Confident Assurance

I'm currently reading through Jerry Bridges' The Gospel For Real Life and though I have a fair amount of disagreements with what he has to say in this book, one thing struck me this morning. Speaking about pursuing Christian virtues, Bridges says, "However, the doing of these things...is not the basis of the rich welcome. Rather, it is the means...whereby we make our calling and election sure. In other words, it is a way we assure ourselves that we have been made new creations in Christ and do have the hope of eternal life."

Maybe take a second to read that one more time.

Wow. I know it's true that our works are not the justification for our access to eternal life, but I never thought about the fact that our sinlessness and our pursuit to become more like Christ are simply a way to assure ourselves of our coming inheritance. In other words, we can be filthy rotten sinners who are committed to Christ, and by Christ, we are justified before God, but by living this way we will lack the confidence that God prompts us to have in this life.

Does this make sense?

In John 10:10, Jesus told us that he came to give us abundant life. But this abundant life is only accessed when we truly give up our own sinful desires and focus our desires on Christ. Christ offers us the confident assurance in this life of His coming Kingdom and of our place in that Kingdom, and in order to engage with that confidence and with the abundant life that Jesus offers, we must pick up our cross daily and follow Christ.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." -- Matthew 16:24-25

Waiting in Trust and Expectation

David's awareness and trust of God's promises earned him the title "a man after God's own heart." There is a phrase he uses often throughout the psalms: Wait on the Lord. But what does this phrase mean?

If I wait on someone, that means that I am probably waiting for a person to show up to a scheduled meeting. After all, you don't wait for someone you don't expect to show. I would not wait for someone who, five minutes past the scheduled time, had still not arrived and was a generally untrustworthy person.

The implication of waiting is expectation. You only wait for the person that you expect to 'show up.' The implication in David and God's relationship is obvious: David expected God to show up.

Also, you don't wait for someone who you don't want to show up. Perhaps you would, but not without the burden of obligation. This is not the situation between David and God. David's waiting is free of obligation and loaded with expectation. David desperately wants God to show up while also trusting that God will show up.

In Psalm 27:14, David says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

So I guess this begs two questions of ourselves. First, in accordance with waiting on the Lord, do we expect God to show up? Do we expect God to be in our situation? Do we know that God will be there when we need him and that he is trustworthy? 

Second, do we want God to show up? Many may say, "Well of course I do!" But is that true? Think about it. Are you ever afraid of what God may have to say to you if he were to show up? Are you ever worried that you won't be able to take to heart what God has to say? 

Do you want God to show up? Do you trust God to show up?

Are you waiting?

Do 

A 3-Day Eternity?

Here's my thought.

If the punishment for the most minor slight against God is -- as generally confessed -- an eternal punishment in hell (which in and of itself irks me), how did Jesus' death and three day visit to Sheol compensate for the sins of those who would believe in him?

Do you see the discrepancy?

And I know... Jesus is God and he lived a perfect life, so in some ambiguous way, this discrepancy is reconciled through these truths.

But I'm not satisfied. Even if it's only 1 billion people who ever truly believed in Christ by the time Jesus returns (and that is a major low-ball), that is still 1 billion eternities in hell and somehow Jesus' three hours of pain and three days of death satisfied that wrath?

My first thought is that either the punishment for sin is not an eternity in hell as we've assumed, or that Jesus died for something beside our sin. Both dangerous assumptions in our anti-intellectual Christian culture that has developed.

But I'm still wrestling.