Grief, Glory, and a Dear Old Friend

Grief is sometimes a surprisingly slow burner.  Tragedy deals you a very shrewd, very unexpected sort of blow, but rather than finding yourself immediately laid on your beam ends like a ship in a hurricane, you merely shrug, or scowl, or raise an eyebrow.  This is your brain's equivalent of a counterweight on an elevator, I suppose - it keeps you from falling too quickly.  An hour later, though, you feel it, and you hate yourself for that shrug or that eyebrow, and the tragedy turns over in your mind a hundred different ways, unbidden, for day or weeks or months, until you wonder if you will ever cease to discover new reasons the said tragedy is so tragic. 

A few weeks back, I received word that my dear friend Nick had been badly injured in an accident.  We had been best friends throughout our teenage years (he moved to Colorado a few years after high school).  The years of teendom are, nearly invariably, the silliest years accorded to the cycle of humanity:  indeed, if you possess such a friend as is able to endure you through that complete, interminable succession of seven years, this is a friend indeed. 

I will spare you, dear reader, of the descriptions of our bookish exploits and nerdish frivolities.  I remember these times with great fondness indeed, but they lie behind the realm of the discussion at hand (and at any rate, it is difficult to stop such amusing nostalgia once it is begun).  However, it is enough at this point to explain that for long years, we were inseparable friends.

The day after his accident, he succumbed to his injuries in a quiet hospital and slipped away.  Amazing to consider, no?  Only 36 hours before that, he had been as healthy and strong as anyone aged at 30 years.  How quickly one's situation changes.  Children are born, people join in marriage, fortunes are made, souls enter eternity. 

And in the midst of all of these things, God is at work.  As we dismantle the tragedies in our lives, we naturally attempt to reassemble them in ways that make sense to us, but how futile this endeavor is, how hollow these efforts sound, how weak and insubstantial are the end results, unless we find the Lord in the center of it all.  Even if the tragedy in question is a loved one who died saving a busload of orphans from certain death, the clearcut nobility of such a death can hardly surmount the sad reality that your loved one is gone, and that in perhaps 50 years, there will be scarcely anyone who remembers this incredible sacrifice. 

And then, of course, you have, quite suddenly, this sense that basically anything can happen.  I am, most decidedly, not referring to your "I Believe I Can Fly" high school guidance counselor telling you to reach for the stars and be yourself - no; I mean that all of those things which you assumed could only touch your life if you saw them in a newspaper quickly begin to seem more real - house fires, muggers, accidents, terminal illnesses, and so forth.

Again, though, if we can at all, we must meet with tragedies knowing that God is at work, and that His work, furthermore, is always purposeful, is always in keeping with His character, and does extend to all things (cf. Rom. 9:21-24, Ps. 135:6, Ps. 33:8-11, Dan. 4:35, and many others).  The sovereign purpose is glory - salvation of undeserving sinners with staggering love, grace, patience, and righteousness, and conquest of evil by means of infinite power, wisdom, and righteousness.

We have discussed this before, so I merely touch on it here.  The point is, God's sovereign work gives us not merely a reason, but the reason, that things happen:  because He is somehow glorified by it.  Some will reread that statement with horror, but yes, God has designed even tragedies for His own glorious ends.  Think of the cruelties that Joseph's brothers visited upon him, and then think how God used those circumstances.  Said Joseph to them much later, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." (Gen. 50:20)

Other examples abound in Scripture, and once you begin to identify them, you cannot help but see them everywhere in its pages.  Paul and Silas are imprisoned wrongfully and beaten brutally, but (literally) at the end of the day, the jailer is saved by the grace of Christ (Acts 16).  The Jerusalem saints were persecuted and scattered, but this dispersion caused the gospel to go forth into new places (Acts 8:1-4).  Even the death of Jesus Christ, the most appalling treachery and crime in all of creation's history, was predestined by God to produce the only way of salvation for a lost and wayward race of sinners.  Incredible.  Go and read Acts 4:27-28 this minute if there resides any doubt in your mind that God Himself was the architect of Christ's death.  Go and read Isaiah 53:10.  Does this not add yet another layer of glory to Christ's death, to consider that the Godhead conspired to bring it about in order to secure the salvation of Christ's church? 

Walking through life with an understanding of God's sovereign purpose of glory helps us to declare, "I cannot say why this tragedy has befallen us, but I know beyond doubt that God is in control, and that this tragedy is an essential part of His plan, and that by this, God is sure to be glorified."  Because we trust in His wisdom and goodness (having tasted them again and again), this sort of understanding is a boon to the distressed believer; it offers real joy in the midst of admitted sorrow. 

And if the tragedy is appallingly black and difficult, let the arduous burden of sadness convince our hearts still more of the overwhelming greatness and surpassing importance of God's glory:  this may be harder than anything you had ever reckoned you would (or could) face, but this means that God's glory is more incredible, and more essential, than you had ever imagined.  There is great purpose at work.  If God has promised us that we will, upon our deaths, experience an eternity free of hardship in His very presence, then He is surely not trifling with us in this life by allowing such tragedy.

We can bring this full circle, then.  I do not know the many reasons why God designed that my friend should die at age 30, but I know that He will be rightly glorified in all of this.  I can say this with all my heart.  And I think that one reason among many, perhaps, is so that His gospel might be proclaimed.  Below is part of an e-mail that my friend Nick sent me years ago; it is undoubtedly the best thing he ever told me in all of our years of acquaintance:

As you know we've both grown up in Christian homes. Myself, I thought I had become a believer WAY back in the day when I was but five or six years old. Did the whole "accept Jesus into my heart" deal. And sure, I spent a good amount of my time serving the church, doing missions, and the like. And I have no doubt that God had me doing those things for His glory, but all those times I was so brokenhearted and downtrodden by the things going on in my life, I never realized God was simply trying to get my attention and let me know that I wasn't saved. How do I know that to be true? How do I know that it wasn't just me being a backslider, or just not being a good enough follower of God? Simple. I never understood sin to be what it was. I was never shown the Law as a mirror to help me SEE my sin. And past that, I thought I was saved. I was proud, selfish...I did good things in the name of God, but I was like the people who will come to God during Judgement Day and be turned away even though they did all those great things in His Name.  

I never read my Bible. I never hungered for it, I never wanted to be at church and looked for ways to leave early. So that's my setup. My preface for my conversion.

Years and years and years have gone by. Twenty three to be exact. Many of which I was fully capable of making a wise decision regarding God. In the last couple years since moving to Colorado life has been pretty miserable. But, something was still missing. Remember now, I THOUGHT I had God in my life, but He wasn't dwelling within me. So somehow by a miracle I started listening to a radio talk show called The Way of the Master Radio. I had been given some from a friend of mine, but it was a year or two before I even tried listening. Well, Way of the Master is based on some really neat ideas. Ideas of the Bible, go figure. Here's their deal: Law to the proud, grace to the humble. They do a lot of phone fishing (witnessing to people on the streets) and ask some questions such as these: Do you think you're a good person? What do you think happens to you when you die? Have you ever lied? Stolen something? Used God's name in vain? So basically these people brought it to my attention that I am a filthy rotten sinner and there is absolutely NOTHING I could do on my own to save myself from eternal damnation. That scared the living daylights out of me. I was never certain in my salvation, always had doubts. So I heard these messages and started thinking. I was consumed by the fact that I was a sinner. And I knew Jesus died for me, but I couldn't get past it all. Was I saved? Was I lost still? Way of the Master asks some simple questions to help you see if you are in the faith. Nothing special. "Is Jesus precious to you? Do you read your Bible without fail each and every day and enjoy it? Do you share your faith? Are you growing in holiness?" I looked back on my life. I could not answer yes to any of those questions. In fact I was worse off than before.

So one evening after I got home from work I fell on my face and wept. I repented for my sins and I put my full trust in Jesus. I understood that He really DID die on that horrible cross to save me from my wretched self. I realized that if I would have died the day before I would have spent my eternity in Hell and I was terrified of that thought. But God is so ultimately kind that I couldn't help but stay on my knees and cry for a good long time. Every time I think about it I can't help but weep with joy due to His kindness. I am radically new. I've been regenerated!!!! I absolutely love reading my Bible and read it every day. I love worship and understand what it's really about. I've stopped watching a lot of movies and shows that I used to like. I stopped listening to a lot of music. I'm thankful, I watch my words, my thinking is radically different. I'm learning tons of new stuff each day and I know God has a lot of work yet to be done in my life. Ha ha, if I were to name all the things He's working on currently with me it'd be a pretty big list. I hate sin because God hates it. My conscience is way more active these days. I know it was dead previously. I had no real remorse. I can't even attend church anymore without being in tears through the worship. Even now as I listen to some stuff I'm ready to cry.

He is so kind, isn't He? So loving, so amazing. So big and powerful and sovereign and righteous and just. So perfect, so merciful. "Indescribable, uncontainable. You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God." So cool. So cool...!

So yeah, that's my story.

Andromeda

The very first reference to the stars comes just sixteen verses into Scripture, on the fourth day of the world's history.  On several occasions in that first book (15:5, 22:17, 26:4), God uses the stars as an illustration for a prodigious number.  Take Genesis 15:5, for instance:  "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them...So shall your descendants be." 

Had Abraham counted all the stars in the sky he could see over a number of months, his tally would have culminated in the thousands.¹  Advance ahead to our era, and Joe Anybody can point his binoculars into the night sky and count far, far more - perhaps 200,000 if he travelled to both hemispheres (Joe can get to South Africa with far less inconvenience and time than Abraham could). 

Having established that, it is all the more remarkable to note that scientists now place the estimate for population of stars in the Milky Way at 100 - 400 billion.  To put that figure into some semblance of perspective, this means that for every star you can see with your binoculars, there are at least half a million behind it in the Milky Way that remain invisible. 

Right now in the late summer sky, somewhere in between Cassiopeia and the Square of Pegasus, there resides a small and somewhat vague area of white light, visible to the naked eye, if one knows where to look.  This is the Andromeda Galaxy.  Consider this a moment.  Every star you can see, unless you have some serious hardware, is a card-carrying member of the Milky Way clan.  Even these are indescribably distant from our tilted heads, but then, beyond the silver veil of all these constellations and stars, some 2,500,000 light years (or 14,700,000,000,000,000,000 miles, if you prefer) from our own modest galaxy, resides the Andromeda Galaxy.  You are looking at another galaxy.

Now, it was not settled that Andromeda was even a galaxy until about 93 years ago - before this, the general thought was that ours was the solitary galaxy in the universe.  By 2013, the calculated estimate sits at 170 billion galaxies stretched across the 13.8 billion light years of the universe that we can discern.

This is all very interesting, certainly, but what possible spiritual bearing does this have?  Here are a few thoughts:

1.  God's sovereignty is exalted.  David says, "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all." (Ps. 103:19) Suddenly, the word "all" takes on such a weight, such a crushing mass, that we are helpless to conceive of it.  God's sovereignty is, of course, just the sort of sparrow-preserving, hair-numbering control that Christ himself described in Matthew 10:29-30, and the psalmist would have us know that this sovereignty extends to all things - even a molecule of gas floating through the Triangulum Galaxy.  Such is the extent and the specificity of God's incontrovertible will.

Some would ask, "Why would He bother with this degree of sovereignty?  Why should God be concerned about the shape of a dust cloud in some galaxy which science can barely even recognize across the cold marches of space?"  To this, we simply respond, why would He not?  God is not overburdening Himself in the maintainence of billions of galaxies and all they contain, is He?  Was His intellect taxed to the breaking point as He spun His all-encompassing plan?  Does He now wish He had just a few more hands (like parents everywhere do) so He could get more done with greater care?  Of course not!  His sovereign plans were planned and are executed with perfection; they subjugate every atom in the universe, and for God, this is easy.

2.  God's omnipotence is exalted.  These familiar words open God's Word:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Consider such understated words in the light of our incomprehensibly vast cosmos!  We further discover in Genesis 1 that God created all things from nothing, that He used mere words, only powerful pronouncement, to create all things, and that He fashioned the heavens in a single day:  perfect power personified. 

Our Lord applies that infinite might in His sovereign rule over all things.  The fact that His power is infinite means that He can distribute that power across every single atom in the universe, and He is still applying infinite power to every atom.  Our powers of explanation simply come unhinged at such lofty notions.


Science, then, continues to grow our understanding of the universe, and, as a result, continues to grow our wonder toward the God of all things, the divine Architect of these wonders, which have been laid up quietly in His keeping through the millennia, until we were able to see them.  Science, which so often seeks to turn God to flinders, is a gift from God to help to describe His own glory - incredible.

I want the Creator and Keeper of all things for my God.  The One whose very words causes the entire cosmos to endure (Heb. 1:3), the One who does as He pleases with that overwhelming sovereignty (Ps. 135:6, Rom. 8:28), the One who declares as Creator that He alone is God, and that we ought to turn to Him alone (Is. 45:22) - this is the God we are privileged to serve, brothers and sisters. 


Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb,

"I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself
And spreading out the earth all alone,
Causing the omens of boasters to fail,
Making fools out of diviners,
Causing wise men to draw back
And turning their knowledge into foolishness,
Confirming the word of His servant
And performing the purpose of His messengers.
It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’
And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’
And I will raise up her ruins again."

     - Isaiah 44:24-26

¹ The text of this website provides good insight on this and other matters.

For Those Who Grapple with a Difficult Doctrine

Candor is an arm-twister.  Hard as I try, I am obliged to confess that the truth of God's complete sovereignty over completely everything is difficult to wrap my theological arms around.  God's sovereignty gives us confidence, and it answers many questions, to be sure, but it also raises some hard questions, and sometimes these questions amalgamate to cause us to question the very reality of God's sovereignty - how can God be sovereign with evil in the world, and so forth?

Fortunately, the concept of utter sovereignty is not one that is unveiled dramatically in Romans 9.  Paul did not invent it, and neither did John Calvin.  Certainly, that go-to passage in the ninth chapter of Romans speaks very clearly about God's sovereignty, but there are incredible and innumerable pictures of His sovereign hand in action all throughout Scripture.  I would like to touch on one of these - a very well-known story indeed - in order to bolster us in our confidence in this indispensable fact of God.

A word to Moses from his God:  "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.  So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles..." (Ex. 3:19-20a) We know the setup here - God's people are enslaved in Egypt, and He commissions Moses to bring them out.  At first, this appears as merely a predictive statement - God need not be sovereign in this declaration, but merely omniscient.  However, after Moses is first rebuffed by Pharaoh, God reassures him in this way:  "But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt." (Ex. 7:3)

Some will say, and indeed have said many times, that God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart is only because Pharaoh first hardened his own heart - a judgment laid down by a loving God whose hand is forced.  We note, though, that God provides His own reason for the hardening - the same in both of the aforementioned verses, actually - it is for the cause of glory, so that God may do more wondrous works in Egypt.  Elsewhere He addresses Pharaoh himself and categorically states the same (Ex. 9:16, Rom. 9:15).  Glory, not judgment, lies behind this divine act, and it was done not in response to Pharaoh's misdeeds, but in accordance with God's own purposes (His intentions were voiced, incidentally, before Moses ever departed for Egypt, back in Ex. 4:21).  God's plans include and require Pharaoh's sins.  God's power is uniquely displayed!

Then comes the miraculous and repeated devastation of Egypt (Ex. 7-10).  God's targets:  vital crops, coveted livestock, and - most importantly - the false, impotent deities that the Egyptians set up as patrons over these economic essentials.  The façade of legitimacy is forcefully torn from the religious system of Egypt, and her economy is utterly unraveled. 

The final plague, of course, comes at the hand of God Himself, who goes throughout Egypt and kills all of the firstborn personally, a tragedy that would burst into every Egyptian household and family.  This proves to be the final straw, and the Israelites take their leave at long last, laden with the treasures of Egypt, which they obtained merely by asking (Ex. 12).  See how God continues to take things away from the rebellious nation, all in the process of exalting His own name!  God's plans include and require the blessing and deliverance of His chosen people.  God's grace and love are powerfully manifested!

When the children of Israel begin to move out of the land, they are led by God very carefully.  He keeps them from some obvious routes that would certainly lead them into warfare, and in so doing, leads them pointedly toward the Red Sea (Ex. 13:17-18).  When they arrive, God gives very interesting instruction:  "Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea.  For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’  Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." (Ex. 14:2-4a)

Mark this well, friends.  God has been demonstrating absolute control here, and He now expresses the desire to deceive Pharaoh into still greater folly, one that will brutalize the Egyptian military on top of everything else, by drowning their elite chariot battalions in the Red Sea (which the children of Israel had just traversed on dry land).  God's plans include and require the deception of Pharaoh so he is driven to pursue the Israelites, to great ruin.  Behold His conquering power!

Mind you, this is the same God doing all of these things.  He delivers on one hand, and He slaughters on the other.  He plans the obedience of Moses, unto His glory, and also the disobedience of Pharaoh, also unto His glory.  Amazing!  Divine purpose, when joined with divine omnipotence and divine omniscience, leads to assured outcomes.  Let us make two statements, now that we have looked at God's work in Egypt.

1.  God does whatever He likes, for His own reasons, with absolutely everything.  The centuries of enslavement, the sinful and stubborn resistance of Pharaoh, the enticement for Pharaoh to pursue God's people - all of these were indispensable features of God's plan, purposed before time began.  If we wrap our minds around this - that the evil as well as the good was a part of God's plan (not that He sinned or tempted, but it was in His plan nonetheless) - then amazing comfort begins to build in our hearts.  Could God have delivered the Israelites sooner?  Of course.  Could He have helped Pharaoh's heart to be softened?  Certainly.  He did things the way He did them, though, because these constituted the conditions of maximum glory.  He says, in effect, to Moses, "My glory is more important than your objections to My plan."  To the Israelites:  "My glory is more important than your immediate release."  And, yes, to Pharaoh, "My glory is more important than your repentant heart."  The Lord has His reasons, which far supersede our own, and He acts on those reasons.  Bless the Lord for His wonderful reasons!  When we grasp the value of His reasons, immeasurable comfort is ours, for we see that He commands all things according to His perfect designs.

2.  God is loving and fair.  Absolute sovereignty does not negate what we know about God. This same God pronounces Himself as good, just, loving, merciful, and patient, in response to Moses" plea to be shown His glory not so long after the Red Sea excursion (Ex. 34:6-7).  The fact of complete sovereignty does not change our God; amen?  If you struggle with how He could be in control of all things, and yet completely fair as He condemns or saves, you are certain to have plenty of company.  In fact, Paul has words just for you in Romans 9:20-24.  In a nutshell, we are in no position to question the God whom we cannot fully understand; we must accept what His Word reveals about His sovereignty (just as we do with regard to the Trinity, the divine and human authorship of Scripture, and many other such truths). 


This is one case in which we can certainly have our cake and eat it as well.  We have the double reassurance that God is always going to act with holy integrity, and is always working events according to His purposes alone.  We have the blessing of His sinless, just, certain, and glorious work in all things!

This Is the Day...Wait; What?

"This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  - Ps. 118:24

Of course, fully 95% of you now have that haunting Rick Shelton chorus in your heads, and for that, I do apologize.  Try to push that aside and hope for better things.  No; the reason I bring up this verse is that we all like it, and I hope to convince you to like it still more.  First, though, we have to deconstruct a myth. 

This sort of verse is charmingly self-contained, and we quote it so often, and hang it from so many keychains, that it becomes sort of an exegetical monolith:  it seemingly stands apart from any sort of context, and we can move it about to fit within a situation.  Having an unusually good day?  Perhaps your best friend forever going through a hard time?  Go ahead and say it.  Why would you not say it?  It is certainly true enough - every day is crafted by the Lord and brought to perfect fruition, is it not?  Of course you can say it, just so long as you understand that this sort of free and easy pronouncement is not quite what the psalmist intended.

There is always a context for Scripture, and it is always profitable to explore context; it helps to fend off erroneous suppositions, and it lends us greater confidence in the conclusions of our studies.  It gives greater substance, weight, and reason.  In our present case, three verses in Psalm 118 will give us plenty to think about:  "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.  This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.  This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." 

We see, then, that the day in question is not at all a random day of felicity, but instead a notable day in which someone was unexpectedly exalted by God Himself.  The broader context of the psalm shows this person to be some national hero, evidently some leader of Israel, who was beset by enemies on all sides (v. 10) - therefore Israel herself was surrounded by danger.  David himself would not be a bad guess - the circumstances fit - although he is not named as the author.  Whatever the case, this impending disaster was brought about as an act of discipline by the Lord (v. 18); however, that same Lord delivered the nation and established the psalmist in one deft move - an abrupt torrent of grace!

The Lord Jesus lays another context upon this original one by naming Himself as the corner stone in question (Matt. 21:42-44), thus injecting this passage with messianic significance.  Read those three verses from Psalm 118 once more in this glorious light.  The specific "day" in Psalm 118:24 becomes, in this case, the day that Christ, rejected by His own people, became the corner stone - the day He was resurrected into that life which all believers share with Him (cf. Acts 4:10-12).

This is the day, brothers and sisters - rejoice and be glad!  This indeed is why we gather as believers particularly on Sundays - the joyful remembrance of that day of unspeakable triumph!  In fact, we see this example throughout the New Testament, in the writings of Luke, Paul, and John - the saints gathered on Sunday, the Lord's day, to celebrate their Savior.  Let these pleasing recollections soak into your mind and heart when next you go to church.

One further note, though.  The psalmist endured the just discipline of the Lord and was graciously delivered from the jaws of death by God; how brightly does grace shine when the recipient knows that he might have rightly received death!  Contrast this, though, with Jesus Christ, who by no means deserved divine discipline, yet suffered at the hands of evil men, and indeed at the hand of His own Father, nonetheless!  Even more than this, though the psalmist did not taste death in that moment of trial, Christ felt the full weight, not only of a brutal and exhausting physical demise, but of the infinite wrath of the Father, for odious sins carried out by lesser hands and sinful hearts.  Amazing.

"This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  There is much in the context here, hidden in plain sight, specific rather than general, to command our attention and our worship, is there not?  When these words come off of our lips, may they be steeped in genuine understanding and in heartfelt joy!

Knocking the Narratives

I suppose that I, in the course of reading the Bible, could stick solely with the historical accounts, in a bid to keep things interesting and lively.  Of course I could.  In fact, I freely admit that I have fallen prey to this sort of (insert adjective of choice here, reader - wrong, silly, incomplete, shallow, faulty, even faithless?) thinking in the past.  We need to make fuller use of God's Word - pull more fruit down off of the divinely-planted tree and feast, as it were. 

I am confident you will not argue this point with me, my friends, since all Scripture is inspired by our omnisapient Lord and is useful for His saints, as Paul told Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16).  No; the problem here is that we sometimes take the other stance, is it not?  Sometimes we become averse to the narratives because we sense that they will somehow belittle our otherwise impressive spiritual profundity in the eyes of others.  "My studies are currently taking me through Hebrews; what about you?"  "Well, um...actually, I was just reading about Cain and Abel this morning...in my Fun Adventures with Jesus Bible.  Do you want to watch the video with me?  Mark Hamill and Richard Thomas do all the voices." 

Of course this is silly as well, and I doubt that you will argue this either, but we can still prove it from Scripture.  Psalm 111:2 & 4a proclaims, "Great are the works of the Lord; they are studied by all who delight in them...He has made His wonders to be remembered."  In other words, we cannot knock the narratives.  God does unforgettable things so that we will take notice, take interest, and take delight.  He desires for us to absorb ourselves with the narratives because they reveal Him.

Can we indeed discern any act on His part that has not been less than incredible?  The very breath I just drew demonstrated His sovereignty over the created order, His faithfulness to His own counsel, His grace to a sinner, and His blessing to one of His elect.  My life should be a running prayer of thanksgiving and praise!  Every second reveals another breathtaking vista of divine glory. 

We find, incredibly, that there is no such thing as doxological neutrality with God's works.  We can rejoice over all of them.  Not only do they reveal His wonderful character, but they underscore with an inimitable uniformity that He does everything perfectly.  Not one deed has ever fallen short, has ever flown astray - each is comprehensively guarded by total deity.  So we may rejoice at His works for their glorious perfection as well.

God sovereignly purposes His revealed works for the continued joy of His people.  And if God is indeed sovereign, then we know that He had each and every one of His children in mind when He made His momentous plans.  So then I, Josh Linn, as a child of God, am fully intended to, fully equipped for, and fully capable of meeting with my God in the accounts of His wonders which He preserves in Scriptures.  I can continually meet with Him, and I can continually honor Him for the record He has given us!  Feast, then, Christian, upon the narratives which divine hands have kept for us!  Feast and be satisfied.

Divine Pity's Startling Character

Of all the interactions inherent in human nature, few are as generally unwelcome as pity.  Quite often, the one receiving the pity perceives (or at least presumes) some sort of falseness in the one giving the pity:  it is a forced compassion, and therefore unwelcome.  At other times, the pity is all too genuine, but is obstructed from its intent when it collides full-force with human pride:  "I am hardly one who requires pity, least of all from the likes of you.  I will get this matter sorted out on my own, or do you regard your own assistance as so indispensible?" 

Such is the lot of human pity, for better or worse, but what of God's pity?  Both the Old and New Testament provide pictures of divine pity for our consideration.  If we examine the typical objections to pity mentioned above, we see that the first objection is wholly without merit:  an omnipresent, omnipotent God is above mistake, and an unchangingly holy God never dissembles.  If He dispenses compassion, it is markedly deserved.

The second objection, however, is unabashedly true - it surely raises the hackles of human pride (although it is folly to voice this as an objection of any sort; amen?).  Interestingly, if I seek to dole out compassion where I feel it due, but am held apart by pride in the one whom I seek to pity, I may well endeavor to assuage the pride which now crouches in my path:  "Of course I know you do not need my help; I merely thought to encourage you.  It would, as you see, be doing me a favor, were you to allow me this opportunity to deal you some small kindness."  God, however, never works to leave pride undisturbed; He never seeks to mask His intents against it, and He does nothing to appease human dignity. 

It is as if the human says, "Do you suppose I need your help in this matter?", and so forth, and God replies, "Yes, you absolutely need My help in this matter, as in all matters.  You need it just as certainly as you do not deserve it."  You see that God will not suffer His compassion to work alongside unchecked human pride.  This much is clear from Jeremiah 13:14-15:  "'I will dash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,' declares the Lord. 'I will not show pity nor be sorry nor have compassion so as not to destroy them.'  Listen and give heed, do not be haughty, for the Lord has spoken."  Cling to your pride, then, and God will surely cling to His pity as well.  Cling to your pride and be prepared to trade it for devastation (cf. Judges 2:18).

Someone now says, "This is not the manner in which pity works.  One cannot place conditions upon pity!"  Of course we may.  We do so all the time.  I can offer any measure of pity, but if it is scorned, I withdraw it.  What good does any other course do?  And how much more will this be the case with a God who immovably and zealously abhors human pride in its many serpentine forms? 

Divine compassion is in divine keeping, to a degree that escapes a lot of humans.  Many people cannot help it; pity gushes forth from them at every apparent injustice.  They are like open barrels on the deck of a pitching vessel - they are easily moved about, and every movement will cause them to spill.  God, however, is quite judicious with his pity, and is never governed by it.  He says, "I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (Rom. 9:15b)

Hold a moment, Josh.  Do you mean to say that He can simply switch His pity off and on at any moment?  Yes, indeed.  It can be no other way, if He is Master of Himself.  As all of us are, apart from God, subject to all the wondrous and terrifying force of His wrath, the marvel is not that He is able to stifle pity, for we deserve none.  The truly wonderful fact is that God has so perfect and infinite a measure of steadfast, selfless love that, in spite of our abominable misuse of God's gifts, He is able to summon pity as He sovereignly desires, a compassion so genuine, indeed so heartfelt, that it assures divine blessing to those who will but humble themselves before Him.  His sovereign pity does not, then, call His love into question, but rather proves it in glorious abundance!

Powerful Answers to Prayer in Judah - A Monumental Request

See 2 Kings 17-19, 2 Chronicles 32, & Isaiah 36-37.


The northern kingdom has fallen.  The Assyria armies have taken Samaria. 

Something like these words no doubt reached the ears of King Hezekiah of Judah, and their reception would excite a definite measure of concern for his tiny kingdom.  Hoshea, king of Israel, had defied Assyria years before, and quickly found himself imprisoned and his kingdom besieged.  Three gaunt and bleak years passed before Israel succumbed and was carried into distant exile - such was the strong and settled resolve of the Assyrian host.

Hezekiah, a king rare and conspicuous in his humble servitude of the one true God, a man blessed with manifold successes by the Lord, had also defied Assyrian rule and refused to pay tribute.  For three tenuous years, Israel had absorbed Assyria's martial energies - for three fleeting years, Hezekiah's defiance was suffered by the Assyrians as Israel's resistance wore away.  Now this buffer was dashed to pieces and swept away.  What would come now?  We gather from Isaiah 28 that, against the wishes of the Lord, the rulers of Judah treated with Egypt in a bid for greater military strength, but the next eight years were met with an ominous silence from Assyria.

We have received reports, my lord, that Sennacherib has fielded a vast army and they are moving along southward along the coast.¹  It is impossible to discern their objective at this point.
 
The Assyrian host has shifted its advance eastward.  Even now they are crossing into Judah.

It is as we feared.  Our fortified cities are being overrun.

Lachish has been sacked.

Mareshah cannot hold.

Adullum is under attack.

We have lost Hebron.

There are no free strongholds left in Judah, except Jerusalem.

The southwestern region of Judah was by no means the soft underbelly of the country, militarily speaking.  It had been strengthened extensively by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:5-12) and others, but it may as well have been shored up with straw as King Sennacherib gobbled up city after city.  If there was an alliance with Egypt during this time, Egypt did not stir.  Hezekiah stood alone in a shrinking territory.  He could not fight Sennacherib on equal terms, and Judah's weakness was showing day by day - she was dying.  The noose was tightening.  The Assyrians could push to Jerusalem in mere days, and there was nowhere to retreat.  The councillors stood silent; the generals were grim.  What can we do?  What remains to be done?  Send to Sennacherib; tell him we have erred in defying him.  Offer him anything, anything, and beg that he might desist in his bloody campaign. 

Sennacherib demanded 30 talents of gold, and 300 of silver.  Alas that Hezekiah's forebears had trodden this same dolorous path several times before (2 Kings 12:18, 16:8), and Judah's treasuries lay emaciated.  This total could not be extracted from them.  Hezekiah conceded to empty the house of his Lord of its silver articles, but even then, he wanted for gold.  There is gold on the doors and doorposts of the temple.  Let it be stripped off.  How his heart must have grieved to make this pronouncement, as he himself had clad the temple in such splendor!  The gold that he had dedicated to his holy, precious God, he now freely took back in order to fearfully deliver it to a pagan king who lived in utter defiance of God.

Twice Hezekiah had conceived plans to save his land apart from faith in the intervening hand of the Lord, and the first, his alliance with Egypt, had come to nothing.  His hope in the second would also prove disastrous as an envoy of Sennacherib came to Jerusalem, demanding Hezekiah's surrender, in spite of the painful tribute that had been proffered.  There is nothing to save you.  Other nations have beseeched their gods, and their gods have all utterly failed them.  So it will be with Judah. 

No earthly recourse lay at hand - no alliance, no armies, no wealth, no negotiations could intervene.  Hezekiah's hands were finally emptied.  Such times are often used by the Lord, are they not?  In the face of our faithless acts, He will at times systematically remove all options until we are obliged in helplessness to remember Him and to look to Him.  For Hezekiah, the temple of the Lord (which now stood stripped bare - not by Judah's enemies, but sadly by his own decree) became his place of refuge, and he prayed earnestly and humbly to his Lord.  O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.  Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.  Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God. (2 Kings 19:15-19)

This is a very comely prayer indeed, and we must note several features in passing.  First, it does not reproach the Lord with any note of sourness, as in "Why have You not labored with me in the plans I have made?"  Where it could be accusatory, it is instead worshipful:  it acknowledges wholeheartedly God's unique and independent sovereignty over all things.  Neither is it presumptuous; its requests are not demands.  Finally, it transcends the immediate circumstances and looks ultimately not at the plight of God's people, but at the glory of God's name.  Hezekiah words righteously importune, "Vindicate Your holy name, O Lord," and not "Vindicate Your obviously deserving people, O Lord."

This is not a formula by which we unlock the power of God to work on our behalf, of course.  Our omniscient God cannot be coerced by any means.  Rather, this is a mindset whereby we submit ourselves to the perfect will of the living God.  If His mighty hand moves on our behalf, we are glad; if, for reasons all His own, it does not stir, we are not offended.  We wait confidently on His good pleasure. 

The Lord did not hesitate to send His answer through Isaiah:  God had purposed from before time to give Assyria its strength for toppling cities and kings; however, their rebellion against Him had made them worthy of defeat, and the time had come.  The Lord declared that He would lead Sennacherib back to his own land, and furthermore, that he would neither set foot in Jerusalem, nor lay siege to it, nor fire arrows into it, nor assault it.

To put it more bluntly, after Hezekiah had exhausted his own paltry options, to absolutely no avail, he humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord responded that He would surely deal with Assyria, and in such a way that Judah would not by any stretch be able to claim any part in that victory.  Assyria would be turned aside even before it could move upon Jerusalem.  Assyria's strength and Judah's helplessness would both contribute to God's amazing glory in this matter.

Hezekiah's prayer to God prompted Him to unveil yet another brilliant gem of glory as well.  God raised up the Assyrians and allowed them to perpetrate their massive conquests.  In so doing, he used them to show the falseness of local idols throughout the region as city after city was overthrown, despite the prayers offered to gods of man's handiwork.  How incredible, then, that God should bring these overwhelming conquerors, these idol-killers, against Himself, and use their efforts to demonstrate beyond doubt that He is very real, and insurmountably powerful, and always sovereign!  Hezekiah's prayer brought an incredibly glorious answer from the Lord of glory Himself!

Most are familiar with the particular form that this glorious response took - in the span of a single night, the Lord Himself, the pre-incarnate Christ, came and simply killed 185,000 from Sennacherib's army - specifically all the valiant men and all the leaders.  This constitutes more soldiers than the entire Allied force that invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944.  It is more soldiers than those who fought at Gettysburg - on both sides.  Our search, and indeed, Sennacherib's search, for an explanation apart from divine intervention, is definitively confounded.  This was an act of God - pure, divine, and simple.  Judah was saved by the Almighty on that day, and Sennacherib quickly withdrew, never to return.

How wondrous it is that such a response should come after a prayer given by an imperfect man who had acted faithlessly not so long before!  I need hardly mention the incredible trove of grace, patience, power, and authority that this event reveals within our God, but I would urge you to consider this wonder, to rejoice at it, and to marvel at how strongly our God responds to prayers from people not unlike ourselves.  We will, I think, find both glad adoration and steadfast prayer close at hand as we do so.



¹ So says the Beitzel's New Moody Atlas of the Bible in its various maps of this campaign.

The Independent Gospel

"What is this chlorophyll in my milkshake, Mom?"

This is exactly (or approximately, at least) what a child would say if he or she were handed a chocolate milkshake into which a floret of broccoli had been blended.  It would not go unnoticed and it would not be appreciated.  This, however, is how many churches and individuals treat the gospel.  To such as these, the gospel may not be pleasant, but it is good for a person - much like a plate of lima beans.  It needs some sugar to sweeten its allure.  And so these peddlers of false hope couch the precious gospel of Christ amidst enticements calculated to bedazzle even the most worldly of sinners.

To pronounce this tragedy as devastating is understating the case.  The gospel is looked upon almost as a necessary evil, or else it is dispensed with altogether.  Such treatment for the dearest treasure to ever grace our sin-worn world!  How do we treat this gospel, the only avenue to eternal life we will ever see?  It is enough to make a grown man weep, to consider how pastors or music groups or fellow believers tiptoe around the gospel and mention it so guardedly that it becomes almost the Christian version of an inside joke - without the humor. 

May these words of Paul, long esteemed by the church he helped to found, serve either to encourage or to convict us in this matter:  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:16) These words resonate with a tireless and burning spiritual potency, and they should clamorously issue from our own hearts with an unrivalled earnestness and faithfulness such that we daily thrust our very lives into the hands of our sovereign Lord, to use always and only as He sees fit!  No matter how beleaguered we may grow, these words hold faithful and true in all things.  If nothing else, be encouraged in reading this.

A few brief considerations on this verse:

1.  The gospel is God's power unto salvation, not ours.  This is not a scepter we can pry from His omnipotent fingers.  The Lord calls us to give His gospel to an unbelieving world, and as we do so, we can and should command all the tact, wisdom, gentleness, and love which we can muster, but this never extends to altering the gospel itself to force a result within someone.  We proclaim it in fullness and God in turn unleashes the power of salvation according to His own inscrutable will.  We must know both our place and His in this work.

2.  It is the power of God unto salvation only for those who believe.  Here is how God has determined where the power of salvation will go.  Belief (also translated as "faith" in the Greek) itself is a heavenly gift, imparted by God alone so that any boasting on our parts is an utter lie (Eph. 2:8-9 - what believer does not know these verses?).  Without this gift of belief, the gospel will not come in power, and would not be received, even if it were. 

There are no handholds, loopholes, or back doors that allow for human interference here.  God grants belief.  He opens the heart of the sinner to feel the offense of sin before God, and then convinces this sinner of the reality of Christ's saving work until the sinner can do nothing but cry out for salvation.  God then sends the power of His salvation.  These acts cannot be duplicated by mere humans - can we enliven a dead heart to turn inexplicably toward the God it has always despised (Rom. 3:10-12)?  Can we explain things to a heart that only the Spirit of God can disclose (1 Cor. 2:10-14)?  So it is less than worthless - it is downright dangerous - to expect people to be saved by a weak or false gospel, and it is fully blasphemous to suppose that God might honor belief in such an abomination. 

3.  There need be no shame in the gospel.  It is a simple thing to regard the rich and full gospel as something that can only bring confusion and rejection to an unbeliever, and ridicule upon the believer.  This is how we allow ourselves to be ashamed of the gospel.  Paul Himself wrote that "the word of the cross is foolishenss to those who are perishing" (1 Cor. 1:18), but this fact did not compel him toward shame, exactly because this gospel which the world regards as foolish is God's unfailing power unto salvation!  It does its work precisely as God intends it to - for those whom He enlivens, it turns from complete foolishness to precious, live-giving, unfailing hope!  What shame could there be in so perfect a work from so perfect a God?  Far from prompting a debilitating, dishonoring shame, the reality of God's gospel should spur us toward greater service of Him in seeking the spread of His kingdom of glory!


There is no place for a weak, vague gospel in which God's avowed power is replaced for a wholly inadequate, ineffectual human substitute.  This is, to be honest, the best possible news for His children, as we do not have to bear the burden of being the unbeliever's only hope.  We passionately proclaim the message in love and faithfulness, and our God works through that as He desires.  We have our simple, happy, loving work, and God has His glorious, effectual, sovereign work. 

Grace in the Midst of Abandonment

(continued from The Grim Specter of Abandonment)

Taken as a whole, Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4 (which we examined in the last posting) suggest four attitudes which are right and becoming to a believer involved in the Lord's ministry (as all believers, by the way, should be).

1. Companions may come and go. An earlier statement by Paul had promised Timothy that persecution was a certainty for believers in the pursuit of godliness (1 Tim. 3:12). The most grievous barbs, however, often do not come at the hands of unbelievers, but of those within our very ranks. A foot soldier that rushes to meet the enemy is not surprised by a score of arrows thumping into his shield; it is the one that falls upon his back that perplexes and grieves him the most.

Paul's courageous scruples commended him to his God, but not always to his fellows. His boldness exposed sin, condemned false belief, and challenged true belief to greater faithfulness and godly pursuits. His gospel was keen and his standard was godly, as ours must be. If we are encouraging our fellow believers to pursue Christ with divinely-gifted strength, however lovingly, we are almost certain to lose a friend or two at some point (or at many points). Charisma and compassion cannot always salve the sting of conviction, even if that conviction was never intended, and though we may passionately communicate our best intentions, sometimes simply the exemplary (though imperfect) quality of our Christian lives will eventually compel certain others to distance themselves.

2. Compassion must continue toward our wayward brothers and sisters. Paul's considered response to the desertion perpetrated upon him by the Roman saints was to pray for their forgiveness from the Lord (v. 16).  We may conclude, then, that this act by the Christians in that city was indeed sinful and not merely poor or imperfect judgment, as only sin would call for forgiveness. Paul, however, was not entrenched in thoughts of revenge or personal undeservedness, but sought for the growth and benefit of those who had slighted him with their distance and quiet.

It is devilishly easy to be personally affected by the sins of others, especially when that sin crowds upon us, but frankly, any personal offense which we could muster is far outweighed by the affront to God which sin, by definition, constitutes. When we are humbly serving our great Lord, divine humility quiets our clamoring and injured pride, and when we feel the sting of sin against us, the need for comeuppance is far eclipsed by the urge to see this person right with the Master to whom we are enslaved. The slave does not trouble with any meager personal affronts when his or her loving Master has been offended.

3. One is enough if God is at work. Napoleon and Alexander could not conquer the smallest village without their armies, but such is not the case with almighty God. If God found Himself quite abandoned by the whole of mankind (which has never and will never happen), could He not breathe a word of authority such that the very rocks would proclaim His glory? Would the loftiest of peaks hesitate to move aside at the mere sound of His voice? Are the seas not sundered, and the flowing rivers not confounded, by His sovereign decree? He declares in His majesty, "Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine." (Job 41:11)

Paul's words are clear and decisive: "nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things." (Acts 17:25) Picture, if you will, this omnipotent, sovereign, self-existent God, at work through His people. Does He require a great host? Can human strength augment His might? No! He dispatches one prophet, solitary and unwilling, to a great pagan city called Ninevah, and an incomprehensible multitude is saved. If we find ourselves isolated in our kingdom work, we long for the blessing of fellowship, but we revel in the glorious blessing of God's continued faithfulness and assured purpose as we work!

4. The Lord's faithfulness is undiminished by the unfaithfulness of others. In this 2 Timothy 4 passage, Paul affirms God's faithfulness both in the short term (verse 17 - God stood with him, strengthening him for the complete delivery of the gospel to his opposers and keeping him from death) and in the long term (verse 18 - the Lord would continue to preserve Paul's soul unto a blessed and rich eternity, even against the evil designs of those around him, no doubt, in both the natural and the supernatural realm).

How pleasing it is to consider that when Christ said, "lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20b), He attached no provisos. He did not pronounce, "I am with you, as long as you keep your companions and make it worth My while," but simply, "I am with you always." This is a momentous statement, pregnant with divine omniscience and immutability. Though a thousand dear companions turn aside and make scorn, envy, or apathy their camp, yet we will not despair, so long as sin has not adorned our hearts, and so long as our God carefully accompanies us, even as He has promised! His plans are as healthy and as certain as they were before the worlds existed.


There is a certain glory when God's people come together and harmoniously minister for His name.  We see God, the great Designer, the great Orchestrator, the great Leader, at work within His workers, and it charms our hearts as believers to behold this blessing.  There is a different glory, however, when God's people must soldier on alone, or as a band that is smaller than it once was.  Here the sufficiency, faithfulness, and compassion of the Sovereign come to the forefront, and though our hearts are freighted with fresh sadness, we nevertheless appreciate our God all the more in spite of, and even because of, the heaviness in our own hearts, and we continue on in the glad certainty of His continued graces. 

How Glorious Is Glorious?

God lays waste to the great city of the Antichrist, bringing it and its people to utter and eternal ruin.  His holy servants rejoice at the everlasting punishment to visited upon those wretched adherents:  "Hallelujah!  Her smoke rises up forever and ever." (Rev. 19:3b)

Christ and the disciples see a man blind from birth.  Jesus explains that this man was made blind (by God - Ex. 4:11) "so that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:3b) This long-established plan could not have happened without sin in the world to blight our race. 

God Himself declared, "I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these." (Is. 45:6b-7)

These snapshots from scripture, and many others like them, give us to believe that God is perhaps closer to everything than we might have guessed.  We begin to see, put plainly, that God's plan from eternity past willfully included a sin-soaked world.  While we absolutely cannot, and never should, suggest that God is the author of evil, or the agent of its introduction into our midst, neither can we suppose that God was taken by surprise in Genesis 3, or that He had to change His plan after sin came in.  No; what man means for evil, God means for good (Gen. 50:20).  Not a single purpose of the Lord's goes unaccomplished (Is. 46:10), so we may say that sin surely did not turn the least of His plans aside.  If God is absolutely certain to accomplish all of His intended purposes, we must acknowledge that this means He leaves nothing, absolutely nothing, to chance, so His plans necessarily include sin.

This is tremendously comforting.  If God is sovereign over evil, but is Himself holy, then He has the upper hand in all things, and we may rest securely in His promises.  If, on the other hand, we are sovereign over evil, or perhaps Satan, then this inordinate hole in God's absolute control constitutes a terrifying, and probably condemning, idea.  Evil can best us, but more frightening yet, evil can best God Himself.  Praise Him that this is not so!

But if indeed God is sovereign over evil, as is easily demonstrated by scripture, why should there be evil at all?  We cannot content ourselves with the commonly-held thought that He desires the exercise of human free will, and so evil must be suffered to exist.  We have already made mention of Isaiah 46:10 - God accomplishes all of His purposes, so He must necessarily have created this world, and everything in it, for the fulfillment of His purposes.  There is no room, then, for the preeminence of man's will alongside God's:  only one can reign supreme, and scripture declares that it is God's that does so.  And even if this were not so, if God were reluctant to allow evil into the world, He would not have orchestrated things such that a single sin devastated all things as it did.  God would not have allowed sin to propagate by default into every descendent of Adam and Eve.  He would not have cursed the entire world.  He would not have allowed Job to endure such demonic hardships for no fault of his own.  He certainly would not have chosen to direct a demon to entice Ahab to go into a losing battle in 1 Kings 22, and so forth.  The effect of sin upon the world and upon humanity were decided solely by the Creator, and His decision casts much light on His intentions.

There must be another reason besides that of man's presumed free will.  Paul reminds us of a piece of Old Testament truth:  "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.'" (Rom. 9:17) Pharaoh, that great opposer of God's purposes and God's people, was raised up, and indeed allowed to live (Ex. 9:16) expressly so that, in dealing with his treachery, God could show Himself to be mighty and so spread His fame across the world. 

This is simply astonishing.  As we reel from the implications, Paul goes further:  "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?" (Rom. 9:22)  So the display of God's wrath enters the equation, as well as that of His patience.  Yet again, and most tremendously:  " And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory." (Rom. 9:23)

Glory!  As believers, can our hearts help but quicken at the mere mention of this word in connection with our Lord?  This is the heart of the matter, friend.  How can God show His merciful disposition?  In the forgiveness of sinners; mercy has no more immediate value in a sinless world than a candle in the hot sun.  It would be admirable, but not necessary, and certainly not understood.  How can He display perfect patience?  In not destroying us inherently wicked humans where we stand!  And what of His justice?  He must hold all of this world of evil to His just standards, and pour out His just wrath for His children upon His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to see that justice satiated.  And would we know the strength of His power without His conquest of evil, even the very evil in our own hearts? 

Grace, power, justness, wrath, patience, and so on - these are mere words until we see them come alive in the glorious deeds of our great God.  We should not understand them at all, but for our fallen, wretched existence.  The working of evil, although loathsome to God in every respect, is the backdrop against which the manifold triumphs of His perfect and unchanging character are thrown into brilliant and razor-sharp relief.  The Lord has actively included evil in His all-encompassing purposes, not because He loves it, but because He hates it with a prostrating, vengeful, eternal vigor, and He desires that His creation understand Him in this way - there is immense anger and immense power, but from this fearsome understanding we survey also the vastness of His mercy and love.

In a sentence, He makes His glory the most important thing in the universe.  Being perfectly righteous, God does this because it is wholly fitting that we should cherish and worship the unimaginable perfections which reside, solely and eternally, in Him.  Who could be more worthy of our attention, our devotion, and our allegiance than He?  Thus He does great things, things that muzzle human pride and arrest human strength, because He seeks to unveil "the riches of His glory." 

Evil exists because God, in His glorious wisdom, has decided that He may work against it and so show His glory.  Some may balk at such a thought, apparent though it is in His book.  They say, "Are you telling me that all the pain and all the death and all the cruelty that have ever existed in this age have their existence simply so that God can show who He is?"  To this, a simple "Yes!" will do.

It is dangerous, friend, to question God's omniscient prerogatives.  Such an attitude as this reveals that we have already formed an opinion, altogether too low, about the importance of God's glory, and have in fact allowed this opinion to shape our philosophy.  We say, in effect, "God's glory is not great enough for this world of evil in which we live."  How sadly backwards is this thinking!  We must come at things from the opposite standpoint:  the Bible says that God has suffered evil to propagate into this world, according to His longstanding decree, in order that He might be far more strongly glorified.  Rather than looking about us and scoffing the sheer impossibility of this, we must look about us and conclude that God's glory must simply be far, far more glorious than we had ever imagined, and far, far stronger than we had ever considered.  What effect might this realization have upon our perception of the Lord, or upon our attitude toward our own lives and hardships? 


Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  He said,

"Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."

- Job 1:20-21

Faith in the Divine Filter

"Why is this happening to me?"

This is not so bad a question for Christians to ask, so long as we are prepared for the answer - so long as we seek the truth, rather than conclude that there is none to be had.  There is always a true answer to this question, truth that is long-standing and settled in the mind of the Lord. 

This truth is situated in the heart of Romans 8:28:  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."  This is doubtlessly one of the most beloved verses in Christendom, but let us take care that our regard springs from good and true reasons.  This verse appoints us not, as some suppose, to a life of ease (i.e. everything will go well), but to one of purpose.  A cursory run through the biblical narratives suffices to reveal teh prodigious hardships that have been endured by God's chosen, even the most formidable and earnest of His saints, even when none of their actions would merit such trial. 

Beyond this, James urges his readers to "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2), certain that it is not a question of "if," but "when."  Joseph delivers this wisdom to his traitorous brothers:  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Gen. 50:20a)  Evil is directed toward us, but God means it for good. 

Returning to Romans 8:28, we see the absoluteness of this divine work:  "God causes all things."  This means that every one of the events and circumstances which find their way into our lives are intentional, and that intention is laid down by none other than our loving, omnipotent God Himself.  There is, in effect, a divine filter that assures that those trials which actually reach us are designed for our good.  Consider how this same filter was seen in full force in Job 1 - God turned aside barb after satanic barb before allowing a very specific trial to visit its devastating impact upon His servant Job. 

With this in mind, the astonishing thing is not that we believers labor under difficulty, but that we labor under such small difficulty.  Indeed, the care that our Lord demonstrates through Romans 8:28 means that we should meet trials with something approaching curiosity:  why, indeed, has this particular trial made its way to me?  How will God use this for good?  This neither blunts the force of the trial nor softens its difficulty, but it frames it in the appropriate context of God's selective, sovereign purposes.  It invites a righteous response from the heart of faith that is assured both of the Father's changeless, loving motivation, and of the Father's faithfulness to lavish the needed grace to endure upon our humble frames. 

Does the tragedy of the present hardship crush my very heart?  My God has good and loving purposes behind this circumstance that will far oustrip and outweigh the immediate anguish.  Is this trial immense in its power upon me?  The power which God communicates to my soul is stronger yet, is stronger beyond my feeble reckoning. 

Any number of difficult things might have come about today, but this is the one that did, by God's will, for His glory, and yes, for my good.  Praise Him in all things!

What to Do with the President

The presidential election has come and gone once more here in America, and the Christian community has mixed feelings.  Some believers are ecstatic, when they certainly should not be.  Some are downcast for purely wrong reasons.  Some have good call for concern and sadness. 

It becomes every believer living in a democracy to cherish a uniquely Christian conviction when scrutinizing political candidates.  Dr. MacArthur said it well recently:  "You’re not voting for a pastor, you’re not voting for a spiritual leader, you’re voting for someone who has some sense of morality. Since the Bible says that the role of government is to punish evil doers and protect the good, you better have somebody in power who understands what is good and what is evil."  This is good perspective to bear in mind - let us spend our passions upon those things regarding which the Lord has spoken clearly and loudly in His Word:  the sanctity of unborn life, the narrow definition of marriage, the call to earn one's bread, the relationship we are to have with Israel, and so forth.

Much may be said about these matters, and indeed much has been said in the months leading up to the election, so I will not belabor this any further.  However, I would like to address the question of what we do from here as believers.  We have made our choices and cast our votes, and I would hazard to assert that any believer that loves God and His timeless truth is not pleased about Obama's re-election.  However, what do we do from here?  Three brief suggestions:

1.  Prayer.  "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.  This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2:1-4) We are to pray for our leaders, that they may be saved, for two reasons.  Not only is this attitude pleasing to our God, who loves to save people, but it will help us to conduct ourselves as believers in peace as we strive to carry out God's call to make disciples.  Consider for a moment if our nation were largely governed by people of true godliness and Christlike integrity - how might the Lord use such conditions for the furthering of His kingdom?  A direct question, now - do you pray for President Obama's salvation?

2.  Obedience.  The unsavory aftermath of this election does not arm believers with any sort of license to disobey their government.  Do we fear that injustices against God's established moral system will be redoubled?  Certainly.  Will we be disappointed, distraught, and dissatisfied with many of the choices made?  Without question.  However, this objections can hardly surmount the decree of the Lord concerning authorities, delivered by Paul to the believers living in the capital city of Caesar, of all rulers:  "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.  Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves." (Rom. 13:1-2) These are strong words that brook no excuses. 

An example close to home may illuminate.  I am a gun owner, both for personal enjoyment and for personal defense.  I believe firmly in the right to own firearms, and adamantly oppose modern gun control efforts for law-abiding citizens.  This being said, what should be my response if, say, the 2nd Amendment were repealed, and the government required all citizens to turn in their firearms?  Quite simply, my response needs to be to take my entire firearms collection to the appropriate collection point and turn it over without a joyful heart.  God's Word makes no provisions for my hiding guns under the floorboards, or burying them in the desert, or marching on Washington with a gun in my hand.  Such a response conveys a greater trust in metallurgy and smokeless powder than in the sovereign God of Romans 13. 

3.  Patience.  We Christians tend to not be dull and passionless.  Let us take care, though, that our passions are not misspent or poorly focused.  You discuss abortion with a staunch pro-choicer, for instance.  Are you consumed with a defense of pro-life philosophy, or with concern for this person's soul?  If they are saved, they need loving correction.  If they are not, the gospel is the first priority.  Rallying to a pro-life banner will not, in itself, alter an unbeliever's trajectory one hundredth of a degree away from eternal hell.

The same applies on a larger scale.  We can rant and rail about the poor decisions that the present administration is making, but do our just concerns prompt us to become embittered worriers, or praying, zealous workers within God's eternal kingdom?  Treating the symptoms of unbelief without addressing the unbelief itself does not breed salvation, only hypocrisy, and as a side note, will not save this nation.  This thrusts us, quite appropriately, into the realm of evangelism, and evangelism requires patience and compassion.


The same truth lies at the root of all of these points - the truth of Psalm 103:19: "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all."  We can follow a sovereign God in the program He has determined for His people because He is utterly sovereign, and His omniscience, compassion, wisdom, and omnipotence accompany Him through His sovereign work. 

Man the Creator vs. God the Creator

I happened upon an article recently, a sad little piece of scientific amour propre, the thrust of which was that the recent attainments of the scientific realm have drawn shockingly close to legitimately expunging God from our understanding of the universe's origins.  While in the past, says the article, people have made awkward attempts to graft science and creationism together, "a foremost goal of modern physics is to formulate a working theory that describes the entire universe, from subatomic to astronomical scales, within a single framework. Such a theory, called 'quantum gravity,' will necessarily account for what happened at the moment of the Big Bang."

In short, a central effort within the scientific community seeks to explain the universe without a divine Originator.  To this end, the article declares later that "[t]he Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there. With the laws of physics, you can get universes."

As believers devoted to the truth of Scripture as fact, not fable or opinion, how do we answer this?  We respond with dismay and sadness, certainly, but there are two responses which are wholly inappropriate. 

1.  Surprise.  We know from Romans 3:11 and others that the world does not seek after God.  This is an ironclad principle; there are no exceptions.  It is only the gracious intervention of the Spirit which turns the eye of contempt into the eye of faith (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10). We do not, then, expect the world to seek the one true God as its Creator and Sustainer.

Nor do we suppose that this modern age represents a fundamental departure for unbelievers from the disbelief of the past.  In other words, this scientific trend does not augment their disbelieving hearts with another layer of armor which must somehow be penetrated.  There have always been unbelievers who do not believe that the earth is the Lord's creation; it matters but little that they are now attaching impressive-sounding names and theories to their suppositions.  Whether unbelievers cloister themselves within this scientific garrison or not, we know that it is only the power of God that can transplant life into their dead, motionless hearts.  The presence of a godless, scientific worldview within such people does not in the slightest tax the reach of God, or the compassion of God, or the wisdom of God.  We know that "He has mercy on whom He desires" (Rom. 9:18b), and God Himself says, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure." (Is. 46:10b) His arm of salvation will always move with insuperable purpose and indomitable love.

2.  Doubt.  If we survey the above quote from the article, we note a certain lexical consistency:  these are words of possibility, not of certainty.  Thus we are given "theories" about what "could've" happened, and so forth.  God, when He creates, creates the universe, while man, when he creates, creates theories to dismiss the creative work of God. 

The problem with these theories is that they attempt to explain scientifically that which is entirely unscientific.  It is the proverbial apple next to the orange.  It is like saying you are going to douse your campfire by playing an old 78 of Wagner.  If you scratch your head and re-read that sentence, you have captured the intent.  The idea is ludicrous.  And neither do we explain creation using science.  Consider what science tells us in no terms of uncertainty.  For instance, it declares that matter cannot be created or destroyed.  Much hinges upon this truth, and yet matter must have had its origin at some point and from some cause.  We might also consider the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy cannot decrease; that is, that disorder is always increasing (i.e. ice melts in a glass of water).  How then could a "Big Bang" furnish the initial order of the universe?  Can science disclose this without violating its own principles?  Never!

Let us go yet one step further.  If, as scientists posit, the laws of physics in themselves are sufficient to create the universe, do we suppose then that the laws of physics predate space, matter, and time?  Are we to attribute to them the eternal, transcendent, self-existent character which belongs to God?  From what root did these laws spring?  And how could they (or why would they) exist without the matter and the time and the space which, on one hand, regulate them, and, other the hand, are held in their grip, as it were?  The words of Romans 1:25 echo rather ominously through our hearts with these thoughts:  "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

I myself use science daily in my work; as an engineer, I apply it, but I do not investigate it.  As such, my knowledge is admittedly imperfect; howver, it seems clear that, for all the testing and dialog, science continues to fail with regard to the actual creation of all things.  Its theories cannot encompass this question. 

God does not labor under any such struggles.  Man may theorize, but God declares.  His Word begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  There is no ambiguity in this statement as to how the universe came into being.  Genesis 1 carefully records that God created it, and in six days.  Isaiah 44:24-25 records the magnificent and inimitable declaration of our preincarnate Savior:

"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb,
'I, the Lord, am the maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself
And spreading out the earth all alone,
Causing the omens of boasters to fail,
Making fools out of diviners,
Causing wise men to draw back
And turning their knowledge into foolishness…'”

Man's trifling theorizing cannot stand before God's omnipotent pronouncement.  Praise, praise Him!

Christ Upholds the Reality of Human Responsibility

"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy."
                                                      - Romans 9:14-16

We believe these words, and many others like them, because they are contained in God's book.  The dispensation of mercy comes from God's hands in accordance with His own sovereign choices, not in accordance with our actions.  This axiomatic - mercy, by definition, is not earned.  However, this truth has been met with more than its fair share of criticism, of course, as it asserts that the choice of salvation resides with God, not with the person. 

The natural conclusion of this is the question of how then God can condemn people to hell, if their salvation is His choice?  Paul addresses this in Romans 9:20-21:  "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?' On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it?"  In other words, we are to acknowledge, without fully understanding, that God can choose to graciously save, and then condemn those whom He has passed over in the same moment, and there is surely no injustice in His so doing. 

We can accept this, but if we are honest with ourselves, it seems at times difficult to content ourselves with a concept so removed from our understanding.  We cannot help but wonder how this idea can stand up.  Fortunately, we may look to the words of Christ for two points of real and true comfort:

1.  Legitimacy.  "When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" (Luke 19:41-42) Here our Savior weeps and laments for the unsaved in Jerusalem.  If we sometimes struggle with feeling as though human responsibility in salvation is a merely ornamental element, we are comforted that the omniscient Christ never for a moment succumbed to this sentiment.  This was not forced emotion or sentiment for the sake of those around Him - there is no duplicity in the countenance of the Savior.

How precious and true are the tears of the Lord Jesus!  Do we give the due consequence to the lamentations of One who is beyond any form of dissembly, who understands as none of us can the utter sovereignty which is in His own very hands?  His tears fall neither lightly or inappropriately; rather, they come laden with a full understanding both of human nature and of divine nature.  If indeed the Lord Jesus can shed tears over the unfaithfulness of the unsaved, then we may rest assured that He at least considers their disbelieving choices to be of a very real substance.  Note that this lamentation is made even while sovereignly declaring that these unbelievers will not be allowed to see "the things which make for peace."

2.  Rationale.  "Then He said again to them, 'I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.'" (John 8:21) A glimmer of understanding lies within these words.  Jesus declares that the unbelieving Pharisees will die in their sins; that is, that their sins will remain upon their own heads when they die.  And so it would be for all of us, were it not for God's intervening grace.  We are each of us born in under the dark pall of sin; in condemning us, our divine Judge merely dispenses exactly what is deserved.  If He chooses to save us, He gives us what we do not deserve, but this does not affect the deservedness and personal culpability of those whom He passes over.  Human nature condemns, while divine grace saves.  Thus God is glorified for saving His people, while at the same time showing Himself to be utterly just in His righteous condemnation.  This raises other questions that are difficult, but at the least, it serves to give us a glimpse of God's justice in terms that we may appreciate.