July 31, 2023 Show with Jerry Johnson on “Christonomy: How Do We Demonstrate Our Love of Christ?”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.

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And now here's your host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this last day of July, July 31st, 2023.

And I, first of all, want to thank all of my Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners who are faithful, loyal prayer warriors for me, my family, and this program. I just received a call moments before the show started from my brother Andy in the hospital whom many of you have been praying for.

He recently developed pneumonia, had a kidney infection, and there was a very urgently needed procedure that needed to be done to drain very toxic urine out of his system. And that was just accomplished, and it must have been very successful because he was strong enough to call me himself and ask that I bring him chili when this program is over.

So that is a definite sign of improving health, and I just want to thank all of you from the depths of my heart for praying for my big bro, Andy, who is 75, and pray that he returns to his nursing home soon and is well taken care of.

I will keep you updated as to his health progress even after today. But I'm thrilled to have as a returning guest a very dear friend and a very generous supporter of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jerry Johnson.

He is a Reformed Christian apologist, a documentarian, and producer of the successful DVD series Amazing Grace, the History and Theology of Calvinism. Today we're going to be discussing Christonomy, how do we demonstrate our love for Christ.

It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jerry Johnson.

Thank you, Brother Chris. Good to be here, sir.

Christonomy and the Law of Christ as the Law of Love

And how many years ago was it that the Amazing Grace DVD series on the History and Theology of Calvinism was launched?

In November, it'll be 19 years. Wow.

That's amazing.

That's funny. I have time flies when you're having fun.

Yeah, I can remember when it first came out.

Chris?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yeah, I did want to correct you on one thing. There's no such thing as a happy Monday.

Well, you just reminded me of that song, I don't like Mondays. I don't like Mondays.

No, I don't like Mondays. I will confess. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I hate Mondays.

I believe that song was the Boomtown Rats, if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, I don't know if you have coined this phrase. I don't believe I had ever heard of it until you suggested we discuss it. And the term I'm speaking about, or the word I'm speaking about, is Christonomy.

Actually, after googling it, I saw it twice being used either by the individuals themselves or their biographers. But one was in relationship to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and I can't remember right now the other one.

Tell us about this phrase that you wanted to use to highlight today's interview, Christonomy.

Let me give you a little background on it. And I don't want to pick on dispensationalists. I think your listening audience knows that I am not a dispensationalist. And over the course of many years, I had people tell me, especially dispensationalists, they don't follow the law of God, they follow the law of Christ, which is the law of love.

And I would ask them to define that. And they never could define it. What is the law of love? How do you do it? And it seems to me like what they are saying is that they are confusing love with sentimentality.

Like you see two puppies playing in the grass and that's love. And love is really more of an action, if you will. It is not getting gooey feelings when you see two puppies playing. And I like puppies playing.

But that is not love. That is sentimentality. And a lot of people have that the wrong way. They think that love is, they've reduced it to being sentimentality or an emotion. And that was something that always bothered me.

I did this lecture series called The Death of Death and The Death of Love. And that was of course a take off from what is it? John Owen's Death of Death and The Death of Christ. And a lot of people have reduced love to this emotion or this feeling.

And I'm not against emotions or feelings. It's just that we've got to remember love is not an emotion. It is a state of mind. And so that is something Paul could say while he was in prison he had the joy of the Lord.

Was he happy about being in prison? I doubt it. But we need to define what is love? And while I was reading through the scriptures I came across this idea that in order to fulfill the law which actually Romans 13 .10 says that we're supposed to love one another he who loves another fulfills the law of Christ.

Or it actually says has fulfilled the law but Christ is the one speaking of scripture. I thought about this long and hard because I asked a guy one time who said he wasn't under the law of God he was under the law of love the law of Christ.

And I asked him can you take the name of the Lord in vain and not really worry about it not worry about the consequences or anything? And he said to me well I theoretically could and I said okay go ahead and do it don't make it theoretical just do it take the Lord's name in vain and he wouldn't do it.

But anyway.

That got me thinking on this and that got me thinking about what I call Christonomy which is the law of Christ. It's the law of love. But how do you really express the law of Christ. The law of love. And I kept going back thinking man how does one do that.

How does one talk about the law of love. I already mentioned Romans chapter 13 verse 10 and of course the only way to do that is to go back to Christ's statement. And one place I have it pulled up is Matthew 27 or 22 37.

Jesus said unto him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is likened to it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets. Now I was thinking Christ sums up the law of God with those two commandments love God and love your neighbor. How do you do that. That was the question that was bothering me.

I was just going to say love is more than just a noun. As you stated earlier it's also a verb it's an action verb.

It is an action. So what did Christ always go back to. He went back to the moral law as found in the ten commandments and if you look at it the first four are our duties to God the second six the second tablet are our duties to man.

And that is the way we show our love to God. And we show our love to our fellow man. We do not take we do not have any other gods before God. God is it. That is the way we do it. The second one is oh man I'm having a senior moment here.

I know the ten commandments but all of a sudden I'm having like I said a senior moment.

I want to remind our listeners that our dear brother Jerry suffered a massive stroke and it wasn't all that long ago that he has returned to Iron Trump and Zion Radio as a guest because of a gradual progress of improvement health wise and that would include memory and so on.

I just wanted to mention that to our audience in case they are wondering and I know that you are in no way embarrassed by that. In fact we actually did a program on your situation.

Yeah.

But brother I will tell you this the senior moment has nothing to do with the stroke it is just a senior moment.

So which of the commandments are you looking for.

I've got it. The second commandment is thou shall not make any graven image. So really the first commandment is we don't have any false gods before him he is the only God. The second one is we do not reduce God to anything made with our hands whether it's mental whether it's physical I could say corporeal and incorporeal.

The third commandment is remember the Sabbath.

Day.

Or is that the fourth commandment. That's the fourth commandment. The third commandment is we don't take any of the titles in the scriptures and use them in a way outside of their context.

Taking the Lord's name in vain.

Say it again.

Brother I'm sorry.

Taking the Lord's name in vain.

Yes taking the Lord's name in vain.

And being flippant with it or even vulgar.

Yeah that could be anything I mean whether you say the big one or I mean just anything. If you use Lord as an expression that is not appropriate. The fourth commandment is the Sabbath day. We have to remember that God created the universe in six days and on the seventh day he rested.

And I think that is the way we show love towards God. Remember his commandments. Then when we talk about our love towards our fellow man we have to remember that God put people in authority over us even if we're work by ourselves or work for ourselves.

There are still placemen there are still mayors there are still our pastor our elders. We need to give them their proper respect. We don't kill our neighbor we don't steal from them we don't covet we don't bear false witness anything like that.

That is the way we show our love for our fellow man. Now remember not only does it have thou shalt not the implication is the opposite and that is the action. How do we show our love for God and our love for our fellow man.

So we do the opposite if we don't murder our neighbor we actually that is something the positive I was thinking of murder. So if we're not bearing false witness against our neighbor we tell the truth about our neighbor.

That is the way if we don't covet and we don't envy. Then the way we practice the positive if you will is we praise our neighbor when God has given them.

Something.

Really that is how we fulfill the law of love the law of Christ and that is what I call Christonomy.

That's a good word for it. And just to give a little caveat obviously there are dispensationalists who would agree with a lot of what you said because John MacArthur for example one of the reasons he wrote the gospel according to Jesus was because of the very things that you just mentioned that the teaching of the law had completely fallen out of favor with multitudes of Christians and I know that Dr. MacArthur is not a Sabbatarian but he does believe that nine of the ten commandments are still applicable and will always be applicable in the church.

Right.

Now before we run down too many rabbit trails let me say this. John MacArthur's book what did you call it?

The gospel according to Jesus.

That was like a breath of fresh air.

Right.

I mean I can remember I read that book probably 25 -30 years ago.

Yeah.

And I can remember cause really in the circles I was running at the time there was a lot of that and I couldn't make a jive with scripture and I read that book and I thought man this finally somebody gets it cause I will tell you this there was a Puritan and I don't know if I remember his name but he used to say the law is not the gospel but henceforth the gospel is not lawless.

Right.

And.

I can remember reading that quote and thinking man that is so good that is so true. The law is not the gospel but the gospel is not lawless.

Amen.

So we do need to fulfill the law of love. And again we don't need to reduce love to some type of emotion or sentimentality. We need to understand that it is an action. We actually if we do one that says thou shalt not the implication is that we do something different thou shalt.

Yes just as in Paul's commands to husbands that we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church there was a specific way that we are to love.

Now I would say this cause I often chide men who believe that they always like to quote the passage that says wives should submit to their husbands and that is true but husbands have a tendency to think that that means oh honey if you're out in a park and somebody attacks you I would give my life for you.

That is theoretical love.

Alright.

That is not what the bible means. The bible means actually putting her needs above your own.

So.

That is hard to do I will admit it. I have not always done it. I wish I had but that is not. All you are called to do is theoretically lay down your life. It is a service that you lay down your life. You do it in everything and I mean that's why we hold a door open for a woman.

We pull out her chair we open her car door things like that because we want to be servants.

Amen. And when we pull out her chair we have to make sure she sits down on the chair.

Thank the lord.

I have never pulled it out too far cause I'm sure I would hear about that.

And.

Obviously this is the kind of thing where people will take their errant theology and they will force it into their belief system. They will isagit the scriptures and they will define love in a way that they would never accept for themselves.

For instance if their spouse although saying that she loved.

Him.

Was constantly committing serial adultery unrepentantly and she refused to say anything kind to him she refused to cook for him she refused to do anything to keep the house in order everyone including that husband would say this woman doesn't love me.

Right so.

I was going to say that is a fruit of the love. Those things don't make the woman the wife but they are an evidence that the wife loves him.

Right.

And I would say that is correct you know unfortunately men expect their wives to love them but a lot of times we don't love them. Back not the way the bible tells us to love them. And the bible tells us the best way to love them is to be a servant leader.

Amen. Well let's go to our first commercial break. If anybody has a question for Jerry Johnson on.

Christonomy.

How do we demonstrate our love for Christ. Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com. Give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence.

Only. Remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Jerry Johnson right after these messages from our sponsors.

Love, the Ten Commandments, and the Church

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That's royaldiadem .com. Mention Chris Arnz and Divine Trap and Zion Radio. We're now back with Jerry Johnson and we are discussing Christonomy. How do we demonstrate our love of Christ and Jerry. I don't know if you completed the first portion of what you had to say.

But we do have an anonymous listener with a question. Let me know if you want me to move on to the listener.

Let me say this one thing I got to tell you this story.

So.

You remember when George Roy Moore was a circuit court judge and he had the 10 commandments hanging in his.

Courthouse. Yes I do.

And there was a big brew. People were all over the place. It was kind of like a circus.

And.

The local news crew was going around interviewing people and there was this one guy there and what he said was so profound I want to share it with people.

But.

The news crew the lady asked him so what do you think about all of this. And the guy said.

You know I don't.

Understand why these Christians are so upset. Because they want to remove the 10 commandments from a courtroom wall. They removed them from the church wall years ago and they didn't say a thing and I was like wow God still speaks out of the mouth of a jackass.

He was right he was right.

Obviously he could have. I don't know who this person was. He could have been a Christian. He could have been using sarcasm to rebuke the church that he was a part of.

Yeah that is possible but the idea I got was he really didn't have a dog in the fight. But I thought that was so profound because really the church had I mean there are a lot of them that they never talk about the 10 commandments and really the 10 commandments the purpose of them I really believe although I do believe they reflect God's holy character.

I also I'm going to slaughter Spurgeon's quote but Spurgeon said the 10 commandments are like the looking glass that make you know that you need a.

Savior.

And really the Westminster Confession Atheism and the Baptist Confession of 1689 say the same thing and we take God's commandments out of the equation. We take out one of the biggest tools for showing people that they need a savior and they need a lord.

And by the way not to get too much into the lordship controversy. It was years ago. I did the I did a search of it and I gotta remember. You know how many times Christ is called savior in the New Testament.

It was like 26 times. Do you know how many times it was called lord in the New Testament. It was over a thousand times. And it was dark. I mean the the image itself the you know.

That.

The comparison was astronomical. So I often tell people that the Bible calls us to make Jesus lord and when we do then he becomes our savior. And that is what we really gotta remember. I know a lot of times people are saying make Jesus your savior.

No, make him your lord. He needs to be lord of your life. If you don't have Jesus as lord you don't have him as savior.

And in fact he is your lord whether you make him one or not because he'll be the lord that saves you or the lord that casts you into the lake of fire.

And remember the passage every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is savior, no that Jesus Christ is lord.

Amen.

So, alright go ahead and read that question brother.

Ok, the anonymous listener says I'm remaining anonymous because I am in the middle of an intense battle in love with a very precious loved one of mine who believes that she can love Jesus Christ without any connection to the church.

I have reminded her of what our lord Jesus said to Simon Peter when he kept repeating the question to Simon Peter do you love me. And the answers kept coming back to Jesus, of course I do. Jesus did not give any kind of a mushy gushy sentimental response.

He commanded Peter to tend my lambs and he also said shepherd my sheep or feed my sheep and tend my sheep. These were activities that he was to do to demonstrate his love for Christ, so my point is, is that isn't how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ and even how we love the church itself a reflection of how we love Christ.

Yes, that's an excellent question or comment or both and that also I think is connected with Saul on the road to Damascus. He was you know struck blind and Saul was wondering why. And Jesus said why do you persecute me even though Saul was persecuting the church.

Right.

Pick up where I left off there.

I would say now first let me comment. You probably saw a post on Facebook I did recently where I contrast the God that that reality is or heaven is a reality. The same book says hell is a reality. The same book that talks about the wrath of God or I'm sorry the love of God also talks about the wrath of God.

The book that talks about the mercy of God also talks about the justice of God, the thing I find really amazing is how many people on Facebook even though they know somebody that lived like the devil all their life and they died, they're always in heaven, have you ever noticed that?

Right.

And the thing that gets me is nobody believes they're in hell or they're gonna go to hell or that their loved ones are in hell. I remember when I was very young in my Christian walk I had this preacher, old guy said to me, said if we really love people we will tell them about hell.

That's right.

You know the thing is the thing that like I said that always amazes me is nobody believes they're gonna go there nobody believes their loved ones are there, how many times do I read oh hello to my daughter in heaven.

And.

I mean she had three children by three different men was never married and I don't know her spiritual state.

She.

Never went to church, never did anything for the body of Christ which is the church and of course she's now in heaven according to this person or the son that overdosed on drugs you know. And I told I tell my wife.

It amazes me how many times I see that, now I would not go out of my way to tell them.

That.

Their loved one is in hell cause I don't know but I will tell them this, if they have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then I can't give them any type of hope that their loved one is in heaven.

I will not do it.

And in fact I think that it's also the time is most well spent by directing the mourning person over their own future and eternal destiny.

Yes I would agree. I would agree. And that is one of the things a few years ago I preached a sermon about from a guy who had overdosed and that's what I told his family. I really did the funeral service more on their need to repent and make Jesus their Lord and Savior than I talked about him.

And I knew. I mean we had counseled together many times. He had a drug problem and there were many times he would come into my office and I would talk with him about it. And brother I could tell you he knew a lot of the scriptures he had read the Puritans.

And why did it not click. I don't know. Do I know he's in hell. No I don't. Do I know he's in heaven. No I don't. But I will tell you this one thing that Dr. Kennedy said to me in the Amazing Grace documentary when I was interviewing him he said I'm trying not to slaughter his words.

He said nobody in hell.

Let me.

Think how he said it everybody in hell deserves to be there and nobody in heaven deserves to be there. Let me take it back. Nobody in hell should be surprised that they're there and nobody in heaven deserves to be there.

Right.

I hope I said it right that.

Time. Yes you did.

So.

But really the thing that always amazes me nobody believes they're going to hell and I believe that is a trick of the devil if you will he wants to make everybody think they're going to heaven.

And that.

Way nobody has to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. And I will admit my church is not the perfect church. They do a lot of things wrong according to my view you know but the thing is they are the body of Christ and I love them for that.