brianhenryblog

People seek contentment and typically in the world they assume that contentment is the absence of all problems. That’s not the true meaning of contentment, because if that’s what contentment is no one will ever have it because you can’t be completely free from problems.

True contentment is being able to be satisfied and content in the midst of any problem. That’s the kind of contentment that God offers. God alone can make us content in any situation and that’s what we’re learning from the Apostle Paul.

Paul is a man for all seasons.
He is a man of contentment.
He is a satisfied man
He is a sufficient man.

In Philippians 4:4 he commanded us to always rejoice
In verse 6 that he commanded us not to worry or be anxious for anything.
In verse 7 that he introduced us to the peace of God.
In verse 9 he introduced us to the God of peace.

Here is a man who knows how to rejoice in every situation. Here is a man who is free from anxiety and worry. Here is a man whose heart is guarded by the peace of God and the God of peace. Here is a man who now tells us that he has learned to be content.

Could there be any more significant theme for our day than contentment? We live in an utterly discontent culture.

We are discontent with what we have,
We are discontent with what we look like.
We are discontent with who we are married to.
We are discontent with our lot in life.
We are basically discontent with the circumstances and the difficulties that come our way.

We are discontent. And we have so much. Here is a man who rejoiced, who was free from worry, who knew a surpassing peace, here is a man who learned to be content, here is a man who in any and every circumstance found himself sufficient, satisfied. Naturally the question that is immediately posed is…how so? How can we be content? If he learned to be content, can he teach us to be content? He who was the pupil and learned the lesson, can he become the teacher and we the pupil? And I believe the answer is yes.

Stay tuned for part three and we will let Paul give us the secret.

*Greek autarkia αὐτάρκεια self sufficiency

The Greek word for “content ” is AUTARKES a marvelous word. It goes way back to the Greek term which meant to be self-sufficient, to be satisfied, to have enough.

The term actually indicates a certain independence, a certain lack of necessity for aid or help. In fact, it was used in some places outside the Scripture to refer to a person who supported himself without anyone’s aid.

Paul is saying, “I have learned to be satisfied, I’ve learned to be sufficient in myself, and yet not in myself as myself, but in myself as indwelt by Christ.” He had come to spiritual contentment.

This particular self-sufficiency had been made a virtue in Greek culture by the Stoics. The Stoics believed that this concept of contentment was reached when you had come to the point of total indifference, when you were indifferent to everything, then and only then would you be content. Now that is the contentment of indifference. That is the Stoic contentment that abolishes feeling and abolishes emotion.

That’s not what Paul is talking about. When he talks about contentment, he may use the same word, autarkes, that the Stoics used but he means something very different. He does not mean indifference for he was deeply compassionate, he cared greatly. But he was still content. So he takes the idea of contentment much further than it was taken even in the Greek culture where the word found its meaning. Paul was content.

Phil 4: 10 -19 is a unit – and needs to be seen in the context

Thanks for Their Gifts

10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Also:

20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Tim 6: 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Tim. 6: 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

1 Tim 6 : 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Hebrews 13:5
“Be content with whatever you have, for he said I will never leave you or forsake you.”

It is not an art it is a command according to HEBREWS be content with your food clothing wages. Contentment is a virtue a command.

Paul was writing this as a prisoner chained to a Roman soldier.
In verse 11, he says it there, “I have learned to be content.” Through experiences in life, through the provision of God he had been put in to a process which was now completed and he had learned to be content. What a tremendous thing that is to learn. Here then is the testimony of a contented man. And there’s no better way to see that contentment than to see how he deals with his own distress and the gifts that some people give to him. It gives him the perfect environment to demonstrate his contentment.

He says , in the middle of the verse, “I have learned the secret…I have learned the secret…” This is a fascinating verb, it is a verb that is used to speak of being initiated into the mystery religions, of being initiated into the pagan cults which held certain secrets for only the initiated to know. Paul borrows that word and says, “I have been initiated into the secrets of contentment, I have learned the secret of living a contented life.” Truly the peace of God, in verse 7, was his portion. Truly the God of peace in verse 9 was his portion. Truly he was experiencing verse 6, he was anxious for nothing. He was content, he was satisfied, he was adequate, he had enough, he was sufficient. What a marvelous statement. “I’m content.” Why, Paul? “I’ve learned the secret.”

Jesus’ Perspective on Sola Fide

Many who have embraced “the New Perspective on Paul” are also proposing a different slant on the doctrine of justification by faith. When the text of Scripture is interpreted in the new light, they say, Pauline support for the principle of sola fide, the doctrine of imputation, and the distinction between law and gospel doesn’t seem quite so strong.

We say that’s nonsense. We reject the historical and hermeneutical revisionism of the New Perspective, but regardless of how one interprets the apostle Paul, it is quite clear that Jesus taught justification by faith alone. To abandon this truth is to abandon biblical soteriology altogether.

No doctrine is more important to evangelical theology than the doctrine of justification by faith alone–the Reformation principle of sola fide. Martin Luther rightly said that the church stands or falls on this one doctrine.

History provides plenty of objective evidence to affirm Luther’s assessment. Churches and denominations that hold firmly to sola fide remain evangelical. Those who have strayed from the Reformation consensus on this point inevitably capitulate to liberalism, revert to sacerdotalism, embrace some form of perfectionism, or veer off into worse forms of apostasy.

The Very Essence Of Christianity

Historic evangelicalism has therefore always treated justification by faith as a central biblical distinctive–if not the single most important doctrine to get right. This is the doctrine that makes authentic Christianity distinct from every other religion. Christianity is the religion of divine accomplishment–with the emphasis always on Christ’s finished work. All others are religions of human achievement. They become preoccupied, inevitably, with the sinner’s own efforts to be holy. Abandon the doctrine of justification by faith and you cannot honestly claim to be evangelical.

Scripture itself makes sola fide the only alternative to a damning system of works-righteousness: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:4-5, emphasis added).

In other words, those who trust Jesus Christ for justification by faith alone receive a perfect righteousness that is reckoned to them. Those who attempt to establish their own righteousness or mix faith with works only receive the terrible wage that is due all who fall short of perfection. So the individual as well as the church stands or falls with the principle of sola fide. Israel’s apostasy was rooted in their abandonment of justification by faith alone: “For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3).

Biblical justification must be earnestly defended on two fronts. No-lordship theology (the error we dealt with in the November/December issue of Pulpit) twists the doctrine of justification by faith to support the view that obedience to God’s moral law is optional. This teaching attempts to reduce the whole of God’s saving work to the declarative act of justification. It downplays the spiritual rebirth of regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17); it discounts the moral effects of the believer’s new heart (Ezek. 36:26-27); and it makes sanctification hinge on the believer’s own efforts. It tends to treat the forensic element of justification–God’s act of declaring the believing sinner righteous–as if this were the only essential aspect of salvation. The inevitable effect of this approach is to turn the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 4). Such a view is called antinomianism.

On the other hand, there are many who make justification dependent on a mixture of faith and works. Whereas antinomianism radically isolates justification from sanctification, this error blends the two aspects of God’s saving work. The effect is to make justification a process grounded in the believer’s own flawed righteousness–rather than a declarative act of God grounded in Christ’s perfect righteousness.

As soon as justification is fused with sanctification, works of righteousness become an essential part of the process. Faith is thus diluted with works. Sola fide is abandoned. This was the error of the Galatian legalists (cf. Gal. 2:16; 5:4). Paul called it “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6, 9). The same error is found in virtually every false cult. It’s the main error of Roman Catholicism. I’m concerned that it may also be the direction many who are enthralled with “the New Perspective on Paul” are traveling. [1]

If doctrine as a whole has been ignored in our day, the doctrine of justification has suffered a particular neglect. Written works on justification are noticeably missing from the corpus of recent evangelical literature. [2] In his introduction to the 1961 reprint of James Buchanan’s landmark work, The Doctrine of Justification, J. I. Packer made note of this:

It is a fact of ominous significance that Buchanan’s classic volume, now a century old, is the most recent full-scale study of justification by faith that English-speaking Protestantism (to look no further) has produced. If we may judge by the size of its literary output, there has never been an age of such feverish theological activity as the past hundred years; yet amid all its multifarious theological concerns it did not produce a single book of any size on the doctrine of justification. If all we knew of the church during the past century was that it had neglected the subject of justification in this way, we should already be in a position to conclude that this has been a century of religious apostasy and decline. [3]

Having neglected this doctrine for more than a century, evangelicals are ill-equipped to answer those who are saying Martin Luther and the Reformers misunderstood the apostle Paul and therefore got the doctrine of justification wrong.

The evangelical movement is on the verge of abandoning the material principle of the Reformation, and most evangelicals don’t even see the threat and would have no answer cogent if they did.

What must we do to be saved? The apostle Paul answered that question for the Philippian jailer in the clearest possible terms: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Paul’s key doctrinal epistles–especially Romans and Galatians–then expand on that answer, unfolding the doctrine of justification by faith to show how we are justified by faith alone apart from human works of any kind.

At least, that is the historic evangelical interpretation of Paul. But that’s the very thing under attack by the New Perspective.

So what if we move beyond the apostle Paul? Is it possible to prove the principle of sola fide from the earthly teaching of Christ? It certainly is.

The Gospel According To Jesus

Although Christ made no formal explication of the doctrine of justification (such as Paul did in his epistle to the Romans), justification by faith underlies and permeates all His gospel preaching. While Jesus never gave a discourse on the subject, it is easy to demonstrate from Jesus’ evangelistic ministry that He taught sola fide.

For example, it was Jesus Himself who stated, “he who hears My word, and believes . . . has passed out of death into life” (Jn. 5:24)–without undergoing any sacrament or ritual, and without any waiting period or purgatory. The thief on the cross is the classic example. On the most meager evidence of his faith, Jesus told him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43). No sacrament or work was required for him to procure salvation.

Furthermore, the many healings Jesus accomplished were physical evidence of His power to forgive sins (Matt. 9:5-6). When He healed, He frequently said, “Your faith has made you well” (Matt. 9:22; Mk. 5:34; 10:52; Lk. 8:48; 17:19; 18:42). All those healings were object lessons on the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

But the one occasion where Jesus actually declared someone “justified” provides the best insight into the doctrine as He taught it:

He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14, emphasis added).

That parable surely shocked Jesus’ listeners! They “trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (v. 9)–the very definition of self-righteousness. Their theological heroes were the Pharisees, who held to the most rigid legalistic standards. They fasted, made a great show of praying and giving alms, and even went further in applying the ceremonial laws than Moses had actually prescribed.

Yet Jesus had stunned multitudes by saying, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20)–followed by, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48). Clearly, He set a standard that was humanly impossible, for no one could surpass the rigorous living of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now He further astounds His listeners with a parable that seems to place a detestable tax-gatherer in a better position spiritually than a praying Pharisee.

Jesus’ point is clear. He was teaching that justification is by faith alone. All the theology of justification is there. But without delving into abstract theology, Jesus clearly painted the picture for us with a parable.

A Judicial Act of God

This tax-gatherer’s justification was an instantaneous reality. There was no process, no time lapse, no fear of purgatory. He “went down to his house justified” (v. 14)–not because of anything he had done, but because of what had been done on his behalf.

Notice that the tax-collector understood his own helplessness. He owed an impossible debt he knew he could not pay. All he could do was repent and plead for mercy. Contrast his prayer with that of the arrogant Pharisee. He did not recite what he had done. He knew that even his best works were sin. He did not offer to do anything for God. He simply pleaded for divine mercy. He was looking for God to do for him what he could not do for himself. That is the very nature of the penitence Jesus called for.

By Faith Alone

Furthermore, this man went away justified without performing any works of penance, without doing any sacrament or ritual, without any meritorious works whatsoever. His justification was complete without any of those things, because it was solely on the basis of faith. Everything necessary to atone for his sin and provide forgiveness had already been done on his behalf. He was justified by faith on the spot.

Again, he makes a stark contrast with the smug Pharisee, who was so certain that all his fasting and tithing and other works made him acceptable to God. But while the working Pharisee remained unjustified, the believing tax-gatherer received full justification by faith alone.

An Imputed Righteousness

Remember Jesus’ statement from the Sermon on the Mount, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20)? Yet now He states that this tax-gatherer–the most wicked of men–was justified! How did such a sinner obtain a righteousness that exceeded that of the Pharisee? If the standard is divine perfection (v. 48), how could a traitorous tax-collector ever become just in God’s eyes?

The only possible answer is that he received a righteousness that was not his own (cf. Phil. 3:9). Righteousness was imputed to him by faith (Rom. 4:9-11).

Whose righteousness was reckoned to him? It could only be the perfect righteousness of a flawless Substitute, who in turn must bear the tax-gatherer’s sins and suffer the penalty of God’s wrath in his place. And the gospel tells us that is precisely what Jesus did.

The tax-gatherer was justified. God declared him righteous, imputing to him the full and perfect righteousness of Christ, forgiving him of all unrighteousness, and delivering him from all condemnation. Forever thereafter he stood before God on the ground of a perfect righteousness that had been reckoned to his account.

That is what justification means. It is the only true gospel. All other points of theology emanate from it. As Packer wrote, “The doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace.” [4] t he difference between sola fide and every other formula for justification is not theological hair-splitting. A right understanding of justification by faith is the very foundation of the gospel. You cannot go wrong on this point without ultimately corrupting every other doctrine as well.

And that is why every “different gospel” is under the eternal curse of God.

I raise this concern because most New Perspectivists deny any legitimate distinction between law and gospel; they often portray justification in stages, with final justification dependent on the believer’s own works; and many of them downplay or reject the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer. They have focused their revisionist hermeneutic on the very passages where Paul most clearly teaches these doctrines, such as 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Philippians 3:9.

To give a more thorough analysis the New Perspective’s devastating impact on the doctrine of justification is far beyond the scope of this article. But most critics of New Perspectivism have raised very similar concerns. See, for example, David Linden, The New Perspective of N. T. Wright on the Doctrine of Justification.

Two notable exceptions are James White, The God who Justifies (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2001), and R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995).
James I. Packer in James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1961 reprint of 1867 original), 2.
Packer, in Buchanan, 2.

John McArthur. GTY

The following quotes concerning baptism are taken from chapter 28 of the Westminster Confessions…  “1. Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

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First, baptism is NOT a sacrament.  There is NO special grace conferred by being baptized.  The word “sacrament” isn’t even found in the Bible.

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Furthermore, there is NOT one single Verse in the entire Bible which teaches that a person is sealed through baptism.

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On the contrary, Ephesians 1:13 states… “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.It’s God’s Holy Spirit which seals the believer; NOT baptism.    The only sure sign that a person has been placed into the Body of Christ is the Holy Spirit of God Himself, “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1st John 4:13).

Scripture clearly teaches then that, baptism is NOT a sacrament!

I have read and re read theses passages and noticed that Satan used the same strategy when tempting both the first Adam, and the second Adam – Christ.
Gen 3: 1-6 Matt 4

Gen 3: 1-6
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

By questioning the literal word of God and offering Eve spiritual benefits that she could attain, in effect, I think we see Satan here, originating the allegorical approach as a way to understand what God really said!
Likewise, when Satan tempted our Lord, he questioned the literal word of God, and then proceeded to allegorize and offer spiritual and physical blessings.

Mathew 4 1-41 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

I have looked at many proponents of the allegorical/ spiritualizing approach, all the way from Augustine, Origen, and down through Piper, Sproul, Robertson, Keller and Doriani.

However, I have found compelling evidence in the scripture to use the literal interpretation method for all genres of the word, as the safest, and best method to avoid the introduction of heresy. Jesus summed it up well:

Mathew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”