Stepping Out of Time into Eternity

Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. Actually, tomorrow is Friday as I am writing this on Thursday, but when you read this, tomorrow will be the Lord’s Day. The act of writing this little devotional—that few will read and even fewer will remember—is forward-looking. It is not prophecy such as we find in Scripture, but there is a prophetic aspect to it. You should not print these words out and paste them into the back of your Bible. They are neither inspired nor infallible. But prophecy was not only an act of foretelling the future but also forthtelling the word of God to those in the future. In the case of Isaiah, Malachi, and Paul, they were telling God’s word for all future generations. In my case, I am writing about God’s word to people that will read it about fifty hours from now.

There is always a forward-looking orientation to any presentation of the word of God, even when what is said is a reflection backward to something God said at an earlier time. We are moving forward in history, but we do so by orienting ourselves to what God said earlier in history. We hear today the word that God spoke yesterday in anticipation of when we will stand before God tomorrow. We live today in view of that day when we stand before the Lord on the last day, and one day, today will be that day. Scripture draws us backward in time, connecting us to God’s mighty acts in the past and to his promises to his people, and it drives us forward in time, carrying the gospel of salvation to the world which is destined to be filled with the knowledge of his glory and to turn in faith to his King, the resurrected Son.

The Lord’s Day is the primary, though not exclusive, time and way in which we enter into this past, present, and future reality of union and communion with God. As the Church on earth gathers, she is caught up into the heavenly places to join the chorus of praise and thanksgiving that goes on continually there. Our prayers ascend like incense into the throne room of God. We worship with the saints, sing with them, pray with them, and adore our Lord together. We join Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah (wait a second, why isn’t he disembodied like the rest of the saints?!), Peter, James, John, and Paul. We are with Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas (the Lord really will let anyone in here), and our fathers in the era of the Reformation and since. The Church in history right now is worshiping with the Church of history of prior generations, and together we are praising God in hope of the final gathering of all the elect, the full harvest of the earth’s redemption, and the resurrection of the last day.

Our worship on the Lord’s Day has a past, present, and future aspect. (Have you noticed how everything in creation has a threefold aspect? It’s probably just a coincidence.) We look back, we look within and around, and we look ahead. The historical work of redemption orients our present experience of sanctification and calls us into the future hope of glory. We sing the psalms that saints have been singing for thousands of years. When we pray Psalm 90, we are praying words that Moses taught the Church to say 3,500 years ago. It’s not ancient history. It is our present reality. It is our future destiny. God is redeeming his people in time and through time for all time.

Not everyone recognizes this aspect of the Lord’s Day, but once you see it you can never unsee it or think about it the way you did before. Stepping into the Lord’s Day is like stepping out of the stream of time and into eternity. It is a day of rest and rejoicing. Not just the two hours of morning worship with the Church, but the entire day is devoted to God and given by God to his people. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. God does not need a weekly sabbath. He dwells in continuous sabbath glory. We need the Sabbath to remember who we are, where we are from, to whom we belong, and where we are bound. Every other day on our calendar may be time-blocked and driven by appointments and deadlines. But the Lord’s Day transcends time. It reminds us that though we are temporal creatures, and will always experience time, even in eternity, we belong to the reality that is timeless. Elect from the foundation of the world, redeemed long ago by the blood of God’s Son, called to life by God’s Spirit, led through wilderness and conquest to victory in holiness, and destined for resurrection and to live forever in glory. The Lord’s Day testifies that Jesus is Lord of the clock and calendar just as surely as he is Lord of the Church and of all creation. So come, join with God’s saints in heaven and on earth, and let us delight ourselves in him. --JME

Brief Follow-up on IVF and Birth Control

A recent email that I sent out to our church's mailing list included the following paragraph:

This is a helpful essay on “IVF and the GOP’s Warped Priorities.” The recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court should have been hailed by all conservatives as a landmark affirmation of the sanctity of human life in all its stages. But many within both “conservative” churches and the Republican establishment are demonstrating by their reaction their inconsistency and liabilities with regard to pro-life issues. There are also helpful clarifications on the ruling and subsequent controversy HERE. In short, we are living in a theocracy, but it is ruled not by God but by the agents of demons who lie, manipulate, and require obeisance to their ungodly and immoral rules for ethics.

Some wondered afterward what I was saying about IVF and whether it ought to be acceptable to Christians. I’m not entirely sure how the two linked articles could be taken to suggest that is my position, but I apologize for any lack of clarity on my part. I know professing Christians who have had children by means of IVF—I thank God they have children—but IVF is not something Christians ought to utilize, encourage, or support, in my judgment. As the first linked article explained, the “baby-making” industry is arguably destroying more human lives than abortion! That is a remarkable fact, one we should not take lightly.

I am willing to write more on this topic if there is a need or desire for it, but let it suffice here to say that many Protestants and Reformed Christians need to do a lot more thinking than they have so far about the ethics of birth control. When Kirstie and I were preparing for marriage, we sought counsel from older believers and a pastor, and in retrospect the advice we received was wrong, badly wrong, even if sincerely meant. The only counsel we received was along the lines of: “Abortion is wrong, but you don’t have to be Roman Catholic about birth control.” Well… technically that is correct, but give me the Roman Church’s approach to natural family planning over the “anything short of abortion is allowed” approach of too many evangelical Christians. If you are creating fertilized eggs, you are achieving conception (Psa. 139:13-16), and that embryo has the assumption of life and, therefore, all of the rights and protections which God gives to his image-bearers. I do not believe it is wrong to exercise prudence in planning when and how many children your family might be able to welcome and care for, to a point, but God is sovereign over the lives and families of his children. Children are a heritage from the Lord (Psa. 127:3).

The Alabama Supreme Court made an important affirmation of human rights in their recent ruling that has been completely overshadowed by malicious actions by agents motivated to oppose the ruling. This misdirection has been enabled by the media and the GOP establishment who are quickly falling over themselves insisting how much they love IVF and how important it is to them to maintain. Do not be deceived. The promotion of IVF may appear to be consistent with a pro-life position, but its application is exponentially more destructive to life than productive. Alabama’s high court is correct: if IVF methods are employed, then the fertilized embryos must be acknowledged as living persons and afforded the protections due to them. They should not be destroyed, either unintentionally or by carelessness. Do not leave your children in the freezer. --JME

Worship as Thanksgiving

The Christian life is an experience and expression of gratitude. That is the basic theme of the Heidelberg Catechism’s discussion of the believer’s duty, and if it is not the only thing that ought to be said about our lives, it is certainly a significant part. Everything that we have, we have by grace. Even what we worked hard to accomplish and obtain was only possible by the grace of God. We are recipients of pervasive, abundant, and undeserved grace, and therefore we ought to be grateful.

Creation is gracious; the Lord did not need to create or anyone to love; he is self-existent, dwelling in perfect love and communion as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Covenant is gracious; God condescends to enter into relationship with Man, sealing his promise by oath and blood. Our election unto salvation is gracious; Yahweh did not choose us because we were better in any way than our neighbors; he chose us because he is good, not because we are. Our redemption is gracious; we are bought with the lifeblood of God’s Son, cleansed of our guilt, clothed with the righteousness of God so that our shame is covered, and accounted as law-keepers through the obedience of our Representative. Our adoption is gracious; we were by nature the sons of Adam and children of wrath, destined for judgment and condemnation, but in Christ by the Spirit of adoption we have been made heirs in the family of God. Our perseverance is gracious; we will not be saved unless we endure; we must continue to believe in and obey God, else we will be lost, but we do endure and shall because salvation is of the Lord, and he keeps his people. Our entire life is an experience of divine providence and grace; God works all things together for the good of those who love him, so we may boldly say the Lord is our Helper and we do not fear anything.

The Christian life is an experience and expression of gratitude, but Christian worship is an engagement in the corporate expression of thanksgiving. A person can be grateful without giving thanks. He may feel gratitude in his heart, but if it is not expressed, it does not glorify God. We may safely assume all ten lepers whom Jesus healed were happy to be delivered, but only one gave thanks to God. Worship is not about what you feel but what we say to God in response to his glory, goodness, and grace.

Many people measure the success of a Sunday by their experience of it. If the singing was good, the saints were friendly, or the sermon was helpful and strong, then worship was “good.” If the experience was less than satisfying, then we can only hope it will be better next time. But when we approach worship as a service of thanksgiving, we are enabled to worship no matter how the experience feels or seems to us. We are receiving God’s blessing and help through the means of grace, even when it seems otherwise, but we are not looking to the experience as the measure of our satisfaction. In this context, we are not coming to get but to give thanks for all the Lord has already given us, an abundance of good gifts which we daily enjoy.

As we prepare for the Lord’s Day, it is appropriate and helpful to meditate on how many reasons we have to give thanks to God. Every good thing we have ever received, experienced, or possessed came from his hand. Moreover, every unpleasant experience, every sin and shame, every failure and loss, every disappointment and sorrow, occurred under the supervision of a loving, faithful Father who works all things together for our good. Meditating on our blessedness will make us more humble, more content, and more grateful people, and only humble, content, and grateful people can rightly worship God. --JME