Making the Best of It

Imagine what it’s like to be the leader of a democratic country. You are elected to power, and you make progress implementing what you believe to be the best policies for your country. But unless you’re a fool, you know that most likely, sooner or later, someone with a different political philosophy will replace you, and much of the headway you have made will be undone. Your legacy may well be destroyed by the one who comes after you. It’s simply the way it is in our fallen world—a world with in which there are deep disagreements about the best way forward and no perfect governmental solutions.

The writer of Ecclesiastes (most likely King Solomon, but possibly some other “king in Jerusalem”) understood this. He held more power than an elected leader of a present-day country, and he probably stayed in power for longer, but still, eventually, his accomplishments, he writes, would be left

to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun (Ecclesiastes 2:18–19 ESV).

In a fallen world, even the work of a king may be an exercise in futility.

It's not much different for us. We may start out hoping to right some of this world's wrongs, but over the years, we begin to see that the problems we're trying to solve are more complicated than we thought, and real long-term solutions may be beyond our capabilities. Progress is slow—if there is any progress—and there are unforeseen difficulties with every step we take. And in the end, our accomplishments, if there are any, may be left in the hands of a fool. All our work may only be “striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11 ESV).

We live in a broken world, or more precisely, we live in a world that is cursed by the God who made it. The word “futile” is written across everything in this world, and there’s not much we can do about it. It's foolish for us to place too much hope in what we or our leaders can accomplish.

But the God who cursed this world is gracious, and he has given us a way to find joy in the midst of life’s inevitable futility. He has given us a way to make the best of things as they are. The writer of Ecclesiastes, who foresaw that his hard work might come to nothing, has this bit of wisdom to share:

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,  for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment (Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 ESV)?

And this too:

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun . . .  (Ecclesiastes 9:9 ESV).

For the one who pleases God, for the person who recognizes his gracious hand in tasty food and refreshing drink, in opportunities to work hard for the good of others, and in a loving spouse and/or  family, these simple pleasures bring true joy. All these things are good gifts from our good God, gifts that remain with us even when our circumstances are difficult. When our life seems senseless, God sustains us with his small mercies, and by enjoying them, we please him and make the best of things as they are in our troubled world.

Of course, our ultimate hope is in a future world, in the new heavens and new earth, when this cursed world is set free from its bondage to futility (Romans 8:20-21), and when our own personal re-creation is completed. On the basis of his Son’s work—work that will bring permanently perfect results—God will redeem our world, and us, too. But in the meantime, when we grow frustrated with events in our world, and when life seems like a struggle for nothing, we still have the little gifts.

When I’m asked, one piece of advice I give to someone who is suffering is to take time to savor the everyday blessings—a fresh loaf of bread, a bowl of homemade soup, a cup of tea, or loving family—and to keep busy with service to others. And to remember to thank God for these little reminders of his loving care.

I learned these lessons from life experience as I grasped for peace in the midst of turmoil, but I know now that they are also taught in the Bible. There is “nothing better” for us “than to be joyful and to do good as long as [we] live.” There is nothing better than to “eat and drink and take pleasure in all our toil” (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 ESV). There is nothing better than to enjoy life with our families and good friends. These simple pleasures are God’s gifts to give us joy when we are surrounded by reminders that something is very wrong with our world as it is.

[I am indebted to James M. Hamilton Jr.’s little book Work and Our Labour in the Lord for many (maybe most) of the points in this post.]

Review: Why Can't We Be Friends?

Why Can't We Be Friends? - Avoidance is Not Purity by Aimee Byrd, P&R Publishing, 2018, 243 pages.

Four year ago, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals invited Aimee Byrd to join Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt as a cohost for their podcast, The Mortification of Spin. To her surprise, not all the listeners were pleased. There were concerns about where this interaction would lead and even warnings that Aimee was an affair waiting to happen and a potential cause of moral downfall for two pastors.¹ When I read this account in the beginning of Why Can't We Be Friends?, it reminded me of a another story.

In Openness Unhindered, Rosaria Butterfield was preparing a Lord's Day meal with another sister. It was just the two of them in the kitchen quietly working together, and then the question came up,

"Is this safe? Being alone together in the kitchen?"... "Does being alone with a woman bring back those feelings for you? Those kind of feelings."

Suddenly, the danger was exposed: I. It was I. I was the potential source of unsafety. I felt that chill of isolation creep in. She couldn't even name those feelings, they were so dirty, or foreign, or dangerous.... I was perplexed that even though I was a new creature in Christ, that was not good enough. I pondered why my identity in Christ did not seem to be good enough for her, and it made me wonder again, if it was good enough for God... Why did she not see that my identity in Christ was bigger than my past? Because there is another category of personhood that takes preeminence: sexual orientation."²

These responses from Christians aren't that different from the dictum of Harry Burns in the movie, When Harry Met Sally - "men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way."³ If Harry and the naysayers are right, then Aimee should be booted off the Mortification of Spin, and we should be wary of all cross-gender friendships in the church. For Rosaria, even same-gender friendships are potentially dangerous, so perhaps it would be safer to segregate her with just her family.

But is this how God wants his family to function? Are we called to commune around the Lord's table as fellow blood-bought believers and then view each other with suspicion? In our desire to obey the 7th commandment, do we inadvertently break the 9th by imputing sinful motives to one another? Is Christ's work in making us new creatures not good enough? Or have we lost something along the way? I think we have, which is why I am so glad Aimee wrote this book. The solution to the friendship problem is not just behavioral. It is, at its heart, theological.

Aimee identifies four theological categories that form the foundation of friendship, and these categories anchor the discourse in the subsequent chapters:⁴

Anthropology - What are we here for? We are created for communion with God and with one another.
Christology - Who are we as Christians? Christ, our elder brother, has not only given us new life but brought us into a new relationship as brothers and sisters.
Ecclesiology - We are God's family. How does he expect us to treat one another?
Eschatology - What is our ultimate hope?

Then in the first half of the book, Aimee examines the reasons why we think we can't be friends:⁵
- Our concept of identity is shaped by the culture and seen through the lens of stereotypes.
- We've forgotten the goal of communion with God and the outflow of that communion in the church.
- We've narrowed purity down to sex.
- Immaturity and fear weaken relationships.
- We've forgotten that we are family.

In the second half of the book, she gives ways where sanctified siblingship can flourish in the local church:⁶
- Our identity comes from our Elder Brother.
- Consider the "one anothers" in scripture.
- Cultivate holiness in one another through encouragement and exhortation.
- Practice community through table fellowship.
- Celebrate and suffer together.
- Model affectionate and appropriate relationships to the world.

There has been a lot of discussion about Why Can't We Be Friends? even before its release. There have been concerns that Aimee is advocating antinomianism (disregarding the moral law) in the area of friendship. I don't think this is the case at all. I believe she steers a theologically straight course between license and legalism, which is why I strongly recommend this book. She is not advocating permissiveness in our friendships. Neither does she give a list of cast iron dos and donts. Rather she raises the bar by encouraging her readers to look to Christ and what he has done on our behalf. It is through our union with him that the family of God can be family in holiness and purity. He sets the standard for friendship, not the culture. After all who gave us a new heart? Who gives us new desires? Are we perfect? No. Are we still tempted? Yes. But who convicts us of sin? Who delivers us from temptation and gives wisdom from situation to situation? Who is building his church and able to present her blameless at the last day?

Can men and women be friends? It's the wrong question. How could we even ask such a question if we understood the meaning of friendship?

Are we opposed to friendship? No - we are opposed to sin, and we are for holiness. And for this reason, men and women are called to be more than friends. We are called to Christ, in whom we become brothers and sisters As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water.⁷

For more on the book:
Mortification of Spin Podcast on Why Can't We Be Friends?
Theology Gals interview with Aimee Byrd 

1. Why Can't We Be Friends? - Avoidance is Not Purity, Aimee Byrd, P&R Publishing, 2018, pg. 7.
2. Openness Unhindered, Rosaria Butterfield, Crown & Covenant Publications, 2015, pp. 35-36. (bolding mine)
3. Byrd. pg. 25.
4. Ibid. pp. 15-16.
5. Ibid. Chapters 1-7.
6. Ibid. Chapters 8-13.
7. Ibid. pg. 229.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Have You Begun to Sing?

We at Out of the Ordinary have another author in our ranks! Staci wrote The Organized Heart, and now Rebecca has written The Good Portion - God: The Doctrine of God for Every Woman. I have been looking forward to this book for a while.

In her very first post at Out of the Ordinary, Rebecca talked about how theology makes her heart sing. When I knew that she would be writing a book about the doctrine of God, I hoped that the sentiments she shared in that initial post would find their way into her book. And they did. In the conclusion, she exhorts the reader: "Theology should always result in doxology; the study of God should always lead to praise." Her very last question to the reader is: "Have you begun to sing?"

Becky's purpose in this book is to introduce the reader to God: "Most of all, it is my desire that each reader catch a glimpse of His glory. As you read and consider God's nature and His work, I hope you will see how glorious and delight him"

God is so magnificent, so glorious, and so infinite that as finite creatures, we cannot begin to understand everything about him. However, in this book, we are encouraged to seek the understanding God promises to give should we make the effort. To know God is to know ourselves. It is the beginning of worship:

Unless we know God as He is, we cannot see ourselves as we are. And as painful as it is to see an accurate picture of ourselves, it is also necessary for true worship. True worship comes from a heart that sees how glorious He is, and understands its own unworthiness.

Each chapter explains a different facet of God's character, ending with a prayer. Each chapter also includes a number of questions for thought and further study. I really enjoyed the questions. I could see them generating some deep conversation among a group of people studying together. This would be a great book for group study.

Scripture is the basis for this exploration of God, but Becky does not hesitate to use other resources, such as creeds, systematic theologies, and writings of scholars. The end of the book has a very good selection of resources for further reading, and they are accessible resources. Once the reader has given a glimpse of the greatness and scope of the study of God, she (or he!) will want to look further. I love it when authors give book suggestions.

The first chapter discusses the need to know God, the second on his triune nature. The third chapter emphasizes how God is not like us, followed by chapters on his wisdom and power, his holiness, his goodness, his creative power, sustaining power, and saving power. Becky explains things thoroughly and with clarity. The truths build upon each other. She is not afraid to use theological terms, and when she does, she explains them, giving the reader a vocabulary for this subject. I don't think anyone should be afraid to use theological terminology. All subjects we study, whether cooking, science, or economics have terms which give us a language to understand and explain. Theology has a language as well, and I was glad to see Becky introduce the reader to it.

Many of the principles in the book are illustrated through Becky's own experiences learning about God through the regular events of life. I was especially grateful for her wisdom and maturity; the kind one can only get through time and experience. We need more women like Becky speaking out; women who have raised their children to adulthood; who are grandmothers, and who have had the time to see the difference it makes to know who God is. And her illustrations are ones that both men and women can enjoy. Though this book's subtitle is "The Doctrine of God for Every Woman," it is a book men would find very readable. This is not a book for women alone, but a book by a woman for everyone. Everyone who is called "Christian" needs to understand God's character.

One of the things I found most helpful was the principle of God's aseity:

Aseity comes from the Latin a se, which means 'from or by oneself.' To say God is a se means He exists from himself. Nothing caused Him to exist, but He exists uncaused, 'by the necessity of His own Being.' In other words, God depends on nothing outside of Himself for His existence - and he can't not exist.

This is such a crucial truth to understand. That God is from himself means that he is not affected by external factors. His love is not affected by outside circumstances, because his love comes from himself. God's wisdom is not going to change over time because it comes from himself, and nothing from the outside can diminish it. God's power is from himself, and nothing can reduce that power. This is complete contradiction to humans who are tossed and turned by all manner of external factors. This is not only comforting, but convicting. This eliminates any tendency to see God as simply a bigger version of ourselves. I really believe that as Christians we need to know just how great God is, and how small we are.

Does theology make your heart sing? Do you find yourself so awed and amazed by God that you cannot resist the desire to praise him? If not, why not? Do you know him? If you don't feel you know him well, this book should inspire you to start seeking. Though the book is not yet released in North America, you can pre-order it here at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. If you just don't want to wait (I didn't!), you can order it from The Book Depository. 

Doctrine Matters: Imputation

For decades as a Christian, I was taught and believed that Jesus got me in the door, but the rest was up to me. This was terrifying. I remember crying as a child wondering if I would have the courage to be a martyr for Christ, and wondering if I would lose my salvation if I failed. I remember hearing about the movie, A Thief in the Night, and wondering what would happen if I wasn't ready. I lived with so much uncertainty that current events would strike fear in my heart because I doubted I would be good enough when Christ returned.

Finally one day, I was raking leaves and listening to R.C. Sproul's lectures on What is Reformed Theology?. When he discussed the doctrine of justification by faith alone, it was as though the sun broke through the darkness, and I experienced assurance for the first time in my Christian life.

"In the final analysis, the only way that any person is ever justified before God is by works.  We are saved by works, and we are saved by works alone.  Don't touch that dial..."

"[W]hen I say that we are justified by works and by works alone, what do I mean by it? I mean that the grounds of my justification and the grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works, but they are not our own. That's why we say we're saved by faith, and we're saved by grace, because the works that save us aren't our works, they're Somebody else's works."¹

God takes my sin and places it on the righteous, holy, perfect Lamb of God and expends His wrath upon the Him. But if the story ended there, my sins would have been dealt with, but what about my life? What about God's just requirement that we be holy as He is holy? He takes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and puts that to my account. This is imputation. There is no question anymore of where I stand before God. The endless cycle of trying to earn acceptance before God is broken once and for all.

The understanding of imputation also holds out the only real hope that real Christians have of maintaining real acceptance with the real God. The reality of imputed righteousness is a real encouragement to ongoing sinners. Even as believers we must admit that sin is mixed with all we do. Even though we are justified believers, we still stumble and fall. We still make backward steps. What will keep a believer persevering in the face of remaining sin? Just this: the knowledge that the righteousness that renders us acceptable to God is not our personal achievement. It is Christ's righteousness achieved for us.

What is a Christian to do when he stumbles and falls in sin?  He must keep looking to Christ by humbly repenting and starting over.  This is how we battle discouragement. This is what keeps us from losing hope. On the believer's worst day this thought can keep him from utter despair: Jesus Christ is my righteousness. To see, remember and believe that God has credited Christ’s righteousness to us and has on that basis accepted us once and for all, is to find the strength and the direction to fight against every form of discouragement and temptation and frustration in life.²

This is why I love the doctrine of imputation. Having lived without assurance so long, it's no wonder I can't forget the day when I realized that peace with God rested outside of me or my performance. I still stumble and my assurance may waiver, but there is someone else that I can look to - Jesus Christ, my righteousness.

Sources:
1. What is Reformed Theology? Teaching series by R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries.
2. Imputation: The Sinners Only Hope - Thomas K. Ascol, Founders Journal, Issue 59, Winter 2005, pp. 1-13.

This is based on a post from my personal blog from 2010.

The Rhythm of the Christian Life

Right now, as I write this, I am sitting in a big rocker on the front porch enjoying the morning sunshine. One of my sons is in the driveway tinkering with his car, and another is in the vegetable garden, nailing together the box for a raised garden bed. I can hear the next-door neighbor, too, using some kind of power tool outside in his yard. The winters are long here—from October through April—so no one wants to waste a moment of the warmer temps and brighter skies. There will be a few Sundays over the summer when there will be no Sunday School at my church because too many teachers and too many children are gone. Yukon families love their summer weekend camping trips! I’m not saying these frequent church absences are good—they're not—but they are what they are. This it the rhythm of Yukon life: eight months stuck indoors, and then four months of freedom in the glorious landscape that surrounds us.

What is the rhythm of your life? Five workdays and then the weekend? Nine or ten months of school and then summer vacation? Or maybe every day is different and it seems like there is no rhythm at all. Still, there are probably patterns to your life, even if you don’t feel them—patterns of work, play, and rest, of wake time and sleep. 

And looking beyond—or deeper—than your daily physical life, do you see a rhythm to your spiritual life? Sinclair Ferguson says “the rhythm of the Christian’s life is always determined by the principle that when the revelation of God in His glory is grasped by faith, the response is to return all glory to God.” ^[1]  Theology should always result in doxology; the study of God should always lead to praise. 

When our lives and our days are busy, we tend to focus on getting tasks done. We have schedules and to-do lists, and we center everything around them. Is it any wonder, then, that when we think about how to apply the truths we learn about God, our first thoughts are practical ones: “What should I do? How can I serve? What duties should I add to my to-do list?”

This not how it ought to be. This is not—or shouldn't be—the rhythm of the Christian life. Sure, what we do is important, but our first response to knowledge of God and his ways should not be more action, but more praise. Truth, then worship, and then—maybe—action. Maybe, because sometimes an adoring heart is enough.

But always, hearts that sing go before hands that do. Right before his plea for believers to live transformed lives in service to God, the apostle Paul wrote a song of praise:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
           “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
                       or who has been his counselor?”
           “Or who has given a gift to him
                       that he might be repaid?”
          For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

Paul urges his readers to pour out their lives in obedience to God because they have seen the glory of God through his work of salvation. They have just read of his "unsearchable judgments" and inscrutable ways." Surely their hearts, like Paul's, are already bursting with praise! “To him be glory forever” is the reason for “I appeal to you . . . to present your bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 11:33-12:2).” Keeping the rhythm, Paul puts a song of praise before the call to service.

What is the rhythm of your Christian life? Are you regularly learning about God? Do you see his acts in creation, providence, and salvation, and glimpse his goodness? And when you do, are you taking time to praise him in return? Are you stopping to rejoice in his goodness? Not because it’s the next thing on your list of things to do, but because it’s what comes naturally. (Or perhaps, since we're talking about spiritual things, we should say it's what comes supernaturally.) Are you grasping God in his glory by faith and then returning all glory to him? Is this the rhythm of your life?

---

[1] Beeke, Joel R., Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism (Orlando, Florida: Reformation Trust Publishing 2008), 388.

Identity: Knowing Who We Are in Christ

The professional women sitting next to our dinner table last week gloried in their roles as nurses as they traded recent stories of pain and recovery from the hospital down the street. Yet I wondered whether they realized that nursing is merely their vocation, not the core of their identity. Likewise, my niece and her closest friends encourage one another as they share the challenges of homeschooling in their common vocations as young moms. But do they understand how fleeting this season of life will seem in a matter of a few years when their raucous, chaotic living rooms morph into much quieter empty nests?

Another young woman, whom I have discipled in the past, regularly introduces herself as “an addict” to close acquaintances, even though she has not taken a mood-altering substance in nearly four years. She understands that in her weakness she is still susceptible to temptation. So for her, retaining the “addict” moniker helps to keep her humble and realistic about the remaining potential to slip up. However, I still wonder whether she fully understands that her temptation does not define who she is as a person in relationship to others and who she is becoming as a Christian believer.

Far too often, we think of ourselves mainly in terms of what we do or how we feel about ourselves and our relationship to our temporal circumstances. Becoming aware of our position and identity in Christ uplifts us by pointing us to tremendously empowering truths and confronts us with some sobering facts.

James gives an example of this paradox when he exhorts the poor and lowly person to “boast in his exaltation”, while simultaneously telling the prosperous person to glory “in his humiliation” (1:9-10). Remember, in context, James is discussing temptation, desire, and sin. It is no mere coincidence that James drops this gem right in between his teaching about trials and temptations. Self-skewing illusions of personal grandiosity and personal loathing will taint our view of who we are before God, making us susceptible to wiles of the evil one. We must look to Christ to see ourselves rightly.

Creation and Fall

Typically, as reformed women, we are keenly aware of the danger of emphasizing worldly wealth and position, recognizing it as potential idolatry. Few of us knowingly dare to set ourselves up as empresses and cosmic judges, out from under the scrutiny of our Holy God and Creator. Before congratulating ourselves, let us be careful, lest we fall (1 Cor. 10:12).

The subtle lie that the serpent used to entice the woman before the fall remains a temptation about which we ought to be vigilant: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Gen. 3:5a).  The distortion of the Creator/creature distinction is at the heart of much sin and most heresy. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).

The poor and downtrodden, on the other hand, perhaps more acutely understand and experience the insipid nature of the fall. Regularly reminded of the effects of remaining sin in the world and in themselves, the lowly and oppressed often struggle to grasp the inherent dignity of human beings, created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27).  Rather, the tendency of those of us who are poor in spirit can be to view our identities based on what we perceive we lack, rather than what we inhere.  

God created both the woman and her husband to have dominion over every living thing – except for God and one another. God said, “Let them to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing than creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26).  

The irony, of course, is that a mysterious “beast of the field”, that crafty serpent, “more crafty” than the other beasts, deceived and interrogated Eve as though he held dominion over her. The serpent's questioning of Eve took precedence over God's goodness and her calling. The serpent deceived the woman into denying her calling as image-bearer of God and to falsely perceive a lack in God’s good creation. This false perception was the deception that led her to disobey the Creator’s command.

Similarly, we also fall prey to the deception of sin and temptation when we imagine ourselves as mere brute beasts, defined by “natural” desires that we imagine God gave us. In reality, deception and distortion of the imago Dei sneakily lies underneath the fig leaves of our self-made identities, because we define ourselves by that which we imagine God has failed to provide. Whether we base our identity on spiritual poverty, such as a sinful temptation toward substances or relationships, or define our identity by actual poverty or lack of privilege, we have forsaken our Divine calling as image bearers.  

Redeemed Identities

Our loving Creator, who rightly despises sin and rebellion, rescued fallen sinners from this evil, for His ultimate glory, in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Lord, our God, came to renew and restore His people to right relationship with Himself. Whether we lean toward the prideful and prosperous, who eschew the creature/Creator distinction, or toward the lowly and poor of spirit, who diminish the goodness of the image of God, if we are in Christ Jesus, we are being made new. As new creations in Christ, our story does not end when our redemption begins.

When God saves us, He enables us to walk in union with Christ. We are not yet what we will be, but we are no longer what we once were. By the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to live out our callings as image bearers again, as new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 517). James tells us:

 "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (Ja. 1:16-18).

John Calvin wrote in his commentary on this passage that “It is no common nobility into which God extols his own children… justly are they said to be excellent as firstfruits, when God's image is renewed in them.”

When the Truth of who God is emerges to reorient our hearts and minds, we will begin to see ourselves rightly. No longer will we desire the path of the prideful, prosperous fool, setting ourselves up as mini-empresses who usurp the Creator. No longer will we see ourselves as spiritually impoverished beasts, enslaved to the sin nature and the world system.  For we died to sin and are now alive to Christ (Rom. 6:17, Eph. 2:4-5). We are righteous with the righteousness of Christ alone, the perfect Son of God (Rom. 4:5).  Let us praise Him!

Soli Deo Gloria!

God is much greater than her experience of him

"It is no good telling the bereaved mother that Christ still loves and cares for her if she has only been taught to think of Christ in terms of how he works on her own feelings and in her own experiences. She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him; she needs to know that, whatever her current feelings of anguish and despair, God is trustworthy and loving; and she needs to know that assurance is not necessarily about emotional highs but about knowing that God is faithful even though the whole world appears to be falling apart around her. Such will only be possible if the theological environment in which she lives and worships teaches her to understand Christ above all in terms of his historical work of redemption for the people of God; and that will only come about when the emphasis in preaching focuses not on ourselves but on the Christ of the Bible. Setting Christ above all in the context of biblical history rather than our own experience will promote a truly high understanding of Christ as Redeemer, and one that will ultimately be of more use than the Christ of Emotional Therapy...^1"

She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him...

This passage by Carl Trueman hits close to home. I was not a bereaved mother but a heartbroken wife wondering where God was when my husband walked out the door. I would never have owned it at the time, but God was pretty much the God of my experience. My degree of assurance was tied to my emotional state, even though I wasn't outwardly a very emotional person. When I read the Word, every passage was taken allegorically such that the Bible was mainly about God talking to me about me rather than revealing Himself. I also combed it looking for passages that I would take out of context for any shred of hope that my marriage would be saved.

But the kindest thing that God did in the midst of my suffering was to turn my gaze away from my circumstances to Himself. This breakthrough in my understanding (via doctrine) and the desire to learn more (theology) were the means that brought me out of despair. I began to see that God was trustworthy, not because He gave me a happy ending, but because He is who He says He is in His Word. 

Through the following years and the week-by-week preaching of my pastor, I've learned and am still learning about a God who is far greater than when I was only using the narrow and fallible lens of my experience. He is Triune - one God in three persons. He is immutable, infinite, impassible, simple, faithful, righteous, and love, to name some of His attributes. He moved through history setting the stage for the exact moment when God the Son came down from heaven for us and for our salvation. He is still moving through time and ordering every event until the consummation of His kingdom. Yes there is fierce opposition, but Christ has won! His people are secure no matter what may befall them in this life, and we can look forward to the coming day when every tear will be wiped away and all things will be made right and new.

For those who believe that theology is dry and impractical. I respectfully disagree. Sound exegetical and expository preaching and solid books pulled back the curtain to reveal a God whose will is never thwarted, whose promises are rock solid, and who keeps His own to the very end. Even though my trust may falter at times, I wouldn't want to cast my all on anyone less.


1. Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Carl Trueman, Christian Focus Publications, 2011, pp. 122-123.

A rewrite of a post on my personal blog from June 12, 2012.

Even As Our Father Is Merciful

This year my church began sponsoring a family of refugees from Syria. The Canadian government will provide half the income they need for their first year here in our city, but we are responsible for the other half. This family was, of course, eager to leave the refugee camp behind for the safety of life in Canada, but they don’t know English, have no experience with winter — especially our extreme northern winters — and left all of their extended family and friends behind. Can you imagine how difficult their new life is? How lonely they can feel? It’s the job of a group of volunteers from the church to ease their transition to life here, and they need help with all these things and more. A few weeks after they settled into the home prepared for them, the mother spoke for the whole family and thanked the church. “We are not of your religion,” she said through a translator, “but you have shown us mercy.”

She was using the word mercy in the same way the Bible does. When the authors of scripture use this word, the focus is on the helplessness of those receiving mercy. In his mercy God is good to those who are in trouble and cannot help themselves. From his mercy he helps the helpless and gives hope to the hopeless.

Mercy includes God’s pity for those who are in trouble, but it’s much more than mere pity, because his mercy has all of his power behind it. A leper once came to Jesus, and asked to be healed. “Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘. . . be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (Mark 1:41-42). Jesus saw this man’s predicament, sympathised with him, and used his infinite healing power to cure him. This is how it works with God’s mercy. From his mercy, he helps those no one else can help. His mercy accomplishes what is impossible for anyone but God.

In his mercy, God heals the sick, provides for the needy, and rescues those who are exploited and mistreated. From his mercy, he delivers people from affliction, oppression, and poverty. He is “[f]ather of the fatherless and protector of widows” (Psalm 68:5; see also Psalm 10:14; Hosea 14:3) because he is merciful. Since everything God created is dependent on him, everything he does to sustain his creatures is an act of mercy. The food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and everything else that keeps us alive, are gifts from the mercy of God. Can you see why David’s psalm says “his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9)?

God’s ultimate act of mercy was sending his Son to die to deliver people from sin. If you are a believer, you were once helpless and hopeless, but in his mercy God sent his Son to be your Saviour (Luke 1:76-79). Could you have saved yourself? Freed yourself from slavery to sin? Could you have opened your own spiritually blind eyes? Raised yourself from spiritual death? No, you were completely dependent on God to rescue you. In mercy Christ died for you, in mercy God cleansed you from sin, and in mercy the Spirit empowers you to obey (Titus 3:3-5). You had no hope until your merciful God “caused [you] to be born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). You have been saved because God is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4-5), and you belong to him because you have received his mercy (1 Peter 2:10).

There is no limit to the mercy of God. “His mercies never come to an end,” but are “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Every day is a fresh opportunity to experience new mercies from his never-ending, never-run-dry supply. From God’s infinite mercy, there is always more help for you.

And every day is a fresh opportunity for God’s children to “be merciful, even as [our] Father is merciful (Luke 6:36).” Indeed, one of the reasons God chose to be merciful to us is so we will be merciful to others. He “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). In his mercy, God saw our need and rescued us, and now he invites us to imitate him by helping those who need our help.

When you care for your sick children — rocking them to sleep, giving them medicine, wiping their noses, or mopping up after they throw up — you are reflecting the mercy of God. If you help your elderly neighbor with yardwork he’s too frail to finish on his own, you are showing him mercy. When people from my church donated clothing, furniture, or money to support the Syrian family, they were instruments of God’s mercy. And when we share the gospel, the story of God's mercy to sinners, we are giving hope to the hopeless like our merciful God gives hope to the hopeless. Any poverty, weakness, illness, pain, or hopelessness we see is an opportunity for us to show mercy because God has shown us mercy.

A Golden Calf and the Big Truth Exchange

Do you know the Old Testament story of the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6)? Moses, the leader of the people of Israel, went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God. He was gone for forty days and the people grew anxious without him, so they asked Aaron, the priest, to make gods to lead them in Moses’s absence. Together with Aaron, then, they made a golden calf to worship. It’s shocking how quickly they turned to polytheism and idolatry, breaking both God’s first commandment—“You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)—and his second—“You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Exodus 20:4). 

 But there’s something else to note: When the Israelites made the calf, they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” In their minds, the one golden calf was not their only god. They were, it seems, crediting the calf with working with the one true God to bring them out of Egypt. They may not have been denying that God brought them out of Egypt, but rather, denying that he had done it alone. And when they feasted after sacrificing to the calf, they called it “a feast to Yahweh.” Yahweh is the true God’s name, so when they celebrated, they were trying, in their twisted way, to honor God. And as they tried to honor him, they got at least two details about God right. They called him by the right name, and they acknowledged one of his works.

 
But a few right ideas about God didn’t keep the Israelites from idolatry. Even as they attempted to worship him, their minds remade the one true God into a smaller, weaker god. They reimagined him as a god who wasn’t powerful enough to accomplish his will without help from other powers, and one who was willing to share his glory with an image they had crafted from things they owned.

Their story is evidence of what the apostle Paul writes in Romans 1: All people are naturally inclined toward idolatry. The Israelites exchanged “the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23) and “the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25)—and it didn’t take them long to do it. We read their story and wonder how they could have been so foolish, but worshipping a carved image alongside Yahweh didn’t seem bizarre to them because believing in multiple gods and practicing idolatry were normal in the culture they came from. We live in a different culture and time, and aren’t surrounded by idol worshipping polytheists, so we might never build an actual golden calf to worship, but as fallen people we too are prone to idolatry. Like the Israelites, we are naturally inclined to reimagine God as someone or something more like “mortal man” than the glorious almighty God he is. Even though we might never fall as far and fast as they did, to the extent we view God as different from the One he has revealed himself to be, we have also “[exchanged] the truth about God for a lie.”

Erin, a young woman I once knew, liked to think of God as spontaneous (to use her word), because she thought a spontaneous god would be more exciting than one who planned everything ahead of time. But we know the true God isn’t spontaneous. He has told us he has a plan and he always sticks to it. When Erin imagined that God was impulsive, she was exchanging the truth of God who is always the same for the lie of one who changes from moment to moment. She may have believed many accurate things about God, but this didn’t keep her from building a false image of him in her mind—and all because, like many her age, she placed a high value on living in the moment without a plan for the future. She preferred a god who was more like she was.

Like the Israelites and Erin, we have a natural inclination to view God as more like us than he is, and more like whatever the culture around us values than he is. But thankfully, the Spirit works within us to fine-tune our thoughts about God as we study his revelation of himself. Yes, until we see him face to face, the picture of God we hold in our minds will never be exactly right. Even our best thoughts of God will be a little idolatrous, but the more we work to conform our thoughts to what God has told us about himself, the more clearly we will know him, and the more truly we can worship him.