Mining Grace is one year old today.  What has happened in a year?  Here are some statistics.

General Stats

• Number of posts: 241
• Number of tags: 400
• Number of visits: 13,825
• Number of comments: 97
• Busiest day ever: 457 on April 8, 2008 (The day I posted the TLF audio)
• Number of spam sandwiches made: 1707

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• Twin Lakes Message Audio
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That being said, I’ve really enjoyed blogging this past year and plan to continue in the year to come.  I have some ideas on how some of my content may change as the Lord continues to work on me.

If your a long time reader or just stopping in, thanks for the encouragement.  I’m still humbled that something I write might be useful to someone, much less bring honor to Jesus.

And now for the quote that started it all off,

Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, “You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away”? So for God to say, “Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.”

-Thomas Watson

This morning, I read an old Puritan evangelistic tract by David Dickson, written around the middle of the 17th century.  I came across this prayer, offered as an example of how someone, under conviction of sin, could plead for mercy from Jesus.  Though the gospel is preached in many languages through many centuries, all come to Jesus the same way: pleading for his mercy.

Whereupon let the penitent desiring to believe take with him words, and say heartily to the Lord, “Seeing thou sayest, Seek ye my face; my soul answereth unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. I have hearkened unto the offer of an everlasting covenant of all saving mercies to be had in Christ, and I do heartily embrace thy offer. Lord let it be a bargain; Lord, I believe; help my unbelief: Behold, I give myself to thee, to serve thee in all things for ever; and I hope thy right hand shall save me: the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.“

My recent post on Halo 3 and the Gospel has received some notice outside of my normal readership.  I really had no idea that I had timed my post to coincide with an NYT article on somewhat the same subject.  Some of the more interesting responses have been along the lines of, “[deep gasp] You played a shoot-em-up video game in church?!!”  To further the gasp factor there are some other things that I do that might offend some portions of Evangelicalism.  For example, my music tastes are not all Christian.  My favorite musicians currently are Radiohead (great new cd), Dave Matthews, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, Mahler, King David (yes that King David), U2, Bach, Ben Harper, Louis Armstrong, Etta James, and Otis Redding.  That kind of diversity is just as prevalent in the other forms of art that I enjoy such as visual arts, literature, movies, and others.  And no, this is not a confession of my sins, it is a declaration of where I see God’s grace.  Now let me explain.

Theologians, especially of the Reformed variety, have commonly delineated between two types of grace.  One, they call saving grace.  This is the grace that is at work in someone who has been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Typically these saving graces are described in the three categories of the benefits of salvation, the gifting of the Holy Spirit for Christian ministry, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Saving grace is solely and only found in a true Christian.  Second, there is common grace.  Common grace is the goodness and guidance that the Triune God lavishes on all of mankind regardless of the saving work of the Holy Spirit.  Common grace is common because it is found in all men.  Saving grace is saving because it is only found in saved men.  To further define common grace, note the following three examples.

God is commonly gracious in restraining sin.  In looking at our deeply troubled world we need to remind ourselves that things could be a good deal worse.  In looking at individuals, even the more notably depraved, we also must confess that men and women are not as bad as they could be.  If we confess that all men are fallen and woefully bent towards sin, why then are not all men as bad as they could be?  It is because God restrains sin in the sinner.  It is an operation of his common grace.  Consider Abraham’s dubious habit of calling Sarah his sister rather than his wife when travelling through foreign lands.  On one occasion, travelling in Gerar (Genesis 20), while pulling this my-wife-is-my-sister stunt, Abimelech, king of Gerar, takes Sarah to be his wife.  To keep Abimelech from sinning, God restrains him by revealing Sarah’s true identity in a dream.  In that dream, God says to Abimelech, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me.”  God restrained Abimelech from sin and so God restrains all men from being as depraved as they could potentially be.  It is God’s common grace.

God is commonly gracious in his bestowal of wisdom.  There are people alive today who have been gifted with a good deal of worldly wisdom even beyond the allotment given to many Christians.  This is often done intentionally to highlight God’s saving grace (cf. 1 Cor 1:27).  This wisdom is not the godly wisdom that is able to see with the eyes of faith or discern the providential working of God.  But, nevertheless, it is a wisdom that incorporates good biblical common sense into everyday living.  Take for example Jethro (Exodus 18).  Moses at this point in the rescue of the people of God from Egypt is exercising some pretty poor organizational wisdom.  He is spending his whole day judging the individual disagreements of all the people.  Jethro takes him aside and tells Moses that he is going to kill himself if he retains his current leadership strategy.  Jethro offers a plan of representative leadership and graded courts to help with the load of civil suits amongst God’s people.  It was wise, received well by Moses, and from a man who was a priest in a another religion.  It was common grace.  It is for this reason I do not see the absolute necessity of Christian education.  A Christian can learn a good deal from someone who is not a follower of Jesus Christ.  They can learn nothing about salvation and godliness but at the same time can learn much about how God has made his world to work.

God is commonly gracious in his bestowal of artistic gifts.  The gift of creating beauty is not a gift solely in the possession of Christians.  It is a gift rooted in God and commonly given to men made in his image.  One of the more interesting genealogies in the Bible is that of Cain.  After the Fall and Cain’s banishment we read Cain’s genealogy (Genesis 4:21, 22) and find in it the father of herdsman (textiles), the father of those who play the lyre and pipe (art), and the father of those who forge instruments (industry).  It seems that this explicitly designated line of ungodly men were gifted by God with common graces that form the base of some pretty important components of society.  We might also note Paul’s address to the Areopagus (Acts 17), in which he cites both Greek literature and sculpture as having some knowledge of divine truths.

There are many more facets of God’s common grace that we could and should explore.  However, this is enough to simply prove that God’s glory is displayed in the world, outside of the church, and outside of his saving works of redemption.  God has blessed non-Christian men and women with talents that bring God glory.  If we refuse to see and appreciate these gifts, we find ourselves in the precarious position of rejecting God’s good works and snubbing our noses at his good graces.  It is therefore incumbent upon the Christian to appreciate God’s gracious gifts wherever they are found.  Give glory to God for VanGogh, Robert Plant, and George Lucas!

I will offer two caveats as we consider mining common grace.  First, common grace is by no means as important as saving grace.  God is not primarily focused on the bestowal of non-saving gifts upon humanity.  Instead he is primarliy about the work of redemption through the atoning work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his bestowal of saving grace upon his elect church.  We recognize common grace but give biblical deference and primacy to the saving grace displayed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Secondly, common grace does not excuse sin.  Not all art is good art and a good bit of common grace is used for ill ends.  The doctrine of common grace does not excuse the Christian from exercising sanctified common sense in what he views, listens to, or reads.  In my next post on mining common grace, I’ll offer some suggestions on how best to interact with art and culture from the prospective of common grace.

When I was a youth minister I had a thriving Halo 2 ministry. My students saw to it that I gradually progressed from, “What does this button do?” to, “Yeah, I hit your warthog with a sticky!” I have to admit that it wasn’t all horrible. As far as bonding with students goes it was a great past-time.

As I played the game more and delved into some of the single player levels I discovered some implicit biblical themes. The enemy aliens are called The Covenant. They tend to occupy planets through their circular space craft, thus Halo(s). Their leaders are sometimes referred to as Prophets. Then you have the humans who are headed up by a super commando, Master Chief, who is part man and part superhuman battle-suit.

I figured that Halo was just another Matrix knock off, a product of a Christianized culture, picking up Christian themes haphazardly like stepping in bubble gum on the pavement. There didn’t seem to be enough intentionality behind the imagery to necessarily assume the writers/producers/creators of the game were trying to make any pro or anti Christian statement.

Well, I’m no longer a youth minister. I don’t play Halo. My skills are back to “What does this button do?” However, I have followed with some interest the release of Halo 3, the next installment of Master Chief vs The Covenant.

Since I don’t own Halo 3 much less a game system much less a television, my interest has been largely fueled by watching the Halo 3 trailers on youtube. They are told as if war veterans from the Halo 3 war were years later standing in a war museum providing interviews on their experiences in that particular battle.

What fascinated me was the overtly Messianic themes applied to Master Chief. Like I said, I have not played the game nor do I intend to. I’m not even that knowledgeable of the story line. However, what I do know about is the gospel. I know similarities to the gospel story when I see them.

Each commercial has the war veterans relaying two major themes. First, they were outnumbered, out gunned, and outmaneuvered. They were on the brink of the destruction. It is at this point that the interviewer asks some sort of, “How did you find courage to continue on?” Each answers with what I found to be the second major theme, “I knew Master Chief was there and still alive.” Then, one of the particular trailers ends with one veteran saying, “I was nearby when Master Chief armed his grenade.” It is followed by the image of Master Chief being held limp and apparently lifeless by a large Covenant Alien. The camera pans to his hand and shows him switch on a grenade. What you see unfold is a Messianic hero who conquers his enemies just at the point at which he has apparently been defeated in death. Each commercial ends with the word, “Believe”. Gospel parallels anyone?

I don’t mean to say by this that Halo 3 is a Christian video game or even a good video game. Nor do I mean to say that the gospel parallels are close enough to clearly explain what Jesus did on the cross. What I do mean to say is this is yet another example of what JRR Tolkien used to call “the one story.” There is one story, a meta-narrative woven into the hearts of all men and women. This one story is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the warp of redemptive history. Everyone knows the world is broken. It is so broken it feels like war everyday. Everyone has hopes of a Messiah and knows that they are not he. Maybe their Messiah is drink, intimacy, ambition, success, or other vice. But every once in a while that Messiah-longing breaks into fiction and you can catch glimpses of a human heart longing for freedom from sin, longing for victory over a broken world, longing for Jesus. They may only be glimpses and snatches of story line. But they are there.

Halo 3 is a reminder to me that the world does indeed long for and need a Master Chief. The travesty of Halo 3 is that it tells thousands of gamers that they can be their own Master Chief and overcome through skilled game play. The world desperately needs the real thing. The world desperately needs Jesus. Can’t you see it?

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I’ve included the video embeds through the link below. See if you agree.

I just returned from vacation.  I usually put a little bit of thought into what book I’m going to bring on vacation.  This time I was trying to decide between finishing up Sin and Temptation by John Owen (ed. Taylor and Kapic) and beginning The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs.  I figured that Sin and Temptation would be pretty heavy reading for vacation and I would rather have something more light and encouraging.  Boy was I wrong.

I should have learned my lesson in college.  I was a Chemistry major.  When picking classes I learned early to take as few classes as possible that had required laboratory hours.  For those English nerds majors out there, the lab work was in addition to the class work and usually entailed three to four hours in a lab followed by five to ten hours of producing a lab report.  I hated labs almost as much as producing lab reports.  That is probably one of the reasons I’m a pastor now and not a Chemist.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered on vacation that in the divine course registry of God, right beside The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, stood the words laboratory hours required.  From the minute I read Burrough’s first page, I found myself in the school of Christ, the laboratory of God.  I would close the book and immediately I was thrust into some new situation to test whether or not I was finding my contentment in Christ.

How did I do in this course?  I failed miserably.  I discovered, to my horror, that I am one of the least content people I know.  This really was a significant shock.  I mean, I read the Puritans, listen to John Piper sermons, and love the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  I’m a minister!  Of course I’m content in Christ.  Nope, nope, and double nope.

What I am content with is my sin, my circumstances when they are comfortable, worldly joys, earthly pleasures, a Saturday when UVA wins a football game, and krispy kreme donuts.

Enter the gracious and sovereign hand of God into my vacation.

At each turn I found God ordained frustrations.  I was frustrated at the long drive.  I was frustrated when my children didn’t do what I wanted them to do.  I was frustrated with bug bites.  I was frustrated with sleeping in a bed that was not my own.  I was frustrated when I the mini-van I was driving was rear-ended on my last day of vacation.

Each of those frustrations was a lesson in the school of Christ.  Each of those frustrations challenged me to consider where I found my joy.  Though I detested them at the moment, I now count each of those frustrations precious.

The reason I count them precious is because they brought my wife and me to the realization that we were living a life that staked its hope on future pleasant circumstances.  We’d be happy when we arrived.  We’d be happy when the major driving was done.  We’d be happy when our boys adjusted to the new environment.  We’d be happy when we got home.  At each of those moments what I was really saying to God was, “God, what you’ve given me right now really isn’t that great but I have high hopes you’ll get it right in the near future.  I’m not content with what I have but I might be content if you give me better.”

What a bratty child I am to my heavenly Father.  What a denier of God’s sovereign grace I am.  What a snubber of God’s love I am.  What a rebellious son I am to my ring bearing, fattened calf killing God.

After this sweet prick of the heart, what my wife and I began to say to each other way, “This is as good as it gets.”  It wasn’t a phrase stolen from a movie.  It wasn’t even a resignation to difficult circumstances.  It was our honest attempt to see whatever we were immediately experiencing as the exact blessing that we needed at that moment directly delivered from the infinitely loving hands of God.  This was the first lesson that I learned about Christian contentment.  Contentment is not found in favorable circumstances.  Rather contentment is knowing that in any circumstance, God is most favorable toward me through his precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  This only makes sense at the Cross.  The doors of God’s ultimate, infinite, and immutable love were opened wide upon me, of all people.  And every minute of my life, every experience, every motor vehicle collision, is the very sweetest gift from precious savior and exactly what I need.

So, at all costs, don’t read Burroughs’s book.  Unless you’re one of those people who actually believes that the rare jewel is worth finding.  God was pleased to shine some of its radiant facets on my soul last week.  I remain forever grateful, humbled, and longing for more.

Father, make me content in Christ alone.

While we were on vacation my three year old son asked a poignant question. Poignant questions from a three year old are few and far between so I figured I would chronicle it here.

After finishing up a bath, he turned to my wife and said with his questioning voice, “Mama, does bad plus funny equal good?” My wife and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions expecting to have to translate some silly version of toddler math until we realized what he was asking. Does bad plus funny equal good? That is a good question. We both answered “No” and proceeded to talk about how we sometimes use humor to mask right and wrong but that doesn’t make the bad into good.

I admit that I am part the culprit. There are times when one of my sons does something blatantly wrong yet outlandishly funny sending me into facial gesticulations trying to hold a firm brow without bursting out laughing. And I know you other parents have done the same thing. You walk into your bathroom only to find junior thoroughly covered in “mama’s libstish.” Or you find the art box scissors on the floor with swatches of toddler hair scattered about. Bad can be funny though not good. I certainly am not advocating a parenting model of a laughter no fly zone. But how would you answer my son, “Does funny plus bad equal good?”

The reason the question is so good is because it lays bare a common tendency to use humor to cover up sin. There is an unwritten code of social interaction that says, “if I can laugh at something it cannot be bad.” That statement taken a little bit further can come to be, “if I can laugh at something it must be good.” There is something about humor and laughter that makes us comfortable and more at ease. There are times when humor can be especially good for the soul. But there are also times that humor can be used inappropriately to make us more comfortable with topics that should be revolting.

This ability to use humor as a means of softening sin is most evident in film and television. I used to enjoy Saturday Night Live and a good slapstick movie. I can no longer find either without deviant sexuality or crude expletives wrapped in cheap laughs. Adultery apparently is funny. Homosexuality is apparently quite comedic. That iconic expletive covering bleep apparently is a side splitting riot. Gross disrespect to parents apparently is the modern equivalent of Who is on First. Funny plus bad may not be good but it does sell airtime and movie tickets.

I am reminded that any form of media can be used as a way to make us more comfortable with our sins. A moral philosopher can write a manifesto on libertine transcendentalism. Weeknight programming can portray inattentive and lazy fathers as objects of innocuous humor. Both are attempting to make people more comfortable with their sin. As the old adage goes, everyone is selling something. There is no such thing as meaningless humor. Comedic writers are not idiots. They know what they are doing. And we are buying.

But the appropriate reaction to the dangers of humor is not a call to empty moralism. Both are enemies to the cross. Anything that has the ability to make sin look good, whether it is the facade of good works or slide splitting laughter, should be held out as the arch weapon of Satan. Bad is not turned to good through humor. Sin covering humor is a false gospel. It is the empty promise of soul comfort to those enslaved by the brutality of sin. A man who laughs at mortal danger is not most brave but rather most foolish. Funny plus bad does not equal good. Jesus plus bad equals good. Jesus’s atoning death for sin makes sinners righteous. That is Christianity. Jesus didn’t come as a court jester. He came to take our filth and to offer his purity in return. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus plus bad equals good.

I’m heading on a much needed vacation.  Posting will be sparse until my return.

1 Corinthians 15:19-20 – If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

There are tremendous blessings to be had for the Christian in this life. To walk the earth the Lord has created and at the same time to know that you are at peace with him is a humbling joy. To meet together Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day with your brothers and sisters in Christ is sweet fellowship. To have real needs, physical and spiritual, met through the gracious providential hand of the Lord is real contentment. Surely we need not underestimate Paul’s glorious statement in Ephesians that all of the riches of the heavenly realms are ours in Christ right now. Yet Paul says something startling in this text. If your Christianity exists entirely of the earthly blessings you receive from your birth to your death and no more than that, you are to be a man most pitied. If there is nothing beyond the day you close your eyes for the last time then all of your Christianity is empty. Why is this? It is because the value and focus of Christianity is centered on the resurrection of the dead and on Jesus Christ as the firstfruits of the resurrection of the dead.

Paul is addressing a heretical teaching in the Corinthian church that said there was no resurrection of the dead. Paul knew this was not simply a question about how many angels can stand on the head of a pin. He knew the question of the resurrection of the dead struck at the very heart of Christian religion.

There must be a resurrection of the dead for Jesus to be who he said he was. Jesus was finally murdered for being labelled the king of the Jews. One of the more repugnant things he had said, in the opinion of the scribes and Pharisees, was that he could tear down the temple and raise it up again in three days. The gospel writers were clear that he was talking specifically about his bodily resurrection. Jesus said he was going to bind the strong man. Jesus said he would conquer death. Jesus said he was going to be with his father. Jesus told a poor dying criminal that he would be with him in paradise. Jesus said he was inaugurating the new covenant in his blood. Jesus said he would come again. None of these things are true if he did not rise from the grave. The resurrection of Jesus is the proof and proclamation of his triumph over sin and death. It is the visible declaration that he is the second Adam. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of all the gospel promises. If that foundation is taken away, the entire house falls. Jesus’s resurrection must be true. What glorious words then are 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.”

There must be a resurrection of the dead for us to be who Jesus said we are. Did Jesus satisfy the demands of the Covenant of Works? Did he satisfy the law’s loud thunder? Did he quench Mount Sinai’s flame? Did he actually purchase redemption for his people? Was it enough? Did our sin swallow him up like a stone thrown in the ocean? Was the torn veil a way really opened for us and for our spiritual progeny into the throne room of God? The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our redemption. If that foundation is taken away, the entire house falls. Jesus’s resurrection must be true. What glorious words then are 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.”

There must be a resurrection of the dead for the glory of God to truly be eternal. We await the glory of God. We long for it. Our Triune Lord has so intrinsically linked his glory and our good that we cannot find happiness outside of worship. Worship of God is satisfaction for the Christian. If we are to hold firm to the promise that God has held out to us of life eternal, of worship eternal, then we must hold out that he will be eternally glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ. If the body of Jesus is still in the sands of Israel then his glory is tarnished. His mission is incomplete. He is vanquished, conquered by death and sin. The resurrection seals for us all of the eternal value promised in the covenant of grace. Jesus’s resurrection from the grave proves his eternal worth. It proves that his atonement was enough. It proves that he has a right to sit down at the right hand of his Father until all things are made a footstool under his feet. The resurrection proves his right to receive eternal worship. That is what we long for and what we are waiting for. There will come a day when we and this world pass away. There will come a day when we will stand before the throne of the lamb that was slain but yet stands and worship him into all eternity. That eternal worship will make our few years on earth seem like a fleeting dream before the dawn of eternal joy. If there is no resurrection then this passing world is all we have. If there is no resurrection then there is no eternal worship of an eternal Lord. If there is no resurrection then there is no eternal joy and happiness held out for the child of God. If there is no resurrection then there is no eternal glory of God. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of God’s eternal glory. If that foundation is taken away, the entire house falls. Jesus’s resurrection must be true. What glorious words then are 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.”

Psalm 51:2-3 – Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

After receiving Nathan’s rebuke for his sin with Bathsheba, David pens this hymn of contrition and confession. Ever since it was written it has served the church as an example and pattern for godly repentance. There is a wealth of grace to be mined from Psalm 51 but for today, let us consider these two verses found at the beginning of the psalm. In reflecting on these verses we need to answer the question, “What is the motivation for godly repentance?”

David begins this psalm pleading for mercy, washing, and cleansing. He wants God to restore him to right fellowship. He longs for the favor of God to fall afresh upon him. This is the longing of every soul and that longing often leads to pleading with God for mercy.

Often, however, we plead to God for mercy like the child in the grocery store check out line pleading for a candy bar. A well taught Christian knows that their relationship with God is founded upon the mercy of God. All good things come to us not out of placing God in our debt and demanding payment but rather by placing ourselves at his mercy and receiving unmerited blessings. And so the Christian is one who knows that good things come through asking for God’s blessings. This is a foundational truth of the gospel but it does not exist by itself. Or to say it another way, Psalm 51:2 must go with Psalm 51:3.

Too often we want the forgiveness of God without the contemplation of our sins. We want to go to the cross but not as the guilty but as the tourist. We want to be moved by the scene of tremendous suffering but not as one who caused the suffering. And that is the opposite of what David is singing about here.

He knows his transgressions and his sin is ever before him. It plagues him. It breaks his bones and makes him feel sick. He cannot escape it. It replays in his mind like the trailer of a horror movie. It weighs him down. It takes away his desire for food and the company of his friends. His sin is killing his soul. And so he must turn to God he must plead for washing and cleansing. He visits the cross as a murderer of the Lord and not as a curious tourist. He knows his transgressions and his sin is ever before him.

That is why John Owen gives the curious advice of going first to the cross to consider your sin rather than to apply the promises of the gospel. Go to cross, he says, to see there what it took to atone for your failures and sins. Go to the cross and see there the Son of God, crucified for your sin, having taken the weight of the law upon him. Go to the cross and see there the wrath of God poured out to its full. Go to the cross and there know your transgressions and see your sin ever before you. Go to the cross and there alone rightly estimate the weight of your sin.

It is at that point, that deep knowledge of sin and guilt that you are ready to be washed and cleansed. It is there that the cleansing blood of Jesus is poured out upon the needy and penitent. Do not short circuit repentance by downplaying your sin. Do not make the the blood of Christ out to be a gaudy carnival toy by refusing to admit your fault. Go deep within the veil. Be confronted by the mirror of God’s terrible holiness. Be honest with what you see there. Then plead for mercy. Then plead for grace. Then plead for all the promises that Jesus freely offers to the wretched and sinful. Know your sin, but more than that, know the power of redemption found in the love of Christ for sinners. Know that the motivation for godly repentance is a clear view of your sin, seen clearest at the cross of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:8 – Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians has to be one of the most loved chapters of the New Testament. Aside from the debate concerning the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, who does not like hearing about the topic of love? Yet, love, true biblical love, has been dragged through the meat grinder of cultural dictionary coming out a mangled mess of what it once was when Paul penned the sentence above some 2,000 years ago.

As we consider this verse together, I simply want you to see one thing: love is a gift of the Spirit.

This verse and all of chapter 13 is apart of Paul’s teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By gifts of the Holy Spirit I mean those spiritual gifts that Jesus gives to Christians through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. Not every believer gets every gift but rather, as Paul articulates in 1 Corinthians 12, these gifts are given to believers for them to exercise in community with one another and on mission in the world. In this way, as one looks over the gathered people of God, he sees the plurality and power of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Elsewhere in Galatians 5, Paul calls these same gifts fruit of the Spirit. They are fruit because they are the tangible produce of Holy Spirit dependent living.

It is important to note that these gifts cannot be had by any other way than through the salvation imparted indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These spiritual gifts are supernatural, God bestowed, varied, and singularly given to those born again from spiritual death to spiritual life. We do not deny the title of these gifts to the actions of men outside of the church but we claim a special, potent, and true form of them for those who have received them from God. For example, joy is listed as a fruit of the Spirit. I will admit that many men and women devoid of any knowledge of Jesus or salvation are and can be joyful. But their joy is anemic and fleeting at best. It is a passing emotion, truly given by God’s common grace, yet not rooted or grounded in the cross of Christ. In the same way we might look at administrating (1 Corinthians 12:28). Certainly there are many a CEO scattered across the world who are gifted in administration. This too is a gift from God. But to organize and encourage groups of people with the eyes of faith for the glory of God and for their spiritual welfare, that is a singular gift of the Holy Spirit.

So it is when we come to the topic of love. Everyone wants to be loved. Most everyone wants to be someone who is loving. Yet, the general societal concept of love is not what Paul is talking about here. He is not positing a virtue that simply sees benefit in doing good to others with the hopes of having good acts reciprocated. Not only is this silly to expect of a fallen world but it is lacking that one crucial element: the cross of Jesus Christ. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be a propitiation for our sins. We love the first half of that verse but we often skip the latter half. True love is true sacrifice. Powerful love is powerful sacrifice. Eternal love is eternal sacrifice. I can’t eternally sacrifice myself because I am not of eternal value. If I am anything I am eternally offensive to God for my habitual sin. But there was one who was of eternal sinless value, the Lord Jesus Christ. He demonstrated love and he also acquired love for his people. To love someone as a Christian is not to love someone with some new found wellspring of eternal strength. It is to love someone with the spiritual gift of love. That gift was purchased at the cross and delivered by the blessed Holy Spirit. That is why Christian love should be so drastic, so traffic stoppingly odd to the watching world. That is why Jesus said the world would know his followers by the way in which they loved one another. Do want to know what kind of love Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13? Look to the cross. That is where true love is found. And where you see a man or woman displaying that kind of love, you will also see the Holy Spirit at work.

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This is far and away the best book on 1 Corinthians 13. Especially read the last chapter on heaven.

2 Samuel 1:14-15 – David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?” Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died.

David has just received news that Saul is dead. Apparently, in addition to Saul’s intended suicide, this Amalekite messenger had something to do with Saul’s death. David’s response is sure and swift. “Execute him.” The reason for execution? Because the Amalekite did not fear killing the Lord’s anointed. At the outset this reasoning seems rather strange.

Why shouldn’t David rejoice at the death of Saul? Saul had on numerous occasions tried to kill David. David was anointed by Samuel before Samuel’s death as the chosen king of Israel. Saul had run David out of town. Saul gave David’s wife to another man. Saul tried to use his own son Jonathan, a good friend of David, as a spy against David. Now Saul was dead and David was about to reclaim all of the things that had been stolen from him. Yet he executes Saul’s murderer, mourns, tears his clothes, and writes a dirge in honor of Saul and Jonathan. What gives?

The answer lies in that little phrase, “the Lord’s anointed.” David had used it before. On at least two occasions (1 Samuel 24:10; 26:11) David had spared Saul’s life even after God had put David in a providential position to be able to take Saul’s life. On both occasions David spares Saul’s life because Saul is the “Lord’s anointed.” Saul is the king of Israel, the man divinely chosen to represent the people of God. This position of anointed king is sacred and holy even if the man who holds it is neither.

One of my interview questions for my current pastorate was, “Do you think Saul was converted?” I hedged and said, “Jonathan Edwards didn’t think he was converted and I rarely disagree with Jonathan Edwards.” And along with Edwards do most commentators come down saying that Saul was probably not truly converted. This interpretation fits well with the prevailing theme of first and second Samuel contrasting Saul with David. Yet, Saul was still the anointed of God, the king of Israel.

What we learn from this is that God given office carries with it inherent value. The very fact that God had made him king placed inestimable value on the life of Saul regardless of what kind of king Saul was. This idea finds its culmination in the person of Christ. The term Christ, given to Jesus has the two fold meaning of Messiah and Anointed. When we call Jesus the Christ, we are testifying to the God given office of kingship placed upon the man Jesus. In Acts 4, after Peter and John had been imprisoned and released by the chief priest and elders they attend a prayer meeting with fellow believers. In the midst of their prayer they quote Psalm 2 saying, “‘The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his anointed’ for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, who you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan predestined to take place.”

When we speak of Jesus’s atoning death we talk of his eternal value as an individual being offered as a sacrifice to pay the eternal debt of wayward sinners. Part of his value was the fact that he bore the title of Christ, Anointed, King. Unlike Saul and more like David, Jesus possessed tremendous value in addition to the bare title of Anointed, nevertheless he was the anointed of the Lord. So when we look at the cross, we must see the horror of David as he heard the Amalekite’s message. “How could you kill the anointed of the Lord?!! How could you take a man who bore that infinite title and put him to a despicable death?!” Yet this is the glory of the cross. The wealth of that title gave Jesus the right, the responsibility, and the power to redeem his people from sin, death, and misery. The wealth of that title was willing laid upon the Lord’s altar by the Son of God to provide atonement for the people of God. And now, as Christians, we have the privilege of worshipping the Lord’s resurrected Anointed for the rest of eternity. Glory to the Lamb who sits on the throne! Glory to the Lord’s Anointed! Glory to Jesus, the Christ!

Psalm 48:9 – We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

What did an Israelite think about when he stood within the temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion? He sees courts and inner chambers. He sees priests, Levites, and singers. He sees the blood. He looks at the walls, the gold, the purple cloth and remembers the riches that David stored up for his son Solomon to build this house of the Lord. He looks at the veil guarding the inner sanctuary and knows beyond that is the holy of holies where the ark sits upon which rests the mercy seat between the cherubs. He knows this is the dwelling place of the glory of God, his localized presence.

Many things went through the mind of the Israelite considering worship in the temple. We find here a summary of all those things in the simple statement, “your steadfast love, O God.” The riches, the promises, the atonement, the mediators, the songs, the majesty, the localized glory and presence of God are all subsumed under God’s steadfast love. A synonym for steadfast love is covenant love. It is God’s faithful, committed, self-sacrificial love that is on display in the temple.

This was true because the temple itself was not intended to be a factory of salvation. It was not a sweat shop of animal sacrifice to a blood thirsty God. There was no man initiated transaction that took place between those walls. No, all of it pointed to Jesus Christ.

The blood, the riches, the majesty, the strength, the mediation, the song, the ark, the cherubs, the seat of mercy, all of it pointed to the righteous life, atoning death, and powerful resurrection of the Son of God. The temple was an object lesson in soteriology. The object lesson was drawn with such bold lines that Jesus could equate his own body so closely with the temple as to say, “Tear down this temple and I will raise it up in three days.” The parallel was so stark as to unite the bricks and mortar of a rebuilt temple to the flesh, blood, and bone of the incarnate Lord.

But more than just being illustrative and typological of Jesus, the temple at Mount Zion served to illustrate what the church would be. Both Paul (Ephesians 2:19-22) and Peter (1 Peter 2:4-5) describe the people of God as living stones being built together into a holy temple upon the foundation of the cornerstone that was rejected, Jesus Christ. So that now, as we read Psalm 48:9 we have every right to apply it to the New Testament church. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your church. What does it look like to see the covenant love of God in the church?

It means we see the promises of God in the people of God. Our God has made a bold promise to redeem from every tribe, tongue, and nation a peculiar people to call his own. Jesus Christ offers sonship to all who will come to him through Holy Spirit wrought faith. Our God promises never to leave or forsake his own. His hands are strong enough that no one can snatch his people out of them. He has gone to prepare a place for us. These are just the slightest appetizers of the lavish feast that is the promises of God. Yet when we look at the church we see the oppulent outpouring of those promises as we think on the covenant love of God in the midst of the church.

It means we see the power of God in his justifying work. Look over the people of God. Consider what they were, the refuse of the world. They were lost, wayward, reveling in sin, children of wrath, dead in their trespasses, cursing God, following idols, leading others astray, chaff on the wind, and dross to be consumed. In a word their were unrighteous. They had no right to be with God and certainly had no ability to stand before God’s bar. Yet God in his infinite love sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be for them propitiation. Jesus spilled his blood, offered up his life, and so provided an imputed righteousness for all who would come to him by faith alone. In this divine transaction, this penal and substitutionary atonement, Jesus provided a way for all those whom his father gave him to become children of the living God. He provided a way for the refuse to become the redeemed. Look at the church, wherever she gathers. There they are. The called out and the called together. Those bearing the marks of redemption. Those with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Those that are vouched for by the one true, living, and holy God. When you see that kind of atoning power think on the covenant love of God in the midst of the church.

The gospel can be easily explained in four parts:

1. The misery and brokenness that entered the world through Adam’s sin
2. The redemption that is provided in Jesus Christ
3. How sinful people receive this redemption from Jesus Christ
4. The blessings of being united to Jesus Christ

1 – The misery and brokenness that entered the world through Adam’s sin

Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

1. Before time, the Triune God planned, for his own glory, whatever would happen in human history. God is bringing about this plan in history without being responsible for the sin of any creature.
2. This God, in six days, made all things out of nothing and very good. He made all the angels holy. Also, he made Adam and Eve, the parents of all of us, both righteous and able to obey him perfectly. They were obligated to obey God simply because he was their Creator. But God was not obligated to reward their obedience, until he entered into a covenant with them. In this covenant, Adam represented all of his and Eve’s children. The covenant agreement was to give Adam and Eve eternal life if they obeyed God perfectly and to punish them with death if they failed. This covenant is sometimes called the covenant of works.
3. Both angels and men, unlike God, could decide either to sin or to not sin. Many angels did sin and became demons. Our first parents also sinned after being enticed by Satan, one of these demons. Their sin was eating the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat. Through this sin, they broke God’s covenant. Adam and Eve, along with all their children, received not only eternal death, but also lost all ability to please God. They became enemies to God and strangers to righteousness in every area of their lives. This is commonly called original sin, the root of all our sin, misery, and brokenness.

2 – The Redemption that is provided in Jesus

Romans 5:17 – If because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

1. Even though man got himself into this mess he can’t get himself out. Nor is he willing to let God help him out. Instead he remains in his sin–blind to it–until he dies. But God, for the glory of his rich grace, revealed in the Bible a way to save sinners. This way is by faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only mediator between God and men. Salvation in Jesus Christ is also known as the covenant of grace–an agreement between Jesus and the Father to save sinners.
2. This a brief description of the salvation that is found in Jesus. Before the world was created, God chose to save a certain number of sinners. The choice was made by God according to his own sovereign grace for his own glory. God gave these sinners to Jesus, the Son of God and Savior. The condition of this salvation was that Jesus would humble himself by becoming man, by obeying the law perfectly for those he came to save, and by suffering death on the cross in their place. In this way he would ransom and redeem them from sin and death, and purchase for them righteousness and eternal life. He would then, in his own time, give them the benefits of salvation. The Son of God–who is Jesus Christ our Lord–accepted this condition before the world began. In the fullness of time he came into the world, was born of the Virgin Mary, subjected himself to the law, and completely paid the ransom for sin on the cross. But, according to the covenant, he is, in all ages since the sin of Adam, saving chosen sinners from the condemnation of God. He does this by offering them the gospel of free grace.
3. To accomplish this great work Jesus performed the work of a Prophet, a Priest, and a King. He was made a Prophet to reveal the gospel to his people, and to persuade them to believe it. He was made a Priest in order to offer himself as the sacrifice for them and to stand in their place. He was made King, to win them to himself, to provide for their needs, and to defend them from their enemies

3 – How sinful people receive this salvation from Jesus Christ

Romans 10:17 – So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

1. The means of grace are the things that God uses to save sinners and produce in them spiritual growth. There are four means of grace: the Bible, the sacraments, the church community, and prayer. In the Bible, God reveals the gospel–the good news of salvation from sins through faith in Jesus Christ. In the sacraments, God visually reveals the gospel to strengthen and confirm God’s grace to sinners. By the church community, God provides relationships to protect and encourage redeemed sinners. By prayer, God provides a way for sinners to converse with him about the themes of grace and the needs of their life.
2. Sinners in the Old Testament and New Testament are saved in the same way–through faith in Jesus Christ. However, salvation was administered differently and revealed partially in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the sacraments of circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other ceremonies foretold Christ’s death to come. But since Christ came, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper clearly show Christ’s crucifixion, victory over death, and his glorious kingship over heaven and earth.

4 – The blessings of being united to Jesus Christ

Romans 8:30 – And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1. By the means of grace and through the power of his Holy Spirit, God gives ransomed sinners the blessings that were purchased for them by Jesus Christ. Some of these blessings cause a change inside the sinner. He regenerates them by giving them new spiritual life for service in his kingdom. He gives them saving faith that causes them to trust Jesus alone for their salvation. He gives them repentance making them simultaneously hate their sin and love their God.
2. Along with this inward change, God also makes changes outside redeemed sinners–changing the way they relate to God. He justifies them, by imputing to them the perfect obedience and atoning death that Christ gave in their place. He reconciles them and makes them friends of God. He adopts them so that they are no long children of Satan but rather children of God.
3. Lastly, when they die, he makes them holy as their souls perfectly rejoice in him in heaven. Then, at Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead, both their souls and their bodies are reunited. It is at this time that Jesus judges all men according to what they have done on earth. Impenitent sinners will receive eternal death while Christ’s own chosen and redeemed ones will remain with him forever, praising him to all eternity.

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This is my paraphrased, updated, and abridged version of the Sum of Saving Knowledge written by David Dickson–a 17th century Scottish minister–and most commonly included with editions of The Westminster Confession of Faith.

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1 Corinthians 9:16 – For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

To be a minister of the gospel is a strange calling. To some degree it is no different than other callings. I have been called to preach and pastor to God’s glory just as a pipe layers has been called to dig and fit to God’s glory. However, in other aspects, a call to ministry is much different than other callings. It is a call to so organize one’s life to proclaim the free offer of the gospel to all who will listen. Pastoral ministry touches the marrow of life and is indispensable to the church in ways that other professions are not. It is this unique aspect of the call to gospel ministry that Paul is explaining in the passage before us. He frames the necessity of gospel ministry with boasting and cursing.

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. The context of this particular verse is Paul’s discussion of pastoral salaries. He notes that he has not required tangible sustenance from the churches, though it is his right to do so. He then brings in this topic of boasting. Paul clearly says that his ministry does not in any way provide him the right to boast. He has no firm ground on which to say, “Look at how great I am, I am the Apostle Paul, minister of the gospel, missionary to the Gentiles, beloved of God…” To boast is to make the claim that you, through your own skill, have risen above your peers in success. This is detestable thinking for the minister of the gospel. A minister of the gospel must, must understand that the Lord has taken the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God’s power is not shown in that he chooses the best and most talented men to preach his gospel but that he himself is the best and most talented God who chooses the most ignorant of men to show forth the power of his glorious gospel that comes through divine power not human endeavor. If the minister is to boast, he is to boast in Christ alone. Preaching, even the best of preaching, and pastoring, even the best of pastoring, provide absolutely no ground for boasting. Then we are to ask, “If the minister is so lowly and has no right to boast, is he then indispensable?” Paul responds, “No!”

For necessity is laid upon me. Paul was most sure of the necessity of his calling. It was necessary that he preach the gospel. He must preach. He has no other option. If he were to hop a ship to Tarshish, the call of God would find him. If he were to climb to the heavens, the call of God would find him. If he were to descend into the sea, the call of God would find him. The Lord has promised world conquest. He is on a mission to redeem men from every tribe, tongue, and nation to eternally praise the name of Jesus. The Lord could have chosen any number of means by which this conquest would take place. Yet in the mystery of his holy providence, he has so ordained frail and fragile men to carry this glorious gospel to the ends of the earth. Frail and fragile men, called to gospel ministry, have been made necessary by God to the salvation of the world and to the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul must preach the gospel it is necessary. This is all well and good. Paul has no ground for boasting and gospel ministry is necessary but what would really be the harm in Paul stepping away from preaching to settle down in some quiet rural retreat in Asia Minor?

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! It is one thing to have your pride humbled and boasting subdued. It is one thing to cognitively understand the providence of God in redemptive history. It is quite another thing to find yourself and particularly your affections bowed down under the gracious call of God. Paul’s calling penetrated to the very core of his being. When he thought of hanging up the ol’ missionary life, he cringed. Woe to me! Woe has lost its punch as the penetrating point of a divine curse. It is as if Paul were saying, “I would consider myself cursed if I did not preach. I would consider myself under the displeasure of God were I to close my mouth to gospel preaching.” As if he heard the words of Potiphar’s wife calling him to spiritual adultery, he responds, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” The true preacher of the gospel must preach the gospel or suffer the severest torments of soul. He preaches not out of duty nor of stoicism nor of greed but because he sees anything else as accursed living. May God grant all ministers to have the call of God not just upon their time and wallet but most of all upon their heart. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Psalm 44:22 – Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

This is another psalm in which the psalmist is contemplating the exile of the people of God in Babylon. The resounding theme of the psalm can be summarized as, “Why, Lord, have you done this to your people? When will you save your people?” The psalmist looks out over suffering and simply cannot fathom why such devastation has befallen Israel.

In verses 1-3 he asserts God’s redeeming work of planting a rag-tag bunch of Egyptian slaves into a land of promises. In verses 4-8 he reminds God that they had depended on him for their war victories in the conquest of Canaan. But in verses 9-22 the psalmist turns to God’s judgment of exile and asks the question, “Why? Why this suffering? Why this discipline?” We know from other passages of Scripture that this exile was far from undeserved on a national level yet this psalmist argues his case for the godly who had been true to God.

This has always been an note of interest of mine as I have studied the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles cataloged in the Old Testament. God brought a very real and deserved judgment upon his people. Yet in the midst of those judged there was both wheat and tares. The remnant was judged along with the chaff. The true Israelite perished on the same sword as the idolatrous Israelite. And in those moments I have been lead to ask the same question of God, “Why do you afflict your children along with your enemies, O God?”

One of the reasons this question lays heavily upon my heart is because God’s methods have not changed. Right now an extremely large hurricane churns through the Atlantic. I definitely will not make jumps to say what is divine judgment for sin and what is not. But I will say along with Amos that when destruction comes to a city, it is the Lord’s doing. When that hurricane makes land fall, the believer and unbeliever alike will perish. Why? If God truly loves his children, why will he not give them a different fate?

Or take for another example the martyrdom of Christians all throughout the world by pagan extremists of one stripe or another. Why does God allow the whole sale slaughter of his people and yet let the idolatrous unbeliever sleep comfortably in his bed? Does this not make you want to cry out with the son of Korah, “Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself!”

The root of our discomfort with God’s ways in the suffering of his people is our inherent doubt of his love for us. The question isn’t so much, “God, how can you do this?” The question goes deeper than that. It is, “God, how can you do this if you love me?”

Thankfully, the New Testament gives us some perspective on this psalm and on this line of questioning. Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 in Romans 8. Following his quotation of this verse he concludes his thought this way,

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The perspective of the cross changes everything. Do you struggle with the suffering of Christians in the world? Do you doubt God’s love for you because of the trials he has brought upon you? Do you cry to God, “Wake up! Why won’t you deliver me from this pain?!” Dear suffering Christian, look at the cross. There, only there, do love and suffering make sense.

Do you doubt God’s love for you? See the cross. See there the love of God for you in the suffering of Jesus Christ. If God sent his son to the cross to redeem you out of the bondage of sin and misery, can you then doubt his love for you in the midst of temporal suffering. If the blood of Jesus Christ testifies to God’s covenant love for you, then what can separate you from it? Can your sin? Can your suffering? Can you doubt God’s love when you look at the cross? No! It is at the cross that we are given a new title, “more than conquerors”. It may feel like we are “more wretched than the defeated” but God’s ways are not man’s ways. You are “more than conquerors” through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Do you doubt God’s purpose for suffering? The major note of redemption is our union to Jesus Christ. Jesus has saved us by uniting us to himself in his death and resurrection. We are in him. That is why his parting words make so much sense of suffering. “If they hated me they will hate you. A servant is no greater than his master. In this world you will have much tribulation but take heart, I have overcome the world.” Our God can use the same suffering on the same group of people for different ends. On one he may bring judgment for sin. On another he may fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. On one he shows his separation from the sinner in judgment. On another he shows that nothing can separate the believer from his loving care. All through the same suffering.

It all depends on our ability to see God’s purposes through the lens of the cross. The psalmist saw judgment and doubted because the day of Jesus had not dawned. He stood in the cold hour before the dawn and trembled with sincere doubt. Paul stood on the other side of the cross, in the noon sun of Christ’s triumph over sin and proclaimed with confidence God’s purposes in suffering. The triumph of the cross changes everything.

Psalm 42:1-2 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

The psalmist here is talking about his absence from corporate worship. Most commentators, including this one, believe that Psalms 42 and 43 should be taken together as one psalm rather than two. The likely context of this psalm is the exile of the people of God in Babylon. The close of verse 2 is probably referring to the corporate worship of the people of God. The psalmist has been in captivity away from Jerusalem and the temple. He has been in exile from the localized presence of God and he misses God terribly. He longs for the day when he will be back in church, worshiping God with the people of God. He comforts himself with the refrain, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

What do you think about when you cannot attend corporate worship? From Monday through Saturday, do you long to return to Lord’s Day worship? This son of Korah did. What can we learn about our need for gathered, Lord’s Day worship?

Our souls desperately need corporate worship. Like a thirsty deer wandering through the woods looking for a stream, so do our souls need corporate worship. The Lord, in his creative wisdom, so linked together water and life. Life cannot exist without the habitual input of water. Thirst, true thirst, is one of the most agonizing and unnerving of physical ailments. Thirst will literally make a man crazy before it finally kills him. We need water. The psalmist here says the same thing of the worship of God with the people of God. We desperately and habitually need it. This thirst finds its ultimate fruition in the person of Jesus Christ, who provides the water of eternal life (John 4:14) and rivers of living water springing up from within a man’s soul (John 7:38).

Our souls desperately want corporate worship. Needs and wants should go together yet they do not always. A young child needs to eat his vegetables but he does not always want to eat his vegetables. A cancer patient needs chemotherapy but may not want chemotherapy. Yet corporate worship should not be like this. Not only does the psalmist recognize his soul’s need for God he also asks the rhetorical question, “When shall I come and appear before God?” He wants what he needs and needs what he wants. His affections are in line with that which is best for his soul. Do you love church like this or is it more like broccoli and chemotherapy? Is church the delight of your soul or is it a necessary thing through which to suffer? Because of the remaining sin in a Christian’s heart, we should not expect the hour before noon every Sunday to be spiritual fireworks and soul plumbing richness. Yet, a Christian should desire to be in church. The follower of Jesus communes with his Lord in a way utterly unique to the rest of the hours of his week, when he comes to worship the living God with his brothers and sisters in Christ. There the Lord pours upon his covenant people the benefits of the covenant of grace with special lavishness.

It is my prayer for you this Sunday that you will have your spiritual thirst filled. And it is my prayer for you, that as you wake up tomorrow morning you will ask yourself the rhetorical question, “How long till I get to go back to church?!”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

A visitor walks into your church. You walk up to him and extend a hearty welcome. He asks you to tell him about your church. He is particularly interested in knowing what kinds of people go to your church to see if he would fit in. If you went to First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, Achaia, your answer would go something like this. “The folks in our church come from all kinds of different backgrounds. I’m sure you’ll feel at home. That woman over there used to be a prostitute. That man in the front pew was a Muslim. That guy in the sound booth, he cheated on his wife. The tall guy in the choir was a homosexual. The lady playing the organ, yeah, she stole a bunch of money from her employer before she was converted. That college kid in the back…” The man breaks in and asks, “I thought this was a Christian church?”

How powerful is our gospel? What exactly is the Holy Spirit in the business of doing with the refuse of the earth? If we are honest with ourselves, all too often we think of the Holy Spirit as a heavenly beach comber. The Spirit wanders up and down the shore looking over the things that have washed up. We create a divine monologue that goes something like, “Here is a beautiful piece of sea glass. That will look great in my house. Oh, and look, an old coin. I bet it washed up here from some shipwreck. And here is a glob of melting jellyfish carcass, I certainly don’t need that.” And on we go replacing the true gospel with a gospel of “good enough to be cleaned up by Jesus.”

That is why texts like this one are so challenging. Paul is exhorting the Corinthian church to settle law suits among themselves. He pauses in verse 8 to rebuke them for defrauding one another in civil and social cases. That thought provides a window through which Paul looks at the church.

Paul first sets the high bar of heavenly access. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” It is a rhetorical question expecting the response, “Of course, Paul, I know that!” Of course we know that. Our God is righteous, those who dwell with him must be righteous as well. Compare unrighteous (adikos) in verse 9 to justified (dikaios) in verse 11. Only the righteous, the justified will dwell in heaven. It is the bar of perfection. And at the bar, no ordinary son or daughter of Adam may stand.

Paul then goes on to make sure that the Corinthians know what he is talking about. This is no Gnostic dream. Paul is not speaking of ethereal righteousness coexisting alongside of but not touching real life. He is talking about the daily interactions of people in community with one another. He provides a long list of some of the worst of socials sins to serve as a summary of man’s fallen condition. The shock of this list draws our attention but what should draw our attention most is what Paul says at the end of verse 10, “And such were some of you.”

Paul now turns his gaze from God’s righteous bar and looks down at the church. Such were some of you. The Corinthian church had in it men and woman from some of the most heinous and sinful walks of life. Such were some of you. Does he do this to shame them? As Paul’s letter was read in front of the church, would there be people getting up to leave? “I can’t believer he said that. I thought this was a place I could come and get away from my past! We’re all sinners after all. Why did he have to bring that up?!” I don’t think that would have been the response. Why? Because of the end of verse 11.

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” What makes the church a place where the former scum of the earth could dwell in community with another in the shadow of the holy bar of God? It is the power of the gospel. It is the justifying, washing, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit of God applying the blood bought benefits of Jesus Christ to blobs of melting jellyfish carcasses. Such were some of you, but you were justified by in the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Those worst of the worst in Corinth had been loved by God and changed by his sovereign grace. They had turned from their sin and idolatry to serve the living God. And this is the case for everyone who bears the name of Christ. Such were some of us. Such was I. There is what we once were but more than than there is what we have now become, inheritors of heaven, children of the living God.

Does that mark our fellowship? Or do we believe a sea glass gospel? How powerful is the gospel of Jesus Christ? It may be that you are reading this and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ. It may be that some of your life is described by the list that Paul rattles off in verses 9 and 10. If that is the case, come to Christ and into his Church. Put your faith in him to free you from the shackles of sin. His gospel is powerful. Don’t believe me. Just look at who makes up the church.