R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 34

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Since Everyone Knows God (Rom. 1:18–23), How Does That Affect Our Defense of the Faith?

The denial of God's existence is ultimately a moral issue, not an intellectual one. From one of our Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul examines how our defense of the Christian faith is informed by the fact that God has made Himself known to everyone on earth (Rom. 1:18–23).

Do you have a biblical or theological question? We invite you to ask Ligonier.

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Rejoice Always

Do you know what the shortest verse in the New Testament is? The obvious answer is John 11:35: "Jesus wept." It is the shortest verse in our English translations of the Bible. But the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is 1 Thessalonians 5:16: "Rejoice always." It is a little verse with big implications.

The word "rejoice" is a call to joy. The term was a watchword among early Christians. More than a term of worship, it was a word of salutation. Jesus used it as a greeting (Matt. 28:9). Paul used it as a farewell (2 Cor. 13:11). We typically greet one another with "Hello" or "Goodbye." But what an encouragement it would be if we entered and departed one another's presence with a call to rejoice.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul exhorts the saints to rejoice. It is a command, which makes it clear that joy is more than happiness. Happiness is an emotional response to favorable, pleasant, or rewarding circumstances. You cannot compel a person to be happy. It's based on what happens to a person. But Christians are commanded by God to rejoice. This command to rejoice is in the present tense. It means "keep on rejoicing." This makes 1 Thessalonians 5:16 a hard command. This divine mandate would be easier to swallow if it simply directed us to rejoice. Indeed, there are many times, reasons, and occasions that call for rejoicing. But the command is to rejoice always, not only sometimes. How does the Christian rejoice always?

First Thessalonians 5:16–18 features what have been called "the standing orders of the gospel." These exhortations apply to all Christians in every place and every situation. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." These commands may be familiar. But the justification for the commands is often overlooked: "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Do we want to know God's will for us in any situation? It is God's will that we rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. We are in spiritual rebellion if we are not joyful, prayerful, and thankful. God's will for our lives is about more than the circumstances we face. It is about how we respond to those circumstances.

It is the will of God for us to rejoice always. But obedience to this command is not accomplished by an act of the will. It is only accomplished by faith in Christ. The believer's unceasing rejoicing is the will of God for us "in Christ Jesus." This is the key to the life of rejoicing. Unsaved people do not rejoice in God, pray to God, or give thanks to God. Religious people rejoice sometimes, pray when they feel like it, and give thanks when things are going well. But Christians rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. This is not the believer's response because we are impervious to life's dangers, toils, and snares. It is our response to life because we are in Christ Jesus.

As the Lord Jesus concluded the Upper Room Discourse, He gave a provocative explanation for these final instructions He gave to the disciples: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The Lord wants His disciples to live in peace. But true peace is not the absence of negative, painful, or difficult realities. The fact is that disciples of Christ will have tribulations in this world. We are not exempt from trouble because we are in Christ. To the contrary, following Jesus will bring faith-testing, soul-burdening, and life-threatening pressures. Sickness. Heartbreak. Persecution. Rejection. Disappointment. Loss. We will even face death itself. Yet, we can take heart in the midst of it all because Christ has overcome the world.

Here are two essential things that you as a follower of Christ need to know about the world. First, the world is filled with tribulation. But, second and more importantly, it is conquered tribulation. The Lord has overcome the world. This bold declaration of sovereign authority is not a post-resurrection claim. Before the cross, with all its moral injustice, physical suffering, and spiritual agony, Jesus had already overcome the world. The One who was crucified for our sins rose again to declare, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matt. 28:18).

The tribulations of life are inevitable. But they do not have the last word. The crucified and risen Christ is the world conqueror. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns over heaven and earth. This includes all of the blessings and burdens of your private world. Rejoice in this glorious truth now and forever.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

The Book of Romans and Its Impact on the Church

The book of Romans provides a careful exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul highlights how this New Testament letter has been used by God to bring conversion and awakening to His people throughout church history.

Transcript:

When we think of the book of Romans, we think first of all of the impact that it has had in the life of the church. We think, for example, of Augustine himself, who had already distinguished himself as an extraordinarily brilliant philosopher. But he had equally distinguished himself as a profligate soul who was living a wild and licentious life until, at the beckoning of children, he picked up a book and just let it fall open. And his eyes came upon a text. And as he read this text, his life was turned upside down as God the Holy Spirit used the words of that text to pierce his soul and transform him to the saint that he became. The book that God used to quicken the soul of Augustine was the book of Romans.

We remember John Wesley giving his testimony to his powerful conversion experience, as he listened to a sermon at Alder’s Gate, where, during the sermon, he said he felt his heart strangely warmed. And the sermon that night was from the book of Romans.

When we think of the agonizing struggle of an Augustinian monk in Germany, who sought desperately in every corner of the church to find peace and assurance of salvation in something that would soothe his conscience from the assault of the law of God that left him, as it were, hanging, suspended by his own testimony over the pit of hell. This scholar, one evening in the tower, was preparing lectures. And as he was doing research into the lectures that he would give on the morrow, he came to an illumined understanding of the Word of God that would change the course of his life and the course of all church history. When Martin Luther came to a fresh understanding of the book of Romans, he said, “When I understood this text,” he said, “the doors of paradise swung open, and I walked through.” It was the book of Romans that awakened Luther to the doctrine of justification by faith alone and persuaded him that this was the article upon which the church stands or falls. As a result of that experience, the book of Romans became the central point of theological controversy in the sixteenth century and became known as the “book of the Reformation.”

Now in the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul gives us his most careful exposition of the gospel itself. The thematic statement of the whole epistle is found in the first chapter, when Paul talks about his own conviction of being a debtor, both to the Jew and to the Greek, to the learned and to the unlearned, that he had this mission to proclaim the gospel to everyone. For in the gospel, which he said was “the power of God unto salvation,” is revealed “the righteousness of God,” which is by faith—not that righteousness by which God himself is internally just and perfect, but that righteousness that is now being made available to those who lack their own righteousness, the righteousness that comes to us as the gift of God as it is given to us from Christ Himself. And the Apostle says, quoting Habakkuk, “For the just shall live by faith,” and that’s the central motif of Romans.

 

How Should Christians Relate to the Law of Moses?

What role does the law of Moses play in the life of a Christian? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Derek Thomas articulates how the Mosaic law relates to our lives today.

If you have a biblical or theological question, just visit ask.Ligonier.org to ask your question live online.

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Twenty-One Reasons That the Handwriting Is on the Wall for the Abortion Industry

Forty-eight years ago, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision overturned legal restrictions on and prohibitions of abortion in all fifty states. It simultaneously laid the groundwork for what has become a multibillion-dollar global abortion industry.

Today though, the industry is in trouble. Big trouble. Of course, that fact is hardly apparent to the casual observer. In fact, the grisly trade seems to be more powerful, more influential, and more relevant than ever before. Utilizing its considerable wealth, manpower, and influence, the “pro-choice” movement has proven to be adept at muscling its way into virtually every facet of modern life. It now plays a strategic role in the health and social services community. It exerts a major influence on education, providing the majority of sex education curricula and programs in both public and private schools. It carries considerable political clout through lobbying, legislation, campaigning, advocacy, and litigation. It has a tenured position in the new administration in Washington. It is involved in publishing, broadcast media production, judicial activism, public relations, foreign aid, psychological research counseling, sociological planning, demographic investigation, pharmacological development, contraceptive distribution and sales, mass advertising, and public legal service provision.

Thanks to the abortion industry’s cavernously deep corporate pockets and its carefully crafted public relations efforts, it appears to enjoy wide popular acclaim for the provision of “effective and professional social services for the needy.”1 It seems to have manufactured for itself a sterling reputation for its development of what it advertises as “honest and insightful reality-based educational programs” for the young.2 It has conjured up high marks for its supposed advocacy of “low-cost, universally available counseling and health care services for women.”3 By all outward appearances, the business has become a kind of modern sociopolitical leviathan.

Despite this, the abortion industry is in trouble.

According to historian Hilaire Belloc, “It is often so with institutions already undermined; they are at their most splendid external phase when they are ripe for downfall.” Because it is indeed ripe for downfall, the abortion industry’s considerable political heft; its seemingly bottomless fiscal war chest; its enormous prestige; and its benign, American-as-apple-pie reputation have failed to shield it from a good deal of very troublesome controversy of late.

At least part of the reason may be the very nature of the abortion business itself—along with the inevitable fallout that accompanies it. Consider these twenty-one portents.

Business is actually declining—by as much as 37 percent over the last decade. And make no mistake: the abortion business is first and foremost a business. The steady erosion of the abortion business is likely due to a host of factors. But the effect is that vast abortion purveyors have become more and more dependent on government grants, bequests, and contracts. In addition, the industry has been hit by successive waves of negative publicity. During the summer and fall of 2015, a series of undercover videos revealed the true nature of the grisly abortion trade. Planned Parenthood, the oldest, largest, and best-organized provider of abortion services and the world’s most profitable nonprofit organization, scandalized the nation as its brutal, callous, and brazen practices were graphically exposed. Even many supporters of a woman’s “right to choose” were shaken by the spectral horror of baby parts for sale juxtaposed in the videos with a flippant commercial disregard for the health and safety of women.

As a result, though the politically protected international abortion business has grown into a massive multibillion-dollar industrial complex, its business is more divisive and polarizing than ever. A great divide persists. Public opinion polls conducted in the aftermath of the Planned Parenthood scandal found that 55 percent of Americans now call themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion while only 38 percent are willing to call themselves “pro-choice.” And just over 60 percent of those polled favored congressional and state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, which would strip the organization of its massive taxpayer largesse.

In 2011, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a prominent abortion provider in Philadelphia, was charged with three counts of capital murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, twenty-four counts of felony violations of late-term abortion restrictions, and 227 misdemeanor counts. Over the course of his career, Gosnell faced forty-six malpractice lawsuits and had been censured by both the New York and Pennsylvania departments of health. Nevertheless, he was allowed to operate his business for years in what prosecutors described as “filthy,” “deplorable,” “unsanitary,” and “outdated” facilities in three states. In 2013, Gosnell was finally convicted of first-degree murder.

But these PR disasters actually only accelerated a trend that was already gaining momentum. In 2005, 59 percent of respondents agreed it would be good to reduce abortions. Five years later, more than 65 percent took this view, an increase of 6 points. Another poll taken before the Planned Parenthood scandal found that fewer Americans overall and fewer pro-life advocates were willing to compromise on abortion by finding some middle ground. Indeed, support for finding a middle ground on the abortion issue was already down 12 points among conservatives and 6 percent among all Americans.

Although abortion is heralded by the industry lobby as both “safe and legal,” it has become increasingly apparent that abortion is merely “legal.” The complications of this, the most commonly performed medical procedure in America today, are legion. They include sterility, which occurs in as many as 25 percent of all women receiving mid-trimester abortions; hemorrhaging, as nearly 10 percent of all cases require transfusions; viral hepatitis, which occurs in 10 percent of all those transfused; embolism, which occurs in as many as 4 percent of all cases; cervical laceration; pelvic inflammatory disease; genital tract infection; cardiorespiratory arrest; acute kidney failure; and amniotic fluid embolus.

As a result of these sundry complications, women in America have seen a massive increase in the cost of medical care. While the average cost of normal health maintenance for men has increased nearly 12 percent over the past fifteen years due to inflation, the average cost for women has skyrocketed a full 27 percent. And although the data is not yet complete, it appears that federally mandated healthcare reform has only exacerbated the crisis even more.

Revelations about deliberately suppressed research data on various procedural risks—particularly concerning the established links between abortion and breast cancer—have raised new questions about the industry’s medical objectivity and professional integrity.

New clinical evidence exposing the grave hazards of several of the other forms of treatment championed by the industry—from the deleterious effects of the RU-486 abortion drug and the Norplant contraceptive surgery to the inherent risks and complications in the use of intrauterine devices (IUDs)—has raised the specter of “wholesale institutional quackery.”

The shadow over the industry’s iatrogenic carelessness has been further darkened by the industry’s enthusiastic defense of the horrifying second trimester “dilation and extraction” surgical procedure—commonly known as D&X or “partial birth” abortion.

In addition, the industry has staked its tenuous reputation on the therapeutic usefulness of two very dangerous new chemical treatments—the Depo-Provera long-term contraceptive injection and the methotrexate-misoprostol abortifacient. Both drugs present grave hazards to women’s health, according to a battery of recent clinical tests.

A spate of medical malpractice lawsuits from botched abortions has intensified the industry’s already looming insurability crisis.

At the same time, the cultural and political stigmatization of abortion providers has dramatically reduced the number of qualified physicians willing to serve them. As a result, many clinics have been forced to rely on less adequately trained personnel—nurse practitioners and doctors who more often than not have failed in private or institutional practices. Or they have had to fly in unscrupulous doctors-for-hire one day a week (for instance, for several years Gosnell commuted from Pennsylvania to Louisiana on a weekly basis).

Horrifying new evidence of barbaric human-rights violations—including forced abortions, coercive sterilizations, and torturous disfigurement—associated with the Planned Parenthood-designed population program in Communist China has cast an ominous shadow over the industry’s innumerable other tax-funded international activities.

Not surprisingly, the bridling of information about viable alternatives to the abortion industry’s clinical, educational, and surgical services has provoked the wrath of a variety of healthcare consumer advocates.

Parents, outraged at the promiscuity-promoting content of the abortion industry’s affiliated sex-education materials, AIDS awareness programs, and community advocacy projects, have begun to organize grassroots efforts to bar organizations such as Planned Parenthood from schools, charitable networks, and civic coalitions in communities all across the United States.

Several punitive lawsuits initiated by the abortion industry—filed in an effort to close down pro-life adoption agencies and abortion-alternative crisis pregnancy centers—have begun to reinforce a perception that the organization is more concerned with the ideological enforcement of its agenda than with the health and welfare of its clients.

A series of negative public-relations campaigns launched by the well-heeled abortion lobby—against cultural conservatives in general and Christian conservatives in particular—has highlighted the industry’s immoderate aims and set the standard for the increasingly shrill rhetoric and hysterical extremism of the pro-abortion movement.

Conflict-of-interest accusations have begun to circulate in Washington concerning the cozy relationships between certain past and present federal officials and the industry’s voluble lobbyists on Capitol Hill. The selection of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the new Biden administration is a case in point. In the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, the president has selected as his administration’s top health official a man who has no experience in the healthcare sector. What California’s top lawyer does have is plenty of experience marshalling the forces of the state to crush religious dissenters, pro-life pregnancy counselors, local churches, and independent journalists.

A backlash against the massively expensive, inefficient, and unpopular federal healthcare-reform legislation passed in early 2010 not only has brought renewed support for pro-life organizations, crisis pregnancy centers, and principled politicians, but it has also brought renewed scrutiny to the grisly abortion trade. New calls to enforce existing laws and enact stricter new ones bode ill for the industry’s plans for growth and expansion.

In the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, Planned Parenthood found itself unable to escape the racist taint of its founder, Margaret Sanger. Indeed, the whole reason the organization was established, and the basis of its abortion advocacy, was an attempt to rid the world of “human weeds.” A leading exponent of the pseudoscience of eugenics—an intellectualized racism rooted in social Darwinism—she quipped in her 1938 autobiography: “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan. I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak. In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.” She argued for “the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks—those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.” Nevertheless, she confessed, “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Despite this undeniably deplorable past, Planned Parenthood was able to deflect criticism of Sanger for decades. Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Blackmun, and a host of others have been honored with the organization’s Margaret Sanger Award. But in 2020, no longer able to run or hide, the organization acknowledged its founding legacy and removed Sanger’s name from its programs, institutions, and facilities.

In short, one scandal after another has hit the abortion industry, its medical personnel, its educators, its researchers, its lobbyists, and its administrators. As a result, its Teflon reputation is starting to wear a little thin and its “grand illusion” has begun to lose its luster.

But the single greatest and most obvious reason why the abortion industry is in trouble, the reason its time is quickly running out, is simply that there is a God in heaven. Though long-suffering and patient, He does not long bear with brazen wickedness. Nations, cultures, institutions, powers, and principalities will all come under the bar of His righteous justice. “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).

Belshazzar, the son and heir of Nebuchadnezzar, was hosting a great succession feast when the celebrations were interrupted by mysterious handwriting inscribed on the walls of the royal banquet hall. The young king’s soothsayers were unable to interpret the message, and so the Jewish prophet Daniel was called upon to decipher it. After he reminded the court of God’s providential blessing on Nebuchadnezzar and the perils of abandoning his legacy with their profligate idolatry, he solved the riddle, saying: “This is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 5:25–28).

It is not an unreasonable stretch of the metaphor to assert that after forty-eight years, the handwriting is finally on the wall for the abortion industry—and for our culture, which has for far too long tolerated it. Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.

Dr. George Grant is the pastor of Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tenn., and the author of several pro-life books, including The Light of Life, Killer Angel, and Grand Illusions.

1 George Grant, Immaculate Deception: The Shifting Agenda of Planned Parenthood, p. 18.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., p. 19.

Remember, you can always download Dr. R.C. Sproul’s ebook Abortion for free. As he addresses one of the greatest ethical dilemmas of our age, Dr. Sproul effectively defends the sanctity of human life from its earliest stages, providing well-considered and compassionate answers to the difficult questions surrounding this topic.

$5 Friday (And More): Theology, Grace, and the Prodigal Son

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as theology, grace, the prodigal son, the Great Commission, the Beatitudes, Jonah, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

The Christ of Wisdom by O. Palmer Robertson, Paperback book $20 $14 City of God by Saint Augustine, Paperback book $18 $12 Good News: The Gospel of Jesus Christ by John MacArthur, Hardcover book $15 $8 By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson, Hardcover book $18 $10 Ichthus: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Saviour , Paperback book $13 $9And More

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m.–11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

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The Context of the Westminster Assembly

Here’s an excerpt from The Context of the Westminster Assembly, Greg A. Salazar's contribution to the December issue of Tabletalk:

For those who love theology, the temptation can be strong to bypass the assembly’s historical context and to focus on interpreting and applying its doctrinal truths to the contemporary church. Grasping the historical context can be perceived as a necessary evil endured for the sake of appeasing church historians. However, understanding the historical context is integral, not incidental, for a full and robust interpretation, exposition, and application of the confessional, catechetical, and ecclesiastical documents that arose from the Westminster Assembly. Indeed, without an understanding of the assembly’s context, these confessional documents are easily misinterpreted, and the richest of components of these confessional formulations are certainly overlooked. This article will explore the historical context of the Westminster Assembly and end with three reasons why all those who draw on the standards and want to understand their theology should continue studying the assembly’s historical context.

Continue reading The Context of the Westminster Assembly, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

It's Not Enough to Have a True Theology

Christians are called to not only know the truth, but also to act on the truth that has been revealed to them through God's grace. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul explains how the truth should affect our lives today.

Transcript:

But we’re called to be people of the truth. And it’s not enough to have a true theology. We’re called to do the truth, so that our word means something. So, what higher compliment could you receive at the end of your life that to have somebody say, “I knew that person, and the one thing about that person is I could trust them”? How many people do you know that you could trust with your life? The only person I have ever met in my whole life who has never lied to me in any way is Jesus, because He is the truth. Do you realize that our unbelief, when we stagger in our faith, how insulting that is to God? What we’re doing is that we learn from each other that words are not always to be trusted. And we project upon the character of God the same lack of integrity that attends our own word. Jesus said this: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God.” Why did He say it? Because He said something else: “Thy Word is truth.”

 

An Illustration of Repentance

The Westminster Shorter Catechism has an excellent definition of repentance in Question 87: "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience."

In the heat of the Christian life, however, that definition may seem more theoretical than practical, not particularly helpful when seeking to live a life of repentance (See the first of Martin Luther's 95 Theses: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent" (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.) We recognize that repentance is a grace. That is, it is a gift from God. It is not something we work up for ourselves. It is not turning over a new leaf. It is a turning away from sin and a turning to God that is fueled, as it were, by the Spirit of God at work within us.

We all recognize that the first act of repentance is only the beginning. We recognize that sins must be mortified. We recognize that there is the problem of indwelling sin in the life of the believer. But I suspect that we don't often attach repentance to these things. In part, this may be because we do not have a sense of what repentance looks like when God is working repentance in us.

Perhaps an illustration will help. Imagine repentance as a man walking in one direction who suddenly realizes that he is walking in the opposite direction from which he should be walking. He stops. He turns around. Then he begins walking in the new direction. It is a quick and simple process. He realizes. He stops. He turns. But imagine someone on a bicycle realizing he is going the wrong direction. In one sense, it is still obvious. He stops. He turns around. He begins bicycling in the new direction. But it is a longer process. He has to come to a stop. Depending on his speed, that may take some time. The turning around also takes longer. And it takes longer to get up to full speed in the new direction. The process is the same for a man in a car. But it takes longer than for the man on the bike, and it may require going somewhat out of his way before he gets back on the right track. The process is the same for a man in a speed boat. He has to slow down, enter the turn, and come back. But the time and distance required to do so is much longer than what was required for the man walking. Now imagine that the man is piloting a supertanker. It takes him miles to slow the ship down enough to even begin to make the turn. The turn itself is immense, taking him quite a distance from his intended course. Then again it also takes a large amount of time to get up to full speed in the new direction.

Now apply the images to repentance. Some sins are small and easy. We stop and walk the other way. Some sins, like the bicycle, are a little more difficult. In God's work in the believer, He takes a little time to bring the believer to an awareness that his course is actually a sinful one. Then there is the process of coming to a stop, the process of the turn itself, and the process of getting up to speed in faithfulness. But some sins are enormous. We may not be aware that they really are sins. Or they may be so deeply ingrained in us that we are not willing, at first, to recognize them as sins. God works patiently with us, carefully slowing us down, as the captain does with the ship, so that He can bring us through the turn and into the new direction, where He can bring us up to full speed.

There are two things that I find helpful about this illustration. First is the fact that God does not work repentance in us instantaneously, but over time. So the awareness of sin and the desire to change come gradually. God brings us, as it were, to a full stop slowly and carefully. So there are going to be many slips and falls on the way to that stopping point. The second thing has to do with the turning itself. In the image of the ship turning, there is a long time when the ship is neither on the old course, nor on the new course but, as it were, dead in the water. So it may well be in the life of the Christian. The sin has been admitted. The slips and falls have gotten fewer. But there seems to be little progress. We seem to be dead in the water. At that point, we are in the turn. Speed will pick up. Godliness will grow. But it will do so slowly, as God patiently works with us.

So if you have prayed for repentance for some particular sin, and there has been no instantaneous change, keep praying. God has promised to work, and He will. And you will be glad in the end that He did it slowly and carefully.

Benjamin Shawn is professor of Old Testament at Reformation Bible College.