“Together in Suffering” – R.C. Sproul Jr.

Together in Suffering by R.C. Sproul Jr. | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

R.C.Sproul, Jr.’s article under the rubric “Seek Ye First” in this month’s Tabletalk is also a must read. It is a deeply personal and touching article as Sproul relates the believer’s union with Christ (the theme of this issue) to the recent losses of his wife (cancer) and daughter (disabled). His moving description of how being “in Christ” means both that He is with us in our suffering and that we are with Him in comfort and victory will bring you to tears.

There may be some things he says he that startle us – things that we may even disagree with – but his point is to demonstrate just how close our union with Christ is and what it means for His people who suffer.

Here is a few quotes from it. Read all of it at the Ligonier link above.

As strategy after strategy failed and as each new step in her fight against cancer came with longer and longer odds, I wanted nothing more than to give my dear wife hope, a reason to believe that she could get better, that as bad as it all was, we could together get through it. We, naturally, spoke quite a bit about Jesus. I reminded her that Jesus reigns, that He does all His holy will. I reminded her that Jesus had suffered greatly, only to be exalted to the right hand of the Father. I reminded her that Jesus loved her with an everlasting, immutable, and unstoppable love. He was the answer to my weakness.

But there was still a weakness in my understanding. There was one promise I longed to make to her, one beautiful thought that I thought would warm and comfort her. One thing I had purposed in my heart as this journey began, however—I would not tell her a lie. I knew that if she could not trust me to tell her the truth, that even the truths I told her could offer no comfort. So while I told her Jesus had suffered even greater hardship, I would not tell her that He had trod her exact path, that He had experienced exactly the hardship she was going through. That is exactly where I went wrong.

It is a good and glorious thing to remember what our union with Christ means in terms of our justification. That our sin is imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us is no legal fiction, as Rome accuses, precisely because of the reality of our union with Him. He really was guilty because He really was one with us. We really are innocent because we really are one with Him.

It is a good and glorious thing to remember what our union with Christ means in terms of our glorification. His work did not merely acquire for us a verdict of not guilty. Rather, because we are in union with Him, we are joint heirs with Him. The glory that is His in His resurrection is ours. The glory that is His in His ascension is ours. We are even now, because we are in union with Him, seated with Him in the heavenly places. We are kings and queens even now because we are one with Him—the One who reigns over all.

There is, however, more still. Remember that Jesus, when He met Saul on the road to Damascus, did not ask, “Why are you persecuting My bride?” but “Why are you persecuting Me?” He, in union with us, so identifies with us, that what we suffer, He suffers. Because we are one flesh, what one half suffers the other does as well.

The Gospel and the Gender Wars – Russell Moore

The Gospel and the Gender Wars by Russell Moore | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

The last article which appears in this month’s Tabletalk and the last one which I happened to read is written by Russell D. Moore of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. It contains a solid defense of the Bible’s teaching on the differences between the genders, as created by God – not to the demise of marriage but to its preservation. In a world that tries to blend the genders or obliterate them, we have a clear calling to maintain God’s pattern for man and woman in marriage. Through our differences displayed in a godly marriage we proclaim the gospel of Christ to our fallen and broken world.

You will find the complete but brief article at the Ligonier link above. Below are a few paragraphs to show you its value:

In fact, the mystery of the gospel explains to us why it is that Adam wasn’t designed to subdivide like an amoeba, why he needed someone like him and yet different from him, why he was to join himself to her in an organic union. It’s because the head/body union of a man and a woman is itself an illustration— one that points to something older and more beautiful: the union of Christ and His church in the gospel.

A man, then, is to lead his family. But this is not some sort of tyranny. A man’s leadership is modeled after Christ’s leadership of His church. He leads by discerning the best interests of his family and pouring himself out for them. This headship is self-sacrificial. A wife submits to her husband’s leadership not as a cowering supplicant but in the way the church submits to Christ. Jesus says of His church, in its original twelve foundation stones, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

When we call husbands to lead their families, and when we call wives to respect such leadership (which, like every form of leadership, has biblical limits), we are not speaking of a business model or a corporate flow chart. We’re speaking instead of an organic unity. The more a husband and wife are sanctified together in the Word, the more they—like your nervous system and body—move and operate smoothly, effortlessly, holistically. They are one flesh. It’s about cooperation through complementarity.

…The church continually works to reclaim a biblical concept of the family. We call men to prepare themselves to be other-directed husbands. We call on women to find their beauty not in cultural stereotypes of a woman’s value but in God’s delight (1 Peter 3:1–6). Such will look increasingly and, oddly, peaceful to a culture conditioned to gender wars. But in the end, it’s not about being better men and women. It’s about a clear proclamation of the mystery of Christ and His church. They’re not in tension with one another, in competition with one another, mistrusting one another. They’re head and body—one flesh.

Seminary Library Books on Marriage and the Family

Continuing on a Seminary Library theme today, I thought it would be good to introduce you to another area of books that are of value to a broader audience, including our officebearers and church members. That is the area of marriage and family life. As you might expect, our Seminary library has a strong section of resources in this area (for counseling purposes too). Because our own PRC doctrine of the covenant has powerful implications and applications for marriage (along with divorce and remarriage) and the family, we have many writings from our own professors and pastors on these subjects in the library (E.g., David Engelsma’s Marriage, the Mystery of Christ and the Church and Better to Marry: Sex and Marriage in I Corinthians 6&7).

But there are also many other good titles on these subjects from various Reformed and Evangelical authors, and we have built up this section of our library with these books as well (E.g., Covenant Marriage: Staying Together for Life by Fred Lowery; Strengthening Your Marriage and Your Family, God’s Way by Wayne Mack; Solving Marriage Problems by Jay Adams; Divorce and Remarriage: Biblical Principles & Pastoral Practice by Andrew Cornes).

These books vary from more doctrinal titles (Biblical theology on and history of marriage and family) to more practical titles (rescuing and strengthening your marriage and family), but all are profitable for the Reformed Christian. Some of these titles would be good for those couples anticipating marriage (spiritual planning and preparation) and for newlyweds. Others would be profitable for the “seasoned” couple, who nevertheless want to grow closer together and deeper in the love of Christ. We even have a few fine titles for young people who are dating or preparing to date (Richard & Sharon Phillips’ Holding Hands, Holding Hearts: Recovering a Biblical View of Christian Dating). I invite you to stop by and browse these sections of our library, both for study of these subjects and for spiritual growth in your own marriage and family life.

And, by the way, Prof.R. Cammenga and myself have been stocking up on a variety of books (new and used) in the Seminary bookstore. Great selection at great discounts – we know we have a book for you! Put us on your “to do” list this summer! The AC is on! That makes this a “cool” summer activity in more ways than one

Women, Callings, and Having It All – Jennifer Marshall

Women, Callings, and Having It All – The Gospel Coalition Blog.

This fine article by Jennifer A. Marshall was posted on the Gospel Coalition site this past Thursday, June 28, 2012. It is in response to the July issue of The Atlantic magazine which featured an article by a woman torn between her professional career and motherhood – and who in the end chose the latter. Feminists have responded vociferously, as we might expect. But Marshall responds Biblically, with a Reformed perspective, urging women – single and married – to pursue the highest goal of all in their decision-making. Read on at the link above – here’s how she concluded her article:

 

July’s Atlantic magazine cover story features a highly successful working mother’s confession that women can’t have it all. Torn by the demands of a high-ranking State Department post in Washington and the needs of her family in Princeton, after two years Anne-Marie Slaughter found herself eager to return home to her husband and sons.

“I realized that I didn’t just need to go home,” she writes. “Deep down, I wanted to go home. I wanted to be able to spend time with my children in the last few years that they are likely to live at home.”

Based on blogosphere chatter, Slaughter’s piece seems to strike some feminists as a tad too tell-all about women’s anxieties in juggling career and family.

…Despite this fog, our North Star hasn’t moved. Our first call remains fixed–to glorify and enjoy God—and it can help us navigate this cultural haze. If we talk in superlative terms, this is a woman’s highest goal. We are to pursue God rather than to aspire after an image of female strength and independence on the one hand or an icon of domesticity carved with embellishments beyond what Scripture promises or prescribes on the other. Keeping our eyes on Christ can help us see through culturally fabricated mystiques—whether feminine or feminist.

We pursue that highest calling through our everyday callings—the relationships, responsibilities, gifts, and opportunities with which God has endowed us. Our charge is to steward these endowments to God’s glory through the course of life. That means taking inventory in each of these categories to balance the possibilities, demands, and timelines of the many competing options on offer to women today. We should equip young women at least as early as adolescence to begin honing such discernment and sober judgment.

For many these callings will include marriage and motherhood, relationships with extraordinary responsibility and opportunity to nurture family members to glorify and enjoy God through their callings. Motherhood necessarily changes the equation for a season when it comes to balancing other callings. Given the significance through redemptive history of God’s covenant work through families, more education on how to think theologically about marriage and family choices is in order.

As for individual women, habitually recalibrating the balance of callings in our lives with a view to our first call is a good buffer against the sway of cultural pressures and ever-shifting anxieties about work-life balance.

It’s also the only way women can be sure of having all that matters.

What Does Obama’s “Marriage Equality” Mean for Bisexuals?

What Does Obama’s ‘Marriage Equality’ Mean for Bisexuals? | CNSNews.com.

This piece is a powerful and perceptive question and commentary by Terence P. Jeffrey (June 27, 2012) on our president’s efforts to legalize sodomy and other sexual perversities, while trying to destroy traditional marriage. As Jeffrey shows, once you open the door to homosexual marriage, there is no legal or moral way to stop other types of “marriages” and “unions”. And you can be sure that those involved in these “lifestyles” will not keep quiet until they too are “accepted”.

It is for this reason too that we as Christians must not be silent but speak boldly and clearly about God’s pure and permanent pattern for marriage – one man with one woman, for life. May God give us such boldness, such that we do not fear man and the consequences of upholding God’s standards of righteousness, but fear the Lord only.

Here is a small part of Jeffrey’s article. You will find the rest at the link above.

President Barack Obama, occupant of the bully pulpit, set aside the past month to celebrate a most peculiar thing.

“Now, each June since I took office,” Obama said in a June 15 speech at the White House, “we have gathered to pay tribute to the generations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans who devoted their lives to our most basic of ideals — equality not just for some, but for all.”

Among the places our president said he wanted “equality not just for some, but for all” — that is, presumably, including “bisexuals” — is in the institution of marriage.

“We’ve supported efforts in Congress to end the so-called Defense of Marriage Act,” Obama said. “And as we wait for that law to be cast aside, we’ve stopped defending its constitutionality in the courts.”

“And Americans may be still evolving when it comes to marriage equality,” Obama said, “but as I’ve indicated personally, Michelle and I have made up our minds on this issue.”

…Obama, we now know, believes homosexual men have a “right” to marry other men, and homosexual women have a “right” to marry other women. So, who does he believe bisexuals have a “right” to marry?

In Obama’s world, does a bisexual man have a “right” to enter into a bigamous union with one other man and one woman? Or can the state force him to limit his marriage to the union of just two people?

And if that is the case, how would Obama, within his philosophy of government, justify prohibiting a bisexual from forming a tripartite marriage?

DOJ ‘Actively’ Working to See DOMA Overturned

Baptist Press – DOJ ‘actively’ working to see DOMA overturned – News with a Christian Perspective.

And from the online edition of the Baptist Press comes this article, tied closely to what has happened according to our previous post no doubt, about how our U.S. Department of Justice is now working to overturn the “Defense of Marriage Act”. Since our founding as a country we have had a government that has supported traditional marriage as defined by the Bible (the very foundation of civil society). But this has been changing, and we must remember to work and pray to ensure that our leaders at all levels of government defend God’s holy institution of marriage and not man’s carnal one. Too often we are silent – in our public witness and in our prayers – concerning this duty we have as temporary citizens of this land and permanent citizens of the kingdom of heaven. May what is occurring in our current administration stir us up to greater diligence in this calling.

Here is a portion of the story; you may read all of it at the link above.

WASHINGTON (BP) — When President Obama told the Justice Department in February 2011 to stop defending a key federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, it was widely assumed the department would take a neutral position and sit on the sidelines.

But with little fanfare since that announcement, the Justice Department has actually started filing legal briefs arguing that the law in question — the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — should be overturned because, the department says, it is unconstitutional.

It is a remarkable turn of events for a Justice Department that just 15 months ago was defending the law in court. Many of those same attorneys who were defending it now are urging courts to strike it down.

“Everybody thought they were taking a neutral stance. They did not indicate they were going to actively attack its constitutionality,” Dale Schowengerdt, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, told Baptist Press. ADF, a Christian legal group, has worked to defend the law.

It is no small legal matter. Passed by bipartisan support in 1996 and signed into law by President Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing gay “marriage” and also gives states protection from being forced to recognize another state’s gay “marriages.” In the 16 years since it became law, 30 states — North Carolina being the latest — have passed constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Another dozen or so states have passed similar statutes.

Gay groups view DOMA as one of the remaining obstacles to legalizing gay “marriage” nationwide, and they now have an ally in the Justice Department.

The Ambivalent Theocrat – C.Cooke

The Ambivalent Theocrat – Charles C. W. Cooke – National Review Online.

On Saturday we customarily like to take a look at “the Christian and culture” issues. At times this takes us into the realm of the political as well, and today that is the case. In the last week or so our current president, who has been a fervent supporter of homosexual “rights”, has come out publicly in favor of homosexual marriage.  And he has consistently appealed to his “Christianity” to defend his position on this. In this online article Charles Cooke of the National Review provides an excellent summary of how Pres. Obama has used his “Christian” faith and the Bible for his own political/moral/economic agenda. I will quote part of it; you will find the rest at the (small) link above.

Throughout his political career, Barack Obama, too, has marshaled religious argument and imagery to his cause when politically expedient, but nary a whisper has followed his proclamations — even when his pastor of 20 years was exposed as an unreconstructed bigot. Obama’s appeals to religion and his claim to be “doing the Lord’s work” are cynical and mercurial enough to have pushed Michael Gerson amusingly to quip that, “even when Obama changes his views, Jesus somehow comes around to agreeing with him.” His varying use of Scripture has been nowhere more striking than with his gay-marriage “evolution.” Announcing his changed position on the issue to ABC News in May, Obama confirmed that he and Michelle are

both practicing Christians. . . . But, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids, and that’s what motivates me as president, and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a dad and a husband, and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.

In 2004, however, when running for the Senate, Obama explained that he opposed gay marriage because “what I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it’s not simply the two persons who are meeting.” In 2008, the candidate confirmed his position, defining marriage in similar terms during a debate at the Saddleback Presidential Forum. “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” Obama said. “Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”

Perhaps God has evolved on the issue. Regardless, Obama elected to impress Him into the defense of higher taxes and redistribution of wealth, too. As the president told an audience at the University of Vermont on March 30 of this year:

I hear politicians talking about values in an election year. I hear a lot about that. Let me tell you about values. Hard work, personal responsibility — those are values. But looking out for one another. That’s a value. The idea that we’re all in this together. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper. That’s a value.

CJT – These are serious matters for us to weigh as we face the November presidential election. In our voting too, we Reformed Christians who take our stand on the truth of God’s Word for ALL areas of life must choose who best represents our “world and life view”. Yes, our other main candidate is a Mormon, and that brings it own issues. About that we will speak another time.

The Covenant Love Story of Ian & Larissa

This heart-warming, soul-convicting, truth-revealing, and God-glorifying video was produced by “Desiring God” Ministries, tied to familiar sovereign grace, Baptist pastor John Piper. It tells the incredible story of this couple (Ian and Larissa) who decided to marry even after Ian suffered serious brain damage in a car crash. Together they determined to take the Biblical counsel of Piper’s book, This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence, and enter into the covenant of marriage to reflect the faithful love of Christ toward His church. It is a marvelous tribute to the power of God’s love working in this couple’s hearts and lives. Be prepared to be moved – and changed! It is a powerful story.

Here is part of what Piper says in this book:

Reflecting on his forty years of matrimony, Piper explains:

Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display.

As a special gift to promote this fine book on marriage (I read it several years ago and consider it one of the best there is, though I part with Piper at some key points.), “Desiring God” is offering a pdf of it free here.

And Westminster Bookstore is offering the print copy at a special price as well – $8.00. Go here to find that.

And if you wish to purchase this title in ebook format, you may go to Crossway’s website for that.

With the season of marriage and weddings upon us, this would make an excellent gift for that bride and groom whose covenant we will witness and for which you and I ought to have the highest desires and the deepest prayers.

The Challenge of Same-Sex Unions

The Challenge of Same-Sex Unions by Albert Mohler | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

 

For our final Monday in April we also take a parting look at another article in this month’s Ligonier devotional, Tabletalk. The last article in the issue is for the rubric “Beyond the Wicket Gate”, and this month’s is written by the well-known Dr.Al Mohelr, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Known for his Biblically straight and straight-forward addresses on contemporary cultural issues, Dr. Mohler speaks to the issue of homosexuality in this article. It is another thoughtful and helpful article in knowing what the true church must do as it continues to face this challenge from our ungodly world.

I give you a few paragraphs here; read the full article at the Ligonier link above.

 

In the world but not of the world? From the very beginning, the church has faced the challenge of responding to external events, trends, ideologies, and controversies. By definition, the church does not get to choose these challenges, but they have been thrust upon Christians by the world. The question always comes down to this: What now?

That question seems especially urgent in light of the emergence of same-sex unions and marriage in the United States and the world over. How must the church answer this challenge?

To answer that question, we need to think about the speed of the moral revolution that has pushed this question to the forefront of our culture. In less than a generation, homosexuality has gone from being almost universally condemned to being almost fully normalized in the larger society.

We are facing a true moral inversion — a system of moral understandings turned upside down. Where homosexuality was even recently condemned by the society, now it is considered a sin to believe that homosexuality is wrong in any way. A new sexual morality has replaced the old, and those who hold to the old morality are considered morally deficient. The new moral authorities have one central demand for the church: get with the new program.

This puts the true church, committed to the authority of God’s Word, in a very difficult cultural position. Put simply, we cannot join the larger culture in normalizing homosexuality and restructuring society to match this new morality. Recognizing same-sex unions and legalizing same-sex marriage is central to this project.

…What, then, is the true church to do? First, we must stand without compromise on the authority of the Bible and the principles of sexual conduct and morality that God has revealed so clearly in His Word. The Bible’s sexual morality is grounded in the creation of humanity in God’s image; we are created as male and female and given the gift of sex within the marriage covenant — and only within the marriage covenant between one man and one woman for as long they both shall live.

The easiest way to summarize the Bible’s teaching on sexuality is to begin with God’s blessing of sex only within the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. Then, just remember that sex outside of that covenant relationship, whatever its form or expression, is explicitly forbidden. Christians know that these prohibitions are for our good and that rejecting them is tantamount to a moral rebellion against God Himself. We also know that the Bible forbids all same-sex sexual acts and behaviors. Thus, we know that homosexuality is a sin, that blessing it in any way is also sin, and that normalizing sin cannot lead to human happiness.

Married Households Level Drop Again

Less Than 50% of U.S. Households Now Led by Married Couples, Says Census Bureau | CNSNews.com.

 

The Census Bureau continues to release its reports on the 2010 census, and the report issued this week on marriage-led households is not good. For the first time ever, homes led by married couples are below 50%. Here’s how CNS News summarized the information (April 25, 2012):

(CNSNews.com) – For the first time ever, the percentage of married households fell below 50 percent, according to the Census Bureau, which released a brief Wednesday about families and households from the results of the 2010 Census.

The percentage of married households fell to 48.4 in 2010, down from 55.2 percent in 1990 and 51.7 percent in 2000.

“The 48 percent of husband-and-wife households in 2010 was the first time since at least 1940 that this has fallen below 50 percent,” said Daphne Lofquist, Statistician for the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch for the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau did not start keeping detailed statistics about the marital status of householders until 1940.

The new data was released during a conference call briefing with reporters on the “2010 Census Brief: Households and Families.” (See full presentation here.)

All other household categories saw an increase: female householder with other family members living (11.6 in 1990, 13.1 in 2010); male householder with other family living (3.4 in 1990, 5.0 in 2010); two or more people in non-family households (5.2 in 1990, 6.8 in 2010); and one-person households (24.6 in 1990, 26.7 in 2010).

The Census Bureau also re-released data on same-sex households first issued last fall, indicating the total number of same-sex unmarried partner households to be 0.6 percent — 646,464 out of the total 116,716,292 households.

 

Why is this significant? Because it indicates that the institutions of marriage and the family themselves are in decline in our country, as they have been for a long time already. Why are they in decline? Because the God Who ordained and ordered these institutions has been despised and disobeyed with regard to how marriage and the family are to be entered into and maintained. God’s holy and good standards for these institutions have been replaced by man’s unholy and evil “standards”. And the results – as we have been witnessing for many years already – are devastating. But, if these institutions are the cornerstone of society, then our American society is in serious trouble. And we can see that, in more ways and areas than one.

Yet the church world is not without blame here either. With respect to marriage and the family the church has caved in to pressure from the world and compromised God’s standards for these institutions. The fruits of that are also evident.

The only answer for these “broken” institutions is the gospel of God’s grace in Christ. The gospel of God’s forgiveness for sins that have led to broken marriages and broken families. And the gospel of God’s holiness that maintains His standards and promotes healthy marriages and family life. May we never forget that only answer. And may we live out of that gospel of grace each day in our own marriages and families.