Posts by Nick Batzig
If you put together all the maladies of those whom Jesus miraculously healed during His earthly ministry (i.e. those having to do with eyes, ears, tongues, arms, hands, legs, skin and blood) you would have a perfectly deformed man or woman--both internally and externally...This should come as no surprise to us if we understand that the healing miracles--historical though they were--are really spiritual parables for us. They are parables that carry our minds back to Eden and the awful effects of Adam's sin; and, they are parables that carry our minds forward to see the glory of Jesus, the second Adam, and the King of God's Kingdom who came to heal the souls and bodies of His people.
The eternal, Divine nature of the Son of God in the Person of Jesus Christ gives the typical elements of the Old Testament their eternal significance. Jesus, in His Person and work, fulfills and establishes the substance of the everlasting shadows and ordinances for His people. In short, the everlasting Christ--in the New Covenant--eternalizes and spiritualizes the everlasting ordinances of the Old Testament for Jews and Gentiles who believe on Him.
The flood narrative is especially pregnant with redemptive history. It is a gold mine full of redemptive-historical nuggets. We often shorthand the flood narrative by speaking of "Noah's Ark" but I have come to believe that it might be better for us to speak of it as "Jesus' Ark."
The Scriptures seem to give us contradictory statements about the roll of fear in the life of the believer. On the one hand we are called to fear the Lord (e.g. Lev. 25:17; Deut. 6:2; 1 Samuel 12:14; 2 Kings 17:39; Psalm 2:11; etc.) and on the other hand we are told, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18). So how are we to explain the difference between the two kinds of fear that are taught in Scripture? And, what roll is fear to play in the believer rendering obedience unto God?
The Gospel is the solution to our propensity to unfaithfulness. When we see with the eyes of faith what God has done for us in Christ we will guard our hearts against a lack of commitment to His work in the church. Jesus died to make us faithful, self-sacrificial and God-honoring men and women. Jesus' own faithfulness in the work of redemption serves as the example par excel lance of Christian commitment. The example of the Apostles likewise serves as an example of Gospel-motivated commitment. The Apostle Paul explained the secret of the rare jewel of Christian commitment when he wrote, "The love of Christ compels us because we judge thus: If One died for all then all died that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again." May God grant that we all diligently labor to find and keep the rare jewel of Christian commitment in our own lives.
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