Labor Day 2020: A Working Man – Rev. J. Engelsma

The latest issue of the Standard Bearer – Sept.1, 2020 – includes a valuable and timely article by Rev. Josh Engelsma on work. It is part of a series he is working on for the rubric “Strength of Youth,” in which he is developing the biblical idea of godly manhood. In this installment he writes on the place of labor (work) in the godly man’s life, tracing the concept from the threefold viewpoint of creation, the Fall, and redemption.

On this Labor Day holiday in the U.S., when there are so many distorted voices calling for our attention on the place and value of work in our lives, it is good to reference this article and hear what God’s Word says about it. I can only quote a portion of it, so we will go to the end of the article and quote from his section “work and redemption.”

Thankfully, as Christians we have hope in the face of sin and the curse. That hope is in Jesus Christ and His work. He took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh, condescended to dwell in this world under the curse, and came to work. His work was to do the will of His Father and redeem His elect people. His earthly ministry was one of constant work: preaching and teaching and performing countless miracles. In reading the gospel accounts one gets the sense of constant activity and busyness with very little opportunity for rest. Especially did Jesus spend Himself in His work at the end of His life as He suffered the wrath of God at the cross and gave His life to atone for our sins.

As men, our confidence may never be in our own working and busyness. Rather we trust alone in Christ and His perfect work. On the basis of His finished work, we are forgiven of our sins with respect to our work. And by the power of His work in us, we are strengthened to fight against our sins and to work out of thanksgiving for His work. And we look forward in hope to the removal of the curse when in perfected bodies and souls we will serve God forever in the new heavens and earth.

Keeping this always in mind, we seek to determine what work the Lord would have us to do. We take stock of the unique gifts and opportunities God gives us (cf. Rom. 12:3-8). We seek out the wise counsel of parents, friends, teachers, and fellow saints. And through prayer we fill out that job application and strike out on that career path. As Christians we have a vocation, a unique calling from God. The idea of a calling is not just for pastors and teachers, but for electricians and salesmen as well.

In the work we are given to do, we strive to work hard. There are few things worse than a man who will not work hard. It ought to be the case as Christians that we are the best, most-desired employees. We respect our employer, give an honest day’s labor, make the best use of our abilities, are faithful and trustworthy, seek the good of the company, and refuse to cheat and cut corners.

In working hard, we seek to do so with the right motive in our hearts. We are not laboring to be rich. We are not seeking greatness as the world counts it. We labor as grateful servants in God’s heavenly kingdom. God does not need us, but He is pleased to use us as instruments in His hand for the advancement of His kingdom. That means that our labor is not empty and meaningless, as 1 Corinthians 15:58 reminds us: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Even the lowliest ditch-digger has an honorable, necessary place of service in the kingdom.

The way this kingdom-focus often comes to expression is in our giving. We work hard not for materialistic purposes, but so that we might use the money God gives to support our family, send our children to a Christian school, feed the poor, provide for the ministry of the Word, and promote the various labors of the church (evangelism, missions, seminary instruction, for example).

Finally, we work not for our own glory and the praise of men, but for the glory of God. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. 3:23).

Let this prayer be yours as you leave for work in the morning, and as you lay your weary body to rest at night:

So let there be on us bestowed
The beauty of the Lord our God;
The work accomplished by our hand
Establish thou, and make it stand;
Yea, let our hopeful labor be
Established evermore by Thee,
Established evermore by Thee (Psalter #246:3).

If you are interested in receiving this Reformed periodical, visit this link to the Standard Bearer website, where you will find subscription information – for both print and digital copies.

Justified (Saved) by Grace Alone (2) – H. Hoeksema

But here several questions arise. The first of these is: how is it possible that God can justify the unjust? How can He pronounce a sentence of justification upon him who is guilty and corrupt? Does not Scripture teach everywhere that God is righteous and just, and that He will by no means clear the guilty? How then is it possible to believe in God as the God Who justifies the ungodly?

The answer of the Word of God is: through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The righteousness that is ours through the grace of justification is by faith of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that God revealed Himself as the God Who justifies the ungodly. Christ is the righteous one. In Him there is a righteousness that is so great and mighty that it blots out all our sins and clothes us with an eternal righteousness, makes us worthy of eternal life. In the judgment of God Christ took our place. He assumed full responsibility for us. All our sins He took upon Himself, and He bore them away for ever. For He not merely suffered the punishment for the sins of His own; but in suffering the wrath of God He was perfectly obedient, even unto the death of the cross. His death was an act. He laid down His life. He sacrificed Himself. Voluntarily, motivated by the love of God, He went down into lowest hell, that there He might bear the wrath of God against sin. And thus He satisfied the justice of God. He made an atonement. He removed the guilt of sin and merited eternal righteousness. And God justified Him and pronounced the verdict of perfect righteousness upon Him, when He raised Him from the dead and gave Him everlasting glory and immortality. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead God revealed Himself as the God Who justifies the ungodly. And if we believe on Him, we receive by that faith the sentence of God’s justification in our hearts. For this righteousness of Christ is imputed to all those for whom Christ died and was raised, so that we are as perfectly righteous before God as if we ourselves had performed that act of obedience on the cross which Christ performed for us. And by faith we lay hold upon this verdict of justification, so that we know that even though all things testify against us in this world of sin and death, we are righteous before God and heirs of eternal life.

But another question arises here. How can the righteousness of Christ be reckoned as ours? Or how could, in the justice of God, Christ die for our sins? Do we not rather meet here with a double injustice, namely, that the righteous is punished, and the guilty is acquitted? If in a worldly court one is found guilty of murder, would a judge inflict capital punishment upon another instead of the guilty one, even though that other would voluntarily offer himself to take the murderer’s place? Would that not be considered a double perversion of justice? Moreover, how can the death and obedience of the one be the righteousness of countless sinners?

But here we must remember that Christ is not merely another man, but He is the Son of God come into the flesh. No mere man has a life to substitute for another’s: for his life is not his own, and, besides, he is himself a sinner under sentence of death. But Christ is the Son of God, very God Himself, Who took our flesh and blood upon Himself voluntarily. He became man by an act of His own will. He had power to lay down His life for others, if He so pleased. And before the world was, He had been appointed the Head of all the elect, so that He represented them and was responsible for them. By God’s eternal decree of election they are one body, one legal corporation, represented by Christ Who is their Head. Christ, therefore, can be summoned before the bar of God’s judgment and appear there for all His own, assume responsibility for them, take all their guilt upon Himself, and pay for their sins by an act of perfect obedience on His part. And again, because He is not a mere man, but the Son of God in the flesh, His death is of immeasurable value, infinitely precious, capable of blotting out the sins of all His own and of procuring for them eternal righteousness and everlasting life and glory. This, then, is the marvelous grace of God in justifying the ungodly. He Himself came down to us, assumed our human nature, and in that human nature assumed responsibility for our sins, became obedient unto death, yea unto the death of the cross, thus blotting out the handwriting of our sins that was against us. In Christ He is the God Who justifies the ungodly. By grace are ye saved!

You say, perhaps, that we must believe in order to be justified before God, and that, therefore, it is faith that makes us righteous before God. And it is true enough that we are justified by faith only. He that believeth on Him Who justifies the ungodly is righteous, and he only. And that means that we must believe on God as He revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead. For this righteousness is imputed to us “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (Romans 4:24) There is no other way than that of faith to become righteous before God. We must try no other way. All our good works are but filthy works. All our own goodness and piety, our very religiousness and the very best of our religious acts must be utterly discarded as a ground of righteousness; and we must come before God as naked sinners, but believing on God Who justifieth the ungodly, if we would obtain righteousness and life. By faith we are justified. But let us beware, lest we make of faith another good work on our part on the ground of which we are justified. Faith is not the ground of our justification. We are not justified because we believe. Nor are we justified by faith because through faith we become holy and capable of doing good works. Christ crucified and raised is the only ground of our righteousness. And faith is only the means whereby we are united with Christ and the spiritual power whereby we lay hold on this righteousness, so that we know and wholly rely on God Who justifieth the ungodly.

Besides, let us not forget that faith itself is a gift of God. No man can or will of himself accept Christ and believe on God Who raised Him from the dead. God through Christ by His Spirit works within our hearts the justifying faith. And so it is all of grace. By grace God came down to us in our sin and death, and in the Person of His only begotten Son assumed our flesh and blood. By grace Christ died for our sins on the accursed tree and was raised on the third day for our justification. By grace God chose us and ordained us to eternal righteousness and life in Christ before the foundation of the world. And by grace He gives to us the power of faith, thus uniting us with Christ and causing us to believe on Him Who justifieth the ungodly. By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God!

Taken from chapter 8, “Justified by Grace,” in The Wonder of Grace by Herman Hoeksema (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1944), pp.70-71. This work has now been republished by the Reformed Free Publishing Association.

For the first installment on this gospel truth, see this post.

Penitent Worshipers

This special meditationhas been prepared by PRC home missionary, Rev. Aud Spriensma.

Meditation on Psalm 130: 3,4

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand. But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

This is the eleventh psalm of the Songs of Ascent. As we go up to the Lord’s house to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness, immediately there is, should be, the sense of our unworthiness because of our sin. The psalmist begins this psalm with the acknowledgment of depths. This could be the depths of the ocean or sea. It could be the depths of a dungeon or an empty cistern , (like the ones in which Joseph and Jeremiah were thrown by those who hated them. The depths is a position of helplessness and great need. Think of Jonah when he was in the belly of the great fish. The psalmist, aware of the depths of his sin and perversity cried “Out of the depths!”. His iniquities were against God! Surely, he has earned punishment; he is in these depths justly. The depths refer to guilt, the objective result of sin that brings a person under God’s condemnation. He deserves and experiences a sense of God’s wrath.

Affliction and guilt can bring a person very low. But in these depths, one must not give into despair or hopelessness. We must pray with great earnestness to the One who alone can rescue us. Notice, the psalmist cried unto the LORD. God gave him awareness of his sin. Faith makes us aware that we have earned what we received. Our sins bring God’s wrath! Faith cries; it does not whisper. Oh, the loud penetrating voice arises out of the depths. We have no right to be heard. Why should we be brought out? We cry out and supplicate Jehovah, our covenant God to look down in His mercy and hear our cry. Who can stand before the holy God who cannot endure iniquity? But if we do not want God to “mark our iniquities”, what do we wish for Him to do? Do we wish for Him to wink at our sin or pretend it is not there? To mark is literally to “watch over, tally up and keep a record of.” How awful and how long would be such a list! One sin against the holy God would damn us to hell, let alone the pile of sins heaped up. Who will be able to stand up and defend himself? No sinner can be justified before God by his own efforts. It is a cry of supplication, pleading for grace and favor. The guilty must pray for salvation.

Verse four begins with a significant “but”. Faith sees that with God there is forgiveness. This means that God lifts off from us the responsibility to pay for our sins. God also restores to us the right to live before Him. God alone can pardon the guilt of sin. What is the basis of this forgiveness? How can a holy God forgive? The answer is found in verses seven and eight. “Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”

There is forgiveness by the redemption that God gives. Mercy is God reaching down to us, in our helplessness, and helping. He delivers us from the depths. With God is plenteous redemption. A redeemer was a near kinsman who was willing and able to pay the debts of a person or family, like Boaz did for Naomi and Ruth. Redemption is with God. It is never something that we have earned or merited. God pays the debt that we have accrued. The cost of our redemption was the blood and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the wrath that each and every sin of ours deserves. No, God does not wink at our sin or ignore it. He is holy and just. God provided for our redemption. In I Cor. 1: 30 we read, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” We must acknowledge that we cannot stand before God on our own merits. We in faith look to God as the God who forgives sin through Christ. How gracious is that forgiveness! It is not deserved by us. It is graciously given. Faith focuses its hope and desire upon Jesus Christ. He gave Himself as “a ransom for all” (I Tim. 2:6). Are you trusting in Christ alone for salvation? If so, then how has your faith evidenced itself in a childlike fear of the Lord?

God forgives us by redeeming us. The purpose is that you and I may always stand in awe of Him and His grace. Oh, the wonder that God loved me! Have you stood in wonder at your redemption? Aware of the great punishment that your sins deserve, are you made speechless that God forgave you? Instead of standing in the rags of your sin, you have been cleansed and clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus. O, the wonder of it all! God’s salvation is abundant. Do you rest your hope entirely in Him?

“My sin — O the bliss of this glorious thought! — My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more; Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well…with my soul; It is well, it is well with my soul.” Philip Bliss 1876

A Reformed Commentary on the 2020 Pandemic (Part 2) – July 2020 “Standard Bearer”

The July 2020 issue of the Standard Bearer (produced only once per month in June, July, and August) is now out (in print and digital forms). This is our annual “PRC Synod” post-view issue, complete with a wrap-up of Synod 2020’s decisions and some photos of the delegates at work and in fellowship.

But the issue also contains a regular editorial and a number of other scheduled rubric articles, including Prof. D. Kuiper’s next installment on the ecumenical councils of the early church (Constantinople 381), Rev. J. Laning’s article on “God’s Sure Promise,” a powerful mission article with testimonies from the Philippines’ field, Rev. R. Barnhill’s second article on “Entitlement” (especially for the young people), a book review by Prof. R. Cammenga on Mrs. S. Casemier’s new historical novel on Katie Luther, and the latest church news.

The editorial by Prof. B. Gritters is another timely commentary on the pandemic (part 2) that continues to sweep the world and affect our lives in every aspect. He argues that Reformed theology presents the best commentary on what we are seeing and experiencing, looking this time at the last two parts of Reformed doctrine – Eschatology and Christology. Here is part of what he has to say:

We live in a very difficult time, when our Father’s hand brings disease and gives the world over to the lawlessness it so fervently seeks.

Reformed theology has the best, really the only, way to interpret for the people of God these otherwise strange and fearful happenings in the world. Reformed theology, we are convinced, is simply the doctrine of the Bible, and the Bible is the lens through which the believer must look in order to bring order out of the disorder. That is, Reformed theology is faith’s seeing what unbelief and false teaching cannot see. Reformed theology is faith’s understanding of what unbelief and heresy finds utterly confounding.

Last time I gave a sampling of doctrines from four of the six chapters (loci) of Reformed theology that help clarify what otherwise might be fuzzy to men, that shed light on what otherwise might be dim or even dark. That editorial treated theology and God’s sovereign providence and just judgments; anthropology and man’s fall into sin and death; soteriology and the graces of sanctification and hope that God works through affliction; ecclesiology and the importance of public worship and the relationship between church and state. Here, I follow up with the last two chapters, eschatology and Christology.

Eschatology (The Doctrine of the End Times): Heaven on Earth?

If it’s true that Christians wrongly react to the pandemic, and churches wrongly explain troubles in the world on account of bad theology, anthropology, soteriology, and ecclesiology, it is even more so on account of false teachings in eschatology. Eschatology teaches the people of God what to expect in the end times, what is the goal of God with the church’s labors in the world, to what believers ought to aim, and unto what they press their efforts. Eschatology deals with the future—the near future and the distant future, the future of the church and the future of this world, the future of the devil and his hosts and the future of King Jesus and His relationship to all created things.

Getting eschatology wrong has been disastrous for most nominal Christians these days because their hope is earthly. Their expectations are for improvements here and now, soon. They believe God’s goal with the church’s labor is a Christianized world. So they press their efforts to fulfill the ‘cultural mandate.’ They labor hard to create an earthly kingdom. Rather than to carry out the Great Commission to bring to the nations the gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, they want to redeem society from its chaos. Their desire is to bring the nations the ‘good news’ of social equality, food for the poor, clean water, justice for women and other oppressed people, and probably a vaccine for COVID-19. They are convinced that these are what God wants for the world and that the church is the instrument to bring them about. But note well, it is not the church as institute that carries out this work, through her offices, but the church as organism.

In addition to being bad ecclesiology, it’s also false teaching regarding eschatology. Instead of quickening hope in the coming of Christ, the false teaching leads to despondency, because the depressing happenings in the world do not bode well for a Christianized world. And as for the nominal Christian church—her drift towards Roman Catholicism and her ecumenical adulteries have rendered her impotent for gospel good.

Someone once said that when a man expects to be “hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Wrong eschatology dulls one’s thinking, lulls the church to sleep. She now imagines a future of ease and prosperity. Her mind is not ‘concentrated’ at all, but clouded and then confused. If the future is to be so bright, how can such evils increase in the world? And what can be done to turn the world into a peaceful place, to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain, when men and nations are so vile? Their hopes are shaken. Worse, they expose themselves to the allurements of the Antichrist who, Scripture teaches, will someday solve the world’s problems.

This is the major error of neo-Calvinism today, in which the false teaching of ‘common grace’ predominates special, redeeming grace. Common grace prided itself in being a ‘two-track’ theology—special saving grace on one track, common grace on the other. God’s ‘common grace’ will remedy the world’s violence, poverty, injustice. Special grace saves souls and prepares them for heaven. But the two-track theology has become a monorail of common grace. Neo-Calvinists focus on the common grace that will save bodies and give a good life on earth. Neo-Calvinism is completely exposed to N.T. Wright’s “heaven is on earth” mantra.

The bracing realism of Reformed orthodoxy ‘concentrates our minds wonderfully.’ Reformed theology focuses our minds on, and directs our efforts to, preaching the gospel of God’s gracious salvation and establishing churches. Reformed ecclesiology teaches that the true church is the “Israel of God,” the new ‘nation’ for which He cares, and that the church institute is the messenger of that gospel. And Reformed eschatology is a-millennial.

Biblical doctrine of the end times promises victory to the church by faith in Jesus Christ. But it teaches that the victory comes through tribulation, suffering, persecution (John 16:33, Acts 14:22). It teaches that Christ’s coming is preceded by wars and rumors of war, pestilence and other troubles in this life, and apostasy in the church (II Thess. 2). It teaches that the days right before the coming of Christ will be like the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39), terrible days of apostasy and unbelief when the true church will be small and preachers of God’s righteousness ridiculed.

So Reformed eschatology helps believers to see clearly and to keep balanced in troubling times like today.

To read further in this issue, visit this link. To subscribe to the magazine, go here.

Being Protestant, Protesting Injustice, and Learning from John Bunyan

Teacher and author Douglas Bond had a significant post this week, pulling together thoughts about the ongoing protests against injustices in America, being a committed Protestant Christian, and his latest book project on John Bunyan. He has some powerful thoughts that help us evaluate the present crisis and keep proper perspective as believers.

Here are his opening paragraphs before he goes into some detail about his book on Bunyan. To finish reading his thoughts, visit the link at the end.

We’ve seen sustained protests in the streets of cities all across American, protests that have erupted into mayhem and violence, more evil, more injustice, and more death, including the death of a Black retired police officer, and a Black female on-duty police officer, both shot and killed by participants in the protests, ironically, protesting police violence against Black people.

I am unapologetically a Protestant Christian, finding my spiritual and theological roots in the Protestant Reformation. Did you notice the word protest in the word Protestant? In a fallen world filled with sin, falsehood, and injustice, there will be times when we must stand and protest. But when and how do Christians go about taking their stand, protesting against falsehood, injustice, and evil? I’ve been thinking a great deal about this in the last two months as I have been writing about the life of John Bunyan, a man who protested, took his stand against unjust laws and corrupt magistrates. What did he get for his protest? Threatened with deportation to the colonies or being stretched by the neck until dead. Determined to stop his unlicensed gospel preaching, his enemies unjustly threw him in jail for twelve long years.

Immersed in Bunyan’s history and life, as a writer the last seven weeks have been an absolute delight. I thought I loved John Bunyan before writing The Hobgoblins of John Bunyan, but now I love him to an incalculable degree. His entire life is an enactment of God’s way in the gospel: God chooses the foolish to confound the wise (I Cor 1), the younger brother over the elder, the things that are of no account and are mocked and scorned by the world–these are precious in the sight of our God and Savior.

That was Bunyan, a poor, peasant tinker, with little formal education, surrounded by the Puritan age, an age of great piety, of great learning and erudition, and of great literary accomplishment. And along comes humble Bunyan, his life transformed by the power of the gospel, and, undaunted, he preaches, and suffers, and writes, including penning the best-selling book of all time (next to the English Bible), never out of print since 1678 (ignore JK Rowling’s claim to have exceeded Bunyan; it took her seven books to his one; that’s not how it works).

Source: Being Protestant and Protesting Injustice

May 1, 2020 Standard Bearer – Special Issue: “Since by Man Came Death…”

The latest issue of the Standard Bearer has been released digitally (printed copies are not allowed at present due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and you are encouraged to download and read this timely issue. The May 1, 2020 issue is the second special issue in this volume year (96) and carries the theme “Since by Man Came Death….”

At the time the editors planned this issue (in January/February of this year), we had no idea how timely and relevant it would be in the face of the worldwide coronavirus situation. But now this crisis has put death and dying before all of us, and, while unbelieving fears are being exposed, true faith is also being tested. How can we face the awful reality of an unknown disease with its prospect of severe illness and perhaps death? What hope do we have in such times – for this life and for the hereafter?

The articles in this special issue address these questions and more – openly and realistically – yet also with sure faith and hope, because the answers come from God’s Word and from the biblical and Reformed confessions of Christ’s church based on that Word (penned in times of crisis like our own). If you are living with real fear right now, and are without hope, then this issue is must reading. But even if you are an established believer, and your faith is being tried deeply in these days, then these articles will speak peace to your heart and give you sure hope in Jesus Christ.

The editorial, “Confronted by Our Mortality and Our Last Enemy – Death,” was written by Rev. Ken Koole. We post an excerpt here today, urging you to read all of it – and the rest of the issue in the next few weeks. It will enrich your faith, strengthen your hope, and increase your love for the Lord God, in whom alone we have the victory over this mighty foe. By all means “take up and read.”

 But… but… is hope and gladness clean gone forever? Has God forgotten to be kind, that God whom we and our first parents have so highly offended? After all, death is His sentence and His “creature” set loose upon the human race and on creation itself. Is there no remedy? Just the sadness of farewell and the terror of what follows hereafter?

What can be said to the dying or to those struggling to cope with that empty spot due to a beloved family member taken and gone? What indeed.

Not this: this is evil. It is not God’s will or doing. It is just the Devil’s mischief. God is too loving and kind to have willed this to happen.

Not so. For, if the calamity was not what God willed, He was, evidently, powerless to prevent it. And then, to what purpose is this death? Really, to no good purpose at all, except to magnify Satan’s power prevailing against God’s will. All comfort is gone. We cannot put our trust in or turn to God as the Almighty after all. Who can be sure whether death will not have the last word and mocking laughter after all!

Powerless to prevent it, powerless to overcome it.

Away with such nonsense!

To be sure, death is an awful power, and as far as we mortal men are concerned, invincible. But there is one mightier than death, and that is the Almighty One, who is Jehovah God.

And God be thanked, to those living in the midst of death in a creation under the sentence of death, this Lord God has given a Word, a Word that gives us mortal men words to withstand the horror of death. Words that give hope so real that the believer can stand at the lip of the grave and say “Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?” Words of defiance when nothing but a corpse remains and the grave is about to swallow our loved one.

How can this be?

It can only be because of who Jehovah God is. The almighty Creator God to be sure, but also God triune, who as such is a covenant-making and keeping God. And not only within Himself, but also regarding a people, a remnant of the human race He would call His own.

How God’s people dealing with the awful power of death need to hear this!

How pastors and preachers need to remember this!

Wisdom from John Calvin on COVID-19

What would John Calvin say to the likes of us about facing COVID-19?

One of the newer blogs I recently started following had a fine post yesterday (April 28) about insights from Calvin’s Institutes on our present pandemic catastrophe. It is in one of the places where Calvin is treating the sovereign providence of God – not as an abstract doctrine, but as the pastoral truth that it is, especially in times of affliction and trouble.

Be sure to read the beginning of the post where Calvin sets the stage for the entrance of the divine hand, but here is how Joel Hart (the author) ends his post. You will discern the relevance of the doctrine and its comfort for us now.

How true Calvin’s somber observation: life is frightening, particularly if all we see around us is “fortune”. It is then, though, that Calvin turns a corner in his meditations. He writes:

Yet, when that light of divine providence has once shone upon a godly man, he is then relieved and set free not only from the extreme anxiety and fear that were pressing him before, but from every care. For as he justly dreads fortune, so he fearlessly dares commit himself to God. His solace, I say, is to know that his Heavenly Father so holds all things in his power, so rules by his authority and will, so governs by his wisdom, that nothing can befall except he determine it.[3]

What a statement! In the face of all this, we fearlessly dare to commit ourselves to God. Can this be our testimony, our fearless dare, our confident solace in these times? If it seems too difficult to fearlessly dare, we must turn to Scripture. Calvin recognizes this, and from there, Calvin quotes from Psalms 91, 118, 56, 27, and 22. These Psalms provide particular comfort in these days. Perhaps these would serve as Calvin’s “family worship guide” for the time of COVID-19.

I must conclude with one more observation. The Institutes were written, or expanded, over a series of editions. The portion I’ve quoted from here comes from the 1539 edition. This would be quite early in Calvin’s career in Geneva, and before some of his greatest sorrows.

The following years were ones with joy – and sorrow – for Calvin. In 1542, plague broke out in Geneva and caused great calamity. Conflicts confronted Calvin at home and abroad.

More personally, just a year after those sober yet confident words of 1539, Calvin married Idelette de Bure. In the next nine years, Idelette was a source of joy to Calvin. At the same time, all three children she bore to him died in infancy. And in 1549, Idelette passed away after a lengthy illness.

Calvin experienced firsthand the reality of the world he wrote about so clearly in 1539. And yet in later editions of the Institutes, written after these calamities struck Calvin, we find the same words of confidence. The same truths that prepared him for calamity now sustained him. And we even find that in that same chapter, Calvin added one final articulation of confidence:

“David, on account of the various changes by which the life of men is continually turned, and as it were, whirled about, betakes himself to this refuge: that his “times are in God’s hand” (Ps. 31:15). He could have put here either “course of life” or “time” in the singular, but he chose to express by using the plural “times” that however unstable the condition of men may be, whatever changes take place from time to time, they are governed by God.”

May it be so of us. Whatever changes take place, may we take refuge that our times are in God’s hand.

Source: Wisdom from John Calvin on COVID-19

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness – G. Keddie on Psalm 31

I am enjoying ( that is, being edified and encouraged by) Gordon Keddie’s recently published devotional book, The Prayers of the Bible: 366 Devotionals to Encourage Your Prayer Life (Crown and Covenant, 2017). I picked up the Kindle version free a month ago and started using it at the end of the day.

Friday’s devotional (April 17) was based on David’s prayer recorded in Psalm 31, and it struck me as so relevant to our current situation. So I cut and pasted it from my Kindle into an email and now post it here for your benefit too. As you read it, I believe it will speak to your need in these times as it did to me. (This is not a disclaimer, but I add that Keddie uses the New KJV for these devotionals.)

A prayer of thanksgiving for God’s goodness

Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You… Ps. 31:19

READ PSALM 31

The goodness of God must be a doctrine believed if it is to be an experience enjoyed. This is most keenly tested when bad things happen to us, because it is not obvious that these are evidence of God’s goodness in our lives. After all, “His judgments are in all the earth” (Ps. 105:7), and at the time even “all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant” (Heb. 12:11). So the upsets, setbacks, disasters, and tragedies of life—“the same event” that “happens to the righteous and the wicked” (Eccl. 9:2)—cause us distress, not joy, and may tempt us to doubt the goodness of God altogether. We naturally cry out in pain and seek relief and resolution. Again, the Lord shows us the way…

To whom are we to turn in our troubles? Answer: the God who saves! David turns to God for deliverance (vv. 1–2), confesses him as his “rock and fortress” (vv. 3–5), and testifies to past mercies from his hand (vv. 6–8). Calvin notes that David “held it as a principle, that the hope which depends upon God cannot possibly be disappointed” and calls us all to act “from a firm persuasion that our safety depends on the power of God.” David worked hard at staying alive—running, hiding, fighting, even feigning madness—but he always depended upon the Lord. It is not an accident that he was given to utter words that Jesus would speak upon the cross: “Into Your hand I commit my spirit” (v. 5; Luke 23:46). As David foreshadows Christ trusting his Father, so we are called to after-shadow Christ our Savior, trusting in him as our surety in a world no less challenging in our time.

Why may we have confidence in the face of troubles? Answer: God is the God of sovereign grace, who delights in “exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth” (Jer. 9:24).

David can claim God’s mercy for two basic reasons (vv. 9–13). The first is that God is in himself “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Ps. 103:8). We are alive “because His compassions fail not” (Lam. 3:22). Even more, we live in “the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2), when “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). This is true for every human being.

The second reason is that God is absolutely sovereign (vv. 14–18). Only because our “times are in [His] hand” do we have a prayer for deliverance (v. 15). “The people of God in every age,” writes Murdoch Campbell, “have had the same awareness [as David] of being exposed to constant danger; but ‘their life is hid with Christ in God’ [Col. 3:3].” God’s sovereignty is not cold and distant to us, for he is our “hiding place” (Ps. 32:7; 119:114), and we are his “dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff,” safe in the Rock of Ages, Jesus his Son (Song 2:14).

What will believers discover even through their troubles? Answer: that God is good (vv. 19–24). In all your troubles, child of God, both physical and spiritual, from illnesses to insults, from foolishness and sins to injuries by others, have you not found with the psalmist that God has loved you through them all and been your “rock of refuge” in Christ your Savior? Indeed, it is Jesus who was “cut off from before [his Father’s] eyes” (v. 22), but “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear…” and “having been perfected,” became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:7–9).

Dear Christian, you are safe in the arms of Jesus! You have found it so thus far, and will so find it in the glory yet to be revealed. Will you now “love the Lord, all you His saints…for the Lord preserves the faithful” (v. 23)? “Oh, how great is Your goodness!” (v. 19).

Keddie always ends his devotionals by calling the reader to praise God by singing the Psalm. Shall we do that? Here’s a good way to do so (sing along with the piano accompaniment). I include the first three stanzas below.

 

1. In Thee, O Lord, I put my trust,
I call upon Thy Name;
O save me in Thy righteousness,
Nor let me suffer shame.

2. Bow down Thy ear to my request,
And swift deliverance send;
Be Thou to me a rock of strength,
A fortress to defend.

3. Since Thou my rock and fortress art,
My leader be, and guide;
From all temptation rescue me,
Thou dost my strength abide.

 

*Postscript: If you are looking for a good devotional, whether personal or family, this is a fine one. Keddie’s material is not “feel-good fluff,” but Bible-focused, God-centered, and Christ-exalting stuff.

And while I’m recommending this Keddie publication, I highly recommend all his commentaries. I have used them many times over the years and never was disappointed. They are always sound expositions of God’s Word, with principled applications, by a faithful Reformed Presbyterian pastor.

April 15, 2020 Issue of the Standard Bearer Now Available!

Yes, this post does serve notice that the April 15, 2020 issue of the Standard Bearer is available. What makes this notice special, however, is the fact that this issue is only available in digital form (pdf) due to COVID-19 printing restrictions. The RFPA, publisher of this Reformed magazine, explains:

Due to printing restrictions related to COVID-19, the RFPA is temporarily unable to print and distribute hard copies of The Standard Bearer. Once these restrictions have been lifted, the RFPA will print and mail out all postponed hard copy issues of the magazine. In the meantime, these issues will be available for free online as they are produced.

And in that notice you will see the “silver lining” in this cloud that has descended over the SB. Yes, the RFPA is generously making the magazine available FREE for the time being. That means subscriber and non-subscriber have access to the entire magazine! Of course, we hope that those of you who are not presently subscribers will be come such after reading and profiting from this unique Reformed periodical.

So, by all means click on the link above and download your free copy. Then read it, digest it, and share it with others. And then, support the magazine and the ministry of the RFPA by becoming a regular subscriber. Then, when the free digital copies end, you can still receive the print copy – and digital access!

Now, let’s notice the contents of this issue. From the cover image above above you will see some of it: a special Easter meditation; Prof. R. Dykstra’s closing article on the Canons and the covenant (how the doctrines of grace are woven into the fabric of God’s covenant of grace); an “All Around Us” update from Rev. McGeown on free speech in England, Prof. D. Kuiper’s next installment on the Council of Nicea; Prof. R. Cammenga’s treatment of the next article in the Second Helvetic (Swiss) Confession; and then, a special section of articles relating to the coronavirus pandemic – you won’t want to miss that!

Here’s a sample to get whet your appetite:

The vision of the Lamb may initially leave us with the question, where is the power necessary to unfold God’s plan? He is a Lamb, and not only that, He had been killed. Where is the lion-like power that would allow Him to open the seals? Along with John, we behold the beautiful mystery of the gospel here. The Christ is a Lion precisely because He is a Lamb. The fact that He is a Lamb that had been slain, but is not slain anymore, means He is a Lamb with Lion power. He has resurrection power over sin, death, grave, and hell. He has “prevailed” over these by dying a
powerful death upon the cross, and by rising into new exalted life. He is a Lamb with seven horns (v. 6). He has complete power to bring about the covenantal purposes of God.

But more than that, the Lamb has the right to do so. To take this book and carry out its purposes one must not only have the power, but also the right. This too is what is means to be “worthy.” This Lamb has prevailed over sin, death, grave, and hell, on behalf of all those who are to be redeemed in this New Testament age and who are to be taken into the fullness of that covenant in the new heavens and new earth. This gives Him the right to carry out God’s plan and purpose. There is a ground for the plan’s accomplishment! “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (v. 9).

In verse 7 the Lion/Lamb takes the book. That moment is the crowning of the King. It is when the ascended Lord appeared in heaven, was enthroned with God, and was given the power to rule over all things unto the carrying out of the purposes of God.

Your Christ, who has taken the nails for you and your hell along with them, is right now unfolding what is in that book. Right now, in March of 2020 He is doing this. In great things, little things, hairs that fall from heads, heads of state that fall from thrones. In microscopic viruses and their movements across the world. Did you know that in that scroll was written, “Winter/spring of 2020, spread of coronavirus,” and every last detail about how it would accomplish the building up the kingdom of Jesus Christ?

From an edited version of the sermon “Coronavirus and the King,” preached by Rev. C. Griess in First PRC, Grand Rapids, MI in March of 2020.

Christian Meets Two Children: Passion and Patience (The Pilgrim’s Progress)

I saw moreover in my dream, that the Interpreter took him by the hand, and had him into a little room, where sat two little children, each one in his chair. The name of the eldest was Passion, and the name of the other Patience. Passion seemed to be much discontented, but Patience was very quiet. Then Christian asked, “What is the reason of the discontent of Passion?” The Interpreter answered, “The governor of them would have him stay for his best things till the beginning of the next year, but he will have all now; but Patience is willing to wait.”

Then I saw that one came to Passion, and brought him a bag of treasure, and poured it down at his feet: the which he took up, and rejoiced therein, and withal laughed Patience to scorn. But I beheld but a while, and he had lavished all away, and had nothing left him but rags.

Christian: Then said Christian to the Interpreter, Expound this matter more fully to me.

Interpreter: So he said, These two lads are figures; Passion of the men of this world, and Patience of the men of that which is to come; for, as here thou seest, passion will have all now, this year, that is to say, in this world; so are the men of this world: They must have all their good things now; they cannot stay till the next year, that is, until the next world, for their portion of good. That proverb, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is of more authority with them than are all the divine testimonies of the good of the world to come. But as thou sawest that he had quickly lavished all away, and had presently left him nothing but rags, so will it be with all such men at the end of this world.

Christian: Then said Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best wisdom, and that upon many accounts. 1. Because he stays for the best things. 2. And also because he will have the glory of his, when the other has nothing but rags.

Interpreter: Nay, you may add another, to wit, the glory of the next world will never wear out; but these are suddenly gone. Therefore Passion had not so much reason to laugh at Patience because he had his good things first, as Patience will have to laugh at Passion because he had his best things last; for first must give place to last, because last must have his time to come: but last gives place to nothing, for there is not another to succeed. He, therefore, that hath his portion first, must needs have a time to spend it; but he that hath his portion last, must have it lastingly: therefore it is said of Dives, “In thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” Luke 16:25.

Christian: Then I perceive it is not best to covet things that are now, but to wait for things to come.

Interpreter: You say truth: for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:18. But though this be so, yet since things present and our fleshly appetite are such near neighbors one to another; and again, because things to come and carnal sense are such strangers one to another; therefore it is, that the first of these so suddenly fall into amity, and that distance is so continued between the second.

Taken from “The Second Stage” of The Pilgrim’s Progress, the classic work by John Bunyan.

In the midst of our present tribulation it is good to read (and re-read) this wonderful work that helps us see our true journey as pilgrims and strangers through this present world. Let the difficult but steady progress of Christian be an encouragement to you in these times. Having fled the City of Destruction, we press on for the City of Zion that lies ahead. Let Patience be our model as we await its glory.