Comfortably Numb, or Just Another Day in Jersey City

Posted on December 12, 2019 by RC


By the time you are reading this the news cycle will have moved on. Indeed it already has. Yesterday, as I type, gunmen opened fire at a cemetery and kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey. The gunmen are dead as are a policeman and three civilians. Typically this horror would have brought out the usual suspects stumping for more gun control. This time we had to move along quickly to allow our attention to be drawn to another ring in our three-wing circus, the canonization of Saint Greta of the Carbon Footprint by Time magazine. Global warming trumps Trump. We don’t have news anymore, just variants of wag the dog.

Meanwhile, across the nation yesterday and today there is a news story no one is reporting on. Nearly 3000 babies were deliberately put to death by mothers and fathers and their hired assassins, all with the full protection of the federal government of these United States. The same will happen tomorrow and the day after that. It’s been happening daily for more than 45 years.

Mass killings have lost their capacity to shock us. We should not, however, be shocked at that. Why would we be shocked by killers taking down three civilians when we are not shocked by “doctors” taking down three thousand babies? I’m afraid we tend to judge the heinousness of a given crime not by how evil it is but by how unusual. Once the heinous is common it can no longer rise to the level of evil. It’s just boring. We are indifferent to abortion not because it is done behind closed doors, not because it is performed with surgical precision, in sterile rooms. We are indifferent because it is common.

This is one reason why I am an ardent advocate of true images of abortions. It is disturbing, as it should be. It is disgusting, as it should be. It is disheartening, as it should be. These pictures are not emotionally manipulative. They are emotionally awakening, reminding us of the diabolical, deranged, demented destruction inherent in the murder of an unborn child.

When we allow the mainstream media to determine our direction, to curate our concerns, to produce our perceptions we show ourselves not only to be lovers of the world, but its slaves. What is twitter trending today will likely be wrapping fish tomorrow. What is off our radar but on the mind of Christ, that is what will survive the cleansing fire at history’s end. When we seek to be men of the moment we find ourselves becoming merely momentary men.

Real horror is all around us. Perhaps the greatest horror, however, is inside us, for we have lost our capacity to be horrified. We are numb. While these babies are being burned alive, or torn limb from limb. Let the truth be known, and let our sin be exposed. There is nothing more gruesome than our own seared consciences.

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Man’s Chief End, The Top 5 Christmas Shows and The Glory of Snow

Posted on December 12, 2019 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything

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Imputation, Infusion and Eternal Consequence: A Parable

Posted on December 11, 2019 by RC

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” Luke 18: 9-14).

It is an unfair, gross distortion to hold that Rome teaches justification by works, while we Protestants teach justification by faith. The more accurate distinction recognizes on both sides the necessity of the work of Christ. Rome affirms that His righteousness is necessary for our salvation, that without it we are without hope. That righteousness, however, becomes ours through infusion. Protestants affirm also that His righteousness is necessary for salvation, that we have no hope without it. It, however, becomes ours through imputation.

Some here are quick to affirm that our differences now amount to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. We are arguing over two, thick, theological terms that are not a part of our ordinary language. Surely such a nuance must be insignificant. But it’s not, as Jesus’ parable illustrates. Let’s look at these two men, what they have in common and what separates them.

First, it is an unfair, gross distortion to hold that the Pharisee believes he justifies himself, all alone. How quickly we pass over the one good part of his pray, “Lord, I thank you…” The Pharisee knows from whence came the power to make him righteous. He knows that he needed the grace of God, that God had to work in him, that God is due all the glory for his obedience. The publican likewise looks to God and His grace as His only hope. He knows where to turn, even as the Pharisee knows whom to thank.

The difference, however, is here. The Pharisee believes that God’s grace has made him whole, that he is now, albeit by the grace of God, just in himself. God helped him out. God stood him up. But now he is standing on his own two feet. He gives thanks to God that he is better than other men, that he doesn’t commit this sin and that, that he performs this duty and that. God has poured righteousness into him, and there he stands.

The publican, on the other hand, knows what he still is, a sinner. The mercy he cries out for isn’t that he would be made a saint, but that he would be a forgiven sinner. He cannot cooperate. He cannot stand. He can only, and even this is the grace of God, cry out for the mercy of God, which is found in Christ alone.

The bigger difference than the differing approaches of these two men, however, is what it meant for their eternities. Only one of these two men went home justified. Only one of these men was an adopted son of the living God. Only one of these two men will spend eternity walking with God in paradise. The other will spend eternity weeping and gnashing teeth. Teapot tempests have no such eternal consequences.

In our feel-good, dumbed-down, ecumenical age we find distinctions distasteful. In the faithful preaching of our Lord He demonstrates the difference they make. That said, may we Reformed protest against our own propensity to cry out, “I thank you Lord that I am not like other men, Arminians, semi-Pelagians, or even this fundamentalist. I score high on all theology exams and have a library that is the envy of my friends.” Instead let us, consistent with our theology, beat our breasts and cry out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

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Irresistible Grace, Bastiat’s The Law and the Call to Hospitality

Posted on December 11, 2019 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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New Theses for a New Reformation #2 Worldliness

Posted on December 10, 2019 by RC

We must believe that the love of the world is hatred of God.

Whatever happened to worldliness? Time was when worldliness was a front and center concern to most Christians. Eventually it became the exclusive domain of fundamentalists. Now, only cranks are worried about worldliness. Cranks, and the apostle John. John tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).

There’s a scary thought. John isn’t merely telling us that it’s a bad thing to love the world. He isn’t merely calling us to stop loving the world. He is reaching a conclusion about the state of our souls, if we love the world. Loving the world means we are outside the faith. How do we escape?

We think we escape by defining down what worldliness actually is. When it was only the fundamentalists who had this worry, worldliness meant smoking and playing cards. Now, if we think about it at all, we think it must mean committing adultery or embezzlement. As long as we avoid the really bad sins, we seem to reason, we have evaded the charge of worldliness. We may not be sleeping with someone but we have taken the world as our lover. We may not be funneling funds into an offshore account, but we are still serving mammon.

The devil is an anti-Christ. He is not only against Christ, but presents himself as an alternate Christ. He takes all that is wrong and false, and seeks to disguise it as good and godly. How strange then that the evangelical church has taken as its approach to the world the strategy that seeks to copy the world as much as is possible. We think that the more like them we can be, the more of them will become us. To put it another way, to borrow from that demon Screwtape, via C.S. Lewis, we are thinking we are making our way in the world, when all the while the world is making its way into us.

One of two words translated as “church” in our Bibles, ekklesia, means when translated literally, “the called out ones.” We are called out of the world, called to be a distinct people, a peculiar people. We are called to be a city on a hill. Our Master has told us that we are not better than our Master. He was hated by the world, and if we are His, we too will be hated.

When we hate the world enough to be set apart, ironically, we demonstrate sufficient love for our enemies to call them to come out from among them, to enter into the kingdom of God. When we love the world such that we are just like them, we hate them enough to leave them in the darkness. When He is our delight, when it is His blessing that we seek, when we have given up everything that He would be our own, to have the Pearl of Great Price, then we can be of good cheer. For then we, in Him, have already overcome the world.

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Political Discourse in the Age of Trump and More…

Posted on December 10, 2019 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Ask RC – What is your favorite book of the Bible?

Posted on December 9, 2019 by RC


This is, of course, somewhat slippery ground. I would never want to suggest that one book of the Bible is better, sounder, truer, more inspired than any other book of the Bible. It is all God breathed, without error and powerful for reproof, correction, for reshaping us into the image of Christ. But, Hebrews. It’s Hebrews without a doubt.

The first reason is the most potent and is well illustrated by the name given to the sermon series we sheep were blessed with at Pine Hills Church over the summer. It was simply titled, “Greater Than.” Our pastors led us through chapters 9-11 and faithfully preached the glorious truth that Jesus is greater than everything that came before Him and everything that has come since. Hebrews is a book that exalts Christ.

The second reason is how it exalts Christ. That is, the author of Hebrews doesn’t just affirm the truth of the transcendence of Jesus, doesn’t just exalt Him in terms of His glorious being. No, the author demonstrates that the perfections of Christ are put to work in our salvation. It’s not just, “He is great” but “The One who is great has won great things for you.” He is both the priest offering up the sacrifice for our sins, and the sacrifice offered up for our sins. He intercedes for us, bringing our petitions before the Father as His own.

The third reason is the context of the exaltation of Christ. First, Hebrews is written to those who are facing the temptation to toss aside the Christian faith because of the hardships it has brought into their lives. The Hebrews are not the nice, happy people leading nice, happy lives. They are those who need to be told that Christ is holding on to them and will never let them go. Second, Hebrews is written to Hebrews. That is, this is an audience that is well familiar with the Old Testament. It is as if Hebrews is an unpacking of what might have been Jesus’ sermon on the road to Emmaus. Old and New come together in this book in a way that illumines them both.

When the author of Hebrews contrasts the worship at Mount Sinai with our worship it reminds us of the most glorious truth that we are lifted up into the heavenly places. It highlights the edenic nature of worship, that we are with Him, that we are unashamed, that we are His children seated at His table. Suddenly we remember that the Lord’s Table isn’t just an exercise in introspective guilt but is also an exercise of joyful assurance of our Father’s love for and adoption of us.

Hebrews is that book which in my judgment is the pinnacle of pastoral theology. All the high concepts of Romans married with all the tenderness of I John. Our minds are fed with the heartiest meat. Our spirits are fed with a tender touch.

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13: 20, 21).

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Last night’s Advent Celebration

Posted on December 9, 2019 by RC

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Lisa on Being Still, Saul as Type of Christ and HAPPY 100th to JCE!

Posted on December 9, 2019 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything

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What Are You Worried About?

Posted on December 7, 2019 by RC

We are inveterate plea-bargainers. We are adepts at the art of the deal. Romans 1 tells us that in our fallen condition we all deny the God we know exists. We know we stand guilty before Him, but we suppress that truth in unrighteousness. But, we do not want to be utterly and completely selfish, absolutely unrestrained. So we submit to sundry creatures, gods of our own making. We are willing to have, for instance, “god-to-me” in our lives, if it will keep the living God at bay. We are willing to admit some level of guilt- “nobody’s perfect”- in order to avoid entering into the fullness of our wretchedness. And we are willing to fear some minor inconveniences, if it will keep terror away.

When Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount He treated His audience as believers. He told those that had gathered that they were the light of the world, and that salt which preserves the world. Unbelievers, however, do not go unaddressed. In calling on believers to set aside their petty fears, and to embrace a single minded passion for the kingdom of God, in chastening those assembled for worrying about what they will eat and what they will wear He says, “For the Gentiles seek after all these things” (Matthew 6:32).

This too is plea-bargaining. It is an attempt to squelch one dreadful fear by replacing it with a merely annoying fear. It is a great win to be able to sigh in relief after honestly assessing, “What’s the worst that could happen?” If I don’t have enough to eat, that could be bad, from a certain perspective. If I have nothing to wear, that too could be bad, from a certain perspective. Either of these, via starvation or exposure, could, at worst, lead to my death. That, it seems in our day, is at the root of our fears. We live in a culture where death is looked upon as an option to be delayed. Exercise, diets, surgeries, cosmetics, photo-shop are the tools of our trade by which we avert our eyes from the truth that we are dying.

We have not, however, reached the end of our bargaining. We prefer to worry about what we will eat or wear to worrying about dying. But we prefer to worry about dying to worrying about hell. Dying, after all, happens only once, and then it is over. Hell, on the other hand, is forever. I would argue that far more terrifying than the pain of hell is its duration. A great deal of pain for even a relatively brief time is less than a pain that lasts forever. What unbelievers ought to be worrying about is not he who can kill the body, but He who can kill both body and soul (Matthew 10:28).

This in turn ought to tell us what we should be most grateful for. This great fear is no longer on the table for us who trust in the finished work of Christ alone. What are we doing spending our time worrying about the plea-bargained fears of the Gentiles when we are free of their ultimate fear? Why should we worry about what we will eat, when we feast on the body and blood of our Lord? Why should we worry about what we will wear when we are clothed in His righteousness?

Hell should not, however, because we need no longer fear it, fall off our radar. First, we are called to constant thanks and gratitude that we will never experience it. We must remember that on the cross Christ descended into hell for us, that He received the full wrath and fury of the Father due to us for our sins. But second, hell did not disappear. Why are we worrying about what we will eat, what we will wear, while there are those out there worrying about what they will eat, what they will wear, who will end up in hell, unless they repent? It is bad enough that they who want to deny that hell exists worry about petty things. How much worse is it that we who affirm the reality of hell worry about petty things?

When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness we are not merely seeking to get in before the gates close. It is not merely our own entrance that we seek as we seek the kingdom. Rather we are about the business of seeing the glory of the reign of Christ over all things made known all across the globe. Which means we seek the kingdom as we seek to be used of the King to bring in the elect from the four corners of the world. We seek the kingdom when we proclaim the good news to a lost and dying world. We seek the kingdom when the Spirit uses us to snatch brands not just from the fire, but from the fire that never dies.

We are none of us conscious enough of hell. Were we so we would be marked by both gratitude and urgency, gratitude for our own rescue, urgently laboring for the rescue of others. Hell is real, and hell is forever.

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