Category: Pastor’s Pen

Our instruction book

I remember a time when electronic products came with proper instructions. My first mobile phone had a thick booklet, explaining in detail each button, and the various features. But no longer. Now there is a diagram with the outside buttons pointed out, but no further detail. You need to find the various features yourself.

But that is not how God operates. He doesn’t expect us to discover on our own, through instinct or trial and error, how to do what we were made for. The first question of the Shorter Catechism (WSC) said our purpose ‘is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ The second tells us where we find our instructions.

WSC Q2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

WSC A2: The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

The Bible! That’s where we find our answers! That’s where we find our instruction! God has spoken words of life, and they are recorded for us, and passed down through the ages. The word of God, the Scriptures, the Bible, is where we discover how we can do this incredible task, our wondrous purpose.

God’s word is not only ‘able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ,’ but it useful for how we live and what we think (2 Tim 3:15-17). The church is ‘built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone’ (Eph 2:20).

There is no other ‘rule.’ No obligation or teaching found outside Scripture has any authority when it comes to glorifying and enjoying him. He has given us all we need. Praise God.

Purpose in a sea of hopelessness

The first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) is the most well-known and quoted of the entire catechism. And no wonder; it’s the question that has been asked throughout every culture and age. It provides the answer that sets us free from the uncertainty of our place in the world and declares the privilege of our existence.

WSC Q1: What is the chief end of man?

WSC A1: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

How do we arrive at this answer? Consider the Garden in which Adam and Eve were placed. There they were to walk with God in a land full of gold and precious stones, with glorious food and enjoyable work (Gen 2:7-17). Consider the New Creation where again we will be with God, comforted by him (Rev 7:15-17). And consider the Paul’s urging in 1 Cor 10:31, ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’

What a wonderful message this first question and answer provide. How encouraging that there is a purpose to life! We live in a time where God is dismissed, and therefore purpose is lost. Depression and suicide rates have increased dramatically in our culture despite our freedoms and prosperity. Why? One reason is a lack of purpose.

But despite the hopeless message of the world, the Bible continues to proclaim this hope-filled truth: we have a purpose, and it is good. It is full of joy, serving the God who made us and gave us so much. Worshipping him who made a world full of beauty and variety, rather than stale and boring. What it looks like to achieve our purpose takes the whole WSC to flesh out, but what an encouraging summary we have.

Longing for His Voice

How can we hear God’s voice? Where can we find it? These are questions that many Christians ask. We long to be like Abraham, who heard God speak with his ears, like Jacob with his dream, or like Moses at the burning bush. We long for that personal word, the one that speaks directly to our situation, gives specific guidance, assures us of love, and any number of possibilities.

We read Hebrews 1:1 wishing that it would happen to us too: ‘Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.’ We wish we could be prophets hearing from God in varied ways, or that there would be a modern prophet. Some may even feel there is something wrong because they haven’t experienced this.

But that should fall away as we continue reading: ‘but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.’ This is the situation of every Christian through the ages – these are the last days, and in these days there has been a revelation.

In the past God spoke at many times and in various ways, now he has spoken in the definitive way – by his Son. Who is this Son? The heir of all things, who made the world. He’s the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (v2). What more could God reveal to us than has already been revealed through him?

How can we hear from God? Through Christ, revealed in his Word. It is in God’s Word that he still speaks – not a new revelation, but an always relevant revelation (see Hebrews 3:7). God’s Word is sufficient, and satisfying. Why would we want more?

The way to God

‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God’ (1 Pet 3:18).

There are many opinions on how people can come to God. The more religious opinion is that you must work hard to balance the scales between your bad and good deeds. Every day is spent striving to be better than the one before, and spent worrying about the sins you committed. Whether you’re Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, or anything else, coming to God is based upon our works. Tragically, because it’s based on our performance, there can never be any assurance that we have done enough.

The more secular, or loosely religious, opinion (if they accept a God), is that coming to God is easy. It’s the belief that God will accept us (almost) no matter what we’ve done. His standards aren’t so high as those religious fundamentalists always suggest, he knows we’re not perfect, and he accepts us as we are.

But neither opinion is helpful, because both misrepresent God’s standards and our ability to reach them. God is holy, and he expects his people to be holy. He will accept nothing less than moral perfection. Despite what the secular/loosely religious thinks, God will not just brush off our sin like it’s nothing. This is a standard none of us can reach. We are all sinful, and a lifetime of good works will never outweigh one sin.

But there is a way, not earned by us, but provided by God. In his mercy he sent Christ who suffered for sins. By his death on the cross he bore the punishment for sin. He died for sinners, the unrighteous. Coming to God is a gift for those who trust Christ. This is a revolutionary message for us to proclaim.

Will you believe?

‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him’ (John 3:36).

The Bible presents all people with a stark choice between two options. Only two. Will we believe in the Son, or not? Will we obey him, or not? And this choice divides humanity.

Of course, this choice isn’t what the world around us is insulted by. It’s the stated outcome of each choice that gets people up in arms. Believing in Jesus results in eternal life, but disobedience to the call to believe results in God’s wrath, judgement and hell.

This is unacceptable to our society, and illogical to a world that is increasingly moving away from believing in a binary, believing things are either A or B, and there is and nothing in between.

There were numerous times when I was in university ministry, presenting this verse to people. I would ask them which they were – were they believing in Jesus, or not? Were they living God’s way, having trusted in Jesus, submitting to him as King, and repented of sin? Or were they living their own way?

Repeatedly, people would say they were in the middle. They could see that the preferable option from this verse was to believe, because that resulted in life. But they were convinced they could have life without submitting to Jesus. So, they thought, they were in between. Not trusting in Jesus but getting life instead of wrath.

When we present the truth of the gospel to our neighbours, this is one belief we must undermine. You can’t be half pregnant. You either are or not. Binaries exist. Truth exists. You either have Jesus, or you face God’s wrath. What an important message we have.

Death or life

Death. It’s an event that fills people with fear, uncertainty and grief. Many around us are desperate to shut their eyes to it. While we include it in movies and TV shows to attempt to lessen our fear, we avoid thinking seriously about it as much as possible.

The way we deal with death is vastly different from our past. Death has been placed in the hands of the funeral industry. Caskets are closed. Funerals are a celebration of life but no longer also a time to mourn their loss.

But, as always, the Bible refuses to let us hide from the truth. Death is not merely a tragedy. As Paul says in Romans 6:23, ‘For the wages of sin is death.’ No matter how far we run, death is coming. It is the judgement of a holy God against sinners. All of us have rebelled against this life-giving God, which led to the entirely appropriate judicial sentence of death.

This is why we fear death. We know it is wrong, an intruder on what should be our experience of this world. We have an innate sense that we should live forever, which expresses itself in beauty products and medical technology.

Death is the wages that all of us are owed and will one day pay. But Paul continues in Romans 6:23, ‘But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Here is our hope. This is what a world full of people ignoring the realities of death need to hear. We all deserve death, but we can escape it. God in his mercy has provided a way. In Christ he died our death, so we could have life. But only if we are in Christ. What a story we have to tell the nations.

The only answer

Anyone who’s spent more than a second really thinking about life in this world knows there is something wrong. Live long enough and everyone’s experience is full of pain and heartbreak.

After recognising this pain, our question becomes, ‘how can it be fixed?’ We look to education and we wonder, if it were better would all the ills within society and me be eradicated?

One of our society’s greatest problems is that we don’t stop long enough to really consider what the cause of our problem is. This means that the ‘solutions’ will never be appropriate.

We must turn to the Bible to understand what the cause of our pain and heartbreak is, because it is there that God speaks and reveals what we would prefer hidden. And in the Bible, we find that the cause of our problems is sin; our own and others’.

And because we are the problem, we can’t be the solution. Anything we do will only continue to exacerbate the problem. More education only results in smarter sinners. Technology relieves some pain but is used to inflict other kinds of pain. We need someone else to deal with the cause (our sin) so the symptoms (our suffering) can be alleviated.

And that’s what God did. The whole of the Old Testament was promising and leading up to the solution, until finally we see Jesus on the cross. Taking our sin upon himself he cries, ‘It is finished,’ (John 19:30).

It could be said the cross was stage 1 of the inoculation; stage 2 is Christ’s return, when not only is sin forgiven but is completely removed along with its ill-effects. For those desperate for a world free of suffering we have an important message; ‘come to Jesus.’ He is the only solution to our problem.

What love!

One of the most beloved verses in the Bible is John 3:16. They are waters that the youngest child can paddle in, and yet the most mature Christian never reach the bottom. And they are words in which the unbeliever could find life, if only we shared it with them.

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

God loved the world. Incredible! This is the world that had rejected him and hadn’t recognised him when he came in the flesh. This world was dark, with no knowledge of God, and no desire to know him either. Yet, God loved the world. He loved us.

Why did he love us? Not because we were lovable! Our hearts, our inner being, was totally corrupted by sin. Sin oozed out of every thought, word and action. We worshipped and served created things, living for them even when outwardly it seemed we were doing the right thing.

Yet he loved us, and his love led to him giving his Son. The Son who had been with the Father for all eternity, who had never rebelled but had only honoured and adored his Father, was given up for the rebellious and rotten world. This love is beyond comprehension.

This Son was given over to die, so that those who believe in him wouldn’t perish themselves, but instead would find eternal life. In Jesus’ death he takes the punishment, shame, guilt, anger of God which our sin brought on ourselves. In him we have the offer of eternal joy and peace, eternal life with God.

God loved the world, gave his Son, and offers eternal life. This is our message. Who can you share that with this week?

The Greatest Servant

Can you imagine the Queen cleaning a toilet? The very idea might be scandalous to some. The Head of the Commonwealth could hardly be expected to clean the toilets of her palace. That is a job for servants, and those without servants!

And yet, one far greater than the Queen has come who did something far more shocking. The Son of Man came, that glorious figure in Daniel 7:13-14. The ruler, not only of a nation, or a Commonwealth of nations, but of all peoples, nations and languages. The Great King came.

What did this Glorious One come to do? In his own words: ‘For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).

He didn’t come expecting the people to bow before him. He didn’t come to show his splendour and have the crowds grovel at his feet. Instead, he came to serve.

But what does it mean that he came to serve? He came to give his life as a ransom for many. Our rebellion against God had made us debtors to him, and we would pay with our lives. His judgement was inescapable and terrifying.

And Christ came to be the ransom, to pay the price we couldn’t so we could go free. The Glorious One came to serve, to die for many. The one who is most holy and pure came to have our filthy sin placed on him and to suffer in our place.

This is the shocking gospel we have to tell. To a society that prizes self-sufficiency, they must come relying on the work of another. To a world that dismisses the horror of sin, they must see its dreadful cost, and come in faith and repentance.

Peace through chastisement

The Bible is unique. Though written over many generations by many different authors, there is one unified story. It’s the story of God’s work to save his people from their sin. How ready are you to explain this gospel to any who’d ask you ‘for a reason for the hope that is in you’ (1 Pet 3:15)?

Wondrously, because the Bible is a unified story there are numerous verses that act as glorious summaries of that good news and are enormously helpful in proclaiming that good news to others. One of those is Isaiah 53:5.

‘But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities’ – This was written 800 years before Christ’s birth, yet it could have been written by the apostles themselves. A man would act as a substitute. The painful reality that so many want to ignore is that we have all transgressed God’s holy law. We have sinned and are full of iniquity. We all deserve God’s holy justice.

But Jesus was pierced for us. He suffered on our behalf. It’s the tragic news of the gospel, that someone needed to die. It’s also joyous news, because Christ was willingly crushed for us.

‘Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.’ The good news of the gospel is not only that the punishment for sin has been borne by Christ, but also that through him we have incredible blessings. We now have peace with God; something that was impossible while we still carried our guilt. That rupture in the relationship has finally been healed because Christ suffered those wounds.

The good news of the gospel is simple: Christ died our death that we could have life with God. Who could you share that message with today?