Killing the Hostility

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 

(Ephesians 2:11-22)

In this passage, the apostle Paul addressed the most persistent and virulent hostility in his culture: that between Jews and Gentiles. He said that the gospel takes these enemies and makes them not just friends but brothers and sisters. A family.

The animosity between Jews and Gentiles in the Middle East today (particularly between Palestinians and Israelis and their supporters) is just one kind of hostility that, sadly, is currently a “normal” part of our fractured world. Protesters at Columbia, NYU and Yale are not just expressing their views on foreign policy. They are flinging hateful epithets, mocking individuals and blocking them from attending classes. Racial animus seems to be degenerating, not improving. On Sunday I addressed the issue of interracial marriage and how it has offended both White and Black communities at different times. I just read about a high school baseball team in Florida that was ripped apart by racial tensions, resulting in the cancellation of their season (which is devastating for many seniors offered college scholarships), federal discrimination lawsuits, and the termination of coaches, teachers and administrators. And these tensions originated primarily with parents and coaches, not players.

The vitriolic language we hear hurled to and from both sides of the political aisle, particularly in the blogosphere and on social media, is either a source or a result of the division we’re seeing in our country today, depending on your perspective. Debates over policy seem too often to devolve into personal attacks. From the highest levels of government, there is little to no restraint in addressing those who hold contrasting opinions about government. Politicians from the highest levels on down have resorted to schoolyard tactics, and they are trickling down to ground level. We may know in part how we got here, but it’s difficult to chart a path back. The genie is out of the bottle.

What do Paul’s words in Ephesians 2 have to say to the Body of Christ today? Is real unity even possible?

Absolutely it is. After all, Christ through his blood took us, people who were completely cut off from God, and brought us near (v. 13). He pursued us and made people who hated each other to be one in him (v. 14). How did he do it? He “abolished the law of commandments expressed in ordinances (v. 15).” That does not mean that he abolished the law itself; it means that he destroyed the misuse of the law to enslave people. He fulfilled the law so that sinners, religious and irreligious alike, could be one in Christ (v. 16).

It took Jesus’ violent death and resurrection to accomplish this, and it includes radically transforming the hearts of those who believe the gospel. That gospel not only preaches peace; it actually brings peace (v. 17). It brings peace because the Holy Spirit grants us access to the Father (v. 18). That relationship with God the Father makes us true brothers and sisters (v. 19). We are God’s House, and we have a bond that nothing on earth can break.

That unity with other believers is the fruit of the union we have with Christ. It is a necessary, definitional unity. And it requires us to put to death the divisions that come between people in the world. We choose to love the family of God in spite of what would otherwise divide us.

People of God, we have the delightful opportunity (and terrifying responsibility) to model before a watching world how gospel unity can destroy human divisiveness. We know it from God’s word. We’re experiencing it in the body of Christ at CTR right now. Let’s encourage this unity–cultivate it and see it explode into full flower–for the transformative impact that it can have on the people who walk through our doors and into our lives. That kind of unity can bring radical transformation in a very dark place.

The Intersection of Sorrow and Hope

Auntie Margaret is seated at right; her sister, Carol, is seated center; Jonathan is holding Charlie at left

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living…

What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116:5-9; 12-15)

I heard from my dad this morning that his oldest sister, my Auntie Margaret, went home to be with the Lord this morning. She had experienced significant medical issues for many years, though as recently as Sunday was doing better. A persistent infection caused her condition to worsen quickly this morning. Sadly, my cousin and his wife, who have cared beautifully for Margaret for many years, were not able to be with her when she died because of a Norovirus outbreak at the facility where she lived.

Margaret lived near Southampton, England, most of her life. She was a part of the “low church” (less liturgical) of the Church of England. As we were separated by the Atlantic Ocean, I did not know her well growing up. My relationship with her really began when she and my Uncle John flew over for our wedding in 1993. Allie and I corresponded over the years via Christmas cards, other letters, a few times by phone, and in person when she and my Auntie Carol visited in 2008.

That visit was special for us in many ways. The ladies worshiped at CTR the Sunday that they were here; at the time we met in the chapel at First Baptist Church on Union Street. They came to one of Jonathan’s soccer games, and read stories to his fourth grade class at Mt. St. Mary Academy. We spent quite a bit of time that visit talking–I found it fascinating to get an “insider’s” perspective on my dad’s childhood and emigration to the states–and I learned about Margaret’s relationship with the Lord. She could see, coming from a country where the evangelical church is also a very small percentage of the population, that there was a great need for gospel-driven churches here. She expressed such incredible encouragement to us and pride in us in the mission to which God had called us. Margaret even contributed financially to the church on occasion afterwards. I will never forget how much that affirmation meant to Allie and me personally during a very vulnerable season in the history of our church.

So Auntie Margaret’s passing leaves me with a lot of mixed emotions: relief that she is free of physical pain, joy for her homecoming with the Lord, and sadness that we won’t be together again this side of heaven. I’d like to share a liturgy I found today that expresses many of the feelings in my heart today. Maybe it’s a comfort for you too.

LITURGY FOR EMBRACING BOTH JOY AND SORROW

From the book Every Moment Holy, Vol. 2: Death, Grief, and Hope © 2020 Douglas McKelvey

Do not be distant, O Lord, lest I find this burden of loss too heavy, and shrink from the necessary experience of my grief.

Do not be distant, O Lord, lest I become so mired in yesterday’s hurts, that I miss entirely the living gifts this day might hold.

Let me neither ignore my pain, pretending all is okay when it isn’t, nor coddle and magnify my pain, so that I dull my capacity to experience all that remains good in this life.

For joy that denies sorrow is neither hard-won, nor true, nor eternal. It is not real joy at all. And sorrow that refuses to make space
for the return of joy and hope, in the end becomes nothing more than a temple for the worship of my own woundedness.

So give me strength, O God, to feel this grief deeply, never to hide my heart from it. And give me also hope enough to remain open to surprising encounters with joy, as one on a woodland path might stumble suddenly into dapplings of golden light.

Amidst the pain that lades these days, give me courage, O Lord; courage to live them fully, to love and to allow myself to be loved, to remember, grieve, and honor what was, to live with thanksgiving in what is, and to invest in the hope of what will be.

Be at work gilding these long heartbreaks with the advent of new joys, good friendships, true fellowships, unexpected delights. Remind me again and again of your goodness, your presence, your promises.

For this is who we are: a people of The Promise—a people shaped in the image of the God whose very being generates all joy in the universe, yet who also weeps and grieves its brokenness.

So we, your children, are also at liberty to lament our losses, even as we simultaneously rejoice in the hope of their coming restoration.

Let me learn now, O Lord, to do this as naturally as the inhale and exhale of a single breath:

To breathe out sorrow, to breathe in joy.

To breathe out lament, to breathe in hope.

To breathe out pain, to breathe in comfort.

To breathe out sorrow, to breathe in joy.

In one hand I grasp the burden of my grief, while with the other I reach for the hope of grief ’s redemption.

And here, between the tension of the two, between what was and what will be, in the very is of now, let my heart be surprised by, shaped by, warmed by, remade by, the same joy that forever wells within and radiates from your heart, O God.

Amen.

The Question of Free Will

During several years when I taught a Bible class of high school students, we discussed many topics. I tried to encourage them to ask questions, share their views, debate issues–in general to use the brains God gave them.

I found that students freely acknowledged their doubts and questions about all kinds of ideas and issues found in the Bible. They questioned every imaginable point of Christian doctrine at some point, at least to hone their own understanding of what the Bible teaches.

There was one “doctrine,” however, that no one ever questioned. In fact, these students fought vehemently for one foundational, central, bedrock truth of the Christian faith. What was that truth?

Free Will.

Ok, I’m overstating it a bit. But not by much. You’d think that free will was right up there with the virgin birth and the deity of Christ in their hierarchy of important Christian doctrines. Truthfully, my students had more certainty about the existence of free will than almost any principle in the Bible.

Does free will exist? Absolutely. We choose to trust in Christ freely (Acts 16:31). Is free will absolute and autonomous? Absolutely not. In fact, we can only choose Christ because God chose us first through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-7).

I read a passage from the Canons of Dordt this morning that struck me as particularly helpful on this issue. The Synod of Dordt met 154 times from November of 1618-May of 1619 (if you’re doing the math, they met approximately every other day for seven months!) to resolve the issue of Arminianism, which had cropped up through the teaching of Jacob Arminius in the years leading up to the synod. Arminius had died, but his followers presented the “Five Points of Arminianism” to the synod for approval. These points were:

1. The partial depravity of man
2. Election conditional on foreseen faith
3. The universal atonement of Christ
4. The resistibility of grace
5. The ability to lapse from grace.

The conflict between these principles and the historic teaching of Calvinism threatened to split the church and plunge the Netherlands into civil war. Upon the completion of their extensive deliberations, representatives at the synod roundly condemned Arminianism, and came up with what are now known as the “Five Points of Calvinism:”

1. Total Depravity
2. Unconditional Election
3. Limited Atonement
4. Irresistible Grace
5. Perseverance of the Saints

There is one passage in the confessional statement that arose out of that synod that I want to share with you. It comes from “The Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine: Of the Corruption of Man, His Conversion to God, and the Manner Thereof, Article 16”:

“But as man by the fall did not cease to be a creature endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin which pervaded the whole race of mankind deprive him of the human nature, but brought upon him depravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of regeneration does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks (I love that phrase), nor takes away their will and its properties, neither does violence thereto; but spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it; that where carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and sincere spiritual obedience begins to reign, in which the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consist. Wherefore unless the admirable Author of every good work wrought in us, man could have no hope of recovering from his fall by his own free will, by the abuse of which, in a state of innocence, he plunged himself into ruin.”

I know the language is a bit antiquated; here’s the upshot. The regeneration of the Holy Spirit doesn’t eliminate our free will. In fact, it “bends it” toward God. Without God’s sovereign action, we would always choose to please ourselves and our sinful flesh and would simply repeat the error of Adam and Eve over and over again. God didn’t leave us to that. Instead, through the Covenant of Grace, He rescued our free will along with every other aspect of our humanity. And so not only could we choose to trust in Christ when we were converted, but we can continue to choose to glorify and enjoy him as sons and daughters. What a miraculous gift!

Slow of Heart

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:13-35)

Some people are highly observant. They notice new hairstyles, wedding rings on a person’s finger, new items of clothing, front porch furniture…things like that. While I’m liable to notice when someone gets a new car, the other things can often pass me by without a second glance. It’s easy to miss the obvious thing.

But we all missed the obvious thing when it comes to identifying Jesus as he truly is. None of us could see him as the Savior He has revealed himself to be until God opened our eyes. Cleopas and his friend should be near and dear to our hearts, because we know how they felt.

What’s curious to me about this passage as I read it today is this: just what “Scriptures concerning Himself” did Jesus talk about with them? Isaiah 52 and 53 alone provide us so many options:

“…his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance…” (52:14)

“…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him…” (53:2)

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…” (53:3)

“…as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised…” (53:3)

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” (53:4)

“But he was pierced for our transgressions…with his wounds we are healed.” (53:5)

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth…” (53:7)

“By oppression and judgment he was taken away…” (53:8)

“And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence…” (53:9)

And possibly the most striking verse, in light of the fact that these disciples knew that the tomb had been found empty:

“…by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (53:11)

Here, on the other side of the resurrection, yet on this side of our own resurrection, let’s thank God that He opened our eyes just as He did for these our “slow of heart” brothers with whom we have more in common than we care to admit.

Crucifixion and Resurrection

The Crucifixion by Anton Dorph

O LORD, I marvel that thou shouldst become incarnate, be crucified, dead and buried. The sepulchre calls forth my adoring wonder, for it is empty and thou art risen; the four-fold gospel attests it, the living witnesses prove it, my heart’s experience knows it. Give me to die with thee that I may rise to new life, for I wish to be as dead and buried to sin, to selfishness, to the world; that I might not hear the voice of the charmer, and might be delivered from his lusts.

O Lord, there is much ill about me–crucify it; muckiest flesh within me–mortify it. Purge me from selfishness, the fear of man, the love of approbation, the shame of being thought old-fashioned, the desire to be cultivated or modern. Let me reckon my old life dead because of crucifixion, and never feed it as a living thing. Grant me to stand with my dying Savior, to be content to be rejected, to be willing to take up unpopular truths, and to hold fast despised teachings until death.

Help me to be resolute and Christ-contained. Never let me wander from the path of obedience to thy will. Strengthen me for the battles ahead. Give me courage for all the trials, and grace for all the joys. Help me to be a holy, happy person, free from every wrong desire, from everything contrary to thy mind. Grant me more and more of the resurrection life: may it rule me, may I walk in its power, and be strengthened through its influence.

–from The Valley of Vision

Head and Heart

I recently read an interview in Modern Reformation magazine with Joseph Byamukama, founder and team leader of Veracity Fount, an organization in Kampala, Uganda (where he lives). Joseph has an Mdiv. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is currently working on a PhD. in New Testament intertextuality from Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. As someone who has wrestled with the issue of affections vs. intellect in the American church, I found this brother’s perspective (who has studied and served in the church on three continents) fascinating.

Joseph explained that Ugandan Christians prioritize the heart over the mind, almost universally. Close to 90% of Ugandan pastors have no formal theological training and don’t think they need any. I have trained pastors in Nepal who were starving for training, so I find this shocking and disturbing. Many Ugandan Christians have adopted the perspective of a friend of Joseph’s who warned him about seminary in the US by expressing his concern that “the text will overcome the Spirit.” This man had 2 Corinthians 3:6 in mind, but Paul warns about the letter killing, not the text. The text of the gospel is the water of life (John 4).

Joseph points out that this mindset has opened up the Ugandan church to dangerous cults, false teaching, and postmodern notions that undermine the reality of truth. It has allowed the proliferation of the prosperity gospel to the extent that in many areas there are no churches actually preaching the Bible in any serious way. Many Christians there have been driven to atheism and agnosticism because they have been frustrated with the disparity between the promises of the hucksters and the reality of life in a broken world.

Joseph, in citing Deuteronomy 6:5 (“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”), points out that the Hebrew text of that verse does not include two words for heart and mind. It has one word for both. The heart, according to Bruce Waltke, “denotes a person’s center for both physical and emotional-intellectual-moral activities.” As Joseph puts it, “in biblical language, the intellect and the emotions are inseparable…we cannot properly love God with what we call our hearts without loving him with what we call our minds.”

Joseph is hopeful for the continent of Africa, as so much of the church is composed of young people (the median age in Uganda is 16 years), and literacy rates are increasing. The greatest challenge is resources, both money and people. The need is great, and the laborers are few.

It occurred to me that the challenges in the American church are similar, though less extreme. Our resources are infinitely greater, though not as much here in the “nosebleed” section of the country. The danger of false teaching and shallow teaching is the same, and the burden on pastors is great. Even though we live in a spiritually barren part of the country, New Hampshire enjoy a far greater number of solid Bible teaching churches than exist in the 2/3 world.

Also, while we recognize the danger on one side, we see the equal and opposite tendency for theologically rich churches to keep their (financial and human) resources to themselves. We see an over-emphasis on the mind to the detriment of the emotions. We see orthodoxy championed and orthopraxy neglected. Far too many solid Reformed churches are content to feed their own sheep while leaving evangelism and mercy ministry to other evangelicals. This both impoverishes our people of opportunities to enlarge their hearts for God and neglects our calling to extend God’s kingdom.

I’d like to challenge myself and all of us to redouble our commitment to live out Deuteronomy 6:5. We have a tremendous heritage of theological and Biblical commitment in the PCA. I believe that we have borne that well at CTR. We also have a commitment to express the gospel with passion in worship and with purpose in our city. Let’s not fall prey to a false choice between head and heart. Let’s pursue our God and our community with both.

A Single-Minded Purpose

Our dog Chloe, people-lover extraordinaire

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Phil. 3:12-16)

If you know our dog Chloe, you know that she understands her purpose on this earth (at least in her mind). It is not to protect our home (that is obvious once you’ve met her). It is not to be her master’s best friend (though she is quite fond of me). It is not even to eat and drink, though she never misses a meal (I’m sure you’ve noticed that, too).

Chloe’s one purpose on this earth is to seek out and obtain love and affection from human beings (particularly affection of the head-scratching or tummy-rubbing variety–she will actually roll on her back and kick up her legs if you will rub her belly–though she’s also quite fond of having her lower back scratched). She does not care for other dogs, mainly because, by my observation, they don’t care for her. Virtually every dog in our neighborhood has barked or snapped at her, and one a few years ago almost bit her ear off. I think they smell fear in her. Her hackles rise up when even a teacup yip-dog barks from a window. It’s totally illogical, knowing she tips the scales at almost 80 pounds.

But Chloe LOVES people. All people, even people who fear dogs. Her specialty is sidling up to them and resting her chin gently on their lap while gazing longingly into their eyes. She hasn’t failed to win anyone over yet. On a walk around the neighborhood she’ll slow down and stop at the landscaper or plumber’s truck as they’re getting out, in hopes that they will stop and pet her. She’ll walk toward a moving car, assuming the occupants would see her, stop, get out and give her a little spa treatment. Our neighbor Andy is her absolute favorite human, because he always gives her a nice rubdown when we get to his house. Her every move, once we leave our house on a walk, pretty much revolves around Andy. I struggled with it at first, but think I’m ok with it now.

I say all that because Chloe, I am convinced, is an example of what Paul is talking about in Philippians 3:12-16. He is calling us to a single-minded purpose: “straining toward” (like Chloe does on the leash when she sees a person ahead on the road) our goal, “to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Every thought, every action, every word, should be calibrated toward pleasing God and living for his glory every day of our lives on this earth as we prepare for the new earth and our reunion with Him. We “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of” us, meaning our place in His family, which we have by grace because He sought us out and changed our hearts. That grace compels us to pursue His glory with every fiber of our being. We live for Him.

When we do that, something else happens. Our lives benefit others. When we live for God’s glory, we end up encouraging our brothers and sisters and everyone, believer or not, in our spheres of influence. That’s not to say we won’t get into conflict, because conflict is inevitable in a fallen world. But living for God’s glory means living for others’ good even in that fallen world. As Chloe seeks the attention of people, she (intentionally or unintentionally) ends up bringing joy and peace to people. She’s like a natural (untrained) therapy dog: the affection she seeks settles the stressed minds and hearts of anyone who comes into contact with her. We have the opportunity to go out of our way to bless and encourage others in our pursuit of God’s glory. In the process we will be encouraged too.

So think of Chloe today and pursue a single-minded purpose: the glory of God and the good of those around you. You’ll be glad you did.

Refreshments on the Journey

“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” – C.S. Lewis, The Business of Heaven

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

A New Year for a New You

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10)

I’m sure the title of this post looks familiar (with a slight variation). Our culture happily embraces the idea of “a new you for a new year.” Resolutions, diets, and gym memberships (all of which can be positive decisions for the right reasons) multiply like rabbits at this time of year because there’s a great desire to be a “better version” of ourselves as we enter the new year.

But an insidious error that can germinate underneath any of those positive decisions is the idea that as we improve ourselves (spiritually or physically) we enhance our value. A skinnier you gets showered with compliments. A more disciplined you feels better about your own decisions. But how long can you sustain the “new you?” Even if it becomes a permanent lifestyle, it’s only new for so long. The attention fades. The affirmation doesn’t last forever. And if, as happens at least occasionally to everyone, there is even a partial reversion to the patterns you had beforehand, and you have rooted your sense of value in this performance, you will sink into discouragement or depression.

Ephesians 1:3-10 flips the script on this equation. If you are a believer in Christ here on the cusp of a new year, you are already a new creation. You are blessed because you have been chosen by the King of the universe. It is the fact that he has chosen you and blessed you that empowers you to be holy and blameless before him in the world.

It is the fact that he has predestined us for adoption in Christ, and redeemed us, and forgiven our sins, and lavished grace on us, and made known to us the mystery of his will, that gives us the patience to wait on him for his will. His plan for our lives is a part of the plan for the universe to unite all things in Christ.

And so it is not we who must “re-create” ourselves in this new year. He has created this new year for us. His promises are sure. We have unlimited opportunities to glorify and serve him in this new year. We don’t know what circumstances are waiting around the next corner, but we do know that our Lord has committed unequivocally to be with us through it all. He who gave his Son to reverse the effects of the fall and to rescue us from Adam’s and our sin will not waste anything. He will use everything that happens to us, the good, the bad, and the evil, to shape us into his image.

That, my friends, is a firm foundation for hope and joy as we enter 2024.

The Unfathomably Wise Counselor

“Wonderful Counselor” (Isa. 9:6) is the name of this child. In him the wonder of all wonders has taken place; the birth of the Savior-child has gone forth from God’s eternal counsel. In the form of a human child, God gave us his Son; God became human, the Word became flesh (John 1:14). That is the wonder of the love of God for us, an dit is the unfathomably wise Counselor who wins us this love and saves us. But because this child of God is his own Wonderful Counselor, he himself is also the source of all wonder and all counsel. To those who recognize in Jesus the wonder of the Son of God, every one of his words and deeds becomes a wonder; they find in him the last, most profound, most helpful counsel for all needs and questions. Yes, before the child can open his lips, he is full of wonder and full of counsel. Go to the child in the manger. Believe him to be the Son of God, and you will find in him wonder upon wonder; counsel upon counsel.

–from Conspiracy and Imprisonment (1940-1945) by Dietrich Bonhoeffer