A perfect match

We are getting ready to paint our bedroom (actually my mother is getting ready to paint our bedroom). So we are looking at paint swatches and such. With all of the different hues and tones sometimes it seems almost impossible to get a perfect match. But, particularly in the bright natural light, that is precisely what is needed. A perfect match.

Painting a room is in the grand scheme of things of very little consequence. What the apostle Paul deals with in Romans 3, however, is of very substantial consequence. Here he thoroughly lays out the human dilemma, the human need.

• vs 10 – we are not righteous
• vs 11 – we are without understanding
• vs 11 – we do not seek God
• vs 12 – we are worthless
• vs 12 – we do not do good
• vs 13 – our words are death
• vs 13 – we speak lies
• vs 13 – our speech poisons
• vs 14 – we curse and are bitter
• vs 15 – we steal life
• vs 16 – our road is ruin and misery
• vs 17 – we do not know peace

That’s pretty bleak, not a very nice colour, as it were. And it is into this desperate situation that God brings a perfect match to our misery. God’s grace is always supplied in the colour our experience needs. And it is with our fundamental need of righteousness that God supplies all our needs (and more!) in his Son Jesus. Consider how Jesus is exactly who we need.

• vs 10 – we are not righteous – he is the righteous one
• vs 11 – we are without understanding – he knows all things
• vs 11 – we do not seek God – he is God seeking us
• vs 12 – we are worthless – he is of infinite value
• vs 12 – we do not do good – he always does good
• vs 13 – our words are death – his word gives life
• vs 13 – we speak lies – he speaks truth
• vs 13 – our speech poisons – his speech heals
• vs 14 – we curse and are bitter – he blesses
• vs 15 – we steal life – he gives life
• vs 16 – our road is ruin and misery – he brings victory and joy
• vs 17 – we do not know peace – he makes us at peace with God

Praise God for the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Praying is criminal

This is quite a story (particularly in the wake of all the occupy protests…which, I haven’t heard much of lately, must be the cold winter). Over 40 folks arrested for praying as part of a protest. I realise some folks were arrested during different occupy movements, but that’s because they were involved in criminal activity (like breaking into buildings, destroying public and private property, etc.).

Story HERE.

Do pray for the churches in New York who may loose their use of schools to meet in at the weekend.

How to waste 2012

Here are 4 easy ways to waste 2012:

1. Refuse Jesus

2. Forget Jesus

3. Ignore Jesus

4. Isolate Jesus

To refuse Jesus is to think that you don’t need him at all. To think that life makes sense and has meaning without him. To think that you can manage life, and death, on your own.

To forget Jesus is to think that you only need him at the start of the christian life rather than the whole way through. To fail to preach the gospel to yourself each day looking to Christ in faith to meet all of your needs.

To ignore Jesus is to starve yourself and hold your breath. To neglect meeting and communion with Jesus in the word (food) and prayer (breathing).

To isolate Jesus is to not make the local church a priority. To amputate, as it were, parts of Christ’s body by not being a part of, accountable to, and involved in the local church.

So…don’t waste 2012. Look to Christ in faith, daily find all your needs met in him in the gospel, commune with him in the word and prayer each day, and crack on in your local church.

Union with Christ

An historically underemphasised, yet crucial, topic is union with Christ. Just try to explain any aspect of the christian life (conversion through to glory) apart from union. So, it is with great enthusiasm that over the last week I received two books, both titled ‘Union with Christ’. The first is by Robert Letham and the second by Todd Billings. Now it is time to dig in. I’d also recommend Edward Donnelly’s Life in Christ, which is probably more accessible if someone is looking for a place to start.

While you are waiting for yours to arrive, read and meditate on Colossians 2 and 3. Paul grounds the whole of the christian life in union as well. Enjoy!

What is the mission of the church?

I’m about a third of the way through DeYoung and Gilbert’s book. In short, making disciples is their answer. Should we be surprised? It is curious however, if not frustrating, how many people take issue with that answer. Apparently DeYoung and Gilbert (both pastors of CHURCHES) are not qualified to speak on the mission of the CHURCH? I guess that is for other folks to figure out rather than those leading churches. Just be sure to let us know what to do guys, OK?

As usual, Trueman has some helpful thoughts on the topic, as does Horton in his contribution to the debate.

It is interesting how many people in church want the question answered, ‘What’s the church’s purpose?’ Part may be due to poor communication, but I imagine part (the bigger part) is symptomatic of the tilt within evangelicalism. Something hip, something new, something that is a game changer for the church and society in this world. Those aren’t necessarily wrong desires, but neither are they the mission of the church, or, I guess, that’s the question being debated. Neither are they things promised to God’s people. BUT, there is the promise of a city that is unshakable who’s builder and architect is God.

I’d like to think I’m too young to be old fashion, but then, my hairline condemns me each day. Guess I’ll stick to the old paths.

Reformation Day

HERE is a good wee interview with Mike Reeves on the reformation.

If you have a bit more time, then tackle THIS article on the reformation as well.

Want more?

HERE is a video interview with Michael Haykin.

HERE is a free download of RC Sproul’s children’s book on Luther.

Enjoy!

Not everyone can be this lucky

Maybe one day I’ll get to participate in an activity like this. A large library could be a means of staying fit. All kinds of perks!

The vocabulary of grace

We’ve just finished a series in the book of Job at church. Many are familiar with the story of Job, but probably less have waded through the waters step by step with Job and his friends. If you were to take an hour or so and read all of the speeches of Job’s friends you’d find a mixed bag. Some wonderful things said, some confusion things said, and some awful things said. But one thing that would be missing from start to finish in these speeches is grace. Job’s friends had no vocabulary for grace, it was foreign to them and they were unfamiliar with it. In fact, the reason they were so oppressive to Job is because they kept throwing a graceless God at him. In their graceless worldview situations such as Job’s didn’t exist, hence their mistaken accusations of Job’s sin.

A wonderful old hymn that’s been given new life is Jesus, I my cross have taken.  There are 4 lines in the fifth verse of this hymn that would, I think, have been a wonderful balm for Job to hear rather than the drivel of his friends. Henry Lyte writes:

Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine (fret).

Those are words filled with grace, because they bring Jesus to the suffering (Job in this case).

Anyhow, what is fascinating at the end of the book is the vocabulary lesson Job’s friends get. Thankfully, for them, God is not like they imagined him to be. He is a God of grace.

Job 42.7   After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

They’ve witnessed the innocent suffering of Job and could not make sense of it, and now they witness the innocent suffering of these animals. And I imagine through this vocabulary lesson in grace they understood, ‘unless I have a substitute I am doomed’. And they look in faith to the one whom Job so clearly pictures, the truly innocent sufferer, the Lord Jesus Christ. In one life only is Job excelled, in innocence and in grief. That is, of course, life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. In is in Jesus’ perfection and in Jesus’ suffering that the questions of Job ultimately find their answer. And what is that answer? In a word, grace.

The greatest event in Scottish history

When John Knox went upstairs to plead with God for Scotland, it was the greatest event in Scottish history. – Spurgeon

‘Now, O Lord, thou hast revealed thyself and thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, clearly to the world again, by the true preaching of his blessed evangel, which also of thy mercy is offered unto us within this realm of Scotland…Give unto us, O Lord, that presently are assembled in thy Name, such abundance of thy Holy Spirit, that we may see those things that shall be expedient for the advancement of thy glory, in the midst of this perverse and stubborn generation. Give us grace, O Lord, that universally among ourselves, we may agree in the unity of true doctrine. Bless thou so our weak labours, that the fruits of the same may redound to the praise of thy holy Name, to the profit of this present generation, and to the posterity to come, through Jesus Christ; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and praise, now and ever. So be it.’

What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions?

I’m sure this has been helpfully explained before, but a light came on a couple weeks back in understanding what Paul is getting at in Col 1.24 where he writes, ‘Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions’.

The question is, is something about Christ’s work on the cross insufficient? The answer, of course, is ‘no’. But what does Paul mean here?

I think the easiest and most helpful way to understand this is to think about the one inflicting the suffering. On the cross it was the wrath of God against the sin of his people that Jesus suffered. The suffering Paul experiences (and is lacking in Christ) does not come from the Father to top-up what was insufficient in the cross, but comes from the enemy.

You might say it this way, in Christ’s death on the cross the wrath of God was satisfied, but not the wrath of Satan (not that Satan was pouring wrath on Jesus on the cross, he wasn’t; but even in his observance of these sufferings of Christ, he wants to see more).

So, the enemy is not done inflicting sufferings upon Christ’s body, and Paul was filling up what was lacking and now the church continues to fill up what is lacking.