I’m not the man I used to be. Neither am I the man I will one day be. And yet, I am the man I used to be, and will forever be that man. The passage of time experienced by us is a great enigma, an entering into the mystery of being and becoming. We have, all of us, a continuity of consciousness. My memories are mine, though they sometimes star a me with a full head of hair and a 32 inch waist. I don’t have those two things anymore, but somehow I’m the same guy as the one who did have them.
Continuity and discontinuity are part and parcel of where not only we are headed, but the whole of the universe. The resurrection promises not that our old bodies will be banished to history’s ash heap when we get sparkly new ones. No, the promise is that our bodies, these bodies will be raised again, only now, raised incorruptible. The same is true of our planet. It will not be decimated, with a fresh new earth waiting in the wings. Instead, like us, it will be remade, renewed, redeemed, reborn.
Can you imagine a world that is utterly untouched by the ravages of sin? Not according to the Word of God. It tells us that eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind of man the things which God had prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2: 9). Still harder for me is to imagine me without sin. The wonder of it all is not just that I will be without sin, but that I will be me. I will be, in fact, more me than I have ever been. Real me, true me, me the way I was meant to be. If you are in Christ, the same promise is true of you.
Long trips can prove wearisome. We often feel like we’ll never arrive, like every peek topped simply reveals the next one. Our new selves seem so distant that we can’t imagine it will still be us when we get there. But it will. He has promised. He has assured us that having begun a good work in us, that He will carry it through to the day of Christ Jesus. I’m not the man I used to be. Neither am I the man I will one day be. And yet the man I once was, and the man I will be, that’s me. Better still, it’s Him. Then I will be, for the first time ever, fully me.
Tonight we continue our look at the monumental, towering book of Romans. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.
Yes. We live in a world where two men or two women engaged in sexual perversion can be said to be married. A world where chemical castration, surgical assaults on private parts, and the intentional murder of the unborn are not only called “health care” but are considered by many an absolute right. A world where anyone who is disturbed by the above is considered not merely uncouth but detestable.
On the one hand we’d be fools to diminish the depth of our current cultural depravity. Every known culture in the history of the world, however much room it might have left for sundry sexual sins, knew that marriage was between a man and a woman. No known culture insisted everyone call some girls boys and some boys girls. On the other hand people have been practicing, from time to time openly, perversion for millenia. For most cultures for most of history, babies, unborn and born, were afforded no legal protection. Meet the new wickedness. Same as the old wickedness.
The ebb and flow of cultures rise and fall depending on the fidelity of God’s people within that culture. This is precisely what it means to be salt and light. The brutal regime of Rome slowly softened through the faithful sacrifices of believers. Whether it was refusing to deny Christ in the face of torture, or caring for abandoned babies left by the pagans, believers lived out the gospel, like an army of Johnny Mustard Seeds.
What they didn’t do was hide or deny their own convictions. They didn’t focus their attention on intramural battles. They didn’t write learned essays of theological sociology. They proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus over all things, and lived as faithful citizens of His kingdom.
The world has gone crazy. But it didn’t happen last week. It didn’t happen when Joe Biden was put in office. It didn’t happen at Obergfell, or Roe. It didn’t happen through Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche or Rousseau. The world went crazy when a man and a woman, living in comfort in a garden, defied their Maker. That was crazy. Their children were born crazy, and their children after them. The truth is, every one of the sexually confused, and everyone that seems quite sane, are by nature crazy descendants of that same crazy couple.
But you want to know the crazy thing? That offended Maker, He kept loving His creatures. He sent His Son to receive His just judgment in our place. He died. But death could not hold Him, because of all those born of women, He alone is sane. He has, ever since, been about the business of remaking this crazy world, and rescuing all those who are His. It’s an astonishing story, made all the more astonishing by being true. Give thanks. Be of good cheer. He has already overcome the world. And lo, He is with us always, even to the end of the age.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” “If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Such is the wisdom one can expect to find on a car’s bumper. Wisdom, however, is found in God’s Word, which, surprisingly, says not a peep about “education.” Yet it does call us to seek wisdom, even as it calls us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It does speak of truth, and it speaks this truth — that Jesus is the truth that sets us free.
Education, once upon a time, was understood paradoxically as that which both grounds us and sets us free. It has now become that which sets us loose and costs us everything. And all because we serve the false god of mammon. Consider first how a modern, or should I say a postmodern, education sets us loose. As Allan Bloom taught us in The Closing of the American Mind, the great majority of colleges and universities in the West is firmly committed to the notion that there is no truth and no right and wrong. Ninety-eight percent of all incoming college freshman enter the hallowed halls persuaded of relativism. Over the course of four years, that assumption is systematically entrenched. Thus, students walk away from their college educations utterly adrift. But they are not free from another perspective. Students pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of learning the truth that there is no truth to learn.
Why would anyone make such a trade? Foolishness. We have been taught that a college education is the key either to a well-paying job or the key to a better graduate school, which in turn is the key to a well-paying job. We need a well-paying job so that we can afford either private education or at least be able to live in the “good” school district, so that our children can get into the best colleges, so that they can get into the best graduate schools, so that they can make the money to keep the process going for our grandchildren. I call this “hell’s hamster wheel,” and it is time for all of us to get off.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with learning a set of skills that increases our productivity. Studying toward a trade or a profession can be a good and healthy thing, a tool to help us fulfill the dominion mandate to rule over the earth. This is not, however, why the university was created. Education once aspired to be “liberal.” Liberal in this context isn’t intended as a political designation for those who we desire a bigger and more intrusive state. Neither is it intended to describe theological liberalism, which denies the truthfulness of God’s Word. Instead, liberal here refers to the liberty of the graduate. A liberally educated person is one who is equipped not for a mere job but to think God’s thoughts after Him, to see His world as He would have us.
A free man, for instance, is not given to accepting the status quo, assuming that four years down at the state university is an undiluted good. A free man is not given to buying into a deadly nostalgia that assumes his alma mater hasn’t changed in the twenty-five years since he went there. A free man is not simply going to accept the wildly implausible notion that sending his son or daughter off to Vanity Fair for four or more years is a great way to bless his heirs. A free man is wise enough not to buy into the lottery-like unspoken pitch that if you don’t spend a hundred thousand dollars on an “education,” your child will starve. A free man thinks deliberately about his own future and the future of his children. A free man finds wisdom where God keeps it, not in the knowledge of the experts but in the simplicity of the Bible.
We worry. A sound, biblical education may prepare our children for heaven, but how will they live? Steeping our children, as they prepare to enter adulthood, in God’s Word will surely feed their souls and adorn them with beauty, but how will they find food, clothing, and shelter? We are not the first to struggle with such worries. Nor the last. Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:31–33).
We need this truth to set us free. We need to live as citizens of the kingdom of God such that we know our daily bread, to mix a metaphor, is the fruit of God’s provision through hard work, not the result of our wisdom in pursuing specialized training. Better still, we need to be free enough to know that we are slaves of Jesus Christ. He, and not the priests of higher education, is our Master. Such means that we are free. Such means we are called to raise our children to live free as well.
The federal government has a mammoth bureaucracy that stands guard over our eyes and ears, enforcing what they call “truth in labelling.” Pringles potato ch*ps, for instance, are not legally allowed to call themselves potato chips because they are powdered and reconstituted before being fried. Don’t you feel so much safer knowing the word “chip” is being so vigilantly guarded? Which raises the question, of course, of who guards the guards? The federal government seems daily to invent new ways to mislabel what they are and what they do.
Even when they do tell the truth, however, they prefer to whisper. Consider the shocking news last week that National Public Radio would no longer have a presence on Twitter. I know, I know. Tragic, but we must press on. Their departure wasn’t, by their own admission, driven by ideological objections to conservative commentary on Twitter. They aren’t triggered by the presence of Elon Musk at the top of the food chain. No, they took their scintillating social media presence and went home because Twitter accurately labeled them as “state- affiliated” and “government funded.” As my friends at the Babylon Bee put it, “National Public Radio Announces It is Not National and Not Public.”
The truth is that governments at various levels contribute roughly a third of NPR’s budget. Some percentage comes from private donations, from everyone from the person who donates $10 in exchange for a tote bag to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Another percentage comes from “corporate sponsors” that reveals yet another lie from NPR- that they are commercial free. Seriously? In case you’ve never tuned in to NPR, know that you are regularly reminded that NPR wants to thank their sponsors, like Lands End, purveyors of fine clothing for all your family needs. True, the commercials are typically understated and reserved, but anyone can see they are commercials.
The old saw that there is one sure sign that a politician is lying- his lips are moving, is true enough. NPR learned this art from their masters, the federal government. This sponsor is the proud purveyor of the Respect for Marriage Act which codified the monstrosity that was the Supreme Court’s Obergfell decision that imposed homo mirage on the states. This sponsor is the proud purveyor of the Inflation Reduction Act, which does nothing to reduce inflation and looks suspiciously like what it is, a pork-laden green boondoggle. And all of these are brought to you by the fine men and women of Federal Reserve Bank. If they had to practice truthful labelling their motto would be, “We are not federal and we have no reserves.”
The wanton destruction of truth, the massacre of words, the shameless lies of politicians, in the end isn’t mere fodder for stand-up comics or the Babylon Bee. It is central to the destruction of our entire culture, to the war against reality. It is Orwell’s Ministry of Truth at work, seeking to cram life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness into a memory hole.
Stephen King is just one of many to remind would be writers of what may be the most difficult part of writing well- cutting superfluous words. Concision is king. Every word needs to pass this simple test- does it make the writing clearer, more informative, more effective. If not, cut it out. Kill it, mercilessly. Dispatch with extreme prejudice.
As a professional editor I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across this nugget, “In today’s world…” Seriously? Is the writer afraid that unless he warns me that he is talking about here and now I might assume he’s talking about Venus in the paleolithic era? Or this one, “According to Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary, ‘bulwark’ means…” If you won’t kill your darlings, at least consign them to footnote purgatory.
Which is why I was troubled to see Stephen Wolfe recently suggest on twitter that “White evangelicals are the lone bulwark against moral insanity in America.” I’ve never met either of the Wolfe brothers, nor have I read Christian Nationalism. While I have a long history of thinking through political issues from a Christian perspective, I haven’t felt the need to take a side on this one. All this to say that I consider Mr. Wolfe to be a brother who has labored to think through the same kinds of issues. For such he should be commended.
I don’t, therefore want to pounce on him with a simple “gotcha.” That said, as an editor, I’m left asking this simple question- what does the word “white” add to “White evangelicals are the lone bulwark against moral insanity in America”? What is it about “whiteness” that makes it important to note here? It is true enough that various polls make note of how people of varying pigmentation tend to vote. They could, however, just as well run their polls to see how the red-headed voting bloc came down on an issue, or where the left-handed caucus leaned.
There is nothing in hair color that drives one’s perspective on political issues. There is nothing in skin color that drives one’s perspective on political issues. If a disproportionate percentage of biblically thoughtful, widely read, homeschooled, church going, Jesus Changes Everything podcast subscribing, over 6 feet tall people vote conservatively does their height really matter? And what would it say about a perspective that not only wants to point out the tall people, but excludes the short people from being a part of the lone bulwark against moral insanity? Nothing good.
Adding “white,” even if it was included in someone else’s research, not only doesn’t add anything, but subtracts. It distracts and diminishes the real issue, submission to the Word of God. Whites are no more a voting bloc than left-handed people are a voting bloc. We don’t need more whites, but more morally sane people. We don’t need more people whose ancestors were born in Europe, but more people who have been born again. We all ought to pray that God would raise up an army of us, so long as we know that “us” are His children, no matter the skin color, hair color, height or dominant hand.
The issue here isn’t one of mere appearances. My concern is not public relations, that my brother said the quiet part out loud. The issue is conflating something as utterly adiaphorous as skin color with something morally significant. My sincere hope is that my brother will see this. I should warn him, however. When you have racist fellow-travelers following you, cheering you on and you then publicly embrace the gospel truth that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, they will turn on you like a pack of wild dogs. Like superfluous words, however, it’s better to be rid of them.
Salvation, it should go without saying, is astonishing. One minute we are looking at an eternity of just torment for our rebellion against the living God, the next we are running to our loving heavenly Father who has not only forgiven us, but adopted us, who has not only declared us just, but sent His Spirit to dwell in us, leading us into becoming what we have already been declared to be. And the future we now face is joy forevermore. Astonishing.
What should not surprise us, however, is not just that we continue, while still living, to struggle with sin, but that the sins we struggle with are often those that beset us before we were given the gift of faith. While we drag the carcass of our old man along behind us, he’s still the same guy. The sins we battle look familiar to us because they are familiar to us.
One besetting sin you and I both struggle with is ingratitude. How do I know that about you? Because it’s true of all of us. Paul, in Romans 1, is establishing the biblical truth that apart from Jesus, all men are sinners. All men, in our natural state, suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But right on the heels of this wicked suppression of the truth Paul tells us, “Neither were they grateful” (1:21). That’s all of us, and that’s something we still struggle, despite the outpouring of God’s grace.
We ought to be able to see ourselves, our lives and our walks in the journey of God’s people to the Promised Land. We’ve been redeemed and rescued. Sin no longer rules over us. He has called us out, loves us, brought us into His family. And He has promised us that we would dwell in paradise. If, however, we are able to see that obvious parallel, we ought also be able to see this obvious parallel- like the children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land, we incessantly grumble and complain against the very God who rescued us. We look back longingly at the leeks and garlic of our old lives. We grow bitter against those God has placed in authority over us. We are dissatisfied with His miraculous provision of all that we need. Neither are we grateful.
The solution is both simple and difficult. We are to give thanks. We are, to use the language of Psalm 37:3, to feast upon His faithfulness. We are to delight ourselves in Him. He is our exceedingly great reward. Our eyes have grown dim, but His glory is from everlasting to everlasting. Our tongues have grown weary with our laments, so let us employ them in singing His praise. Our ears have grown dull, so let us attend to the music of the spheres, the dance of the stars that shines His glory. Let us remember who we were. Let us remember where He found us. Let us remember where He is taking us. And then we will remember where He has us, safe in the scarred hands of His beloved Son.
