(From a message given September 30, 2006, at Berean Grace Church in Genoa City, Wisconsin)

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

“By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1,2).

In 1888, a poem appeared in the San Francisco Examiner that soon swept the nation. It was a ballad about the then relatively young sport of baseball, and was entitled, “Casey at the Bat.” The last line of this epic poem reads: “But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”

What a telling example of how the world about us views the subject of joy. When things are good, and their team has won, there is joy! But when things go bad, and their team has lost, their joy is lost. And so it must always be for the unbeliever, or even for the believer who knows no better than to find the basis for his joy in his circumstances. How much better is the joy that God offers to those who understand what His Word teaches on this important subject! Our text says that we can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The word rejoice is the verb form of the word joy. If you are rejoicing, you have joy, and if you have joy, it means that you are rejoicing.

The Bible study principle known as The Law of 1st Mention says that the first mention of a word in Scripture often defines the word, or sets the tone for its use throughout Scripture. And while Romans 5:2 is not the first mention of joy in the Bible, it is the first mention of joy in Paul’s epistles. Since Paul is the apostle of the present dispensation, we can conclude that the basis for all of our joy as members of the Body of Christ is found here in these verses.

The primary source of the believer’s joy here is knowing that we have been “justified by faith.” What does it mean to be justified? It means to be made righteous. We have no English word righteous-fied, and so if you are justified, it means that you have been made righteous, and if you have been made righteous, it means that you are justified. But what does it mean to be made righteous?

Many years ago, if a man in England shot and killed a man who was raping his wife, it was considered “justifiable homicide.” This means that not only was the husband not guilty of any wrong-doing in shooting the rapist, he was actually considered to have done the right thing. Similarly, when we get saved, God gives us so much more than just forgiveness. We are actually justified, “made the righteousness of God” in Christ (II Cor. 5:21). The very righteousness of God is imputed to us in Christ.

But how is God able to impute such righteousness to sinful men? The answer to this question is important, for it differs greatly from the justification offered by Greek mythology.

Has the reader ever wondered why the “gods” of the Greeks were frequently portrayed as lying, cheating, stealing, and lusting after human beings and other gods? Why would men fabricate gods who behaved so poorly? Ah, to justify their own behavior! After all, if their gods conducted themselves so sinfully, it was easy to rationalize and justify such iniquity amongst themselves.

How different is the justification offered by God in His Word. God justifies us not by lowering Himself to our level, but rather by raising us to His! He did not lower His standards of absolute righteousness so as to allow sinful men to be justified. He rather sent His Son to live a life that fully met His perfect standard, who then died a sacrificial death on our behalf. This explains how God could be “just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). God then is able to impute His righteousness to us when we believe the gospel, and thus as our text says we are “justified by faith.” The word “faith” is the noun form of the word believe. If you believe, you have faith, and if you have faith, that means that you have believed.

But what is it that we must believe in order to be justified? Well, our text begins with the word “therefore.” Students of the Bible know that when we see a “therefore” in Scripture, we must look to see what it’s there for! In this instance, if we back up one verse, we learn what it is that we must believe in order to be justified. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ in Romans 4:24, Verse 25 says:

“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

The most important word in this verse is one of the smallest words, as is often the case in Scripture. It is the word “for.” Believing that Christ died and rose again is not enough to save anyone, for these are merely well-documented facts of history. It is only when we believe that Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification that God can impute His righteousness to us. What a wonderful source of joy!

Additional grounds for the believer’s joy can be found in our text when Paul speaks of our “peace with God.” The peace that God makes with us is unlike the peace men make with one another, which is only temporary in nature. When we hear the announcement of a “cease-fire” in the Middle East, we know it will only last until the next shot is fired! Similarly, Hitler made “peace” with Stalin, but it wasn’t long before the German panzers were rolling eastward into Russia. Contrariwise, the peace that God offers is irrevocable! The believer in Christ will never again be the enemy of God that he was before salvation (Rom. 5:10).

If you stop and think about it, justification and peace with God are the only things we should rejoice in, for they are the only things we have that cannot be taken away! Many a man rejoices in his house, his car, his riches or his health, but all of these are things that can be lost. When husbands rejoice in their job, and wives rejoice in their children, these things are certainly more noble things in which to rejoice, but these too are things that can be taken away from us. When Christians rejoice in their church or in their pastor, this appears even more virtuous, and yet these too are things that can be lost. The only safe things in which to base our joy are immutable truths like our justification and our peace with the Almighty.

Further joy can be found in our text in the “access” we have “into this grace wherein we stand.” Our personal computers contain many files, and they are our files, but we must be able to access them for them to be of any use to us. Similarly, the believer in Christ has grace, but we must be able to access this grace for it to be of any functional value in our spiritual lives.

But of what grace does the apostle speak when he uses the phrase “this grace”? When he writes of “this grace” in II Corinthians 8:7, the context tells us that he speaks of the grace of giving. But here the context determines that the phrase “this grace” speaks of the grace of our justification and our peace with God.

But if we “stand” before God justified and at peace with Him, why do we need to “access” this grace? The answer lies in the difference between our standing as believers and our state. Sometimes expressed in other terms, such as the difference between our position and our practice, this Bible study principle points out the difference between the perfect standing that believers have before God in Christ, and the outworking of that position in our daily lives (Phil. 2:12). Ideally the two should be the same, but even the best of us falls short of the absolute perfection we have in Christ.

Likewise our text tells us that we stand fully justified and at peace with God. However, when we sin, it is natural to fear that we have provoked God. Likewise when we get sick, or suffer an accident or experience some other adversity, we are prone to think that God is angry with us. When these things happen, we must access the grace that tells us we stand before Him justified and at peace.

How do we access this grace? Paul says that we do so “by faith,” and faith comes by hearing the Word (Rom. 10:17). Thus when your conscience whispers that God is angry with you, or when some preacher on TV suggests that God is judging you for your sin, you must by faith access His Word, and remind yourself that God says you have irrevocable peace with Him. Our joy is based in our peace with God, but we must access this grace by faith if we are to have the joy that God wants us to enjoy.

Next, Paul says that we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Here we know that Paul is speaking of the Rapture, because the words “hope” and “glory” remind us of how Paul describes the Rapture as “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing” of the Lord Jesus (Titus 2:13).

But has the reader ever wondered what the glory of God is, specifically? We needn’t speculate. When Moses asked God to show him His “glory,” the Lord replied that He would do so by showing him His “goodness” (Ex. 33:18,19). God’s glory is His goodness. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The glory of God is that He is so good that He has never sinned, and we have all fallen short of this. This is why the natural reaction of men to the glory of God is fear (Luke 2:9). It is natural for unholy men to fear the absolute holiness of God.

How then can Paul say that we “rejoice” in hope of the glory of God? Ah, it is because at the Rapture, God’s glory will not just be revealed to us, as it was revealed to the frightened shepherds at our Lord’s birth, it will be revealed “in” us (Rom. 8:18). And so we needn’t fear God’s glory, we can rather rejoice in it, because in that day we will share it!

Imagine sharing the glory of God! People pay big bucks to buy JFK’s golf clubs, or a dress worn by Princess Diana, but these purchases can hardly enable the buyer to share the glory of these celebrities. Yet the God of all creation, who declared He would not give His glory to another (Isa. 42:8; 48:11), has given this glory to the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:5), and will someday give it to us through Him. Surely this is grace to rejoice in!

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulations worketh patience;

“And patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Rom. 5:3,4).

The Greek word for “glory” in Verse 3 is the same as that translated “rejoice” in Verse 2. Coupled with the word “also” here, Paul is saying that we glory in tribulations as much as we rejoice in the Rapture! To which most of us would reply—“We do? How can Paul say such a thing!”

The key is in the word “knowing.” The key to glorying in tribulation is convincing ourselves that God is correct when He says tribulation works patience. As adults we endure going to the dentist, working out in the gym, etc., because we know that these things work physical good in us. Likewise as sons of God, we should be able to endure anything if we truly believe that it is working spiritual good in us.

If the reader wonders if tribulation really works patience, just imagine a Christian who was born wealthy and whose parents shielded him from all tribulation in life. Such a man is likely to be very impatient, and so we can prove by reverse reasoning that the Bible is as right about this as it is about all other things. But as tribulations begin to work patience in our shielded wealthy friend, his “experience” with tribulation will begin to work “hope” in him. A believer who experiences no tribulation in life is unlikely to be hoping for the Rapture.

But can we ever get to the point where we actually rejoice in tribulations? Perhaps the reader has heard of Ivan Pavlov, the Russian scientist who rang a bell when he fed his dog, then noticed that his pet would salivate even before being presented with food. In a lesser-known experiment, Pavlov administered an electric shock to the dog, who understandably growled at him. He then began to administer shocks to the dog followed by a treat, and soon his pet ceased growling after receiving a shock. Eventually the animal actually began to wag his tail upon receipt of the unpleasant jolt, joyfully realizing that a treat would follow.

In like manner, the believer in Christ can also learn to stop growling when we are on the receiving end of the many shocks and traumas of life, and actually learn to rejoice in tribulations. This is high spiritual ground indeed, but it is a level that Paul was able to attain in II Corinthians 7:4, where he said, “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.”

Of course in Scripture, “glory” is the opposite of “shame” (Psa. 4:2; Prov. 3:35; Isa. 22:18; Hos. 4:7; Hab. 2:16; Phil. 3:19). And so if as a believer you have not yet attained to the level of spirituality needed to actually rejoice in tribulations, you can at least know that tribulation in our lives is nothing of which to be ashamed.

This is different than under the Law. In Jeremiah 14:1-4, the farmers in Israel were “ashamed” when they experienced the tribulation of a drought. Why would a farmer be embarrassed about a lack of rain? In the dispensation of grace, such a dearth is in no way the farmer’s fault. But under the Law, the people of Israel brought drought upon themselves. The terms of their covenant with God stated that if they were disobedient, God would chasten them by withholding precipitation (Lev. 26:19). And so to experience a drought under the Law was a cause of shame and embarrassment, for it meant that they had been disobedient to God. Now it is possible that the farmers’ shame in Jeremiah 14 was also due to embarrassment caused by calling in vain upon false gods for rain (cf. Jer. 2:26,27), but the fact remains that tribulation under the Law was a cause for shame, not glory.

How different things are under Grace! What a blessing it has been over the years for this Grace pastor to be able to visit God’s people in the hospital and not have to suggest that perhaps they were hospitalized because of some secret sin! If the reader of this page is currently going through some tribulation in life, you needn’t be ashamed in such circumstances as people were under the Law.

One more thing about experience. As we all know, experience is a great teacher, and our experience with tribulation teaches us that we are not under Law (Rom. 6:14,15). When we sin, we sometimes experience tribulation afterward—and sometimes not. Sometimes when we experience tribulation, we can think back to a particular sin that we have committed—and sometimes we can’t. In other words, our experience with tribulation teaches us that our tribulations have nothing to do with our conduct! For the believer today, tribulations are just a result of living with the results of Adam’s fall. We do experience trouble as a result of reaping what we sow (Gal. 6:7), but that is quite different than tribulation sent from God under the Law as a result of disobedience.

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5).

At the risk of sounding irreverent, I would suggest to you that without the blessed hope of the Rapture, you should be ashamed of God! In the dispensation of grace, are you guaranteed prosperity, as was the experience of Abraham and Lot (Gen. 13:2,5,6), Job (1:3) and others? Should you be pursued by men intent on doing you harm, and you find yourself cornered at a large body of water, will God part the waters to facilitate your escape? When you are hungry, does He provide manna for you as He did for Israel?

These things and more might cause us to be ashamed and embarrassed to name such a God as our own. Ah, but “hope maketh not ashamed”! The blessed hope of living eternally with God in heaven takes away all “shame” of worshipping a God who does not defy nature to meet our needs and deliver us from tribulation in life. Paul was right when he said that “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Cor. 15:19). Thank God, we have hope in Christ in the next life as well!

God’s love may not be shed abroad in our health or our wealth, but “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts“ (Rom. 5:5). The word “shed” in Scripture is almost always used in conjunction with the shedding of blood, and so the Apostle uses this word here to remind us that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Of course, while the Lord’s blood was shed at Calvary, the love of God that was manifest in the Cross is only shed abroad “in our hearts” when we believe.

We must always remember to measure the love of God by the love expressed at Calvary. We have ways of measuring just about everything, including the amount of electricity and natural gas that comes into our homes. But in order to get a correct measure of things, we must use the proper measuring device. Every cook knows that if the recipe calls for a dry measure and you employ a liquid measuring cup, you are going to come up with a faulty measure! Every electrician knows that you can’t measure amps with an ohmmeter, or ohms with a voltmeter. And every Christian should know that we cannot measure the love of God in our lives by the amount of tribulation in our lives. The only accurate standard by which to measure the love of God is the Cross of Christ.

The story is told of a young man in ancient times who was convicted of adultery, a crime punishable in those days by the putting out of the two eyes of the perpetrator. But after he levied the sentence, the judge revealed that he was the young man’s father. He then announced that he would execute the sentence by putting out just one of his son’s eyes, and one of his own. In this way the justice of the law was satisfied, but the judge’s son would be spared total blindness.

While this story is a touching one indeed, it cannot begin to illustrate the love that God showed to us at the Cross. For there the Lord Jesus did not just volunteer to “go halves” with us in satisfying the just demands of the Law. He rather bore all the punishment that was justly due to us, as He “bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (I Pet. 2:24). When the trials of life seem almost too great too bear, what joy can be ours as we access by faith this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God!

(From a message given at the 38th annual Bible conference of the Berean Bible Fellowship, June 18th, 2006)

“Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,

“I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia” (II Cor. 2:12,13).

Paul speaks here of the serious effect it had on him when he was deprived of the fellowship of his friend Titus. He begins with the word “furthermore” because fellowship was also the subject of the preceding context, although this is not readily apparent. Let’s begin by backing up to determine what this “furthermore” is there for.

After Paul had advised the Corinthians to break fellowship with the fornicator in their midst in I Corinthians 5, he was delighted to hear that they had followed his instructions. However, he was now dismayed to learn that they were refusing to restore fellowship to the man after he repented! And so Paul says to them,

“Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.

“So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” (v. 6,7).

The reason Paul urged them to re-admit the man into their assembly was because he knew that the man needed their fellowship—and they needed his. Paul knew that fellowship is important, and to show these Corinthians just how important it was, he begins our text by saying, as it were, “Furthermore, even I Paul need fellowship.” He then went on to describe how he had “no rest” apart from the fellowship of Titus. And so we begin this message with a few words about the importance of simply going to church.

Grace believers know that the Apostle Paul never commands us to go to church. Even if you believe that Paul wrote Hebrews, the admonition we read in Hebrews 10:25 is not in the imperative mood in the Greek text, and so is not a command. But while Paul never commands us to go to church, he assumes that we will want to attend church regularly. He says in I Corinthians 11:18:

“For first of all, when ye come together in the church….”

Do you see how Paul just assumes that even the carnal Corinthians will gather together regularly with other saints to study God’s Word, to sing His praises, and to fellowship with one another? Surely if even the great Apostle Paul needed fellowship, it is certain that we need it too!

Perhaps the reader is thinking, “Pastor, you don’t understand. My church is filled with difficult people, with whom I find it hard to get along.” All the more reason to go to church! We can never learn to demonstrate the grace of God in our lives without difficult people to be gracious to! Where better than the local church to learn to display the same mercy, longsuffering and grace that God extends to us when we grieve Him.

And aren’t these the greatest of God’s attributes? Don’t you want opportunities to display the mercy, longsuffering and grace of God in your life, and in so doing testify to what He has done in your life? When it comes right down to it, these grand attributes are actually the only attributes of God that we can display. Not a one of us can display God’s omniscience, His omnipotence or His omnipresence, but all of us can learn to exhibit His grace. But not without difficult people to be gracious to!

The absence of the fellowship of Titus so affected Paul that he didn’t enter an open door of opportunity to preach the gospel. This is the only time we read that Paul failed to enter an open door. Why would God allow this dark blot on Paul’s otherwise unimpeachable record if not to teach us the importance of fellowship. Take some time to read the stirring list of things that Paul endured in the ministry in II Corinthians 11:23-33. As you read each item in this poignant register, remind yourself that the beatings that Paul endured didn’t stop him from entering open doors, the stonings didn’t stop him, the shipwrecks didn’t stop him—NOTHING stopped him. But a simple lack of fellowship stopped him dead in his tracks.

And it might stop your pastor also. Thus one of the simplest ways you can support the teaching of God’s Word in your area is to simply go to church. You don’t want to have to explain at the Judgment Seat of Christ how you allowed the light of the gospel to be snuffed out in your area because your pastor was deprived of your fellowship and support.

Now, careful students of Scripture might object that the real reason for Paul’s discouragement was his concern over the response of the Corinthians to his first letter to them, an epistle that contained some sharp reproof. Thus when Titus failed to appear with news of their reaction, it was this that caused Paul to pass on entering the open door. We agree that this was part of the reason for Paul’s disheartenment, for later in this epistle, he states:

“For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

“Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

“And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more” (II Cor. 7:5-7).

Here it cannot be denied that part of the reason for Paul’s unrest was due to his concern over the Corinthian reaction to his first epistle, and the absence of news about this that he expected Titus to bring. But when Paul says that he was comforted “by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only,” we must conclude that he was adversely affected by both the absence of the fellowship of Titus and the report that Paul expected he would bring.

This brings up another very practical point. Perhaps Paul would have entered the open door had he not been burdened with concern over the Corinthian reaction to his reproof. Obviously, this concern diverted Paul from furthering the gospel through that open door. With this in mind, how it behooves us to conduct ourselves in the local church in such a way that our pastors can give themselves to the ministry, and not be distracted by concerns over disobedience in the church.

Before we move on in our text, we want to share one more thought about “open doors.” It is said that God never closes a door without opening a window. While this is not a quotation from Scripture, it was surely true in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul was later imprisoned by the Roman government, but as the prison door closed on his freedom, a window of opportunity opened for him to share the gospel with members of Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22). You see, Paul was incarcerated in a sort-of “white collar prison” located right in Caesar’s “palace” (Phil. 1:13), giving him access to members of the royal family, some of whom had come to know the Lord!

If the reader is wondering whether God is still actively opening such doors of opportunity in our lives, it should be noted that Paul speaks of this very thing in Colossians 4:2,3, a prison epistle that was penned after the close of the transition period in the Book of Acts. In fact, he asks for prayer in this late epistle that God would continue to open such doors, indicating that this would continue to be the norm throughout the duration of the dispensation of Grace. May we be faithful to enter such open doors at every opportunity!

In light of Paul’s failure to enter an open door, it is intriguing to hear him speak of triumph in the next verse of our text:

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place” (II Cor. 2:14).

While Paul had failed to enter a door of opportunity to serve the Lord, God was still able to cause him to triumph in Christ, because wherever Paul went instead of entering that open door, he faithfully made manifest the savour of His knowledge.

Perhaps the reader of this page is haunted by the memory of a similar open door that you too failed to enter years ago. May I say unto you by the authority of the Word of God that your life needn’t be filled with spiritual regret over this. God can cause you too to triumph in Christ if, like Paul, you too are faithfully making manifest the savour of His knowledge wherever it is that life has led you instead.

“For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish” (II Cor. 2:15).

In spite of Paul’s failure, we read that his life was still a sweet savor to God. We believe that this was because of the Biblical significance of the phrase “sweet savour.” This phrase is used forty-three times in Scripture, and almost always refers to the burnt-offering of an animal sacrifice. Notice the significant first use of this phrase in Genesis 8:20,21:

“And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.

“And the Lord smelled a sweet savour….”

The reason the burnt-offering was a sweet savour to God was because it foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ, which is also described as a sweetsmelling savour:

“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph. 5:2).

We believe that the sacrifice of Christ Himself was a burnt-offering. Throughout the Old Testament, God showed that He was pleased with an offering made unto Him when He answered by fire (Lev. 9:24; I Kings 18:24,38; I Chron. 21:26; II Chron. 7:1). And so it was that on Calvary, unseen to human eyes, the fire of God’s wrath fell on our Saviour, causing him to “thirst” (John 19:28), just like the rich man in hell (Luke 16:24), who was also experiencing the wrath of God. Thus there can be no question that God was pleased with the sacrifice of our Lord, the ultimate burnt-offering, and accepted it by fire.

But there were times in Israel’s past when God refused to smell her burnt-offerings. For instance, in Amos 5:21,22 we read:

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

“Though ye offer Me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.”

Why would God refuse to smell something that reminded Him of the coming sacrifice of Christ? Why did He accept the burnt-offering of Noah and refuse the burnt-offerings of Israel in the days of Amos the prophet? What had changed? Ah, the Law had entered! The Law of Moses was a system of conditional blessing, which stipulated that when Israel was good, God would bless them, but when they were bad, He would curse them (Lev. 26).

We know that Israel was bad in Amos’ day since God speaks to Israel of “your feast days” and “your solemn assemblies.” When God gave these feasts to Israel, He called them “the feasts of the Lord“ (Lev. 23:2,4,37,44), but when they were living in rebellion against Him, God took His name off of these feasts and contemptuously called them “your feasts.” This is similar to how in the beginning of the Lord’s earthly ministry, He called the temple “My Father’s house” (John 2:16), but by the end of His ministry He called it “your house” (Matt. 23:38) because of their sin and rebellion. And so, since Israel was under the Law, it is not surprising to read that God would refuse to smell their sweetsmelling burnt-offerings in the sinful days of Amos.

But now let’s make a comparison of all this to how things work under Grace. For this, of course, we will need to turn to the epistles of Paul, the apostle of grace, and in particular to Paul’s epistle to the Philippians.

The Philippians weren’t offering animal sacrifices, of course, but we believe them to be the Macedonians whom Paul said gave sacrificially to the poor saints at Jerusalem (II Cor. 8:1-5; Rom. 15:26), and then proceeded to give sacrificially to the Apostle Paul:

“But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18).

Here we see that the sacrifice made by the Philippians smelled good to God, and was acceptable to Him. If the Philippians were under the Law, we would have to conclude from this that they had been good, and that this was why God did not reject their sacrifice, as He did with Israel’s sacrifices in the days of Amos. However, when we examine the epistle to the Philippians we find evidence to the contrary.

We believe Philippians is an epistle of reproof. Paul tells us all Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction” (II Tim. 3:16), and his epistles appear in our Bibles in this very order. Romans is an epistle of doctrine, setting forth the doctrine of our salvation from sin, and how we should live in such a way that demonstrates we are free from sin. The Corinthian epistles that follow Romans are letters of reproof. Reproof was what was needed when the carnal Corinthians didn’t live in accordance with the doctrine set forth in Romans. Galatians comes next, and is a letter of correction. Correction is what the Galatians needed since they weren’t thinking clearly about the doctrine set forth in Romans. With Ephesians, the cycle begins again, as this great epistle sets forth the doctrine of the oneness of the Body of Christ.

Philippians then was a letter of reproof, written to people who weren’t acting in accord with this Ephesian doctrine of our oneness in Christ. What evidence do we have of this? In Philippians 4:2, we read:

“I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.”

Here we have confirmation that two of the ladies in the Philippian church were having a feud, and throughout the epistle we see indications that the church was divided, some siding with Euodias, and some with Syntyche. Paul’s frequent use of the word “all” in this epistle (1:1,4,7,8,25; 2:17; 4:23) shows that he refused to take sides in this quarrel, but rather loved and prayed for them all, and begged that they would live as “one” (1:27; 2:2).

But in light of this discord, how could God accept the sacrifice of these disobedient people? What had changed since His refusal to accept Israel’s sacrifice under Amos the prophet? Ah, Grace had now entered! Grace is a system of unconditional acceptance, and God is pleased to accept all sacrifices made to Him regardless of our spiritual condition. There is even a play on words in the Greek text, for the word for “sweet smell” (Phil. 4:18) is euodia. Euodias should not have smelled sweet to God because of her disobedience, but she did under Grace! Likewise the sacrifice of the Philippians should not have smelled sweet to God, but it did under Grace!

Having said that, this unconditional acceptance God gives us under Grace should never be viewed as a license to sin. Make no mistake about it, sin grieves the heart of a holy God (Eph. 4:30). But it should encourage the heart of every believer to know that every sacrifice we make for Him is accepted of Him. What a motivation to live sacrificially for the One who sacrificed Himself for us on Calvary’s tree.

Now we come to a very sobering part of our text, for Paul has told us that we are a sweet savour to God “in them that are saved, and in them that perish” (II Cor. 2:15).

“To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life…” (v. 16).

When we make manifest the savour of His knowledge and someone believes, we are of course a sweet savour to God. But when we make manifest the savour of His knowledge and someone does not believe, we are likewise a sweet savour to God. We see this exemplified in our Lord’s testimony to the two thieves with whom He died. One believed on Him while the other did not, but who can deny that He was a sweet savour to God in both cases. Hebrews 4:16 compares the Word of God to a “two-edged sword,” a weapon that cuts both ways. The same sun that causes the crops to grow can also ignite destructive wildfires that can devastate the countryside, but God is always pleased with the sun. And when we faithfully present the Son of God, He is always pleased with our sweet savour, regardless of whether the results be eternal life or eternal destruction.

Paul closes this passage with a haunting question:

“…and who is sufficient for these things?” (II Cor. 2:16).

Who is sufficient, i.e., who can be trusted with these issues of eternal life and eternal death? Obviously, the Lord proved sufficient for these things as He hung between the thieves. But we too are sufficient for these things if we faithfully make manifest the savour of His knowledge!

This writer never wanted to be a doctor; I never wanted to have human life dependent on my ability to preserve it. If the reader is thinking, “But Pastor, you became a minister, and people’s eternal lives depend on you,” think again! Paul says of the gospel that “IT is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). The eternal destiny of men depends upon the gospel, not on our ability to present it. All we have to do is hold it forth, and we are “sufficient for these things.”

That is, if we do not corrupt the Word of God. Paul says that he and his co-workers were sufficient for these things,

“FOR we are not as many, which corrupt the Word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ” (II Cor. 2:17).

Who would want to corrupt the Word? Unscrupulous men who are more interested in personal triumph than allowing God to cause them to “triumph in Christ.”

We all receive junk mail, Christians receive Christian junk mail, and pastors receive pastoral junk mail. This writer receives plenty of the latter, all of it promoting ways to build a bigger church. None of these ways ever involve preaching the pure, unadulterated gospel of the grace of God, or teaching God’s Word, rightly divided. But it is only in the measure that we are faithful in these areas that we are sufficient to be entrusted with issues of eternal life.

In the ’60s, the militant anti-government protestors became aware that the TV news cameras were broadcasting their protest meetings to the world, and so at one point they broke into a chant that soon became their mantra: “The whole world is watching!” As Christians, we have a far more important and august audience, One who monitors our every thought, word and deed. As Paul puts it: “in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” May the lives that we live and the message that we proclaim always be worthy of His closest scrutiny.

(From a class taught in Minor Prophets at Berean Bible Institute)

In the news industry, they say when dog bites man, there’s no story, but when man bites dog, then it’s time to alert the media! Just so, when a man swallows a fish, it’s no big deal, but when a fish swallows a man, now we’re talking headlines! There are fish stories, and then there are fish stories, and certainly Jonah’s story of the fish from which he got away is the grandest of them all!

The world may scoff at the story of Jonah, but the Lord Jesus Christ firmly established the historicity of Jonah when He referred to Jonah’s story on a couple of occasions. Either the account of Jonah was true, or else our Lord was lying, or at the very least, misleading people into believing a fable.

For the Bible-believing child of God, of course, the story of Jonah is accepted without question. It has well been said that there is a reason why the very first verse of the Bible begins with such an illustrious declaration of the stupendous miraculous power of God. If the reader of Holy Writ can accept this opening statement by faith, then nothing in the pages that follow can stretch the limits of credibility. Hence, when asked if he really believed the Bible when it says that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, one Christian is reported to have replied that he would believe the Bible even if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale!

A fascinating fact about Jonah is that even though the Lord identifies him as a “prophet” (Matt. 12:39; 16:4), he made no predictions of the future, except for one—an apparent prediction which didn’t come true! This reminds us that a “prophet” in Scripture was simply someone who spoke for God, and didn’t necessarily predict the future. And so when Jonah faithfully delivered his message of impending doom to the Ninevites, he was a prophet in the truest sense of the word.

Jonah is introduced to us as “the son of Amittai” (1:1). This means that the Pharisees were wrong when they dismissed the Lord Jesus as a prophet, saying, “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52). We are told that Amittai was “of Gathhepher” (II Kings 14:25), a city also known as “Gittahhepher” (Jos. 19:13), part of the inheritance of the children of Zebulun (Jos. 19:16). Matthew 4:15 identifies Zebulun as Galilee, and our Lord was a Galilaean (Matt. 21:11).

Jonah was sent to “Nineveh” (1:2), the capital city of ancient Assyria, and so a Gentile city. It should never be assumed that God cared nothing for the Gentiles in Old Testament times.

Jonah is often accused of racism in refusing to preach to Gentiles, but as we shall see, this is demonstrably not true. The real reason for his refusal is that the Assyrians were butchers, guilty of war-time atrocities that would make a Nazi blush. Jonah’s sense of justice prompted him to want to see such monsters judged of God, not given an opportunity to be spared His wrath. Jonah may also have been motivated by a patriotic desire to spare his beloved homeland from this brutal regime.

It is significant that “Joppa” is mentioned here in connection with Jonah (1:3), for it reminds us of a New Testament Jewish leader who was sent to the Gentiles from Joppa, the Apostle Peter (Acts 10:5,8,23,32). When called upon to defend himself for going to the Gentiles, Peter mentions Joppa twice (Acts 11:5,13). The significance of this emphasis would escape most Gentiles, but was not lost on the Jews who sought an explanation from Peter for going to Gentiles. In mentioning Joppa, Peter is reminding them that it was not without precedent that a Jew be sent to Gentiles. He was also reminding them of the futility of resisting such a commission! Peter did not dare disobey God and end up like Jonah, “sleeping with the fishes,” so to speak! It is interesting to note in this regard that Peter was “the son of Jona” in more ways than one! (John 1:42; 21:15,16,17).

Notice that Jonah “paid the fare” to enter the ship. Even today, there is always a price to pay for disobedience to the revealed will of God!

It is more than probable that there were worse sinners on board the ship than Jonah, yet God did not alter the course of nature to deal with them, but rather with Jonah (1:4). While God’s people are often quick to decry the sins of unbelievers, it is our conviction that God is far more concerned with the sins of believers than He is with the sins of the unsaved, and the example of Jonah would seem to bear this out.

Jonah 1:5 records the third time we are told that in running away from the Lord, Jonah was going “down” (cf. 1:3). Any time a believer in any dispensation is living in rebellion against the revealed will of God, he is going down not up. When a man standing on the North Pole takes a step in any direction, he is heading south, and when we choose to walk away from the will of God in any direction, we too are heading “south,” spiritually speaking.

We can learn a valuable lesson about prayer from these unsaved mariners, for they “cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.” While we do well to pray to God about anything that might cause us to be “careful,” or full of care (Phil. 4:6), we should also “put shoe leather to our prayers,” as they say, by doing all that we can do to alleviate any adversity in which we find ourselves. While the people of Israel are called “the children of Israel” over 600 times in Scripture, God considers members of the Body of Christ to be full-grown “sons” (Gal. 4:5,6), and expects more of us when it comes to helping ourselves.

You would think that Jonah’s disobedience to God would render him unable to sleep due to a guilty conscience, but we are told that he was not only asleep but “fast asleep.” The world may say, “let your conscience be your guide,” but the conscience of man can be “seared” (I Tim. 4:2), rendering it unreliable as a guide through the treacherous waters of life. The Apostle Paul could say that he had “lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Acts 23:1), including even his murderous days as Saul of Tarsus, for in those days he truly believed he was doing God’s will (cf. John 16:2).

Our conscience is only a reliable guide when the light of God’s Word is shining upon it. In this the conscience is much the same as a sundial, which can only give accurate time when the light of the sun shines upon it. When read by moonlight, a sundial will be an inaccurate guide to the correct time, and with the application of a flashlight, you can make a sundial to read any time you want! How like man, who tends to bring different lights to bear on his conscience, until even rebellion against the revealed will of God seems perfectly acceptable.

It is a pretty sorry circumstance when an unbeliever has to chasten a believer to pray (1:6)! But there was something about this storm, either its ferocity, or the unseasonableness of it, or both—something told these storm-seasoned mariners that this storm was a judgment from God.

The casting of lots (1:7) was an accurate means of divining the will of God in time past (Prov. 16:33; Acts 1:26), but as we rightly divide the Word of truth we know that such is not the case today. Today, our Apostle Paul says that we must prayerfully test or “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” by renewing our minds (Rom. 12:2) with a “knowledge” of the Word of God (Col. 1:10).

In Jonah 1:8, Jonah is asked four questions, all of which are satisfied with one answer: “I am an Hebrew” (v. 9). Being a Hebrew was a unique thing in the world, for it was at once a nationality, an ethnicity, a religion, and for the true Hebrew it also indicated that he was a child of God (Rom. 2:29), making it his “occupation.” Every true believer today should likewise look upon his faith as the thing which should occupy his mind, his body, his soul and his spirit.

It is noteworthy that when Jonah speaks to these Gentiles about God, He introduces Him to them as the Creator. In the Book of Acts, Paul twice addressed crowds of Gentiles, and both times mirrored this unique form of presentation of the Almighty. It didn’t matter if he was addressing primitive, superstitious Gentiles (Acts 14:15) or urban high-brow philosophical sophisticates (Acts 17:24); in both cases he began by telling them about Creator-God. While Jews, who by nature accept the truth of Genesis 1:1, did not need to be reminded of who God is, Gentiles were another story. At one time in our own day the vast majority of people in this country were church-goers who knew that Jesus Christ was Creator-God in the flesh, but as our society has devolved away from such knowledge, some have suggested that we too should preface our gospel presentation with affirmations that the One who died for our sins was the Creator in the flesh.

On the surface it might seem obvious that the thing to do to calm the storm was for the sailors to rid themselves of the source of the problem. However, if Jonah was truly a prophet of God, perhaps killing him would not be the best way to curry God’s favor! Rather they rightly asked him what should be done (1:11). What a picture of how the nations in time past were responsible before God to look to Israel to learn how to be saved, even when Israel was living in rebellion against God!

In Jonah 1:12 we have proof that Jonah’s reluctance to preach to the Ninevites was not racially motivated, for Jonah here shows his willingness to die for Gentiles; his problem was only with Assyrian Gentiles! Jonah also shows his stubbornness here, saying as it were, “I’d rather die than turn the ship around and go preach to Nineveh!”

When the mariners are finally convinced that the advice of this Hebrew prophet is their only hope of salvation, they comply with his instructions to cast him into the sea (1:12-17). Jonah now believes that he has succeeded in sacrificing his life that justice might be served upon the Assyrian barbarians. But God has other plans!

When Jonah 2:1 opens with the word “then,” the careful student of Scripture will ask when Jonah prayed this prayer. If we back up to the last verse of Chapter 1, it mentions Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of the fish. So when the second chapter opens by telling us Jonah prayed “then,” we know that we are reading about a prayer that Jonah prayed after the three days and nights.

But as Jonah begins to pray, it is obvious that he is speaking about a prayer that he “cried” (past tense) earlier (2:2), before his three days and nights in the whale. However, this earlier prayer was not prayed from “the belly of the fish,” but rather “out of the belly of hell.” You see, while tradition holds that Jonah was miraculously preserved by God in the belly of the whale, it is the conviction of this writer and others that Jonah rather died and rose again three days later, making him a true type of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 12:39,40).

But here a word of explanation is necessary. When the Bible says Jonah went to “hell,” it mustn’t be assumed that he went to the place of fire and torment normally associated with this word. The Hebrew word for “hell” used here is sheol, and was the after-life destination of all who died in Old Testament times. We read, for example, that “the wicked shall be turned into hell [sheol]” (Psa. 9:17), but we also read that righteous David anticipated going to “hell” [sheol] (Psa. 16:10). When Peter quotes David’s psalm and applies it to Christ (Acts 2:25-31), we understand that the Lord Jesus likewise went to “hell” when He died.

However, when Peter quotes Psalm 16, Luke was inspired to translate the word sheol using the Greek word hades. And so we understand that sheol and hades are one and the same, and speak of a place of both comfort and torment, with “a great gulf fixed” in between (Luke 16:23-26). Hence the Lord Jesus, David and Jonah all went to the comfort side of this place of the departed dead.

And so while Jonah 2:1 speaks of a prayer Jonah prayed in the fish at the end of his three day experience, he refers back to a prayer that he prayed in hell at the beginning. We will see more evidence that Jonah died and went to sheol in the verses that follow. These evidences are important, for if Jonah was conscious in sheol, these verses join the list of Scriptures that prove the doctrine of soul sleep is untenable.

In Jonah 2:3, it is precious to see the prophet quoting Scripture (Psa. 42:7), as he does frequently throughout this passage. What a wonderful thing it is for the child of God to memorize the Word of God, to build up a reservoir of Scripture in our souls, to be drawn upon for comfort when in distress. While it is not likely that the reader will ever be swallowed by a whale, it is likely and almost certain that we will often find ourselves in troublous times, times that can be greatly eased by the comfort that only God can provide through His Word.

Jonah 2:4 also begins with the time-word “then,” and refers again to his earlier prayer prayed from sheol. And so this time when Jonah quotes Scripture (Psa. 31:22), it leads us to an even more precious conclusion: that the repository of Scripture that we store away in our soul during this life is something we take with us into the next life! Wrong conclusions that we have made about God’s Word will of course have to be unlearned, but the Scripture itself that we learn in this life will be a foundation that we will build upon throughout eternity.

Before leaving this verse, note that the Psalm Jonah quotes here is a Psalm that speaks prophetically of the thoughts of our Lord Jesus after He committed His spirit to God and died (Psa. 31:5 cf. Luke 23:46), more evidence that Jonah himself has died. When we read that the waters touched Jonah’s “soul,” while the weeds were wrapped around the head of his body (2:5), we see yet further evidence that he has expired.

In Jonah 2:6, we see further evidence that Jonah was no longer in the fish, but was rather in sheol. He describes sheol as a containment area enclosed by “bars” from which there is no escape (cf. I Sam. 23:7). It is safe to conclude from Jonah’s words here that one of the first things you learn when you arrive at your after-life destination is that it is “for ever,” a delightful reality for believers, but a sobering thought indeed for those who have not yet trusted Christ as their Savior.

When Jonah says to God, “yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption,” these too are words that ill-fit a man who was miraculously preserved alive, but make perfect sense when spoken by a man who has been raised from the dead. The Bible word “corruption” speaks of the corruption of death. In I Corinthians 15:53, for instance, the word “mortal” means living but capable of dying. At the Rapture, Paul says that those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will have to “put on immortality.” But by contrast the word “corruptible” speaks of a body that has died and is now subject to the corruption of death. At the Rapture, those who have died previous to the Lord’s coming “must put on incorruption.” Thus we know that when Jonah speaks about how God brought back his life “from corruption,” he speaks of how God had raised him from the corruption of death.

The lying vanity Jonah speaks of in Jonah 2:8 is doubtless the vain idea that you can rebel against God and get away with it. All who fall for this lie “forsake their own mercy.”

The question in Jonah 2:9 is: what did Jonah vow, and when did he vow it? There are a couple of possibilities. First, it is possible that before any of this took place, Jonah may have told the Lord, “I’ll preach anywhere you want me to preach,” only to learn to his dismay that God wanted him to preach in Nineveh! If this be the case, he learned the hard way that “better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Eccl. 5:5).

But it is also possible that when Jonah cried to the Lord “out of the belly of hell” (2:1) that he then vowed to go to Nineveh after all, if God would only give him another chance. If this be the case, then it points up the truth that regret is something else that we will take with us into the next life, regret that we did not serve the Lord faithfully when we had the chance. Fortunately, this is something that we can do something about while we yet have life and breath!

When God sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh, the prophet replied, as it were, “Over my dead body!” Jonah then showed that he would rather die than give the barbarians in Nineveh a chance to repent (Jonah 2:12). And as we have seen, Jonah actually did die in the whale, and God raised him from the dead, making him a true type of Christ.

Now no one knows that “salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9) like someone who has died and been imprisoned in sheol, the place of all the departed dead in Old Testament times. No human effort could avail to free a man from that divinely secured place of confinement. What a picture of how if we are to be saved from the penalty of sin, this too must be “of the Lord,” for no human effort can avail to free us from the bondage of sin. Salvation is of the Lord!

The obedience of the fish to the word of the Lord (2:10) stands in stark contrast to the disobedience of Jonah! Frogs, flies, lice, locusts and caterpillars all obey God without question (Psa. 105:30-34); only man dares say no to God.

But God is a God of second chances (Jonah 3:1,2), as witnessed by men such as Moses, Peter, and John Mark, to name just a few. These examples should give hope to any of our readers who may have strayed from the Lord and are wondering if He could ever take you back. However, these examples should also serve as a warning to us all that it is always best to obey God when first we learn of His will.

Thanks to the second chance extended to Jonah, he is now as obedient to God (3:9) as the wind and the sea in Chapter 1. Isn’t it amazing the attitude adjustment that a few days in a fish can produce!

Jonah had only begun to deliver God’s message (3:4) when every preacher’s dream came true, and the people of Nineveh repented “from the greatest of them even to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5). God used this brief sermon of eight words (even fewer in the Hebrew text!) to bring an entire city to repentance, proving once again the old adage that “a sermon need not be eternal to be immortal!” When we consider the darkness of the human heart, we wonder whether such momentous results cannot be considered the biggest miracle in the Book of Jonah.

How was the prophet able to see such extraordinary results? The key just might be in Jonah’s description of how the citizens of Nineveh repented “from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” This phraseology is used eight other times in Scripture, but in each case the categories are reversed. That is, the normal way of expressing this phrase is to say, “from the least even unto the greatest.” But here we feel that the transposition is significant.

Jonah 3:6 begins with the word “for,” which means that the prophet is about to tell us how it came to be that the entire city repented. Verse 6 then goes on to explain how even the king of Nineveh repented, and so it is possible that Jonah was able to bring an entire city to its knees because of the influence of the city’s sovereign. Once the king of Nineveh believed and repented (3:6), the people followed suit. This hypothesis has a couple of possible applications to our ministry today.

Not long ago, Things To Come Mission director Ben Anderson began to implement what he called “the Troas strategy” in countries where TCM ministers. This strategy is based on Paul’s experience in Acts 16, where after the Spirit forbad him to preach the word in Asia and Bithynia (v. 6,7), the apostle came to Troas (v. 8), where a vision convinced him that the Lord had called him to preach in Macedonia (v. 9,10). He soon found himself in Philippi, which was “the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony” (v. 12). This designation of Philippi as a Roman “colony” made it a city of considerable influence.

It would seem from all this that rather than letting Paul continue to stop and minister in every city to which he came in piecemeal fashion, God was rather guiding him to “chief” cities such as Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. While there will always be opponents and proponents of what was called “trickle-down economics,” as the gospel trickled down from these influential cities “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10). The considerable results achieved by reaching key, influential cities reminds us of the results that Jonah achieved by reaching Nineveh’s influential king. Pastor Dennis Kiszonas has similarly produced a considerable ministry that has emanated out of New York City after this visionary pastor targeted the chief city of the United States.

A similar strategy is being employed by Grace Evangelist Art Fowler, who has a unique ministry. Art witnesses to anyone and everyone, from the least of men even unto the greatest. However, he targets high-profile people in entertainment, government, and many other circles of life, people thought by most of us to be simply unreachable with the gospel. We wonder if this too isn’t an example of following the methodology of the Apostle Paul, who after his Troas experience perhaps purposely sought out not only chief cities but chief citizens (Acts 17:7). By the time he reached Ephesus, it could be said of “certain of the chief of Asia” that they “were his friends” (Acts 19:31). Perhaps Paul was able to reach all which dwelt in Asia because he had focused on certain key, influential people, from whom the gospel was received by others more readily. We might call this the Nineveh strategy, for it sure seemed to work in the case of the king of this great city.

Another application of this principle might be reflected in the efforts of many of our Grace brethren to get dispensational literature into the hands of pastors and other spiritual leaders. The people of the 1st Philippian Church of Detroit all came to rejoice in the message of grace when years ago Pastor Wilson Watkins came into a knowledge of the truth.

Next, when we read that Nineveh’s king repented in hopes that God would change his mind about destroying his city (Jonah 3:9), it should be noted that he was not acting in compliance with any stated terms or conditions uttered by Jonah. That is, Jonah had not proclaimed, “Your city shall be destroyed—unless you repent.” It would seem that the prophet was simply stating a prophetic prediction when he proclaimed, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” But whether the king knew it or not, Israel’s God was a God that Jeremiah later characterized as a forgiving God, even when it came to nations other than Israel:

“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

“If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them” (Jer. 18:7,8).

And so as we compare Scripture with Scripture, we understand that whenever we read of an announcement on God’s part to bring judgment on a people, such pronouncements always carry an implied proviso that He will relent should the people He intends to judge change their ways. We see an example of this in Micah 3:12. While this verse seems to be an unqualified prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah later quoted this verse (Jer. 26:18) and observed that when the city repented, God changed His mind (v. 19).

All of this is significant in light of the position held by open theism that God didn’t offer Nineveh any terms by which they might be spared because He fully intended to destroy the city, and then was surprised at their repentance. The open view, as some of our readers may know, teaches that God does not know the future, outside of what He himself has determined to do. Open theists would hold that God did not know in advance that Nineveh would repent.

However, unless it was understood that Jonah’s proclamation was conditional, then under the strict terms of Deuteronomy 18:22, his prophecy was a false prophecy, making him a false prophet. But as with the seemingly unconditional prophecy of Amoz in II Kings 20:1, of which God quickly repented (v. 6), the conditional nature of Jonah’s words was clearly implied.

The case of Amoz deserves special attention in this regard. When he delivered God’s announcement to Hezekiah that he would “die, and not live,” there didn’t seem to be anything conditional about his words. His prophecy seemed to be a clear prediction of the king’s imminent demise. However, we can demonstrate from Scripture that it was simply not possible that Hezekiah could die at that time. God had promised David:

“…If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said He) a man on the throne of Israel” (I Kings 2:4).

Hezekiah was one of David’s descendants, and as he himself tells us, he had fulfilled the conditions expressed to David in I Kings 2:4 and had walked before God “in truth and with a perfect heart” (II Kings 20:3). Yet at this time he had no sons who could sit on the throne of David if he should die. II Kings 20:18 makes it clear that the sons that would issue from him had not yet been begotten of him. If he should die childless, as Amoz had stated, the Word of God to David would be broken.

Why then did God flatly state to Hezekiah that he would die? Had He forgotten His promise to David until reminded of it by Hezekiah? Surely not! God was rather testing Hezekiah to see if he remembered God’s promise, a test Hezekiah passed with flying colors, actually quoting the promise as he called upon God to be true to His Word. God then acknowledged Hezekiah’s claim on His Word by identifying Himself as “the God of David thy father” (II Kings 20:5), as He granted the king another fifteen years of life.

And so we know that God’s seemingly unconditional prediction of Hezekiah’s death was actually an attempt on God’s part to elicit a declaration of faith from Israel’s king. Similarly, God’s seemingly unconditional pronouncement of doom on Nineveh was actually designed to elicit repentance from a people whom God was eager to spare.

The very fact that God warned Nineveh of their imminent destruction shows that He was pressing them to repent. Surely the example of Sodom serves to teach that when God fully intends to destroy a city, He does so without warning. In His foreknowledge, God knows who will repent and who will not (Ezek. 3:6; Matt. 11:21).

Next, in Jonah 3:10, we have an example of how salvation in time past was by faith plus works. Earlier in this chapter we read that “the people of Nineveh believed God” (v. 5), but it was not until “God saw their works” that He “repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them.” While today faith alone “is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5), this was not the case in time past. For example, when Phinehas executed judgment, we read that “that was counted unto him for righteousness” (Psa. 106:30,31). As we rightly divide the Word of truth, we see that God’s plan of salvation in time past was very different than His plan of salvation today in the dispensation of grace.

Did the people of Nineveh truly repent? We know that they did, for we have the Lord’s word on it (Luke 11:32). However, their repentance would not last, and about one hundred and fifty years later God sent the prophet Nahum to announce their destruction, a destruction which came to pass about a century later (Jer. 18:9,10).

Since we know that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10), how sad it is to see Jonah angry over the repentance of many thousands of sinners (Jonah 4:1). He who rejoiced in the mercy of God when it was extended to him in Chapter 2 is now unhappy when mercy is extended to the Assyrians. Jonah says here, as it were, “Lord, I told you this would happen! I knew You would spare them if they repented!” (4:2).

Jonah doubts that their repentance is genuine, and believing it was only a matter of time before they rebelled against God, he determined to pitch a tent outside of town so as to wait and watch it happen (Jonah 4:5). Since Jonah refused to answer God’s question about whether he is right to be angry (4:4), God gave him a little object lesson to prompt him to respond. The Lord supplied the prophet with a sun-blocking gourd, and then took it away from him. Sadly, Jonah’s reaction was not the same as Job’s (Job 1:21), but rather mirrored the attitude of the foolish women of Job 2:9,10.

Like all sin, sinful anger must be checked or it will worsen. Jonah was angry enough to die when God spared Nineveh, and now he is angry enough to die because God took away his shade! (Jonah 4:5-9). Likewise if we allow ourselves to be sinfully angry over big things, it won’t be long before we are sinfully angry over little things.

Asking the same question in Jonah 4:9 that he asked in Verse 5, God provoked a response from Jonah, in which the prophet declared he had a perfect right to be angry about the gourd that at first had shielded him from the desert sun, but then was taken away. Now that Jonah has taken the bait, God springs the trap on His wayward prophet, pointing out how He had “laboured” much in Nineveh, while Jonah had not expended the least bit of energy to produce the gourd. And yet while Jonah had pity on the gourd, he did not want God to have pity on Nineveh! Once the incongruity of this was pointed out to the seer, Jonah is left with nothing to say in his own defense.

Something should be said, however, about the many people in Nineveh that could not discern between their right hand and their left (4:11). These would include young children and the mentally retarded. God was saying to Jonah, in effect, “You want Me to destroy Nineveh because of the atrocities committed by the adults. But remember, Jonah, there are one hundred and twenty thousand innocent people in Nineveh who would perish along with the guilty,” something God found repugnant (cf. Gen. 19:23-33).

If the reader object that these people, having inherited sin from Adam, were not “innocent,” we would tend to agree, in light of verses like Psalm 51:5 and Psalm 58:3. However, our text points up the truth that there is an “age of accountability,” and children who die before reaching it, and adults whose limited mental capacity never allows them to reach it, are “covered under the Blood,” as Pastor Stam used to say. We see a symbol of this very thing when Ezekiel 45:20 states that the sacrifice of the priest is offered “for him that is simple.”

We see more evidence of an age of accountability when the people of Israel left Egypt. We read that there was an entire generation among them “which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil” (Deut. 1:39). God made it clear that these children would not be held responsible for the rebellion of the adults, but would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. And so it is just sound Biblical hermeneutics to extrapolate from this that God does not hold children and the mentally impaired responsible for their sins.

This precious doctrine is what enabled David to assert with confidence concerning the child that he had lost, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (II Sam. 12:23). This beloved truth also enabled this writer to preside recently at the funeral of a darling one-year-old little girl and comfort her parents from the Word of God that their hearts would ache only until they are caught up together with their daughter in the clouds.

The lessons to be learned from a wayward prophet are many and varied. May we take them to heart as things that were written “for our learning” (Rom. 15:4), as we determine as never before to obey the Lord without question, to the infinite blessing of our soul, and to the souls of those about us.