Dan Olinger

On Benedictions, Part 1: He Who Is Able

December 17, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

In the series just concluded, I noted that biblical benedictions are sometimes suggested as representing early hymnic material. I’d like to take just a couple of posts to discuss a couple of the more well-loved biblical benedictions.

The one that comes first to my mind is the one my childhood pastor ended every Sunday morning service with. After the closing prayer there would be a musical interlude while the congregation stood with heads bowed. During that time he would walk to the back of the sanctuary in order to greet us as we left; and from there, with unamplified voice, he would call out over us,

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God, our Saviour,
Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen (Jude 24-25).

Decades later I still miss those words of blessing from the back of the room.

Those words are indeed strong and filled with grace, and they deserve a closer look.

We should begin by noting a couple of variants in wording—

Some manuscripts don’t have the word wise. Some have suggested that perhaps the idea came to a copyist’s mind from Romans 16.27.
Some manuscripts end with “before all time and now and ever.” Since Jude has a noteworthy fondness for groups of three, this would make sense.

This passage is an ascription of greatness to God; he is the one being “blessed” by the benediction. His greatness as described here is fourfold:

Glory
Majesty
Dominion
Power

He is a God of authority, whose authority manifests itself in brightness, in impressiveness, in ability to see that his will is done. His greatness is beyond all other; there is no second place.

And to what does he apply his sovereign power in this passage?

To us. To his people.

To keep us from stumbling, and then—consequently—to present us blameless at the end before his all-seeing eye.

But I do stumble. A lot.

So what does this mean?

Context.

Jude is writing about false teachers (Jude 4), who present an imminent danger (Jude 3) to the church. He is concerned that some will be led astray by these “clouds without water,” “trees without fruit,” “wandering stars” [planets]—lights that you can’t count on for purposes of navigation (Jude 12-13).

To strengthen the believers against this error, Jude urges them to remember what the apostles taught (Jude 17), to pray in the Spirit (Jude 20), to look ahead in anticipation of Christ’s return (Jude 21).

Will they succeed? Will they endure?

Oh, yes. God is able to prevent them from stumbling, and to present them blameless at the end.

This passage doesn’t promise that we’ll never stumble into sin. But it does promise that God’s grace can enable us to persevere to the end—to stand before his throne still blameless, still washed by the blood of Christ, still cleansed from the sin in which we all too readily engaged.

Yes, our obedience matters. Yes, we must resist sin. But in the end our victory comes not because we were strong enough to persist in resisting, but because God carried us through to the end.

He is able to do that.

And he will.

Because he is great, and he is good.

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Lk 12.32).

Part 2: Every Good Thing | Part 3: He Will Do It

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 8: God and Us

December 14, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Let’s look at one more place where Paul may have quoted an early hymn. It’s earlier in Paul’s writings than any of the others we’ve examined.

There is but one God, the Father,
from whom are all things
and we exist for Him;

and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things,
and we exist through Him

(1Co 8.6)

The parallelism and stanza structure of these lines is apparent. Commentator Mark Taylor observes, “The grammatical structure, precision, and conscious parallelism of the formulation … indicates its traditional character. … Whether or not Paul is transmitting a pre-formed received tradition or whether he himself crafted the pithy statement, cannot be known for sure.”

I’ll observe that since Paul is never shy about quoting other writers (e.g. Ti 1.12), there’s no reason this passage, and the others we’ve examined, couldn’t be in that category.

Of the 6 passages we’ve looked at so far, 4 have been focused on the Son, and 1 on the Father. The first one, from Colossians 1, included both persons, presenting Christ as the agent of accomplishing the Father’s plan. Similarly, this one, from early in Paul’s writings, distinguishes the Father and the Son, contrasting the persons, interestingly, in parallel.

And here it gets a little tricky. The contrasts are in the prepositions: “from whom” vs. “by whom,” and “for Him” vs. “through Him.” The reason it’s tricky is that in Greek, as in most languages, prepositions are pretty flexible; they have a broad range of meaning. For example, these statements have very different meanings:

I eat ice cream with a spoon.
I eat ice cream with chocolate sauce.
I eat ice cream with my wife.
I eat ice cream with delight.

It’s a truism in New Testament studies that anybody who bases his theology on a Greek preposition is foolish.

But Paul has set this passage up so that the prepositions are doing the heavy lifting. So we’re going to have to let them carry some weight. Let’s think a little about the contrasts.

It will help us, as always, if we consider the context. Paul is discussing the controversy in the Corinthian church between those who think it’s OK to eat meat that’s been offered in sacrifice to idols, and those who think it’s wrong. He begins his lengthy discussion—it includes all of chapters 8, 9, and 10—by laying a theological foundation:

There are no gods besides God; there is no “god” behind any idol (1Co 8.4).
Thus everything in the world—including meat—is made by God.
Since everything God made is good, then meat is good.

His argument is going to get relatively complex, as we can deduce from its length. I’ve written on that before. But for our purposes here, we simply note that Paul is speaking of God’s creative work. And he’s going to distinguish the roles that the Father and the Son play in that work.

First, Paul notes that “all things” are “from God [the Father]” and “by Christ.” Traditionally, interpreters have taken this to refer to the Father’s “administrative oversight” of creation—envisioning, planning, designing, specifying—and the Son’s active agency in doing the creating. We might say that the Father is the architect of creation, while the Son is the contractor. Which one, then is the Creator?

Yes. :-)

Then Paul says that we exist “for” the Father and “through” the Son. Again, this seems to suggest the Father as administrator and the Son as agent.

But we face a danger here. There are not two Gods; God is one. And so Paul begins his comparison and contrast of the two persons with a clear statement that “there is but one God.” He identifies him as the Father here, but elsewhere (e.g. Ro 9.5) he makes it clear that he does not see the Son as anything less.

God is multiple in one sense, and singular in another. Here we have the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

There is more to this God than you will ever comprehend. But He invites us to know, love, and live with him forever.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works. 

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you. 

Sing.

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 7: If and Then

December 10, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

As of the previous post, we’ve considered all 5 of the possible hymns listed in the series introduction. But as I noted there, the list is anything but certain. I’d like to look at a couple of other candidates.

Since we were in 1Timothy for the last two hymns, let’s go to 2Timothy for this post:

¹¹Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him, we will also live with him;
¹²if we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
¹³if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,

for he cannot disown himself (2Ti 2.11-13).

Paul calls this “a trustworthy saying.” There are four of those in the Pastorals (1Ti 1.15; 4.9; 2Ti 2.11; Ti 3.8). Scholars debate whether this label indicates some kind of official proverbial status, or whether he’s just saying the equivalent of our “You can take that to the bank!” The four passages have different topics and characteristics, but this one, given the extended parallelism and rhythm, strikes some interpreters (e.g., Hayne Griffin in The New American Commentary) as hymnic.

Like the other hymns in this series, this one is about Christ, who is clearly the one in view in the clause “if we died with him.” Its focus is the importance of our relationship with him. This is a constant theme of Paul’s; he seems obsessed with the idea of believers being “in Christ,” a phrase he uses 67 times, but which occurs only 3 times in all the rest of the New Testament (and one of those, Ac 24.24, in a narrative about Paul’s preaching; the other 2 are in 1Peter).

In the Father’s mind, we were “in Christ” before the world was created (Ep 1.4), and whatever your view of precisely how we came to be in him through conversion, the Scripture is clear that all believers are now in him. He died on the cross in our place, and when we believed, we were placed into his body, the church, over which he is the Head (Ep 1.22). We are locked in an eternal embrace.

That being the case, we benefit from his victory in two ways, delineated in the first couplet:

If we died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we are counted as beneficiaries of his substitutionary death, then we benefit as well from his resurrection, since it guarantees ours, he being “the firstfruits of those who sleep” (1Co 15.20). And if we demonstrate the genuineness of our profession by enduring to the end, we will receive the kingdom that he has prepared for us (Lk 12.32). His faithfulness, his success, showers us with benefits.

But there’s an “other hand,” and there always has been. Adam’s family included Cain; Abraham’s family included Lot’s wife; the mass of Israelites who came out of Egypt were a “mixed multitude” (Ex 12.38); and the church (even during the ministry of the apostles) included false professors, even false teachers, who “were not really of us” (1Jn 2.19). What of those?

There’s a second stanza:

If we disown him, he will also disown us;
if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,

for he cannot disown himself.

The good Shepherd knows his sheep, and they hear his voice, and they follow him. If they don’t recognize his voice, then they belong to a different shepherd, and they will make that plain over time. The end of that way is death.

But the fact that some other shepherd’s sheep gets lost is no reflection on the good Shepherd. He is faithful, dutiful, attentive, absolutely trustworthy. He cares for his sheep, and he never loses a one of them. The faithlessness of someone else’s sheep is no reflection on him.

If you’re in Christ, you’re a part of his body. He’s not going to go off and leave you somewhere; the very image is absurd. He’s going to care for you and deliver you safely to the ultimate, eternal fold.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works. 

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you. 

Sing.

Part 8: God and Us

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On Biblical Hymns, Part 6: Eternal Glory

December 7, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated

There’s another probable early hymn in 1Timothy; it occurs near the end of the letter and functions as a closing benediction:

He who is the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
¹⁶who alone possesses immortality
and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.
To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen (1Ti 6.15b-16).

If you’ve been with this series from the beginning, you may notice here one of the marks of potential early hymns: the passage begins with a relative pronoun referring to God—in this case, the Father, who is distinguished from the Son in 1Timothy 6.13 and who is said in 1Timothy 6.15a to be the one who will bring about the return of Christ (the “appearing,” or “epiphany” in Greek).

The word epiphany is used 6 times in the New Testament, always by Paul, and all but one in the Pastorals (Timothy and Titus). In 2Thessalonians 2.8 it’s associated with “brightness,” and in Titus 2.13 it’s called “glorious.” The word is used only of God’s appearing (never of an ordinary human’s, even a VIP’s), and in secular Greek it’s always used of divine appearances.

Who is the one who will bring this glorious appearing of the God-man to fruition? How shall we describe the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? The opening couplet tells us that he is “the blessed and only Sovereign”: he is in charge of all things, and only he is in charge of all things.

Well, what about earthly kings? How does their sovereignty compare to his? The second line of the couplet gives us the answer: all those kings have a King, and all those lords have a Lord, who is God. In practical terms, there is no other sovereign. He alone is in charge.

We should remember that as Paul writes this epistle, he has appealed to Caesar—specifically Nero—and, after waiting 2 or more years in Rome for a hearing, he has been acquitted and released. (That’s the way I see it, anyway.) Just before or just after the writing of this letter, a fire burns much of Rome, and Nero, apparently to divert popular anger against him, blames the Christians. Driven by his increasing madness, he begins to persecute Christians, throwing them to the lions in the Coliseum and notoriously using them as torches to light his garden parties.

It seems that he can do whatever he wants with Christians, or anyone else under his dominion.

It seems.

But in fact, Paul—who will lose his head to Caesar’s executioners in just a few years—reminds us that things are not as they seem. There is only one God, and he is sovereign over all—even over sovereigns. Over those elected, and those not elected. Over those placed in authority by popular acclaim, and over those who seize power by brute force and rule in cruelty and dishonor.

He is sovereign, appearances be what they may.

The evidences of his sovereignty are inescapable.

First, he lives forever. Nero is dead. Charlemagne is dead. England’s Bloody Mary is dead. Hitler is dead.

And everyone now in power, however great, whether good or evil, will soon, in the grand providence of God, be dead—as will you and I, if the Lord tarries. The mightiest kings of the earth lose their power and are mockingly welcomed to the world of the dead by those who have preceded them (Is 14.3-21).

Only God lives forever. Only he is truly sovereign.

There’s another evidence.

He dwells in unapproachable light—beyond what we humans are even capable of surviving. He is glorious.

I was once lying on a beach—I won’t say where—and along came a man in swim trunks, shirtless, clambering barefoot over some rocks in a jetty. I soon realized that he was a powerful US Senator—and I was struck by how ordinary he looked. No halo, no cloud of glory, no retinue. Just a man, and a fairly feeble one at that.

God is not like that. He has dominion, and he will have it forever, with our consent or without it.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated

December 3, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light

The next two hymns in our series appear in the Pastoral Epistles, which were written much later in Paul’s life. The first of those is in 1Timothy 3.16—

By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

Paul introduces this hymn by calling its subject matter “the mystery of godliness.” In the New Testament, a “mystery” is an old truth that is just now (finally!) being revealed. For example, Jesus begins his “kingdom parables” by remarking that he is telling “the mysteries of the kingdom” (Mt 13.11); Paul tells the Romans of the “mystery” that the Jews’ hard-heartedness was foreseen and intended to offer an opportunity for Gentiles to be brought into God’s family (Ro 11.25); he tells the Corinthians that all believers—those alive and those dead—will be transformed at Christ’s return (1Co 15.51). (You should look up the other NT references to “mystery” sometime. It’s a profitable study.)

“Godliness” is perfectly believing in, and following, God. So Paul is saying that in this hymn we’re going to learn—finally—what perfectly trusting and obeying God looks like.

And we shouldn’t be surprised that he then presents Christ to us as that perfect example.

One little technical point. The NASB, which I’ve quoted above, translates the first Greek word of the hymn as “he who.” The KJV translates it as “God.” The difference results from a textual variant, a copying error easily made (ΟΣ vs ΘΣ). If you compare several translations—a very good way to study the Bible—you’ll see that in general the modern ones go with “he who” or something similar.

I don’t think the difference matters much, if at all. Since “he who” has just been described as “the unfolding of perfect godliness,” then Paul is essentially calling Jesus “God” here anyway. Like the vast majority of textual variants, this one need not concern us.

So then. How does Jesus reveal perfect godliness?

Several organizational structures of this hymn have been suggested, but it seems to me to have 3 couplets, or pairs of lines:

He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,

Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

The first stanza contrasts “flesh” and ”spirit”; the second, “angels” and “peoples”; and the third, “the world” and the “up in glory.”

What does it all mean?

This one who appeared to us in the flesh—as a human—was perfectly godly in the parts we couldn’t see as well, on the inside. (Yes, I’m taking “spirit” here as a lower-case word, not a reference to the Holy Spirit. Feel free to disagree with me.) He was the real deal, one whose godliness would never disappoint us.

He has been testified to by the heavenly hosts (on the one hand) and proclaimed as Savior to the human hosts, the teeming masses of the nations of the world (on the other hand). Not quite sure what the first clause is referring to—before the incarnation (Is 6.2-3 [Jn 12.41])? At his birth, to the shepherds (Lk 2.13-14)? After his victory over temptation (Mt 4.11)? Whatever Paul intends, it’s clear that the heavenly hosts endorse the Son (Php 2.10; He 1.6).

He has been recognized here on earth by those who “received” him (Jn 1.12), and the worthiness of their trust has been verified by his ascension to the Father (Ac 1.9-11) and reception at his right hand (Ac 7.56; He 1.3-4).

“He who has seen me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (Jn 14.9). We have all the example we need in order to follow God perfectly. We need only look to Jesus (He 12.1-2).

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 4: Morning Light

November 30, 2020 by Dan Olinger 1 Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow

Our first two New Testament hymns were from Colossians and Philippians respectively, and they meditate on the person and work of Christ—the first on his exalted status as the perfect revelation of the glorious Father, and the second on his humility in becoming a servant, humility that results in the Father’s extravagant exaltation of him.

There’s another NT letter written about the same time as these two—perhaps even on the same day as Colossians—where a third hymn appears. It’s much briefer than the first two, and it can serve well as a simple response to them—an application of their teaching, if you will.

If Paul focuses in Colossians on Christ’s role as head of the church, in Ephesians he focuses on the church’s role as the body of Christ. In its first half he lays down the doctrine that Christ’s work has brought together disparate peoples into a unified body, something that only God could do (Ep 3.10). At the letter’s midpoint (Ep 4.1) he pivots to application—how should members of such a body behave in the world? Well, they ought to live differently in specific, practical ways (Ep 4.17-32). And these differences spring from the fact that whereas we used to walk in darkness, we now live in the light of Christ (Ep 5.7-13).

At this point Paul draws on what is apparently another hymn of that day:

Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you! (Ep 5.14).

Why do we usually end our church services with a song?

There are several reasons:

Singing focuses our thoughts on the song’s message, encouraging us to meditate on it—and, if the song has been deftly chosen, on the key thought of the service.

A thought sung typically stays with us longer than one spoken—that’s why you can remember childhood songs decades later—and so will bring the key thought to us long after we’re “home from church” (now there’s an unbiblical expression!) and in need of applying it.

Music moves our emotions as well as our intellect, serving to motivate us to put into action what we have been convinced of as true. This is persuasion at its best and most legitimate.

Now that Paul has laid the intellectual foundation for our changed behavior, and has given us the imperative to live in a new way, he moves us to action with a simple statement in hymnic form, one that is dense with theological implication:

We have been sleeping. Worse than that, we have been “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ep 2.1), by nature destined for God’s wrathful judgment (Ep 2.3).

But Christ has awakened us. We have risen with him (Ep 2.6) and are now alive (Ep 2.5) to the same degree to which we were previously dead. We can see, and hear, and smell, and taste, and touch. A world that was previously dark is now bright and colorful and filled with potential.

Christ is the light. Christ, the Bible tells us (Jn 1.3; Co 1.16; He 1.2), is the Elohim of Genesis 1, the one who on the first day cried out, “Let there be light!” (Ge 1.3). He is the one who revealed himself briefly to three of his disciples as shining with the radiance of God’s glory (Mt 17.2). He is the one who will be the light of the heavenly city, which will have no more need for the sun itself (Re 21.23). And, to Paul’s point here in Ephesians, he is the one who lights our path through a dark world, enabling us as we walk to be lights to those around us (Mt 5.14).

Darkened soul, behold his glory!
Blinded eyes, receive your sight!
Sinner, leave your seat of darkness!
Rise, and come to the light!
(Eileen Berry)

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated | Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Thanksgiving

November 26, 2020 by Dan Olinger

Here’s my annual Thanksgiving post.

Even in tumultuous times, we have much to be thankful for.

Photo credit: Wikimedia

On Biblical Hymns, Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow

November 23, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn

Our hymns typically have stanzas. The hymn in Philippians 2 does as well. The stanzas are easy to spot,* because the phrasing is parallel, and the content progresses from “down” to “up”:

⁶who, although He existed in the form of God,
- did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied Himself,
  - taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
⁸Being found in appearance as a man,
- He humbled Himself
  - by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

⁹For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
- ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
- ¹¹and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Php 2).

The first hymn in our series celebrated Christ’s sufficiency to rule. This second hymn celebrates his humility as demonstrating his qualification to rule. The first stanza notes his humiliation; the second, his exaltation.

Note that it all begins with a relative pronoun, which is one of the suggested identifying characteristics of hymnic material in the NT text. Then comes a note of surprise, indicated by the “although”: “Even though he was exactly the same shape as God, he didn’t cling to what he had, but he emptied himself!”

This is surprising for a couple of reasons:

What it means to be “in the form of God”
What one would expect from such an exalted person

In English, “he was in the form of God” implies uncertainty, even fraud: “he looked like so-and-so, but he actually wasn’t.”

There’s none of that in the Greek. The word is morphe, or “shape.” Paul says Jesus is exactly the same “shape” as God. Since God has no body, we’re clearly not talking about physical shape or appearances. Jesus is like God in all of his non-physical qualities—his personhood, his characteristics or attributes, his perfections.

If some of God’s attributes are unique to him (we call those “incommunicable” attributes), and Jesus is exactly like him in those respects, then what is the only logical conclusion?

Jesus is God.

And what would one expect from such a person?

If the kings of the earth exalt themselves—ancient monarchs, and even the much more recent Hirohito, were viewed as gods—then why would the genuine God humble himself?!

Surprising, indeed.

And how, specifically, did he humble himself?

He became a mere human.

And not a very distinguished one, at that. A subject of Rome, in a backwater village in a backwater province, son of a manual laborer, with people asking questions about the circumstances of his conception (Jn 8.41).

And then, he intentionally took a path to execution as a common criminal, by the most torturous means ever devised.

You can’t get any lower than that.

And now for the big surprise.

God reaches down to the depths, to the bottom of the barrel, and raises him up, not merely to exoneration, or even to elevated human status, after the fashion of Joseph in Egypt. Not even to revelation of the Father’s approval, or of his heavenly origins.

No. All the way. All the way to the top. To the name that is above every name.

To the point where his Roman executioners, and the corrupt Jewish leadership, will bow to him.

And not just the corrupt ones. Everyone. Those despised, and those deeply admired. All humans will bow.

And not just humans. Demonic powers. And angelic ones, too. All of heaven. All of hell.

They—no, we—all will bow, and we all will agree that this one is Lord. Lord of us, Lord of all.

Those who now deny God. Those who hate him. Those who question him, because they have suffered greatly in this life. Those who have simply ignored him as inconsequential.

We all will bow to the one who, though he is God, humbled himself.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

* For a slightly different look at the structure, see here.

Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated | Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 2: Christ As Firstborn

November 19, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction

All the New Testament passages most commonly identified as taken from hymns in the early church are about Christ. No surprise there. They celebrate his uniqueness, his glory, his powerful work in accomplishing our salvation. I’d like to begin with the classic—and controversial—passage from Colossians 1:

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, ²⁰and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

This is an inductive passage—that is, it draws us along to its main point at the end, rather than stating it up front. The main point is that God the Father has planned a cosmic reconciliation by placing all that God is into a human form; “all the fulness” of God is “to dwell in” Christ (Co 1.19), “His beloved Son” (Col 1.14). This is the means God has chosen to accomplish his primary goal, “to reconcile all things to himself” (Col 1.20).

Why should God become human? Why this shredding of the fabric of the universe?

Because, as an old churchman named Anselm noted, only God can make an infinite payment, and only man can die, death being the payment required. So God designs the perfect and eternal payment for sin “through the blood of his cross” (Col 1.20).

Can the Son accomplish such a work? Can he reconcile God, the perfect Creator, with his broken and devastated creation? Is he capable? Is he worthy?

Paul presents the answer to the question, the evidence for the conclusion, at the beginning of the passage. The second person of the Godhead, God the Son, is

The image of the invisible God. By becoming man, he makes the invisible visible. He can be seen, and touched, and heard (1Jn 1.1-3). Those who have seen him have seen the Father (Jn 14.9).
The ruler over all the universe. The Jehovah’s Witnesses use the phrase “the firstborn of all creation” to support their heretical claim that Jesus was God’s first created being. I’ve written at some length about why their reading of this text is certainly wrong. As that series demonstrates, the phrase means that he is the ruler over everything that has been created. Why is that?
- Because he is the Creator of all things (Col 1.16). This fact is stated repeatedly elsewhere by other writers (Jn 1.1-3; Heb 1.1-2). If you make something, you are sovereign over it; you can do what you want with it.
- Because all things were made for him (Col 1.16b).
- Because he maintains all things (Col 1.17). They exist because he continues to want them to, and he directs how their existence proceeds.
- He is the ruler of all those to be delivered by his cross, called here “the church” (Col 1.18a). The Father has appointed him to this position (Eph 1.19b-23).
- He is the one whose resurrection makes possible the resurrection of all those who follow in his train (Col 1.18b).

I’ve mentioned that some of the biblical benedictions are thought be early church hymns as well. It seems appropriate to include one here:

³³Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ³⁴For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? ³⁵Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? ³⁶For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen (Ro 11).

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 1: Introduction

November 16, 2020 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

God’s people sing.

They always have.

On the day of Israel’s great deliverance from Egypt at the Red Sea, Moses led God’s people in a song of delight and rejoicing before the God who had delivered them (Ex 15.1ff): “The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea!”
At the end of his life, Moses composed a song by which Israel could remember God’s words (Dt 32.1ff): “Ascribe greatness to our God!”
Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, who introduced the monarchy to Israel, wrote a song of thanksgiving for the end of her long period of infertility (1S 2.1ff): “He raises the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap!”
David, the “sweet psalmist of Israel,” and his son Solomon set up elaborate musical infrastructure for the Temple, including (apparently) hundreds of professional singers to lead the congregation of Israel (1Ch 15.16; 2Ch 5.13).
Like Moses, David too left behind a song for his people (2S 23.1ff): “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue!”
And like Hannah—with her words deeply embedded in her heart—the Jewish girl Mary composed her “Magnificat” (Lk 1.46-55) in response to the news that she would bear the Messiah: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior!”

In the church age, the New Testament speaks of God’s people singing, placing great importance on congregational singing as part of regular worship (Ep 5.19; Co 3.16). Paul—who sang with Silas when they were in a Philippian jail (Ac 16.25)—speaks of the importance of our understanding what we’re singing (1Co 14.15). James urges suffering believers to sing (Jam 5.13). And in the ages to come, God’s people will continue to sing in their praise to him (Re 14.3)—including, apparently, that song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32 (Re 15.3).

We all know that Old Testament believers had a hymnbook, called today the Book of Psalms, containing 150 songs written by several authors over many generations, from Moses (Ps 90) to Asaph (Pss 50, 73-83) to the sons of Korah (Pss 42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88) and especially including David, who wrote, among many others, the universally known and loved Psalm 23.

What did the early New Testament churches sing?

There’s no New Testament equivalent to the Book of Psalms. But there are three passages in Luke’s Gospel that are poetic and lyrical—

Mary’s “Magnificat” (Lk 1.46-55)
Zechariah’s “Benedictus,” his prophecy at the birth of John the Baptist (Lk 1.68-79)
Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis” upon seeing the infant Jesus in the temple (Lk 2.29-32)

We can’t know whether the early church sang these as songs in corporate worship, but there are other passages in the New Testament that scholars suspect are taken from hymns sung by the early church.

How do they know that?

Well, they don’t; there’s no reliable record from those days as to what those believers were singing. But students of the Scripture suggest that certain passages sound lyrically like hymns—they evidence certain patterns that are typical of hymns, such as

A beginning—an “introductory formula”—that sets the passage off from what precedes
- Reference to a “faithful saying”
- A relative pronoun, particularly in reference to God
Rhythmic structure / patterns
- Repetition, in the fashion of a refrain
- Parallelism
Distinct vocabulary
- Doxologies
- Hapaxlegomena (words that occur only once in the New Testament)
Interruption of the flow of the passage
Exalted or liturgical language

Since prose can have these elements as well, most of this is subjective, and much of it is just guessing; for a scholarly discussion of its weaknesses, see this article. (And if you want a second rigorous look at the topic, try this.)

That said, there are a few passages in the New Testament that are routinely viewed as reflecting early hymns:

Ephesians 5.14
Colossians 1.15-20
Philippians 2.5-11
1 Timothy 3.16
1 Timothy 6.15b-16

There are also several benedictions (e.g. Ro 11.33-36), which might have served a similar purpose.

We’ll take a look at these, and perhaps some others, in the posts to come.

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash