Worth The Wait

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. 

2 Corinthians 5:2

This isn't  waiting about "True-Love-Waits" or "Chick Flicks" thing but rather to a different kind of waiting- the grandest and glorious one. I am only 33, neither so young nor so old, but is already squint-eyed without my eyeglasses on. That wasn't so until more than twelve years ago. I guess I don't always want to admit that my body is not going to be intact forever- it regress as it grow older. A known fact in a fallen world.

The fall of man in the garden of Eden stung the latter lethally and so cause death and corruption bodily and spiritually. Gracious God He is, the promise of redemption by Christ's atoning work on the cross is the redemption of man's whole being- body and soul.

In the discussion of the ORDER OF SALVATION (Ordu Salutis), the redemption of our body will occur in what is called by theologians as GLORIFICATION.  The final step in the application of redemption  happens when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers and those who remain alive at his coming, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own. 

Christians  long for the redemption of their bodies. Even the whole creation eagerly awaits and groans for the full enjoyment of the promise. Commenting on Romans 8:18-25, Puritan Matthew Henry said,

"The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time! 

Indeed the whole creation seems to wait with earnest expectation for the period when the children of God shall be manifested in the glory prepared for them. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. 

Yet this deplorable state of the creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in bondage to man's depravity. The miseries of the human race, through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the world is not always to continue as it is. 

Our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, quickens our desires, encourages our hopes, and raises our expectations. Sin has been, and is, the guilty cause of all the suffering that exists in the creation of God. It has brought on the woes of earth; it has kindled the flames of hell. 

As to man, not a tear has been shed, not a groan has been uttered, not a pang has been felt, in body or mind, that has not come from sin. This is not all; sin is to be looked at as it affects the glory of God. Of this how fearfully regardless are the bulk of mankind! Believers have been brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists rather in hope than in enjoyment. From this hope they cannot be turned by the vain expectation of finding satisfaction in the things of time and sense. 

We need patience, our way is rough and long; but He that shall come, will come, though he seems to tarry."

On  that great day we will no longer have these poor, frail, dying bodies, subject to weakness, sinfulness and decay, but spiritual bodies. The day when we are glorified will be a day of great victory because on that day, the last enemy, death will be destroyed, just as the Scripture predicts:

"For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death."  (1 Corinthians 15:25-26)

FOR IN THIS WE GROAN, EARNESTLY DESIRING 

TO BE CLOTHED UPON WITH OUR HOUSE WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN. 

COME LORD JESUS! EVE SO COME! COME! COME! COME!

.....and when He shall return in His majesty I shall be raised in glory and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity....

After then, these eyeglasses will be useless anymore....

One Hour Catechizing Equals Many Hours Preaching

    In Scotland, the Ministers are obliged by their Church rules and constitutions, to be much employed in the work of catechizing; and the good fruits of it appear, for there the people (comparatively speaking) are generally knowing and orthodox: whereas in those places where catechizing is neglected, ignorance and error do woefully prevail. 

   It is found by experience, that there is more knowledge diffused among the ignorant and younger sort by one hour catechizing, than by many hours preaching: for by the method of catechizing, the attention is provoke, as well as the understanding is instructed, and memory gratified; whilst many excellent sermons are lost through the non-attention of the hearers, or the weakness of their memories.

Excerpted from the preface of, "An Example of Plain Catechizing Upon The Assembly's Shorter Catechism by Rev. John Willison, Printed by David Niven, Glasgow, England, 1790.

________
Note:
Picture is from a post by Warren Cruz at Reformed Pinoy. Check the thread about The History of Catechism HERE.

REEPICHEEP- The Petitioner!

Near the end of Prince Caspian*, a battle is fought between the Old Narnians,  at the command  of  King Peter, against the Telmarines, with the  impostor  King Miraz.  The battle is a success, however,  Reepicheep lost his tail.  He  is now praying to  Aslan to restore the tail. Let us see what happened...

The Bible is NOT About You!

Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbaran (1568-1664)

Preaching Jesus from the Old Testament

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

The Bible is really not about you – it’s about him!!

-Sinclair Ferguson, quoted by Rev. Tim Keller in the sermon, " The Gospel Centered Ministry" published by The Spurgeon Fellowship Journal, Spring 2008.

LAW- The School Master of Bringing Men to Christ

Why then do you preach the law?

Because it is a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.

It teaches them the nature of sin, and convinces them of their want of a Saviour. “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” Rom. 3: 20; and 7:7. Men are secure and careless in sin, until the law, that worketh wrath, reach their consciences, then they begin to know sin, and to feel the exceeding sinfulness of it: “for it is the ministration of condemnation.” 2 Cor.3:9.

This then is the office of the law. It brings transgressors to the knowledge of sin, condemns them for it, and puts them under the sentence of their guilt and of their danger, they then find their want of a Saviour.

The law, spiritually understood and applied, convinces the sinner that he is a condemned creature, shews him in God’s word the sentence past upon him, and makes him dread the execution of it. And thus it becomes to him, “the ministration of death,” 2 Cor. 3:7, proving him to be guilty of sin, and to be deserving of death.

The apostle’s case is very common. I thought myself alive, says he, without the law; he had no doubt but he was alive to God, while he was a strict Pharisee; but when the holy spiritual nature of the law was made known to him, he found himself to be dead in trespasses and sins.

But without this work of the law, they would not have been sensible that they stood in need of Him. If they were never sick, they would never send for the physician. If they were never brought to the knowledge of sin, they would never desire the knowledge of a Saviour. If they never found themselves under guilt and condemnation, they would never sue for His pardon, and would never ask life of Him, unless they found that they deserved to die the first and the second death.

For these reasons the law must be taught. It is the schoolmaster appointed of God to bring sinners* unto Christ, and when the schoolmaster comes in the name and power of the divine Spirit, and convinces them of their distressed state and condition, and makes them sensible of their guilt and of their misery, then He brings them to Christ, earnestly to ask and humbly to receive mercy from Him, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

-William Romaine,12 Discourses Upon The Law and The Gospel, Preached at St. Dunstan's in the West, London,  “Discourse II, Romans 7:12. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good”, M. Trapp, No.1, Pater Noster Row, Cheapside, London, UK. MDCCXCIII.

_____
Note:
Picture by Eddie Eddings, Calvinistic Cartoons.
*Both Justified and unjustified sinners

Jesus, The Great High Priest

  "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me.'" (John 14:6)

"As, when king Uzziah would offer incense without a priest, God was angry with him, and struck him with leprosy (II Chron. 26:20); so, when we come to God, without Christ, in the hope of his mediation, we offer up incense without a priest; and what can we expect but to meet with rebukes..."

From Thomas Watson in A BODY OF PRACTICAL DIVINITY, 
D. Chalmers and Co., Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 1838, p.503

Election Preaching Belongs on the Mission Field!!

"The presupposition of God's election is behind our preaching to spiritually dead men. The doctrine of election, if properly understood, is not a handicap to evangelistic zeal, but rather its stimulus. We preach because we know it is not hopeless. God's elect must hear, and He will save them. The elect are many and exist in all places. Their salvation awaits our coming with the gospel, and it is our responsibility to reach them with it...The doctrine of election ought not to be preached to Christians only to comfort and reassure them...The doctrine of election should be a stimulus to good works and especially to witnessing."

From MISSIONS: THE BIBLICAL MOTIVE AND AIM,
by JOHN M.L.YOUNG, Pittsburgh: Crown and Covenant
Publications, 2007(1962). p. 25.

_________
Note:
*picture courtesy of Eddie Eddings, Calvinistic Cartoons.

For Me a Worm!

"The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins" Galatians 1:3-4

"He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins" 1 John 2:2

O what an astonishing truth is this! The Son of God offering Himself up a sacrifice for sin! He who knew no sin — who was holy, harmless, and undefiled — not one thought of evil in His heart — yet made sin, or a sin offering! O the magnitude of the thought! If God Himself had not declared it, we could not have believed it, though an angel's trumpet had announced it.

O blessed and adorable Immanuel! Was this the end and design of Your intense and mysterious sufferings? Was it that You should obey, bear the sin, endure the curse, and bow Your head in death — that I might go free? Was it in my stead, and in my behalf?

O unexampled love! O infinite and free grace! That God should become incarnate — that the Holy One should so take upon Him sin, as to be dealt with by stern justice as though He were Himself the sinner — that He should drain the cup of wrath, give His back to the smiters, endure the shame and the spitting, and at last be suspended upon the cross, and pour out His last drop of most precious blood — and all this for me! For me a rebel! For me a worm! For me the chief of sinners!

"The Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!" Galatians 2:20.

Be astonished, O heavens! and be amazed, O earth! Was ever love like this?

From CHRIST'S SYMPATHY TO WEARY PILGRIMS

by Octavius Winslow (1808 - 1878)