Author: jwm

Why? Why does it have to happen this way? Why does my family member have to face death right now and suffer so much? Why is my job so shaky? Why has my retirement package shrunk? Why does a church go through struggles? The knowledge of God’s providence, something that Job eventually came to understand, doesn’t provide a simple answer, but it does enable you to be patient, thankful, and even confident. And God’s good providence provides reasons for deep thanksgiving.

Recognize that it is the Lord who gives and takes away. Even the upright suffer. Good things happen, by Gods common grace, even to bad people. God sends sunshine and rain on the just and unjust alike. Bad things do happen to good people. Some today respond to this by denying the sovereignty of God (as an alternative to denying his goodness–see the openness of God theology). The ancient world, at least in believing circles, could deny neither God’s sovereignty, nor his goodness and justice. That left them still wrestling with the problem of evil! We don’t know just when the Book of Job was written. It is wisdom literature, parallel to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. It may have been written around Solomon’s time. The setting of the book itself is more distant, both geographically and temporally. It seems to recount an earlier time (sometime between Abraham and Solomon). The land of Uz was east of Israel, perhaps Edom. Job knows the Lord. He uses the covenant name of God. Yet he seems to stand outside the line of the descendants of Abraham. He serves as priest to his family. There is no reference to the ceremonial laws of Israel. Like Melchizedek, he seems to have retained knowledge of the true God. Noteworthy about Job is that he is blameless and upright, verse 1. Job’s wealth (10 children, thousands of sheep and camels, hundreds of donkeys and oxen) was not an accident, but was part of the blessings that flow from fearing the Lord. Yet, as godly as Job was, all these were taken from him in one day. Put yourself in his sandals! That may not be difficult if you have just gotten a pink slip or if long-made plans are falling apart.

Continue reading “The Lord Gave and the Lord Has Taken Away”

You pray, “Our Father who art in heaven.” When you receite the Apostles or the Nicene Creed, you confess that you believe in God the Father, Almighty the Creator. What do you mean when you call God your Father? Psalm 104:31 tells you of the weight of God’s glory while it calls you to join in God’s own rejoicing at his work. Lord’s Day 9 of the Heildeberg Catechism points you to his creative and sustaining work.

Let the Lord’s glory endure. The Father is glorified in his creative work, verses 1–9. He formed the heavens, verses 1–4. He is majestic. He clothes himself with light–marking the event of the first day of creation. He made the clouds and wind. Instead of the storm being divine, it is merely the chariot of the Lord. The Psalm may intentionally contrast with elements of Egyptian and Canaanite idolatry. Even the elements serve as his messenger, verse 4, see Hebrews 1:7. Both the Spirit and the Son were involved in the work of creation, but that activity is primarily that of the Father. He made the universe through the Son, Hebrews 1:2.

“The creation proceeds from the Father through the Son and in the Spirit so that, in the Spirit and through the Son it may return to the Father…. The purpose and goal of creation is to be found solely in God’s will and glory…. A doctrine of creation is one of the foundational building blocks of a biblical and Christian worldview. Creation is neither to be deified nor despoiled, but as the ‘theater of God’s glory’ it is to be delighted in and used a stewardly manner. It is God’s good creation.”

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2, p. 406

He laid the foundations of the earth, verses 5–9. The earth was covered with water, Genesis 1:6, 7, from which God separated dry land. His rainbow is his sign that he will never again allow the waters to cover the earth. If this is how wonderful creation is, how much greater is the Creator! And this is not just a remote deity. He is your Father in Christ Jesus. Take comfort in that when circumstances overwhelm you.

Continue reading “Your Father, The Creator and Sustainer”

The words of the benediction found in 2 Corinthians 13:14 are familiar — perhaps so familiar that we stop really hearing them. Yet it reflects some of the most profound mysteries of the faith and provides rich comfort.

The Triune God blesses you. Receive God’s blessing. God is speaking well to you (that is what “benediction” means). The text is more than Paul’s wish. As God’s spokesman he is extending God’s blessing. This benediction, like the Aaronic benediction, involved placing God’s name on his people. You go from God’s house with his name. You face the joys, challenges, sorrows, and temptations of the week ahead as those who bear God’s name. Do you receive this blessing with faith? Or are the words simply a formula that means that the service is ended? How much of the perfect love and fellowship of the Trinitarian relationship is reflected in the conversation around your dinner table on Monday evening? Or does a lack of appreciation of the Trinity carry through to a self-centered series of snacks in front of the TV instead of meaningful fellowship with your family? The benediction forms the basis for Christian fellowship. Paul has just extended greetings to the Corinthians, verses 12, 13. He has shown his deep concern for the body of Christ and its unity, 1 Corinthians 12–14. All this grows out of God blessing his people.

Continue reading “The Blessing of the Triune God”

What is faith? The author of Hebrews could have given an abstract answer, but in Hebrews 11 he recounts a number of brief stories about Old Testament saints, whom he calls “the ancients,” showing how each of them walked by faith. Faith is not just a feeling, not just an intellectual exercise, not a simple act of the will, but a way of life. As he introduces the material, the first three verses of the chapter give you an idea of what he means by faith.

Be sure of what you hope for. Your hope is not seen. Hebrews 11 is an expansion of Hebrews 10:38,39. The examples given are practical ones. They were apt to be effective to readers with a Jewish background, and effective against those holding the works-salvation error of the Judiazers. The problem is that the heavenly realities are not visible. You cannot see: Christ’s exalted place, Hebrews 1:3, 4; Christ’s completed work, Hebrews 9:11–14; Christ’s heavenly intercession, Hebrews 7:24–27; yourself as Christ’s house, Hebrews 3:6. The invisibility of these realities was a problem for the original readers—and sometimes for us. You pray for healing from illness—and you don’t see medical improvement. You intercede for loved ones, and they continue to walk in darkness.

“Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in cor­ruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when we cry to him. What would become of us were we not supported by hope, and did not our minds emerge out of the midst of darkness above the world through the light of God’s word and of his Spirit? Faith, then, is rightly said to be the subsistence or substance of things which are as yet the objects of hope and the evidence of things not seen.”

John Calvin on Hebrews 11:1

Continue reading “Faith Is Being Sure”

How does one go from being under God’s judgment to being a child of God, a member of the kingdom of heaven? Is it praying the sinner’s prayer? Is it making sure that you understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone? Lord’s Day 6 of the Heidelberg Catechism is part of the section that deals with our deliverance, what God does to bring us from death in sin to new life. We will be looking at some of the steps involved, some of the things that it are crucial to believe in. Those all are important. But don’t lose sight of the fact that your standing before God ultimately rests on your union with a person–the Lord Jesus Christ as 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells you.

You are in Christ. God calls the foolish to himself. The church at Corinth was divided by party spirit. The members compared some of the early leaders of the church. Behind that was the implication that followers of others than one’s favorite were lesser. God does not choose many who are wise by human standards, nor who are influential or noble. The early church had many slaves, many from the lower levels of society. Today the church still has relatively few who are wise or important by the world’s standards. “By human standards” (literally, “after the flesh”), focuses on the human self, sinful in itself. But the emphasis is on what you are apart from God’s call and gracious work. Yet there are a few of these wise, noble, etc., who are chosen. They tend to be exceptions. The church cannot boast or glory in itself. God chooses the “impossible.” He has selected the foolish, the weak, the lowly and despised things. The emphasis is on God’s choice. The climax of the series is reached in God’s choice of “the things that are not.” God’s choice confounds the flesh. He is sovereign in his choice. God uses the weak to accomplish his purpose. He uses the foolish to confound and shame the wise. The ultimate expression of God’s working through weakness is seen in the humiliation and suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Continue reading “You Are in Christ Jesus”