The Eternal Glory of Christ

In Revelation 22:16, Jesus says, "I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."  This is an amazing statement-- He is both the root (which comes first and from which everything else springs) and the descendent (who comes later).  He is both the source and goal.

In light of that, other statements by or about Jesus become more profound:

And as Jesus taught in the temple, He said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?  David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.'  David himself calls him Lord.  So how is he his son?"  ~Mark 12:35-37  Jesus is here calling attention to the fact that the scribes and Phariseees had too small a vision of the Messiah-- Jesus wasn't just the descendent of David; He was also the root of David, the One who brought David into existence.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." ~Revelation 22:13

John bore witness about Him and cried out, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.'"  ~John 1:15

Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."  ~John 8:58

"And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed."  ~John 17:5

Profit

Today in my Through-the-Bible reading, I read Malachi, thus finishing the reading plan for this year.  On January 1st, I'll start over with Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts.

But today, God has me in Malachi, and it's been a stirring read.  The one place that really hit me the most was the end of chapter 3.  Throughout Malachi, God makes accusations against the people, who then insist on their innocence.  God then gives evidence of their wrongdoing.  At the end of chapter 3, the exchange goes like this:

Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD.  But you say, 'How have we spoken against you?'  Y0u have said, 'It is vain to serve God.  What is the profit of our keeping His charge?'

The people question how it profits them to keep walking with God.  The wicked prosper, and they put God to the test and escape, and the arrogant seem to be blessed.  So what good is it to follow God?  Their complain is just like Asaph's complaint in Psalm 73-- "Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.  All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence!"

Here is God's answer to Malachi and Asaph:

Malachi3:16-17,4:1-2  The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed His name.  "They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares His son who serves them... For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble... But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

Psalm 73:25-28 Whom have I in heaven but You?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  For behold, those who are far from You shall perish; You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You.  But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.

God's answer to the people in Malachi is the same answer that He gave to Asaph-- a reality-check of the coming end of the wicked, and a reminder that the greatest riches of the righteous lie not in things but in God Himself, and that the most important question is not, "What do you own?" but rather, "Who are you owned by?"

Christ the Lord is Born Today

These are some of the words from the Sovereign Grace Ministries song, "Christ the Lord is Born Today."  It does a great job summing up what Christmas is all about:

God has sent His greatest treasure

Shown His love in greatest measure

Sending Christ to bleed and suffer

Purchasing our joy forever

Merry Christmas!

Another quote about sovereignty and suffering

C.S. Lewis from The Problem With Pain:

"My own experience is something like this.  I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends... or a bit of work that tickles my vanity... when suddenly a... headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down.  At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys.  Then, slowly and reluctantly... I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times.  I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that... my only real treasure is Christ."

Amen.

Such As I

This is a poem I wrote early this last summer, after reading Charles Spurgeon's Evening devotion for May 27th.  The devotion is based on 2 Samuel 9:8- "What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?"  Spurgeon writes, "If Mephibosheth was humbled by David's kindness, what shall we be in the presence of our gracious Lord?  The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity... At best, we are but clay, animated dust, but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed.  Let it be proclaimed in heaven as a wonder that the Lord Jesus should set His heart's love upon such as we are.  Dust and ashes though we be, we must and will 'magnify the exceeding greatness of His grace.'"  Pondering on that astounding and humbling truth, I wrote this poem called "Such As I."

Such as I, filthy unclean

One who cov'nants with the grave

Such as I, can You call me

Even I, condemned depraved

As one who cov'nants with the grave?

A worm and nothing more am I

And less, for I a sinner be

A rebel transgressed a thousand times

And all the curses fall on me

For I a cursed sinner be

How then can One so holy, pure

And set apart from mortal's death

Bear my curse and own my blame

Taking punishment from wrath,

Who stands apart from mortal's death?

Such as You, O Son of God

And gracious, incarnate Son of Man

Could e'er unite such great divide

And rescue me from Satan's hand

O gracious, incarnate Son of Man

Such as I, once stained with shame

Now spotless, blameless, faultless stand

Robed in white and washed in red

Before the holy Great I AM

I spotless, blameless, faultless stand

Some More Spectacular Calvin Quotes

Gosh, I love The Institutes.  No, I take that back.  I love the power and wisdom and beauty of God so clearly celebrated and expounded in The Institutes.  I spent 6 1/2 hours today reading all of Book II, which focuses on the work of Christ as our Redeemer, and covers topics like sin, depravity, free will, Law, grace, the Incarnation (which I recommend as a great Christmastime devotion!), the person of Christ, the atonement, etc.  By now my copy of The Institutes is all covered in highlighter, but below are a couple particular quotes which are so awesome in provoking worship that they deserve to be reproduced and pondered and celebrated.

"Our acquittal is in this-- that the guilt which made us liable to punishment was transferred to the head of the Son of God."  (Yes, we know this, but oh how sweet it is to hear it again and again, especially with such eloquence!)

"Christ crushed, broke, and scattered the whole force of death."

"For the good and safety of His people, God overrules all the creatures, even the devil himself, who, we see, dared not attempt anything against Job without His permission and command.  This knowledge is necessarily followed by gratitude in prosperity, patience in adversity, and incredible security for the time to come."

And perhaps my favorite, from the chapter on the Incarnation:

"It was His to swallow up death: who but Life could do so?  It was His to conquer sin: who could do so save Righteousness itself?  It was His to put to flight the powers of the devil and the world: who could do so but the mighty power superior to both?  But who possesses life and righteousness, and the dominion and government of heaven, but God alone?  Therefore God, in His infinite mercy, having determined to redeem us, became Himself our Redeemer in the person of His only begotten Son."

Praise, praise, praise the Redeemer!  Praise His infinite mercy!  Praise the One who "crushed, broke, and scattered" the whole force of death and rules all the universe for the benefit of His chosen people.  What a God we serve!

Calvin on the Sovereignty of God

I've been reading John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion this week in preparation for my Luther and Calvin exam (although honestly, the exam is really just an excuse for me to set aside time to go deep with God in some really weighty theology-- getting a good grade on the final is just sort of a bonus).  It has been an amazing, exhilarating read.  Theology should always lead to doxology, and Calvin's theology has definitely been doing that.  I sat around for about 5 hours today reading most of Book I, and chapters 16-18 especially had me practically shouting for joy at the indescribable grandeur of God.  Chapters 16-18 are about God's sovereignty and providence and His control over all events and times and creatures and people.  Below is an excerpt from Chapter 16 which rocked my socks off.  Expect more quotes tomorrow.

"God is deemed omnipotent, not because He can act though He may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct He continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because, governing heaven and earth by His providence, He so overrules all things that nothing happens without His counsel... This is the solace of the faithful in their adversity, that everything which they endure is by the ordination and command of God, that they are under His hand... They can rest secure in the protection of Him to whose control everything that could do them harm is subject, by whose authority Satan with all his furies and engines is curbed as with a bridle, and on whose will everything adverse to our safety depends."

What is the result of this doctrine for our lives?  How does this change things?

"Once the light of divine providence has illumined the believer's soul, he is released and set free, not only from the extreme fear and anxiety which formerly oppressed him, but from all care.  This, I say, is his comfort, that his heavenly Father so embraces all things under His power, so governs them at will by His nod, so regulates them by His wisdom, that nothing takes place save according to His appointment; that received into His favor and entrusted to the care of His angels, neither fire nor water nor sword can do him harm, except insofar as God their master is pleased to permit."

What sweet, sweet Gospel truth this is!  I pray that you and I will more fully grasp this precious Biblical doctrine, and more fully live lives of God-glorifying assurance and peace in the light of the comfort it brings.

The Sovereignty of God and the Stock Market

In my moments of cynicism as a soon-to-be-graduated-and-married college senior, I often grimly marvel at my "luck" to be graduating into what economists are calling "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."  Oh goody.  So how does that affect my chances of landing a job next year?

I have to confess, my avid following of the economic news has been becoming something of a stumbling block to my faith.  When every day's headlines bring triple-digit stock declines, job losses in the hundreds of thousands, and toppling financial and corporate giants, it is easy for the recession to seem bigger than God in my mind.  I've been feeding my mind a steady diet of doubts, and I'm beginning to reap some of the fruit of that.  Not good.

So I'm directing my attention back to the solid rock of Christ and His Word and His promises.  Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, and so if I want more faith I need to fill my heart with visions of the omnipotent, sovereign, unchangeable, gracious, faithful God of the Bible as revealed in His Word.  Verses like Isaiah 45:7, a timely reminder of God's sovereignty in the midst of economic meltdown:

"I form the light and create darkness,

     I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things."

God creates housing bubbles and economic booms and Great Depressions.  The stock market rises and falls as He wants it to rise and fall.  He decrees job losses and job gains.  God is sovereign over the economy.  Repeat that truth.  God is sovereign over the economy.  And by "sovereign," I don't just mean He has the power to control all events, but that He DOES.

Do you see that as good news?  I do.  Romans 8:28 is good news, and true, because God has the sovereign muscle to back it up.  "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good."  But the promise is deeper than that.  Verse 32 makes it clear that God doesn't just use every circumstance for good; He gives every circumstance for good.  "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"  Connect the "all things" in verse 28 to verse 32, and suddenly you have a very, very deep promise.  God gives all things, all circumstances to you for your good.  

Now that's a promise you can take to the bank.

The Holy Spirit

I came across this quote by Spurgeon today.  It makes me wonder why I even bother to post my own thoughts here... I should just post quotes like this, from men who have gone much deeper with God than I have even imagined.  There is so much wisdom and power here.  This quote is a great example of that.

"Let us ever remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us, apart from the Holy Spirit in us.  In vain that blood is flowing, unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience; in vain is that garment of righteousness wrought out, unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us and arrays us in its costly folds.  The river of life cannot quench our thirst, till the Spirit presents the goblet and lifts it to our lips.  All the things which are in the paradise of God could never be blissful to us, so long as we are dead souls-- and dead we are, until that heavenly wind comes and breathes upon us, that we may live.  We do not hesitate to say that we owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son."

The Trinity

In my Through-the-Bible reading plan, I'm in the upper room discourse of John 13-17.  It's been about eight months since I was here last, and as always I'm blown away by how Scripture keeps coming alive no matter how many times you read it.  Sometimes it's the Gospel that really stands out; sometimes it's a specific promise; sometimes it's a certain command; sometimes it's glory; sometimes it's judgment.  This time, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me about the Trinity.

Yesterday I was at McDonald's reading John 14 (who says you can't read the Bible anywhere?) and verse 20 exploded with a megaton of relevance.  "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."  

At first glance, it's grammatically confusing.  But think about that statement for a minute.  The Father and the Son are so united that Jesus can literally say, "I am in my Father" and (a couple verses earlier) "The Father is in me."  That in itself is an indescribably glorious mystery, but Jesus extends that mystery to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us.  "You in me, and I in you."  Jesus here is inviting us into the life of the Trinity.  The eternal fellowship, love, glory, and joy between the Father and the Son and the Spirit has now been opened to us as well.  

That's why Darrel Johnson, in his great book "Experiencing The Trinity," writes, "I was brought into being by the Trinity to be a co-lover within the Trinity!  I was bought by the blood of Jesus Christ to become a co-lover with Him and His Father and His Spirit!"

We are co-heirs and co-lovers.  Amazing!