It is not without reason that the apostle says to Timothy, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” It goes without saying that many are ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. We ought to understand the meaning of “the testimony of our Lord.” A testimony is a witness, a proclamation of something and the truth of that thing. For instance, one gives his testimony in court that he has seen the accused actually commit a crime. One gives a testimony or a witness of the crime and of the fact of that crime.
The testimony of which the apostle speaks is modified by the words “of our Lord.” These words are to be taken in a subjective sense. This means that our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who speaks this testimony or, if you will, who takes the witness stand, declares something, and affirms its verity. This is clear throughout the passage.
The apostle also exhorts Timothy not to be ashamed “of me his prisoner,” in connection with the fact that the apostle was “appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles,” and for that cause he suffered (2 Tim. 1:11). This is made very clear from verses 9 and 10, where the apostle indicates that God’s giving to us salvation and grace in Christ Jesus—not according to our works but according to the purpose of God before the world began—was “made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Christ Jesus, therefore, manifests the eternal purpose and grace of God and through the gospel brings to light life and immortality.
Our Lord testifies. What does our Lord testify? What does he declare? What does he affirm as the faithful and true witness? He declares the content of verse 9. In other words, he declares the purpose and grace of God that is given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What is the purpose of God? The term “purpose” literally means a setting forth or a placing of a thing in view. God sets something forth. I believe that the translation “purpose” is somewhat deficient, for it does not convey fully the meaning of this passage. The idea is that God has something before his mind. He sets it forth before himself. It is the mind of God, his thoughts, his view.
This “purpose,” of course, is eternal, as it was before the world began. This “purpose” refers to the eternal thoughts of God, that which God beholds as real and true (eternal). It is God’s conception of something, and God is eternal. God does not behold things in a succession of moments. For God things do not wax and wane, increase and decrease. For God things are not becoming. God does not see things as they develop in time as past, present, and future. God does not see things as was, is, and will be, as that which was not, becomes, and shall be. Speaking generally, God beholds all things in their entirety—the beginning and end and their full development in time—in a moment. At the same moment in his thoughts, God has our beginning and end, yea, and all things concerning us. God’s thoughts or counsel is God’s conception of the reality of all things. The reality of a thing is not when it becomes in time but as it is in the counsel of God.
This is where the term “purpose” is fitting. The eternal thoughts or counsel of God is also God’s will, his purpose. It is what God sets before himself to do in time and history, thus making his thoughts manifest. Moreover, the term “purpose” indicates that God’s thoughts are sovereign, efficacious, and determinative for time and history. God’s thoughts determine the creature and everything about it—what it is, its time, its ultimate end, its whole course in the world, and its relationships. God, not the creature, determines these things. So also, God sets these things forth before himself to do; hence they are efficacious. God’s thoughts are what happens in time and history, for God does them. For now, let us see that the “purpose” of God in this passage is God’s eternal thoughts, their reality, for they are God’s conceptions according to his will.
What is in the mind of the Lord? It is revealed in time. Therefore, when the apostle says about God that he “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,” this indicates that salvation, to be brief, is in the mind of God. This is also clear because we are saved and called according to God’s purpose. Time is in harmony with God’s purpose and determined by God’s purpose. We must not fail to notice also that this purpose is strictly particular; it is for definite people. “Us” God has saved. In God’s conception salvation and the saved are before himself. This is summarized by the word “grace,” which is the eternal, saving favor of God—the favor of God according to which he blesses the sinner with salvation. To be an object of divine grace is to be saved, for who shall hinder the favor of God and deny God his pleasure? It is God who operates in his favor and performs all his pleasure. “Grace” in 2 Timothy 1:9 indicates the fullness of the salvation of the elect (the only objects of the favor of God) performed by God in his favor for them, all that God has in mind for the elect in Christ, having favor for them.
And this is “given us in Christ Jesus” before the world began. The truth concerning “us,” that is, the elect of God, the objects of his eternal love and favor, is the fullness of our salvation in Christ. That is God’s view of us, and how God views us is what is true concerning us. That is why in time salvation only can be manifested and brought to the light. That is where the passage turns next. “But is now” indicates that we turn from the counsel of God to what happens in time.
First, the fullness of our salvation in the grace of God is “made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ reveals how God views us, that is, as we stand in the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ, perfectly recreated in the image of Jesus Christ and living with God forever in peace. That is why verse 10 calls Jesus “our Saviour” and likewise mentions that Jesus Christ “abolished death.” Through his death and resurrection, Christ abolished death for us because in the counsel of God, we live. Christ reveals the eternal, gracious thoughts of God concerning us by working them out in time.
Second, we read that Jesus Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Let us immediately notice that this bringing to light is performed likewise by Jesus Christ. He is not only the one who, manifesting the mind of God, abolished death, but also he brings this to light. What does it mean that he brings life and immortality (salvation) to light? The idea is that Christ also makes us to know. To put it in other words, he makes us to see what God sees. That is, of course, because we are in the dark about the fact that God sees us in immortality in Christ Jesus. Who can know the mind of the Lord? This also implies that we have eyes to see—for how can the blind see? But we must notice chiefly that Christ brings us into the light, into the truth. Christ tells us who we actually are—who we are in God’s counsel—what God sees. Christ, if you will, brings us up to speed. He brings to light the thoughts of God toward us.
This our savior Jesus Christ does “through the gospel.” This implies that Christ is the speaker. Christ is the preacher and the instructor. He is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). And Christ employs preachers through whom he might speak. How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher (Rom. 10:14)? As the apostle indicates, “Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (2 Tim. 1:11). The task of the preacher, his calling from week to week, is to bring to light “life and immortality” to “us,” the elect, the objects of God’s eternal grace, for Christ is called “our” savior. He has not abolished everyone’s death and given life and immortality to everyone, but for us he has abolished death, to us he has given newness of life, and he has raised us to immortality. The preacher preaches not the Christ of generalities. But the preacher is called to bring to light the truth concerning the elect of God, declaring God’s thoughts concerning us as they are made abundantly clear in the appearing of Jesus Christ as our savior—that is, in his incarnation, suffering, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming. In all this Jesus Christ appears as Jesus Christ, that is, as our savior.
This is the true proclamation of the gospel. This is the testimony of our Lord. It is this point that I seek to emphasize in this article. The preaching of the gospel is the proclamation of a particular promise. The promise is God’s holy oath. It is what God swears by his own name is true. That must be our conception of the promise. Think of the prophets who spoke the promises of God. They were not telling the future. They were telling God’s view of things. They were declaring God’s holy oath concerning the salvation of his people in Christ, given to them before the world began. That is, of course, why the promise was manifested in time, in the future. But the prophets declared the thoughts of God that God had revealed to them, and so also with the preacher. “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory”
(1 Cor. 2:7).
That is the only way the gospel can be called “gospel.” The gospel, we often say, is good news. Good news has to be actual good and actual news. Only the preaching of the particular promise of God is good news. First, it is actual news. It tells us that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man to conceive. It is the declaration of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Not that salvation from sin and the possession of life everlasting are made possible by Christ, not that salvation can be attained through Christ, but that definitely, really, and truly, Jesus Christ has blotted out our sins and raised us up into newness of life in him. Second, then, the news is also good. It is not a message or news about potential salvation, but it is the declaration that we are saved. It is actual good news. Our life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel.
This promise is particular. In the preaching of the gospel, Christ is speaking to his sheep, to his elect people. He is addressing them and promising them salvation. He is declaring to them, and to them only, that they are saved. Always and ever the objects of the promise are the elect. This never changes. It is impossible that one ever becomes an object of the promise. One either is an object of the promise or is not an object. This goes back to the counsel of God—his sovereign choice of persons in Christ in love and God’s eternal conception of them as perfect in Christ. It is impossible that one is an object of the promise one moment and the next is not an object or not be an object and then become an object of the promise. For instance, it is impossible for God to forgive and then not to forgive or not to forgive and then to forgive. Always and ever, the elect are the objects of the promise, and the reprobate are not the objects of the promise (to put reprobation negatively). Never does the activity of man change this; never does one become an object of the promise, that is, by performing some activity.
In this connection we understand that the promise declared in the preaching must be preached particularly, especially in light of the fact that the preaching of the gospel is a general proclamation of the particular promise. Many hear the promise. Elect and reprobate alike hear the promise of God declared. But God’s promise is not to or for all who hear but for the elect and them only—to definite persons. And in scripture these definite persons are often indicated by some spiritual activity or characteristic. For instance, let us notice that in the beatitudes we read of promises, such as “they shall see the kingdom of heaven,” “they shall be comforted,” and “they shall obtain mercy.” In short the promise is summarized by happiness—happy are they. This promise is to “the poor in spirit,” “they that mourn,” “the meek,” and “the merciful,” or very commonly in scripture to “whosoever believeth.”
When we read such in scripture, we must understand that these promises are indicating specific, definite persons. These promises are indicating who the elect are, that is, the objects of the promise. In fact, these are names for the elect. The elect are believers, the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, and the merciful. When these words are used in scripture, they are really God’s pet names for the elect. This is because that is who the elect actually are. That is true in God’s eternal conception of them, and it is who God makes them in time. It is who they and they alone are. We could even say that God indicates the objects of the promise by demonstrating the fact that they are objects of the promise; the promise of God is why they believe, mourn, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. As these are the works of the Spirit within them, they also are names that the Spirit within us recognizes in the word of God. When the scripture says those who believe or those who put their trust in God, the elect perceive that God is addressing them. He is calling them by their spiritual names; the Spirit receives the things of God.
To illustrate this, let us say that I seek to get the attention of a particular man who is running in a crowded place. I would say, “You who are running, come here!” I already have a particular person in mind, and I merely address him and call him from among many. Employing the same illustration, it is clear that when such phrases are used in scripture, they never can be conceived of as conditions. One cannot become an object of the promise. If I shout my address, and some other man starts running, he would not make himself an object of my address. I never had him in my mind. My message was never for him. I already had in mind the person whom I was addressing, and what I have to say is for him only.
But the Arminian conception of the preaching of the gospel is precisely that God “promises” salvation or some blessing, and then man has to do some activity indicated in the text. And by doing that activity, he becomes an object of the promise, gets the blessing, or gets saved.
This is the same conception of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC), which she expresses with the phrase “in the way of.” Really, the PRC puts the sinner in a sort of halfway house. He possesses salvation in some sense, and in another sense he does not. His sins are forgiven, but they really are not forgiven. He objectively has justification but not subjectively. And it is through repentance that he becomes an object of the so-called promise of the forgiveness of sins. While he does not repent, he does not receive forgiveness. When he does repent, he is forgiven. While he walks in the way of obedience, he receives blessings. But when he is disobedient, he is not blessed. For the PRC the sinner is ever becoming and not becoming an object of the promise—one moment he is an object, and the next he is not, for the PRC hinges the promise on the activity of the sinner.
In this connection I turn again to the preaching of Rev. Daniel Holstege in Wingham Protestant Reformed Church. His preaching demonstrates that he, his congregation, and the PRC in general are thoroughly Arminian. I remind the reader concerning Holstege and his preaching, as is ever the case with Arminians and false teachers, that he is subtle. The sermon titled “The Blessed Mourners” is the second sermon of his series on the sermon on the mount.1 His text is Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” The text itself is marvelous and simple. It indicates who the children of God are—they are mourners. The text also indicates the promise of God to them—they shall be comforted. And the text indicates the beauty, goodness, and kindness of God to his people, for he makes them happy.
I do not want to go into a detailed analysis of this sermon. I do not need to do so again. And had Holstege stuck along the lines where he began and carried them through his sermon, I would not write about this sermon. He begins quite well, speaking generally about the beatitudes:
In these beatitudes the Lord Jesus teaches us the spiritual characteristics of his disciples, the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. To those whom God has chosen to be his people and redeemed by the blood of his Son, he has given the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts these spiritual qualities and activities, so that these are the characteristics of God’s elect children, as they manifest themselves in the world.
Sadly, Holstege departs from these lines. While he says this and starts well, he does not actually believe this or intend to preach this to his congregation. Soon enough, he takes off his Reformed mask to reveal an Arminian face. Perhaps I speak knowing the content of the sermon, but his Arminianism is indicated already in the title of his first point: “Their Mourning.” It ought to have been titled “The Mourner.” If Holstege had done that, then he could have stuck with what he said in his introduction. He could have explained that the mourner refers to the elect child of God and explained who the elect child of God is in this sin-cursed world, as he lives by the Spirit, sees spiritual things spiritually, and yet still lives in his old, corrupt nature.
The elect child of God is a mourner. He is the ungodly sinner, and he cannot help it, for he is totally depraved. Yet, living by the Spirit, out of his new, regenerated heart, he hates all the works of his hands, for they are wholly defiled by sin. He confesses with the apostle, “That which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Rom. 7:15). He confesses, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (vv. 18–19). He exclaims with the apostle, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (v. 24). I do not really need to explain this. The child of God knows this; he is well-acquainted with his wretchedness. He is a mourner.
But Holstege is more interested in explaining what proper mourning is. I do not have a problem with explaining the mourning of the child of God. Of course, a child of God does not sorrow as the world sorrows. However, Holstege is interested in explaining proper mourning because he seeks to make the mourning of the believer the crux of the text. This gradually becomes clear.
Later, Holstege explains that not all who mourn for any reason are blessed. He mentions the drunkard who ruins his life by drunkenness and mourns over the consequences of his sin. He mentions the “unbeliever of a different religion, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim” (I note that Holstege is highly averse, to say the least, to calling a nominal Christian an unbeliever) who mourns for loss, tragedy, and failure. After the example of the drunkard, Holstege asks, “Is he blessed?” After the example of the unbelievers, Holstege asks, “Are they blessed?”—obviously indicating that the answer is in the negative. Fine enough.
Then he says,
Sometimes even believers mourn over the wrong things or for the wrong reasons; sometimes a child of God gets so intensely into his favorite sports team, and he’s cheering them so much that when they lose that game that he had so much staked on, he actually weeps. Is he blessed as he’s weeping over that? Or there can be a child of God who is mourning over the fact that he has been caught in a certain sin, and he was exposed before the whole church for the shameful thing that he was doing, and his pride has been injured, and therefore, he mourns over that. Is he blessed?
Well, I can agree that the sorrow of the believer who weeps for his sports team is carnal and that the sorrow over the shameful consequences of sin and not the sin itself is wrong. However, I cannot agree that that believer and that child of God are not blessed. Under no circumstances is the believer (someone who is united to Jesus Christ by faith) or the child of God (someone who is adopted into God’s household, an heir of salvation, and indwelt by the Spirit of adoption) not blessed. To put it positively, the believer, the child of God (an elect), is always blessed. God’s word to his elect at all times is “blessed.” But not according to Holstege.
He continues by explaining that the members of his congregation must understand this text in light of the previous beatitude, so that they have this idea: “Blessed are the poor in spirit who mourn.” And he goes on to make some weird distinctions. While he is convoluted and confusing, the idea that he is trying to convey is that believers are capable of mourning, being regenerated, but they must avail themselves and mourn, and that, in the right way. Later, he says,
So the question that you and I face as we come to this beatitude is, am I sorry for my sin? Am I sorry for my sin? Do I, have I ever mourned and wept over the sinful things that I have done in my life?
And transitioning from his first point to his second, he proclaims, “We come now to the comfort that God gives to those who mourn in that way [emphasis added].” Holstege makes the text all about the mourning and emphasizes that we must mourn in the right way because according to him, if we do not mourn in the right way, we are not comforted, we are not blessed.
Tossed to and fro, then, are the mourners. Blessed sometimes and at other times not. This is wicked cruelty. The text tells Holstege who God’s people are. They are wretched. They are ungodly sinners. They are mourners; that is simply who they are; they cannot be otherwise. And God indicates what the preacher is to say to God’s people to comfort them, especially in light of the fact that they are mourners. The preacher must bring to light their life and immortality, their salvation in Christ, their righteousness in Christ that secures for them all the blessings of God, and the promise that God will never leave them nor forsake them. In sum, happy shall they be!
Happy are they, for they shall be comforted. The word comforted literally means to call to one’s side. It is the promise that God remains near to them and brings them near to his side. It is the promise of the Holy Ghost, who dwells in them and in Christ, makes them living partakers of Christ, and assures them of eternal life. Hear this, all who mourn: Happy are you! For though you know your sin to deserve death, God shall never take away his Holy Spirit from you. For though your sins be as scarlet, yet they shall be as white as snow. For though all your deeds are wicked, your salvation is according to the purpose and grace of God, given to you in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
This is the particular promise of God. This is the testimony of our Lord. This is the testimony of which Holstege is ashamed. The particular promise to him is weak and foolish because to him God is weak and foolish. And with Holstege the PRC is ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, and with them almost the entire nominally Christian and Reformed church world is ashamed too.
Well might the exhortation of the apostle be heard by us: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.”
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