Status Report: Measuring Ourselves By Ourselves

Posted on June 3, 2025 by RC

We are fools. That’s a good starting point. Every mother’s son of us was made in the image of God. We are all together by nature children of wrath. Our heavenly Father is remaking those of us who have been born again by His Spirit, His children, through His grace. Yet, at every step along the way we face the compulsion of judging ourselves by ourselves. We want to know how we stack up against other image bearers.

How silly to think the petty things that distinguish us from each other could compare with the august majesty that we all have in common. We insist sin has wreaked less havoc in and through us than it has in and through others. Which is rather like arguing that we destroyed Hiroshima less potently than Nagasaki. We loudly insist that our sanctification is more potent than another’s. How could we believe our actual holiness has a measurable significance in relation to our imputed righteousness, His righteousness that covers us?

The essence of what we are, humans, sinners, saints, is shared equally among each respective group. Yet we want to measure and emphasize the minuscule differences. And of course we botch up these tiny measurements. Our thumbs are too clumsy for such fine tools, and our eyes too myopic. We grade ourselves on one curve that inflates our virtues, and grade others on a curve that inflates their vices. All because the important thing to us isn’t what we are together, but what we are alone, what sets us apart from everyone else. In judging ourselves by ourselves we forget ourselves and what we really are.

What defines me truly is precisely what I have in common with so many others. My dignity is wrapped up exclusively in His image in me. My shame is wrapped up exclusively in my common sin. Best of all my glory is wrapped up in the glorious truth that I am among the many brethren of the First Born, and that because of His covering of me. Where I stand in line with all the others in each of these categories can’t possibly matter.

This doesn’t undo appropriate roles I find myself in. Some I am called to lead, as a husband and father, as a teacher, as a pastor. Others I am called to follow, as student, as a congregant, as a citizen. Remembering all we have in common, however, reminds me that I do not lead because I am greater than those I lead, nor that I follow because I am lessor than those I follow. My children, my students, my flock, these are all my brothers. And my teachers, my elders, my civil leaders, they too are all my brothers. I have no reason to lord it over anyone because all that is good in me is our common Lord.

I’m in good company in my folly. The disciples, for three years jockeyed for position. The saints ever since have marched in their footsteps, trolling for honors. I pray, however, that I might treasure this trophy, attain this accolade, secure this status- that I would be a world-champion repenter. And for that, I repent.

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What does it mean that the church is holy?

Posted on June 2, 2025 by RC

The Nicene Creed affirms that the church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. I discussed what is means that the church is one here. When the creed affirms that the church is holy it is making at least three important points.

First, the church is holy in a forensic sense. That is, our affirmation is not suggesting that the church’s members are somehow morally pure. It is instead affirming that because of the work of Christ for us we are declared by God to be just. Our sin was punished at Calvary. His righteousness has been imputed or reckoned to us. In this sense we are holy.

Second, that said, we are holy in that we are being changed. In the first instance we are speaking of our justification. Here we speak of our sanctification. The root of that term is “sanctus” which is Latin for “holy.” While we still struggle with the remains of sin in us, sin’s power over us is broken. We have been given a new heart, from which we cry out for God’s mercy in Christ. We have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Himself said that “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). This love is a kind unknown by those outside the kingdom. We are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, and so are united in a way the lost cannot fathom.

Third, we are holy in that we have been set apart from the world. We have a tendency to think of “holiness” strictly in terms of moral purity. While this is a part of what the word means, equally important is its meaning of being set apart. The church is called to be holy in this way.

There are, in fact, two Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “church.” The first is “kuriake.” This has the same root as “kurios” which means “Lord.” The church is those who belong to the Lord. The other term so translated, however is “ekklesia” from which we get our English word “ecclesiastical.” In the Greek the word might be literally translated as “the called out ones.”

We are set apart, called out, from the world, into His presence, from the darkness into His marvelous light (I Peter 2:9). Part and parcel of this is putting behind us the ways and patterns of this world. We are commanded not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

The church then is those who have been declared to be righteous. Those who have been called to grow in righteousness. Those who have been set apart from the world. Without the first, the latter two are not possible. Out of the first, the latter two we pursue.

This is the forty-seventh installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 8 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

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The Faith of Demos: The Doctrine of Demons

Posted on May 30, 2025 by RC

While written creeds have their advantages, unwritten creeds have a few as well. With a written creed we are able to nail down precise language. We can affirm this and deny that. Everyone is able to make a conscious decision about whether or not they agree. This, in turn, mirrors at least one of the benefits of an unwritten creed. First, it leaves more wiggle room. Second, if the creed is unwritten, there is no place to sign on the dotted line. If there is no list of signatories, it’s so much easier to simply assume that everyone is on board. It’s not an easy thing to deny a creed that hasn’t really been written.

Sociologists and historians often wrangle over exactly what it means to be American. In a debate reminiscent of psychologists arguing the old “nature versus nurture” conundrum, these scholars dicker over whether American culture is defined by kinship or ideology. Are we Americans because our ancestors came mostly from western Europe, or are we Americans because we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal? Is our corporate identity the result of genetic history, or the history of ideas? Is it un-American to dislike baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet, or is it un-American to hail from Mexico?

Whichever side one takes, we all have to share this creed, to make this confession — that there is now, and has always been, a series of unwritten commitments we are supposed to share as Americans. Even if we think that to be American is to be anglo, we still have to confess the reality of these unwritten creeds. These may and probably will change over time (another “benefit” of having them unwritten), but they are there nonetheless. Just as with theological creeds, these creeds serve to bring unity out of diversity. In our day, however, we are unified by a creed that of necessity divides us.

The central pillar of faith for our culture, that form of unity that forms our “unity” is simple. “There is no such thing as true and false.” This is the one, unspoken, unifying principle to which everyone is expected to submit. This unifying creed, however, cannot unify. It is, by its very nature, divisive. Historical creeds exist to say, “Here is where you and I agree.” Our modern, or, rather, postmodern American creed affirms, “You and I cannot agree. And even if we did, it wouldn’t mean anything.” Our creed affirms we each have our own truth, create our own world, are locked into a solipsistic cage.

Our creed also suffers from this obvious weakness: it is patently and immediately false. We are united around a creed that cannot even stand under its own weight. Our creed, if it is true, is false. And if it is false, it is false. Which tells us it is false. If it’s true there is no true and false, we cannot say it’s true there’s no true and false. This absurdity may have some entertainment value to us. Keep in mind, though, this quicksand is the very pillar and foundation of our culture. Suddenly, it’s not so funny.

A greater irony than the absurdity of the creed, however, is the fanaticism of its adherents. It did not become our national creed by a slow and steady winning of adherents. Instead, we have a culture that shrilly demands that all men everywhere bow before this principle. That we all bend our knee and confess with our tongue that there is no such thing as truth. If we don’t, we must be, figuratively, at least for now, crucified.

Our first creed, long before we embrace the Three Forms of Unity, or the Westminster Standards, or even the Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds, is the first creed of the church: “Jesus is Lord.” This Jesus is not a truth. He is not true for me. He is instead the truth. This confession of ours, even as it ran headlong into the creed of Rome, “Caesar is Lord,” runs headlong into the great American Creed.

Because we confess that Jesus is Lord, we cannot confess that there is no such thing as truth. This, in turn, is why we evangelicals are finding ourselves more and more compared to the Taliban. This is why Islamic fundamentalism looks to the watching world to be the same thing as evangelical fundamentalism. For now they are content to disparage our character, to paint us in the public eye not merely as unsophisticated rubes, but as dangerous foaming-mouthed fanatics.

And so we should be. Our calling in this context isn’t to negotiate. We ought not labor to show the watching world how reasonable we can be, when reasonable is defined as embracing their creed. Our calling instead is to stand upon the rock, to stand firm and confess our creed with all the greater vigor. Let them despise us for not joining in their “unity.” Let us instead be united to the one who told us to be not surprised when we are hated for His name’s sake. Let us instead seek His kingdom and His righteousness. Let us confess His name before all men, that He might confess our name before His Father.

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Finding Judgey McJudgerson: A Comic Tragedy

Posted on May 29, 2025 by RC

It is both tragic and comic when it happens. I fear we miss the tragedy in the comedy. Person A makes an observation that Person B has done something wrong. Lied, or cheated, or some such. Person B offers as his defense something along these lines toward Person A, “How dare you judge people? You are the absolute worst, because you judge, judge, judge. What the world needs is fewer judgers like you.”

The comedy should be pretty obvious, as Person B flails his arms and legs, hoisted on his own petard. He, of course, is clearly, immediately and comically exposed as one who judges people. Person A simply said, “You did wrong” while Person B said, “You are the absolute worst.” Comic lack of self-awareness.

Where then is the tragedy? Person A, of course, can point out the contradiction. Hopefully, Person B will blush and see what he’s done. He will, however, go right back to his starting premise, that judgers, other than him, should be judged. The tragedy is that this account doesn’t merely reveal flawed reasoning. It reveals a dark, foolish and prideful heart.

The problem is less that the laws of logic have been shamefully violated. The problem more is that Person B is not just guilty of whatever Person A may have noticed but is guilty of the primordial sin, pride. While Person B is busy accusing Person A of being Pharisaical, Person B is proudly announcing, “I thank you Lord that I am not like other men. I don’t judge people, like this Judger over here. I overlook all the politically correct sins, and valiantly seek to destroy evil men like Person A.”

To put it more succinctly, the problem is less that he falsely accused Person A of sinning in pointing out his sin, more that he falsely denies that he himself is a sinner. This, however, is precisely the kind of sinners we all are. While it’s true that not all sins are equal, contra commonly accepted “wisdom,” it is also true that all sinners are sinners. All bad enough sinners that we constantly want to prove we’re not as sinful as the other guy.

We may not be. Or we may be. But it doesn’t matter. Our sinfulness is horrific enough. Hitler and Stalin may well be arguing in hell right now which one was better. We, who are headed to heaven by His grace, foolishly do the same on earth. In our pride we humbly confess that we are sinners, then reveal our pride by announcing “but we’re not THAT kind of sinner.”

We do not acknowledge the universality of sin in order to make it disappear. As if “Everyone’s a sinner” is somehow good news, a comfort. No, we acknowledge the universality of sin as horrific news, a terror. No sin has ever or will ever be overlooked. Every sin, however small, is committed against an infinitely big God. And every sin either has been or will be fully punished.

God’s grace doesn’t make those sins nothing. It makes our sins those that have already been punished. Our message to the world isn’t, “You can be good like me” but rather, “You are bad, like me. Let me tell you about the one good Man, and what He did for His own.”

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Grandparenting; National Senility, Outside the Box and More

Posted on May 28, 2025 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Children: A Precious Blessing From the Lord

Posted on May 27, 2025 by RC

It’s a staple of pastoral humor. You can pretty much count on some quip coming from the pulpit when summer vacation starts, bemoaning the burden of children home from school, and when it ends, celebrating the blessing of shipping children off to school. It makes me cringe every time. First, because it must be hurtful to the children. Second, because it reflects the ethos of the world around us and third, it belies the very Word of God. The Bible teaches that children are a blessing from His hand (Psalm 127). The Bible is correct, and we are wrong.

We are wrong on two counts. First, children are a blessing. They are expensive- financially, physically, emotionally. They have the power to break our hearts. They are sinners who sin against us, and against whom we sin. None of which changes the truth- they are gifts, blessings. We know this, of course, when we aren’t giving way to cultural flippancy.

What parent would not give up everything to save his or her child? Yet, we grumble against them. We embrace sundry technologies specifically designed to make our marital unions barren. We send them away to be educated, and then grumble that they come back changed. Children, however, are blessings in more ways than we can count. They love us, encourage us, inspire us, help us. They receive our love, lap up our encouragement, seek to please us and leave room for us to help them.

The second point, however, is equally important. Children are a blessing, from God. Children do not come to pass by mere natural forces. They come from His hand. Which means we are fools to be anything but grateful. He not only gives every good gift, but every gift He gives is good. Even with the expenses, even with the broken hearts. They are gifts made by Him, given by Him, to us. Who would ever say to the God of heaven and earth, as He offers us a gift, “No thank you.”? Who would ever say, “Maybe later, thanks.”? We would, because we are fools.

Reformation requires of us that we re-form our thinking, our priorities, that we cast off the wisdom of this world that is nothing but foolishness. We receive the biggest bang for our reformational buck when those re-formations happen at the most foundational levels. There are precious few things more foundational than how we look at children and God’s relation to them. If we saw them for what they are, perhaps we’d not only want more of them, but want of them more. If we knew from Whom they came perhaps we’d strive more diligently to direct them back, to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1).

Too often the church and the family see one another as competitors, for time, resources, energy. Both, however, are creations of the Lord of Creation. He calls us to love both and to serve both. And to give thanks for both. Gratitude may well be the very bedrock of Reformation. Lord, help us to give thanks.

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How Should I Leave My Church? A Few Caveats

Posted on May 26, 2025 by RC

First, be sure you should. One of the reasons the church is so weak in our day is we have subtly adopted a consumerist mentality. We are the consumer and we shop for the church that best suits us. When it no longer does so, we simply start “shopping” somewhere else.

Church, however, is not a consumer good. It is not a club we join or quit. It is a body, in covenant together. We are in relationship with both a local church and the universal church. The two are tightly bound together.

Which is why the most important part of the answer is that we don’t leave a local church. Instead we transfer to a different church. We move from being under the authority of one set of under-shepherds to being under the authority of another set of under-shepherds. We never wander out of the fold on our own.

To start then, first you find the church you want to move to. You then go to leadership at the church you currently belong to and ask them to transfer you to the new body. If that transfer is to a body within the pale of evangelicalism, or historical, orthodox Protestantism, it is almost certain that the leadership will do as you ask.

If they do not do so, you’ll need to do a great deal more prayer and thinking. It could well be that they have a good reason that you are not aware of. They may see something in you that needs to be dealt with. They may see a glaring weakness in the church you’ve chosen that you’re not aware of.

Or, they could be wrong. They might have an over-estimation of the purity of their own body and an insufficient understanding of the scope of the universal church. They could mistakenly believe that wisdom begins and ends with them, and that outside their fold is only death and danger. Which would mean that you are in a dangerous place.

At this point my counsel would be to hand the matter over to the church you’d like to join, and its leadership. Let the under-shepherds talk it through. Such not only keeps you safe in that you remain under authority, but it demonstrates to those whose authority you are under that you acknowledge that authority.

Finally, a few things not to do. Don’t air your grievances either to the flock you are leaving behind or to the flock you are joining. Everyone on all sides already knows they are less than perfect. There’s no need to send mass emails to the congregation, nor even to satisfy the curiosity of those in either church. Direct questions to those in authority.

Do not forget that your new church will also one day disappoint you. And you will disappoint them. The church is a body of sinners whose distinguishing mark is repentance and forgiveness. You’re going to need to do both, whatever church you are a member of. And so will everyone else there.

You are not stuck in a terrible, awful, no good church. Neither are you free to take off just because you are annoyed or have made a doctrinal mountain out of a doctrinal mole-hill. Show some wisdom, some humility, and some trust in both the under-shepherds over you and the Shepherd over us all.


This is the forty-sixth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 1 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

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Blessed Are the Rich in Spirit: Grace Upon Grace

Posted on May 23, 2025 by RC

There is real poverty in our world, more than we’d care to admit. Jesus, after all, told us the poor would always be with us. But just as all Israel are not Israel, so all the poor are not truly poor. The true poor are those who on a given day face the prospect of not being able to produce more calories than they consume. They are the truly hungry, the truly naked, the truly thirsty. They are not, on the other hand, those who buy store brand cereal, purchase their clothes at the Goodwill store, or who can’t afford a daily sugar and bitter beans concoction from the local Starbucks.

The faux poor are those who merely feel poor. This feeling creeps upon us when we find a gap not between how many calories we consume and how many we burn, but between the lifestyle we believe is our due and the lifestyle our production allows. Or to put it more simply, feeling poor is the result of wanting more than we have more often than wanting more than we need. It matters not whether we measure our wages in thousands or billions. What matters is the gap.

The Christian, of course, ought never to go through this hardship. First, we are called to daily ask God for our bread. We are to ask confident that our Father will not give us a stone. We know that we have what we have not because of chance, but because our God reigns. More important still, even if we are not given sufficient calories to make it to the next day, we have been given the pearl of great price. Christians are the richest of all.

Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount to consider the lilies of the field. We are not to be anxious about what we will eat or drink, or what we will wear. The Gentiles, Jesus tells us, seek after these things. But we are called to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things will be added to us. The point here isn’t that the Gentiles get all the good stuff, while we have to learn to be satisfied with abstract things like the kingdom of God. Jesus is instead expressing the answer to Augustine’s problem: “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in Thee.” Jesus is telling us to store treasure in heaven, the only treasure that satisfies.

In light of this, we ought not be surprised at the depression that weighs down the world around us. They are spiritually poor, rather than poor in spirit. That is, they have nothing of value. Their accumulated stuff amounts to striving after the wind. They miss that they deserve nothing, that all they have has been given through God’s common grace. (We simply have to find better language for this reality. This grace is indeed given to all men. He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. It is true in turn that this grace isn’t as astonishing as the grace He gives to His elect. But it is still amazing grace. God is shockingly, not commonly, good to His enemies.)

They look at the world as a random collision of time, space, and energy, and so see what they do have as an accident. They can no more give thanks for the food on their table than they can for the rain that falls. The bankruptcy of naturalism is less that it displaces the dignity of man, more that it destroys our ability to give thanks. Remember how Paul sums up the universal problem of the sinfulness of man: “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him” (Rom. 1:21).

What separates the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent isn’t that the former receive the grace of God while the latter do not. The difference is that the former have been given this grace — the ability to give thanks to God for all that He has provided. This in turn directs us toward the cure for our own spiritual depression. We do not need to have our circumstances changed. We do not need another lecture on sound thinking. What we need is to give thanks.

This in turn is how we wage war against the seed of the serpent. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. Is there anything more spiritual than a heart filled with gratitude to God? Anything more potent than joy? Is there anything greater than love? This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

As we do so we will change our souls, change our families. We will change our churches. As we do so we will change the world. If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the good news isn’t that all these things will be added to us. The good news is that we will find the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And having found this, we have found joy at His right hand forevermore.

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Evergreen- Discerning the Truths to Discern the Times

Posted on May 22, 2025 by RC

There was a (happy) time when I was a regular columnist for World magazine. I had a close relationshio with the publisher, Joel Belz. David Freeland went from being my art director at Tabletalk magazine to serving the same role at World. Nick Eicher was my editor, and friend. Marvin Olasky entered the scene. Relatively soon after I left the scene when I was relegated to the bench.

Though I had already been an editor for some time, I learned quite a bit more about the business. I was given relative freedom to write about what I wanted. (And through that liberty became the record holder for most negative responses to anything they had ever published.) But I remember being warned not to write too many “evergreen” pieces. I had to ask Nick what they meant.

An evergreen piece is an article that is not so tied to a passing issue that it will swiftly become dated. Evergreen was, by and large, considered not such a good thing in a news magazine. That said, it’s discouraging to think they want you to write what they know will soon be wrapping fish. I wanted to write evergreen pieces. They, in large part because it was what their audience wanted, wanted timely pieces.

In the thirty years since I had that writing gig (my stars, thirty years?!?) I have sought to solve this dilemma in a fairly simple manner. I do, from time to time, tie in something in the news, something that has the nation’s or the church’s attention in the pieces I write. My goal, however, isn’t merely to share my take on the issue of the day, or to persuade you to share my take. My goal is always to bring the ever green truths we need in all circumstances.

I want my readers to understand why tariffs are a bad thing. The reason they are is the same reason they would be the next time some Democrat president think’s they’re a great idea. The reason they are is because of this timeless principle- that we ought not to interfere in the business transactions of our neighbor (including our close neighbors, here within our borders). I want us to be able to apply the broad principle that speaks to the current circumstance to future circumstances.

The headlines may change but the principles are evergreen. That is because the principles are grounded in the character of the One who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the one controlling all things for His glory and for our good. That principle we must keep before us in times of hardship and times of ease.

As we know Him, as we delight in Him we cease to be men of the moment, who are in the end but momentary men, but fit for eternity. We live in light of these two truths, right now counts forever. And forever counts right now.

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No JCE Podcast Today- Technical Difficulties

Posted on May 21, 2025 by RC

But here is our last study on Issues Dividing the Church. This one- Covenant Theology vs. Dispensationalism. Check it out.

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