Every week I write a brief-ish devotional to help our congregation prepare for the Lord's Day. Occasionally I post a version of them here. This is the one for Saturday evening, August 5, 2023.
Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. I don’t know who said it first, it has been attributed to many different people, but the saying is true and deserving of heartfelt agreement that: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” Sin deceives and enslaves. It wants you to believe that it is harmless, that you can remain in control of it, that it’s not a big deal. Sin is a liar, and it makes a liar out of you. But no one is really convinced by the lies, no one, that is, except the person who is telling them. Everyone else knew that the emperor was naked. Deep down the emperor knew it too. But he needed to believe he was wearing beautiful clothes. He needed to believe that he was wise, because the only other option would be to admit that he was a fool.
“Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God” (WSC 14). Now most of us have enough trouble dealing with the transgression of the law to keep us busy for the rest of three lifetimes, even with the Spirit’s help, but it is the want of conformity unto that is the real punch in the gut. That means that insofar as I am not like Christ—whose character exemplifies, defines, and is revealed by God’s law—I am guilty of sin. Sin isn’t just what I do or fail to do. It is who and what I am. This means I am more sinful than I know, and the more I learn about Christ, the more sinful I will realize myself to be. This explains the paradox of sanctification: as I grow in my apprehension of God’s holiness and in my own experience and pursuit of holiness, I see more of my own unholiness by contrast. I feel more sinful even as I am actually becoming less so.
God is patient, but I am not. Even on my best day, my patience is not like his. I may be able to grit my teeth and put on a happy face, but that is not like God who delights in mercy and patience. God is kind, but I am not. Even at my most generous, my most compassionate, I am more likely to be kind to the lovely and good, whereas God has shown his kindness to the worst, including me. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, but not so in my own heart where there are still many shadows. I want the light to drive out the darkness, I think, but I am afraid of what may be exposed there. Maybe it is better to make peace with the darkness, to leave it in the corners of my life, or so I tell myself, but there is no darkness with God. All is light and truth and goodness and purity with him.
The law of God is not a list of rules and requirements. The law is a “transcript” of God’s character, as Dr. Bahnsen used to say (and likely others before him). And the command of God’s law is to imitate God and to walk in love even as Christ loved us (Eph. 5:1-2). How are you doing with that? I hope you are doing better than me. I’ve got my hands full just trying to keep the lists of commandments, but they are not the point. The character of a divine image-bearer; that is what the law reveals and requires, and what it continually exposes is my want of conformity unto it. God help me. Thank God he has and is and will.
Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day, and we anticipate gathering together to confess our sins, to receive and hear God’s pardon, and to have our covenant with him renewed. We will confess God’s law, and we know we will be convicted by it. We pray for and welcome that conviction. But we do not fear it, because though we are convicted by the law, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). Pardoned, delivered, and sanctified by the righteousness of Christ, we welcome the law as an ally, not an enemy. We delight in its truth, goodness, and beauty. We meditate day and night on its precepts. We seek to order our lives according to it. We hope and pray and strive to see our character more and more defined by it and not by what is natural to us.
The Lord’s Day is for sinners. They are the only people Jesus came to save. I am that sinner, and so are you. So come to Jesus in humble, heartfelt repentance and faith. Put away your pride, your foolishness, your delusions about yourself and all the wisdom, gifts, and accomplishments you imagine you can claim. Admit the truth, that you are naked, a naked fool parading down main street. Jesus will forgive naked fools who know they are naked. He will clothe you himself, make you a son in God’s house, and welcome you to the party of a prodigal who has returned home. Do not listen to the folly of your own heart. Listen to Christ, to God’s law, to his summons, and welcome home. --JME
