The Promise of Abundant Grace in the New Year

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
-Hebrews 10:23

The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
- John Newton, Amazing Grace, verse 4

Q. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
- Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question and Answer 36

“We shall bring our Lord much glory if we get from Him much grace. If we have much faith, so that I can take God at His Word…I shall greatly honor my Lord and King.”
- Charles Spurgeon, quoted in John Piper’s Future Grace, p. 9

“In other words, on the basis of the work of Christ, the power of the redeemed future has been released to act in the present in the person of the Holy Spirit.”
- N. Q. Hamilton, The Holy Spirit and Eschatology in Paul, quoted in Anthony Hoekema’s, The Bible and the Future, p.58

Dear Friends,

To say that 2019 was a tumultuous year is a colossal understatement. What can we expect from 2020? Will this next year be more of the same? Will it be better? Or will it be worse? While we don't know the future, one thing we can be assured of is the faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God no matter what this next year holds. For some of us this new year will bring extraordinary trial and for others extraordinary blessing, and yet for all of us there will be an opportunity to prove God’s faithfulness again and again. The Cross stands as the declaration of God’s intention and commitment to show us His favor. In the brutal death of His Son and the Son’s subsequent resurrection everything that could be used for our harm will only redound to our good. This is not some perverse prosperity theology. This is the truth.  Because of the sin-bearing satisfaction of Jesus Christ and God's own love for His Son...God has promised good to us. No matter what comes in 2020 we mustn’t waver, because He who promised is, and will always be, faithful. Consider the God-exalting, Son-crucifying, Spirit-indwelling, grace-magnifying, covenant-keeping love the Father has for those He calls His own,

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:32-37)

Come what may, and because of His love-borne promise, I'm expecting an abundance of God-exalting grace in 2020.

-DJM

(adapted from a 2008 blog post)

Some Implications of Jesus Being Raised from the Dead -

1)   Because of Jesus’ resurrection we can be assured that our sins are forgiven. (Romans 4:25)

2)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we can be assured that we too will be raised (1 Cor. 15:20-28).

3)   Since Christ has been raised our preaching is not useless and our faith is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:12-19)

4)   Jesus became Lord of all at the moment of His bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:24-28, Acts 2:36, Romans 1:3-4, 10:9, Phil. 2:9-11).

5)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection all enemies have become subject to Him and have been or are being defeated by Him (1 Cor 15:28).

6)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection a day of judgment is coming in the resurrection of both those who believe and those who don’t (1 Cor. 15:33, 2 Cor. 5:10). 

7)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, the last enemy - death has been defeated (1 Cor 15:26)

8)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection complete and utter victory has been won Christ (1 Cor. 15:50-58).

9)   Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we will be raised in bodies that will not perish.  We will be like Him. (1 Cor. 15:50-58).

10) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we are not to lose heart and can live lives now in hope of what is to come.  In other words, the resurrection of Jesus is an indication that this is not all there is.  We can endure, we can suffer, we can persevere because we know in the end we won’t just die. Because God raised Christ, God will raise us (2 Cor. 4:7-5:10).

11) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection God has given us His Spirit as an indicator of the life to come.  The Spirit is given to us as an eschatological down-payment.  In other words, the spirit of Christ has been given to us as a foretaste of the life to come (2 Cor. 5:5)

12) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we can avail ourselves of the power of God in resisting sin and temptation.  This same power is ours.

13) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we have a permanent dwelling-place waiting for us (2 Cor. 5:1)

14) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we have been and will forever be adopted as God’s sons and daughters (2 Cor. 5:1).

15) Because of the bodily resurrection of Jesus these temporary troubles that vex us are really only light and momentary afflictions.  They will give way to glory that will be revealed at the day of the resurrection.  Death will be swallowed up in life (2 Cor. 5:4).

16) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we need not fear death.  This enemy has been overcome.

17) Because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection our lives are now hidden with God in Christ.  In other words, new life, resurrection life, life in the power of the resurrected Jesus is at work in us to transform us and change us into the image of Jesus Christ.  This is great hope for us!  For those of us that our grieved by our own sin there is good news.  Sin is being put to death in us.  The fruit of the Spirit, which is the Spirit given because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, is being made manifest in us.  When you get discouraged because of your sin remember the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus is at work in you.

18) In the bodily resurrection of Jesus a new day had dawned, a new creation was brought forth. Old things have begun to pass away.

Men Without Chests

“…But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

-Isaiah 66:2b

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
- Colossians 3:12-13

Dear Friends,

In 1943 C.S. Lewis wrote a small book called, The Abolition of Man. It was meant to be a commentary on the educational climate in England in Lewis’s day, but it was far more a philosophical treatise on the nature of man. In a scant few pages Lewis zeroes in on the lack of charitableness or generosity in 1940’s English educational culture. He was concerned for an educational system that was perpetuating the inculcation of masses with information totally devoid of a ‘fertile and generous emotion’[1]. Lewis called them, ‘men without chests’. They would become men and women with intellectual capacity and drive, but no capacity for civility or magnanimity. In other words, they would become heads bereft of hearts. The thrust of Lewis’s concerns are not limited to early 20th century England. The danger of the Reformed faith is the creation of our own men without chests. These would be men of incredible intellectual prowess, biblical and theological understanding, the ability to wax eloquent about the minutest theological point, but wholly deficient of a ‘fertile and generous emotion’. This is religious phariseeism at its most offensive apex. The knowledge of the gospel and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, by their very nature, are meant to cultivate love, humility, grace, longsuffering, and a magnanimous spirit. Knowledge, by itself, puffs up and inflates, but a right understanding of gospel truth brings us low. God’s intention is that the Christian is to be known by a largeness of spirit, thereby reflecting the character of God Himself. The work of the Spirit in the truth of the gospel is intended to bring much fruit by making us become men with large minds and large chests and not one without the other.

May God enlarge us with both knowledge and love for Him and for one another.

DJM

[1] Dorsett, Lyle, ed., The Essential C.S. Lewis, p. 437

(This blog was originally posted in January 2009)

Hope for Change When Hope Seems Lost

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
- John 10:27

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

- Philippians 2:12,13

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
- Colossians 3:1-3

“All my hope is naught save in Thy great mercy. Grant what Thou dost command and command what Thou wilt.”
- Augustine, Confessions, Book 10:XXIX

“Therefore, just as Adam did not die for himself alone, but for us all, so it follows that Christ, who is the antitype, did not rise merely for Himself. For He came to restore everything which had been brought to ruin in Adam…. The cause of death is Adam, and we die in him; therefore Christ, whose function it is to restore what we have lost in Adam, is the cause for life in us.”

- John Calvin, quoted in Calvin and the Atonement by Robert Peterson, pp. 61, 62

Dear Friends,

If you’ve ever experienced the gnawing low-grade discouragement of besetting sin you may have asked the question, ‘Will I ever change?’ Or you may have wondered if there is any hope for the nagging patterns of sin in your spouse, friends or children. The power for real and lasting change is resident in the objective reality of the person and work of Christ. Let me say it a different way - real and lasting victory over sin is achieved only through trust in Christ’s objective victory over sin. Christ achieved real victory over real sin. The frequent encouragement in Scripture is towards certain behavior, but that behavioral change is always rooted in the person and work of Christ in His real, historical, objective, and effective victory over sin. Theologians have called this the indicative (that which is objectively true) and the imperative (that moral action which God requires). The imperative of gospel behavior is rooted in the indicative of gospel truth. God declares something so based upon His righteous action, and right behavior is a moral action based upon this declaration and action of God. In other words, what God has accomplished in an historical event and has declared to be so is the impetus of my obedience. I work out my salvation because God has already worked and not vice versa. This gives true hope for gospel change.

Join me in thanking God today for His indicative that enables His imperative.

Remembering

George Vernon Amundson

Originally posted in 2018, I've revised this in consideration of Veteran's Day 2021. 

In 2008 American country singer Jamie Johnson released a song entitled, In Color. The song went on to win the CMA Song of the Year in 2009. The song is a ballad about an old man remniscing to his grandson as they look at old black and white pictures in a photo album. The second verse of the song says this,

Oh and this one here was taken over seas

In the middle of 1943

In the winter time, you can almost see my breath

That was my tail gunner ole Johnny Magee

He was a high school teacher from New Orleans

And he had my back right through the day we left

If it looks like we were scared to death 

Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other

You should have seen it in color ^[1]

I have a story to tell about a young second-generation Norwegian-American. He was born in Minnesota in 1924. The son of hardy Nordic stock, and being raised in a tight Norwegian community, he never spoke English until he started grade school. In fact, until the day he died his strong Norwegian accent never abated, this despite being born in the US. At age 17 he left home to join the military. In 1941 World War II was in full force and because he was 17 he needed special permission to join the Navy. For whatever reason his parents would not grant permission, but he was able to convince an aunt and uncle to sign the waiver. Though he joined the Navy he was never able to swim very well. This was a bit problematic since he was twice in open ocean combat zones in the theater of war, and twice he had naval vessels sunk from under him, having had to spend time in the ocean awaiting rescue. One of those times he was picked up and sent to France. The second time he was picked up by Russian allies and taken to Russia. During his time in Russia he tried to join the Norwegian Resistance, which was an underground resistance group organized against Hitler and the Third Reich, but he was refused since he was an American citizen. For his bravery he was awarded several medals and awards. When he returned from the war, and after he married, he was so stricken by the sights and sounds and memories of battle that one day he walked into the forest, away from their Minnesota farm, and threw the medals as far away as possible. He was loath to talk about his experience. In fact, we don’t know much more about his war-time experience. George Vernon Amundson died in 1989 at 65 years old, suffering for years the effects of war in his body. George Vernon Amundson was my father-in-law, Judy’s dad, and a dear Christian man.

Who will remember? Who will remember George Amundson? Who will remember the names of the soon-forgotten heroes, and who will remember the reason men and women make sacrifice, some of them the ultimate sacrifice? This is why Veteran's Day is important. This is why remembering is important. We mustn’t forget them or their stories.

---

^[1]Johnson, Jamie, That Lonesome Song, In Color, Mercury Records, 2008