29 This is what I mean, brothers and sisters: The time is limited, so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn’t own anything, 31 and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away. 1 Corinthians 7 (CSB)
This passage is admittedly confusing. But the gospel changes everything and must be the central thing, the organizing thing. Not marriage. Not sorrow. Not even joy. Good, even great, things; lousy gods/organizing principles.
Mason admits to contradicting himself in the book. Joy refuses to be systematized, reduced to a formula. What produced joy today won’t necessarily do so tomorrow. It’s like trying to reduce satisfying sex to a formula instead of finding joy in the mystery of it all. Just doesn’t happen. It is not like following a recipe.
Manna fell every day but then there was no hoarding it. Joy “lives” in the present. You can’t live on yesterday’s or tomorrow’s joy. Embrace today’s joy!
“Joy doesn’t like to be spied on.” Mason
Joy comes as we look, elsewhere. We don’t find it when we look for it. We experience it when focused on other things.
So we don’t cling to joy or being happy. It can’t be our goal. Loving God and others is the goal. Joy comes as we pursue that goal.
We seem to want to reduce everything to 7 steps or some kind of formula or technique. We think that if we just do “it” the right way everything will fall into place. Life isn’t about 7 steps or technique. We suck the soul out of life when we try to do this.
I don’t aim any of those 12 million copies.
As I was transferring the thoughts from my journal, I noticed I mentioned sex again. People must wonder if I’m obsessed (or they do now that I drew attention to it). Part of it is that we live in a sex-obsessed society. Some marriages are made or broken on the basis of sex. We pursue joy thru sex all too often.
But more importantly, in this case, I was thinking (I suspect) about the mysterious reality of sex. We are different each time. One day I’ll be fine if touched in a spot. Another I’ll be ticklish. Some days we are more self-conscious than others. What “worked” for our spouse’s pleasure last week might not “work” today. It can feel like trying to hit a moving target from a bullet train sometimes. It is a picture of life. We feel safe in the routines, but they quickly become lifeless, devoid of joy. We have to take each moment as it comes. Rhythms sound so much better than routines. There is more freedom within the structure of the rhythm of life than the routines of life.
Keep mind, Paul says, that the world in its current form is passing away. Lasting joy is not to be found in it. Hopes are not to be set on it. This world fundamentally disappoints.
30 Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31 but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40 (CSB)
A familiar passage, but Mason doesn’t focus on hope for the future. God renews our strength thru hope though. He is the God of hope who fills us with joy in the Spirit as we entrust ourselves in Him (Rom. 15, sermon on the text).
Soaring => running => walking
—– => not weary => not faint
Soaring takes no energy while running and walking do. The other day I watched a hawk soar while I sat outside the church. It is a beautiful sight to behold.
Running makes you weary until you walk and grow faint.
Life is like Nathan’s ultra-marathons. Hills, mountains, trudging up inclines, easing down declines.
But Mason focuses on ordinary joys, not the exhilarating and exotic. Joy is there in the ordinary. An ordinary meal, a cup of tea you can linger over, a good read with a cigar or a conversation with a loved one. There is it, awaiting you.
Stop, savor it! Forsake our cultural addiction to bigger and better. It isn’t in the blockbuster, the tricked-out worship service. It’s in ordinary worship- connecting with the God of hope.
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Tonight I was reading Timothy Kellerand it turned to Babette’s Feast. This story is a beautiful picture of the gospel. I didn’t realize it was a story rooted in the life and thought of Soren Kierkegaard. It is the story of two sisters whose father is the leader of an ascetic religious community. One sister forsakes her career as a singer and the other marriage to a military officer. Their life is marked with self-denial, but not joy. One night a stranger knocks on their door. She has fled the revolution in France and was directed to them by an opera singer. They know nothing about her and can’t offer anything but space with them as the cook, doling out bland fish soup night after night.
Meanwhile the religious community, after their father’s death, has aged and been ravaged by conflict and the resulting fractured relationships.
Babette learns she has won the French lottery. She returns to France for her winnings but returns with food for a feast. A delicious meal of French cuisine.
The community agrees to come, but secretly agree to not taste and enjoy the meal. But one of the guests in the officer who digs in to his delight. This delicious meal reminds him of a restaurant in Paris he used to go to. The others take tiny bites to discover they have been missing out on a feast indeed (and insulting Babette who spent all her winnings to treat them). The food and wine do a work in their hearts. They begin to enjoy fellowship around the table and old offenses are forgiven. Babette was the chef of that restaurant.
She is a portrait of Jesus, who humbled himself and took the form of a servant. Like Jesus she became poor to enrich them. This grace and kindness melts their hearts of stone. His kindness leads us to repentance. He invites us to a grand feast, a wedding feast. We have a foretaste of this when we gather for the Supper. This meal reminds us that we are one body, united to Christ, forgiven and called to forgive. He calls us out of legalism and license to life, hope and joy. We are no longer to live drab lives wrapped around our our self-interest or self-righteousness. We have been invited to joy- now and forever.
7 Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. Ecclesiastes 9 (CSB)
Back to Ecclesiastes, and I’m reminded of my sermon series just before my sabbatical. Joy was far off at the time.
This is not just about seizing the now, but the physicality of joy. Eat your food, drink your wine- with gladness and a heart full of joy. Not drudgery. Not reluctance. Not just to survive.
Mason returns to that place in the woods to usher in the new millennium. The views, the breeze, the taste of the cider.
We are body and soul. Each impacts the other. Joy can begin in physical experience but impact our soul too ==> worship.
Our physical senses are more alive than ever if we are part of the new creation. The incarnation matters. Jesus found joy in the aroma of flowers and a good meal. He saw the beauty of a sunset or flash of lightning. He tasted the joy of good food and drink. We are not to deny ourselves everything. God enables us to enjoy them, and we must as long as we thank Him instead of making them idols.
I read Psalm 37 this morning. The Psalm reads more like Proverbs. Yet there is the recurring contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Don’t fret because of the wicked (3x), wait and do good. See the ends to which each comes, turn away from the evil YOU do. There is much about inheritance. Those who get the land “hope in the Lord,” are “meek,” and “righteous,” They are “blameless” and “those the Lord blesses.” These people will discover everlasting joy- body and soul.
Before Covid at General Assembly, RTS gave its alumni a number of small books by professors. After I finished the Works of John Newton, I tried to read some smaller books that were in my queue to be read. I wanted to read some books on different subjects. One book I began to read was A Christian’s Guide to Being Made Right with God: Understanding Justification by Guy Waters.
I didn’t finish it. At some point we made my home office into my daughter’s room. The space where I did my morning reading moved from the kitchen table to my comfy chair in the new nook in the homeschool room (which I currently share with a drum kit). This book didn’t make the short journey with my Bibles and other books.
Recently CavWife cleared out the cabinet by the kitchen table and this was one of the books that was re-discovered. My review might reflect that I read most of this short book a few years ago.
It was published in 2012 which is about the tail end of the New Perspectives on Paul problem. It is not such a big deal today, but he was addressing a very real need when he wrote it. It just may seem dated today. Or less knowledgeable Christians might go “What?”.
It is meant to be something of an introductory volume. This is not James Buchanan’s extensive volume, The Doctrine of Justification. It was not meant to be. It was meant to be a concise treatment and it does the job well.
One great feature of the book is a series of symbols that indicate “Warning”, “Don’t Forget”, “Stop and Think” and “Point of Interest”. This help the novice recognize important passages and thoughts.
In his preface, Waters tells a story about a lecture on justification that a reporter misheard as “Just a Vacation”. He uses this to remind us that the language used to articulate this doctrine is “foreign to the secular Western mind.” The problem and reality of sin make the doctrine of justification necessary to understand. No, we are not saved by knowing and affirming the doctrine. We are saved when we forsake works and rely upon Christ as He is presented to us in the Gospel.
He notes that the first two chapters are based on lectures for the Church Society in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, UK. Chapter 3 is the fruit of a lecture to Grace Presbytery of the PCA. He dedicated this book to the aforementioned Dr. John Gerstner.
Justification Defined
The problem justification addresses is sin. Unless we understand the problem of sin (guilt and misery as well), we won’t grasp the need for justification. When Boso asked Anselm “Why the God-Man?” his reply was that Boso did not understand the weight of sin. Waters turns to J.C. Ryle to unwrap this connection.
People, thanks to the flesh, the world (esp. Rousseau) and the devil think they are basically good. The falsely suppose that God grades on a curve, or weighs good and bad so we have a chance to come out on top. In 1997 I read the results of a U.S. News and World Report poll in the Orlando Sentinel. About 67% of Americans believe in heaven, but 85% think they will probably be there (how’s that for consistency?). They were less certain about Mother Theresa. About half of the people thought President Clinton would be there. Fewer thought Newt Gingrich would, and only about 19% gave O.J. Simpson a chance. Since their big sins were public knowledge, it makes sense, if the that’s all it was about.
The Bible reveals that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (reflecting His glory as His image) (Rom. 3:23). The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). We’re in trouble, folks. This is because of the imputation of Adam’s sin to all of humanity born of natural generation. Adam was our covenant head or representative before God, so his sin was also ours (Rom. 5). Don’t worry, we sin too!
God counting his sin as ours seems unfair. But this same mechanism is at work in our salvation. God counted our sin as Jesus’, and His righteousness as ours in declaring us righteous. This is called double imputation. He takes our debts and we receive His wealth. This is why Jesus is called the Second Adam. He’s the second covenant head for humanity. He bore the curse for us (Gal. 3) so we can receive the blessing of God.
All, not some, of our sins are pardoned. We don’t need to worry, like Benjamin Martin, that would our sins will come upon us when we least expect it. Justification is not less than pardon, but it must be more. “Just as if I never sinned” doesn’t mean we are righteous, just not guilty. To be acceptable to God we must be righteous! This is why the obedience of Jesus is necessary. As a man, He obeys for men. The Father declares us righteous because we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.
How or why does God declare us as righteous. Faith which receives Christ and His righteousness as one’s own. Roman Catholicism agrees that faith is necessary too, but we hold that it is faith alone, not faith + works, or faith + sacraments. Faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. Genuine faith will bear fruit as evidence, not as the basis of justification. Faith rests on Christ and His work alone.
Justification Applied
Justification brings freedom. The Israelites were freed from servitude to Pharaoh and freed to serve the Lord. We have been freed from guilt and sin, freed from the law’s loud thunder. We’ve been freed to obey, not for license. Our bondage to sin is over, we are not to return. We are freed to love as an expression of faith.
He addresses James’ statements that strip of from false assurance. A faith that does nothing is not genuine or saving faith. The devil believes God exists, and trembles. Intellectual belief in the reality of God is not genuine faith. Genuine faith receives Christ and His work, and expresses gratitude. The distinguishing mark of the Christian is love, and if we love Him, we’ll keep His commands (John 13-14).
Caravaggio- Sacrifice of Isaac
He brings us to Abram. First, Abraham believed God and it was accredited to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3, referring back to Genesis 15). Then Abraham obeyed by offering up his beloved son (James 2 referring back to Genesis 22). The obedience was evidence, vindicating evidence, of God’s declaration of his salvation.
Justification gives us comfort, peace. We are no longer at war with God, not He with us. Hostilities have ceased. This is because Christ’s righteousness is complete, it is perfect and perfectly accepted by the Father.
Justification Undermined
He begins with the problem of semi-Pelagianism. Augustine and Pelagius disagreed on the necessity of grace for salvation. Pelagius didn’t deny grace, period. He did say that Adam’s sin and corruption was not imputed to us, so it was possible to fully obey and merit salvation. Augustine declared it was all of grace because we were all radically depraved or corrupted by sin.
Semi-Pelagianism recognizes that all are or were sinners, and that it is a big problem. We are morally sick, not quite dead. Some articulations have Christ making it possible for us to be saved by removing our corruption so we can believe and be saved. But the bottom line is that we cooperate with God in believing (generally a Protestant view) or believing and obeying (generally a Roman view). In many Protestant forms, the law is gone and the new law is faith (neo-nomianism) so that faith becomes a work all are capable of, and are saved by. These works are grace-enable works and the basis of our justification.
“Semi-Pelagians teach that we are justified both by the imputed righteousness of Christ and the infused righteousness of Christ.” pp. 53
In the early 2000’s it became popular to say that the Reformers got it wrong (and so did Rome). They pointed to new studies in “Second Temple Judaism”. This has commonly been called the New Perspective on Paul which is related to but not identical with the Federal Vision.
One of the main proponents is N.T. Wright. Waters notes that Wright has made valuable contributions to theology including affirming the Gospels as trustworthy, and defending the bodily resurrection of Christ.
The Reformers, it is said, believed that the Jews of Jesus’ day believed in a religion of merit, not grace. This would be an unfair way of looking at the Reformers. The Pharisees, for instance, held to a view of grace. But not a view like ours. It is akin to how the Mormons and at times Catholics view grace: merited. If you are good enough you get grace to fill in the cracks in your righteousness. In Roman Catholicism you must be actually righteous, and this comes from the infusion of righteousness through the sacraments. This is why the Pharisees didn’t think the tax collectors and prostitutes could be saved. Their conversions were deemed insufficient. They thought Jesus taught a “cheap grace.”
Waters puts it this way: Sanders (another proponent) proved that Judaism was not a religion of strict merit. What he didn’t do was prove it was essentially gracious. They want to minimize and yet maintain the difference between Christianity and Second Temple Judaism. Sanders argues for “covenantal nomism” meaning we get into the covenant by grace, but remain by works.
Wright focuses on Galatians 2:11-21. Paul’s controversy with Peter over Peter’s withdrawal from eating with Gentile Christians in establishing faith, not works, as the “badge” or “marker” of the Chrisitian. Present justification becomes about social boundaries, not eternal salvation. Future justification becomes about our obedience.
“Wright’s position hinges on the meaning of three words or phrases: ‘works (of the law),’ ‘faith,’ and ‘justification.'” pp. 60
Waters brings us to Romans 4:4-5, Romans 9:11, and Romans 1:18-3:31. Paul does not describe the problem in terms of boundary markers. Paul addresses the problem of sin, but the answer is Christ’s atonement, the shedding of blood. That shed blood marks us off. It is not simply faith opposed to works. Paul’s argument doesn’t center on “boundary markers, group identity, inclusion and exclusion.”
“When Peter withdrew from table fellowship at Antioch, he was therefore communicating that these uncircumcised Gentile Christians were not justified persons. … Paul responds so strongly to Peter because Peter has compromised the gospel of free grace, the doctrine of justification by faith alone.” pp. 65
While passages like Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5 teach the imputation of righteousness, Wright denies imputed righteousness. Paul, he thinks, is excluding the works before justification, not works after justification. Grace and then works to maintain our status. We return to something like Roman Catholicism.
Waters argues that Wright, and the NPP, diminishes sin and thereby diminishes grace. It is another form of Semi-Pelagianism that has mislead the Church for many centuries. This has practical implications.
“If our understanding of justification is compromised, then our grasp of the peace, assurance, and joy that is the believer’s through the gospel will be weakened.” pp. 71-72
This short book is a very good introduction to the doctrine of justification. He sticks to the main points, brings us to Scripture and points out the problems of compromised views. This would be a great give-away.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3 (CSB)
Keep moving forward. I easily get tripped up by the frustrations of the day these days. I get stuck like a shoe in muck. This steals our joy in the day.
He recounts one friend who just says “Next” rather than bemoan what has befallen her, or what she has done. Joy depends on this ability to move on. Each day has enough trouble of its own. We don’t need to borrow from the future, OR the past!
We don’t live in denial of the past. The past unprocessed lives in the present. It should be unpacked so it doesn’t secretly control the present. It needs the grace of God: forgiven of what we’ve done, shame removed and sin untwisted so we can grow and move forward instead of live on the treadmill like George Jetson. “Jesus, stop this crazy thing!”
“Joy requires optimism” with regard to the past and the future. Optimism because God will work them for good, even if they are filled with sin and misery.
This optimistic default “expresses the true goal of my experiment in joy- not necessarily to feel joyful at every moment, but rather to be optimistic always.”
I’ve been swallowed by pessimism like Jonah by great fish. I’ve let the past color the present and future with failure and disappointment instead of saying “next”. God is at work- I need not project and surrender to the pessimism.
9 Rejoice, young person, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the desire of your eyes; but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment. Ecclesiastes 11 (CSB)
(Mason only includes the first sentence.)
Those days are done. I’m drawing closer to 60. I feel young, except for my body. I had joy. Sadly the weight of life, responsibility, built up. Or so it seems.
Burdened by regrets, “what ifs”, “if onlys”, failure, disappointments and more.
Mason develops via negativa and via affirmitata spirituality. He tried not to be reductionistic, but I think he is.
The former, he says, seeks God above all by rejecting our appetites and pleasures. The latter seeks God through our appetites and pleasures. The former says “Deny yourself” and the later “Carpe diem!” This passage would support carpe diem.
He has shifted in his life from denial to delight.
“I thought of myself as going through a long ‘desert experience’, when I was really just depressed.” Mason
The desert was for testing and discipline.
“While it’s tempting to spiritualize the desert, the Bible teaches that it’s no place to settle down.” Mason
Yes, we are headed some place to settle.
But it is not simply a denial of pleasure. Not monasticism. He seemingly denies the call to self-denial he made at the end of yesterday’s musings. Self-denial isn’t about denying myself pleasure. It is about not being my own boss. We deny our willfulness, our pride. I will forsake some desired pleasures (which are sinful in themselves) and forsake some at times because they are about ME, not Jesus and the interests of others.
I can and should look for joy, and enjoy many of life’s pleasures: sex, good food and drink, a good cigar, great music and a good laugh with good friends. I seek Christ and enjoy them on the way. They are not to be what I seek.
I am intended to enjoy my wife, not to begrudgingly have sex with her. But even that has it’s place in the totality of marriage which includes plenty of self-denial in order to pursue her well-being as well as my own. Sex can’t be supreme. I don’t blow off worship, work or parenting to enjoy my wife. I don’t need to head home any time I experience desire. I will deny those desires until the appropriate time. We all get this, right?
It isn’t about simply denying or satisfying desires. Spirituality is about denying and satisfying desires in our pursuit of God instead of the pursuit of self-actualization.
Satisfying desires for desire’s sake is the empty, meaningless life the Preacher forsook. That is not the path of joy.
The desert wanderings of Israel, as well as the exile, are images of life in the already-not yet. We already have God as our Father, the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of Christ by the Spirit. But this is not home, yet. This world still groans, as do we, longing for its redemption or release and the revelation of the sons of God. We groan for our new bodies as well as the new earth freed from the curse (Rom. 8).
There is a table in the wilderness to sustain us. But the feast is in the consummation, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. We will feast… in the house of Zion. Life here is hard, not just to “fit us for heaven” but to stir up increasing longing for the Promised World (Sibbes, 10/19)
16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, 17 although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” Acts 14 (CSB)
Here we see common grace. Paul addresses Gentile non-believers! This is the effect of the Noahic Covenant. Everyone gets rain and crops in season (generally, yes there are drought years). “He fills our hearts with joy”. The non-sinful joy of unbelievers comes from the kind hand of God. Celebrating Thanksgiving is a common grace holiday (one we should use more to our advantage in cultural apologetics.)
How much MORE does He give us joy!
Life isn’t fair, from our perspective. The wicked can and do prosper- at least in the short-run (which may be decades!). We’d tell our kids that life was not fair- we can’t give them identical portions of food to them, or identical gifts. Hard work is not always rewarded.
And yet it is fair. We deserve hardship due to our sin. Yet we don’t suffer as we ought. His mercy tempter these tastes of justice.
Mason calls the idea that life is unfair heresy. Yes, God does not treat us unfairly. But we treat each other unfairly (he’s neglecting the doctrine of concurrence). And the doctrine of providence (all I experience comes from His hand).
“It’s easy to blame God for all our problems, but it’s more difficult to blame Jesus, who is so obviously good, innocent, and just.” Mason
His point is we distinguish between Jesus and the Father, but they are One- to see Jesus is to see the Father. To divide them is the heresy (as if the Father was not good and just). He dances around our legal spirit which sees God as miserly: only giving what we can earn as opposed to a gospel spirit.
We don’t have joy, at times, because we cling to sin: quarreling, envy, covetousness and more. These destroy our joy. True disciples give them up “resolving to trust and hope in all circumstances is all in the ordinary line of duty.” It is supposed to be par for the course. Instead we resent God.
“No wonder we’re unhappy if we’re setting ourselves on the throne of the universe in place of God. To take up the cross is to get down off our throne.” Mason
And so we arrive again at humility. Our problem is pride. Calvin’s vision of the Christian life as cross-bearing returns. There is no joy without bearing the cross.
15 All the days of the oppressed are miserable, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 15 (CSB)
When you focus on oppression/affliction you are miserable. Activists are among the most miserable people because their lives are about oppression. Anti-racists are angry, miserable people. So are the conservative culture warriors, being focused on the world descending into darkness.
If you are cheerful there is a continual feast of joy. There is always something to be joyful about. There are waves of joy as we’ve mentioned before.
We tend to think there is one thing keeping us from happiness. “If only …”. The reality is there is always something new. We will always have trouble in this world, in our lives. If happiness awaits the lack of a problem there will never be any happiness.
Do you have an “If only…”? What is your current “If only…”? When past ones were met, how long were you happy?
It’s a matter of our attitude- our default. Do we have Resting Complainer Heart? Or Resting Cheerful Heart?
Our default- my default- needs to change to shift from wretchedness to a feast of joy.
Mason notes our happiness contains power for problem-solving. Joy will help us overcome what is wrong in our lives (misery won’t). “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” It strengthens us. Wretchedness weakens us.
Don’t feel guilty over unhappiness. It will prolong unhappiness. Pray for the orientation of your heart to change. Pray for a new default setting. This is because our attitude makes a big difference as we encounter problems. Be happy despite circumstances- not because of them.
A Hamas official on Russian TV said that the Israelis enjoy life, but the Palestinians are consumed with death. They want to die as martyrs and enter paradise. This means they don’t care if they live or die at the hands of Israel. They want to be good little martyrs, and take some Jews with them if they can.
They are miserable! This misery breeds destruction. They think of how to destroy others, to spread their misery to those who are happy. This is an extreme example of how this works. But your default matters. There are people who love to spread misery to others.
In middle school there was a miserable kid in my homeroom that decided he wanted to make me miserable. I’m not sure why he hated me. One day in homeroom he tried to strangle me.
I need to remember Wednesday night. I took the boys to the Diamondbacks-Dodgers playoff game. I love playoff baseball. This is the third time I’ve been to a playoff game and wanted them to experience one. The place was electric and erupted when the Diamondbacks won to sweep the series. Fireworks! Screaming! My son jumping up and down! Joy overflowing.
I need to remember that because in the end Jesus wins! That was a sample of the joy we’ll feel when Jesus wins.
11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Romans 12 (CSB)
Zeal! Passion! Fire!
He compares maintaining our joyful zeal to keeping a cabin-warming fire going in the stove. You need wood to burn and skill to use it. There is the urgency required as well to keep from freezing.
We need to tend to our joy like we’d tend a fire. Neglect it and the coldness of pessimism and negatively set in. Reading Psalm 22 today I was struck- I do have a good life. Aspects are tettering, threatened so to speak by circumstances that could get worse … or better. I tend to see the negative, not the positive. I tend to ponder the bad things that could happen, not the good things. Perhaps that is due to the times of hope being dashed. When I’ve gotten hopes up- nope.
Father, it is hard to be joyful in hope when I’m so often disappointed. Yes, that hope is bigger than church growth, a raise, a sane government, and yet … those things beat me down.
In the past few days 2 people to whom I gave Gentle and Lowly have thanked me, 18 months after getting it. My life seems reduced to giving people other people’s books. Is this all I am, a resource guide? No, it’s not but I see so little fruit. It is disheartening and I must continue to stoke the flames to keep spiritual zeal to serve. I’m getting old, and it’s getting old.
“Let us beg of God to help us rightly use this fading condition.” Richard Sibbes
FF to October. I’m traumatized by what is happening in Israel & the Gaza strip. There is so much around this that is distressing. Our government’s facilitation as useful idiots providing money to Iran (who supports Hamas) and “humanitarian” funds to Hamas. I’m shocked by the lies told to justify what Hamas did. They are not about resistance, they are about aggressively attacking Israel to destroy Jews. They don’t want their own state. They want genocide.
I can’t focus to much energy on this or the flames of joy will go out.
10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:… Luke 2 (CSB)
In their case the presence of the angel produced profound fear. If there is no Savior of sinners, fear is all we should have. But he came to announce the arrival of the Savior, the Seed of the Woman who would stomp on the Serpent’s head. That is good news of great joy.
Many don’t grasp the goodness because they never faced the fear, the gravity of our condition outside of Christ.
Mason stuck with Christmas week and a trip to a remote lake. The fog lifted (in response to prayer) so they could behold all the beautiful scenery on the drive. His first use of tire chains astounded him at their effectiveness.
“Joy bites into life with enthusiasm, taking firm hold and moving one forward in all conditions.” Mason
Franz Kafka
He then quotes from Kafka- when life isn’t happy, pursue joy at all costs. Not the fleeting pleasures of sin, but joy. Don’t escape the pain of life with the numbing agents of food, sex, buying new toys, meaningless entertainment. To pursue joy is to pursue Christ!
Sibbes (6/25) speaks of love directing us. We love our spouse: pursuing rather than abandoning them.
One day on the lake, Mason was unnerved by “nature”: the stillness of it all, and the beauty. (One can only understand if you’ve spent time on a windless winter day in the sticks. The snow muffles everything.) He was like the shepherds before the angel. Then a beam of sun broke through the clouds, calming his heart with a reminder the Son of God broke through the clouds of sin and sadness.
As one local radio drop says, “Nature is not nice!”. It has no compassion on us: unrelenting sun, dangerous storms, predators devouring prey … The book of nature (Ps. 19) reveals God’s power and majesty. Not mercy. It can be frightening. The gospel must come for us to discover true joy in not just creation but the Creator.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his time is short. Revelation 12 (CSB)
The passage he cites from the NIV ends with “gone down to you!”.
I am reminded of my Cosmic Christmas series from Revelation back in 2006. It spoke to the flip side of Christmas. Some people, expecting a series of sentimental Advent sermons went for the door, never to return.
Christmas was hard for Joseph and Mary. It brings hardship to us. Mason recounts high expectations for the Christmas of his experiment in joy. That amplified his fears and disappointments that Christmas. No “Joy to the World” for him.
“A false god rules over Christmas, manifesting itself as commercialism, busyness and shallow merriment, making the true Christ as difficult to find as He was that first Christmas night in a stable in Bethlehem.” Mike Mason
Scrooge and B—— would concur. And they have a point. We seek to avoid the truth of sin and salvation in Christmas. We settle for a generalized good will. We don’t enter the fray. This meaningless exercise seems to be just a big cultural millstone which is part of why they, and the Kranks want to skip the whole stinkin’ thing.
“Joy lives in the shadow of the cross not in a Pollyanna world where everything goes well.” Mike Mason
Joy must be honest, but not overcome, by life. I can be overcome in that honesty. Christ came because of all the corruption, exploitation, oppression, greed, decadence and debauchery we see. And the cynicism in our hearts!
“Indeed if we do not let Him into our pain, we will not experience His coming, or His joy, at all.” Mike Mason
In the text it is heaven that rejoices, not earth. We live in a war zone. There will be joy in the sadness and sadness in the joy. While we might cease hostilities, the Evil One will not.
We’ve looked at a series of letters from John Newton to another pastor about that man’s struggle with assurance of salvation that are found in Volume 4 of his Works.
Later in Volume 4, there is a section called Thoughts on Faith, and the Assurance of Faith.
Within Reformed Theology there have been some disagreements about whether assurance is an essential element of faith. This debate focuses on two different kinds of assurance. Calvin saw assurance of salvation essential to faith in the sense of we must be sure of God’s promise to save sinners who place their “self-abandoning trust in the person and works of Christ. (J.I. Packer)”. You must be sure God saves sinners. The Westminster Confession addresses assurance in the sense of “am I saved”.
Newton begins his thoughts with trees/shrubs and their fruit. Assurance is of the essence of faith in that it necessarily springs from true faith. No tree has fruit all the time though a tree that is alive will. Assurance will be there, but as the Confession of Faith says it can be weak or withheld at times.
When our faith is weak, our assurance will also be weak.
“Jesus Christ the Lord is a complete, all-sufficient Savior.” pp. 648
This is the person who invites the weary and heavy-laden to come to Himself to receive salvation. This Sunday my text touched on the effectual call. This helps us to understand why not all come to faith in this Jesus. They may be aware of their sin and misery but the Spirit has yet to enlighten their minds in the knowledge of Christ. They sin only their sin, not the Savior.
WSCQuestion 31: What is effectual calling? Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.
Those who are strong in faith have a healthy assurance of “our acceptance in the Beloved”. When our faith is strong we continue to “trust God in the dark.” When the truth doesn’t have power in our lives at the moment our heart will not be at peace.
Newton speaks of bodily disorder that distort and darken our perception of truth. He saw this with his friend William Cowper who descended into a depression to never return. The Enemy tries to take advantage of these opportunities. While the shield of faith is hanging at our side in exhaustion, the fiery darts fly our way.
“Unbelief is the primary cause of all our inquietude, from the moment that our hearts are drawn to seek salvation by Jesus.” pp. 650
We still have degrees of unbelief in our hearts. Our faith is not perfect. Faith is dynamic. Like a desert cactus whose vitality is dependent on the amount of rain though it doesn’t die, faith lives but ebbs and flows at times. That unbelief can grow as we wait, interminably, for God’s to answer our prayers.
When we are burdened by a sense of our sins, our faith can wane unless we look to Jesus. We begin to indulge our doubts until there are “marks an evidences within”.
“Our natural pride is a great hindrance to believing.” pp. 651
Pride can function in two seemingly opposite ways. Pride can eliminate prayer. Pride is a great enemy of prayer. But pride can also depend on our “prayers, tears, resolutions, repentance, and endeavors” which “prevents us from looking solely and simply to the Savior.” Pride is tricksy and false like a hobbit. We are to rely on His obedience, death and resurrection for our acceptance and help in times of trouble. God opposes the proud in order to abase our pride so we are humble. He gives grace to the humble because they rely fully on Christ.
“But the light increases, the sun arises, the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ shines in upon the soul. As the sun can only be seen by its own light, and diffuses that light by which other objects are clearly perceived; so Christ crucified is the sun in the system of revealed truth; and the right knowledge of the doctrine of his cross satisfies the inquiring mind, proves itself to be the one thing needful, and the only thing necessary to silence the objections of unbelief and pride, and to afford a sure ground for solid and abiding hope.” pp. 652
How beautiful! It is rooted in 2 Corinthians 4:6 (which is the slogan of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church). We can only see the sun because of the light it produces. Likewise, we see Christ only because of His glory. But in both lights we are also able to see everything else around us. In an interview years ago T-Bone Burnett responded to a question about why his songs weren’t explicitly Christian: “I can sing about the Light or what I see because of the Light.”
Why does assurance of grace and salvation seem hard to receive?
“We cannot be safely trusted with assurance till we have that knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, repeated experience.” pp. 652
We must fail, early and often. We must learn about the deceitfulness of our hearts, about our propensity to seek idols. The road to assurance is not one of ease and comfort but through valleys and deserts littered with our sin and failures. It is only this that takes our eyes off ourselves and onto Christ. We must learn that we stand not by our own strength, but that His grace, and only His grace, is sufficient such that power is made complete in our weakness.
When we are young, the slightest delays and obstacles frustrate us and put us in a tailspin. As we mature, those delays are longer and obstacles more difficult so we continue to grow. Your muscles won’t grow stronger and bigger unless you increase the weight lifted over time. Your life won’t get easier, but more difficult, as you mature.
“He, indeed, is always ready to receive and forgive backsliders; but surely they cannot easily forgive themselves for their ingratitude and folly.” pp. 653
While we may struggle to move beyond our failures, Christ isn’t. The payment has already been made. He’s not bothered by the cost and process of restoration.
“Because he lives upon much forgiveness, he will be ready to forgive.” pp. 653
Sure that you have received grace and salvation, you are able to extend grace to others. Too often our conflicts are aggravated by our lack of assurance such that we don’t extend forgiveness and grace to others.
4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands. Psalm 92 (CSB)
Yes, Ps. 92:4 again. The NIV has “You make me glad by your deed, O Lord…”. Gladness due to His works producing or manifesting in shouts or songs of joy. The unexpected works of His hands give us the most joy- the unwanted works even.
Mason didn’t want a dog. He saw only the downsides: real and imagined. Like me he has a hard time saying ‘no’ to his daughter for very long. I wanted our dog Lulu. My daughter wanted Kody to be her dog and friend for Lulu. And then it was the cats.
“Every day I thank God for this dog I never wanted.” MikeMason
She presented Mason with daily pictures of joy. She became a picture of how we should respond to our Master.
He’s never met Kody. I call him Kody the Destroy: remotes, crockpots and more. His stress stresses me because he’ll escape his crate and relieve himself all over the house, or steal food from the pantry. He’s more a picture of me than I want him to be. We are both better off medicated.
Joy is often like his dog- unexpected. It comes to us at times and ways we aren’t expecting.
“We don’t discover joy, it discovers us. It comes bounding into our lives and licks our faces clean to reveal who we are.” Mike Mason
We are often out of touch with who we are (or what we are feeling). The joys reveal more of who we are. But we resist like when our wives want to watch a rom-com (not a Hallmark movie which is like Satan posing as an angel of light), we end up enjoying.
God will bring us places we don’t want to go to give us joy we didn’t know was possible.
As I was preparing to graduate from seminary I interviewed with a church in AZ (the one Alice Cooper attends btw). I heard a dust storm in the background. Snakes, scorpions and haboobs, oh my! 15 years later I came to the desert. There has been pain here, but also joy and beauty. I wouldn’t have chosen this place for myself. But He did. It, among other things, brings me joy.
Sibbes had some good words about joy and sadness yesterday (10/1) and today (10/2).
“In all discouragements a godly man has most trouble with his own heart.” Richard Sibbes
We usually look to blame others or circumstances. Our biggest problem is us.
I read a free book by Ken Ham a few years ago, presumably about the gospel. He blamed the diminishing presence and power of the gospel on President Obama, not a wayward church. See how silly we are.
Sibbes has been talking about excessive grief and the sinfulness of it: keeping us from duties, distracting us from God’s provision in Christ, etc..
“Grief for sin often comes upon us during seasons when we should be expressing joy. … Joy is the constant temper which the soul should be in. ‘Rejoice evermore’ (1 Thes. 5:16). We should think of such truths as may raise up the soul and sweeten the spirit.” Richard Sibbes
Every day is one He has made and we should be glad in it. But sin comes and steals our joy, replacing it with grief in the godly. We are to meditate upon Scripture to bring joy back to our downcast spirits rather than stew in our sorrow.
4 For you have made me rejoice, Lord, by what you have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of your hands. Psalm 92 (CSB)
Mason relates a story of not hearing his friend because of traffic.
“Glad we could do this.” became “Yabba-ca-doodles.” Unexpected laughter, joy. It became a thing, their new greeting for each other.
The unexpected, the absurd and the just plain ridiculous can shock us back to joy like a defibrillator puts a heart back in proper rhythm. Life can put us out of sorts. Yet the Lord works to confound us by joy.
Stupid things happen, words twisted and we bust out laughing and the night takes a turn toward joy.
We were at a presbytery fellowship event, okay, party, and I told some Florida-man-like tales of my first pastorate related to my predecessor. I won’t go into details but he was found to be wearing his wife’s underwear. Someone asked why I went there after such a strange man (he left the ministry and the faith). “But they time I knew about the women’s panties it was too late!” The room roared with laughter. Taken out of context, all night someone would toss it it out and we’d laugh some more. With certain people one will say it and we’ll laugh some more.
The Lord, I believe in meticulous providence, brings these to pass- human frailties- and they become part of our vocabulary of joy. Something of a gag gift like the Fart Organ I received as a gift when I turned 50. They are something we can return to in order to jump start joy.
They can be the joy i the sadness (Day 1) as we mourn. We regale each other with funny stories about our loved one.
After moving to AZ, I had yet to see a scorpion. After a Session meeting we went outside on the sidewalk together. Suddenly Dick exclaimed “Scorpion!” Before I can see it he stomped on it. You’d think it would leap up and attack us. I shouted, “No!” all too late. It posed no immediate threat to us. But that was his normal reaction- no curiosity, but “Kill it!”
Perhaps this is what an old friend called a location joke, you had to be there, but joy returns as I think of our departed friend.
This doesn’t really fit what I’ve been talking about, but I saw it today and didn’t want to lose track of it. He, of course, is not addressing the silly joy above but holy joy. God wants us to laugh, but even more He wants us to grow in obedience in a way that honors Him. Joyful obedience does that. Holy joy, which we’ve talked about many times, helps move us toward obedience. He strengthens us, and as we delight in Him we want to delight Him.
Cavman Considers 