Bavinck And Systematic Theologies

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the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for

even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for

you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial.

Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and

glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth.

In the old days, I had everything all scripted out, and it probably

showed.

And now it�s just, �Lord, help.

� Why is this Bible here?

There are so many Bibles here.

I would go to the Peabody Mass Christian Book Discount sale four times a year,

and you could get really nice study Bibles there, or other Bibles, leather Bibles.

They had somebody else�s name on them, so you could order your name, you know, embossed on the front or whatever it is.

And this one had Steve Anselm on it, and I thought, �Well, I can respect Anselm.

� So I�m maybe now known as Steve Anselm.

And speaking of Bibles, my all -time favorite Bible I got in the mail the other day, paid a premium

price, but you get what you pay for, evangelicalbible .com, fine -crafted Bibles.

My Bible weighs about five pounds.

I got it at NES and Quintel series.

It is rocking.

It is rocking.

It costs you a couple hundred dollars, but it�s like the Bible that I�ll read,

live with, and die with.

So that is the Bible.

I guess if I had something in my house, if my house was on fire,

what would I do?

Of course, I�d make sure to get the kids, of course, with my wife.

Wife and kids, dog, Bible.

I think that�s probably what I�d do.

And the new sexual fidelity book.

Just kidding.

I�ve been pretty happy with sales.

I printed about 2 ,000 of them, and we�ve got about 1 ,980 left.

Not true.

That is so funny.

One of my favorite writers is Herman Bavink, B -A -V -I -N -C

-K.

And probably 10 years ago, Reform Dogmatics came out for volume.

The newer version, I think, is PNR.

That was just a few years ago.

I read volume two.

I think I�m working on volume three now.

Just read a little bit here and there.

It�s great stuff.

I mean, just really wonderful.

I tried to read some systematic theologies over the years.

I loved Robert Dabney�s systematic theology.

I loved Calvin�s institute.

Two volume.

Make sure you get the McNeil Battles.

No, really, there�s not a good other one besides that.

Well, I guess the new Banner of Truth, like from the original French, isn�t bad.

I�ve read the Foundations of the Christian Faith by James Montgomery Boyce.

That is excellent.

I�m currently reading the Turretin.

There�s a three -volume Turretin, so I kind of read that and a little Bavink at the same time.

Oh, I�m just looking across my room now.

I did read a lot of, well, I had to read the whole thing, Millard Erickson.

That one really wasn�t the best, but I had to use that for seminary.

I loved Robert Raymond�s systematic theology.

I can�t remember what it�s called, the new something or other systematic theology of the Christian faith or life or something like that.

I really enjoyed it, though.

I read Basic Theology by Ryrie years ago.

That�s not too bad, but not high on my recommendations.

I am trying to read Culver, but I haven�t read it yet.

I need to read Culver.

I�ve dabbled with A .H. Strong.

I want to read Charles Hodge, the three -volume set, but still haven�t gotten around to it.

So, Culver I need to read.

I need to finish Bavink and Turretin, and by then I�ll be infant Baptist.

By then.

Boyce, B -O -I -C -E, I�ve read that.

I haven�t read the abstract of systematic theology in its entirety by B -O -Y -C -E,

but probably the granddaddy of them all is sitting, I heard, on S. Lewis Johnson�s old computer, and I�m trying to get

there in June to maybe access that and see if we could put that out S. Lewis Johnson.

What would we call it?

Systematic theology, no compromise.

I�m also trying to get his Colossians commentary out, but I don�t think it�s really working.

I�ve got too many things to do, too many TV shows to watch.

You can always write us info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

I would have to say, I think some of the snarky ones, the mean ones, they

don�t make it to my desk.

Spencer gets rid of those, but you can disagree with me, that�s fine.

If we�re adults about it, it�s okay.

One thing I don�t do, though, and I would just challenge all the listeners, getting into social

media debates, I mean, points of clarification, fine, but the debates, I don�t think

it�s very fruitful.

I think it is fruitless.

I just make my comments and move on.

I don�t, the YouTube channel, the No Compromise Radio YouTube channel, we�ve got about 150 videos there.

Sometimes people say things that are awful, I delete those, otherwise I just kind of let them ride, but I don�t really say much.

Just once in a while, depends.

We need somebody maybe to just take over that job, and they could be uber nice as they would correct people.

But if you spend a lot of time, even on email, back and forth and debating, I don�t know, I just don�t think you

could do it.

I think it�s a culture that we have via email, via Twitter, Facebook, and other

social media.

You can read a newspaper article now online, and at the bottom you can make your comments.

You can watch a football game online and interact with the live tweets and live broadcast updates and all

this stuff.

I don�t know, so far, no one that I know, I�m sure it�s out there, and this is only

anecdotal evidence, no one that I know has changed positions based on email tweets back and forth, emails and

tweets back and forth, rather.

In front of me I have the Message Bible, so I probably should pull out the Message Bible and

see what is said here early on.

What could we find here?

Oh, I know.

This would be good if I went to Acts chapter 2.

Let�s see.

�All Israel then know this, there is no longer room for doubt.

God made Him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.

� Is that what I�m looking for?

Hmm, doesn�t seem to have any kind of sovereignty of God

stuff there.

Oh, here it is.

�Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words, �Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by

God to you.

The miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge.

This Jesus, following the deliberate and well -thought -out plan of God.

� You know, I have read worse.

I have read worse.

Now Bavink, back to Bavink.

As I contemplate the cross, and I would encourage you to do that, because it speaks to the

love of God when you think about God�s love.

If you think about how great the lover is and how unworthy the loved is,

it makes you appreciate how great that love is.

What love is this?

And when I contemplate the cross, and I was reading Bavink, he helped me when it comes to Jesus

and when he said, �My God, my God, why have you forsaken me

Now remember, Jesus was quoting Psalm 22, verse 1 there,

calling God for the first, and I think only time that I can recall, not father, because

that relationship is like the father turns his back to the

son, and instead of being a father, now the son is forsaken by the judge.

And if you were a Jew, to be forsaken would just be awful.

I mean, it�s awful for us, but now think about things from a Jewish perspective.

And Bavink helped me when he said this, Reform Dogmatics, page

389, �In the cry of Jesus, we are dealing not

with a subjective, but with an objective God, forsakenness.

� Let me repeat that, because it was a dash, and I thought it was two separate words.

In the cry of Jesus, we are dealing not with a subjective, but with an objective God,

forsakenness.

He did not feel alone, but had in fact been forsaken by God.

That�s important.

We might think subjectively, and left to ourselves these days in our culture, that�s exactly what we do.

Everything is subjective, and through our own lens, and isn�t that sad that the father turned

his back to the son, and now the son probably feels really lonely.

Bavink says, �He did not feel alone, but in fact had been forsaken by God.

And now the gravity of the atonement and the cost

increases in my mind.

His feeling was not an illusion, not based on a false view of his situation, but corresponded with

reality.

On the other hand, this must not be understood in the sense that the father was personally angry with Christ.

Was Jesus at this time, remember the sun is

up, and it�s now darkened because of judgment.

When you read many times in the Old Testament, the motif of darkness was judgment, and

God is judging the son for the sins of the bride,

for the elect, for all those who would ever believe.

If you don�t want to say elect, you say for all those who would ever believe, because it�s the same thing.

It just seems like a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

It�s not personal anger.

Why would the father be angry with the son, when the son is doing exactly what the father sent him to do?

When you read 2 Philippians, this is obedience at the highest level.

So the son is not going to receive the anger from God, personal anger, but

there�s going to be judgment because we have substitution happening here.

Calvin puts it this way, this is still quoted by Bobbink,.

�Yet we do not suggest that God was ever eminent or angry toward

him.

How could he be angry toward his beloved son, in whom his heart reposed

and afflicted by God�s hand Isaiah 53, 5, �and experienced all the

signs of a wrathful and avenging God.

But Calvin, end quote, still found in Bobbink.

When you think about the cross, make sure you think rightly.

Here Jesus is bearing sins, and if you use the language of God treated him as

if, God judged him as if, then you're going to guard

yourself from falling into a probably pretty easy error.

Jesus never sinned, but God treated him as if he did sin.

But this whole time, remember, Jesus was sent by the father to do this very thing.

God isn't personally angry or inimical,

to quote Calvin.

How could he be?

How could he be angry with the son?

This is the zenith of obedience.

And I think it would probably just be helpful if I did read Philippians 2,

Gnosis passage, because it sets my mind rightly to consider this.

Who, this is about Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with

God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of

men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even on a cross.

Therefore, now this is going to help us.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is

above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and

under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.

That hinge there in verse 9, therefore, God has highly exalted him.

He did because Jesus was obedient to the father, even to the point of death on a cross, the creator of the universe,

the son has to die on a cross, fit for the

riffraff of the world?

It's unspeakable.

Bavinck goes on to say, also on the cross, Jesus remained the beloved

son, the son of his father's good pleasure, Matthew 3 and 17.

Precisely in his suffering and death, Christ offered his greatest, most complete obedience to the

will of the father.

That's what we just got done talking about.

And Jesus himself tells us what the hour would come, tells us that the hour would come when

all his disciples would abandon him, but that he would himself not be alone for the

father was with him, John 16, 32.

When you think of the cross, and you think about the love of God, make sure you think of

the love of God toward sinners.

That's wonderful, I know.

But also think about the love that the son had for the father to go do that, and the love that the

father had for the son, because he had that love, and that love was then, of course,

confirmed by the death of Jesus, his obedience.

Hebrews 5, 8, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what

he suffered.

Hebrews 10 additionally tells us some insightful things as we understand the atonement.

Chapter 10, verse 5 and following.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but

a body have you prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings

and sin offerings.

These are offered according to the law.

Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will.

He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And we have the son.

I've come to do your will.

And how could the father be personally angry with the son when this is the pinnacle?

This is the apex.

Apogee?

I think that might be a good word too.

When you consider the atonement and you consider the love of the father,

the lovelessness of the bride, the love of the son, it

helps.

Now just probably you should give me a commission because now you want to go read Bavink.

That'd be good.

That'd be good.

Just don't read the baptism part.

I have to say, and this is true, I have a lot of respect for my Presbyterian friends.

I know that's true.

But when I was reading Calvin's Institutes, it's so wonderful.

His section on prayer is very devotional and, of course, predestination stuff.

And just in general, it's excellent.

There's all these characters of Calvin.

And if you've not read him, you might buy into those.

But then I got to the baptism section, infant baptism section, and I just thought, is a different guy writing this or something?

Probably the best defense for infant baptism that I've ever heard was Ligon Duncan.

He did an iTunes series on iTunes, Covenant

Theology.

I was probably as close as I got to go, you know what?

There's an argument to be had there.

But we like our OPC friends, our PCA friends.

You know what?

If you're Christian Reformed, you should tell me because I don't think we have any Christian Reformed friends.

I don't think they listen to No Compromised Radio.

Once I was in a concert, a conference in Nebraska, and I was speaking at an, I think it was an OPC

church.

They said, you make it a good OPC person.

You need to tell Carl Truman that.

Carl needs to know that.

I think most people are afraid of Carl Truman.

I think Carl Truman's afraid of me.

Bovink.

Reformed theologians, however, could not speak along those lines since Christ, as a true human being, was certainly obligated to

keep the law, to love God above all, and to love his neighbor as himself.

Yet they rightly rejected the sentiments of Piscator.

It is one single work that the Father assigned to him and that he finished in his death.

His ministry was completed in the giving of his life as ransom for many.

Even Paul, who powerfully emphasizes the cross of Christ, regards his death not as the whole,

but as the consummation of his obedience.

He was born under the law, Galatians 4 .4, in the likeness of sinful flesh, Romans 8 .3.

Did not live to please himself, Romans 15 .3.

At his incarnation, he already emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant.

He continually humbled himself and became obedient even to death, Philippians 2, 2 Corinthians 8.

So it is one single ministry and one obedience which gives life -giving justification

to many.

He is explaining Romans 5 .18 -19.

The case is rather that Christ's entire life and work, from his conception to his death, was

substitutionary in nature.

I really appreciate Bavink there, because there are some who would

affirm that Jesus never sinned, that he perfectly upheld the law, but that obedience,

that act of obedience, is never credited to the believer.

And they'll try to use things like Romans 5, and so Bavink is trying to help us

think clearly.

Therefore, Romans 5 .18 -19, As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so

one act of righteousness, see, some thinking it's just the cross, leads to justification and life for all

men.

For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's

obedience the many will be made righteous.

Bavink, it is the case, to repeat rather, it is the case that Christ's entire

life and work, from his conception to his death, was substitutionary in nature.

It's this single ministry, one obedience culminated, highlighted,

capstoned at the cross.

What else do I have here?

Well, we've only got a couple minutes left as I'm talking about Herman Bavink and helpful things that he writes,

now that it's translated into English.

Second, while it is certainly true that as a human and with reference to himself, Christ was subject

to the law, it must be emphasized that his incarnation and being human occurred not for himself but for us.

Christ never was and may never be regarded as a private person, an individual alongside

and on the same level as other individuals.

He was from the very beginning a public person, the second Adam.

This is language that's used, by the way, of his Bavink's Puritan forebears, and

John Owen and Thomas Goodwin, and many others, public person.

Bavink says P -U -B -L -I -C, some say P -U -B -L -I -K, and the old -fashioned way

to spell it, but this is a modern translation.

He was from the very beginning a public person, the second Adam, the guarantor and head of the elect.

As Adam sinned for himself and by this act imposed guilt and death on all those he represented,

so Christ, by his righteousness and obedience, acquired forgiveness and life for all his own.

Even more, as a human being, Christ was subject to the law of God and as the

rule of life.

Even believers are never exempted from the law in that sense.

But Christ related himself to the law in still a very different way, namely as the law of the covenant of works.

Adam was not only obligated to keep the law but was confronted in the covenant of works with that law as the way to

eternal life, a life he did not yet possess.

But Christ, in virtue of his union with the divine nature, already had this eternal and blessed life.

This life he voluntarily relinquished.

He submitted himself to the law of the covenant of works as the way to eternal life for himself and his own.

The obedience that Christ accorded to the law, therefore, was totally voluntary.

Not his death alone, as Amsal said, but his entire life

was an act of self -denial, a self -offering presented by him as head in the place of

his own.

Hermann Bavink.

All of a sudden, this is the third show I recorded in the last couple hours and I can't talk.

Four volumes set, reformed dogmatics.

Hermann Bavink.

If you can afford systematic theologies, because they're pretty pricey, there's a bunch of

them online.

And I would just encourage you to listen to some teaching on

systematic theologies.

There's an S. Lewis Johnson series.

If you go to the Believer's Bible Chapel in Texas, you can listen to a

couple hundred of his messages on systematic theology.

It helps you put things in the right categories.

I also like biblical theology, but the subject today right now is the systematic theologies

that I think you should regularly read.

I'm reading now Turretin, like I said, and it's just fascinating as I'm studying even Adam in the

garden and what God required and what the reward would have been if Adam would have succeeded.

And we are done.

Done for today.

That's three shows.

And I am zonked, wiped, kaput, finished, el fin,

el niño.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

Don't forget you can write us if you've got questions.

Info at nocompromiseradio .com or Tuesdayguy at No Compromise Radio.

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