4 prophesies the future gathering of redeemed humanity around the throne. Every tribe, tongue, language, and people, “Saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’” (Revelation 5:12)

Since the church is the emergence of heaven on earth, who we are in Jesus is our defining reality—all these other things are secondary. In society, the secondary things are the primary things because they don’t have any other primary thing. They tribalize around politics and politicians and power and narratives of meaning. As a Christian, I have far more in common with a Venezuelan Christian than I do with another American, as much as we love and appreciate our country. Jesus is greater than America. Jesus is greater than China. Jesus is greater than Russia, Assyria, Babylon, Rome or any other kingdom of this world. The world can melt down and kingdoms can fall, but nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Make being a Christian your primary, your noun, and let all other identities be far, far beneath Jesus.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Reflections on Romans

The gospel is God’s answer to man’s wreckage

Romans 1 is terrible. It’s terrible to be told you are under the wrath of God. The explanation, while brief, explains exactly the world we live in. Carnage. Wreckage. Death. God made a beautiful cosmos and made us the pinnacle. We took and smashed it. The result? Death and a million depressing consequences we see all around us. Some we get used to, like locks on our doors. Others we fear, like the fraudulent nature of our lives and our impending death. Some we don’t think about nearly as much as we should like the reality of wrath forever. This week, my daughter Madeline asked me, Daddy, what is hell like? I told her a few things and one was, it goes on forever and ever. You cannot escape hell. That’s Romans 1.

What is striking is how Paul’s explanation of why the world is the way it is, is utterly different from contemporary explanations. We are told, man is born good. The ills of society are the fault of religion, lack of education, lack of money. The solutions include government control, globalization, faster internet.

The world diagnoses the problem very differently and tries to solve the problem very differently. Paul’s diagnosis is that sin and punishment explain the world. The cure is nothing other than the gospel of God through faith in Jesus Christ producing new life in us. The result is a new society of Christians who are amazed at the grace of God, love one another despite different opinions on secondary matters, despite long standing racial and ethnic loathing. In Romans 1, we are sinners ready to fight each other. By Romans 16 we are greeting one another with a holy kiss.

How? The gospel. The deepest explanation of God’s grace and gospel ever. We summarize it with, we are great sinners and Christ is a great Savior.

Government can’t do it. Schools can’t do it. Money can’t do it. The gospel does it. The world needs a Savior and his name is Jesus.

A small gospel makes petty Christians

It’s easy to see other people’s weaknesses. We’ve spent three years seeing the Roman church for how petty many of them were. They let little things become big and divisive things. It’s easy to do. We do it all the time. Romans gives perspective by placing the massiveness of God’s grace and love next to the petty secondary matter. It shows how small ethnic differences and liberty differences really are.

It’s like a trick fisherman use. Growing up we fished all the time. At the end of the day, we often took pictures. Fishermen always want to make the fish appear bigger than they are. What do you do? You always hold the fish closer to the camera. The closer the better. Do that and a perch looks like a great white shark. What happens when you put the perch next to an actual great white shark? It puts the perch in perspective.

Paul sent a great white shark to Rome. The gospel in Romans puts the perch and minnow issues in perspective. Or it should. When we lose sight of the glory and the grandeur of the glory of God in the gospel, a gospel of God’s infinite grace toward me, God’s people will degenerate into squabbles about the pettiest things. The minor thing becomes a major thing instead of keeping the main thing the main thing.

It’s been a year of small things appearing to be big things. The Christians who keep a proper perspective are those who have a giant gospel. Romans has helped us. Let’s not sweat the little things or get cranky about the little things. Let’s care about the big things and there is nothing bigger than the gospel.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

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The Rock That Makes the Ripple

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5 ESV).

What Does a Gospel Ripple Look Like?

As we have seen, the story of Lois was ripple to daughter Eunice, ripple to son Timothy, ripple to thousands, perhaps millions. His spiritual character drew Paul to make him his apprentice and write two letters included in Scripture. How many people have been impacted by 1 and 2 Timothy? They are arguably the most important letters in the Bible on what a church and pastor is supposed to be and do.

Timothy is praised. Lois and Eunice are merely mentioned. Think of what is said of them now in heaven? The rock of their life and mothering created a ripple that still reverberates in eternity.

This is the incredible privilege of parenting. We have no idea the impact our children will have for heaven. Every child is a soul that will spend eternity somewhere. A life whose potential impact for the gospel is inconceivable. Since they are the ripple, what a difference one faithful, praying, humble, Christ-loving, God-glorifying mom can be. You can literally change the story of your whole family tree. Not just your kids—your grandkids, great grandkids, and onward.

Paul Tripp says this, “These are not years merely to be survived! They are to be approached with a sense of hope and a sense of mission. Almost every day brings a new opportunity to [invest in] the life of [your child] help, hope, and truth….all must be seen as something more than hassles that get in the way of an otherwise enjoyable life.”[1]

What humanly hangs in the balance of the daily frustrations and challenges is an eternal soul. The balance here is that God does the saving so we must not pretend we are God to our kid’s salvation. At the same time, shouldn’t we do all we can to nurture their understanding of God, Scriptures, a Christian worldview, the better story Christianity tells about sex and gender and identity? Like Lois and Eunice, we fertilize the soil of the soul so that the gospel finds a rich environment to take root and grow.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

[1] Paul Tripp as quoted by Dustin J. Coleman, “Learning to See the Glory in the Frustration of Parenting, Theology Along the Way, May 1, 2018, https://theologyalongtheway.org/2018/05/01/learning-to-see-the-glory-in-the-frustration-of-parenting/.

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The Goal of the Gospel is the Glory of God

“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:25–27 ESV).

The Command of God – it Changes Us!

We are saved by trusting in Jesus, not our obedience. But the kind of faith that saves is a kind of faith that changes us. It is the byproduct of the miracle of salvation in our lives. The fruit, not the root. Sadly, millions will miss heaven because they mistook the root for the fruit. You might as well leap the Grand Canyon as obey your way to God. The true gospel is that God leaped the Grand Canyon to get to us.

Hear now, the last words of Romans, “To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:27). Is there a more God-centered book of the Bible than Romans? Here is how he started it, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). How does he end it? “To the only wise God be glory” (Romans 16:27). Starts with God. Ends with God.

He ends with amazement and wonder. Even Paul, who understood these doctrines of God and salvation better than anyone. Even Paul, of whom the Apostle Peter wrote and said, he says things that are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16). The other apostles marveled at Paul’s insights. Yet, the one who knew them the best says, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)

I have told this story before but it highlights this point. Years ago when I ministered in Indianapolis, the Lead Professor of the Kidney at IU Medical School was a friend. This is the guy who teaches all the people you and I go to about the kidney. He has an Ivy League doctorate totally focused on the kidney. One day we were having breakfast together, and he drew out the kidney in detail on the napkin. He said, there’s this amazing function and then this does this and that does that and…he gets to the end of his explanation and he said, we actually haven’t even begun to understand the kidney. A world expert on the kidney marvels at it and as much as he knows—more than nearly anyone else—he can only sit in amazement.

That’s the sense here at the end of Romans. The guy who knows the gospel deeper and better than anyone else, the guy who writes the most expansive explanation ever of God’s gospel of salvation, gets to the end of the letter and says, all praise to the all-wise God.

In this way, Romans itself fulfills this overarching purpose, it brings glory to God. You cannot read Romans and think humans are awesome. No, we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.

But at every point in the story of the gospel, it is God whose mercy, kindness, grace, goodness, and love shines through. It’s almost as if this whole thing was planned to do that very thing, shine through the glory of God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man? Answer: To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”[1]

I’m going to end with two music illustrations. The first is Johann Sebastian Bach. Many consider him the greatest composer of all time. Einstein said of him, “This is what I have to say about Bach’s life work: listen, play, love, revere – and keep your trap shut.”[2] Bach was also a protestant Christian who understood theology in music. As he started each new musical piece, he would write JJ at the top of the page. Jesu Juva. “Help me, Jesus.” When he completed the composition, he would write SDG. Soli Deo Gloria. To God be the glory. Listen again to the last words of Romans, “To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:27). What is it? Paul writing, SDG. To God alone be the glory.

The second is a story that I searched and searched for, but I couldn’t find it, so I have to tell it from memory. There was a famous conductor of a world-famous symphony. They were performing a piece by Bach or Beethoven, I can’t remember. As the symphony concluded the deeply moving and beautiful piece, the crowd exploded in response, rose to their feet, cheering and cheering and clapping and clapping. The conductor turned to them and waited for silence. He then said through tears, “I am nothing. Beethoven is everything.”[3]

This is how Romans ends too. If we have taught well at all, all our hearts should arrive at the same place. Even the brilliance of Paul in what he wrote is dwarfed by the wisdom and glory of God. It’s as if Paul ends with, I am nothing. We are nothing. God is everything!

And the church says, Amen.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

[1] The Assembly of Divines at Westminster, The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647).

[2] Albert Einstein, as quoted by John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013). Preface.

[3] Source Unknown.

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Crush the Snake

“I want you to be wise as to what is good” (Romans 16:19 ESV).

Wise With the True, Good, and Beautiful

Wisdom is to know something fully and deeply and to apply it practically to your life. The good is all things consistent with God’s will, his word, and his world. God called the original creation, very good! “Wise as to what is good” means to pursue those things that uplift and ennoble the soul. Fill your mind and heart and life with knowledge and experiences that enrich and enhance God’s will in your life.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

As we pour into our minds the true and beautiful, our desires increase for that which pleases God. And as the bucket fills with good, it leaves less room for impure thoughts and desires.

Paul may be quoting Jesus who said in Matthew 10:16, “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Snakes are shrewd and clever. Be shrewd in this world AND be innocent towards evil, like a dove—a symbol of purity.

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit within us and a capacity for an inner relish and delighting in the things of God. This new delight is truly one of the huge blessings in becoming a Christian. Everything good is connected to the glory of God. Even eating and drinking are activities we connect with the goodness and glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). That’s why many of us say thank you to God before we eat. The poor atheist has no one to thank for his medium rare steak with a luscious side potato, fresh salad, and savory strawberry pie. That’s my dream meal. What should I taste as I eat it? Theology. I taste the goodness and beauty of God. As I do, I’m being wise toward what is good.

As Romans has taught us, nothing is better than the gospel. Nothing is more wonderful than the amazing work of God to make me righteous forever by the work of Jesus for me. As the fulness of all God’s goodness toward me is savored, I am being wise toward what is good.

Paul says, fill your heart with the true, the good, and the beautiful. By doing so, it leaves little room to relish the opposite.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

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The Dangerous Duty of Discernment

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve” (Romans 16:17-18 ESV).

Who are the Wolves?

Paul is describing two kinds of wolves here. Some wolves are teaching/theological wolves. Some are congregation-dividing wolves. False teaching wolves and divisive wolves. Both are divisive, both eat the flock up, but they do so in different ways.

Divisively Deviant

A divisive wolf isn’t necessarily teaching something that’s blatantly wrong or heretical, but they are really good at creating fissures and cracks in the relationships of the church. Unity doesn’t matter to them. This is the person for whom every molehill is a mountain. Every issue is the most important thing in the history of the church. They create disunity by personality or for the sake of their cause. They typically draw a tribe of people around them who share some sympathy with them. Sometimes this is a new idea or a new direction or a new whatever. The naïve, which is what Paul calls them, are drawn into their influence. There’s something new and exciting about it. At the center is a wolf.

The Church is People

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you” (Romans 16:1–16 ESV).

The Church Spans All Classes and Categories of Society: The Gospel is For Everyone!

There are 26 individuals listed here. Two families. At least five house churches. One set of twins, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greek names. Latin names. Roman names. Jewish names. Gentile names. Wealthy people. Slaves and freed men and women. Eight of the names are female names. There are very highly connected people in Roman society and even some from the imperial Roman house.[1]

You look at the membership list for the church at Rome and it’s a melting pot of every class, gender, race, social status, rich and poor, the famous, the never-heard-of-‘em, and everyone in between.

If all you had was the book of Romans, not only could you have a deep theology of the gospel (chapters 1-11), you get to chapter 16, and you must conclude that the gospel is for everyone and the church is for everyone! There’s arguably no category NOT mentioned here.

This is a tremendous truth that must be repeated over and over. The gospel is not a gospel merely for the rich, the poor, the powerful, the helpless, the well placed or the untouchables, it is a gospel for everyone. No matter who you are, your skin color, your story, your status, Jesus died for you. The Roman church reflects the cosmopolitan makeup of its city.

Now you know where I am going. If I have said it once, I have said it a hundred times, we can know the vitality of our church by whether it looks like our community. And since we are in this incredibly diverse community, we should celebrate the gospel’s diverse effectiveness and appeal as we see that diversity in our congregation. All are welcome to the gospel of Jesus. Paul celebrates this diversity by greeting everyone in every category! So must we.

God Sees Us Corporately and Individually

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one but a reminder of the glorious doctrine of union with Christ. This key doctrine of Romans is how God saved us. When Adam sinned, we all sinned with him. But by union with Jesus, when Jesus died and rose again, we died and rose with him. This language is corporate. We’re all in this together.

This may seem a bit impersonal, like we are just a number to God; one of the masses of people he saved. But then you get to Romans 16 and when God wrote his book, he included individuals by name. In the Old Testament, genealogies. In the New Testament, Romans 16. This echoes the parable of Jesus describing the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find and care for the one. Each of these names represents a person. A life. Jesus loves “the church,” and he loves each person in the church. Jesus is not a rancher, he’s a shepherd. He knows and loves you by name.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2021 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

[1] See Thomas R. Schreiner, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Romans (Ada, MI: Baker Publishing House, 1998), 792, 797.

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