Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 51

Maintaining Joy & Fellowship

1 Jn. 1:1-10

Introduction
Confession of sin is the oil that keeps the engine of fellowship running smoothly. But biblically speaking, fellowship is not merely the absence of trouble, it is also a fullness of joy.

Summary of the Text
John begins his letter testifying that he and the other apostles have witnessed the “word of life,” which is that eternal life that was with the Father (1:1-2). It’s that word of life that they have declared, so that all who hear may have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and fullness of joy (1:3-4). The message is that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1:5). So John lines up these concepts: fellowship, joy, light, and truth such that those who say they have fellowship with God but walk in darkness are liars (1:6). But those who walk in the light are in the light with God and with everyone else in the light, which is fellowship, and the blood of Jesus washes away all their sins (1:7). But that way of being in the light and in fellowship (and in that joy) is the only way: those who say they have no sin and don’t need cleansing are liars and self-deceived (1:8). Those who confess their sins are forgiven and washed completely clean (1:9). Those who insist they have no sin are also lying about God, and they don’t have His word in them: the word of life, the word of fellowship and joy (1:10). 

Getting into the Light
God is light, and sin is darkness. Therefore, whenever we find ourselves in a tangle of hurt feelings, critical spirits, broken trust, frustration, bitterness, and general unrest, the solution is confession of sin. But this really must start with each individual taking care of their own contributions first because sin means it’s dark and we can’t see clearly. “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5). This is true in the home with mom and dad and in the church with elders (Gal. 6:1).

Or to use another image from our text, sin is like mud all over your windshield and windows, and confession of your own sin is like running your car through an automatic car wash. In other words, following the pattern of the apostles, you cannot share true Christian fellowship with anyone else until you first have fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 1:1-3). Are you right with God? And like the apostles, this really must be an experienced fellowship, full of joy. This means you must recognize that all of your sin is first of all a great offense to God. Generally, if things are out of sorts with your spouse or kids, things are not thriving with God. 

Walking in the Light
Notice that walking in the light doesn’t mean you don’t sin anymore (1:7). Rather, when you walk in the light, the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing (1:7). How does it do that? By confession of sin (1 Jn. 1:9). So, you get into the light of fellowship and joy of the Father by believing in Christ, and that always results in confessing your sins and being forgiven, and you stay in the joy of Christian fellowship by confessing your sins (Ps. 51:12). It’s important to note that justification is not affected by confession of sin, but someone’s experience of the joy of justification can certainly be affected (Ps. 32:3-4) and someone who steadfastly refuses to confess sin ought to seriously question whether they really are justified (1. Jn. 1:8, 10, Jn. 9:39). 

If a Christian lets sin go unconfessed it can get pretty dim and dark, but if you make a habit of confessing sins right away, you barely notice a flicker, and you will walk in the light as He is in the light (1:7). This is why families should have commitments not to let sin go unaddressed. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath; do not give any place to the devil (Eph. 4:26-27). Jesus made a similar point when he required us to leave our gift at the altar and be reconciled to our brothers (Mt. 5:24). Get right first. If you got out of fellowship on the way to church, do not go in to church until you have made it right. Don’t leave, don’t fellowship with others until you’ve made things right with your spouse, children, parents, or siblings. If you make a habit of making things right, right away, you can put it right just as fast (or faster) than you made it wrong. 

How To Make It Right: Confess & Forgive
The word “confess” literally means to “agree with.” And in the first place, confession means agreeing with God, agreeing with His word that you have sinned with no excuses or blaming. Jesus bled and died for your sin, and that means it was blatant, willful, and on purpose. Secondly, confession means naming your sin what God names it. Christian confession of sin isn’t a mumbled, “sorry” or “my bad” or “I didn’t mean it” or “I don’t know what came over me.” Name your sin biblically: it’s lying or lust or anger or disrespect or stealing or adultery or whatever God calls it. A biblical confession of sin names the sin, admits that it was wrong, and asks for forgiveness. The promise of God is the ground of Christian joy: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). And perhaps the most glorious word in that promise is the word “all.” We confess the sins we know about, and God cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We are like little kids who have been playing in the mud, covered head to toe, and we suddenly notice that we have mud on our hands. We rush to the house and ask our Dad to wash our dirty hands, and He, smiling, throws us into the bath. It’s this generosity that makes a Christian joyful, and it’s this generosity that teaches us to forgive, as we have been forgiven (Mt. 18:22ff, Eph. 4:32). And just as God’s forgiveness is a sure promise not to hold that sin against us, so too our forgiveness is a promise, not a feeling. Waiting until you feel forgiveness is a good way to cultivate bitterness, but forgiving in obedience is a good way to cultivate true joy. 

It’s also worth pointing out that sometimes we are willing to forgive, but the person who has wronged us has not asked for forgiveness. When possible, you ought to carefully, thoughtfully, and prayerfully seek a conversation with that person (Mt. 18:15). In some instances, you’ve done what you can, but it isn’t the kind of thing that can or should be pursued any further, in those cases you cannot complete the forgiveness “transaction” in terms of restoring fellowship, but like bread baking in the oven, like a present wrapped and waiting by the front door, you should be looking eagerly down the road for them, with forgiveness in your heart, ready to give.   

Conclusion
If there has been any sort of buildup of sin in your life determine now to start confessing and get back into the light, back into fellowship, back into joy. And if there’s a big pile, start with whatever’s right in front of you. It will get lighter and more joyful as you go, and the same faithfulness that forgives all your sin will strengthen you for these good works (Eph. 2:10).

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The Delight of Obedient Children

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:1-3). While this command and promise are directed to children, the following verse addressed to fathers, makes it clear that parents, and fathers in particular, are required to make sure this command is obeyed, and in so doing, become recipients of the promise also. The whole family is blessed when children are obedient. “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother… Correct your son and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul” (Prov. 29:15, 17). 

This is not just talking about “some day” when the kids are all grown and have somehow magically come to their senses and become civilized human beings. That rest and delight for your soul should be starting now. A home that is disciplined according to the word of God is a restful place to be. A home where the children are corrected and required to honor their mother and father is a place the whole family wants to be. But a home where whims and lusts and emotions rule, where children are left to their own devices and parents let them, is an embarrassing and oppressive place to live. 

But you cannot command this peace or delight in your souls to appear. You cannot stamp your feet and holler and spank and expect joy to break out in your home out of nothing. You are not some kind of god. No, that joy and peace must first be settled and abundant in your hearts. It must be spilling out of your mouth, in the tone of your voice, in your laughter at the dinner table, and in your delight over your family, your children, your spouse, and all rooted in the goodness of your Savior. 

Then, correction and discipline are not tyrannical weapons, but rather they are love, insisting that your family stay together in the joy of the Lord, stay in the peace of the gospel. Children will give delight to your soul when the center of everything is God’s delight in You in Jesus, and discipline and correction is merely joyfully guarding that precious treasure. 

Photo by Brandless on Unsplash

Run to the Table

As you know, this is a table of fellowship, a communion table, and this means that it is a weekly communion with Christ and His saints through the bread and wine by the power of His Spirit. But remember that Judas was at the first communion table and what he was doing was not Christian fellowship, and there have been plenty of sons and daughters of Judas at communion tables ever since. 

But Judas doesn’t happen out of nowhere. Being a hypocrite is not some kind of mystical secret. Hypocrisy manifests itself in rotten fruit. Jesus said that we can know someone by their fruit, and most importantly, we can know ourselves. Bramble bushes cannot produce real spiritual fruit. The gospels tell us that Judas had been skimming off the top of the offering box for a while when he decided to betray Jesus. Any kind of honest appraisal of Judas’s life could reveal the hypocrisy. Stealing is kind of a big deal. And it’s right out there in the open. 

So what does that look like? It’s routinely speaking harshly to your wife and kids and defending it, calling it manly, or harping on your husband and kids and calling it concern, or bad mouthing the boss, or taking advantage of your boss and justifying it because he’s been strict or harsh, or letting your eyes and mind lust because you’re just human. It’s defending your sin, justifying your sin, clutching your sin. But you cannot have that sin and this table. What fellowship does light have with darkness? 

And the point is not that sinners cannot be forgiven or welcome here. The point is that unrepentant sinners are being hypocrites by coming here. This is a table of fellowship and communion. This is a table for sinners – there are only sinners here – but it is a table for repentant sinners, for sinners who are running from their sin to Jesus their Savior. If that is you, then you are most welcome. And we don’t care if your sin was hounding you all the way to the door this morning.

If you know you need mercy, then come. If you know you need grace, then come. If you know you are dirty, then come. If you know you are weak, then come. If the thought of having some unconfessed sin makes you sick, come. If you know you have something you need to make right, then determine before God right now that you will go make it right as soon as you can, and come, this table is for you. 

So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.

Photo by Linh Nguyen on Unsplash

Out in the Sunlight

Many marriage squabbles are not really about whatever it was you were squabbling about. Frequently the man thinks it is, and sometimes the woman can convince herself it is, but it almost never is about what’s for dinner, or what you’re doing next week, or the color of the curtains. This doesn’t mean that those things don’t matter; it just means they are fodder for the squabble. But the instructions God gives to husbands and wives really are 98% of the answers. Yes, you’ll still need to figure out that practical question, but if you obey God’s commands, it’s way easier to answer that question in the sunlight of God’s blessing than in the dark and dingy basement of your conflict. 

So what are God’s instructions? They basically amount to one instruction for both of you, and one instruction to each of you. The instruction to husbands is to love your wife, like Christ loved the church and suffered and died for her. Husbands you cannot duplicate the cross, but you have the very clear assignment from the living God to imitate it. This means that you must know your wife well, know what actually weighs on her, and not what you think probably is bothering her or maybe even what she says is bothering her. And you must honor her and cherish her every step of the way, in what you say and how you say it, not despising any weakness.

And the instruction to wives is to respect your husband. This means that you must look up to him, and not down on him. He is not one of the kids; he is not your roommate. He is your lord. Regardless of whether you think he deserves it, the living God has commanded you to honor him. And this means respecting the kind of man that he is. This does not mean respecting his sin, but you must respect his gifts and abilities and interests, and not the ones you wish he had.  

And finally, the instruction given to both of you is to forgive one another as you have been forgiven by Christ. How often have you been forgiven? You can’t count that high. So forgive your spouse seventy times seven. How have you been forgiven? Freely. So freely forgive. How much have you been forgiven? You have been forgiven much. So love much.

Photo by Christian Bowen on Unsplash

Christmas Eve 2019

“Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them” (Lk. 2:20).

We typically focus on our approach to Christmas. We want to prepare for Christmas like Christians, and we want to celebrate Christmas like Christians. But I want to press us one further step and charge you to celebrate with an eye toward returning to your work after Christmas like Christians. Or in other words, we want to celebrate Christmas in such a way as to imitate the shepherds who returned to their flocks and fields, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them. We want to return to our desks and dishes and books and businesses and sinks and studies and tables and tools, glorifying and praising God like the shepherds. So how do we do that? 

There are any number of ways to get tripped up on your way back to work. You can get snagged comparing your Christmas to someone else’s. You can get tangled up in grumpiness about how messy the house is, the kids being boisterous, getting sick, not having your perfect Christmas expectations met, or simply a bad attitude about having to go back to work, back to school, back to routine. 

But at the heart of these different reactions to Christmas, these different responses, is a different politics. The shepherds embody a Christian politics, and our temptations to squabble and complain and bite are an entirely different politics. The difference is found in who is King, who is Lord, who is Master of all. All our petty disputes, bad attitudes, and fussing are basically the protests of a rival kingdom. The throne of that kingdom resides in your chest, in your heart. The great god Me – the great Emperor Ego has reigned long, demanding absolute fealty and obedience. This is my life, my marriage, my family, my house, my money, my reputation, my Christmas, my vacation, my sleep, my food, my health, my time. Fill in the blank. Those are the demands and instincts of the rival kingdom, the kingdom you were born with in your chest.

That is the kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of self. The kingdom of sadness. And into that dark night, the angel of the Lord comes, and the glory of the Lord interrupts. The glory of the Lord shakes the stoutest heart. The glory of the Lord doesn’t care about your holiday plans. The glory of the Lord doesn’t care about your expectations for Christmas break. The glory of the Lord doesn’t care about your petty kingdom of preferences. And the glory of the Lord doesn’t care about those things because the kingdom of self, the kingdom of ego, the kingdom of pride, the kingdom of darkness is a sad and hopeless place full of eternal festering and gnawing. Serving that false kingdom, that empty politics always results in less joy, less peace, less contentment, and the result of that is always the demand for more. The reason you didn’t find happiness the last time you served yourself is because there were other people getting in the way of your plans. The politics of self insists that the reason it didn’t work out last time is because you didn’t give yourself everything you needed to succeed. But into that rat’s nest of lies, the Angel of the Lord says, Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

What is the good tidings of great joy for all people? The king is born. The savior is born. The Lord has come. And this announcement collides with all other claims to authority. Herod knew this and would seek to kill the child. The wise men knew it and travelled far, bringing their extravagant gifts. The shepherds knew it and left their flocks untended that night. The Lordship of Christ trumps all authority. And most importantly, it topples the pride-idol in every human heart. It throws down the mighty ego off of every chest-throne. Who do you think you are? You are like the billions of creatures that have walked this earth with breath in your nostrils, with lavish, golden heartbeats given to you every second. Every son or daughter of Adam is driving a stolen vehicle. That body you have was given to you. This life you are living was a completely unasked-for gift. And you are walking around in it like you own it, like it belongs to you, like you are the lord of it, the master of it. And that is the root cause of all sadness, all heartbreak, all conflict, all violence because living like you are a god means that everyone else is in your way, is a potential threat to your sovereignty, possibly plotting against you. But you are a terrible god. You can’t create anything out of nothing. Your magic tricks are lame. You can barely keep yourself alive for seventy or eighty years, much less raise the dead. You can’t even live up to your own moral standards, much less get many other people to obey you. 

And the Angel of Lord comes into that sadness and sorrow and darkness and conflict, and the glory of the Lord interrupts it all. Christ is born! The Savior is born. Jesus Christ is Lord. So the answer to our original question is what will you do with that? What will you do with that claim, that announcement? Everything rides on that. Or to put it differently, the only way to return like the shepherds, rejoicing and praising God, is to first go to Him and surrender everything to Him. If Christ is Lord then your life is His life, His marriage, His family, His house, His money, His reputation, His Christmas, His vacation, His sleep, His food, His health, His time. This isn’t your body, this isn’t your life – it all belongs to Him. And this is the foundation of all Christian joy. This is what enables Christians to rejoice in all things, to give thanks in all things, to return to whatever it is they are called to, rejoicing and praising God. 

What we are celebrating tonight and tomorrow is the birth of the King of the Universe. And it makes no sense at all to celebrate that while taking all your cues from another king, from a different lord, from your expectations, from Hallmark, from your lusts, from CNN or Fox or Gap or Old Navy or Pinterest or Facebook. This can be no mere intellectual change of mind, though it must include that. It is not enough to acknowledge the existence of Christ the King because the angels say, For unto you is born this day. Unto you. Christ interrupts you, and He interrupts your everything. And therefore He requires a response from you. And the only fitting response is the same as the shepherds: go and see Him. 

Plenty of people gather every Christmas for a nice family time, singing carols, and hearing the story, but they are like shepherds having heard the message of the angels, who stay right where they were out in the fields with their sheep. They get a warm feeling from the angels, but it does not actually change them. And this is why the message from the beginning has been that you must be born again. The kingdom of self that you were born with in your chest will not die unless you die. The kingdom of pride in your chest is a tumor that has dug its way into your spine, and all of your vital organs. The only way that tumor will die is if you die. 

So this is the only way to return glorifying and praising God for all the things you have seen and heard, as it was told. You must see and hear these things for yourself. You must go see Christ. You must see Him for yourself. You must know Him for yourself. And how can you know Him if you do not speak to Him? How can you know Him, if you do not call out to Him. Ask Him to show himself to you. Ask Him to meet with you. Ask Him to be present in all of the festivities. Ask Him to come be with you, wherever you are, whatever is going on in your life. And these is the good news: He is Immanuel, God with us. And so, to say that you must go to Him is to say that He is here. He is already here. He is already with us. He was born. He was crucified for sinners. He was buried. And He is risen. So stop making excuses. Stop putting it off. Go to Him and die in Him. Come to Him and live in Him. He was born so that you might be born again.

Our desks and dishes do not belong to us; they belong to Jesus. Our books and businesses do not belong to us; they belong to Christ. Our sinks and studies are not ours; they are His. Our tables and tools serve the King who was born in Bethlehem. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. And now we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And now we are free. And now we rejoice. 

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The Death of Despair

One of the most hideous lies of Satan is that when you have sinned, it really is too late. Everything is broken, everything is ruined, it cannot be undone. You’ve let people down, they will all despise you, and of course at the heart of it all, is the lie: you cannot really be forgiven. 

The temptation is to despair. Some people walk through this life simply nagged by despair. It’s a constant dripping on a rainy day, a constant voice in the background of every conversation: if they only knew what you have done. It comes to you in sleepless nights, or maybe at what ought to be the happiest moments, reminders of your sin, reminders of things you’ve thought, said, done, or failed to do. 

Other people give in to the temptation to despair with a sort of pagan resolve. They despair, but they face the despair boldly – or so they think. They stiff-upper-lip it; they put on a brave face for the kids, for their spouse, for their parents and friends. They don’t want to spoil the party. But deep down it’s all a show, a façade, because they’re convinced there’s no way out, no way back, no way to make it right. They feel contaminated, dirty, filthy, and deeply hypocritical. 

And so God knew that what His people needed was a regular reminder of the truth. And the truth is proclaimed to you at this table. The truth is that the nagging voice, the deep despair, the accusation that what’s done is done, and there’s nothing you can do are all lies. And they are lies because the thing that must be done in order to undo the curse of sin has been done. It was done 2,000 years ago on a Roman Cross. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. What cannot be done by us, has been done by God in Jesus Christ. 

So look here in faith this morning. Whether it’s something you did many years ago that still haunts you or whether it was something you said or thought this week that you’re afraid has already ruined your Christmas. Look here, and see the death of all despair. Christ died for sin. His body was broken, His blood was shed. He gave His life as a ransom, so that you might go free. Take, eat, drink, and believe.

So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

An Incestuous Offspring

What is envy? Envy is not merely lust or covetousness. Envy is actually the incestuous offspring of covetousness and murder. Envy is the sin that despises what has been given to others and concludes: If I cannot have it, then nobody should have it. Envy can rage with bitterness and resentment at the blessings of others. But envy can also be that slightly sad feeling you get at the success and achievements of others, and often, the success of particular others. Have you ever seen a picture of a happy family, an engagement announcement, a birth announcement, travel announcements, a new job announcement and felt a tinge of sadness? Maybe especially when it’s your roommate, your sister, your brother, your best friend, or those in your field of work who are a little (or lot) ahead of you? That sad feeling is the demon envy inviting you to be disappointed that it wasn’t you, inviting you to resent the gift God gave someone else. 

And that sadness and resentment and disappointment is at its heart murderous. At its heart, envy hates what God has done. Envy hates the one God has blessed. And hatred need not be a full-blown, public temper tantrum. Envy is willing to start out as a small sadness, a simpering self-pity, coddled and protected in the name of you’ve-just-had-a-harder-life, things just don’t go that well for you, you’re just more unlucky, some Christians are just called to suffer. But those are the seeds of murder, whether they ever grow up into anything externally violent or not. 

The Definition of Chalcedon actually speaks to our envy. Because at the root of our envy is a hatred of God, a hatred for what He does, a hatred for how He gives, for who He is. And that hatred fundamentally wants to be God instead of God. It wants God’s throne. But Chalcedon says that our nature cannot change into God’s nature. But that fallen nature, that cursed nature we inherited from Adam, that we have worn like a favorite old shirt, that nature is what God in Christ took on, yet without sin. Christ, as fully man, took on our nature so that as a man, He might take our envy to the cross, so that He might take our hatred, our murder, our bitterness, our resentment, our self-pity to the cross. So that He who knew no sin might become our sin for us, so that God might crush our sin in Him. 

Photo by Ruth Caron on Unsplash

Incarnation & Mysticism

As we have been using the Definition of Chalcedon for our creed during Advent, we have been considering different ways the Definition is foundational for understanding our Christian faith. The Definition of Chalcedon focuses on the person of Christ, being both God and man, united in one person, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. The divine nature and the human nature are not blended together into a soup, but rather the distinction between the two natures is preserved in the one person, Jesus Christ. 

Part of what is at stake in this definition is the nature of knowledge. If humanism is the attempt to deify human nature, mysticism is the attempt of man to at least bridge the human-divine chasm by knowledge. But part of the claim of Chalcedon is that the chasm between Creator and creature is completely unbridgeable by man. Fallen man cannot think his way to God. Fallen man cannot reason his way to God, any more than the builders of Babel had a chance of actually reaching heaven. So how can anyone know God? God must bridge the gap. God must cross the chasm. No man can find God, but God can and does find man. 

Knowledge really is power. God’s omniscience goes together with His omnipotence. He knows all things, and He is all powerful. And therefore, men have always sought out forms of mystical knowledge, trying to trick the world into delivering blessing apart from God. We might call it wizardry or witchcraft or divination or science or technology or theology or liturgy or medicine or nutrition, but all attempts to live in this world apart from God while enjoying the gifts of God are attempts at mysticism. 

Mysticism assumes that there is some secret knowledge, some hidden access to power somewhere apart from Christ that is the key to success. But what Chalcedon insists is that God has revealed Himself fully in the person of Jesus Christ and in His word in the Bible. There is no other secret source of knowledge. There is no other more direct access to the power of God. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. His word is more precious than silver or gold or rubies, and nothing you could desire can be compared with it. The message of the cross is the wisdom and power of God.

Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash

The Precision of Grace

As we begin the Advent season once again, we return to our custom of using the Definition of Chalcedon for our Creed during the service. This definition focuses almost entirely on the two natures of Christ, that Jesus was one person who was both entirely God and entirely man. This is what we call the incarnation, God taking on flesh and becoming a true man. And while this might seem somewhat arcane, it is actually right at the heart of the Christian faith. 

Is the Christian faith a religion of do-gooding or a religion of grace? Are we trying to be good enough to go to heaven when we die? Or is no man good enough, and are we utterly dependent on God’s grace and mercy to save us? The reason the Definition of Chalcedon insists that Jesus is a true man with two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation is because Jesus embodies the answer to our questions. 

Every one of us is naturally predisposed to think well of ourselves. We lie to ourselves and to others; we spin everything to generally defend ourselves, to make ourselves look good and seem better than we really are. So God sent Jesus to show us what a good man really looks like. He never lied. He never lusted. He never lost his temper. He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet He was without sin. Christ reveals to us what we are really like. To know Christ is to know how evil we really are, how far short we fall of holiness. 

And yet, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. To know Christ is to know how evil you really are, and yet in the same moment to know Him is to know Him as the one who died in the place of sinners. To know Him is to know God’s justice has been satisfied on the cross, and to know Him is to know His grace, mercy, love for sinners. 

So as we recite the Definition of Chalcedon, hear the precision of the Creed as the wonderful precision of grace.

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

Preparing to Go Home

“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). 

It should not be strange for Christians to talk about death. Every week as we celebrate this meal, I read the words from Paul, that as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord’s death until He comes. But communion with God at this table should also be a great encouragement as we prepare to go to be with Him.

God has determined the exact number of our days from before the foundation of the world. That number cannot budge, and that number is exquisitely good. And we are confident of the fact that when our body fails, we will be present with the Lord. Not only that, but we are well-pleased with this. It is our great hope. It is our glorious plan to die, and yet not really die, but live forever with Christ.

We sometimes say that dying, for a Christian, is going home, and this is right and good. But say it with full faith and assurance and joy. Say it and believe it. Say it and love it. We get to go home, to meet our Maker, the Desire of all Nations, and see our Savior Jesus face to face. To say that you believe in God is to say that there is nothing better in all the universe, and therefore you long to be with Him.

To be a Christian is to have already died, to have died to self, to have died to this world, to have died to sin, to have died to reputation and temporary pleasures. And to be a Christian is to have already come alive again, alive to Christ, alive to good works, alive to infinite joy, alive to eternal pleasure.

And so what is this table, except another place to practice, to remember, to celebrate not only our Lord’s death for us, but also the fact that we have already died in Him and now we no longer live, but He lives in us. And therefore, though these temporary bodies grow weak and fail, God is preparing new bodies for each of us. He is preparing wedding garments that will never fade away. He is preparing a place for us, so that where He is, we may be also. 

So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.

Photo by Aaron Andrew Ang on Unsplash