Theology of Prayer

The Bible is flooded with stories about people who in many and various circumstances (both beautiful and tragic) pour their hearts out to God in prayer. For many of us, however, our prayers are often few and far between. When we pray we are often moved to do so out of guilt instead of joy, praying not for the connection with God, but because it’s something we’re “supposed” to do. Perhaps we pray because we believe it will manipulate him into giving us more toys to distract us from the vanity of our lives. Perhaps we don’t pray because so often it feels as though we are simply talking into the air.

If we’re honest, many of us are completely confused about why we should pray and how to do it. While explaining how we should pray, Jesus tells us, “do not heap up empty phrases,” because, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:6-7). So then, why pray? Why does God, knowing what we need instruct us to ask for it?

Asking this question gives us tremendous insight into the purpose of prayer. It teaches that prayer is not a magic formula for the acquisition of health and wealth, but is something higher and deeper. It teaches that prayer is among the most tangible ways to express faith in God. It teaches that what we need, more than things is communion with God. We pray so that we don’t draw our joy primarily out of circumstances or possessions, but out of talking with a God who listens. Prideful, independent people who, in their own estimation, have no need of instruction or guidance do not pray.

But those who realize the realities of life continually pointed out in Scripture, “ought always to pray and not lose heart” because God “will give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night” (Luke 18:1-8). It’s interesting that Jesus compares prayer to crying. One author put it like this, “The cry is the force with which the stream of prayer rushes on. It is possible to have correct words, and deep thinking, and yet no real intensity of heart, no agony of soul” (Smith, James. Handfuls on Purpose, series VII, p. 86-87). Why are we not a people who cry out to God in faithful prayers day and night? Because our joy is drawn far more from our goods and situations than in God. So prayer is, as the Westminster Divines described it, “an offering up of our desires to God” (WLC Q178). It’s not so much a change of our state of affairs as it is a movement of God’s Spirit to transform our perspective.

Jesus gave his disciples a helpful pattern in Matt. 6 where he says, “Pray like this” (v. 5-13). We don’t have to abide by formulas, but they are helpful in structuring times of prayer. The pattern he offers has four basic elements, which can be remembered by the acrostic ACTS. First, prayers can be opened in a time of Adoration where God’s name and work is honored (i.e. “Father…Hallowed by your name…Your kingdom come…”). Second, we can move into Confession yielding an opportunity to be forgiven and cleansed (i.e. “Forgive us our debts”). Next, we can offer up Thanksgiving recognizing that God is the give of all things (i.e. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever). Finally, we can close with Supplications asking God to move on our behalf (i.e. “Give us this day our daily bread…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”).

If we do not have disciplined times of prayer, there will probably not be fullness in spontaneous times of prayer. What matters is not the amount of time we spend in prayer (15 minutes, 3 times/day), but the intensity of the focus of prayer. Our focus should be a desire for Christ. It should aim toward asking God to satisfy your heart and free you from sinful desires so that you exalt Christ and employ sacrificial love toward others.

Theology of Justification

One of the fascinating features of Christian thought is the idea that God is involved in rescuing people and creation from sin and restoring all things into a right relationship with Him. The Scriptures refer to this activity of God using the broad term “salvation,” but being “saved” has various aspects.

The theology of justification is one of those aspects. It is defined as a legal declaration from God that a sinner is not counted as guilty, but as truly righteous because he receives by faith the righteousness of Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:6-10, 18-19, Gal. 2:20-21, I Pet. 3:18). Justification is a one-time objective event, not a process. The process of being saved from sins is known in the Bible as sanctification, another aspect of salvation (Rom. 6:22, I Thess. 4:3).

The doctrine of justification is what makes the Christian faith truly unique. It is the one faith tradition granting assurance that those who have failed at perfect morality can be forgiven and restored to life. Justification declares that a sinner has right standing before God because of Jesus, the one who didn’t fail morally, but paid the ultimate price of death as if He had.

Since the basis of being declared righteous is not the ability of people to live a certain way, the apostle John assures believers that we can “know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13), because they are counted as righteous (Rom. 4:1-8, Phil. 3:7-9) or have Jesus’ righteousness credited (the theological term is “imputed”) to them. Paul explains it this way, “For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21).

This doctrine was the central issue of the Protestant Reformation. While the clarity was elaborated because the Roman Church was abusing its members with a false understanding of salvation, the implications of a correct understanding were too great to be ignored. The Reformers wanted a return to the biblical teaching that believers work from a position of justification with glad hearts, sincere joy, and bold confidence instead of for it, allowing our works to prove our faith rather than earn our justification (Heb. 10:19-24, James 1:22-25).

In many ways we need this reminder today since people profess justification by grace through faith, but do not live as if they have been justified. Churches are filled with people who think that they have to perform to earn God’s approval and are motivated by guilt and fear of condemnation. If any do not live as men and women who have “escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire,” then he is “so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (II Pet. 1:4, 9). Jesus’ life and work were sufficient and our hearts can rest believing “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Theology of Depravity

As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dialogue over the creation of the universe, God makes a remarkable comment about creating humans in Gen. 1. He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” (v. 26, 28). So humans have the special privilege of being created with the unique dignity of reflecting and representing God; glorious and holy, powerful and good, righteous and giving; we could go on and on.

The problem we have in believing this is that the stories of our lives seem to lack these qualities. We experience among other things, frustration, heartbreak, misunderstanding, abuse, confusion, and tragedy in a way that makes us feel powerless and insignificant. So what happened?

In Creation, God created Adam as a representative for all people. Gen. 1 describes the creation of humans generally as male and female and in Gen. 2, God describes creating Adam as the specific representative head of the human race. To Adam was given the rule of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam was the one responsible for keeping that rule. Yet, he could not contain himself and decided to stray and blame others for his distrust of God, trampling of his image, forsaking of responsibility, etc. (Gen. 3:6,10-12). Eve had been deceived, but Adam, who was “with her,” was willfully disobeying (I Tim. 2:14).

God doesn’t weakly and powerlessly overlook Adam’s rebellion. In holy justice, He responds by cursing Adam. The curse involved losing intimate communion, right standing and becoming defiled and cursed enemies of God (Matt. 25:41, Rom. 5:12-14, 6:23, Eph. 2:3-5, II Thes. 1:9). This affliction was passed on to all humans as all now have a heart after Adam’s image and likeness to rebel spiritually (Gen. 5:3, Gen. 6:5, Rom. 5:12). While in popular thought, it is often taught that people are condemned because they commit sin, the Scriptures teach that we are condemned because we are sinners, that we commit sin because it is in our heart to do so (Eccl. 7:20, 29, Jer. 17:9, Rom. 3:9, 10, 23, Gal. 3:10, Eph. 2:3-5, I Jn 1:8).

This is what is meant by “depravity.” Humans were created for greatness, but have been corrupted. They do what they shouldn’t (what the Bible calls, “trespass”) and don’t do what they should (what the Bible calls, “sin”) (Rom. 7:15-20, Eph. 2:1). This perversion saturates people to their very depths. Though many want to celebrate a “free-will,” human will is held in captivity to this corrupting influence, evidenced by our inability to live perfectly or live forever. People need God to intervene over their wills (Psalm 51:1-12, John 6:44, 16:8-9, Rom. 7:18, 9:16).

This begs the question, how can we explain beauty and justice if we are corrupt? In other words, how do people who don’t indicate any inclination toward God do such good things? The Bible points out that although we are defiled, we still bear the image and purposes of God (Gen. 9:1-7). All people have exposure to the truth of God through creation and through the law written on their hearts (Ps. 19:1, Rom. 1:19-20, 2:14-15). This is called “Common grace,” and it explains why God allows good fortune to fall on all people (Eccl. 9:2, Matt. 5:45) sometimes causing trouble for those who lean into God (Psalm 73).

So what is our hope of escaping the curse of God? We need a representative who is not depraved and does from the heart what people were created to do. The good news is that Jesus is that representative (Rom. 5:16-19, Rom. 8:1-4). He became cursed for us and was raised in victory over God’s curse (Gal. 3:13, I Cor. 15:1-4). We now have the hope of being reborn, recreated, renewed and restored (John 3:1-21, II Cor. 5:17-21, Eph. 4:20-24). And our hope is to return to the urban garden where we have unbroken fellowship and joy in life as we reflect God (Rev. 22).

Theology of Holy Spirit

Unique to the Christian faith is the confession that God is One; united in power and substance yet distinct in the person of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This formula, One God in three persons, is known as the Trinity. As one of those persons of God, Holy Spirit is God. He is called God (Psalm 51:11; Isaiah 63:10, II Cor. 13:14) and does works as God (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13, Titus 3:5). Lying to Spirit is lying to God (Acts 5:3-4). He is equal to Father and Son in addresses to God (II Cor. 13:4, Rev. 1:4-6, Matt. 28:19).

Holy Spirit is often the most abused or ignored person of the Holy Trinity. Generally speaking, He is nearly bypassed in circles that apply diligence to studying the Scriptures and have high views of doctrine and theology. Others who don’t know much of what the Scriptures actually say credit Holy Spirit with chaotic nonsense that doesn’t reflect the glory of Christ, but feed the selfish desires of men using God for toys. This not only causes frustration among those trying to communicate the Christian faith, but also, unhealthy division that grieves God.

Part of the confusion is from the difference between His work in the Old Testament (OT) and in the New Testament (NT). In the OT, the work of the Holy Spirit among people included the generation of life (Gen. 2:7; Psalm 33:6; Psalm 104:30) and the inspiration and qualification of people to works of service (Ex. 31:3-4; I Sam. 16:13). Jesus, during his ministry in the NT, explained that the age to come would be the age of the Spirit and that His ministry would be more dramatic and personal (John 16:7-15).

The ministry of the Spirit in the NT would include sealing, indwelling, and filling true believers of the Gospel. Sealing is God’s securing of believers, marking them as God’s purchased possession (Eph. 1:13-14). Indwelling is God’s personal dwelling among believers of all nations (not just Israel), enabling them to live in the likeness of Christ (John 7:39; Rom. 8:9, Gal. 5:22-25). Filling is yielding to the Spirit as the dominant influence of the believer’s behavior (Eph. 5:18). So in the OT, He was the power and presence of God among His people, and especially of some, while in the NT He is poured out on every class and race of people who truly believe the Gospel.

One of the most divisive teachings, which began to surface in the early 1900s, is the false idea that there are multiple stages to belief and that one does not have access to Holy Spirit upon believing in Jesus, but that subsequent prayers for Him will be met with the gift of speaking in “tongues.” One only has assurance that he belongs to God if he evidences it by spouting off random jibber-jabber and ecstatic utterances. This teaching ignores the Scriptural statements that believers are “sealed and indwelt” with the Holy Spirit upon believing in the Gospel (John 7:39, Eph. 1:13-14) and besides perverting the biblical teaching of tongues, overemphasizes a subjective experience over a more objective teaching of Scripture desiring to elevate a particular gift of God beyond its proper measure (I Cor. 12:4-11, 13:1).

As we encounter these false teachings, we should bear in mind two things. Not every claim of spiritual gifting is valid (I John 4:1-2), nor is it appropriately exercised (I Cor. 14:6-12). However, we must not overreact as some have and deny legitimate filling of the Spirit that encourages men and women to remember the Gospel of Jesus (John 16:14-15). Much of the chaos and unbiblical practice among so-called “charismatic” believers makes the worship of Jesus into a circus sideshow, but proper response isn’t the gagging out of the Holy Spirit’s power. Those who do not consider themselves “charismatic” can be guilty of ignoring the work of the Spirit. His presence is the fulfillment of the many promises of Jesus about God’s presence with His people and Ephesians points out that He is the guarantee of our future hope and our power for daily living and confession and faith. He is the most personal presence of God among us and we do well to take notice and be filled by Him.

Theology of Predestination

Predestination for a myriad of reasons is a very controversial doctrine. The abuse and misunderstanding of the doctrine has lead to fights and divisions among congregations and denominations and the fallout has been ugly. Much of the dissention occurs because of the need for someone to be right, but usually involves the promoting of an implication of the doctrine rather than the doctrine itself. It is impossible to simply ignore predestination and hope that it will go away, because its prevalence throughout Scripture proves that it’s not a secondary or imaginary doctrine. It needs to be dealt with in a way that is true to Scripture. Our presuppositions should be challenged, even changed when held up to the doctrine, rather than the other way around.

There are several words that are tied up in the doctrine of predestination (chosen, elect, predestined) and the majority of times these words are used, they refer directly to God’s action in choosing people to receive eternal life. Some examples include Deut. 7:6-9, Matt. 24:31, Rom. 8:29-30, Rom. 9:11,16-26, Eph. 1:5, 11, II Thess. 2:13-15, and I Pet. 2:9. The best way to define the doctrine is to say that predestination is God’s choosing, before the foundation of the world people to be saved, not on account of any foreknown merit in them, but because of His sovereign good pleasure.

There are at least three primary misunderstands of the doctrine of election that instigate debate. The first is to present it in a way that is fatalistic and denies mankind the ability to make choices that have real effects. According to this view, the decisions people make have no influence on their standing before God because He has already predetermined everything that will come to pass. Scripture teaches that this is not the case. We see in John 3:16-18 and Rom. 10:14 that our decisions have eternal consequences, both for ourselves and for others. In Acts 18:9-11 God uses the doctrine of predestination (not fatalism) to encourage Paul to remain in the city of Corinth so that people can respond.

The second misunderstanding is much more prevalent and fiercely defended. It teaches predestination in a way that is not predestination at all. Instead it is taught as God’s foreknowledge of events, without providentially directing those events. God is helpless to intervene in the “free will” of people, a concept which consequently is not explicitly taught anywhere in the Bible. This view misrepresents Rom. 8:29 to teach that God’s choice is based on a foreknowledge of how people will respond when they hear of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. The passage actually teaches that God foreknows people. While it would include response, the emphasis is placed on personal knowledge of individuals. Scripture NEVER speaks of our faith as the reason God chose us. In fact, it clearly teaches the opposite. Rom. 9:16 explicitly states that election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God.” It is more biblically honest to embrace predestination than to present God as a cosmic fortune-teller with no influence on the affairs of mankind.

The third misunderstanding, while serving as a motivation to bad views of predestination actually stems from a misunderstanding about God himself. This view is that election is unfair. After all, doesn’t God want to save everybody as in I Tim. 2:3-4 and II Pet. 3:9? The problem with that conclusion is that we know that not everyone will be saved (Matt. 13:41-42, I John 5:10-12 among many others). So we accept the truth of Deut. 29:29, that God expresses in His revealed will the command to repent and be saved, but has a secret will of who is chosen. The question of equity in this was raised in Rom. 9:20-21, where the answer is that God has the right to do as He wishes. We count on the injustice of God for salvation. Jesus had to die to earn salvation, yet He was innocent. We all believe this on a practical level. Personally, we counted on God contradicting our wills so that we could come to faith in Jesus. We also pray for God to providentially contradict the will of those who don’t know Him so that they will repent of their sin and trust Jesus. God’s unfairness actually results in our good.

Rather than keep this a distant theological topic, it is good to consider why Paul includes this in the letter to the Ephesians. Every time Scripture talks about predestination, it is used to encourage God’s people to faithfulness. It is NEVER, EVER used to challenge a person or get him question his ability to be close to God, etc. It is a promise of comfort. Your standing with God rests on the promise of God, not on your feeling of status or worth. Rather than get defensive and divisive, let us take comfort in this great doctrine.

Who Were the Recipients of the Letter to the Ephesians?

This seems like a ridiculous question considering all English versions of the Bible include the phrase “in Ephesus” in the first verse (except the RSV, which almost always favors unorthodox translations). But reading the footnote of a worthwhile translation (ESV or NASB) reveals, “Some manuscripts do not contain ‘in Ephesus.’”

As far as we know, only three manuscripts do not contain the phrase, however, they are three significant copies of the original NT writings. More doubts arise in light of the fact that some of the earliest commentators show no awareness that the letter was addressed to Ephesus; one thought it was written to Laodicea.

Given that Paul spent the majority of his known ministry in Ephesus, traveling there on multiple occasions, significantly impacting the city’s economy to the point of a riot, and bidding a sorrowful farewell to the Ephesian community (Acts 19:21-41, 20:36-38), we would expect a considerable amount of personal appeals, greetings, etc. as was his custom in other letters. However, this letter is by far Paul’s most impersonal and general, including phrases such as, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints” (1:16). No Ephesian individuals, groups, or issues are addressed in the entire letter.

With the considerable evidence against Ephesian reception, at least two things prevent complete dismissal. First of all, the letter had an intended recipient. Even among those copies that do not include “in Ephesus,” the text literally reads, “To the saints who are and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Without a designation the remaining wording is clumsy. Secondly, copies of this letter were designated to the Ephesians from early in its history. Ancient copiers would not arbitrarily add words to sacred texts. The only sufficient reason for including the phrase, “in Ephesus” is that it was copied from what was believed to be an authentic copy.

Perhaps the best way to decipher the destination comes from the similarity between this letter and Colossians. Explanations in both point out that they were delivered by Tychicus and that Paul expected them to be circulated throughout Asia Minor. Ephesus would be a reasonable starting point as it was the gateway city to the region. It had influence because of geography, population and because of the temple shrine to Diana (or Artemis), containing an image said to have fallen from heaven to earth, making it the religious center. When Jesus addresses the churches throughout Asia Minor in Rev. 2, he starts with Ephesus.

Because he spent a considerable amount of time in Ephesus, Paul wouldn’t have to address specific issues by letter and would certainly have “heard” of the faith and love of those in the region. Instead, he could write a general theological letter reminding Christians of their position before God so that they can live it out, regardless of their circumstance or situation. Whether or not we can claim with absolute certainty that this book originally included the phrase “in Ephesus,” we still have an invaluable resource for anyone to live out his or her faith in Jesus.

New Series - Death to Life: The Letter to the Ephesians

This Sunday we will begin our new series on Epheisans.

Along the way, I will be writing theological articles on topics that come up throughout the book. We will have these available on Sundays and I will publish them here.