This past Sunday, Kirsten & I had the privilege of worshiping with Epiphany Fellowship in downtown Philadelphia. And during the service one of the songs we sang was “It is Well with My Soul.” And on this day, I thought about the song in ways I never really had previously.
While I realize the song is celebrating the peace of God that passes all understanding in the midst of suffering, the song had never really accomplished that feeling of peace for me. Maybe it’s the fact that the music for the song is fairly somber, or maybe it is because the author of the lyrics had written them as a result of tremendous personal loss. I think for me that even though the song has always expressed profound biblical truth, it had more of a cathartic effect on me because I could sing it the way I felt even if I didn’t feel peace or joy in the middle of suffering. Here is how I came to sing this song with new appreciation for the lyrics:
One of the verses of the song reads as follows:
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”
You see, I always got caught up on the first line of this verse. My thoughts became focused on the evil one’s attack, my trials, or my failings in obedience to the point that I mindlessly sang the rest of the song without considering it’s meaning. The fact is if we don’t grasp the truth that the last three lines of that verse then we may as well not even bother continuing on to the next verse. Because the next verse moves from comforted suffering to joyful celebration:
“My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
That’s what hit me this past Sunday: many of us have completely lost the element of joyful celebration in our salvation. We sing about having a blissful glorious thought that we don’t even bother to entertain. I used to appreciate this hymn as if it were merely aloe on a sunburn or an understanding friend who would listen to me complain about how bad I have it. But to do so is to completely miss it’s point! That no matter how dismal this life seems, we can bask in the bliss of the glorious thought that the sin that condemned us to death before a wholly holy God has been wiped clean from our record!
I know I have been guilty of outwardly professing forgiveness of sin through Christ and the comfort that he gives in suffering but inwardly harboring thoughts of guilt and anxiety. May this happen no more! Its time that those of us who outwardly profess salvation in Christ also profess it inwardly to ourselves.
That sin you feel guilt over? JESUS DIED TO PAY FOR THAT! Stop bearing the guilt of it. That trial that won’t seem to end? There is comfort in knowing that for the Christian it is as close to hell you’ll ever come because when this life is over we go home to be with Christ. These are causes for great joy! And we long for the day when Christ puts an end to suffering for good and brings his kingdom in its fullness. Until then we celebrate so great a salvation in him. May our attitude in our worship match up with the words we use to worship!
I often hesitate to speak publicly or write about topics I’m personally working through. I try to be the kind of person that listens long enough to form an opinion worth voicing. But there are times where I feel like I’m working through a thought that I’d like to invite others to join me in working it out. Lately, I have been working through the notion that God has so created us in such a way that we are dependent upon others. This dependency we were created with manifests itself in many different ways.
A few weeks ago I preached through the parable of the rich fool, where it is seen that God has given much to some so that they can steward those funds to those who are in need. It is clear in this parable (Luke 12:13-21) that personal wealth is not personal at all. God expects the person to whom he gives much to in turn give his surplus to those who have need. In other words, some people are dependent upon the generosity of others.
Beyond finances, we are dependent on each other for practical assistance. Two years ago I had back pain that prevented me from doing much of anything. During this time I learned that the beauty of community is that when we are weak, there are those with whom we share life to be strong for us. Now this was a hard lesson for me to learn because I tend to be a fairly independent person. But when the simplest of tasks such as going to the fridge to get a soda means serious pain, you learn that it’s ok to ask for help. This is true not only for physical pain, but also for the emotional pain of life as well. The beauty of the Christian community is that God has put people into our lives whom we can turn to when we need to be reminded of the truth of the Scripture.
Recently I heard Tim Keller preach on a similar topic and one of the examples he used was that of a woven fabric. He spoke of how the fabric is woven together of individual strands, and the strength of the fabric is gained through the interdependency of the individual strands. If each strand is not joined to the others the fabric will be weak. God has designed us this way. In fact the Apostle Paul speaks often in 1 Corinthians about how as Christians we are all a part of one body. Specifically in 1 Corinthians 12:14-31, Paul speaks about how foolish it would be for one part of the body to declare its independence from the rest of the body.
God has designed us in such a way to be dependent on each other. And it is especially sad when Christians come into the church and act as if they have no need of each other. I certainly understand that we may not want to broadcast our struggles with everyone, but it is critical that we find one or more people with whom we can share life.
Galatians 6:2 tells us that bearing each others burdens is not an option. Rather it is something we do out of obedience to the law of Christ. May we not rob each other of opportunities to be obedient in this area.
This past Sunday we started a six week series on the parables of Jesus, and we started the series off by studying the Parable of the Sower. In this story, a man sows seed that falls on four types of soil: hard, rocky, thorny, and good. Now as we pointed out on Sunday, Jesus’ main point in telling this story was to help his disciples understand that even though many people look the part of a Christian, many people who claim to be a Christian and are even enthusiastic about the faith are not Christian at all. These people were represented by the rocky soil and the thorny soil. The rocky soil represents the one who enjoys the idea of Christianity as long as it is easy, shallow, and without difficulty. The thorny soil represents the one who enjoys the idea of Christianity, but this person enjoys the idea of sin a lot more. Neither of these two are Christian at all, but are fooling themselves into thinking that becoming a Christian is something you do on your own terms and for your own benefit.
Obviously, one of the applications to a text like this one from Matthew 13:1-9 is to challenge professing Christians to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) Christians should heed the command in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Because the sobering reality is that Jesus warned there would be people who thought they were Christian and were not. (Matthew 7:21-23)
There is, however, one thing that always concerns me as a pastor when I preach on a passage like the one we studied this past Sunday. And that is that those who truly are in Christ may begin to question their salvation. While I do believe that it is always healthy to evaluate our standing with God (see Philippians 2:12 above), it would be sin for the Christian to become consistently anxious about whether or not they are truly saved. For this person, I’d like to offer some comfort this morning.
Comfort 1: There is no sin you can commit that hasn’t been paid for. Colossians 2:13-14 tells us that even though we were spiritually dead in our sin, through faith in Christ our entire record of debt against God (our sin against him) was cancelled. If your hope of salvation is in Christ’s righteous life, death and resurrection alone and you repented of your selfish sinful life, you can stand confident knowing that your salvation is secure. When God saved you through Christ he knew all of the sin you would ever commit (yes, even THAT one) and he chose to save you anyway.
Comfort 2: The security of your salvation is not based upon how bad you are not, but about how good Christ IS. If our salvation was contingent upon any good in us, then we would have no hope whatsoever. But God knew that we were unable to save ourselves so he sent Christ who was and is able. We could never be good enough to save ourselves, but Jesus was and is good enough. J.I. Packer writes “[God] reckons righteousness to them, not because he accounts them to have kept his law personally (which would be a false judgment), but because he accounts them to be united to one who kept it representatively (and that is a true judgment)”. Galatians 2:16 still stands! It is not about what we can do, but what Christ has done.
Comfort 3: God understood that as long as we struggle with these sinful bodies in which we live that we would struggle with doubts of our salvation. And God in his grace addresses this very issue in the Scriptures. For the Christian struggling with anxiety over their standing with God 2 Peter 1:3-11 is an extremely helpful passage. In this passage, Peter tells the anxious Christian to “make their calling and election sure” by working on their growth in Christ. If you would notice, the things Peter tells the anxious Christian to work on are very similar in scope to the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. In other words, when doubts arise, there is a great assurance that comes from obedience to God’s Spirit. And why would this be? Because the Spirit and the flesh are in conflict with each other (Galatians 5:17), so if we find the true desire and pursuit of our hearts is to live in pleasing obedience to God’s Spirit, we can have confidence that we are not living in the flesh. (Romans 8:8)
May we remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self control. (2 Timothy 1:7)
For those who are in Christ: “…our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”
It’s no secret that I’m a sports fan. There’s just something about competition that can teach us so much about life, about ourselves, and often sports can illustrate spiritual truths. I believe one such instance happened this week when Armando Galarraga, a relatively unknown pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, carried a perfect game well into the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians.
In case you aren’t familiar with the term, a perfect game is an extremely rare occurrence. In fact there are only 20 perfect games on record in the history of major league baseball (two have been thrown in the 2010 season, which is incredibly rare). In order to throw a perfect game a pitcher must successfully retire every batter without letting anyone safely reach base. If he hits a batter with a pitch or walks a batter the perfect game is ruined.
On Wednesday night Armando Galarraga had successfully retired 26 batters in a row, and only needed one more out to have thrown the 21st perfect game in baseball history. The batter hit a ground ball to the first baseman, and Galarraga covered the bag and caught the throw before the batter’s foot touched first. For a split second the team started to celebrate, then…..SAFE! Jim Joyce, the umpire, called the runner safe. No one could believe Joyce missed the call, and later that night he sought out Galarraga to apologize for having robbed Galarraga of the chance to join an elite group in the record books.
There is so much to be said for how the parties involved handled themselves throughout this unfortunate situation. But I would like to key in on the humble attitude of Jim Joyce after having blown what he described as the biggest call of his career. Joyce’s actions after the game were almost repentant in nature. In fact, through Jim Joyce’s actions after having blown that call can teach us some lessons in Christian repentance. Now I know that all examples break down at some point, but stick with me for a second.
He humbled himself. I used to umpire softball games and I learned very quickly that to waver in your decision on call is to invite opposition. So umpires typically carry a very proud and hard attitude. It would have been very easy for Jim Joyce to face the cameras after the game and say ‘I saw what I saw and I stand behind the call I made’ even if he knew in his heart he was wrong. One of the first things we must do in coming to Christ is to humble ourselves before God realizing that we have wronged him. 1 Peter 5:5-6 – “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Cloth yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
He confessed unconditionally. Part of the reason Joyce is being cheered, even by fans in Detroit the day after the blown call, is because he owned up to his mistake. Jim Joyce did not only openly admit he was wrong, but he sought out Armando Galarraga and apologized to him. When we sin, it’s not an action that involves us alone. We are sinning against the God of the universe who created us for his glory. So humility is not enough, it should lead to repentance to God because God is the one we have sinned against. (Psalm 51:4) Seek him and ask forgiveness because he does forgive those who confess their sin to him. 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
He got back to work. Sources say that after having made the mistake of his career Jim Joyce was offered the opportunity to forgo working the game in Detroit the next day. Rather than ducking out of town, Joyce faced the music the next day and went back to doing his job. How many times have we sinned against God and felt that even though we know he has forgiven us he still can’t use us for his glory? We use the guilt of past sin as an opportunity for laziness. For the Christian, guilt is a sin that denies the complete forgiveness of God through Jesus for sin, and laziness for the Christian is a sin of disobedience. God didn’t save us to sulk, he saved us to accomplish work for his glory. Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
This week Kirsten & I went to have our 18 week sonogram. The doctor wanted the sonogram to make sure the baby is growing properly. I wanted the sonogram to find out the baby’s gender. Some people don’t want to know and they want to be surprised at birth. I don’t have the patience for that. Seriously, I gave Kirsten her birthday present a month early because I don’t like to wait. During the sonogram we found out that, God willing, we will have a baby girl!
When most people learn that we know the baby’s gender they generally follow up with “so do you have any names picked out?” And the answer to that question is: ‘yes, we do.’ Our baby girl’s name will be Karis Grace. I would like to let you know why we chose that name.
When Kirsten & I were dating we got talking one night about baby names and I mentioned that if I ever have a baby girl I would want to name her ‘Grace.’ That night Kirsten said that she had wanted to name a baby girl ‘Karis’, which comes from the greek word “Charis” (pronounced Care-iss; We changed the spelling so people wouldn’t think her name was pronounced sha-reese). Charis means “grace.” So why would we essentially name our baby girl “Grace Grace?” Because in the Bible, in John 1:14-16 says: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
It was important to me that our child’s name would proclaim the great graces that we have received from God. This is how I define grace: “unmerited favor.” In other words grace is getting something that you don’t deserve. The greatest grace the world has ever known is in the love God showed to mankind by sending Jesus, his Son, to pay the price of sin. And through turning from our sinful lives against God and turning to faith in Jesus perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we can experience the great saving grace of God: An eternity with him in his kingdom.
Apart from the saving grace of God extended to those who have faith in Jesus there are also the common graces of God, which we would define as anything good. James 1:17 says “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.” The common graces of God are all the good things in this life we get to enjoy. Coffee, football games, music, good food, good books, marital intimacy, sunsets, health, and children are all examples of the many common graces God has given to mankind to reveal his goodness to us.
So our desire is that our child by her name and by her life would proclaim the ‘grace upon grace’ that God has given us. And we pray that she would grow up to love Jesus, to know Jesus, and to make him known.
Video emerges of a future conversation between Kirsten and our future child.
*editors note* – I watched the premiere episode of Family Guy in college years ago and didn’t think it was funny. Since then I’ve seen enough on the commercials for the show that I don’t recommend tuning in, but I saw this clip on a commercial and it is funny.
WTSBooks.com is my favorite place to buy books. They are consistently cheaper than Amazon, and if I ship my order by UPS, I get it the next day.
Today WTSBooks is advertising a two-day sale that you would be wise to take advantage of if you are married, or plan to be married one day. They are as follows:
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What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage by Paul Tripp
Normally on sale for $21.99, it is available for $8.99 until 3pm on Friday, April 16th.
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This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence by John Piper
The list price for this book is $17.99, but Westminster is selling it for $5.00.
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I put my order in for these two books right before I wrote this post, and I’m excited to read them both. I hope you’ll take advantage of this great sale.
*Disclaimer* – If people click the links to WTS’ website enough times, I get credit for free books. But please do not think that I am writing this post simply for that purpose. If you look through my archives, you’ll see that I raved about their bookstore long before they ever had a blog partner’s program. The fact that I can earn credit toward books for doing something I was already doing was just icing on the cake. So please. Click on the links and buy the books!
How did you sleep last night? Was it comfortable? The Scriptures tell us that the night before Jesus was crucified he was:
- Betrayed by one of his own and arrested (Mt 26:47-56, Mk 14:43-52, Lk 22:47-53; Jn 18:2-12)
- Taken before Annas, the former High Priest and Father in Law of the current High Priest, who still held much influence (Jn 18:13-24)
- Taken before Caiaphas, the current High Priest and some of the religious authorities (Mt 26:57-75; Mk 14:53-72; Lk 22:54-65; Jn 18:19-24)
- Taken before the entire Sanhedrin (the ruling religious establishment) where they declared he should be killed (Mt 27:1-2; Mk 15:1; Lk 22:66-71)
- Taken to the Romans so the death sentence could be carried out. Jesus stood before Pilate, who did not see any reason why Jesus should be executed. (Mt 27:2-14; Mk 15:2-5; Lk 23:1-5)
- Sent by Pilate to Herod, who was the Roman ruler of Galiliee and happened to be in Jerusalem that day, because Jesus was from Herod’s ruling jurisdiction. Herod passed no judgment on Jesus, but only mocked him. (Lk 23:6-12)
- Sent back to Pilate who still did not want to crucify Jesus, but Pilate decided to carry out the execution because he was afraid of the crowds that demanded Jesus’ execution (Mt 27:15-26; Mk 15:6-15; Lk 23:13-25; Jn 18:28-19:16)
How is your day going? Was the commute frustrating? Did the Barista make your latte wrong? The Scriptures tell us that on the morning Jesus was crucified he was:
- Whipped by the Romans (Mt 27:26; Mk 15:15; Jn 19:1)
- Mockingly “crowned” by having thorns shoved on his head, given a purple robe and a stick as a ‘scepter’ to further the humiliation of being a crucified king while they spit on his face and hit him on the head (Mt 27:27-31; Mk 15:16-20; Jn 19:1-3)
- Crucified at about 9am by being nailed to a cross on a public road and was mocked by people as they passed by (Mt 27:32-44; Mk 15:21-32; Lk 23:26-43; Jn 19:16-28)
Can’t wait to go home and start your weekend? The Scriptures teach us that at the end of this ‘work day’ for Jesus, he died and would spend the weekend in a tomb:
– At about 3pm, Jesus experienced the full wrath of God poured out on him and for the first time in history felt what it was like to be separated from God the Father. Jesus died on the cross while declaring his work of paying for the sin of the world “finished”. (Mt 27:45-56; Mk 15:33-41; Lk 23:44-49; Jn 19:28-30)
On this day we observe the cruel murder of Jesus via crucifixion and we mourn the fact that it was our sin that necessitated it. We mourn the fact that our rejection of God demanded that a sacrifice of God the Son be made on our behalf. And while we mourn the death of Jesus for our sin, we should be grateful for his sacrifice with the most humble of attitudes. We should be humble because we know that we did not deserve this kind of love poured out for our sin. God in his grace and love paid our debt of sin by pouring out his justice and wrath on Jesus on the cross.
But mourning is not our permanent attitude because we do not serve a defeated Savior, but one who victoriously conquered our sin and its consequences by resurrecting from the dead. This Sunday our mourning turns to celebration as we worship the Risen Savior who is over all.
* – Huge thanks to the ESV Study Bible for it’s help on the harmony of the events of the day.
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