Selections from Gene Edward Veith on Vocation

It goes something like this: When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And he does. The way he gives us our daily bread is through the vocations of farmers, millers, and bakers. We might add truck drivers, factory workers, bankers, warehouse attendants, and the lady at the checkout counter. Virtually every step of our whole economic system contributes to that piece of toast you had for breakfast. And when you thanked God for the food that he provided, you were right to do so.

God could have chosen to create new human beings to populate the earth out of the dust, as he did with the first man. But instead, he chose to create new life-which, however commonplace, is no less miraculous-by means of mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, the vocations of the family.

God protects us through the vocations of earthly government, as detailed in Romans 13. He gives his gifts of healing usually not through out-and-out miracles (though he can) but by means of the medical vocations. He proclaims his word by means of human pastors. He teaches by means of teachers. He creates works of beauty and meaning by means of human artists, whom he has given particular talents. . . .

. . . . God is milking the cows through the vocation of the milkmaid, said Luther. According to Luther, vocation is a "mask of God." He is hidden in vocation. We see the milkmaid, or the farmer, or the doctor or pastor or artist. But, looming behind this human mask, God is genuinely present and active in what they do for us . . .

. . . . For a Christian, conscious of vocation as the mask of God, all of life, even the most mundane facets of our existence, become occasions to glorify God. Whenever someone does something for you-brings your meal at a restaurant, cleans up after you, builds your house, preaches a sermon-be grateful for the human beings whom God is using to bless you and praise him for his unmerited gifts. Do you savor your food? Glorify God for the hands that prepared it. Are you moved by a work of art-a piece of music, a novel, a movie? Glorify God who has given such artistic gifts to human beings.

Of course, that vocation is a mask of God means that God also works through you, in your various callings. That God is hidden in what we do is often obscured by our own sinful and selfish motivations. But that does not prevent God from acting.

-Gene Edward Veith

http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var2=881

The Silence of the Lambs -

The Silence of the Lambs –

Controversy…the truth is...very few of us enjoy it.  We would much rather fly under the radar than become a target.  And yet somehow along the way we have convinced ourselves that silence is better than speaking.  We’ve convinced ourselves that many Christians are brash and unwise in what they say, while at the same time we’ve convinced ourselves that it is best to say nothing at all.  In our minds to speak about any number of sinful behaviors in a public venue is uncharitable and un-Christian and certainly not 'grace-filled.'  After all, to speak is to voice an opinion, and to voice an opinion…well, these days...it’s just not the 'Christian' thing to do.

I’m particularly intrigued by the Apostle Paul’s approach.  I find it curious that his ‘I’m not ashamed…’ of Romans 1:16 is followed by a list behaviors that God condemns in Romans 1:18 and following. Perhaps Paul knew something about the correlation of shame and not speaking up...both for the power of the gospel to save, and for a world at odds against God himself.  This is a strange environment we live in where we’ve somehow decided that we want to be faithful to give the good news of the gospel without telling anyone why they need it.

In some instances silence may be golden, but silence is not the gospel way, nor is silence Christ’s way.  Jesus could have adopted a ‘go along to get along’ mantra and saved himself much grief, and he likely could have saved himself the cross. However, declaration and proclamation are to be part and parcel of the Christian life.  We are to declare that a real Jesus saves from real sins and in this declaration we must not be ashamed.  We must be willing to speak because the future depends not only upon the efficacy of God’s Lamb, but also the unashamed words of our testimony  (Rev. 12:11).

-DJM 

Thankfulness Becomes Us -

  

“Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

-Psalm 106:1

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

- Colossians 3:16

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

- Revelation 7:9-12

“There is no sacrifice in which God takes greater delight than the expression of our gratitude.”

- John Calvin, commenting on Psalm 135:1, Calvin’s Wisdom, p. 135

“Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels.”

-Thomas Watson, A Puritan Golden Treasury

What is it that sets us apart from other created beings? Apart from the obvious, some have said that only man has the capability to think God’s thoughts after Him. It also follows that intentional thankfulness separates us from brute beasts. We are those who declare gratitude to God for His manifold kindness. We contemplate God’s mercies and then verbalize thankfulness. The character of the Christian is intended to be one of pervasive and effusive gratitude. When we consider what God has done we simply cannot help it. In the great work of the gospel thankfulness is an important and necessary work of the Spirit of God in the heart of the Christian. In fact, an unthankful Christian is a contradiction in terms. The Christian’s thankfulness is to be declared both to God and others, and the Christian’s thankfulness is to be genuine, demonstrative, and infectious. Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians is this, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7) Receiving Christ and walking in Him as we're rooted and established in the faith, is to provoke us to great thanksgiving. In a world where thankfulness is often a rarity, and murmur and complaint often carry the day, the Christian recognizes that thanksgiving is not simply a holiday in November, but abounding thanksgiving is a way of life.  Everything we have is a direct result of the kind beneficence of our Creator. In everything give thanks, because as those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord, thanksgiving becomes us.

-DJM

What's the Big Deal with the Reformation?

Man’s work faileth, Christ’s availeth,
He is all our righteousness;
He, our Savior, has forever
Set us free from dark distress.
Through His merit we inherit
Light and peace and happiness.
- Venantius Fortunatus, c. 530-609

“Any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters.”

- Thesis #37, nailed by Martin Luther on the Castle Church door at Wittenberg, October 10th, 1517

"The righteous shall live by faith."

- Romans 1:17b

“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas the ‘justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressively sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate of heaven….”

- Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Volume 34, p. 337

496 years ago today, on October 31, 1517, the sound of a hammer could be heard in Wittenberg, Germany as an Augustinian monk nailed a piece of parchment to the door at Castle Church. On that parchment, written in Latin, were Luther’s complaints. They were meant to spark an intramural debate, but instead sparked a wildfire that would spread throughout the world. The topics essentially covered three areas – 1) Whether the church ought to spend money on extravagance. 2) Whether the pope could exercise powers over purgatory. 3) And the effect of indulgences pertaining to the standing of a sinner before God. The first two topics would have escaped without too much notice. It was the last topic that got Luther into great trouble. His own mind was the battleground and the stakes were high. The question was excruciating, “How can sinful man be reconciled to a holy God?” The answer, found in the book of Romans, was Luther’s gate of heaven. When Luther understood that his right-standing before God was solely based upon the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith alone, he felt himself reborn. The gospel broke in on his heart with the force of the dawn of a new day. The gospel, rightly apprehended (through Christ alone, by faith alone, and through grace alone) and rightly understood (through Scripture alone), changed everything.

A lot has happened in almost 500 years. Today, the Reformational (and I believe biblical) understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith is under assault. The inference is that we have misunderstood Paul and the Scriptures. The inference is that we have misunderstood the gospel. But, what difference does this make? Is all of this an academic debate better handled by ivory-tower theologians? R. Scott Clark makes the connection between the attack on the biblical view of justification and the church in his book, Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry. Clark’s point should be heeded. An attack upon justification and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness will wreak terrible havoc in the life of the church. Clark writes,

“Each (church member) needs to see the true magnitude of his or her offense toward God, the abundance of God’s mercy in erasing that debt through the cross of Christ, and the invincible assurance of God’s approval, grounded on the imputed righteousness of Jesus. As these truths grip their hearts (which often results not from an instantaneous change but from a prolonged struggle) defenses can fall, sins can be confessed (genuinely, not merely as a step in a required formula), forgiveness can flow, and hope can rekindle.”

- R. Scott Clark, Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, p. 426

We have much to be grateful for and much to be vigilant about this Reformation Day. After 496 years I thank God for Martin Luther. I thank God for the vexation of soul that brought about an understanding of justification by faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ. This was an understanding that broke through the darkness of performance-based acceptability and shone the sovereign grace gospel in all of its glorious radiance. When you and I trust solely in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for our acceptance before God we embrace biblical Christianity and become true heirs of the Reformation.

Soli Deo Gloria!

-DJM

An Ode to the Jelly-Fish Christian

Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle (May 10, 1816 – June 10,  1900), on the inclination of the church to compromise in his day.  He may have a thing or two to say to the church today as well.

The consequences of this wide-spread dislike to dogma are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it or not, it is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jelly-fish Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.” 

We have hundreds of jelly-fish clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.

We have thousands of jelly-fish sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.

We have Legions of jelly-fish young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, like Mohamet’s fabled coffin, hanging between heaven and earth. Their only creed is to be sure and positive about nothing.

And last, and worst of all, we have myriads of jelly-fish worshippers—respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”; often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.” 

Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to “enunciate dogma” very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.”

-J.C. Ryle, Principles for Churchmen, The Importance of Dogma, pp. 97-98

(h/t Brett Davisson)