“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3)
There is something profound about the way James views hard times. Difficulties in life, of all shapes and colors (“various kinds”), are not view as an irritation, a nuisance, or a tragedy. They are viewed as a testing of one’s faith. How profound is this!
I am convinced that if we understand this as believers, this will radically change the way we face these difficulties.
If we believe that what comes out of us flows from what is inside of us, then we should view trials as tests of our faith rather than as inconveniences. They reveal who we are; they do not cause us to be something we aren’t.
Paul Tripp gives a helpful illustration of this truth. Taking a bottle of water, Tripp will shake it, splashing the water onto the ground. He then asks the question, “Why did water come out of the bottle?” The immediate answer usually is, “Because you shook it.” While that is the cause as to why water came out, that that is not the ultimate answer. The correct answer is, “Because water was inside the bottle.” The shaking did not produce the water; it simply revealed it.
So it is with us. Hard times reveal who we really are. They are, as James says, a testing of our faith. In this loss of a job, will we be dependent upon the Lord? We may say we are, but are we really? As our bodies age, is our confidence in our intelligence or our athleticism or in our beauty, or is it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
A lack of hardships is not good, for we will never realize who we really are. Trials do not change us; they reveal who we are.
So, count it all joy when hard times come in your life. They are a gracious gift from a sovereign God who is bringing them to reveal to you what your heart is really like. And even if there is some nasty filth that comes out of your heart, isn’t God good that he would reveal this to us? What a gift these trials are!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Christianity: Glorious News, Not Burdensome Advice
For many, Christianity is not good news. It is perceived as a burden, a weight, a guilt trip. Many think it is an endless ladder of self-improvement that must be climbed, never knowing when one has grasped the favor of God.
But this is not what the Bible teaches. The core message of the Bible is the gospel, which means “good news.” So when you boil down all of the sermons, the hymns, the baptisms, and the celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, what is it about the message of the Christian faith that actually makes it good news?
The Apostle Paul sums up the things of ‘first importance’: “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ESV).
Notice who does the acting. It is Christ who died, who was buried, who was raised. It was not us. The good news is not a cooperative effort. We are not partners with Christ in the work of redemption. He does all the work for us. That is why Jesus’ last words before he died were “It is finished,” not “It has begun” (John 19:30).
But here is the problem: we have a very hard time believing that everything has truly been accomplished. Rather than realizing that Christ’s blood will cover our sin, we talk about how we must get our lives “cleaned up” before we come to Christ. Rather than testifying to Christ’s perfect substitution, we twist Christianity to be only about our personal transformation. Rather than understanding that our righteousness is from Christ and in him, we talk about being a “good Christian.” In short, Christianity becomes a burdensome religion about what we must do, rather than a declaration of what has been done.
Consider how glorious news it is if everything has indeed been done by Christ.
Because Christ bore the wrath of God on the cross, we have the approval of God and can stop living for the acceptance of others. Because Christ’s resume of perfection is ours by faith, we can finally admit our weaknesses and sins. Because of what Christ has done, my improvement will come from God’s approval; God’s approval will not come from my improvement.
What good news the gospel is!
But this is not what the Bible teaches. The core message of the Bible is the gospel, which means “good news.” So when you boil down all of the sermons, the hymns, the baptisms, and the celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, what is it about the message of the Christian faith that actually makes it good news?
The Apostle Paul sums up the things of ‘first importance’: “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ESV).
Notice who does the acting. It is Christ who died, who was buried, who was raised. It was not us. The good news is not a cooperative effort. We are not partners with Christ in the work of redemption. He does all the work for us. That is why Jesus’ last words before he died were “It is finished,” not “It has begun” (John 19:30).
But here is the problem: we have a very hard time believing that everything has truly been accomplished. Rather than realizing that Christ’s blood will cover our sin, we talk about how we must get our lives “cleaned up” before we come to Christ. Rather than testifying to Christ’s perfect substitution, we twist Christianity to be only about our personal transformation. Rather than understanding that our righteousness is from Christ and in him, we talk about being a “good Christian.” In short, Christianity becomes a burdensome religion about what we must do, rather than a declaration of what has been done.
Consider how glorious news it is if everything has indeed been done by Christ.
Because Christ bore the wrath of God on the cross, we have the approval of God and can stop living for the acceptance of others. Because Christ’s resume of perfection is ours by faith, we can finally admit our weaknesses and sins. Because of what Christ has done, my improvement will come from God’s approval; God’s approval will not come from my improvement.
What good news the gospel is!
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