Holding the Phalanx of the Christian Life

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ~ Ro. 7:22-25a

As I was reading through my devotional for this morning (which is New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp, and I highly recommend it), I was struck by something in Ro. 7 that I had never really thought about before. In vv. 22-23, Paul brings out how sanctification is a war in the Christian life. Yes, that is not really new, but the way I thought about it this morning was new to me. Sanctification being a war of sin, temptation, the world, my flesh, and the devil against my my union with Christ requires me to hold the phalanx of the Christian life and march forward always.

The Phalanx

The phalanx was an ancient battle formation that was really brought to its penical by the Spartans in ancient Greece. In the above photo, you get a pretty good picture of what it looked like (though, that photo is from the movie 300, which was really not representative of Spartan battle strategies in any other way than this one scene). The front line of soldiers would line up with shields in their left hand and spears in their right. The shields would overlap, so part of your shield protected you and part of it protected your comrade to your left. Then, the next line would do the same thing, putting their shields right up against the backs of the front line, and so on and so forth back--many ranks deep. Then, they would face another army, and the line would never break. The the Spartans would often just march over entire armies this way or even push entire armies off a cliff, if that was available.

Christian Life Warfare

Since sanctification is a war of sin, temptation, the world, the flesh, and the devil against my union with Christ and since that means I must hold the phalanx of the Christian life, it is then something constant and spiritually exhausting, when we do it in our own strength. Do you ever get tired of resisting temptation to the same sin over and over again? Do you ever get so tired that you give in? Me too. Holding the phalanx can be exhausting, and we often make the same tragic outcry Paul makes in v. 24, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

Holding the Line

Yet, what is Paul's answer to his outcry? It is that we never actually do hold the line on our own. We are never meant to! "Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord... There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Ro. 7:25-8:1) Our Savior--who is the only human ever to hold the line without it breaking ever in His life--delivers us and strengthens us; not just at the moment of our salvation but in every moment that follows throughout our whole life. He beckons us, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11:28) He gives us rest, even in the midst of holding the phalanx in the spiritual battles of this life. A phalanx held by me will fail, but one held by faith in Jesus will hold until the end (cf. Php. 1:6).

The Shield of Faith

So, now that you know what the phalanx is, do you see why Paul used the metaphor of a shield for faith? In his metaphor about the Christian life and the armor of God (Eph. 6:10-20), he says, "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one." Faith in Jesus providing the strength we need is what protects us and what allows us to hold the phalanx, even in the midst of battle.

In Sparta, if you were a soldier, you could be caught without your sword or your spear during a time of war, and you might only receive a minor punishment. If you were caught without your shield, however, that was a capital crime. Why? Because being without your sword or spear would merely mean you could not go on the offensive in the phalanx, but if you did not have a shield, you were a weak point in the phalanx that might cost the whole army the battle. Your shield was absolutely essential, and you had to have it on you all the time during wartime.

For us, the shield of faith is something we cannot let drop for even a moment. We live by faith (Ro. 1:17) and walk by faith (2 Co. 5:7), for we must always acknowledge our need of Him and His gospel every moment. The war of the Christian life is not made of two or three "big" moments in life where temptation comes in a huge assault but of a million "little" ones in our daily, hourly, minutely life--the war is constant! And, we can face none of those moments on our own and hope to succeed. We must submit them all to Christ and His strength, praying that the gospel would drive us, strengthen us, and motivate us in Him to hold the line through them all. That is why Paul ends his metaphor of the armor of God by saying, "...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." (Eph. 6:18)

Holding the Line Together

There is one more thing I want to bring out: the phalanx was not a one-man line. That is obvious, but we need to think about the implications for us as believers. We hold the line against temptation with our shields of faith as a community of believers. I stand beside my brothers and sisters in Christ, and sometimes their shield of faith is what encourages me to keep mine up against the enemy. They might do this through their own prayers for me, through accountability, or simply through encouragement, but whatever way it is, one of the ways Jesus strengthens us to hold the line is through His body. We hold the line together.

O Lord, make this true of us today!

By His Grace,
Taylor

Fight the Good Fight of the Faith: After Sin

Because we had a limited amount of time in the book of Joshua over the summer, I needed to skip some content. Ideally, we would have work through every passage on Sunday mornings, but we did not have the time for that, as I have described in past devotionals. But, as I have also mentioned before, what I could not cover on Sunday mornings, I tried to cover at least briefly in the Friday devotional emails that I sent to my congregation over the summer. Those emails I have turned into these devotional posts, and that is what we are going to do with Joshua 8 in this post.

Two Sundays ago, I posted the sermon from Joshua 7, where we saw the destructive power of sin in the camp, both individual and corporate sin. Sin is far more deadly than we often think it is, and it must be dealt with. This next part of that episode--ch. 8--tells us the story of how God restored the people after the sin of Achan was dealt with and how, even though Achan had sinned and they had sinned, His plans could not be derailed by anything. The sin of God's people cannot overcome the glorious plan and work of God.

Again, I did not have time to look at ch. 8 specifically in a sermon, so let's look at a few highlights from ch. 8 in this post:

First, note how God encourages Joshua right from the start: "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not fear and do not be dismayed.... I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land.'" With such a devastating loss because of sin fresh in his memory, Joshua may have thought that they had blown it and God was done with them, but, again, the sin of God's people cannot mess up the plan of God. Two quick points from that:

• Think about our battles against sin in the Christian life. When we give into sin and temptation, satan is often right there with us as the accuser of God's people, whispering, "You've done it now. God's done with you now. You might as well go on and keep on sinning." He may also say to us, "God's name will be dragged through the mud because of you. You're such a scumbag!" Those are lies from the pit of hell, and they smell like smoke. Conviction of sin is never intended by God to drive us down into the dust simply to stay there bemoaning our sinfulness. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is meant to bring to Him in repentance, hear His words "Do not fear and do not be dismayed," and then move on in gratitude to serve Him again. Sin should never spiritually paralyze us. As the old hymn goes, "Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin." Or, as the modern hymn says, "Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here. Sin would reduce me to utter despair, but through Thy free goodness my spirit's revived, and He that first made me still keeps me alive." Learn from this episode and do not listen to the lies of satan: once you have repented of your sin, move on to serve God again in gratitude for His great mercy.
• Think also about our battles to share the gospel with friends, neighbors, and family members. Again, here satan attacks us and says, "Your sin is going to drag God's name through the mud. No one will listen to you because you're such a sinner, so get it together before you go out and try to share the gospel." That too is a lie from the pit of hell and smells like smoke. Just as God dealt with their sin and then brought them to victory over Ai, so God deals with our sin in Christ and sends us out as His messengers for the gospel. And, listen: your sinfulness is part of your witness. You are a great sinner going to other sinners and saying, "Look, I have nothing for you personally. I am big sinner whose only hope is Jesus Christ, and He's your only hope too." If we give into the lie of satan and think, "I really do need to clean up my act before I witness to my friend," what subtle message does that send to them (i.e. our friends)? It sends them the message that they have to clean up their act before they come to Jesus, and that is not the true gospel. Jesus doesn't say to anyone, "Clean yourself up some and then we'll talk." No, He says like God says here, "Do not fear and be not dismayed: there is more grace in me than there is sin in you."

Second, note the sad ending to Achan's story. It is subtle, but it is in v. 2: "...its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves." When they "fought" against Jericho, all the plunder was to go to God, and Achan stole from God for himself. The sad ending of Achan's story is this: if he had just waited for a little while, he would have had all the plunder he wanted. But, Achan let his desire override his devotion to the LORD. Church family, often times our desires are not the problem. Often those desires in and of themselves are good desires. The problem comes in when we let those desires get out of order and we go after them before seeking God. For example, the desire for money to meet our physical needs is not the problem because God knows we need that for our physical needs. It becomes an idol when we go after it more than God, thinking that it will fulfill our needs. Or, the desire for sexual gratification is not in and of itself a bad desire because God created man and woman to be one flesh in marriage. That becomes a sin and an idol when we go after it more than God, seeking to fulfill it before God's timing and outside of God's plan for us, which is fulfillment in the context of marriage between a man and a woman. The sad conclusion to Achan's sin is that if he had just waited on God; if he had just sought God first, he would have had the plunder in God's timing. Is this not the OT equivalent of Jesus' teaching in Mt. 6:25-33 (cf.v. 33)?

Third, note that God's plan for His people is very different for this battle than it was for Jericho. Here, the whole army has to fight and they use an ambush strategy. Remember, while parts of God's plan for us in the battles of this life are constant, like using the means of grace (the Bible, prayer, and worship), we cannot put God in a box and think He will work the same way every time. We cannot think that because one strategy for evangelism worked for one person, it will work for all of them. We cannot think that because God met our needs in a particular way in one situation, that is always the way He will meet our needs. Our Lord is not a tame lion who shows up whenever we want and in the ways we want. So, we need to seek the counsel of God first, and then act after seeking godly counsel, knowing God may not work the same ways He has before (we will talk more about this in Sunday's sermon).

Finally, notice out Joshua renews the covenant at the end of this episode. This seems abrupt and even out of place in the narrative, but it is a very appropriate way to end the episode of chs. 7-8. One commentator notes: "After Israel had just experienced the curse of Yahweh’s anger (ch. 7) and the boon of Yahweh’s aid (ch. 8), what could be more appropriate than Joshua’s reading ‘the blessing and the curse’ (v. 34) of the Torah?" They have felt God's anger and seen God's blessing, and so what has happened to them in the space and time of life needs to be interpreted for them by the Word of God. But, even though it is appropriate, it is still and abrupt change: from war to worship. Yet, that abrupt changes brings back up one of the lessons we learned from ch. 1: Success for the Israelites was not primarily about defeating the Canaanites and taking the land. The land was simply a place where they could have rest from their enemies so that they could be prosperous in their relationship with God. Here, by bringing them to worship right after restoration and victory, God reminds them to keep first things first: their relationship with Him as His people. And, Church family, the same is true for us. In the battles of this Christian life, God gives us victory so that we can "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to [us]." In all the whirlwind of life, jobs, professors, family, friends, politics, struggles with sin, and everything else this life throws us, we need to keep first things first: our relationship with our Savior as His people and His Church.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: Temptation and Godly Living

As we talked about in the first sermon of The Gospel According to Joseph series and as Pastor Hutchinson pointed out in his first and second articles about preaching Old Testament stories, we must avoid the extreme of treating these stories as simply self-improvement stories and teaching them merely as moral lessons. Yet, at times, we can still find some examples that our Lord Jesus would have us follow (cf. He. 11:1-12:2). In the episodes covered in the sermon that will be posted this Sunday, there is such an example, and because of time and scope, it won't brought out in Sunday's sermon. So, we'll look at it here.

In Ge. 39, Joseph finds himself sold as a slave to Potiphar, Pharaoh's captain of the guard. There, because God's personal presence is with Joseph, he is quite successful and eventually Potiphar makes him overseer of his entire household. Well, apparently Joseph caught more than Potiphar's eye. Potiphar's wife took an interest in Joseph, but for a very different reason. Moses tells us in 39:6b that "Joseph was handsome in form and appearance," which caught the attention of Potiphar's wife. "Day after day" she made sexual advances and propositions to him, but he refused. And, I believe there are four things that we can learn about temptation and godly living from Joseph's response to Potiphar's wife.

First, Moses tells us in the text that Joseph refused even "to be with her." Joseph refused even to spend any time around her. Her temptations were strong, but Joseph protected himself by not even flirting with the danger. Joseph probably knew that if we crossed that line and spent time around her, resisting her advances would be even more difficult, so he stayed as far away from her as he could. We can learn from Joseph's example here. Sometimes we put ourselves in situations where we know the temptation to a certain sin will be strong, and when we do that, it should be no surprise at all when we give in. Joseph shows us that in the battle against sin, we need to stay far away from places, times, and situations where we know temptation will assault us. In 1 Co. 10:13 that God will always provide a way out for us, and sometimes that way out is never to approach the places, times, and situations of temptation in the first place.

Second, what happens when we can't avoid a place, time, or situation of temptation? Well, in v. 12, Moses tells us that Potiphar's wife "caught [Joseph] by his garment," and Joseph "left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house." Joseph got out of there as quickly as he possibly could, so fast that he didn't even take the time to remove his garment from her grasp. When we find ourselves unavoidably in a place, time, or situation of temptation, we need to flee it. Here, Joseph points us to Jesus' teaching by the pen of Paul in several NT passages: "flee sexual immorality" (1 Co. 6:18), "flee from idolatry" (1 Co. 10:14), "flee [false teaching, quarrels, and the love of money]" (1 Ti. 6:12), and "flee youthful passions" (2 Ti. 2:22). Joseph and Paul show us that we aren't to mess around with temptations to sin. In such cases, don't try to be a hero, run from it. Now, sometimes our "running" might be in a figurative sense, which often looks like Jesus' example in Mt. 4 of using Scripture to battle temptation thus redirecting our thoughts "on things that are above," and sometimes our running might mean literally removing ourselves from the situation as fast as we can. (It is worth of note in the literary context of this story, that Joseph's flight is in stark contrast to Judah's solicitation of the Tamar as a prostitute. Judah walked right into temptation in Ge. 38:15-16. In slavery, because God's presence was with him, Joseph was faithful. In freedom, Judah descended further into sin.)

Third, Joseph's words to Potiphar's wife show us that he kept a God-centered perspective on his service and on sin. In vv. 8-9, Joseph tells her that Potiphar has trusted him with everything and not kept anything back from him (except her), and we might expect him then to say, "How can I sin against him, your husband?" But, Joseph ends his statement with "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Joseph realized what David did after his sin with Bathsheba: "Against you [God], you only, have I sinned." (Ps. 51:4) Sometimes it's easy to rationalize sin when it's against someone whose also a sinner like us. If Joseph had been thinking only in reference to Potiphar, he could have rationalized it by saying something like, "Potiphar bought me as a slave, so, for that reason alone, he deserves it." He, however, had a God-centered perspective on sin: that every sin is ultimately against God Himself. That changes our perspective on sin, and it gets at our primary motivation to resist sin: thankfulness to God. The Heidelberg Catechism states in the answer to question 84, "We do good... so that in all our living... we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us."

Fourth and finally, this story also shows us that sometimes obeying God means incurring the wrath of men. Joseph resisted Potiphar's wife, and she was so upset by his final flight that she took revenge on him and lied about him to Potiphar. She told Potiphar that Joseph tried to tempt her just as she had done to him, which is a little bit of irony for you, and Potiphar threw Joseph in jail. Sometimes following Christ and living for Him will cost us greatly. Sometimes telling the truth gets you fired. Sometimes playing by the rules gets you in last place. But, our hope as Christians is not in our jobs or winning. It's in the ultimate justice and providence of God secured for those who are in Christ. Ro. 8:28 is going to come up a lot in this series because Joseph's story is a real-world example of this promise to those who are in Christ: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." The key here is God’s purpose. We cannot separate providence from purpose or substitute our purpose for His. Yet, since God has given us everything in Christ (cf. Ro. 8:29-32), we can trust His purpose, even when it costs us materially in this life.

These are four things that we can learn from Joseph's example, but I do want to make it clear that Joseph's example is not the emphasis of these two chapters. Moses emphasizes the impact of God's personal presence on our lives by highlighting how "the LORD was with Joseph" and what that did in him. That will be the topic of the sermon that will be posted Sunday afternoon.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Temptation, A Prayer

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." ~ 1 Co. 10:13

In some previous posts I have mentioned that I am taking a class on worship and our professor, Dr. Derek Thomas, has encouraged us to write out prayers on various subjects so that we can think about how we would lead a congregation in prayer before a sermon. This is not so that we would memorize prayers but so that we would engage in the practice of "studied prayers" and be prepared to pray well before a congregation.

Below is one I wrote about temptation. I hope you find it helpful, perhaps something you can pray through, and perhaps a blessing to your soul. By the way, the image above is of the cover of volume six of John Owen's works. This is one of the best works on the subject and it is available for free online. It is long but worth it.

Heavenly Father, in this life we are often faced with temptation. Some of it comes from the world, some of it comes from the devil, and some of it is born out of our own sinfulness. Father, You know our weakness. You know how we are prone to wander and leave You—the God we love. Father, we praise You because You have promised us that if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We praise You because You sent Jesus to secure forgiveness of sins for us, so that those of us who are in Christ might never fear condemnation because of them. Thank You have You have given us Your Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper to remind of Your salvation and seal it to us. Your steadfast love and forgiveness are always worthy of our praise, and Father we want to show our thankfulness in our lives. Because Christ has redeemed us and renews us by the Spirit after His own image, we want to show our thankfulness by our whole conduct for this great blessing of redemption. We want to testify to the world by our actions that You are our God, so that You might be praised and glorified. We want to be further conformed to the likeness of Jesus and resist temptation, for Your glory and our good.

Jesus taught us to praying, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Because of this, Father, we pray, that in Your sovereignty You would so overrule the world and all temptations in it, subdue our sinful flesh, and restrain the devil that we may be kept by Your providence from being tempted to sin. We pray that in Your sovereignty You would order all things, give us access to and the blessings of all Your means of grace, and make us watchful, intentional children by them that we may be kept by Your providence from being tempted to sin. Father, You also promise that even when we are tempted, no temptation has overtaken us that is not common to man. You promised us that You are faithful, and You will not let us be tempted beyond our ability, but with the temptation You will also provide the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it. We pray that by Your Spirit we may be powerfully supported and enabled to stand firm when we are tempted. We pray that You would use the temptation, our repentance, and even whatever discipline You might give us because of Your love to perfect our sanctification, for Your glory and our good.

Father, we thank You that when You sent Jesus to accomplish redemption in history, You ordered His mission in order that He might understand our frailty and what it is like to be tempted, so that He can help us in our time of need. For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. And, because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help us when we are being tempted. The devil assaulted Jesus with temptations in the wilderness and throughout the rest of His life. In fact, because He was not overcome by the temptations, He has experienced levels of temptation and attacks of which we could never dream. Father, help us to remember this great truth and be comforted it by it in our time of need. Help us to turn to our Savior, who knows what we are going through, for help when we feel like we cannot resist the temptations that have come upon us. Help us to look to our union with Him for comfort and strength. And, when we do not remember, remind us by Your Spirit, who lives in us and strengthens us, that we have this great High Priest who knows what we are going through, for Your glory and for our good.

Finally, Father, keep us close to You. Help us to meditate on Your Word and the grace You show us therein, so that it might be a weapon for us in our time of temptation. Thousands of years ago the psalmist said, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” In His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus showed us how to use Your Word to combat the lies of the devil. Father, help us to hide Your Word in our hearts. Help us to know it so well that we can combat temptation with it, so that we might not sin against You, for Your glory and our good.

Father, we pray all these things in the name of Jesus who has secured our forgiveness, secured our sanctification, freed us from the power of sin, and is able to help us when we are tempted. Amen.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Nothing

"Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off... The only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy... Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one..." ~ Screwtape in C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters


To understand this quote from Lewis' famous work it is essential to remember that this book was written from a demon's perspective. In the book Screwtape (a senior demon) is writing letters to his nephew, Wormwood, who is a "junior tempter". Since it is from a demon's perspective "the Enemy" is God. Here Screwtape is advising Wormwood not to do more than he has to when tempting "the Patient" (an unnamed British man). The chief purpose of a tempter, Screwtape reminds Wormwood, is to separate the man from God. The young demon need not go to all the effort of tempting the Patient to murder if simply distracting him with idle pleasures will get the job done.

Nothing is very strong. It is one of the simplest way that our enemy tempts us to evade responsibility. If it successfully separates us from God then the enemy has succeeded and he has literally used nothing to do it. I never thought "nothing" could be a sin until I read this. This, of course, does not mean that "nothing" is always a sin, but it does make me think about the "nothing" parts of my life. It makes me wonder if there were times where I could have made our enemy work a little harder at his job.

By His Grace,
Taylor