“Once for All” Hebrews 9:11-28 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Thirteen)
“Once for All” Hebrews 9:11-28 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Thirteen)

God Is Holy

The animal sacrifices and the purification rites of the old covenant served a number of very important purposes. The very need for such sacrifices demonstrates that our sins are a great offense to a holy God, and that satisfaction must be made to his holy justice in order to turn aside his wrath. That the sacrifices were offered by a high priest who alone could enter the Most Holy Place after making sacrifices for his own sins is a graphic illustration that our sin separates us from the presence of God. And while providing a provisional and temporary relief from sin, ultimately, the nature of these sacrifices demonstrates that they were intended to teach God’s people and prepare the nation of Israel for the coming of Jesus Christ.

As the author of Hebrews continues to make his case for the superiority of the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the new and better covenant, he now describes how Jesus offers a sacrifice that is much superior in every way to the types and shadows of the old covenant, thereby rendering it obsolete, and establishing the new covenant in his blood. This is why Christianity is not primarily a religion of morals and ethics. Christianity is a religion centering around shed blood, a Roman cross, and an empty tomb.

Christ’s Superior Priesthood

As we continue our series on the Book of Hebrews, we are working our way though that section of the author’s extended argument for the superior priesthood of Jesus Christ, and the nature of the once for all sacrifice for sin made by our Lord, the great high priest. One of the remarkable things about the Book of Hebrews is that the author keeps building his case by adding additional arguments to those made in the earlier chapters.

In chapter 7, the author described how Jesus is an eternal priest after the order of Melchizadek, tying our Lord’s priestly office to this mysterious figure to whom Abraham paid tithes. Then, in chapter 8, we saw that with the coming of Jesus Christ the new covenant era is now a reality, and the old covenant is no longer in force. Jeremiah’s well-known prophecy of a new and better covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), was the fulfillment of the covenant promise God made to Abraham, so that all those who are Christ’s are also the children of Abraham.

Throughout both of these chapters, the author has shown that everything in the Siniatic covenant (the law, the tabernacle, and the priesthood) was designed to teach the people of God about the superior priesthood of Jesus Christ whose once for all sacrifice for sin puts an end to the Old Testament sacrificial system. Jesus is the better priest with the better sacrifice (himself), and his death alone, once and for all, turns aside God’s wrath toward all those for whom he dies.

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HebrewsKim RiddlebargerChrist's death necessary, Hebrews 9:14-29Comment
“The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration” -- Article Thirteen, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort
“The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration” -- Article Thirteen, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 13: The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration

In this life believers cannot fully understand the way this work occurs; meanwhile, they rest content with knowing and experiencing that by this grace of God they do believe with the heart and love their Savior.

________________________________________

Article Thirteen of the Canons of Dort reminds us of the fact that God does not fully explain the mechanics of the way in which he gives new life (regeneration) to people who are dead in sin. Scripture simply speaks of the fact that God does regenerate sinners, and ties this to the work of the Holy Spirit through divinely appointed means–the preaching of the gospel.

The Canons echo very loudly what our Lord told Nicodemus as recounted in John 3:7-8, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

If regeneration is an act of God which occurs at the level of the subconscious, and in which the believer is strictly passive (God acts upon us while we were still dead in sin), then we may not “experience” the new birth at all, even though we may have received it, and cannot enter heaven without it. If we are looking to Jesus Christ alone to deliver us from the guilt of our sin, we are thereby assured of the fact that we are justified by his death and resurrection and that we will spend eternity in heaven because this is the sign that regeneration has already taken place. People who are dead in sin do not trust in Jesus Christ until they have been given the new birth. And once given the new birth they cannot but believe the gospel. What is important here is not that we may have had a “conversion experience,” but that we presently trust in Jesus alone for our salvation and repent of our sins. Therefore, it is not the experience of the new birth which matters, but the fact that it has occurred.

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The Canons of DortKim RiddlebargerRegeneration precedes faithComment
Paul on the “Elementary Principles of the World” in Galatians 4:3 -- Occult Powers or Legalism?
Paul on the “Elementary Principles of the World” in Galatians 4:3 -- Occult Powers or Legalism?

In verse 3 of Galatians 4, Paul applies the legal analogy of heir and an estate mentioned in Galatians 4:1-2 to the situation at hand—Jewish legalism in Galatia. No doubt, Israel’s history is in Paul’s mind when making this analogy. He’s thinking of Israel’s liberation from their bondage in Egypt under cruel task masters.[1] “In the same way we also, when we were children, [we] were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” The Greek term translated “elementary principles” is stoicheia (στοιχεια), which refers to the “rudimentary principles of morality and religion, more specifically the requirements of legalism by which people lived before Christ.”[2] When we were children [in Paul’s illustration], we were enslaved to the basic “principles of the world.”

A number of commentators contend the term refers to “angelic powers” or cosmic forces–spiritual and occult forces.[3] But as one writer points out, the connection of the stoicheia with immaturity, as well as the fact that the law is an instrument of bondage, supports the argument that the reference is more likely referring to, “elementary imperfect teaching . . . . To accept the Jewish law or some equivalent system is to come under slavery to some imperfect doctrine. But if stoicheia denotes elemental spirits, then it has to be explained how submitting to the regulations of the Jewish law is tantamount to being enslaved by these spirits.”[4]

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Pauline StudiesKim RiddlebargerGaltians 4:3, Stoicheia Comments
Warfield on the "Alien Righteousness"
Warfield on the "Alien Righteousness"

In a Sunday afternoon Chapel Talk at Princeton Theological Seminary, Warfield spoke on Philippians 3:9, giving an address entitled The Alien Righteousness. Here are some gems from that address.

No human element can be the basis for our salvation

What [Paul] says—whatever he means is obviously that our own righteousness in every item and degree of it—is wholly excluded from the ground of our salvation; and the righteousness provided by God in Christ is the sole ground of our acceptance in His sight. According to his express statements, at least, we are saved entirely on the ground of an alien righteousness and not at all on the ground of anything we are or have done, or can do,—be it even so small a matter as believing.

Warfield on Paul’s conflict with the Judaizers in Galatians

The conflict with the Judaizers was not first with Paul and his doctrine of salvation second, either in time or importance; but, on the contrary, his doctrine of salvation was first and his controversy with the Judaizers both subsequent and consequent to it. He did not hold this doctrine of salvation because he polemicized the Judaizers, but he polemicized the Judaizers because he held this doctrine of salvation. He did not attain this doctrine of salvation then in controversy with the Judaizers, but he controverted the Judaizers because their teaching impinged on this precious doctrine. Though, therefore, the forms in which he states the doctrine in these epistles take shape from the fact that he is rebutting, the assaults on it and the subtle undermining of it derived from the conceptions of the Judaizers, the doctrine stated is prior in the order of time and thought in his mind to the rise of the danger to it which he is repelling in these expressions. The interest and importance of this to us is that it thereby is brought to our clear consciousness that Paul’s fundamental interest in this matter turns not on the violence of his conflict with the Judaizers but on the profundity of his conviction of the truth of his position. Whenever he replies to the Judaizers’ assault in whatever sharpness of rebuke and keenness of polemic thrust, his primary interest is not in silencing his opponents but in upholding his teaching.

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B. B. WarfieldKim RiddlebargerPhilippians 3:9, The Alien RighteousnessComment
"Christ's Victory Over Death and the Grave!" -- (1 Corinthians 15:35-58) A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast !
"Christ's Victory Over Death and the Grave!" -- (1 Corinthians 15:35-58) A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast !

Episode Synopsis:

At the end of chapter 15 of First Corinthians, Paul describes what is truly the greatest triumph in the long history of the human race–Jesus Christ’s glorious victory over death and the grave. Our greatest enemy (death) was defeated that first Easter when Jesus was raised bodily from the dead as the firstfruits of a great harvest yet to come. And when Jesus returns on the last day, the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and his victory will become ours. Just as Jesus was raised in a glorified body of flesh and bones, so too shall we. But what will such a body be like? How is it both the same, yet different from the bodies we presently have? Paul answers this and related questions in his defense of Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead in the last part of 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul speaks of a spiritual body suited for eternal life in the presence of the holy God. It will be the same kind of body Jesus possessed after his resurrection. Such a body is unlike our present existence, in that once transformed, this body will reflect the glories of the new creation, the age to come, and the final consummation. It will be a body free from sin, sickness, and death. We will be raised to experience the unspeakable glories of the new heaven and earth, a renewed creation, and live forever in the presence of the Lord. Although we see dimly now, on that day we shall see face to face. We will experience the wonder of eternal life and receive all the blessings of our promised inheritance.

Paul ends this chapter in triumph, mocking death. When Jesus returns on the last day, we shall be instantly changed (in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye) and given that resurrection body which Paul describes as a transformation from the perishable (and therefore certain to die) to an imperishable body which is suited for eternal life. The sting of death gives way to the glorious victory earned and won for us by Jesus himself. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

To listen to this episode and read the show notes, follow the link below

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Blessed Hope PodcastKim RiddlebargerThe resurrection of the body, Christ's victory over deathComment
A Whole Lotta Musings (April 4, 2025)
A Whole Lotta Musings (April 4, 2025)

Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Podcast Updates:

  • Since the current Blessed Hope Podcast series on 1 Corinthians has but one more episode to record, a word about the future schedule for the Blessed Hope Pod. I’ll be taking a break to work on a book project, before picking back up with 2 Corinthians—one of the most overlooked but profound letters in the New Testament. Then, Lord willing, it is on to Romans!

  • I’m trying to make access to resources easier, so here’s a new Riddleblog page with collected Pauline Studies and Resources. I’ll be adding to it regularly, so check back.

Thinking Out Loud:

  • Corey Booker probably should not have watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. All his 25 hour filibuster stunt accomplished was a sleepless night and hoarseness. Voters are sick of stunts and performative politics. Good thing there are no preaching filibusters. Too many preachers think the longer the sermon, the better. I’ll bet several could go 25 hours like Booker.

  • Love the torpedo bat! But it is not new however. Several hitters used them last year and they’ve been used in Spring training and minor league games. The Yankees have been hitting a ton of home runs to start the season, but that might be because half the Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff was on the DL, and their replacements (in their first three games against the Yanks), let me say it kindly, stunk.

  • People who put up the decorative ten foot tall plastic skeletons in their yards for Halloween, might want to take them down soon after. We’ve still got several standing in our neighborhood. Putting a Santa hat on the skeleton, was clever when left up through Christmas (the first year), but still doesn’t let you off the hook for being too lazy to take it down over a year later.

  • Just tried the new Chick-Fil-A Roadhouse BBQ chicken sandwich. It was really good!

  • There was a Joe Biden sighting recently. I can’t help but wonder if in his lucid moments he misses being president. Dr. Jill, on the other hand, probably misses being president in all her lucid moments.

  • No surprises in the recent JFK files dump. The CIA was up to no good in Cuba, presidential historian Arthur Schlesinger warned JFK about the CIA’s growing influence in Washington, the CIA had a file on Oswald since he was Marine who defected to the Soviet Union, and JFK didn’t like Mossad or the fact that Israel was building an atomic weapon. But no evidence has surfaced which raises any doubt whatsoever about Oswald being the lone gunman and the assassin of JFK.

  • To read the rest of this jam-packed issue of My Musings, follow the link below

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MusingsKim RiddlebargerWare on 1 Cor 15, Trump's tariff mythology, torpedo bats, Trueman on the bleak future, Reagan versus Trump Comments
“The Holy Place” Hebrews 9:1-14 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Twelve)
“The Holy Place” Hebrews 9:1-14 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Twelve)

Setting the Scene

As evangelical Christians (in the truest sense of the term) our religion is not tied to holy things, holy people, or holy places. Our religion is centered in very ordinary things including the “means of grace,” material things through which God’s Spirit works to establish and strengthen our relationship with our God who dwells in heaven. These ordinary things include: the ink and paper of our Bibles (the Word); the bread, wine, and water of the sacraments; and a functional building in which we assemble for worship. As Christians, we have ministers and are no longer represented by high priests in priestly garments encrusted with jewels who make sacrifices on our behalf. Nor do we sacrifice animals on special altars using vessels made of precious metals under a cloud of fragrant incense. We need not make pilgrimages to holy places where God is present, and we do not venerate holy people who have earned, supposedly, a greater righteousness than the rest of us. All of this is because we live in the new covenant era, and all of those things associated with the old covenant have been rendered obsolete by the coming of Jesus Christ. But those elements associated with the old covenant served a very important purpose in redemptive history, and the author of Hebrews now points us to the heavenly reality which these things were designed to illuminate and illustrate–the eternal high priest and the heavenly temple, the true holy place.

We have come to chapter nine of the book of Hebrews. If you’ve been with us for any portion of this series, by now it should be clear that the author of Hebrews is relentless in building his case for the superiority of Jesus Christ. Laying out argument upon argument, the author has shown us from the pages of the Old Testament that Jesus Christ is creator of all things and the promised redeemer of God’s people. The author has made a very compelling case that Jesus is superior to angels, to Moses, and to the priests of Israel. Jesus is not only an eternal priest after the order of Melchizadek, but Jesus is the mediator of a new and better covenant.

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HebrewsKim RiddlebargerThe Holy Place, Hebrews 9Comment
“Regeneration a Supernatural Work” -- Article Twelve, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort
“Regeneration a Supernatural Work” -- Article Twelve, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 12: Regeneration a Supernatural Work

And this is the regeneration, the new creation, the raising from the dead, and the making alive so clearly proclaimed in the Scriptures, which God works in us without our help. But this certainly does not happen only by outward teaching, by moral persuasion, or by such a way of working that, after God has done his work, it remains in man’s power whether or not to be reborn or converted. Rather, it is an entirely supernatural work, one that is at the same time most powerful and most pleasing, a marvelous, hidden, and inexpressible work, which is not lesser than or inferior in power to that of creation or of raising the dead, as Scripture (inspired by the author of this work) teaches. As a result, all those in whose hearts God works in this marvelous way are certainly, unfailingly, and effectively reborn and do actually believe. And then the will, now renewed, is not only activated and motivated by God but in being activated by God is also itself active. For this reason, man himself, by that grace which he has received, is also rightly said to believe and to repent.

_______________________________________

Having established that conversion (defined as the exercise of faith and repentance) is closely connected to effectual calling and is the direct result of the Holy Spirit working upon a person through the proclamation of the Word of God, the Canons go on to make the point that regeneration, likewise, is not the result of an act of human will. Rather, regeneration is the direct result of the supernatural action of God upon the heart of the sinner before the sinner comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is regeneration which enables the sinner to come to faith. Regeneration is brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit and precedes faith. To use a biblical metaphor, a bad tree must become a good tree in order to exercise the good fruit of faith and repentance.

It might be helpful to recall the important distinctions made by Reformed theologians when considering effectual calling, conversion, and regeneration. These are closely related and are connected to the prescribed means by which God calls his elect to faith—the proclamation of the gospel. Effectual calling is that act of God, when, through the preaching of the gospel, God’s elect are summoned (called) to faith in Christ. Effectual calling is, therefore, an objective act of God occurring through the proclamation of the message of reconciliation—the gospel. Conversion, though directly connected to effectual calling and regeneration, strictly speaking, is a conscious act when the sinner who has been effectually called, then, in turn, exercises faith in Jesus Christ and turns from his or her sin (repentance). All of God’s elect are effectually called and converted.

Regeneration, on the other hand, is subconscious. A person may not be aware that regeneration has taken place. It occurs when God supernaturally acts upon the sinner, implanting in them the principle of new life which now becomes the governing disposition of the soul.

Logically speaking, both effectual calling and regeneration must precede conversion (the exercise of faith and repentance). However, the sinner who comes to faith in Christ may not experience these things in such a precise manner. To put it another way, because elect sinners have been effectually called through the preaching of the gospel, the sinner suddenly becomes conscious of his or her sins, and their need of the merits of Christ. Yet the sinner may not be aware that regeneration has already occurred, even though the sinner could never exercise faith in Christ, if they had not been made alive when formerly dead in sin.

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The Canons of DortKim RiddlebargerRegeneration, The work of the Holy SpiritComment
Some Thoughts on Paul's Mention of the Corinthian Practice of Baptism on Behalf of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29)
Some Thoughts on Paul's Mention of the Corinthian Practice of Baptism on Behalf of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29)

1 Corinthians 15:29 — “Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?”

Verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 15 is one of the most peculiar verses in the New Testament. Paul’s statement about this Corinthian practice raises a major interpretive problem which has plagued the church from the beginning–“what is this business of baptizing people on behalf of those who have already died?” There is no comparable statement anywhere in the Old or New Testaments. Conzelmann calls verse 29 the most hotly disputed text in the entire epistle.[1] He may be right. One prominent New Testament scholar counted thirty different interpretations, while another counted forty.[2] Still another commentator, who must have had better research assistants than the others, identified over 200 interpretations of this unexpected passage.[3] Yet, putting all the variety of interpretations aside, Paul’s reason for mentioning this practice is crystal clear. If there is no bodily resurrection of the dead at the end of the age, why then are people being baptized for the dead? The Corinthian practice (whatever it is) makes no sense whatsoever, if there is no resurrection.

Most of the proposed answers to this practice assert that this is some sort of vicarious baptism on behalf of the dead–recently departed or otherwise. One widely held view is that according to the second clause of the verse, (“baptized for them”–hupere) people were being vicariously baptized in the place of those who had already died, presumably without having been baptized before death. This particular baptism was being done so that the benefits of baptism would apply to people who had already died without themselves being baptized so as to protect them from the demonic, or claim for them a place in the afterlife.[4] This would reflect the Corinthian’s struggle to properly understand spiritual things, especially what happens at death.

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Pauline StudiesKim Riddlebarger1 Cor 15:29, Baptosm on Behalf of the DeadComment
Calvin on Prayer – God Forgives Us When Our Prayers Are Marked by Human Weakness
Calvin on Prayer – God Forgives Us When Our Prayers Are Marked by Human Weakness

Calvin addresses a matter most Christians have thought or worried about. “Does God accept my prayers when I doubt, am impatient with him, or when I allow my mind to wander carelessly?” Calvin reminds us that our prayers do not require perfection in wording nor perfect faith to be heard and answered by God. What God seeks of us is an awareness and acknowledgement of his majesty.

16. Our prayers can obtain an answer only through God’s forgiveness

Calvin reminds us that the essence of prayer is intimate conversation with God.

This also is worth noting: what I have set forth on the four rules of right praying (What God Offers Us in Prayer ) is not so rigorously required that God will reject those prayers in which he finds neither perfect faith nor repentance, together with a warmth of zeal and petitions rightly conceived.

I have said that, although prayer is an intimate conversation of the pious with God, yet reverence and moderation must be kept, lest we give loose rein to miscellaneous requests, and lest we crave more than God allows; further, that we should lift up our minds to a pure and chaste veneration of him, lest God’s majesty become worthless for us.

He cites David as one forgiven for improper prayer.

No one has ever carried this out with the uprightness that was due; for, not to mention the rank and file, how many complaints of David savor of intemperance! Not that he would either deliberately expostulate with God or clamor against his judgments, but that, fainting with weakness, he finds no other solace better than to cast his own sorrows into the bosom of God. But God tolerates even our stammering and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us; as indeed without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray. But although David intended to submit completely to God’s will, and prayed with no less patience than zeal to obtain his request, yet there come forth—sometimes, rather, boil up—turbulent emotions, quite out of harmony with the first rule that we laid down.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerWeakness and PrayerComment
"Christ Has Been Raised!" -- A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Is Posted! (1 Corinthians 15:20-34)
"Christ Has Been Raised!" -- A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Is Posted! (1 Corinthians 15:20-34)

Episode Synopsis:

Imagine the shock you would feel upon hearing news that the body of Jesus had been found in a tomb somewhere near the city of Jerusalem and the remains were positively identified as those of the central figure of the New Testament. What would your reaction be? Would it even matter? Would you still call yourself a Christian? While no one is going to find the body of Jesus in a tomb near Jerusalem because Jesus was raised from the dead that first Easter, nevertheless, the question is an important one because it pushes us to face a more fundamental question. How do we know that Christianity is true? Why are you a Christian? And why does any of this really matter since faith is supposedly a subjective and merely personal thing often disconnected from a factual basis?

Paul’s response to Corinthian skepticism and confusion regarding our Lord’s resurrection is to declare that Jesus has been raised, bodily, from the dead. We know this to be the case because the evidence for it is overwhelming. The tomb in which Jesus had been buried was empty despite the fact that a huge stone sealed the tomb’s entrance, and that the Romans placed a guard at the tomb. We also know that Jesus was raised from the dead because the risen Lord appeared visibly to all the apostles, to over five hundred people at one time, and then finally to Paul, who considered himself completely unworthy of such an honor. Paul not only appeals to the fact that he himself saw the resurrected Jesus while traveling on the road to Damascus, Paul also appeals to the fact that most of the five hundred people who saw Jesus were still alive–the implication being that the Corinthians knew who many of these people were, and that the events associated with the gospel were not only true, they were common knowledge.

In verses 20-28 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul describes Christ’s resurrection as the firstfruits of a great harvest yet to come. Death may have come through Adam, but Jesus (the second Adam) has been raised from the dead. And not only has Jesus been raised from the dead, so will all those who trust in him–all those “in Christ.” On the first Easter Sunday, Jesus defeated death and the grave, he destroyed our last and greatest enemy as death itself was vanquished, the new creation dawned, and we enter the final period of human history, awaiting our Lord’s return when all things are put in subjection under his feet. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

To read the show notes and listen to the episode, follow the link below

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Blessed Hope PodcastKim Riddlebarger1 Corinthians 15:20-34, Christ has been raisedComment
A New "Pauline Studies" Resource List
A New "Pauline Studies" Resource List

Over the life of the Riddleblog and the Blessed Hope Podcast, I have reviewed and introduced a number of books on various aspects of Pauline studies. I’ve also written a number of long-form and short essays on various Pauline texts and topics. I thought it might be useful to assemble them all in one place to make it easier to access them, especially for those who consult the “show notes” for the various episodes of the Blessed Hope Podcast.

The resources will be divided into 1). Book Reviews and Notices, 2). Essays at the Riddleblog, and 3). Links to Important Pauline Resources. Although I’ve completed Paul’s Letters to the Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and I’m wrapping up 1 Corinthian, Lord willing, I’ll soon be going through 2 Corinthians and then Romans, so I thought a single page with all of the resources would be useful.

This page will be regularly updated. You can find it here: Pauline Studies and Resources (listed under the Book Reviews and Recommended Reading tab above)

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Pauline StudiesKim RiddlebargerStudy of PaulComment
“A New Covenant” Hebrews 8:1-13 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Eleven)
“A New Covenant” Hebrews 8:1-13 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Eleven)

The Fork in the Road–the New Covenant

It was the eminent philosopher and New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra who once said “when you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Well, the author of Hebrews has brought us to that point in his case for the superiority of Jesus Christ where we must now decide how we will understand the relationship between the old covenant (that covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai) and the new covenant (the new era in redemptive history established by Jesus Christ). Is the new covenant an entirely “new” covenant made from scratch? Or is the new covenant the fulfillment of that covenant that God made with Abraham in which promise becomes reality? How you answer these questions determines where you go to church (a Baptist or a paedobaptist church), how you treat your children (as unbelievers, or as members of the covenant whose faith is to be nurtured), as well as your understanding of the end times (do the end-times center around national Israel?). Hebrews 8 is a theological fork in the road and we must take it.

We have come to that section of the Book of Hebrews in which the author argues that with the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s people enter the new covenant era foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34), thereby making the old covenant obsolete. As we have seen, the author has been using a number of biblical texts to prove that the Old Testament teaches that Jesus is both creator and sustainer of all things, and that Jesus’s eternal priesthood is tied to Melchizedek, that mysterious figure to whom Abraham paid tithes. Now the author makes the case that with the coming of Jesus Christ, there is a fundamental turning point in the course of redemptive history. The types and shadows (the inferior) must give way to the reality that is found in Jesus Christ (the superior).

Given the fact that the author is writing to a church composed of people who were predominantly Jews, and who had recently become Christians, the author uses terms like “old covenant” assuming that his readers/hearers knew exactly what he meant. Since we are Christians (and predominantly Gentiles) and since we live nearly 2000 years later, we will need to carefully define the terms the author is using so as to make sense of his argument about the obsolescence of the old covenant, the dawn of the new covenant era, and the superiority of Jesus’s priesthood–an argument which runs through the end of chapter 10.

To read the rest, follow the link below

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HebrewsKim RiddlebargerA new and better covenant, the Old Covenant is obsolete, Hebrews 8:1-13Comment
“The Holy Spirit's Work in Conversion” -- Article Eleven, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort
“The Holy Spirit's Work in Conversion” -- Article Eleven, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 11: The Holy Spirit’s Work in Conversion

Moreover, when God carries out this good pleasure in his chosen ones, or works true conversion in them, he not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant; he activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.

_______________________________________

Scripture assigns the role of working conversion (faith and repentance) in elect sinners to the Holy Spirit. One of the most important passages in this regard is John 3:1-12:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

According to Jesus, the new birth comes not as a result of obeying a command to be born again as many of our contemporaries understand Jesus to be saying– “born yourself again!” – but the new birth comes before one can see the kingdom of God. Such vision of what was previously unseen is the result of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, who like the wind, operates sovereignly as he sees fit.

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The Canons of DortKim Riddlebargerconversion, Faith and repentanceComment
B. B. Warfield -- We Preach, God Grants the Increase
B. B. Warfield -- We Preach, God Grants the Increase

This is taken from a Sunday afternoon chapel talk given at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1916.

Warfield’s text was 2 Corinthians 4:13. “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” He told those assembled, presumably seminarians and colleagues . . .

When we really believe the Gospel of the Grace of God—when we really believe that it is the power of God unto salvation, the only power of salvation in this wicked world of ours—it is a comparatively easy thing to preach it, to preach it in its purity, to preach it in the face of a scoffing, truculent and murdering world. Here is the secret—I do not now say of a minister’s power as a preacher of God’s grace—but of a minister’s ability to preach at all this Gospel in such a world as we live in. Believe this Gospel, and you can and will preach it. Let men say what they will, and do what they will—let them injure, ridicule, persecute, slay—believe this Gospel and you will preach it.

Men often say of some element of the Gospel: “I can’t preach that.” Sometimes they mean that the world will not receive this or that. Sometimes they mean that the world will not endure this or that. Sometimes they mean that they cannot so preach this or that as to win the respect or the sympathy or the acceptance of the world. The Gospel cannot be preached? Cannot be preached? It can be preached if you will believe it. Here is the root of all your difficulties. You do not fully believe this Gospel! Believe it! Believe it and then it will preach itself!

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B. B. WarfieldKim RiddlebargerPreaching the gospelComment
Francis Schaeffer as Apologist and Evangelist (Part Five)
Francis Schaeffer as Apologist and Evangelist (Part Five)

Schaeffer’s Critics

1). The Evidentialist Critique of Schaeffer’s Apologetics

Most evidentialists have been fairly restrained in their criticisms of Francis Schaeffer. I am not aware of any “evidentialist” who has published negative or critical work concerning Schaeffer (although there must be some out there). This is likely the case for several reasons. Most evidentialists tend to approve of almost any attempt to do apologetics, even if the apologetics themselves are sloppy methodologically speaking. Also, most evidentialists are not concerned with the relationship between apologetics, historical theology, and dogmatics. If Schaeffer is not cogent in his methodology, it is either not noticed, or is simply not an issue. This is unfortunate. Those who are evidentialists need to be aware of the theological reasons and the biblical evidence for their position.[1]

The confusion that I see in Schaeffer results from the fact that he did not articulate his apologetic methodology in a fashion which was consistent with either of the two apologetic methodologies found in the Reformed tradition from which he hailed. A consistent presuppositionalism is consistent with the epistemological framework of Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and Cornelius Van Til (CVT), but often fails to address matters of common ground and the use of Christian evidences (as utilized by Schaeffer). On the other hand, a consistent evidentialism is compatible with certain varieties of Reformed theology (e.g., Old Princeton), but often fails to deal properly with both presuppositions of method and/or content. Schaeffer seems perfectly content to combine elements from both traditions, as he felt the occasion required.

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"The Gospel: Christ's Death, Burial, and Resurrection" A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
"The Gospel: Christ's Death, Burial, and Resurrection" A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)

Episode Synopsis:

If someone walked up to you and asked, “What is the gospel?, what would you say? If you cannot come up with the answer immediately, then please carefully consider what follows. The definition is given us in a concise form by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5. The gospel is called “good news” because it is the proclamation of a set of particular historical facts—Jesus suffered on a Roman cross, died as a payment for our sins, was buried, and then was raised from the dead by God after three days as proof that his death turned aside God’s wrath toward sinners. And all this, Paul says, is in accordance with the Scriptures (the Old Testament). The gospel is a nonnegotiable and fundamental article of the Christian faith. To deny it is to reject the Christian faith.

When Easter rolls around, I often look at the flyers and social media from neighborhood churches to examine the sermon topics for Easter Sunday. I am amazed and saddened by how many local churches virtually ignore the biblical emphasis on the empty tomb and the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which is both a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith and an objective fact of history. Instead, many churches focus on the so-called “Easter experience” of the apostles. If the meaning of Easter is the experience and change of heart felt by Jesus’s apostles—who at first did not believe, but then later did so—then Easter is yet another experience that we can share with the early followers of Jesus. For these folks, Easter is a time of new beginnings, a time to change our life’s course. Sadly, it is not the account of a crucified savior raised from the dead who came to save us from our sins.

But to remove the resurrection from ordinary history and proclaim it as an example to follow, or to downplay or ignore the fact that Jesus was crucified, dead, buried, and was then raised bodily to life for the forgiveness of our sins, robs the resurrection of any redemptive-historical and biblical significance. The first Easter is not about an experience the apostles had in which we can share; rather, it is the apostles’s account of Jesus being raised bodily from the dead. The empty tomb tells us that Jesus’s death was the payment for our sins, the new creation has dawned, and God has conquered our greatest enemy, death, by overturning the curse. Easter is not an experience in which we share; the bodily resurrection of Jesus is both a fact of history and a biblical doctrine that we must believe.

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Blessed Hope PodcastKim RiddlebargerChrist's resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:11Comment
March 2025 Musings (3/7/2025)
March 2025 Musings (3/7/2025)

Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Podcast Updates:

  • As the current Blessed Hope Podcast series on 1 Corinthians winds down, a head’s up. I’ll be taking a bit of a break to work on a book project, before picking back up with 2 Corinthians. Then, Lord willing, it is on to Romans!

  • To my surprise, my recent piece on releasing the JFK files and the deep state had more traffic than any other Riddleblog post since I updated the blog five years ago. I did have several posts with higher traffic on the Old Riddleblog (such as Jack Bauer’s Man Bag and my reply to J-Mac’s 2007 Shepherd’s Conference lecture on Dispensationalism and Calvinism. But that was in the golden days of blogging . . .

Thinking Out Loud:

  • I gave up Lent for Lent.

  • This year’s Oscars awards ceremony demonstrates how far removed I am from certain elements of pop culture. I did not know the names of any of the five movies nominated, few of the actors nominated (and none of the younger ones). I didn’t watch even two minutes of what has become a series of red carpet wardrobe malfunctions (most are intentional, I am sure) and political diatribes from twits who make bad movies and have never read a book. My sons are grown and have been gone from home for years, my dear wife doesn’t care about Hollywood, so I have finally reached the point of complete and total indifference to the Oscar Awards (the Grammys, too). I don’t miss any of it.

  • Evidence of the decline of Western Civilization continues to mount. The New York Yankees caved on their ban on facial hair—now allowing players to sport groomed beards and mustaches. Somewhere, Johnny Damon is rejoicing. Ugh . . .

  • I’ve heard political commentators of late accuse their opponents of championing “false facts.” Excuse me, but something that is false cannot be a “fact.” Why not speak of your opponent as pushing “falsehoods.”

  • Shaq recently scored an annual contract of 14 mil to laugh at Charles Barkley. Since I can’t stand to watch current NBA games, I catch Shaq, Barkley, et al., on YouTube occasionally. Poor Ernie Johnson trying to corral them . . . they are indeed hilarious.

  • I’m not an RFKjr fan, but I wouldn’t mind seeing his proposed ban on TV and on-line advertising for alphabet bending medications implemented. “Ask your Doctor about `x’” for an illness you’ve never heard of, and didn’t know you possibly had, until the commercial made you wonder about it. Of course, the side effects are worse than the illness and require three more medications to remedy.

  • I’m also tired of YouTube/TV ads with folks rubbing potions, goos, and balms all over themselves while clothed in nothing but their skivvies. Ban them too while you are at it!

  • Now, get off my lawn!

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“The Mysterious Melchizedek” Hebrews 7:1-28 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Ten)
“The Mysterious Melchizedek” Hebrews 7:1-28 (An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews–Part Ten)

The Mysterious Figure of Melchizedek

You don’t hear much these days about Melchizedek. The last time anyone mentioned Melchizedek to me was when a nineteen year old Mormon elder stood at my door and told me that he belonged to the Melchizedek priesthood–whatever that means. It has long been common for Christian people to use biblical names for their children, yet I don’t recall ever meeting anyone named “Melchizedek.” No doubt, this lack of interest in Melchizedek is because he is a rather obscure and mysterious figure. Yet according to the author of Hebrews, Melchizedek figures prominently in redemptive history as a type of Jesus Christ. Understanding who this man is as well as the role he plays in redemptive history is essential to the author’s case for the superiority of the priesthood of Jesus. Although nobody talks about Melchizedek these days, perhaps we should.

In chapter seven of the Book of Hebrews the author returns to a discussion he began in chapter 5 when he cited from Psalm 110:4 which speaks of the future messianic king as being a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Having made his initial point about Melchizedek’s priesthood, the author of Hebrews then broke off his discussion about Melchizedek to express his frustration with this congregation when he realized that those to whom he was writing probably would not be interested in his theological arguments which demonstrated why Jesus was superior to Moses, to angels, and to the priests of Israel. This lack of interest in what the Old Testament teaches about Jesus Christ, sadly, was indicative of the circumstances under which a number of those in the church receiving the Letter to the Hebrews had quickly wilted under persecution, given up on Christianity, and then returned to Judaism.

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“Conversion as the Work of God” -- Article Ten, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort
“Conversion as the Work of God” -- Article Ten, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 10: Conversion as the Work of God

The fact that others who are called through the ministry of the gospel do come and are brought to conversion must not be credited to man, as though one distinguishes himself by free choice from others who are furnished with equal or sufficient grace for faith and conversion (as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains). No, it must be credited to God: just as from eternity he chose his own in Christ, so within time he effectively calls them, grants them faith and repentance, and, having rescued them from the dominion of darkness, brings them into the kingdom of his Son, in order that they may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called them out of darkness into this marvelous light, and may boast not in themselves, but in the Lord, as apostolic words frequently testify in Scripture.

______________________________________________

When it comes to the matter of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ, the Reformed place their confidence in the power of God, rather than in the natural ability of sinful men and women. It is quite appropriate at this point for the authors of the Canons to set forth the fact that conversion (which is defined as a person’s coming to faith, as well as the subsequent exercise of the fruit of faith, repentance) is not the work of the sinner, but is solely the work of God upon the sinner.

In this, we see yet again the Trinitarian emphasis of the Reformed ordo salutis (order of salvation). The Father has chosen those whom he will save (redemption decreed). The Father has sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross as the satisfaction for the guilt of the sins of those that he has chosen (redemption accomplished). When the gospel is preached, those whom the Father has chosen, and for whom Christ has died, are effectually called to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit (redemption applied).

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The Canons of DortKim Riddlebargerconversion, God's act, Faith and repentanceComment