The story is told of the older woman who was blessed to have Martin Luther as her pastor. One Sunday, however, she determined to express her displeasure, “Why, Dr. Luther,” she asked, “do you seem to preach the same sermon every week?” Luther is said to have replied, “I preach the same gospel every week because every week we forget.” I raise this point because I am well aware that not long ago I published a brief piece asking essentially this same question. My answer there was to encourage a level of thoughtfulness that we find too easy to forget. My answer here is that we likewise forget the gospel, and that, above all, is what we are to do in these strange days, remember the gospel.
When our days are ordinary we find it all too easy to forget the gospel. We’ve already been regenerated. We’ve already embraced Christ in faith. We’ve already been forgiven, adopted, indwelt. So we turn our attention to ordinary things. When our days are extraordinary, as they are right now, we find it all too easy to forget the gospel. We turn our attention to whatever the extraordinary thing is. I venture to guess that the great majority of American evangelicals have, in the past few weeks, spent far more time reading up on the Coronavirus than reading our Bibles.
The great danger we are in, however, is not a house of cards economy crashing down all around us. The great danger we are in is not the prospect of a painful death. No, the great danger we are in, in ourselves, is falling under the wrath of the living God. If, however, we are not in ourselves, but in Him, if we are in union with the One who already received the wrath of the Father, then our great danger is no more. Now our great danger is dishonoring our gracious Father who redeemed us by failing to rejoice and to give thanks.
Of course we are not only free but commanded to bring our cares before Him. I’m not scolding us for acknowledging the hardness and the strangeness of these days. Instead I’m encouraging us to remember that everything that Coronavirus can take away are all things we would gladly give up in order to have the Pearl of Great Price. And Him we already have. He tells us to be of good cheer, because He has already overcome the world. That means we’re supposed to both believe He has overcome the world, and rejoice because of it.
What are we supposed to do in these strange days? The same thing we are to do in ordinary days. We are to repent and to believe the gospel. And in believing we are to give thanks and rejoice. We are, in isolation, in an overcrowded hospital, in the line at a soup kitchen, in His good hands. So let us raise our hands and sing His praise.
