​Last time I talked about how unprepared Christians can be for defending their faith in the face of pushback, but what we didn’t address is why. The only answer I can come up with is a lack of purposeful Christian education. If you look at the amount of time dedicated to Christian education in the past (i.e. Christian school, Sunday School, catechism classes, two Church services, Bible studies, etc.), it far exceeds what we see today. I fear history will not look fondly at our generations, as we have shrunk the ministries and services of the Church to a 1-hour service per week. Usually, then, that hour needs to catch our attention with an engaging message and upbeat music; otherwise, we’d rather take the time off to be with our family. Less and less do Christians see themselves as coming to serve and worship God, and more and more have we bought into the consumer mentality of a Church service needing to meet our entertainment appetites. We chase experience; we chase a feeling, but we should be chasing God’s glory. No wonder kids leave and don’t come back.

The Word says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). One look at statistics would show that either the Scriptures are wrong, or we have failed to adequately train up our children. A Christian education should be robust; it should train a child in a defense of the gospel, engaging the mind and intellect in addition to the affections. There are 18 years between a baptism and going off to college, and yet too many young adults are stepping into the world without the ability to articulate and defend even the basics of their faith. After 18 years of anything, we should have it mastered.

​Years ago, as part of my undergrad, I took a course in theater. I’m not sure why I did it, and I felt tremendously out of place among all those talented individuals. I’m sure that was visible whenever I’d have to get in front of the class and act. However, on one particular occasion, I came across a word I didn’t know, and I proceeded to slowly sound it out. Afterward, the professor, who was more encouraging than he needed to be, said, “Here’s a trick I’ve learned about public speaking: if you are unsure about a word, say it with gusto and confidence. If you do that, the people who actually know the word won’t judge you for getting it wrong. Instead, your confidence will make them question if they’ve ever had it right”.

I think we as Christians have fallen prey to that tactic too often. Christianity is classified in the Scriptures as “foolishness” to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18). Yet the reverse is also true: to the one who has tasted and seen the glories of God, it seems unfathomably foolish not to see His handiwork and creative wonders in those two books of revelation: nature and Scripture (i.e. Psalm 19). However, when we cannot defend to others what seems obvious to us, we begin to question if we’ve had it wrong altogether.

This happens, for example, on college campuses... 

I’ve written now a few times about truth, but I just have a few more thoughts on how it’s impacting our world. In that way, it’s hard to argue for a certain passage of Scripture being more important than another, because it’s all God’s Word, testifying to us of Jesus. However, the first chapter in the Bible provides the undergirding for everything we believe and everything which society needs to properly function. Clearly, it’s not all spelled out in detail there, but what I mean is this: when a Creator is lost, everything is lost. Without a Creator God establishing and maintaining a created order, there is no basis for morality, no basis for laws, rules, relationships, purpose, or anything else. Nothing could be more dangerous than to do away with the concept of creation.
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Yet for centuries now the whole idea of creation is scoffed at. It’s been replaced with the old Gnostic ideas of the material as bad and the spiritual as good, or it’s been mocked at by those who believe in the evolution arising from a primordial ooze. I know there are some wonderful Christian teachers and believers who hold to some form of creation-based-evolution, but that’s not the point. The point is to say that if we remove creation altogether, if we remove God altogether, then we lose everything. If there is no set of governing laws in this universe as given by a Creator, then we are simply moral-less beings. What, then, is the objective standard by which anything is judged? Why is there a US Constitution? Why police? Why churches? Why respect in the societal sphere? Why stop signs and red lights and borders and the like? What objective metric is used for scientific conclusions? Why does life have value?

By trying to remove God, society itself is undermined, and this is what is actively taught and promoted in our schools and from our government. Everything listed above has been openly attacked in the last year, because many in power have drunk so much of it that they’ve lost sight of their fallen mortality.

Compromising on creation seems innocuous, but it’s the genius of evil, because once the Creator goes, everything goes with Him.

So much more could and should be said about this, but if we want to see any change in this world, we Christians need to get back to the basics of our faith, to learn them well and defend them fiercely.  They’ll call us bigots for doing it, but that simply betrays their own argument, because we can only be bigots if there’s an objective standard of truth. And if there’s an objective standard of truth, there’s a Creator God behind it.

​Paul lists some in Colossians 3: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). We see similar examples in Scripture, but the point is this: love desires the things of God, and thus it desires the created order of God. This means true love hates false love. It hates perversions of love. It is why, should a child think that he’s a turkey and want to be roasted in the oven, a loving parent would not try to affirm his identity by stuffing him with bread and basting him, but would rather say, “No, you are a child, for that is how God made you”. What defines a child is not his self-identification; it is his creation in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, Psalm 139:14).

That means to accept a lifestyle that promotes something counter-Scriptural is not actually love. Rather, the only guiding principle for love is Scripture. As God determines, so we obey. This means that we must speak out not necessarily on political issues, but we must not shy away from politicized issues. It frustrates me how those who control the language determine the laws. With abortion, it’s become a “woman’s right to choose”. No one would or could disagree with that statement, but the conversation has been willfully shifted away from the child in the womb as a human being to focusing on the woman. By controlling the language, we are no longer dealing with the central issue, because to the question of whether we can kill the unborn, the answer is not about anyone’s right to choose. After all, if marriage makes us “one flesh”, can Syd now kill me because it’s “her body her choice”? (Syd, if you’re reading this, the answer is “no”). By politicizing morality, the entire landscape of the issue has changed, and evil makes its move.

I fear, then, that in the name of tolerance, many in the broader evangelical church – and even within our own CRC denomination – have become deeply unloving. The world may see the voice of the Christian as intolerant, bigoted, and not worthy of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, but the world needs the voice of truth. We must continue speaking it patiently, kindly, and not arrogantly – it is unloving not to do so – yet there could be nothing more unloving than not speaking the truth. To encourage something less than God reveals in His Word is the most spiteful, hateful thing we could do to another person. The only analogy I can think is to refuse a starving man bread because we’re worried about his body image.
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So, take heart, Christian: the Lord of truth is the faithful Lord. Dig into His Word – that firm foundation – and do not let your heart be burdened by this world. You have the truth in your hands, your mind, and your heart, and the Lord has called us to be witnesses to it (Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20). Standing on the truth, the world may hate you, but God will not forsake you.

Last time we looked at truth, and how the Bible reveals it as the beginning, middle, and end of a matter. Today we want to ask, “Where can we find this truth?”. And I think this is a pertinent question today, because we’re seeing two sets of facts for everything, and legislation is passed on the concept of an alternate reality. How, then, shall we go forward? Upon what do we place our trust?

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 65:16 that the answer is the God of the Scriptures. Why? – Twice there He is called the “God of truth”, and the book of James tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change”. Romans 1:25 even draws a distinction between sinful man and perfect God when it says, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie”. It’s because of this that John Calvin wrote, “Nothing is deemed more precious by God than truth”.

Indeed, remember that word “emet”, which means “truth”? – It is also translated as “faithfulness”, meaning when you read of the steadfast love of the Lord or the faithfulness of the Lord – as frequently found in the Psalms – it’s saying that truth is at the core of who God is.
But where can we find the revelation of this truth? – In the self-disclosure of God’s Word, both written and living.

We’re told in Psalm 12:6, “The words of the Lord are pure words”, and 2 Timothy 3 and Hebrews 4 state that the Bible is useful for growing, teaching, rebuking and changing – not just our behaviors, but our very motives and thoughts, because the Lord is actively speaking to us as we engage with it. 2 Timothy 3:15 even calls the Bible “the Word of truth”, and Jesus says, “[God’s] word is truth” (John 17:17). It may not – as I brought up last time – prove that vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream, but it will define and shape our worldview and our being around what is objectively true.

But notice also that the Scriptures are not bearing witness to themselves but their true author: God. When we read the Word, we must do so using it to interpret itself lest we try to twist the truth to define our own reality, as Adam and Eve once again did at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God’s Word is His truth revealed, and so it must shape how we feel and think and act. And if it does, the Lord promises that He “will make straight our paths” (Proverbs 3:6). It’s why elsewhere, the Psalmist proclaims, “Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). That path is always leading somewhere, and that somewhere is back to the living word: Jesus. The Scriptures declare him “the Word” (John 1:1), and the “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). He is truth incarnate.

What’s happens when we reject him, then, is that we stumble through life without ever knowing our created purpose, and those who do so will always run the opposite way. As an example, let’s go back to Jesus standing before Pilate, and witness the ironic and tragic scene. As he stands trial, Jesus says, “I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth”. What amazing words! Everything we desire, everything God wants us to know this side of glory, bound up and found in Jesus. Yet Pilate sneers back, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38). In the next chapter he then says, “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”, and Jesus responds by saying, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10-11).

Now, there we have the powers of the world standing against the powers of God. And what’s the fundamental difference? 

– The powers of the world are willing to assume that they have ultimate authority – even over God – and yet they can’t even define truth. By contrast, less than 24 hours earlier than that interchange, in the upper room discourse, our gracious Redeemer sat with the disciples and said to them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). It is simply jaw-dropping to see Pilate reveal that he doesn’t know what truth is, and yet wield his authority like a drunk man with a sword. His staggered swings land upon truth itself.

Pilate, as the most powerful earthly man in the room, admitted he had nothing upon which to base his decisions, and so he sentenced the very source of truth to death. When we do not make Jesus our center, it always leads to the death of what is true.

By contrast, Jesus is truth personified. This is why, when the Bible calls us to embrace truth, it means to embrace Jesus. Of him, John 1:14 says he is “full of grace and truth”. Colossians 2:3 also professes that in him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. As such, he promises in John 8:32 that if we come to him, “the truth will set you free”, because his atoning death has brought our sinful natures to the grave and raised us to new life in the Spirit.

The true and ancient wisdom of this world (see Proverbs 8) is real, available, personal, holding out his hand. Belief in Jesus sets us free from the lies and cruelty of this realm. Satan may be called the father of lies (John 8:44), but Jesus has defeated both him and the whole order of this world, and in Revelation 21:5, he comes proclaiming that he will renew all things, destroying falsehoods, evils, and all manner of vile things.

So, in a day and age where truth is under assault, we must continually hide ourselves in the refuge of truth itself: Jesus, our Lord. Don’t be fooled: if even the highest authority in the land rejects Jesus, they have rejected truth. Cling to him, learn his Word, and as he once again promises, “the truth will set you free”.
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Next time, we’ll look, then, at how we bring this truth to others.

​Gustave Flaubert, a French novelist, once famously said, “There is no truth. There is only perception”. Of all crazy and damaging ideas that have plagued this world, this is perhaps the worst and yet most widely accepted. For example, Syd and I have been watching a docuseries on Scientology, and their main assertion is, “What’s true is what’s true for you”. But how can this be possible? It seems a badge of honor, a mark of integrity to challenge the concept of truth itself. You are seen as a bigot and an “[insert prefix here]-ism” if you defend the idea that there is objective, moral truth in this world. It’s why we even live in what’s called the “post-modern” age, as postmodernity is “characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy).

Yet for the Christian who believes in objective truth and hangs our entire existence upon it, this is nothing new, because the third chapter of Scripture details that mankind would rather reject truth than shape themselves around it. That is, Adam and Eve stood around the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which in sum represents the question of who gets to define good, evil, and therefore morality. Desiring this ability for themselves, they reached out, ate the fruit, and the fallout is evident. Immediately there is shame, slander, and a curse. We need only travel a chapter more to see the first murder before reading of the wicked acts of a man like Lamech. Genesis 5 then is a depressing read that contains the phrase “and he died” 8 times, before Genesis 6 proclaims, “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5)

When we reject truth, we reject reality itself, and ever since Adam and Eve decided to reach out and be their own moral compass, mankind has been wrestling with the question of who determines truth, and that always leads to chaos.

This is why, whenever the topic of truth arises, it’s difficult not to place ourselves with the jeering crowd before Jesus, as we watch his interrogation at the hands of Pontius Pilate. Jesus had stated that he’s come “to bear witness to the truth”, but Pilate sneers back, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38). What he’s saying is, “What’s true for the Jew is not true for the Roman”, and it reveals that Pilate is metaphorically reaching out with his ancestor to pluck that forbidden fruit and define for himself good, evil, and morality.

This is, at the very base, what is wrong with our world today. Romans 1:18 tells us that it’s by our unrighteousness that we suppress the truth. Yet one verse before he says that “righteousness comes by faith”. In other words, to not have faith in Jesus ultimately leads to unrighteousness, a suppression of truth, and “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). That’s why I’ll write on the essence of truth and its manifestation in true love in coming weeks, but for today let’s simply define truth.

​Perhaps 2020’s most commonly used phrase was, “These are uncertain times”. It seems, however, that 2021 is quickly removing the “un” as we see an ever-increasing polarization in our country. It’s troubling, of course, to see what’s happening in our government, and as inheritors of God’s eternal Word, it is the job of the Church to pray for and remind them of their Scriptural mandate (Romans 13:4, 6). However, it is also the job of the Church to not identify ourselves more as citizens of America than citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

As I’ve been following the news and speaking with many of you, it’s become clear that the news cycle is close to everyone’s mind. This past Sunday in catechism, while discussing providence, I wagered that each of their homes had been filled with talks of what’s been happening in the US. Suddenly, each looked up, eyes rolled, and every head nodded vigorously.  There was great uncertainty last year, but it feels like now we can bank on one certainty: the heart of man will prove its wickedness, no matter its political ideology. 

Given the increasing evil and immorality, one of the verses that has been of immense comfort to me is 1 Peter 1:7, wherein the Apostle describes our faith as “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire”. What a contrast to the hopes of many in our world! Money is power in America, but in the talks of redistribution of wealth, capitalism versus socialism, equality of outcome, taxes, etc., you and I have the universe’s most precious gift: faith.

Faith in Christ – though it be tested by the fires of evil – is the assurance that this world is not our home (Hebrews 13:14), and that we are seen and loved by a God who “removes kings and sets up kings;” (Daniel 2:21), who stands age to age the same (Isaiah 40:28, Psalm 90:2, Hebrews 13:8, Revelation 22:13), who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8) who never leaves and never forsakes (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5), who experientially knows our pain and suffering (Hebrews 4:15, 5:7-8), and who has redeemed us through the invaluable blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:18-19)​.

​Continued...

 ​In the unknown, Ben Franklin once said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. The Bible adds a third and fourth for the Christian: animosity from the world (John 15:20-21), and eternal life in the Christ (John 6:39, Hebrews 7:25).

​As the wickedness of mankind’s hearts comes increasingly into view and hostility becomes the norm, Jesus reminds us: “do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). In Christ Jesus, you have a gift that no one could buy (Ephesians 2:8-9). When at the judgment throne all are standing before Christ, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates can pool all their money together and attempt to purchase their way into heaven, but their gold will perish and come to nothing. Your faith and its benefits, however, will not.

Remember that God is faithful to those He loves (Exodus 34:6, Deuteronomy 9:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:3), and He has not lost control of this world (Daniel 4:17, 4:34-35, Acts 12:20-23, Colossians 1:16-17). Though your 401k may one day disappear, your health evaporate, your finances get taxed beyond reasonability, and your freedoms become extinct, one thing that can never be taken away is that if you believe in Jesus, you have a gift more precious and rare than all the jewels of the world combined 
(Matthew 10:28).

So rest, trust in our God. What can man do to us that God doesn’t ordain? (Proverbs 16:33, Job 42:2, Romans 8:28). And remember that all mankind – wicked or righteous – go to the same grave (Ecclesiastes3:20), for all are like grass of the field that barely lasts the night (Psalm 103:15, 1 Peter 1:24). That is why ​mankind is always laboring for yesterday and today, because they’re trying to leave a legacy on which to look back. Yet when the Scriptures call us to look back, it is always to see how God proved His loving sovereignty and faithfulness so that those with faith can have assurance for today and tomorrow.

We may be coming into times that appear most certain to bring animosity to the Church, but never forget what you own. Because of the faith that God has given you in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9), your future is secure. The rich and powerful of this world are laboring and striving to write their names in history. Let them have it. What good does it do the dead? For us, our God conquered history to ensure the future. So let them write their names in history, for ours are already written in eternity (Revelation 13:8, 21:27). That much is certain.

What more can be said than has been said? – The state of our country is devastating. When we look at the physical, financial, and emotional trauma of the coronavirus, it felt like a crippling blow. Yet without hardly a breath between, we then witnessed the murder of George Floyd, and a pent-up frustration exploded across the nation.

We should in no way condone looting and rioting, but the protests bring before us something long simmering on the backburner that we must confront in all its forms: racism.

I understand that there are many out there who are turned off by what they’ve been seeing, and there are many who read politics into the situation. I, for example, fundamentally disagree with defunding and villainizing the police, and I disagree with the idea that America is inherently racist through-and-through. However, that is a different discussion. The reality is that while we may not be sitting in the 60s or the era of slavery, racism is alive and well, and it is an evil that corrupts everything it touches.
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To be sure, there are few things that stand so directly opposed to the gospel more than racism. When the Scriptures opened by detailing God as Creator over all, and then telling us that mankind was created in His image (Genesis 1:27), it definitively put to rest any idea that one human could in any way be lesser than another. What gives us worth and value is not skin color or wealth or social standing. Rather, what gives us inherent worth is being “fearfully and wonderfully made” in God’s image (Psalm 139:14).

Continued...

The pain and division coursing through our country right now is deeply heartbreaking, and for this blog I simply want to say two things. The first is that the racism that can sit in the heart of all humans should cause us to mourn and grieve. All politics aside, both racism and the rioting, looting, and destruction we're seeing are antithetical to everything Scripture commands. As such, I urge you to pray. Pray for unity in this country. Pray for healing, but a healing that comes from God. Pray for the Church to speak decisively into this pain, but that we will eagerly listen and learn how and when to speak. Pray that God will crush racism and racist ideas, for even a whiff of racism stands completely opposed to the gospel. Pray for our government, but pray that the Church will be active in supplying a place of grace and healing. Finally, pray that God’s will is clearly visibly throughout even this.

Our hope is not in a unity structured by borders and leaders, but a unity established by the blood of Christ. “9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen’” (Revelation 7:9-12).

The world does not need our politics or opinions; it needs our Savior.

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There’s so much pain and confusion in the Church today, and we certainly weren’t aided by President Trump’s comments this past weekend. I praise God to hear a President say what he did. It is true; it is vindicating; it is necessary. But at the same time, it frustrates me to wonder why he didn’t say these things back in March.

With that, one revelation that was particularly betraying was when he called on the governors to acknowledge what you and I have known since Day 6 of creation: that the Church is essential. Unfortunately, by appealing to them, he acknowledged that because we are the “United States” – and not the “Autocratic State” – of America, the individual governors have more authority over their State than Trump does. So while the President may have waxed his eloquence a few months late, it also rubbed salt in the wound of many, because it brought to mind the question we’ve been asking for weeks on end: why are the doors of church buildings still closed?

I know that the answers to the question are varied and testily debated, but at least in my mind, it’s straight-forward: it has little to do with the coronavirus and much to do with the Bible.

That is, the Bible has told us to be subject to our governing authorities (Romans 13:1-2, 1 Peter 2:13-14). The caveat is that if the government tried to silence the message of the gospel (an act not yet carried out), we would be forced to serve the higher law: obedience to Christ above obedience to this earthly government. However, following that same logic, when the message of the gospel is not outlawed, and when we can fully obey both God and our government (despite certain hindrances), we are called to do so despite the cost. After all, when the Spirit inspired Paul and Peter to write those words, I do not think He had the First or Second Amendment in mind. He had His Kingdom in mind. He knew that there would be great injustices and abuses that would at times impede the ministry of the Church. Yet being a God of order, He placed us under the authority of the government, and has called us to be obedient to Him by being obedient to them.

Now, that is not to undermine what a difficult time this has been. I don’t know a single Christian or Pastor that wants to keep from meeting in person. We missed Easter; that was devastating. We will likely miss Pentecost; that is just as gutting. That doesn’t even take into account the friendships and relationships, the power of singing together and approaching the Bible and prayer with each other. It doesn’t touch on how heart wrenching this has been for Christians, but as Ephesians 6 says, our issue is not with flesh and blood. God knew how difficult this time would be, and yet He brought us into a unique puzzle: the gospel has gone out in perhaps greater force and availability during this time, and yet certain aspects of the Church have been unavailable to us. In that way, we cannot categorize this as persecution, but we certainly can say that we’re suffering.

So what can God be teaching us? 

Continued...

​– There are several things, but here are some to chew on. First, we have a disturbingly American way of reading the Scriptures, as we tend to read the Constitution into places it doesn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong: America is the greatest, freest country on planet earth, and we are blessed beyond measure to live here. The Constitution has perhaps done more for this world than any other political document in history, and it would be a tragedy for us to lose our rights However, the point of this blog is not to talk politics but Scripture. As such, we must remember that the Constitution – however Biblically influenced – is nothing more than a government document. It is not the Bible, and we see that in that fact that where the Bible breathes spiritual life, the American ideal has served to breathe material life. And that prosperity has come at a cost: it has closed our hearts to parts of Scripture.

Our prosperous American lifestyle has made the Psalms nearly unapproachable, because we don’t know how to suffer on a wide-scale level. Letters like 1 Peter or Hebrews – with an equal emphasis on suffering – are unrelatable. After all, the heart of the Bible was written not to defend what we in the USA have, but to speak to those who will likely never taste it.

Whether easy or not, Scripture has bound our hearts and hands: until the government makes an effort to silence Christ, we are called to civil obedience. Again, let’s not undersell how hard and painful that is nor fade into the background. But on a personal level, let’s also take control of the dialogue and move it away from what Trump or Inslee or Trudeau or some other mortal, morally failing, term-bound government character says. Instead, let’s turn to find what God says, because if we take our frustrations and pains and – yes – our sufferings to God during this time, we will find that He may have very well breathed new life into those Scriptures we otherwise couldn’t experientially understand.

That is, while we eagerly search the Bible for references against government corruption, we can turn the eyes of our heart to passages like 1 Peter 1:6-7. It says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Or what about James 1:2-4? – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”.

Now, I use those two as simple backdrops against the myriad of passages that should be bursting with flavor during this time, because you may have already relied on those in particularly dark times in the past. However, we’re called into a unique time of applying these verses. How do I mean? - The book of Hebrews says of Jesus, “He learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Those words have always stuck with me as an unusual expression. Should it not be that Jesus suffered because he was obedient? – Why is it phrased the opposite way, then, that he learned obedience through his suffering?

Well, the simple answer, of course, is that during his life, Jesus suffered in horrific ways. From his temptation to the Pharisees to the sluggish minds of the oft-foolish disciples, to the betrayal, false trial, and crucifixion, Jesus lacked no suffering. We must not forget that he was fully human, and it would have been real that at each turn, he would be tempted toward something that would take him away from his God-glorifying mission of the cross. And so what we see is that, yes, he suffered because he was obedient, but his obedience was proved genuine because he suffered. With that, scroll back up to those references to James and 1 Peter, and we can see our Hebrews passage better explained: while we may suffer for being holy, we suffer in order to be made holy. Christ was always going to be obedient, but his suffering tested and proved his obedience real.

When I think on that, it strikes me what a blessed time we find ourselves in today: we haven’t been stopped from proclaiming Christ, but we have been brought into a time of suffering. We’re aching, hurting. Some are finding themselves in the grip of depression. Some are fighting that blackened enemy of loneliness. Kids are home when they should be out, and many friendships are lost. Marriages may have taken a hit, and wallets are so light that people are worried about tomorrow.

We have undoubtedly been brought into a time of suffering like we’ve never experienced, but that should push our eyes and hearts ever back to those gracious words of God: that we may consider this joy, because it is producing in us a genuine faith, that – should persecution and martyrdom hit our shores – outweighs an eternity of American freedoms.

Traveling back to those references above, here’s another angle: the culture into which the Scriptures were written was not 21st Century America. It was to poly-theistic, Caesar-worship, anti-Christian Rome. The Bible was not written to be a back-up document defending the freedoms of the Constitution. It was largely written as an exhortation and encouragement to those who faced corruption, hardship, and death. It was written to breathe eternality into those whose lives were forfeit, and in that way – even in bloodshed and suffering – it popped color into a grayscale world. It’s so fitting that when Jesus asked Peter if the disciples were going to turn away, he did not respond, “You have a pretty good structured morality that has bought us unprecedented political freedoms. We’ll hedge our bets and stick with you”. No. He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). The Constitution may ensure political freedom, but the Bible breathes eternal life. It would be a greater tragedy to lose that truth than to lose our civil rights. Therefore, we must always be careful not to approach this situation with an eye more toward a government document than Scripture. The ideal of the Bible includes governmental freedoms, but the point of the Bible is obedience to Christ whether those exist or not.
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Today, we weep daily at the loss we have suffered, but – for now – we keep the doors of Churches closed because we’re obedient not first to the Constitution but to Scripture. It is hard; it feels like a gray area, and the tide may quickly turn. But it is clear: until the gospel becomes the target, we are called to submit. On that journey, however, God has graciously afforded an opportunity to walk the footsteps of our Savior by learning obedience through what we suffer.

So do you see what I mean about how this has precious little to do with politics? – I don’t fear this virus. I don’t fear the government. I do fear God, and He commanded us to be subject to our government in civil matters. God knew these commands would bring suffering to all generations, but He also knew that the result would be an obedience that produces a faith “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire”.
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In working overtime to take advantage of this virus, the powers of evil played into God’s hands of unlocking our hearts to the parts of His Word that our affluence had silenced. I pray we never have to choose between the two, but I’d take that over our civil rights. Wouldn’t you?