Biblical Counseling

There are a number of different ways to approach a definition of Biblical Counseling (also called Nouthetic Counseling). It can be described in relationship to Psychology or Integrationist Counseling in that it rejects at a fundamental level the principles of Psychology as totally incompatible with the message of the gospel. A truly Biblical approach to counseling denies that Psychotherapy has any intrinsic value in the process of sanctification because it does not address the ultimate root of most if not all so-called Psychopathologies. Rather, for the Christian, it is the Bible alone that will be a sure guide to the process of sanctification in the life of a believer. As the author of Hebrews says in Heb 4:12-13,

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

So it is God’s Word[1] that has the power to look deep inside a person and discern the true heart dynamics involved in sin and outward sinful behavior. In addition, this approach to counseling is radically Biblical because it recognizes Scriptures own claims for itself that it is sufficient to deal with all matters of life and sanctification. Just one example of this is Paul’s claim in 2 Time 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for ever good work.”

In addition, further description is needed in terms of just how exactly Biblical Counseling can be described as “counseling”. Counseling as it is used in everyday discourse tends to denote a clinical atmosphere. Indeed most counseling, even most Christian counseling, tends to be a clinical affair in which a counselee comes to see a counselor in an office or clinic for regularly scheduled visits. While Biblical Counseling does not neglect the value of regularly scheduled meetings in which a trained counselor assists someone with issues that they face, it regards counseling as so much more than a merely clinical process. It recognizes that sanctification happens in community and that clinical counseling should be the exception rather than the rule in the Christian life. Again, the author of Hebrews exhorts the Church on this point in Heb 3:12-13, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” He also exhorts us in Heb 9:24-26,

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”

So, the Christian community is essential for the process of sanctification. This exhortation or counseling that is to be done in the community of faith is something that happens in the midst of daily life. When friends gather for dinner, at a small group, at a lunch after Sunday morning worship services, at coffee shops, in people’s living rooms, all of life becomes a venue for Christians to exhort one another on towards holiness and sanctification.

Lastly, by way of description, it should be mentioned that Biblical Counseling should be centered on what the Bible itself centers on. Rather than a morbid and reactionary preoccupation with sin in the life of a believer, Biblical Counseling should be primarily focused on helping people see that which is truly most satisfying and most valuable, the glory of God in the face of Christ. This focus on God’s glory will help people to be irresistibly drawn towards Him so that they can be transformed from one degree of glory to another. To be sure, there will be times when friends or pastors will need to assist people in combating particular sins in a concentrated way for a period of time. However, the main focus needs to be on helping people be allured by Jesus in all His glory so that they no longer are allured by the idols that their heart and the world has set up for them.

How should we then define Biblical Counseling? We should understand Biblical Counseling as the application of the redeeming message of the gospel from the Word of God to people’s lives in genuine Christian community so that they increasingly come to recognize the dynamics of sinful idolatry in their hearts and increasingly have that idolatry replaced by the worship and adoration of God because of the all-satisfying nature of His glory in the person of Jesus Christ.

This kind of counseling is absolutely imperative for the Church because it is the means by which God uses to sanctify His people. The entire Epistle to the Hebrews is a letter counseling that Church to persevere in their faith because of the weighty consequences if they fail to persevere and the glorious rewards if they do persevere. As we’ve already seen, in the dead earnest instructions that Hebrews gives, Christians encouraging and exhorting each other in faith and perseverance is absolutely essential if they are going to persevere. So, not only the author of Hebrews Himself exhorts the Church, he tells everyone else in the Church to also exhort and encourage everyone else. This does not take away any of the necessity for God’s Spirit to continue the keep faith alive and growing but it recognizes that He uses the Church body as His means of accomplishing this in the lives of individual Christians.

It is this kind of exhortation in the community of Christ’s body that is the means by which Paul’s glorious vision of the Church in Eph 4 will be accomplished. In Ephesians 4, it is the Pastors and Elders of the Church that are called to equip the body for the work of ministry. That is, they must be faithful to teach the glories of Christ from the Word so that members of the body understand and are increasingly saturated by the gospel and are gripped with that reality. Once the body is equipped by having been taught, they then are ready for the work of ministry in which they proclaim the glories of gospel outside the Church and encourage each other with the realities and implications of the gospel inside the Church. As this radically gospel-centered community continually points each other towards the gospel, helps each other repent from sin and turn to God in His glory, the Church will be growing and fulfilling the cosmic purpose that God has for Her. In Ephesians, the growth of the Church is the growth of the new humanity that is centered around Jesus Christ. The goal for human history is for Jesus to subsume all things under His rule so that the entire cosmos will be remade to fulfill God’s original intent for it. At this stage of redemptive history, the Church is the foretaste and the sign that God will be faithful in this cosmic purpose because the reality of Christ’s rule is here in the sphere of the Church. So we see that Biblical Counseling practiced in community is the means by which God fulfills that purpose for the Church in this age.

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[1] God’s Word should not be conceived of merely as a book but the Bible as God’s Written Word corresponding to His Living Word, Jesus Christ.

Theology of Change and Christian Motivation

The central message of the Bible is that God is at work in the world to change and transform it so that it fulfills its original purpose of reflecting God’s glory back to Him. The vision of Israel’s prophets was that God would act and gloriously renew the creation so that war would be done away with, ‏שָׁלוֹם would reign and God’s glory and presence fills the whole Earth as the waters cover the seas (Is 11:1-9, 25:1-12, 65:17-25; Ez 37; Hab 2:14; Hos 2:14-23). The life and ministry of Jesus fulfilled the OT expectation of Israel so that God’s righteous kingdom and new creational reign broke into human history and began the work transforming the created order (Mk 1:1-15; 2 Cor 5:17). While Jesus and the community of His people are the fulfillment of the OT hope, it is an inaugurated fulfillment that awaits the final consummation in which the old age is completely done away with and YHWH’s righteous rule holds total sway over the entire cosmos (1 Cor 15:20-28; Rev 19-22).

It is within the framework that we must think about change on the individual level. It is because of God’s universal purpose to redeem the creation that there is hope for the transformation of an individual or a group of individuals. However, we must always recognize that there is a special importance to the transformation of individual human beings. Genesis 1-2 make abundantly clear that the crown of God’s creation was the man and woman who were made in God’s own image and given the mandate to rule over and subdue the cosmos. As the crown of God’s work, they had dominion over the creation and were called to extend God’s presence over the face of the Earth. Sadly, it was also because of this privileged position that the creation followed Adam into sin and a state of fallenness and brokenness. The good news is that just as the creation followed our first parents into sin and death after the original creative acts, Romans 8:20-21 tells us that it will also follow redeemed humanity into the new creation as God exercises His creative power finally and decisively. The state that the created order has been longing for and groaning for is the “freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

This salvation-historical framework for understanding personal growth and transformation is essential for keeping things in their proper biblical place. Just as redemptive-history is the process by which God renews the entire created order by His power, individual transformation is not something that one does to oneself but something that is ultimately done by God to someone. As Paul says in 2 Cor 3:17-19, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

The focal point for this Divinely enabled process is the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross is the means by which God removed our unrighteousness and gave us the righteousness of Jesus so that we could be justified before Him. All this is brought about through our union with Christ who is our Federal head. So, union with Christ is enabled by his death and resurrection but it is also the means by which sanctification happens in the Christian life. As Paul tells us in 2 Cor 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, there is new creation”. Elsewhere in the New Testament, this phenomenon is called “the new birth” and is known by theologians as “regeneration”. That is, when one comes to faith in Christ, the Spirit instantly brings about New Creation in that person’s life by effecting a union with Jesus who has already passed through death and brought in God’s new creation. That is why Paul writes in 2 Cor 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Regeneration is an act of new creation akin to the original creation that began when God spoke light into the darkness of the chaotic world. Therefore, it is union with Jesus on the basis of and into His death and resurrection that is the foundation and means by which any growth or personal transformation can happen.

The act of regeneration is the basis for this entire process of sanctification because, when the Spirit regenerates a person, he is given an entirely new set of priorities, motivations and desires. That person is literally remade so that their primary motivating factors no longer come from Satan, sin and the Devil but from the Triune God has H has made Himself manifest in Jesus Christ. As such, a regenerated person is brought in into a process by which God will enable him to fulfill the original purpose of creation, namely, reflecting God’s glory back to Himself. However, it important to further articulate how God implants these new desires and motivations within a person.

In 2 Cor 3:18, which I quoted previously, it is interesting to note that Paul links “beholding the glory of the Lord” and “being transformed into the same image from on degree of glory to another.” I believe that the best way to describe the link that Paul has in mind here is that beholding God’s glory in the face of Christ is the means by which transformation from one degree of glory to another occurs. So in seeking to articulate the nature of Christian sanctification, it is imperative that any efforts at sanctification be connected with seeing God in His glory. However, this begs the questions as to exactly how beholding God’s glory is sanctifying? It is this question that gets at the heart of Christian motivation and the process of sanctification.

Thomas Chalmers was a Scottish mathematician and preacher in the 18^th and 19^th centuries who worked hard to articulate how God’s glory is sanctifying. He argues that there are two basic ways in which an attempt can be made to motivate a person towards sanctification and holiness. The first is to try to convince a person of the ugliness of the world so that they are disgusted and turn from it. The second is, in his words, “by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one.” Chalmers regards the first method as a deficient motivating factor for a person pursuing sanctification. The reason why it will not work is because all things in nature, even metaphysical things, abhor a vacuum. It is impossible to sufficiently motivate someone by showing the deficiency in what they should leave because there will then be nothing to fill the void that is left. Chalmers writes, “When told to cut out the world from his heart, this may be impossible with him who has nothing to replace it- but not impossible with him, who has found in God a sure and satisfying portion.” Practically speaking, in dealing with a sin issue in someone’s life, it will not work to simply motivate them by exhorting them to leave the sin, such as pornography, because of how bad it is. A person may be well aware of the bad effects of pornography both personally and socially but will be unable to be rid of that sin unless there is something else to replace it.

The second method works precisely because it replaces sin with something more satisfying. Furthermore, the gospel holds out something that is not merely more satisfying but infinitely so such that there is nothing that could usurp the place of God’s glory in Jesus. The glory and presence of God in the life of a Christian is so extremely joy inducing and satisfying that it causes one to be drawn irresistibly away from sin and towards God. Thus, it is in this way that beholding the glory of the Lord transforms us from one degree of glory to another. Before regeneration, a human being is unable to see God in His all-satisfying glory and be drawn to Him. However, once the Spirit comes and lifts the veil so that we begin to catch a glimpse of God in His glory, magnificence and grandeur, then it is impossible for a person not to be drawn to that sight. So a person forsakes sin and, enabled by the Spirit, pursues Christ for all of the joy and satisfaction that is held out and offered in His person.

Fear of the Lord

The most natural sense of “fear” to English speakers is the idea of terror. We find that ‏ירא‎ is often used in this sense in the OT. A general sense in which ירא is used to denote a genuine terror or dread is Ex 2:14 in which Moses fears that he will be discovered to have killed the Egyptian who was persecuting a Hebrew. Essentially, there is dread that punishment will obtain for his actions in killing an Egyptian.

This general concept of fear as terror or dread gets applied with reference to God in several places in the OT:

· Jonah 1:10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.

· Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

· Hab. 3:2 O LORD, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe (fear), O LORD, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.

The sailors on board Jonah’s ship feared YHWH because they were in terror that their lives would be taken from them. Although “fear” language is not always present, when a prophet was visited with a vision of YHWH’s presence, there was often fear:

· Is. 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

· Ezek. 1:28 Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendor all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.

· Rev. 1:17 When I saw him (Jesus), I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last…

In each of these instances, it seems that the prophet or seer was in fear for his life. This is likely based on YHWH’s statement to Moses:

· Ex. 33:20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.”

So, when a human being perceived himself to be in the presence of YHWH, there was a genuine terror that his life would be taken because, as a sin tainted human being, he could not stand in God’s presence.

A second step in the Fear of the Lord, especially in the Old Testament, is provided in looking again at Jon 1:16

· Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

This verse links the idea of fear as terror with a worship context. Because they were afraid of YHWH killing them with the storm at sea, they worshipped Him by offering sacrifice in hopes that He would spare their lives. Thus fearing a deity was often synonymous with worship and devotion towards that deity.

· 2Chr. 19:9 He charged them: “This is how you shall act: in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart;

· 2Kings 17:7 ¶ This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods

· 2Kings 17:35-39 The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to observe. You shall not worship other gods; you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, but you shall worship the LORD your God; he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”

· Deut. 10:12-13 So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.

· Psa. 22:23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

The reason why fear language would be used synonymously with worship and devotion is apparent from the ANE background to worship. Deities were worshiped in the ANE because of the benefits that they could provide for the people. They were thus feared because people recognized that the deity had the ability to give or withhold that which the people wanted or needed, i.e. abundant crops, victory over enemies, etc. (all of which were life or death matters). This is made explicit in Ps 90:11

· Psa. 90:11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

Therefore, YHWH is to be feared because of the potential of His wrath which would take away happiness.

Thus from the OT perspective, those who did not worship YHWH are described as those who did not fear him:

· Gen. 20:11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

· Deut. 25:18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God.

· Psa. 55:19 God, who is enthroned from of old, will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change, and do not fear God.

For Israel, the Fear of the Lord was mediated by the context of the covenant. In Lev 18:5, Moses makes it clear that life (life in the land as a picture of eschatological life) would be the result of Israel’s covenant faithfulness. Interestingly then, there are several instances in which life is said to be the result for those who fear the Lord.

· Prov. 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

· Prov. 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, so that one may avoid the snares of death.

· Prov. 19:23 The fear of the LORD is life indeed; filled with it one rests secure and suffers no harm.

· Prov. 22:4 The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

Thus, fearing the Lord is linked very closely with obedience in that it results in the same thing as obedience. This is confirmed in that there are many places where the “Fear of the Lord” is said to result in covenantal obedience or hating that which is evil:

· Gen. 22:12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

· Ex. 18:21 You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

· Is. 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God?

· Job 1:1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

· Prov. 14:2 Those who walk uprightly fear the LORD, but one who is devious in conduct despises him.

· Psa. 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

· Prov. 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

· Prov. 16:6 By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one avoids evil.

· Neh. 5:15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

· 2Chr. 19:9 He charged them: “This is how you shall act: in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart;

Fear of God is inextricably linked with obedience. However, it is not just abstracted obedience to some universal standard, it is obedience that is within the covenant relationship. Fearing God leads to acting faithfully within the confines of the covenant relationship. It is important to recognize that obedience here flows directly out of worship. Because fear is used in the context of covenant in the sense of “worship” it is this worship of God for God’s sake which will lead to obedience which will then bring about the covenant blessings.

In addition, Jer 32 makes it explicit that fearing God is something that ultimately can be given to a person only by God Himself.

· Jer. 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that the “Fear of the Lord” can thus become the basis of confident expectation for God to work on one’s behalf. In other words, someone who fears God can have hope that God will grant Him the blessings of life.

· Job 4:6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

Job’s friends were wrong in the fact that they thought that fearing God would result in temporal blessings now and insulate one from sufferings. However, they were correct to judge that fearing God, which is something that God gives to us, is the basis upon which we can hope for God to work on our behalf now but more especially in eternity. In light of this, fearing God removes the need to fear anything else in all creation:

· Psa. 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Nothing else can be feared because when one fears the Lord and is in right covenant relationship with Him, there is nothing that can threaten to take away what satisfies us because God is what gives us our satisfaction. In Christ, there is nothing that can remove us from His grasp.

· 1Pet. 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

Fear implies a mastery over something. What someone is afraid of, that he is a slave to. Fearing someone who persecutes us implies that they have mastery over us. Fearing God means that no person or thing on earth is able to control us or have mastery over us save God.

Furthermore, in Christ, even the threat of God’s wrath is removed. As John says:

· 1John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Therefore, for Christians, the terror element of God’s wrath is forever removed. Although, if perfect love casts out fear and there is no fear of God’s wrath anymore, then what is the cause of Christians continuing to fear God after being regenerated and justified?

· 1Pet. 1:17-19 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

These passages indicate that, for the Christian, fear (in the sense of worship and devotion) is the result of knowing that God judges impartially and recognizing that the cost of our ransom was the life of Jesus, the Son of God. The knowledge of this should produce an awe or reverence that works itself out in a life of obedience that magnifies the ransoming work of God in Christ.