After a 3-1/2 week bout of pneumonia, I have sufficiently recovered to the point where I can resume blogging. I still feel fairly weak, and still get winded easily, but here I am.
I see grace groweth best in winter. – Letter: Samuel Rutherford to Lady Culross (December 30, 1636)
This is the final entry in the series – today, on John Calvin’s 500th birthday!
Scripture is clear that God does everything for His own glory, first and foremost. Compared to this, the good of His creatures is only a secondary consideration. The grand theme of all history is the glory of God. God created the universe and all its creatures (including man) to praise His name, acknowledging His goodness, His power, His love, His justice, His mercy, His righteousness, and His compassion.
As for us, God wants us to live for Him, allowing Him to guide and control our lives. He wants us to let Him strengthen us against sin. He wants us to yearn for Him as our heavenly Father so that we may know Him better through His almighty Word. He created us for Himself, that we might sing His praises, both here in this world and for eternity in the next. And, when we yield control to Him, bowing before His sovereignty and stretching our hands to grasp His love, we feel a deep sense of satisfaction in our souls that can come from no other source.
Take time, today, to be your Father’s child. Tell Him you love Him and ask Him to show you His presence, both through the Word of God and in your own life. If you do so, you will, like the apostle, think, say, and do everything “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” (Saturday, December 28, 1996)
The Australian New Testament teacher, Leon Morris (1914-2006), once wrote that this section of Romans is “possibly the most important paragraph ever written.” Why? Because it contains Paul’s most comprehensive statement about the nature of the salvation that God has so graciously given to us.
The apostle has spent two-and-a-half chapters explaining how it is that no person escapes the poisonous treachery of the sin nature, leading all people to sinful thoughts, words, and actions. There seems to be no way out.
“But now…”, says the apostle in verse 21, God the Father has provided the only way out of the morass of sin. He has done this by sending God the Son, the incarnate Jesus Christ, into this fallen world to be “displayed publicly as a propitiation.” This means that, by dying on the cross at Calvary, Jesus has appeased His Father’s anger against sin and has paid the moral penalty which we so richly deserve.
Every false religion has man reaching up to grasp God. Only Christianity tells the truth. Man cannot do this, but God has reached down, in the person of His Son, to redeem mankind. It is His work alone, accomplished solely by His grace, alone.
If you have not done so already, take time today to thank God for saving you and for being with you day by day as He leads you into Christlikeness. (Tuesday, November 12, 1996)
As you read through the Old Testament, do you get a feeling of dread as you approach certain parts of Scripture? For some people, it’s the prophets that make them groan. “I have a hard time understanding this!”, they cry. For others, however, the most difficult parts of the Old Testament to read are the places where genealogical tables lie, with vast oceans of names which are read, and quickly forgotten.
The first few chapters of 1 Chronicles are such a place. Under the inspiration of God, the writer uses much space detailing a seemingly endless series of personal names. “Pretty dry stuff!”, we say, as we slog through this material.
However, I believe the Holy Spirit had two reasons for including all these people in Holy Writ. As difficult as some of the names are to pronounce, this is not just wasted space. The first reason for these lists is to signal that God cares about individuals. Although, for the vast majority of these people, all we know of them is their name – nothing else – yet God remembers who they are and includes them in Scripture as an indication of His personal knowledge and care for individuals. Jesus told us that every hair on our heads is numbered. He ministered to many separate individuals, which you’ll notice if you read the gospels carefully.
If you study these lists of names with care, you’ll see that the individuals are listed, for the most part, in family groups. This marks the second reason for these lists: God is interested in the family. In the grand sweep of biblical history, God tends to deal with people in groups: Israelites, Gentiles, believers, unbelievers, Greeks, Romans. Of all these groups, the family is the most important because it was instituted by God, Himself. And so, the lists send a second signal: God loves family relationships and always wishes to perpetuate and strengthen them. In our day, when the family is, sometimes, slighted and ridiculed, this second signal is ignored, at our peril.
The next time you read these lists of names, remember that God keeps each of these individuals in mind, knowing to which family he or she belonged to, and what he or she did with his or her life. The point is: God knows the same thing about you, too! Thank God that He knows you, both personally and as a member of His forever family. (October 23, 25, 1996)
Genesis 3 tells the very familiar story of mankind’s fall into sin. Satan tempted Eve, who ate the fruit and, in turn, enticed her husband to eat, also. As a result, our first parents were banished from the Garden of Eden to a life of sin and hardship that every one of their descendants (save One) has experienced ever since.
Eve was tempted to eat from the forbidden tree because she thought that she could acquire God-like knowledge in that way, despite the fact that her eating constituted direct disobedience to God’s revealed Word to her. However, she was thwarted in that attempt to obtain forbidden knowledge. Old Testament scholars have noticed an interesting play on words in the original Hebrew. The word translated “crafty” in verse 1, and the word translated “naked” in verse 7, sound very much alike. They are spelled exactly the same way except for one vowel change. This play on words may indicate the main point of the story: by taking Satan’s evil advice, Eve “craftily” thought that she could gain knowledge she thought God was keeping from her. But, the only new knowledge she acquired, in the end, was that she was naked.
Have you ever tried to second-guess God? Have you ever tried to “help God out” by substituting your plans for His in your life? Realizing that God has set boundaries for us, ask Him for forgiveness and seek His strength to trust Him to know best what you can handle. (Sunday, September 1, 1996)
An occasional plot device used on television sitcoms consists of challenging a character on the show to tell the absolute truth for one hour or one day. The situations the person then finds himself in, during that period of time, are exploited for comic effect.
We sinful humans would find it difficult to tell the absolute truth for a whole day. Yet, in God’s eyes, truth is no laughing matter. He, Himself, is the epitome of truthfulness, and He expects His children to exhibit the same quality.
In today’s text, Jesus says two interesting things about truth. First, he asks His Father to sanctify us “in” (NASB) or “by” (NIV) the truth, as found in His Word, as the means by which His children are made ready to be used by Him in service to Himself and to others. This truthful Word, which is found in Scripture, sanctifies us as we submit to it in holy obedience.
Second, Jesus show us the quality of the Word which sanctifies. Notice that He doesn’t say that the Father’s Word is the truth (although it is that), but He says “your Word is truth,” without the article. Jesus is saying that His Father’s Word contains the quality of truthfulness. In other words, it is not merely factual truth, like a date in a history book. It is more than that. Everything God says embodies the actual quality of “truth” in an unmixed degree. For example, to say “the sun is hot” is to say more than that the sun contains heat. It is to ascribe the quality of heat to the sun.
Once we realize that God not only tells the truth but is, Himself, truth, we can come to His Word with renewed confidence and security. God glorifies Himself by displaying truth in His Word. Will you glorify God by recognizing the truth of His Word, and living by it? (August 4 and 6, 1996)
These are very optimistic verses, and they shed light on the way God gets glory for Himself through the joy of His people. God may be angry with Israel, but the anger eventually passes and forgiveness comes to replace it. The people may spend nights in weeping over sin or misfortune, but their anxieties are replaced by God-given joy when the light of morning comes.
Our Lord knows our sinfulness. Both testaments are replete with descriptions of mankind’s sinful thoughts and actions. He has always fully known, in the most intimate detail, the true extent of the sinfulness of the human race. Both testaments also contain vivid descriptions of God’s intense anger and wrath for sin. However, from all eternity, He has planned to glorify Himself through effecting His plan of salvation. And God is faithful to His promises to us, even as we continually let Him down, mired, as we are, in sin.
The next time you’re feeling, as you contemplate your own sinfulness, as if God might forsake you (which is exactly what Satan wants you to think), remind yourself of the promises God has made to you in Scripture. As His child, He has promised never to leave you, never to abandon you, to never let you out of His comforting, Fatherly grasp. Thank God for the forgiveness you have in Christ, and remember that the Lord is glorifying Himself in your joy. (Friday, July 5, 1996)
If you are looking for a way to strengthen your walk with God, one important step to take is to study the biblical doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ. It has been noted that the phrase “in Christ,” and similar phrases (such as “in Him,” “with Him,” etc.), occurs 164 times in the apostle Paul’s writings alone.
We believers are united with Christ in at least three ways. First, by virtue of creation, we have an inseparable link with God because we possess His image, which is never erased, even by sin. Secondly, through our redemption in Christ, our Lord has, through His atoning death, brought us into His kingdom. And, thirdly, sanctification gives us what is called “actual union” with Christ, as He works in us to perfect us in His image, day by day, with the Holy Spirit’s power.
You can experience union with Christ by faithful prayer to God, seeking His will. It is also experienced through Bible reading, as God shares with you what He has done for mankind in past ages and what He promises to do for you today. And, by constantly yielding your thoughts and actions to the Holy Spirit as you live each day, you allow Christ to give you His perspective on what daily Christian living should be.
The believer’s union with Christ is a precious heritage which only Christians possess. Today, let your gracious Lord show you how strong the “ties that bind” you to Him are. (Wednesday, June 5, 1996)
Here, from today’s text, is a mini-theology of creation:
You, alone, are the Lord. The three-personed God we worship is still but one God. No idol is God. Nothing in all creation is to be worshiped as God. All human beings and, especially, those who have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, must acknowledge Him, turning their faces to Him alone. Do you, daily, lift your heart to Him only?
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything…Just as God is the only Creator, His is, also, the only source of life, both physical and spiritual. As His finite creatures, we must look to Him only for life, in both senses. Do you, daily, thank almighty God for giving you life in both of its biblical meanings?
…and the multitudes of heaven worship you. The angels who did not follow Satan in his rebellion against God are constantly beholding His face in heaven, and are continually glorifying God as they stand in awe of His powers of creation. Do you, daily, direct your worship to the only living and true God?
Take the opportunity, today, to thank God the Creator, who is also your Savior, for all He has done for you. (Monday, April 22, 1996)
One of the great virtues of the Old Testament is that it constantly reminds us of the difference between God and man. The Bible is not shy about putting us in our place! Job, that righteous man, knew this difference and affirmed it throughout the book even as he insisted that he had done no wrong to deserve the things that were happening to him.
Job knew, instinctively, that no human being is capable of standing up to God as an equal because “if one wished to dispute with Him, he could not answer Him once in a thousand times.” God’s omniscience, compared to our finiteness, is one difference between Him and us.
Despite the starkness of the many contrasts between almighty God and us, I trust that you, as one of His children, feel comforted by the very differences which separate us from Him. For instance, I would not be very impressed by a God who did not know all my thoughts or who could not exercise awesome creative power or who would be unable to raise the dead. I would especially not be helped by a God who was unable to give me salvation, who was helpless in the face of this world’s sin and chaos to make things right.
I’m glad that there is a difference between God and me. It’s those differences that make God who He is – loving, powerful, merciful, and gracious to save. No pantheist can experience that kind of comfort. (Thursday, February 22, 1996)
