Mailbag is a tool I utilize with students of Scripture and theology anytime I have the opportunity to teach. The questions that are sent in are ones that we did not have time for in the moment, or the scope of our passage did not directly answer them.
Students email me their questions, I reply with either my own answers, or trusted sources, and then I require that they engage the responses and sources cited before scheduling a meeting with me to discuss further. I am sharing these here for an archive of such questions and responses. Here are the questions...
Is God always perfectly satisfied?
Because God does all that He pleases, and can never lack anything or be taken by surprise, God must be supremely happy. How is this so? And how does this work when people sin against God? Here are two resources that will help provide a basis for the unchanging happiness of God:
What did God’s existence look like before the creation of the world?
The historic Christian creeds have held God to be eternal and personal, three Persons sharing one Divine Nature in the Holy Trinity. Here are those early creeds, as well as Jonathan Edwards understanding of the fellowship within the Trinity, as well as a free ebook (pdf) on the same topic:
An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity
Summarizing the Eternal Relations of Origin
We know that God is 3 persons and He does nothing without the consent of all 3 persons, so can the Son of God specifically be omnipresent? because If Jesus was at one point a fetus how was he the Father and the Son all working as 1 because one of them would have been incapable. Did the Father and the Spirit just work as 2 for the time being while The Son was out of the picture?
Once again, the early creeds help us understand what happened and did not happen on the Cross.
If God is immortal He cannot die. Yet, for infinite wrath (what sin deserves) to be poured out to make atonement and satisfaction for sins, the only being who can absorb infinite wrath and not be utterly unmade is God Himself. How does this all work? I am sharing several essays below to help answer these most important questions:
Did God Die on the Cross?: The Trinity and the Crucifixion
Did New Testament Authors Understand the Trinity?
Theological Primer: Hypostatic Union
The Incarnation and Two Natures of Christ
Podcast: How to Explain the Hypostatic Union to a Fifth Grader (Stephen Wellum)
The Nicene Creed's Hermeneutic
Does God feel sadness when we sin as Christians? Or is He unable to see our sins? (Eg. removes them as far as east is from west)
The Bible uses language of sadness and regret when referring to God’s acts in creation and redemption. How we understand those passages greatly reflect how we understand who God is. If our understanding of God is muddy, our understanding of His works will be muddy as well. Here are a few resources on the subject:
The Immutability and Impassibility of God
The God Who Is Not Like Us: Why We Need the Doctrine of Divine Immutability
The Impassible God Who “Cried”
Is Impassibility Really Biblical?
What verses show that drinking is different from being drunk?
The key verse passage is found in Ephesians 5.
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Nowhere in Scripture are believers commanded to not drink alcoholic beverages. There is plenty to say about being considerate of those who have a weaker conscience, but on the whole Christians are free to enjoy the good gifts of the vine, or the grain. Here are a few helpful resources on issues around drinking:
Alcohol, Liberty, and Legalism
Why Christians Need a Better Debate About Alcohol
In Ephesians 2:10, what did God prepare beforehand? Does this support predestination?
Ephesians 2:8-10 is one of the most amazing passages of Scripture. It reads,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I’d like to offer a few observations of my own before listing out some helpful resources. We are saved by grace, not faith. Faith is the entry point into the Kingdom of God, but is not the cause of that entry. Why am I saved? God’s grace. What did He graciously do on my behalf? Christ died for me. How has God orchestrated the entering of sinners into the family of God? Faith and repentance.
At a Boston Celtics game back in the late 2000s, let’s say you are sitting up in the nosebleeds, after a basket was scored you would not have heard the MC say “3 points.” The 3 points are obvious simply by watching the scoreboard. You would not have even heard “the ball went through the hoop.” You would have heard “Ray Allen for 3!” Why? Because what has occurred is 3 points being scored, but no one would credit the 3 points to the fact that the ball went through the rim, although that was a necessary part. Everyone in attendance would have credited the three points, and the ball going through the hoop, to Ray Allen. He is the cause, the ball going through the hoop the means, and the 3 points the result, and a NBA title the end.
Likewise, God’s grace is the cause of our salvation, faith and repentance the means, good works result…but what is the ultimate end? The last verse of the passage tells us “In Him [Christ] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
The ultimate end of all things, and in this passage particularly the work of redemption, is God’s glory being on full display and dwelling with His image bearers. Here are some resources on Ephesians 2:
How do I help fire up lukewarm Christians?
“Lukewarm” language comes from Revelation 3, in Jesus’ words written to the church in Laodicea. The passage reads,
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. 15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
So first, the language of lukewarm in this passage is not aimed at individuals, but to an entire church. Within the church in Laodicea there were true believers. There were also those who claimed to be believers but the evidence would say otherwise, and a variety of people in between.
When you have a group of people who claim to be Christians, united as a local church, but the evidence says that they really may not be Christians, we don’t need to “fire them up” but to preach the Gospel to them. I can preach in such a way that gets people emotional and fired up about this or that, but if they are not saved, are not indwelt by the Spirit, for all their zeal, they may be headed for hell.
If churches would preach the Gospel, pursue sanctification together, and practice discipleship and church discipline, we would not have lukewarm churches, but unsaved attendees who have not been allowed to participate in the membership of the church. Beyond these first ideas, we also need to ask what being lukewarm means, and, what causes lukewarmness? Here are some resources on these questions:
The Most Important Decision You’re Probably Not Thinking About
Paul Washer - Shocking Message
Revelation: Victory in Doubt - Week 2 - Sermons - Matt Chandler
If God hardens man's heart, how is He not responsible for the sin?
The problem of evil is the go to question for so many people. You can see previous mailbags where I have sent along resources on this tough question. Here are a few that I go to on a regular basis:
Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom
God Is Sovereign and We Are Responsible
Is God Sovereign over My Free Will?
Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility
How Does God’s Sovereignty Not Violate Our Decision-Making?
The Unlikely Friendship between God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility
If God Is Sovereign, Am I Responsible?
I’ve been taught that Jesus died out of love for the Father not technically for us. Is that true?
No. That is not true. At least, not how it is worded and what I take it to mean. The statement pits Jesus’ love for the Father against His love for His people. It also seems to confound the relations of the Trinity, namely the Inseparable Operations of the Trinity (see also this article by Adonis Vidu). God, being Three Persons sharing One Divine Nature, loves those whom He has chosen to redeem. We cannot pit the Father against the Son, or that the Son loved us and the Father was indifferent. Here are a few resources on this issue:
Jesus Didn’t Die So He Could Love You
Jesus Died Because He Loved You
2 Reasons Jesus Died on the Cross
Did Christ Die for Us or for God?
Do you believe kids can become christians? Ex: those people that say that they came to Christ as a 5yo kid.
Simply put, yes! Children can place their faith in Jesus and repent of their sins, and that is a glorious reality.
The issue that commonly arises is that those who profess faith as a child often doubt whether or not they are truly saved down the road. This is due to many reasons, ranging from a life lived in sin, to no memory of being converted, to whether or not they really meant what they said.
I made a profession of faith as a child. I have no memory of it. I also lived a rebellious lifestyle and was an atheist for almost a decade. I have had to ask and answer these questions myself. I was most helped by two short books, one on the Gospel, the other on the Christian life. Later down the road I revisited these same themes, but read other books that helped me deeply. I will keep my list to five books that helped me understand my salvation and assurance in Christ.
What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert
Living the Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund
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