We Wish You a Marrow Christmas

It’s Christmastime, and I’d like to share a brief passage from The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher. It speaks of the wonders of the incarnation of God the Son for us. It’s rich, so enjoy slowly and thoughtfully:

True it is, that we are all of us, indeed, too unclean to touch God in immediate unity; but yet there is a pure counterpart of our natures, and that pure humanity is immediately knit to the purest Deity; and by that immediate union you may come to a mediate union; for the Deity and that humanity being united, make one Saviour… And so…you come also to be one with God: he one by a personal union, and you one by a mystical. Clear up then your eye, and fix it on him, as on the fairest of men, the perfection of a spiritual beauty, the treasure of heavenly joy, the true object of most fervent love. Let your spirits look, and long, and seek after this Lord: let your souls cleave to him, let them hang about him, and never leave him, till he be brought into the chambers of your souls; yea, tell him resolutely, you will not leave him, till you hear his voice in your souls, saying, "My well-beloved is mine, and I am his"; yea, and tell him, you are "sick [with] love." Let your souls go, as it were, out of your bodies and out of the world, by heavenly contemplations; and treading upon the earth with the bottom of your feet, stretch your souls up, to look over the world, into that upper world, where [your] treasure is, and where [your] beloved dwelleth.

It’s the perfect time to contemplate the goodness and beauty of our Lord and all that he has done for us in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and soon-to-be return to reign. Merry Christmas!

Anxiety & Piety

We all deal with it. Our achievement-oriented American culture fosters it. The information superhighway delivers 24/7 on-demand fodder to feed it. Not that we need it though; our personal problems are in no short supply. Anxiety: tale as old as time. The ancient wise man Solomon knew a lot about it. For example, he says:

It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Psalm 127:2

Sound familiar? Could it be that at the end of the day we simply are not trusting God? Here is a remedy for our worries: our Father has got everything covered. Spurgeon says it beautifully, “The Sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.” If he wants it done, it shall be done. If not, nothing I do can possibly accomplish it. And so what? His purposes for me shall stand; his love for me shall be accomplished in full. Everything else is a footnote.

That’s a death knell for anxiety of all sorts. My Creator loves me and will do what he wishes with me, and what he does will be best by far. Just as the world offers us endless things to be anxious about, so too the good news of God’s fatherly care for us in Jesus offers wondrous truth for our faith to feed upon. Soon enough anxiety’s proud head begins to nod, and presently it goes to sleep. And now we can too, because God’s gospel goodness to us in Christ soothes all our worries with the sweetness of eternal, divine love.

Feelings vs. Faith

Sometimes we feel God’s presence, sometimes we don’t. That’s part of the normal Christian life. But does that make our relationship with God a matter of he loves me, he loves me not? Never! He doesn’t change, even when our feelings do. It is not our feelings that take hold of the unchanging God, it’s our faith.

The good old Puritan William Perkins has this to say on the subject:

Religion does not stand in feeling but in faith, which faith we must have in Christ, though we have no feeling at all; for God oftentimes does withdraw His grace and favor from His children that He may teach them to believe in His mercy in Christ then, when they feel nothing less than His mercy. And faith and feeling cannot always stand together, because faith is a subsisting of things which are not seen and the ground of things hoped for; and we must live by faith and not by feeling. Though feeling of God’s mercy be a good thing, yet God does not always vouchsafe to give it unto His children. And therefore in the extremity of afflictions and temptations we must always trust and rely on God by faith in Christ.

Our feelings often leave us in the dark. Our faith in God never does.

The Secret to Bible Reading

Bible reading can be difficult. Why do some Christians seem to get so much out of their Bibles, but when I read the passage I get…spiritual crickets? Why is my Bible reading so uneventful? What’s the best way to come at this common problem among believers?

King David has the answer. It’s a prayer:

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Psalm 119:18

Pray this humble prayer every time you read the Scriptures—that’s what David means by law here—and watch the Lord do his thing. Don’t be bashful about it; this is part of our inheritance in Christ. He died for us so we can see his glory in his word now. It’s yours in him today.

Our Cries for Help

Sometimes when we ask God for help with something, he first answers us by showing us just how bad it is (spoiler alert: it’s much worse than we think). Just when we are beginning to feel that we can’t go on, that this sin, or struggle, or unbalanced equation must be killed, defeated, or solved, it’s as if it rears up before us stronger than ever! Now the waters really begin to rage. Now we catch a whiff of just how foul the cauldron really is. It can feel so discouraging. Why doesn’t he just help us?

He is helping us. He’s showing us our desperate condition so that we might move into real, earnest, desperate prayer. He wants us to cast ourselves fully and completely upon him. Consider our dear brother David:

The cords of death encompassed me;
    the torrents of destruction assailed me;
 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
    to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 18:4-6

Don’t lose heart! It has often been noted that the darkest hour comes before the dawn. Lean into your guilt, mark your temptations, stare your challenges in the face; behold the depths of evil, the powerful snares, and the impossibilities all around you. And then, when you are almost completely overwhelmed, you will call upon the Lord in distress and anguish of spirit. And then he will do something amazing. He will bow the heavens and come down (verse 9), he will fly to you upon a cherub (verse 10), he will unleash his fury against your enemies and save you by his own hand, and you will praise him for it (whole psalm). For he loves to save the broken spirit out of all its troubles.

The Gift of Being

This week I’m reading a little book called Enduring Divine Absence: The Challenge of Modern Atheism which was written by my friend Joseph Minich (very sharp dude). It’s a fascinating study of how modern technology (man’s knowledge of and *apparent* control over nature) makes atheism seem like a plausible philosophical option, and how this relates to the hiddenness of God and his purposes in revealing himself (and not revealing himself). I want to share a quote from this book with you, but first a little ordering of our thoughts.

In the book he does some philosophical heavy-lifting (at least for normal people like me) which quite blew my mind. Everything that exists (but which could very easily not have existed) has gone from not existing (and not having to exist) to existing. How? By receiving its being. “If a thing does not have its being in itself,” writes the Minich (by which he means, if a thing did not create itself), “it must have it in another” (44). Therefore, everything that exists but didn’t have to, received its being from that which never received its being at all but exists in and by itself (I told you, heavy-lifting).

One payout of this concept is that it shows us why the being or existence behind and under everything that exists must also be personal, namely, because this being chose to give us existence, as a gift. We see that this Being is a Personal Agent who wills and acts. He donated our being to us all, whether “we” are people, animals, plants, or even elements. He is the one who bridged the gap between the possibility of our existence and our actual existence, even though he didn’t have to.

Very well, enough! Now you are ready for the quote:

The gap between what must exist and what does but need not exist is necessarily mediated by a non-necessary donation from what necessarily exists, and that requires will and personality. Our act of existence is suspended in and is a donation of Existence Himself—Being Himself, Life Himself—in whom all things are what and as they are—from whom are all things, for whom are all things, and in whom all things hold together.

Wowzers. Truly “he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). Let’s trust this astounding God with our lives today.

Courteous as Knights

The Apostle Paul is known for his ultra-dense and at times cryptic language. He often swings the sword of the Spirit in high spiritual battle, and his blade strokes can be difficult to follow. Even the other apostles didn’t understand everything he said (2 Pet 3:16). But, every once in a while (usually at the end of his letters), Paul can be very down to earth and even downright practical. Consider the following verses:

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish… Titus 3:1–3

The Greek word behind our English “courtesy” here means, “The quality of not being over-impressed by a sense of one’s importance, gentleness, humility, courtesy, considerateness, meekness.” (BDAG). Christians are to possess and display this spirit to others. The qualities of patience and meekness are commonly confused with weakness and timidity. However, this is a call to great spiritual strength—the kind we can only possess in Christ. Because living this way toward others is not easy. It is the life of true chivalry.

C.S. Lewis summarizes this spirit well: “No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language.” Courtesy is not weakness. It is strength subdued. Bringing out the big guns (openly wielding the authority of our various offices and stations in life) is our last move, and only when forced. On the personal level, we never lash out at our enemies, or those who do not know God. We are patient with them, and kind to them. We address them with respect. Why? Because we were once the very same way. And if Jesus can save us, he can save them too.

Lampin

Lampin is a slang term that signifies the act of chilling or hanging out. As it turns out, this may be a strangely instructive term in exposition of our text, where simply being what we are in Christ illuminates others like a lamp. Let’s read it:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14–16

In these few words, our Lord tells us who we are and what to do with it. We are the light of Christ in a world of endless night (always nighttime, never Festivus-eve). We are the light of the world, or the word may signify the universe—so that we are like the stars of heaven—and should therefore let our lights shine even as the heavenly luminaries, which never cease to smile upon the earth with their kind twinklings. After all, it is the light of our “Father who is in heaven” which we shine forth to others.

Christian, let your light shine. Be what you are in Christ, and do what you do in Christ, as a display of God’s life-giving light to those around you. Let your good works and words go forth freely, enlightening lost sinners and encouraging those who have been found by Christ to do the same. In this way, we are God’s visible messengers of the kingdom of heaven on earth. And that’s the church in a nutshell.

Classic Christianity 104

To conclude our brief glance at the creeds of the early church, we end with an important piece which rounds out the theology of classic Christianity. The deity of Christ was first attacked and subsequently defended by ancient Christians, but, there were those who confessed its mighty truth while denying its complement, his true human nature—without which no human can be saved. The church’s clap back to this is called the Chalcedonian Definition, which was written in the year of our Lord 451 in the city of Chalcedon, in modern day Turkey. It neatly asserts the true humanity of Christ in straightforward language and is to be honored by quiet reflection upon its great Subject, the God-Man Jesus Christ.

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

Classic Christianity 103

When it comes to upholding the biblical doctrine of the Trinity in the face of spiritual opposition, few names deserve the honors which we accord to Athanasius of Alexandria (an Egyptian city which sits upon the Mediterranean Sea). This distinguished Church Father battled head-to-head against Arius himself, the raging heretic who denied the eternal deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Athanasius terminated false doctrine of this foul sort with extreme prejudice. His readiness to go to bat for the doctrine of God anytime, anywhere, against anyone, inspired the famous saying, Athanasius contra mundum, or Athanasius against the world.

Like it’s predecessor the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed was not penned by the champion whose name it bears. But it preserves for the church the rich essence of the doctrine of the Trinity as the great saint held it with a clear conscience. Its basic premise is that one must believe in the triune God in order to be saved. This stands to reason, seeing that our Savior is no mere creature, but the God-Man. Therefore, to deny his deity is to deny him. And who can do that and yet be saved?

It is much lengthier than the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, yet it commands our thoughtful perusal. Truly our triune God is wondrous in his being and works.

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith [The word “catholic” means “universal,” and it is in this sense employed by the Athanasian creed, thus signifying the universal church of all Trinitarian believers worldwide.]

Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;

Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.

For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.

The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.

And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.

As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.

And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;

And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;

And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.

For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;

So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.

But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.

So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.

God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.

Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.

Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.

Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.

One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.

One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;

Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;

He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;

From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;

and shall give account of their own works.

And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.