The moment God lifts His common restraining grace, man reverts to nature. So if there is any goodness, any law and order, social graces and good inventions that help man, any sensibility in human government, it is because of one of the following reasons:
1. Man likes to maintain order, so he can fulfil his selfish desires and do business, prosper and live in peace.
2. Society, including unregenerate men, has been blessed by the church in that society.
3. God has provided a common grace in order to achieve some purpose He has in mind and not with any reference to the goodness of the men in the society.
Common grace can be defined as those blessings that God gives generally to society not attached to salvation or saving grace. These can be sound government, rain, inventions to improve life, peace and skill. Men can be pilots and fly, dentists can treat, or men can perform different skills from which all men benefit.
Generally, God in kindness provides these blessings to society, that all men benefit from and squander, even when they do not know God or give Him thanks. A Christian does not need a Christian pilot to fly him in a plane, but a person who has skill, to whom God has given common grace.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Friday, 24 September 2010
Human Nature
People will contend vigorously for the goodness of man. Some call all humanity children of God. Natural men are not the children of God, but the children of disobedience and wrath. Only born again people are the children of God, who have received as a gift a new nature. People may say that society shows the goodness of man, even without Christ. People can live harmoniously in society for different reasons, but man’s goodness is not one of these reasons.
They live in harmony because:
1. Of the restraint of law.
2. Of the restraint of the Holy Spirit.
3. Of the restraint of common grace.
4. Because God is restraining man to fulfil His purposes on the earth.
5. Because it is in their own self-interest to do so.
They live in harmony because:
1. Of the restraint of law.
2. Of the restraint of the Holy Spirit.
3. Of the restraint of common grace.
4. Because God is restraining man to fulfil His purposes on the earth.
5. Because it is in their own self-interest to do so.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Total Depravity
Adam
Man was made from the earth, which is the meaning of Adam. God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul, the emphases meaning a living being (Gen 2:7). John Gill notes that by this, man is “not only capable of performing the functions of the animal life, of eating, drinking, walking, but of thinking, reasoning, and discoursing as a rational creature” (Gill’s Commentary on Genesis).
Adam was earthly. He was not in Christ. Adam had fellowship with God when He appeared to his flesh, but he was not heavenly. He was not spiritually dead, but as Calvin put it, “before the fall of Adam, man’s life was only earthly, seeing it had no firm and settled constancy” (Calvin’s Genesis Commentary). Paul explained it, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a living spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45). We who are in Christ are heavenly (Phil 3:20-21).
Total Depravity
Without an understanding of total depravity firmly established there can be no understanding of the real gospel. The Fall of man was complete. Self is utterly at centre stage, so that there is no goodness or righteousness in man at all. We may claim that while man has problems or bad traits, he is basically good, but this is not the testimony of scripture. Paul said:
And you has He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our life in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Eph 2:1-3).
This text speaks on the nature of all men. The problem with sin is not that we have committed sin, but that any person who is not born again is by nature a sinner. The problem is nature, not any particular issue of or act of sin. All men are born sinners by nature. They are not a sinner because they have sinned, but they sin because that is their nature. It starts with their nature.
There is no goodness in man. Jesus said, only God is good (Luke 18:19). Even the good that man does is not good. There is some trait in the motive that makes the act self-serving. Is 64:6 says even our righteousness is as filthy rags. Jer 17:9 says the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it.
So, even when man thinks he has done good he does not know his own heart. He cannot know his heart and cannot be his own judge. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, so that includes above even the devil. People are shocked by this. They like to blame the devil for their sin, but the sin comes from their own nature.
People do not need the devil’s help to sin. They sin because it is their nature to sin. Man can invent things from his own nature that would surprise even the devil. There is no difference between fallen man and the devil in nature. Man will always flatter himself. He does not acknowledge the truth about himself.
This does not mean that we adopt a harsh attitude towards men. It does not mean that we have less compassion on man, or disregard the good that God can do through man, even when they do not know Him. It just means that we recognize the truth about mankind.
This does not mean that if we are born again we cannot sin. It means that with Christ us, not in our own resources, we can live free from sin by grace. It does mean that in Christ we cannot go on living a life style of sin.
Man was made from the earth, which is the meaning of Adam. God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul, the emphases meaning a living being (Gen 2:7). John Gill notes that by this, man is “not only capable of performing the functions of the animal life, of eating, drinking, walking, but of thinking, reasoning, and discoursing as a rational creature” (Gill’s Commentary on Genesis).
Adam was earthly. He was not in Christ. Adam had fellowship with God when He appeared to his flesh, but he was not heavenly. He was not spiritually dead, but as Calvin put it, “before the fall of Adam, man’s life was only earthly, seeing it had no firm and settled constancy” (Calvin’s Genesis Commentary). Paul explained it, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a living spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45). We who are in Christ are heavenly (Phil 3:20-21).
Total Depravity
Without an understanding of total depravity firmly established there can be no understanding of the real gospel. The Fall of man was complete. Self is utterly at centre stage, so that there is no goodness or righteousness in man at all. We may claim that while man has problems or bad traits, he is basically good, but this is not the testimony of scripture. Paul said:
And you has He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our life in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Eph 2:1-3).
This text speaks on the nature of all men. The problem with sin is not that we have committed sin, but that any person who is not born again is by nature a sinner. The problem is nature, not any particular issue of or act of sin. All men are born sinners by nature. They are not a sinner because they have sinned, but they sin because that is their nature. It starts with their nature.
There is no goodness in man. Jesus said, only God is good (Luke 18:19). Even the good that man does is not good. There is some trait in the motive that makes the act self-serving. Is 64:6 says even our righteousness is as filthy rags. Jer 17:9 says the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it.
So, even when man thinks he has done good he does not know his own heart. He cannot know his heart and cannot be his own judge. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, so that includes above even the devil. People are shocked by this. They like to blame the devil for their sin, but the sin comes from their own nature.
People do not need the devil’s help to sin. They sin because it is their nature to sin. Man can invent things from his own nature that would surprise even the devil. There is no difference between fallen man and the devil in nature. Man will always flatter himself. He does not acknowledge the truth about himself.
This does not mean that we adopt a harsh attitude towards men. It does not mean that we have less compassion on man, or disregard the good that God can do through man, even when they do not know Him. It just means that we recognize the truth about mankind.
This does not mean that if we are born again we cannot sin. It means that with Christ us, not in our own resources, we can live free from sin by grace. It does mean that in Christ we cannot go on living a life style of sin.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Man
One of the goals of ancient Greek education was to “know yourself”. This became central in Europe after the Renaissance. It is known as humanism. In Hebrew thought, the goal of education was to “know your God”. God and His glory were to be the centre.
The key to knowing our self is seeing our self as God sees us. The prodigal son “came to himself”. He saw the truth about himself. The truth about our self is only to be found in God’s word. It is only when the Holy Spirit takes God’s word and shows man who he is that he has any hope of salvation and change.
The key to knowing self is not to be found in anthropology or psychology, but in theology, i.e. through God’s word. When Adam sinned, self became his god. Man today is self-centred. When we preach we should not preach about self-improvement because this panders to man’s sinful nature. Self-centeredness should be confronted.
We preach death and new life through Christ. Jesus did not come to improve our lives but to replace our life with His. He said he who finds his life loses it, but he who loses his life for My sake and the kingdom, shall find it. Paul said, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me.” (Gal 2:20).
Self-improvement will not work. It will not improve our marriage relationship and it will not make us a better person. It will not get us to heaven. It is not what we need. If it was, then Christ died in vain. Self-improvement denies one of the very fundamentals of the Bible and gospel message – total depravity.
The key to knowing our self is seeing our self as God sees us. The prodigal son “came to himself”. He saw the truth about himself. The truth about our self is only to be found in God’s word. It is only when the Holy Spirit takes God’s word and shows man who he is that he has any hope of salvation and change.
The key to knowing self is not to be found in anthropology or psychology, but in theology, i.e. through God’s word. When Adam sinned, self became his god. Man today is self-centred. When we preach we should not preach about self-improvement because this panders to man’s sinful nature. Self-centeredness should be confronted.
We preach death and new life through Christ. Jesus did not come to improve our lives but to replace our life with His. He said he who finds his life loses it, but he who loses his life for My sake and the kingdom, shall find it. Paul said, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me.” (Gal 2:20).
Self-improvement will not work. It will not improve our marriage relationship and it will not make us a better person. It will not get us to heaven. It is not what we need. If it was, then Christ died in vain. Self-improvement denies one of the very fundamentals of the Bible and gospel message – total depravity.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
A Theology of Satan
There is no theology of territorial demon spirits in the Old Testament. Scripture states Satan opposes the work of God, but that he can go no further than God allows at any time. We should pray to God and continue doing His will, as His purpose will prevail. The Bible does not teach that we should pray against demon powers, except when casting out an evil spirit by a gift of faith.
The Old Testament has very little theology on Satan. The Bible shows us that Satan is:
1. God’s creature and therefore subject to God’s dominion. (Is 54:16 says God created the destroyer to destroy, to “take out the garbage”.) This text does not refer to Satan but to Israel’s enemies, but the principal is the same. God created all beings (Heb 1:3, Col 1:16).
2. Responsible for his own sin and rebellion (James 1:13).
God is morally upright and in Him there is no darkness, or shadow of turning (1 John 1:5). The question of evil has been tackled by many. God said He cannot be tempted with evil, or tempt any man (James 1:13). God tested Abraham’s faith, but did not tempt him to disobey (Gen 22:1). The book of Job is the best statement on the reason for evil, which basically says two things: Do not counsel God on what we do not understand and God will always do that which is right.
Yet in His sovereignty, God allowed Satan to fall. He uses Satan to achieve His purposes, as God said in Isaiah, “I create good and evil, light and darkness.” (Is 45:7). This is referring to enemy nations, by which God brought down other nations in judgement. In all this, God is never responsible for evil. God is not the author of sin, but only of judgement in His time and way.
The Old Testament has very little theology on Satan. The Bible shows us that Satan is:
1. God’s creature and therefore subject to God’s dominion. (Is 54:16 says God created the destroyer to destroy, to “take out the garbage”.) This text does not refer to Satan but to Israel’s enemies, but the principal is the same. God created all beings (Heb 1:3, Col 1:16).
2. Responsible for his own sin and rebellion (James 1:13).
God is morally upright and in Him there is no darkness, or shadow of turning (1 John 1:5). The question of evil has been tackled by many. God said He cannot be tempted with evil, or tempt any man (James 1:13). God tested Abraham’s faith, but did not tempt him to disobey (Gen 22:1). The book of Job is the best statement on the reason for evil, which basically says two things: Do not counsel God on what we do not understand and God will always do that which is right.
Yet in His sovereignty, God allowed Satan to fall. He uses Satan to achieve His purposes, as God said in Isaiah, “I create good and evil, light and darkness.” (Is 45:7). This is referring to enemy nations, by which God brought down other nations in judgement. In all this, God is never responsible for evil. God is not the author of sin, but only of judgement in His time and way.
Monday, 20 September 2010
God of this World - Part. 2
We now get back to our context in Corinthians. What was the issue Paul was addressing? We study this at different times through this book. In brief, the problem was the super apostles (false apostles) and the false spirituality in the church. They taught that the law makes us spiritual and gives life. Some taught this as a form of Gnosticism, meaning the law gives a special spirituality, which in turn gives us a special knowledge (gnosis), raising us to a higher level of “salvation”.
This is the matter Paul is addressing in 2nd Corinthians 3 and 4. Paul countered that law leads to death and that grace leads to liberty (life and freedom from sin). They went to the law for spirituality, but instead it worked blindness and death because of the frailty and sin of man. It was the law that blinded the Corinthians, least they should see the acceptance of Christ. So, is Paul saying that law is the god of this world?
We now have another look at the term god of this world. What is the god of this world? Well, it is what the world worships. It is what the world makes its god. What is the world’s god? If we look at animism and witchcraft we will say that it is Satan. The world that does not believe the gospel worships Satan.
Is human worship that simple? Certainly we are speaking here of idolatry. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” is the first commandment. Idolatry is the default setting of the heart of all fallen mankind. But what is the main form of idolatry? It uses images and bows down to them and says “you are my god”. But these images somehow feed the ego of man.
They support the rebellion of the ego. So the pagan in the land of Canaan was not really loyal to his god, but sought what he could get from it for his own goals. There is no real worship of the god. It is self that is worshipped. Self is where the loyalty lies. Thus today the main images are sports cars and houses. These gods enhance the real god’s image, man’s image of himself!
Jesus said we cannot serve God and mammon. The word serve here means worship. We worship mammon for what it can do for us. So mammon may be called the god of this world. When people look at the New York Stock Exchange they say that the dollar is the god of this world. Is that why they put “In God we trust” on the back of the dollar bill, to remind the people of the truth? God help the nation that forgets (Deut 8:18).
The god of this world is self. It is his ultimate goal to be god. The god of this world says “Not Thy will, but my will be done.”. This is where wars come from (James 4:1). This is the spirit that works in the sons of rebellion (Eph 2:2). The spirit of this world is, “I do it my way. I am boss. I rule.” At the Tower of Babel they erected a temple to “make a name for themselves” (Gen 11:4). It was self-worship.
Satan knows this and he feeds it with lies. He manipulates the nature that he knows man has. He tempted Eve by making her a god in her eyes. He tempted Jesus by showing the rule that He could have. He tries to make Christianity into something that enables us to get what we want. So why are we in the church? Is it because of loyalty to Christ, or do we have our own plans?
Satan appeals to man by making man the centre, because that is man’s centre. He knows man’s tune. So in this sense he is the prince of this world. He sings man’s tune and uses him to work against the will of God. In election campaigns we see this. One says, “These are the principles I run on.”. The other says, “This is what you will get.”.
This ignorance and blindness is not forced on man by Satan. It is within man, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Eph 4:18). This says exactly what 2 Cor 4:4 says, but in Ephesians Paul says the blindness is due to the nature of man.
The nature of man has blinded him. They could not understand Jesus’ parables, not because they were in code, but because of sin. “Go and tell this people, Hear, but do not understand and see, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed.” (Is 6:9-10).
So if this term in 2 Cor 4:4, god of this world, is referring to Satan, it is not referring to any dominion he has. Col 1:13 says God has delivered us from the power (rule, dominion) of darkness. Some say darkness is a dominion and therefore has a king. This is not a dominion of government, but of slavery or imprisonment. Man is held captive not but Satan, but by his own sinful nature.
Paul shows that which rules in Romans 5. “For if by one man’s offence death reigned.” (Rom 5:15) This is death reigning within the human nature. Man’s sin nature rules him. “That as sin has reigned unto death…” (Rom 5:21) Sin, in the nature, reigns as king and brings the man into captivity.
Man’s god is self. That is why salvation and sanctification are by grace alone. In Christ God brings down self by not allowing us any part in our salvation, least we should boast. Grace deals a death blow to self. “Unless you deny yourself…” Grace fulfils this in our life through Jesus Christ.
“Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.” (Rom 5:15). “Even so grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 5:21). Just as sin reigned and I had no choice, now grace reigns by the fruit of Jesus’ work and has the final say in me! This is the wonderful gospel. It is absolute gift. It could not be anything else.
In Corinthians, what is Paul saying to the church? He is saying that there is a veil over man’s heart because of sin. If he seeks salvation through the law he will have death. But if he receives the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of liberty will set him free from sin as a gift. He is not saying anything about spiritual warfare. He is speaking of man’s heart condition and the solution, the grace of Jesus Christ.
In context, Paul is saying to the Gnostics of Corinth, “You say the law gives you special gnosis, rather it is a veil to you. You have become deceived by it.” This verse is a direct correction to the Corinthian problem. Just as any conversation you listen to, you always hear a part of it in the context of the whole discussion. Is Satan behind this deception? Most definitely he is. But it is the changing of the heart through Christ that solves it.
The law brings blindness to man because of his nature. Man’s heart is self-righteous and so law is a force of idolatry in his life. It could even be called the god of this world. The preaching of the grace of Jesus Christ removes that blindness. Modern self psychology is incompatible with the gospel. Preaching national Israel also reconstitutes the veil, by substituting Israel for Jesus Christ, rebuilding what Christ destroyed (Gal 2:18, Eph 2:15).
This is the matter Paul is addressing in 2nd Corinthians 3 and 4. Paul countered that law leads to death and that grace leads to liberty (life and freedom from sin). They went to the law for spirituality, but instead it worked blindness and death because of the frailty and sin of man. It was the law that blinded the Corinthians, least they should see the acceptance of Christ. So, is Paul saying that law is the god of this world?
We now have another look at the term god of this world. What is the god of this world? Well, it is what the world worships. It is what the world makes its god. What is the world’s god? If we look at animism and witchcraft we will say that it is Satan. The world that does not believe the gospel worships Satan.
Is human worship that simple? Certainly we are speaking here of idolatry. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” is the first commandment. Idolatry is the default setting of the heart of all fallen mankind. But what is the main form of idolatry? It uses images and bows down to them and says “you are my god”. But these images somehow feed the ego of man.
They support the rebellion of the ego. So the pagan in the land of Canaan was not really loyal to his god, but sought what he could get from it for his own goals. There is no real worship of the god. It is self that is worshipped. Self is where the loyalty lies. Thus today the main images are sports cars and houses. These gods enhance the real god’s image, man’s image of himself!
Jesus said we cannot serve God and mammon. The word serve here means worship. We worship mammon for what it can do for us. So mammon may be called the god of this world. When people look at the New York Stock Exchange they say that the dollar is the god of this world. Is that why they put “In God we trust” on the back of the dollar bill, to remind the people of the truth? God help the nation that forgets (Deut 8:18).
The god of this world is self. It is his ultimate goal to be god. The god of this world says “Not Thy will, but my will be done.”. This is where wars come from (James 4:1). This is the spirit that works in the sons of rebellion (Eph 2:2). The spirit of this world is, “I do it my way. I am boss. I rule.” At the Tower of Babel they erected a temple to “make a name for themselves” (Gen 11:4). It was self-worship.
Satan knows this and he feeds it with lies. He manipulates the nature that he knows man has. He tempted Eve by making her a god in her eyes. He tempted Jesus by showing the rule that He could have. He tries to make Christianity into something that enables us to get what we want. So why are we in the church? Is it because of loyalty to Christ, or do we have our own plans?
Satan appeals to man by making man the centre, because that is man’s centre. He knows man’s tune. So in this sense he is the prince of this world. He sings man’s tune and uses him to work against the will of God. In election campaigns we see this. One says, “These are the principles I run on.”. The other says, “This is what you will get.”.
This ignorance and blindness is not forced on man by Satan. It is within man, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Eph 4:18). This says exactly what 2 Cor 4:4 says, but in Ephesians Paul says the blindness is due to the nature of man.
The nature of man has blinded him. They could not understand Jesus’ parables, not because they were in code, but because of sin. “Go and tell this people, Hear, but do not understand and see, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed.” (Is 6:9-10).
So if this term in 2 Cor 4:4, god of this world, is referring to Satan, it is not referring to any dominion he has. Col 1:13 says God has delivered us from the power (rule, dominion) of darkness. Some say darkness is a dominion and therefore has a king. This is not a dominion of government, but of slavery or imprisonment. Man is held captive not but Satan, but by his own sinful nature.
Paul shows that which rules in Romans 5. “For if by one man’s offence death reigned.” (Rom 5:15) This is death reigning within the human nature. Man’s sin nature rules him. “That as sin has reigned unto death…” (Rom 5:21) Sin, in the nature, reigns as king and brings the man into captivity.
Man’s god is self. That is why salvation and sanctification are by grace alone. In Christ God brings down self by not allowing us any part in our salvation, least we should boast. Grace deals a death blow to self. “Unless you deny yourself…” Grace fulfils this in our life through Jesus Christ.
“Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.” (Rom 5:15). “Even so grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 5:21). Just as sin reigned and I had no choice, now grace reigns by the fruit of Jesus’ work and has the final say in me! This is the wonderful gospel. It is absolute gift. It could not be anything else.
In Corinthians, what is Paul saying to the church? He is saying that there is a veil over man’s heart because of sin. If he seeks salvation through the law he will have death. But if he receives the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of liberty will set him free from sin as a gift. He is not saying anything about spiritual warfare. He is speaking of man’s heart condition and the solution, the grace of Jesus Christ.
In context, Paul is saying to the Gnostics of Corinth, “You say the law gives you special gnosis, rather it is a veil to you. You have become deceived by it.” This verse is a direct correction to the Corinthian problem. Just as any conversation you listen to, you always hear a part of it in the context of the whole discussion. Is Satan behind this deception? Most definitely he is. But it is the changing of the heart through Christ that solves it.
The law brings blindness to man because of his nature. Man’s heart is self-righteous and so law is a force of idolatry in his life. It could even be called the god of this world. The preaching of the grace of Jesus Christ removes that blindness. Modern self psychology is incompatible with the gospel. Preaching national Israel also reconstitutes the veil, by substituting Israel for Jesus Christ, rebuilding what Christ destroyed (Gal 2:18, Eph 2:15).
Sunday, 19 September 2010
God of This World
In whom the god of this world has blinded the eyes of those who believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them. (2 Cor 4:4).
When we read this we think immediately of the one thing that blinds men’s hearts to the gospel more than anything else and that is the law. Paul combated this source of blindness in every one of his epistles. Take Rom 10:1-4 for example. The Jews were ignorant (blind) to God’s gift of righteousness, because they went about to establish their own righteousness through the law. The law blinded them. The veil in the tabernacle was to prevent vision into the glorious presence.
Going back to 2 Cor 4:4 we look at the context. Paul compared his ministry to Moses, who put a veil over his face because it shone and Israel was afraid (2 Cor 3:13-18). They were afraid because the law spoke of their sin. They could not see the acceptance of God in Christ. Paul said that even in his own day the veil still blinded the heart of those who hear the law. The veil blinded them.
We will come back to the context soon, but first we will look at what some other commentators have said about 2 Cor 4:4. Chrysostom and Augustine claimed that this is the God of this world, meaning God. (The Greek Bible text does not use capital letters.) They did so due to the Arians of their day, who said that if this god is Satan, Christ can also be a small “g” god. So to defend the divinity of Christ, Chrysostom took this position on the verse.
His position does have some currency:
What then? Israel has not obtained that which it seeks for (for it sought it through the law), but the election has obtained it and the rest were blinded…as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they cannot see and ears that they cannot hear, to this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and recompense to them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see and bow down their back always. (Rom 11:7-10).
This is big “G” God. He is the one who makes them blind here. Even if we disagree with Chrysostom and claim with Calvin that 2 Cor 4:4 refers to Satan, we must concede that whatever Satan does here, he does because of God’s permission, not by any rule or government of his own. The phrase “god of this world” is god of this age, possibly referring to this present evil age (Gal 1:4). So does this mean that this god is Satan?
We can see man, Satan and God working together in Paul’s explanation to the Thessalonians. The condition starts with man: he does not receive the love of the truth. Then God sends man strong delusion (hands him over to his lusts) by empowering Satan’s lying wonders, that they might be damned (2 Thes 2:9-12). Man is responsible for his condition, not Satan.
When we read this we think immediately of the one thing that blinds men’s hearts to the gospel more than anything else and that is the law. Paul combated this source of blindness in every one of his epistles. Take Rom 10:1-4 for example. The Jews were ignorant (blind) to God’s gift of righteousness, because they went about to establish their own righteousness through the law. The law blinded them. The veil in the tabernacle was to prevent vision into the glorious presence.
Going back to 2 Cor 4:4 we look at the context. Paul compared his ministry to Moses, who put a veil over his face because it shone and Israel was afraid (2 Cor 3:13-18). They were afraid because the law spoke of their sin. They could not see the acceptance of God in Christ. Paul said that even in his own day the veil still blinded the heart of those who hear the law. The veil blinded them.
We will come back to the context soon, but first we will look at what some other commentators have said about 2 Cor 4:4. Chrysostom and Augustine claimed that this is the God of this world, meaning God. (The Greek Bible text does not use capital letters.) They did so due to the Arians of their day, who said that if this god is Satan, Christ can also be a small “g” god. So to defend the divinity of Christ, Chrysostom took this position on the verse.
His position does have some currency:
What then? Israel has not obtained that which it seeks for (for it sought it through the law), but the election has obtained it and the rest were blinded…as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they cannot see and ears that they cannot hear, to this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and recompense to them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see and bow down their back always. (Rom 11:7-10).
This is big “G” God. He is the one who makes them blind here. Even if we disagree with Chrysostom and claim with Calvin that 2 Cor 4:4 refers to Satan, we must concede that whatever Satan does here, he does because of God’s permission, not by any rule or government of his own. The phrase “god of this world” is god of this age, possibly referring to this present evil age (Gal 1:4). So does this mean that this god is Satan?
We can see man, Satan and God working together in Paul’s explanation to the Thessalonians. The condition starts with man: he does not receive the love of the truth. Then God sends man strong delusion (hands him over to his lusts) by empowering Satan’s lying wonders, that they might be damned (2 Thes 2:9-12). Man is responsible for his condition, not Satan.
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