“The Least of These”: An Example of the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Text

In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
Craig Blomberg comments:

The majority perspective has understand Jesus’ ‘brothers’ in verse 40 to refer to spiritual kin, as the term (adelphoi) does elsewhere in Matthew in every instance in which biological siblings are not in view (see 5:22-24, 47; 7:3-5; 12:48-50; 18:15 twice, 21, 35; 23:8; 28:10).
The term ‘little ones’, of which ‘the least’ (25:40, 45) is the superlative form, also without exception in Matthew refers to disciples (10:42; 18:6, 10, 14; cf. also 5:19 and 11:11).
This makes the point of Jesus’ teaching closely parallel to Matthew 10:42: Jesus’ itinerant followers (today we might call them Christian missionaries) must be cared for by those to whom they minister. Affording material help to those who preach in the name of Jesus demonstrates acceptance of the missionaries’ message at the spiritual level . . . This view is almost certainly correct.
Today, however, the prevailing interpretation is that Jesus is teaching about the need to help the dispossessed whether or not they are Christian. . . .
This is obviously an important biblical theme, but is far less likely to be the focus of this particular passage, given the consistent meaning of the terms and the larger context of parables focusing on the disciples (24:43-25:46).

—Craig L. Blomberg, Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Material Possessions, New Studies in Biblical Theology, ed. D. A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2000), 126; my emphasis.

Unanswerable Who Questions

If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . .
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?“

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 8:31-35, 11:33-36 ESV)

Justin Taylor

“If . . Then” in 1 John

IF . . .	THEN . . .
1:6	we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness	we lie and do not practice the truth
1:7	we walk in the light, as he is in the light	we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin
1:8	we say we have no sin	we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us
1:9	we confess our sins,	he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
1:10	we say we have not sinned	we make him a liar, and his word is not in us
2:1	anyone does sin	we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
2:3	we keep his commandments	by this we know that we have come to know him
2:15	anyone loves the world	the love of the Father is not in him
2:19	they had been of us	they would have continued with us
2:24	what you heard from the beginning abides in you	you too will abide in the Son and in the Father
2:29	you know that he is righteous	you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
3:17	anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him	how does God’s love abide in him?
3:21	our heart does not condemn us	we have confidence before God
4:11	God so loved us	we also ought to love one another
4:12	if we love one another	God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
4:20	anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother	he is a liar
5:9	If we receive the testimony of men	the testimony of God is greater
5:14	if we ask anything according to his will	he hears us
5:15	if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask	we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
5:16	If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death	he shall ask, and God will give him life

Justin Taylor

Reflections on Christ-Centered Bible Reading

Jesus is not only the most important figure in the Bible, he is the key that unlocks it all, the light that illumines it all, the organizing principle, the climax prepared for and then presented. Jesus is the point of the whole Bible.

Remove Jesus from Bible, and you don’t have a hero hall of fame with one of the portraits
missing; you have a dark room without the light turned on.

C. S. Lewis famously said,

I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

The same point Lewis makes about Christianity and the world could be made about Christ and the Bible. Calvin helpfully said in the Institutes that the OT is the shadows, the NT is the substance. The whole OT is preparation for Jesus; the whole NT is proclamation of Jesus.

In stepping back and taking stock of the whole Bible, several things come immediately to mind in considering how Jesus makes the whole Bible click into place.

The OT has God create the whole world simply by speaking it into existence with his word. Jesus came and John says that he was the Word.

The OT calls for a man to leave dad and mom and cleave to his bride. The NT calls this a great mystery and says ultimately this is to echo Jesus and his bride.

The OT has God redeeming his people from Egypt, leading them out of bondage after passing over his people as long as they took refuge under the blood of a lamb. Jesus redeemed his people from sin, leading them out of bondage by being the Lamb and providing his own blood, so that God would pass over those who take refuge under him.

The OT has Israel tested for 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus was tested for 40 days in the wilderness.

The OT has God send bread from heaven to feed the people, to be received by faith. Jesus came and said he was the bread who came down from heaven to feed the people, to be received by faith (John 6).

The OT has a tabernacle and then a temple, a physical building that was the presence of God and a place for people to meet with God, with restricted access. Jesus said he was the temple (John 2), a physical body that was the presence of God and a place for people to meet with God, with unrestricted access.

The OT recounts at length the sacrifices offered on the altar to atone for the people's sins. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb, offered on the cross to atone for the people's sins.

The OT had generation after generation of priests, who oversaw the atoning work of sacrifice, but who also needed to make atonement for themselves. Jesus was the great priest who achieved the atoning work of sacrifice and didn’t need to atone for himself.

The OT speaks of Israel as a vine that does not produce fruit (Ps 80; Isa 5; Jer 2; Hos 10). Jesus said, 'I am the vine . . . and he who abides in me bears much fruit' (John 15). (See this book!)

The OT longed for a king, a coming ruler, descended from David, born in Bethlehem, to come and restore the people of God. Jesus was that king, who came and restored the people of God, giving them the restoration not that they expected but that they really needed.

Dane Ortlund

What Are We Apart from Christ?

We sometimes think of the second half of the first chapter of Romans as a discourse about atheists. (And indeed, according to Romans 1 the answer to the question “Does God believe in atheists?” is “no.”)
But in reality, it’s a universal text that applies to all of us apart from Christ—what we are, what we do, and what we would do apart from God’s restraining and redeeming grace, with graphic examples to illustrate our truth-suppression and idolatrous identity.
Here’s an attempt to start to think through this sobering section of Romans.
What do all of us know?
(1) We know God himself.
(2) We know God’s decree.
(3) We know God’s judgment—that those who practice sinful things deserve death.
What is our responsibility?
We are without excuse.
How clear is the evidence for God’s knowability?
What can be known about God is plain.
Who showed us the evidence for God?
God himself has shown us what can be known about him.
What is it about God that every one of us knows?
We have clearly perceived God’s invisible attributes (= his eternal power and divine nature).
Where do we see God’s invisible attributes?
In the things that God has made.
What do we fail to do in response?
(1) We fail to honor God as God.
(2) We fail to give thanks to God.
(2) We fail to acknowledge God.
What do we do instead of honoring and thanking God?

We suppress the truth.
How?
By our unrighteousness.
What do we claim about our thinking?

We claim to be wise.
What are we in reality?

We are fools.
What happened to our minds?

We became futile in our thinking.
What happened to our hearts?
Our foolish hearts were darkened.
What is the result?
We exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling

• mortal man
• birds
• animals
• creeping things

We exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
What did we do with created things?
(1) We worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.
(2) We served the creature rather than the Creator.
What is the result of this idolatry?

God gave us up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.

What kind of impurity?
The dishonoring of our bodies among ourselves.

How did we become entangled in dishonorable passions?

God gave us up to dishonorable passions.
Which dishonorable passions did women commit?
Women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
Which dishonorable passions did men commit?
The men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
What does God do to us for failing to acknowledge him?

God gave us up to a debased mind.

To do what?
To do what ought not to be done.
What are we filled with?
All manner of

• unrighteousness
• evil
• covetousness
• malice

We are full of

• envy
• murder
• strife
• deceit
• maliciousness

What are we?
We are

• gossips
• slanderers
• haters of God
• insolent
• haughty
• boastful
• inventors of evil
• disobedient to parents
• foolish
• faithless
• heartless
• ruthless

What do we know?
God’s decree.
What is God’s decree?
Those who practice such sinful things deserve to die.
What do we do?
(1) We do these sinful things.
(2) We give approval to those who practice these sinful things.
What does God do in response?

God reveals his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Is there any hope?
The gospel.
What is the gospel?
The power of God for salvation.
For who?
To everyone who believes—to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
What is revealed in the gospel?
The righteousness of God, from faith to faith.
As Habakkuk 2:4 says, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

---

Justin Taylor

 

Packer and Wenham on Inerrancy

Kevin DeYoung offers some good quotes from J.I. Packer on why we should use the term “inerrancy,” despite common misunderstandings. (Packer’s whole book, Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life, is available online for free.)
Mark Dever once put together a document called “Inerrancy of the Bible: An Annotated Bibliography.” In it he gives his top recommended book on inerrancy:

I’ve saved the best for last. If I could just recommend one book on the inerrancy of the Bible it would undoubtedly be this one—John Wenham, Christ and the Bible. . . .
Wenham’s book . . . makes the simple point that our trust in Scripture is to be a part of our following Christ, because that is the way that He treated Scripture—as true, and therefore authoritative. . . .
In Christ and the Bible, Wenham, who taught Greek for many years at Oxford, an Anglican evangelical, has done us all a great service in providing us with a book which understands that we do not come by our adherence to Scripture fundamentally from the inductive resolutions of discrepancies, but from the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Only because of the Living Word may we finally know to trust the Written Word.
May God use these resources of those who’ve gone before us to equip and encourage us in so trusting.

Justin Taylor

Palm Sunday

Jesus, at the Mount of Olives, sends two disciples to secure a donkey and a colt; makes his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem; weeps over Jerusalem

Matthew 21:1-11
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

FAQ on Romans 5:1-5

How do we get peace with God?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
What did God do to give us peace?
He justified us.
By what means were we justified?
By faith.
What did justification give us access to?
God’s grace.
What is our relationship now to justifying grace?
We continue to stand in it.
What do we rejoice in?
Hope.
What do we hope in?
The glory of God.
What else do we rejoice in?
Our sufferings.
Why would we rejoice in our sufferings?
Because suffering produces endurance.
What does endurance produce?
Character.
What does character produce?
Hope.
How do we know that hope doesn’t put us to shame?
Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
How did God pour his love into our hearts?
Through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Justin Taylor