Friday Communication - 13th October 2023
This last fortnight I have spent an evening hearing a distressing safe church matter, been inundated with conflicting arguments about the Voice, heard reports on the news of atrocities in Ukraine and Myanmar, and from Israel news of the savage slaying of civilians and witnessed people rejoicing in those deaths in the forecourt of the Opera House, been in contact with some who have had to go to hospital because of injury or illness, and attended two funerals.
The world we should expect
All of which reminds me that I live in the world I meet in Scripture, the world the Bible teaches me to expect because people are as they are described to be in Scripture. After the Fall people are frail and mortal. These bodies, wonderful in their abilities as they are, are not built for permanence or perfection. We will always be subject to sickness and decay and, while grateful for the knowledge and skills given in God’s common grace and mercy that lie behind our health system, we should not be surprised by sickness, acute or chronic, nor surprised by the myriad illnesses we see amongst us.
the world the Bible teaches me to expect because people are as they are described to be in Scripture.
And, despite the blind insistence of some that people are basically good and so should be free to express themselves unrestrained by law, custom or nature, after the Fall Scripture tells us that ‘the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth’ Gen. 8:21. People, given up to their idolatry, are “29 … filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” [Romans 1:29-32]. As Paul summarises the situation in Romans 3:10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Why would we expect a world and people in rebellion against their just Creator to be other than we experience it to be? The turmoil we are experiencing is not some hiccup on the road to the inevitable perfection and refinement of our moral consciousness. It is the inevitable expression of the human heart in every age.
The starting point of the Christian life is accepting the bible’s verdict on humanity by accepting its verdict on each of us individually, that we have sinned, that we are not righteous. And the Bible’s view of humanity is one of the foundations of the Christian world view, its understanding of reality, which shapes our expectations of our life in this world.
The Bible’s realism about us a cause for hope
The grievous confirmation of the Scripture’s verdict on ourselves and humanity as frail, sinful, mortal, which we receive every day should not overwhelm, threaten or terrify us. Paradoxically it should give us hope, for the same Scriptures tell us God knows what is going on, God rules in His world, and He can be appealed to for help. This is the confidence of the prophets and psalms. Great nations and rulers serve Him. Assyria, Isaiah 10, is the rod of His wrath [Is. 10:5], Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 25, the Lord’s servant [Jer. 25:9]. The Psalmist, when confronted by human evil and violence, can say Psalm 10:14-18
Psalm 10: 14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
[Psalm 12, 14] and appeal for His help Psalm 60:11-12.
Psalm 60: 11 Oh, grant us help against the foe,
for vain is the salvation of man!
12 With God we shall do valiantly;
it is he who will tread down our foes.
God’s people don’t face evil alone, are never without help.
More, the Scriptures tell us God has sent His good King [Psalm 2] the Lord Jesus, who has endured human evil and death and triumphed over them. He is installed now at God’s right hand and reigns with all authority over all the nations. He now has the keys of death and hades, and He can give life to all who call on Him, all who believe His gospel. Those who believe in Him escape now the snare of death, now have a new life freed from the power of sin. And one day He will be revealed in glory and then all violence and cruelty, all death and disease, all who persevere in rebellion against God will be finished. God’s word reveals the diagnosis, and the cure, the ultimate cure, so much better than we can imagine.
A light to our path
And Scripture’s realism about humanity should not only give us confidence in our God but also give us confidence in His instruction. Scripture, revealing us truly can also truly tell us how to live in this world. And here again we see another paradox. Diagnosing human evil, the persistence of the human heart in loving itself and putting its own interests above all others and being willing to use all forms of violence to secure itself, you might think Scripture would prudently tell us to look after ourselves first, to live self-protective lives, or to withdraw from others, or by force impose our will on others – as many man-made faiths and philosophies do. But it doesn’t. It tells us to love, to love our neighbours, to love even our enemies. This is light in the darkness of a world mired in vengeful hatred, light from the God of love who has shown us love, brought us to know His love in giving the eternal Son for us.
And the Scriptures teach us that this is love and light the LORD wants known in the world. Paul was sent with the gospel to the nations Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
The Gospel for the real world
In the real world, not the unreal world of humanistic optimism about human moral progress and perfectibility, but the real world of our frailty, sinfulness and death, this is the gospel we need to keep hearing to have right expectations about our lives now, and to live rightly. And it is the gospel that needs more and more to be heard by our society who, like us, experience that frailty, sin and death, but without truth and hope. They need to meet Jesus, and we are making plans now to share with other churches and AFES in an Australia wide mission in 2024 to make Jesus known, using John’s gospel. More of that later, but for now let’s be grateful for the realism of God’s revelation about us, and God’s graciousness in not just stopping with the diagnosis, but giving us the cure for our frailty, sin and death in the death and rising and exaltation of His Son, our Lord Jesus.
