The Loving Father

Every now and again I read a quote in a book that just seems to leap off the page in front of me. This morning it happened twice while I was reading the same book, “The Discipline of Grace” by Jerry Bridges.

The first was a quote from Charles Hodge in his commentary on Romans. Read it slowly and carefully.

“The great difficulty with many Christians is that they cannot persuade themselves that Christ (or God) loves them; and the reason why they cannot feel confident of the love of God, is, that they know they do not deserve his love, on the contrary, that they are in the highest degree unlovely. How can the infinitely pure God love those who are defiled with sin, who are proud, selfish, discontented, ungrateful, disobedient? This, indeed, is hard to believe. But it is the very thing we are required to believe, not only as the condition of peace and hope, but as the condition of salvation. If our hope of God’s mercy and love is founded on our own goodness or attractiveness, it is a false hope. We must believe that his love is gratuitous, mysterious, without any known or conceivable cause, certainly without the cause of loveliness in its object; that it is, in short, what it is so often declared to be in the Bible, analogous to (comparable to) the love of a parent for its child. A father’s or mother’s love is independent of the attractiveness of its object, and often in spite of its deformity.”

When we doubt God’s love for us because we think there is something about us that makes us unloveable in his sight, we do God a disservice. God does not love us because of what we’re like, he loves us in spite of what we’re like, and he gives us his Son as proof.

The second quote comes from John Owen. As Bridges points out, Owen was not soft on sin, he took it extremely seriously. Here is what Owen said about the Christian’s attitude towards God’s love in “Communion with God”.

“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.”

I find those words to be both humbling, and tremendously reassuring.

Here’s Bridges comments on what Owen said;

“Does that sentence surprise you? Would you have expected Owen to say that the greatest sorrow and burden we can lay on the Father is to commit some scandalous sin? Isn’t that the way we tend to think of God, more as our Judge than as our Father? That is because we do not keep the gospel constantly before us. Owen was definitely not soft on sin, but he was more concerned that we keep before us the gospel: the love of God revealed in His Son Jesus Christ.”


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Because You're Worth It?

I know it’s not Christmas yet, but it’s getting close. Close enough for me to start preparing for the sermon I’ve got to preach on 20^th December. I’ve decided to go with Luke 1:26-38 where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she’s going to have a baby, and she’s to call him Jesus. Now I’m not going to give the whole sermon away because the chances are some of you reading this will be in church the morning I preach it. However, read on for something that’s struck me from verses 28-30 that I’d not noticed before.

I preached this passage on a camp during the summer, and I have to confess that I got at least one thing wrong. In verse 28 Gabriel appears to Mary with a message. In verse 29 Mary is troubled, or as many versions have it, “greatly troubled”.

Why was Mary troubled? In the summer my answer was that she must have been scared because there’s an angel stood in front of her and that would be a pretty frightening thing. It sounds feasible at least! But now, I don’t think that’s the answer to the question, "Why was Mary troubled?" Verse 29 says not that Mary was greatly troubled at the appearance of an angel, but, “at the saying”. It wasn’t what Gabriel looked like, it was what Gabriel said.

So what were the troubling words that God’s messenger Gabriel said?

“Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you.”

Now I don’t know what you think, but those don’t seem to be particularly troubling words do they? Why would anyone be troubled by being told that God had favoured them, and was with them? That’s good news isn’t it?

So why was Mary troubled then? Why did she need to be told that she shouldn’t be afraid, v30? What is it about those words that’s got her so worried?

This is where a little bit of Greek comes in handy. The word translated “troubled” or “greatly troubled” in v29 is the Greek word dietarachthe. It means greatly perplexed, perplexed to the point of being troubled.

When Mary heard those words, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you”, her instant reaction was one of, “surely that can’t be right, surely these words can’t be meant for me, it doesn't make sense."

We live in a culture that likes to tell us, “You’re worth it”, and that if you don’t think “You’re worth it” then you need to work on your self esteem, because really you are.

That’s not what Mary felt though, her reaction to Gabriel’s message was not, ”Well that makes perfect sense. Of course God has favoured me, and is present with me, I’m worth it!” She was perplexed and troubled because she knew she wasn’t worth it – there was no discernable reason as to why God would favour her in any particular way.

I think Mary’s attitude was absolutely correct. She was not worthy of God’s favour, so the angel’s words should in so many ways have been perplexing and troubling to her. It doesn’t appear to add up. How could God favour her?

So how does God, through the angel Gabriel, deal with Mary’s troubled state of mind and heart? Will he find some virtue in Mary to justify his favour towards her? No. Will he say “actually, you’re right, you don’t deserve it, I’ll go and find someone else to bless”? No.

The reply is simple and to the point in v30, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” Read that sentence with emphasis on the word “have”.

Because God is a God of grace, a God who gives out undeserved favour and blessing, he can show favour, he can show grace, to whoever he pleases. Our failings won’t get in the way of that because they’re dealt with in Christ.

God is gracious to those who know they don’t deserve it. And to those who are perplexed and troubled by the fact that they don’t deserve it, he says that in Christ, “you have found favour with God”.


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The good old glory days

I’ve recently been spending a lot of time in the book of Haggai. What I’ve discovered there has been genuinely thrilling, I’ve been hugely encouraged by reading this apparently obscure Old Testament prophet from around the time when the Jews were rebuilding God’s temple after returning from exile.

However, here’s a sentence that sounds anything but encouraging. In fact it sounds downright depressing. Here are some words from Haggai 2:3, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”

That sentence comes to the Jews as they were attempting to rebuild the temple, which is what God had told them to do, and what are they told by God? “It’s a bit rubbish compared with the last one isn’t it?!” The temple was the place where God said he would live amongst his people, but compared with the previous model it wasn’t shaping up quite so well.

The New Testament equivalent of the temple is the church in union with Jesus Christ. Have a look at Ephesians chapters 2 and 3 to see where I got that from. So the church in Christ is the place where God promises to dwell.

Now then, here comes my point. How do you view the church? Often I hear people bemoaning the fact that the church is not what it used to be. They love church history, and they hold up today’s churches and compare them, unfavourably, with whatever period in church history they consider to have been the best. Dare I say that they get trapped in the past, and in the “glory” days?

What does God think of that attitude? Well, for all those of you who find that attitude about as helpful as a blamonche walking stick, let me say that at least in part God would probably agree with their assessment. Often the present day church does look a bit of a mess compared with the best from history. But I still don’t think it’s a helpful attitude to take.

By all means consider the best examples of the church from history, but don’t dwell on it to the point of despair in the present. Don’t do that because that’s not what God does with the Jews in the rest of Haggai 2. In the rest of Haggai 2 God tells the Jews that he dwells with them even in their rubbish looking temple. And he tells them just how glorious the temple will end up being at the end of history. That is the temple that consists of Jesus Christ and his people in union together, the glorious dwelling place of God that you are already a part of if you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ.

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Some very important grammar

The other day I read a very interesting sentence in a book about preaching. It was in the context of urging people to live out the Christian life. The sentence went something like this, "the imperative must always be grounded in the indicative."

Now I will be totally honest with you. If I had read that sentence three years ago I would not have understood it. The first reason why I would not have understood is that three years ago I hadn't got much of an idea of what imperatives and indicatives were. I wasn't taught grammar at school, thankfully I have been at Bible college. Secondly, that little sentence contains a truth about the Christian life, and links two aspects of the Christian life, that I had previously missed, or at least not clearly understood.

So first let me tell you what you will already know, if you know grammar.

An imperative is used when a command or request is given to someone or something. It says what you must and must not do.

The indicative is used for factual statements about what someone or something is. It describes what you are.

So what has this got to do with the Christian life then? Actually an awful lot.

A lot of people think of Christianity as a whole lot of dos and don'ts (you can insert your own list of dos and don'ts here). What they all have in common is that they are imperatives. Commands, requests. If you keep the imperatives, that makes you a Christian, if you don't, you're not.

If you are a Christian though, you know that you didn't become one by observing all the dos and don'ts. You couldn't keep all the imperatives, so you asked God to forgive you and trusted in Jesus who kept them for you. You put your faith in Christ, and his work, his work only, in order to be saved.

So far so obvious to many Christians.

Then something strange often happens.

Though we know that we are not brought in to God's family (saved) by keeping the imperatives, we seem to thinks that God will disown us if we don't keep them perfectly from the day of our conversion onwards. Too often we approach the living out of the Christian life as if it is just a whole list of imperatives. Pray more, read your Bible more, witness more, love people more, go to more meetings. Be more holy. Woe betide if you don't!

Now let me be clear here - I'm not an antinomian. In other words I'm not someone who thinks we can ignore God's law (God's imperatives) because God will just forgive us anyway. No, no, no, no, no. God expects us to make every effort to please him, and I would expect any Christian to want to do exactly that, to please God.

But here's where the problem is. Is our observance of the law, of the imperatives, what keeps us in God's good books? Is that what stops him disowning us? Certainly not.

Now to the indicative.

The indicative is a factual statement about what someone or something is. It is what you are. The Bible describes the Christian as a new creation, in Christ. So if you have put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your failure to keep the imperatives, that means that the indicative that applies to you is that you are a new creation in Jesus. That is who you now are, and that is the only grounds of your acceptance before God from the day you first trusted him, up until today, and on in to eternity.

That indicative about who you now are should transform the way you view the imperatives of God's word. No longer do those commands need to be seen as a harsh taskmaster, constantly berating you for your failure to keep them, but as a God given gift to help you become like the one who has saved you already, and who you now have union with. They're there to shape you and mould you in to the person that God intends you to be - a reflection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

So yes, yes, yes, try to keep those imperatives, they're for our good and God's glory, but do so in full knowledge that you are accepted in Christ, you are united to Christ, you are a new creation in Christ, and that your failures cannot undo his success.

In other words, keep those imperatives grounded in the indicative.

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Thought 1

Well, I’ve decided to enter the world of blogging.

Being from the backwaters of The North I’m not the most culturally savvy person on the web, so don’t expect too much by way of cutting edge comment. Also I’m not the most original person in world, so you’re very unlikely to find anything here that hasn’t been said many times before. And thirdly (I like three points see) I am a little suspicious of blogs. I confess to having quite a lot of sympathy with this article.

Despite all of the above though, I am going to blog. Most of the blogs will reflect my biggest passion in life, Jesus Christ and making him known. If anyone visiting this blog wants to know why I’m blogging, he’s why. I believe that knowing him in the first place, and then knowing him better is what matters most for anyone.

Please feel free to comment on anything that you read here. I might even reply every now and again.

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