Cees Noordzij — Hamartology
b5 — Putting the Hand to the Plow
1. The Fleshly as the True Egypt — Spiritual Slavery
“With that people He makes a ‘new’ covenant to deliver them from the true ‘Egypt’ (the ‘fleshly’) and to bring them into a better ‘promised land’, the kingdom of heaven.”
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Plowing Straight Furrows
Analytical note: Noordzij uses the biblical Egypt as the symbolic equivalent of “the fleshly”. Just as Israel needed deliverance from literal Egypt, the spiritual people needs deliverance from the power of the fleshly nature. Spiritual slavery is here hamartologically defined as bondage to the carnal.
2. Carnal/Earthly Mindset as Old-Covenant Mentality
“Whoever still thinks this way interprets all prophecies and events in the Bible with an eye toward earthly, visible, temporal shadows. Their mindset is still that of the ‘old’ covenant.”
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Plowing Straight Furrows
“Set your minds on things above (= spiritual and true), not on things of the earth” (Col. 3:2)
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Plowing Straight Furrows
Analytical note: The carnal mindset — thinking from earthly, visible categories — is characterized by Noordzij as a form of sin: one remains in the mentality of the “old covenant” rather than the new. Col. 3:2 serves as the normative counterpart: the command to think “above” implies that earthly thinking is a deviation from God’s purpose.
3. Looking Back as Spiritual Disqualification
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62)
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Laying the Hand On
Analytical note: Noordzij interprets Luke 9:62 as a call to radical break with the past. “Looking back” — holding on to former ways of life, work, family, identity — is for him a hamartological category: it renders one unfit for the Kingdom. The sin of looking back is the sin of not letting go.
4. Religious Carnality — Church Work from Human Strength
“Many of us do their utmost in a church or congregation. Others invest time and energy in evangelism to point sinners to Jesus. Still others exert themselves in youth work, or work among addicts and the homeless… We must realize that in most cases this is plowing God’s field.”
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Finally
“The Lord still says to everyone who plows for Him or tends the flock and comes in from the field: ‘First prepare a meal for me and serve me first’” (Luke 17:7-9)
— Noordzij, Putting the Hand to the Plow, §Finally
Analytical note: Noordzij identifies religious activism — church and evangelistic work — as a form of carnality when it is done before “serving the Lord” in stillness and worship. “Plowing” here symbolizes human religiosity which, however sincere, is not the same as the spiritual closeness God seeks. This is a sharp critique of religious self-direction as a subtle form of carnal sin.
Missing Sub-topics (Not Found in This Source)
- Isa. 50:11 (kindling one’s own fire as negation of spiritual life): no source material in b5
- Gal. 6:8 (whoever sows to the flesh will reap corruption): not found in b5
- Ichabod metaphor (earthly-minded Christianity): no source material available
- Original sin as doctrinal theme: no source material available
- Total depravity: no source material available
- Guilt and punishment: no source material available