Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

Home » father

father

The Trinity & You

The Trinity & You

by ·

Introduction

The Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith because it is the doctrine of God Himself. Getting it wrong renders all other theological pursuits nonsensical. It’s sorta like attempting to learn scuba-diving in the middle of the Great Sand Dunes. It might feel like a complicated doctrine, but we ought not to be intimidated by this doctrine. It’s not as if you won’t be let into heaven if you once were teaching a Sunday School class and used eggs as a metaphor for the Trinity. Just don’t do it again. This is one doctrine where charity should be shown in the articulation of it; severe strictness should be shown to someone who is in error and then doubles down on his error after being shown his error. St. Augustine once hedged his entire book on the Trinity with this, “If herein I am foolish, let him who knows better correct me.” To which I reply, “Ditto.”

The Text 

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:11-16 KJV

Summary of the Text

While our systematic theology ought to begin with this doctrine of the trinity and unity of God (what we generally would refer to as the ontology of the Trinity), it is striking that the clearest Biblical teaching on the Trinity is in the context of our salvation (what we commonly refer to as the economy of the Trinity). We see that here in this passage. The duty to love one another is rooted in God’s love toward us (v11). God’s love, as we will see shortly, is triune. John explains that the invisible God is not the same thing as the unknowable God (v12). If believers love one another, this is only possible because God dwells in them, perfecting His love in them and through them (v12). How do we know that this love towards each other is the fruit of the triune God’s love toward us? Because God gave us His Spirit (v13), which is what our baptism is a promise and seal of (1 Jn. 2:20). 

Though we cannot see God, the Apostles had seen the Son. This Son had been sent by the Father. The Son was sent by the Father in order to be the Savior of the World (v14). In confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God, you are assured that God dwells in you (by His Spirit), and you dwell in God (v15). John places our knowledge and belief in God in the context of this love which God showed to us. That love is the united love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father set His love upon His elect, the Son was sent to save the elect, and the Spirit seals the elect with that love. To dwell in God is to dwell in love (v16). To experience the love of God is to experience the triune love of God. Apart from the Trinity you not only do not, but cannot, encounter God’s love.

Comprehending the Incomprehensible

As we consider the Trinity, we are not simply considering a doctrine. We are considering God Himself. He is holy, holy, holy; meaning, He is utterly unlike anything else you can consider. Furthermore, you can’t consider Him without also considering your relationship and duties to this God. This is the pinnacle of applied theology. Who is God? What is your duty to Him? To do otherwise would be like studying oxygen molecules while trying to hold your breath indefinitely. To be a human is to live in relation to Your Creator. You are either in fellowship with Him through Christ’s saving work, or you are cut off from Him due to your sin and rebellion.

Considering the Trinity is considering a mystery. However, that’s not the same thing as saying that He cannot be apprehended by faith. The whole of Scripture leaves us with two realities regarding God. First, there’s only one God, while three distinct persons are all referred to as God. Each divine person is equal in essence, power, and glory; yet still somehow distinct from the other two. God in His fullness is incomprehensible to us (Ps. 139:6). Yet, God has given His fullness to us in Christ (Jn. 1:16). The work of redemption revealed in the NT gives us a trinitarian order: the Father sent the Son to be our Savior, and the Spirit gives you eyes to see this.

The Error of Subordination

All errors in thinking about God lead to errors in morality. You cannot be fully human without faith in this God who is one God in three persons. This is simplifying tomes of orthodoxy into a simple statement, but all trinitarian errors are really some form of importing subordination into the God-head. Ancient heresies often subordinated the Son and Spirit to the Father. Modern Pentecostals tend to fall into the error of modalism, which subordinates the Father and Son to the Spirit. Throughout history people have exalted various virtues so high that they come to believe God must be subordinated to that virtue. For instance, the mushy progressive wants love (or their sappy and spineless version of love) to govern what God is like. Likewise, Islamists want justice (or their definition of it) to handcuff God. But in both of these instances, God is made subordinate to a particular one of His attributes.

However, there is either unity in the Godhead, or there is warfare. It is a ridiculous thing to try to conceive of such conflict within God. It isn’t as if the Father wants to save Mr. Jones, but the Son and Spirit are a bit skeptical that they can pull that off. Rather, we should see that in the economy of salvation we have God’s love to sinful man displayed in brilliant trinitarian glory. 

To contemplate the Trinity is to contemplate the Gospel. God the Father determined to save you, before the foundation of the world, despite all your transgressions which He foresaw you would commit against Him. He did so not because you deserved it, but because He is love, and delights to show mercy. He showed this love by sending His Son to take on human flesh, and then die and rise again in your stead. The Father and the Son have sent the Spirit to dwell in you, so that you can enjoy the love of the Father towards the Son and the Son towards the Father. 

In Augustine’s triumphant masterpiece on the Trinity, he gives wise counsel when it comes to approaching this doctrine: “And if this is understood with difficulty, the mind must be purged by faith, by more and more abstaining from sins, and by doing good works, and by praying with the groaning of holy desires; that by profiting through the divine help, it may both understand and love (Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chap. 21, Sec. 31).” In other words, if you’re having trouble understanding this, then trust God, stop sinning, go serve others, and pray some more. Very sensible counsel.

Coming Unto God 

The whole reason you were made is the contemplation and enjoyment of God. To put it another way, you exist in order that you might come unto God. Heaven will be the perfect enjoyment of God, unobstructed by sin and corruptible bodies. God made you, but He did not then go off and hide.

Rather, your very being is itself a witness to your reason of two things: that God is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The highest good for your body is to serve God. The highest good for your soul is to believe in God. The highest good for your mind is to think upon God. Since He is three-in-one this means this is how you must serve Him, what you must believe about Him, and how you must think about Him. You were made to come unto God. But come unto Him as He is––trinity in unity––not as you imagine Him to be.

You were made to know, believe, and love the Living God. Everything you do is to be done before the face of this God who is one in power and glory and majesty, and who is also Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. So then, contemplate the Father’s generosity towards you giving you life in the first place, and then giving you new life through His Son. Consider that Christ took on flesh, in order to share in your humanity in order to take it down into death and raise it up into immortal life. Cherish the glory that you have received the Spirit of God to confirm you in this fellowship with the Triune God.

Charge & Benediction

Remember what the application is that John supplies for us in our text. In considering the work of salvation––the Father sending the Son to save us, and the Spirit applying that salvation to us––we are then led to love one another. Look at the Father’s love for His Son, and the Son’s love for His Father, and see in that love the Spirit Himself; and so then, love one another as God the Father, Son, and Spirit has loved you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
2 Corinthians 13:14

Pentecost & You
The Ascension and You
Husbands Are Gateways

Husbands Are Gateways

by ·

Husbands, you are the gatekeeper of your home. Your presence is more than just the biggest and hairiest homosapien in the home. You guard the entrance of your home. So the question perpetually before you men is this: What am I allowing in my household? 

This also means that your attitude, your moodiness, your gruff voice, your furrowed brow, your mindless scrolling, your absence due to tee time with your pals are brought into your home by you. While you must be vigilant over what external things are allowed in––like entertainment and play dates with neighborhood friends––there is a deeper, more fundamental need. You and your disposition are far more potent for good or evil than any external sources.

So, you must not introduce into the atmosphere of your home the glowering clouds of envy. You can’t let in the gremlins of covetousness or lust. You must not be a carrier of the low grade fever of resentment. You are to be joyful, steady, and faithful. What does it profit you to keep out the latest smut from Netflix, but be the source of the stench that comes with being stingy, insecure, or lazy.

This then is a summons to vigilant and merciless mortification of every sin. But killing sin is not the only duty assigned to you. You must not only be gatekeeper for your home, you must be the chief herald of Christ. As the head of your home, you are to ensure that Christ is welcome in your home. 

And if Christ is in your home, an entire storehouse of virtues come along with it. Patience, meekness, contentment, and all the other graces land on your doorstep like the weekly haul from the Amazon warehouse. If you’ve been the funnel for sin in your home, repentance today is like opening the window to bring in the fresh air of grace.

Fed by the Father’s Love

Fed by the Father’s Love

by ·

If you knew of a father who refused to feed his children, you might be inclined to consider him a delinquent father. Perhaps you’d confront him, rebuking him for not caring for his children. Then imagine he replied, “I express my love for my children every day, I tell them I’m proud of them, and I assure them that I always will.” He tells you that he’s certain his feelings of love are sufficient for the nourishment, and growth of his children.

Once you picked your jaw up off the floor, you’d be right to intervene for the sake of his children. God, of course, isn’t such a father. God feeds His children. He knows the feebleness of our faith, and so He nourishes it with the visible signs of baptism & the Supper. As one Scottish preacher (R.M. M’Cheyne) once said, “Your faith is like a bruised reed. He will strengthen you with might, so that you shall hold Christ, and not let Him go.” 

Though the Bible declares God’s great love for us, for His beloved children, He also gives us a meal to nourish our faith; instead of leaving you to somehow strengthen & grow your faith apart from Him. God doesn’t merely tell us of His love for us, or of the forgiveness we have in Him. God shows us. He feeds us, with incarnate Love.

Our comfort in life and death is that God sent His Son to be our Savior. The child of God is built up in his faith by feeding upon Christ, laying hold on Christ, being shown Christ. This Supper, which we partake of “until he comes”, was instituted to ensure that through each age the saints might hold, and see, and taste the bread of heaven, the wine of relief; the nourishing Love of God in bread & wine.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

A New Paternity

A New Paternity

by ·

When Paul discusses regeneration in Titus 3:5, he describes it as a washing. It’s a washing which the Holy Spirit performs, and by that washing we’re born anew. Being washed by the Spirit is to receive a new generation. You’re given a new lineage. A new paternity. This baptism is the covenant sign of that washing.

The Word of grace spoken here is that God is made our Father because the Spirit washes with this Word, and this Word is Christ. It is Jesus, and only Jesus, whereby salvation is held out to us, from our infancy to length of days. Thus, being washed by the Spirit, being adopted by the Father, and being bound to Christ is your only salvation. Your baptism compels you to cling to Christ, who washed you by His Spirt, so that His Father might be yours.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

1 John 3:1-3 | What Unearthly Love

1 John 3:1-3 | What Unearthly Love

by ·

1 Behold, what manner of love has the Father bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew Him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be; we know, however, that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure.

1 John 3:1-3

Here is a good example of how our chapter breaks can, at times, get in the way of properly interpreting Scripture. The “behold” here is really a concluding doxology to John’s argument in chapter 2, before moving forward with the other items on John’s agenda. When you abide in the Son (2:20-29), the Father’s other-worldly love is bestowed on you. That love is embodied by the Father calling us His children. The new birth makes us strangers to the old world, because they know not Christ.

There is a series of gifts, which God bestows, that appear in each of the final three chapters.

  1. He’s bestowed His love by naming us as His own children (3:1). 
  2. He’s bestowed His Spirit that we might not doubt our union with Him (4:13)
  3. He’s bestowed upon us an understanding that we might know Him that is true (5:20).

It’s also worth mentioning that in older Greek texts, the meaning of the phrase “what manner” would be more akin to “from what place”. In other words, this is other-worldly love, heavenly love that is bestowed upon those in the Son. Through the Son, the Father calls us sons

But this description of our position as sons gives way to our duty as sons. We are brought into God’s house by grace, and continue in grace. But the grace is given that we might walk as Christ walked (2:6). We must be about our Father’s business (Cf. Lk. 2:49). Here we see that generation determines destiny. You are born of God, and thus, though we do not know what great glory awaits us, we know that we shall resemble our Older Brother, Christ. If God owns you as His beloved son or daughter, you know that when Christ appears you will be like Him.

God’s love rests upon you in Christ. So, set your hope on the glory which has been given to Christ, and trust that you shall share in that transfiguring glory.  Hoping in Christ is how we grow in holiness, and thus become like He is. Seeing Christ spurs on our sanctification. Indeed, see what great love the Father has bestowed.

Fathers & Mothers

Fathers & Mothers

by ·

Introduction

The US Congress recently introduced the rules for their new legislative session. They struck gendered familial terminology (i.e. father, mother, son, daughter, etc.) from the House’s rules for legislators. The recent events of our nation reveal our void of fathers and mothers. This is just one more effort by the godless to further erode the biblical structure for families. As Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

So it is vital that we understand both how God made the world, and then as those who are in Christ, strive to live in this world according to our assigned duties.

The Text 

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named Eph 3:14-15

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:26

Summary of the Text

When we think about Fatherhood and Motherhood we need to sweep out the clutter. These roles are not optional add-ons which you can discuss with the dealership. They aren’t social constructs which support the oppression of victims. They aren’t the evolutionary development of our species ability to babble some sounds and then linking them with our immediate ancestors. They aren’t interchangeable parts of machinery.

What we see as society rejects the biblical order for family is not an absence of fatherhood and motherhood, but we get mangled fatherhood and motherhood. We get satanic fatherhood, and tyrannic motherhood. We get State-run protection and provision and State-run nurture and rearing. All because those with their hands on the wheel of society are of their father the devil (Jn. 8:44).

Your father and mother are earthly shadows of cosmic realities. That cosmic reality is if you are in Christ God is your Father, the Church is your Mother. That is the evident in these two texts from the pen of Paul. 

In Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul bends his knee to God the Father; every family derives its name from God’s Fatherhood. You don’t have family without fatherhood, and you don’t have any of it without God the Father and Creator. In Greek, you can’t say family (patria) without saying father (patera). In other words, God’s Fatherhood fills the world and fills our earthly families as the inescapable reality. In Him we live and move and have our being.

Furthermore, God has taken a bride for His Son, our Lord Jesus, and she is our Mother. Paul, while making the case that we are delivered from the bondage to sin which the mosaic Law revealed, he uses the imagery of Hagar and Sarah. Two mothers: one a slave, one a free-woman. Which one is your mother? Mother Kirk is a fertile mother, because she is marked by grace and thus life springs from her; whereas Hagar (the bond-woman/Sinai), brings bondage and death (Gal. 4:26). 

To repeat, God is Father, and thus we have fatherhood; for those in Christ God is their Father, the Church is their mother. For those not in Christ, the devil is their father, and the death of Sinai’s law is their mother. As always it isn’t whether you will have Father & Mother, but which one you will have.

Children of Promise

Children who grow up without parents or with unmarried parents are faced with a deck of statistics stacked against them. With few exceptions, their lifetime income is significantly lower; their education level will not go as high; their likelihood of being abused and then abusing in turn shoots through the roof; their prospects are bleak by almost every metric. Children were not intended to exist in a covenantal void. Scripture is concerned with bastard children, which is why it placed heavy penalties on rape, pre-marital sex, and adultery (Cf. Lev. 18), as well as provision for the care of fatherless children (Deu. 16:11, Ps. 68:5).

So, if you are a father or mother, you must not think of your duty (as father or mother) as being in a separate container from your marriage vows, and the consummation of those vows. You are a husband and a wife first. The potency of this covenantal love produces children. Your children are children of a promise, even as the whole family of believers are children of the Promise.

Covenant Duty of Fathers and Mothers

So Fathers are first husbands which are called to be faithful to their promise of loving and cherishing. Mothers are first wives which are called to faithfully fulfill their vow to submit and obey. 

A father which exhibits for his children that he doesn’t beam with delight over their mother (Is. 62:5), isn’t attentive to her (1 Pt. 3:7), doesn’t shower her with love (1 Ti. 5:8) will teach them to railroad her (Pro. 10:1). Husbands love their wives practically by full bank accounts, full cupboards, full closets, and full wombs.

Mothers which run down their husband in front of the kids (2 Sam. 6:16-23), swerving the opposite direction he is leading (Eph. 5:22), or criticizing his leadership at every turn (Pro 21:19) is teaching her children to be lawless rebels. Wives respect their husbands by bearing his name, and being his glory; she demonstrates this respect practically by not being an indecipherable code to get into, but by being ready for him and responding to him in all spheres of their relations (sexually, directionally, financially). So while husbands are called to fill, wives are are called to receive and be filled.

Lazy, inattentive husbands and bitter, nagging wives are teaching the children more than just how to be unpleasant humans. A sin-riddled marriage is presenting a false Gospel, and a marred understanding of God the Father, Christ the Son, and His Bride.

It’s vital that we see that Fathers and Mothers are cosmic categories. Husbands show their children how Christ laid down his life for the church. Wives show their children what joyful obedience to Christ should be. Not only are you teaching them about Fatherhood and Motherhood, but also the glorious Gospel of sacrificial love, responded to in joyful response.

Covered in Sawdust & Flour

These covenantal duties are not pie-in-the-sky intangibles. Rather, these spiritual duties are earthy, and are covered in sawdust and flour.

In Scripture, fathers name; a fathers’ word carry great weight. Fathers provide and protect. Fathers represent God to their families and their families to God. Father’s correct and teach. Fathers sacrifice and intercede. Fathers rule and lead. Fathers head their home.

Mothers respond to this headship by being fruitful. Indeed without the Father, she cannot bear fruit. As the one who bears and nurtures new humans she is to be held in high honor. They are to be fountains of the sort of wisdom which might be worn proudly around the neck of their offspring (Pr. 1:8-9). They are to be industrious, and laugh at all the troubles which are around the bend (Pro. 31:25). Mothers give glorified life and nourishment that is provided by the Father. Fathers face outward, Mothers face inward.

Adopted as Joint-Heirs With Christ

In Reformed theology we generally emphasize justification and sanctification. We blast through the mega-phone that you are not saved by your works of righteousness, you are justified in God’s sight only because of Christ’s righteousness and death in your place. We exhort each other to holiness and growth in sanctification because God has set us apart to be a holy people. But we must not gloss over the fact that one of the terms which is frequently included in NT descriptions of salvation is adoption (Gal 4:4-7).

God the Father, by the redeeming work of His Son, has delivered you from bondage to the law of sin and death. This isn’t like one cruel slave-master defeating another cruel slave-master, and your just caught in the crossfire. Rather, Paul tells us that you are no more a servant, but a son. In other words, you now have a share in the inheritance which belongs to Christ Jesus: resurrection life, everlasting joy, unending glory. You have been adopted as sons. Your Father in Heaven has given to Mother Kirk the Bread of Life and the Wine of Relief, and she has spread a table for the nourishment of her children. The children of grace and glory.

Which Father = Which Table

Which Father = Which Table

by ·

The Lord has prepared this table for His people. But there’s another table, a table of devils. Paul tells us we can’t partake of both (1 Cor. 10:21). It’s an either/or. However, you can eat this meal in such a way that you are in fact partaking of your own damnation (1 Cor. 11:29).

But the question about whether you are eating this meal worthily or to your own damnation is not one of looking deep into yourself with “very serious thoughts.” The question is a matter of Fatherhood. Who is your father? 

If the devil is your father, you’ll partake of his table wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. You’ll even come to the Lord’s table, and because the father of lies is your father, you’ll eat this meal as a liar. You’ll lie to yourself. You’ll lie to others, putting on the appearance of a moral citizen. You’ll lie to God, thinking He won’t see that your heart is charred over like a marshmallow left too long over the campfire.

But if God is your Father, you are partaking of Him, because you have partaken of His Son. Have you been baptized into Christ by faith? Then you are reckoned as one with Christ. The Father God looks upon you as a beloved child. He sees you and all He sees is the radiant righteousness of Jesus.

The devil was once your father, and so all you partook of was lies and murder and theft. But You have been adopted, God is Your Father, and so you partake of Him here and everywhere. Right now and for all eternity. So who is your father? That tells you everything you need know about which table you are seated at.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

Ben Zornes