Those Whom He Predestined: A Meditation on Romans 8

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, 

to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, 

he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: 

and whom he called, them he also justified: 

and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

What shall we then say to these things? 

If God be for us, who can be against us?

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 

how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? 

It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, 

yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, 

who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 

shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, 

or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; 

we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors

 through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 

nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 

shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I confess that among the doctrines of Holy Scripture which cause me the most discomfort of mind, the concept of predestination is probably chief.  And yet it is there in the pages of Scripture, breathed out by God through His Prophets and Apostles, and we must receive it as God gives it to us, if we would be His disciples.  If we were to limit our consideration of God and His Word to only those things which make us comfortable, we would have replaced theology with narcissism, left much of Scripture upon the editing room floor, and ourselves left any pretense of the Christian faith.  Thus, whether it grieve our mortal minds or not, let us begin.

Predestination, or destiny in general, is not a foreign concept to world religious systems.  In some it creates a kind a fatalism, where people toss up their hands and say something to the effect of, “Well, if I cannot change my fate, what’s the point in trying to live a virtuous life?”  In others, it creates a sense of terror where the individual constantly seeks verification or signs of a a good destiny for himself, saying, “I’m working hard to live virtuously— surely God must have destined good for me, or else I would despair.”  In Scripture we read of other uses or applications of predestination which have higher aims, usually in regard to Old Testament prophecy regarding blessing or judgment toward God’s people, and usually contingent in some way upon either their faith or unbelief.  To Adam and Eve is promised a Son who will save them from the curse of their Fall; to Noah is given a promise of salvation through the great Deluge; to Moses is given a promise to lead the Hebrews out of captivity while to Pharaoh is given a dark prophecy that he was raised up only to be a sign of judgment; to David were given promises of the Kingdom of Israel; to Isaiah and Jeremiah were given prophecies of the fall and rise of that same kingdom; through Jesus and the other Prophets also came declarations about the near and distant future, up to and including the end of the world.  Scripture paints a picture of God at work among mankind throughout history, guiding everything and everyone according to His own purpose.  And yet at the same time, it portrays mankind with freedom to choose better or worse fates, lead greater or lesser lives of faith or despair, to walk with God in the ways of life or depart from Him to the ways of death.

How does one reconcile the presence of both predestination and free will in Holy Scripture, without accusing God and His Word of contradiction?  Several principles taken from Scripture can help, including the proper distinction of Law and Gospel.  For example, if one recognizes that apart from God all human powers are twisted toward evil and selfishness, one can also see the truth that a person cut off from God by their own fallen nature and their evil choices will result in eternal separation from God— a destiny of destruction, condemnation, and suffering in hell’s fiery prison.  However, one can also recognize that everyone united to God by grace through faith and repentance, living according to His Word, reconciled and forgiven through the sacrificial blood of Christ poured out for them on Calvary, their own lives united to the Author of Life— these have a destiny of eternal peace, joy, and salvation, united to God and all His people in blessed communion forever.  Thus there is a destiny according to the Law, and a destiny according to the Gospel.

One might ask why, if God is all powerful, He would not simply predestine everyone to blessedness?  Here we remember that God has told us He is Love, and love cannot be coerced by power.  If there is to be fellowship with God, it must be a fellowship of love uncompelled, and thus man must be free to choose either love or hatred, life or death.  Since mankind in their fallen state is incapable of truly good and free will, God in His compassion comes to every lost and broken person through His Word and Spirit, breathing life into them, that they may by His grace freely choose to abide in Him, or continue in rebellion against Him.  Thus it is man who chooses his own fate through his response to the love and compassion of God, whether he will die according to the Law, or live according to the Gospel.  For God has made it clear throughout Scripture that His Son’s blood was spilled for the life of the whole world, to make satisfaction for all people from the Creation to the end of time, that He desires no one to be lost but for all to be saved, and makes His appeal to every person of every tribe, tongue, and nation.  Thus we know that everyone who ends up in hell, is there by their own choice and fault according to the terms of the Law, and everyone who ends up in heaven is there purely by the grace of God through Jesus, according to the terms of the Gospel.

Lastly, it is worth remembering that while we exist in the continuity of time, God is Himself timeless— beyond time, as the Creator of all time and space.  While we experience time as a succession of present moments, one instant followed by another where both the past and the future are inaccessible to us, God perceives the whole of time singularly, present in every instant of past and future alike.  While to us it may seem that many things are yet undetermined, that the future is ours to create, God sees the end of the world as clearly and certainly as He sees its beginning.  He knows already who will respond to Him in faith and who will reject Him, who will choose freely to be reconciled through the blood of His Son or to be judged according to the Law.  He knows and loves every soul that He has created, and bears the pain of loss for every soul that will freely reject Him, spurning His love and life, and demanding their fate in the lake of fire with the devil and the evil angels.  God already knows every one of His elect who will reign with Him in His Kingdom forever, just as surely as He knows every soul who will choose a destiny of perdition.  Only God can exist beyond time and space as the Creator of the universe, and only He can see the whole of time as one eternally present instant.

So what are we to do?  First, we should not try to be God— we struggle enough with the present moment, and are radically incapable of dealing with all of the past or future.  We cannot see the universe in its totality the way He can, and thus must live according to the nature we are given.  To us, in this moment of present time, comes the Eternal Word of Him who lives and reigns above time and space, calling in love and compassion for us to be reconciled to Him by grace through faith in the Son of God.  Here and now we have the promise which reaches beyond every moment in time, which offers to us the blessed destiny of fellowship and communion with God and His people forever— just as we have the warning of an eternal fate apart from God if we reject Him, His Word, His love, and His grace.  Here, in this present moment, we live in the presence of the almighty and timeless King of the Universe, who comes to us by His Word and Spirit, giving to us the freedom to choose life or death, love or hate, peace or destruction.  Here, in this moment, our destiny is laid out before us according to the judgment of the Law or the salvation of the Gospel, and in this moment, we are free to choose between them.  For those who choose to abide in God and His Word, there is nothing in all creation that can separate them from the love of God in Christ; and for those who choose to reject Him, there is no power in all creation that can save them from the fires which await.  Both the Gospel and the Law spring forth from the eternal nature of God Himself, reflecting both His love and His justice.  Both destinies are eternal, existing beyond the time and space of this created universe, and thus they endure despite all human efforts against them.

As the Word and Spirit of God meet you this day, your response in this moment is what sets your eternal destiny.  You are free by the love and grace of God to choose between the paths of life and death, to be raised out of the mire of your fallen nature unto a new and eternal life, or to remain in the evil of your own choosing and the eternal destruction which awaits.  Hear the Word of the Lord’s love and compassion for you and choose life, that you may live forever in Him.  Amen.

Wheat and Weeds: A Meditation on Matthew 13

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, 

Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. 

The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: 

but gather the wheat into my barn…

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: 

and his disciples came unto him, saying, 

Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

He answered and said unto them, 

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; 

but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; 

and the reapers are the angels.

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; 

so shall it be in the end of this world.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, 

and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, 

and them which do iniquity;

And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: 

there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Sometimes Jesus’ teachings can be difficult to understand, but for today’s reading, St. Matthew records Jesus’ own explanation of His parable regarding wheat and tares (or weeds) when the disciples come back later to ask Him specifically what it meant.  Much of chapter 13 is occupied with Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God; how it comes among men, how people seek and find it, how it will be ushered in at the end of the age, and how His people will live after that tumultuous ending.  It is a reminder that while the things of this world may seem to be of the greatest importance, the real and enduring things are those which may not yet be clearly seen.

Take, for example, the way wheat and weeds coexist in the world.  Jesus clearly defines the wheat as those who are the children of God who live by faith in His Word (cf. the parable of the sower, earlier in the same chapter).  These people are the very intentional work of God Himself, where He has planted His Word into their hearts, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, given them a living faith which loves, abides, and trusts in Him.  They are the ones who are destined to shine forth in the Kingdom forever, reflecting the glory of their crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ.  These people have been forgiven of their sins, raised up to lives of faith and repentance, and have received the gift of eternal life.

And yet, there are people with whom they share this world, who have rejected God, His Word, His life, His forgiveness, and His grace.  While God sows His Word liberally to the whole world desiring that none should perish, just as there is no one for whom the blood of Christ was not spilt on Calvary, there are those who continue to willfully reject Him.  Love, hope, and faith cannot be coerced, and so God calls to all people through His Word of Law and Gospel, giving all people the grace of freedom to respond as they choose.  For those who will turn from the ways of evil, malice, lust, conceit, greed, deception, hatred, abuse, and murder, He offers forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation by grace through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  For those who choose to remain in their wickedness, separated from the only True God who is Himself the Author of Life, there can be only death, judgment, and eternal perdition— a fiery prison in which they must be interred together with the devil and all his evil angles, to keep them from tormenting and corrupting the Kingdom of God forever.

Oddly enough in this world, the wheat and the weeds— the children of God and the slaves of the devil—coexist side by side, until the end.  Unwilling to lose even one soul who will repent, believe, and live, God endures the centuries of wickedness foisted upon His good creation by the devil and those who follow him.  Ever since the very first people fell to the devil’s temptation and made themselves slaves of sin and death, God has been at His self-sacrificial work to seek and to save any and all who would turn to Him, casting the good seed of His Word and Spirit in every direction and into every human heart, no matter how hardened and corrupt it may be.  All down through the history of mankind, God has been instructing His Holy Angels to hold back the judgment which is due to this world, so as to not consume the just together with the wicked.  Smaller judgements have occurred— from the rise and fall of civilizations, to the great deluge— but the last and final judgement has been withheld until that Last Day, when the last repentant and faithful soul will hear the Word of the Lord and be saved.  Until that Day, known only to God who alone knows the hearts of men, the wheat and the weeds grow together, side by side.

But don’t let the grace of God and His long-suffering deceive you into thinking that His judgment will not come.  Just as surely as the death of every individual person shall usher them immediately into the presence of their Creator and Judge so as to give an account of their lives and their abiding or rejecting of the Word of Christ, so too shall come the judgment of this world.  There will be a Day in which all the superficial garbage of the wicked shall be burned away with fire, and all those who are devoted to evil shall be cast into the fiery prison of hell for eternity.  In that Day, when the earth is purged of sin, death, the devil and all who follow him, then the righteous children of God, washed in the most holy blood of Jesus Christ, shall shine forth like the sun in His reflected glory.  In that Day, there will be no more oppression, abuse, injustice, slavery, or destruction.  In that Day, love and mercy, beauty and life, justice and truth, shall triumph forever, because God will come to dwell with us in the fulness of His Kingdom.

Jesus’ Word calls everyone not to be deceived by the empty promises and pursuits of the weeds in this world, nor the infernal one who has planted and inspired them.  Do not think that the loving patience of God to seek and to save all who will hear and believe in Him, is a license to live cavalierly in wickedness and unbelief.  The Day is coming, and it is closer now than it has ever been.  Be reconciled to God by grace through faith in Christ alone, that whether you meet Him upon the day of your death, or on that last great Day of the judgment of the whole world, you may shine forth with all the children of God in His blessed communion forever.  Amen.

Things Hidden from the Wise: A Meditation on Matthew 11

At that time Jesus answered and said, 

I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 

because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, 

and hast revealed them unto babes.

Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: 

and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; 

neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, 

and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; 

for I am meek and lowly in heart: 

and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew’s 11th chapter begins with Jesus responding to emissaries of John the Baptist who had been imprisoned, then teaching the crowd about who John the Baptist really was as the last of the Law and the Prophets, and consequently speaking woe upon those cities which refused to repent and believe despite how much time Jesus spent there teaching and working miracles.  Jesus revealed the shocking and scandalous truth, that if He had come in the same way to cities like Sodom, which had been destroyed by divine fire roughly 2000 years before Jesus’ Incarnation, those cities would have repented and remained even to that day.  As wicked and horrible as these ancient cities were, Jesus tells us it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for them, because they would have believed and turned from their evil had He visited them the same way, unlike the Jewish generation to which Jesus came.

As a summary, Jesus then offered His prayer of thanks to His Father, that such truth is given to the simple in their humility and hidden from the wise in their pretensions, then reminded the people around Him that the only ones who could know the Father and the Son, are the ones to whom God wished to reveal Himself.  No matter how much study a person would do, or effort he might expend, or titles he might gather to himself, Jesus teaches that the knowledge of God is not a human activity, but a divine one—it is God who reveals Himself to mankind, not mankind who reveals God.  No man makes himself holy, climbs up to heaven, and makes God his servant or peer.  Rather, it is God who descends to man, rescues him from his fatal ignorance, and draws him into a saving relationship with his Creator and Redeemer.  

Naturally, this message doesn’t bode well for a prideful and self-congratulatory age.  Our nation has more schools of every level than anywhere else on earth, with access to more information than any civilization the earth has ever hosted.  We have libraries more vast than anything our predecessors might have dreamed available, all fitting in the palm of our hand.  In an instant, we can open a window to writings both modern and ancient, in every language under the sun, on every topic ever considered.  Where the ancients might have risked life and limb to travel to great libraries or schools and there to do research on unique texts and ideas, we can do so immediately from the comfort of our couches and porches.  Ours is a time and place of tremendous knowledge, and yet, it has become a time of great unbelief.

How might the ancients have lived differently, if they had access to what we do now?  If they could see all the archeological evidence we’ve uncovered and made public that supports the several thousand year historical record of the Holy Scriptures; if they could see the unimaginable intricacy of life we have observed through micro biological tools; if they could peer into the delicate and precise balance of energy and time with the tools of our great physics academies; if they could see the influence of political and social philosophy upon thousands of years of civilizations on multiple continents; if they could see and read and learn what God has allowed us to see, and read, and learn, how might the ancients have faired better than we with such great revelation and resources?  How might Plato, or Aristotle, or Augustine, or Aquinas, or Descartes, or Kant, or other great minds of history done better with what we know today, and improved upon the vanities and self-absorption which runs amok in our streets?

Once again we are reminded by Jesus, that true wisdom is not that which we pursue on our own, but that which He gives freely by His grace.  Apart from Him, all the libraries of human knowledge become empty and dis-integrated tools by which the powerful seek to manipulate and abuse their neighbors.  But in Him, all truth finds its center, its wholeness, and its divine purpose in love and compassion which never ends.  In our Creator and Redeemer, the source of all that is true, and good, and beautiful, we find all our knowledge united and refined and elevated to only what He can make it be.  Apart from Him, our pretentious wisdom makes us the foolish laughingstock of the entire universe; but with Him, our simple and humble faith makes us eternal inheritors of His eternal Kingdom.

How does Jesus and His Word meet you this day?  If you are one who has educated yourself into stupor, and undone yourself in faithless pride, repent!  Turn and hear the Word of the Lord which calls to you, urging you back to the simple truth of His love and compassion for you, that your sins might be forgiven, your knowledge elevated by wisdom, and that you might have life in place of the death you have brought upon your darkened mind.  If you are one who has been rejected and abused by the scholars of this world, having leaned upon the sure Word of God while scorned and oppressed, be of good cheer— for there is nothing which man flaunts of his own imagination which can usurp one syllable of Jesus and His Word.  Cling fast to the humble truths, that all creation might be opened to you as the revelation of God’s love and redemption for His people.  And for those who have never known the Lord, the One who framed the worlds, who came to abide with us, to suffer and die for us, to rise again and give eternal life to us, forgiving our sins and revealing to us our unity with Him by grace through faith in Jesus forever, hear His simple call to you today, that no matter your education or title or position in this fallen world, you might find the rest for your soul which your Savior has always been earnestly extending to you.  Hear Him today.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Of Peace and Swords: A Meditation on Matthew 10

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, 

him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

But whosoever shall deny me before men, 

him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: 

I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, 

and the daughter against her mother, 

and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: 

and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

He that findeth his life shall lose it: 

and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Despite the scurrilous claims of some, Christianity has never been about martial or political conquest.  Jesus never talks of sending His disciples into physical war or to build political kingdoms, and when He is arrested and falsely condemned to death by a horribly corrupt system of clerics and bureaucrats, though He is and was and shall ever be the King of the Universe, He did not permit His disciples or the angelic hosts of heaven to fight against His enemies.  Jesus did not enter the world so that He might play about in the world’s corrupt systems of human pride and power, granting them validity by His  participation.  Instead, He brought something much more powerful and irresistibly victorious:  His very Word and Spirit.

While gatherings of fallen men and women might think they wield power through their politics, their mobs, their building of nations and global corporations, their use of force to establish and compel their laws, it is really a shadow of much darker things.  Pagan religions and secular atheists have a bloody track record throughout history of using force to compel their will upon others— from the hundreds of millions slain by atheist dictators in the 20th century, to the global scourge of Jihadist Islam which has burned since the genocidal wars of Muhammad in the 7th century, to the various pagan wars of conquest by Rome and Greece, to ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, and others lost to the mists of time.  And of course, other civilizations on other continents trace a different bloody history of power and politics down to our present time, be they in Asia, or Africa, or Europe, or the Pacific Islands, or anywhere else.  In a dark and fallen world, the will to power drives wicked men to horrible deeds, where despite the trappings of royalty or dignity or affluence, the real motivations are pride, lust, greed, avarice, and hatred, imposed by the strong upon the weak by use of force.

Jesus did not come to validate such a treacherous, bloody, and demonic system, but to defeat it.  His Kingdom, in which His Word reigns as the font of all life and creation, breaks into our murderous morass not to seek peace through force of arms and political intrigue, but to provide the sword of His Word and Spirit to eviscerate it.  Jesus knew that there is no true peace in the reign of evil, nor is there eternal life where death rules supreme.  To each and every person caught up in the malevolent maelstrom of this dark and dying world, Jesus plunges Himself to save us, to give His life as a ransom for ours, and to give us the power to stand within and against the evil of our time by grace through faith in Him.  His living Word, incarnate and breathed out into our world, provides to each and every soul the means by which it can be born again unto eternal life, setting it apart from the judgment which shall surely come at the end of days.  This Word of Jesus drives back the demonic hordes, pierces the stony hearts of spiritually dead men, and brings forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who will repent and believe in Him.

This is the sword Jesus is speaking of in Matthew 10.  Not a bloody and gory sword like the pagans and atheists use to murder and terrorize, but a sword which cuts through the vanities and insanities of the world’s lies, bringing hope, restoration, and reconciliation with our Creator.  This is a sword that reaches the heart, the soul, and the mind, in ways that instruments of mortal war cannot.  With this sword there is no compelling of the fallen to compliance, but rather a calling of all men to live— it is a sword that gives life rather than taking it, and keeps at bay the agents of death who so despise it.

Such a distinction between life and death, good and evil, brokers no divided loyalties.  Either a person’s heart is yielded to the deadly evil of this fallen world, or it is yielded to the eternal life brought forth in Jesus’ eternal Word.  The heart is a very personal and individual territory, and none can compel it— but its affections and devotions are uniquely identifying features of every human being.  If a person is defined by aligning his heart and mind with the wickedness of the fallen world, he may find varying levels of success in this mortal life, but in the end, his wicked soul will descend to where all evil shall be imprisoned and judged for eternity, never again to compel or wound another living soul.  But those who are defined by grace through faith in Christ alone, who live not according to the wickedness of this fallen world but according to the Word and Spirit of Jesus, while they may find persecution and ridicule in this fallen world, their lives are kept and guarded forever by the Prince of Life.  Though the Christian dies forgotten and abused by this evil world, his soul continues forever in the blessed communion of his Creator, united with all others who live and abide in this faith, hope, and love, forgiven and reconciled by the holy blood of Christ.  Between these two fates there is no mediation, even as it is impossible to merge the holy with the profane, the good with the evil, the light with the darkness, or life with death.  Anyone who prefers the darkness of this world over Christ is unworthy of the life He brings to them, and such divisions may emerge in our own homes, our own communities, and our closest circles of friends.  To choose the death of this world may look like life for a while, but it is destined for eternal destruction; and to chose the Gospel of Jesus Christ may look like a path to death in this world, but it is always and only eternal life.

And so to you this day comes the sword of Christ’s Word and Spirit, calling you out of darkness and into His marvelous, life-giving light.  This sword may divide you from those who prefer the wickedness of a fallen and dying world, but it gives life to all who turn and believe in Him, and a fellowship of peace which the fallen world cannot provide.  Hear the Word of Christ come to you this day, that you may believe and live, and carry that sword of Jesus’ life-giving Word and Spirit to everyone you encounter.  For ours is not a battle of politics and temporal war, but a spiritual battle for the souls of all mankind. Amen.