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I broke my arm two years ago. It was the first broken bone of my life. I thought it would be fun to expose my kids to the joys of roller skating at the local roller rink. I wanted to share the fun of skating to sounds of the latest pop music, eating roller rink fare, and participating in the Hokey Pokey. After all, that’s what I did most Saturdays growing up. The only problem was that I hadn’t skated since I was a teen, and falling down as an adult brings greater consequences than it did when I was a child.
I knew right away something was wrong. The pain was intense. I clutched my arm close to my abdomen. I had to drive home using one arm. After enduring an emergency doctor’s visit, I learned that I had broken my elbow. Needless to say, I haven’t been skating since.
Our emotions reveal the turbulence broiling in our hearts.
The excruciating pain in my arm was my body telling me something was wrong. Our emotions function in a similar way for us. They also tell us something is wrong. Whether we are angry at an injustice, fearful of the unknown future, or grieving a loss, our emotions reveal the turbulence broiling in our hearts.
One of the ways our emotions tell us something is wrong is in the case of our sin. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, we feel the weight of it. It makes us grieve and feel sorrow. We feel anger toward ourselves for what we’ve done. We feel a nagging disquiet in our souls that won’t let go. We feel broken and realize anew the utter depths of our sinfulness.
David felt the pain of his sins against Uriah and Bathsheba.
That’s how David felt in Psalm 51. He wrote this psalm after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 12). It is a lament, where he poured out his heart to the Lord, asking forgiveness for what he had done. In this psalm, David described the conviction he felt over his sin like that of crushed bones: “Let the bones you have crushed rejoice” (Ps.51:8). His joy was gone—all he felt was pain and sorrow over his sin.
Such conviction led him to repentance. Paul refers to this sorrow as godly sorrow:
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Cor. 7:8-10)
Ultimately our sin is against a holy and righteous God.
There is more we can learn from David’s psalm about repentance. Though David’s sin was against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, it was ultimately a sin against a holy and righteous God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge” (Ps. 51:4). As R.C. Sproul wrote in The Holiness of God,
Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself.
Here are five important things we can learn about repentance from Psalm 51:
1. You need to trust in God’s steadfast love and mercy.
When we sin, we have to turn to God in humble reliance upon his steadfast love and mercy. This is a characteristic of God found throughout the Bible, and one which the Lord announced to Moses:
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exod. 34:6-7)
It was this truth that David rested in as he cried out to the Lord for forgiveness:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. (Ps. 51:1)
2. Salvation and forgiveness come from God alone.
We can turn nowhere else but to God for forgiveness; he alone can cleanse us from our sin, and his salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. As David wrote,
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow… Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior. (Ps. 51:2, 7, 14)
John assures us that when we turn to God in repentance, he forgives us:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
3. Our sin creates a barrier.
All sin creates a barrier between us and God. Jesus came to tear down that dividing wall through his perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection. David refers to this barrier in Psalm 51:
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Ps. 51:11-12)
4. We have to be cleansed by God to be restored.
Our sin requires cleansing. We have to be made right before we can come into God’s presence. Christ has accomplished that cleansing for us when he bore the weight of all our sins at the cross. We have been made new:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17)
This is what David asked for in his lament:
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Ps. 51:10)
5. God accepts our pleas for forgiveness.
Because of Jesus, God accepts our broken and contrite hearts:
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Ps. 51:16-17)
Christ now sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us, pointing to his very own royal robes of righteousness which we now wear.
Psalm 51 is a psalm of repentance and one from which we can learn and even use to model our own confessions. When we feel the pain of conviction—a crushing weight that feels like broken bones—we can run to our Father and cry out to him in repentance. And we can do so in complete confidence, knowing that our loving, merciful God forgives us through the cleansing and atoning blood of our Savior.
Thisarticlewas originally published at theChristward Collective under the title "Learning Repentance from the Psalmist" and was first featured at Beautiful Christian Life on August 3, 2018. Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
A while back I had an absolute blast flying in the back of a high-performance biplane designed for high speed aerobatics. After doing some flips and barrel rolls, the pilot let me know that he was going to fly straight up, kill the engine, and nose dive straight down towards the rocky terrain below.
While laughing, he warned me that we would hit 8.5 Gs and about half of the people that ride with him black out. Due to my military experience, I knew what a good amount of g-force felt like, so I clocked in, took a deep breath, and prepared for tunnel vision. As he killed the engine and we began plummeting towards God’s good earth, I felt like I weighed three hundred pounds and my sight became limited to what seemed like a pinhole. Everything around me was black except for that narrow plot of land below.
In the same way that I experienced tunnel vision that day (by the way, I did not black out), many believers can focus so much on other aspects of the Christian life that they neglect the great doctrine of the second coming of Christ. Not only can the pressing cares of this life be overwhelming at times, but Christians can also be hesitant to focus on Jesus’ second coming due to their unfamiliarity with eschatological (study of end-times) positions, a knee-jerk reaction to false prophecies about the date of Christ’s return, or just an unfamiliarity about what Scripture says about Christ Jesus’ return. Here are three reasons to be excited right now about the second coming of Jesus:
1. The second coming is the next and final event in redemptive history.
At the same time, we cannot lose Paul’s commitment to “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Yet, if one was to survey the prayers of Paul alone, it appears that Paul saw the second coming as the next and final event in redemptive history.
I could not escape that he held the second coming of Christ highly and as a necessary hope for all Christians. The epistles of Paul use the second coming, or “the Day,” as a future reality that transforms how we live in the here and now. Let’s look at a few examples:
[W]hen he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 1:10-12)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6)
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:23)
Whether it is Jesus commanding that we ought to be awake and prepared for his return (Matt. 24-25), or the resurrected and exalted Christ using his second coming as a comfort throughout the book of Revelation, Christians are called to be a people who long for this great day. As Hebrews 9:28 says,
So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Did you catch that? We are called to be a people with a sense of focused vision who are eagerly awaiting that day.
2. The second coming is a doctrine full of hope and practical implications right now.
As we fix our eyes on Christ and his return, it will transform the way we deal with ordinary and mundane things in the here and now. This might change the prayers of the stay-at-home mom from, “Oh Lord, give me just a little break” to “Oh Lord, would you save the soul of my child so that she will be found in you at your second coming?” This may transform the prayers of the weary pastor from “God, grow the church” to “God, help me equip and prepare your sheep for that great day!” Whatever it might be for you, the second coming is a doctrine full of hope and practical implications right now. As Charles Spurgeon once said, “Our position towards our Lord is that of waiting for His coming.”[1]
The question is, are we a people infused with the hope of the glory of God as we await his coming and prepare for his return? This is not a focused vision that directs our eyes straight down towards the ground, but it instead fixes our eyes upon Christ Jesus who came a first time to deal with sin and has promised to come again for us.
3. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ is found throughout all of Scripture.
Many of the minor prophets zoom in on the day of Jesus’ return being a day of judgment and salvation. All who are found in Christ will marvel and rejoice at his coming, but those not in him will tremble in terror. This should not be a shock to us, because the first coming of Christ found its pinnacle at the cross where both judgment and salvation were accomplished, just as the minor prophets foretold. The judgment of God towards sinners was poured out upon the innocent Son of God. All those who trust in him walk away with the gift of salvation because judgment has been fully paid.
Yet, when Christ returns, it will be the consummation of all salvation where those in Christ will marvel at him and enter into his presence, but all those who denied him will endure the eternal judgment of God forever. This is Paul’s point in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 where he argues for a worldwide event of judgment and salvation at the same time:
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thess. 1:9-10)
As we eagerly await that day, we must remember we are in the already-and-not-yet: “already” in the sense of Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of his Spirit that has secured the promise of his return, but “not yet” in the sense that we are awaiting for all of these things to come in their fullness when we see Christ face-to-face. Is not that the thing we eagerly expect most? To see our Lord and King face-to-face?
This article was originally published on October 24, 2018.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
In my time as a pastor I regularly encountered people who were in dire straits—unemployed, homeless, struggling with addiction, and the like. I feel sorry for people when they suffer and always did what I could to render assistance. Our church always reserved funds, for example, to purchase food for people if they were struggling to make ends meet.
Yet, at the same time, an experienced ruling elder made an important observation that has stuck with me. When people came knocking on the church door, more often than not, they were typically at the end of a long series of broken authority structures in life.
Gather pertinent information to more effectively help people.
This elder reminded me that people seldom have calamity randomly fall upon them. There are certainly times when this does occur, and so in each case you have to ask a lot of questions and do your best to evaluate the specific nature of a person’s problems. But God places numerous authority structures in our lives to assist us along the way: parents, extended family, school teachers, local authorities (e.g., government and police), and for Christians, the church (pastors and elders).
Along these lines, when you talk to someone who has been unemployed for a long period of time and regularly struggles to make ends meet, ask a lot of questions. You ask questions not to accuse or find reasons to dismiss people’s needs, but rather so you can do your best to help them. You can toss money at a problem and provide for a person’s rent for one month, but will that actually solve anything? Have you only treated the symptom rather than the root cause?
For example, you may be attempting to help a person who ignored his parents’ and teachers’ advice and dropped out of high school, and who has regular run-ins with the local authorities. If you give this person money, you will fix the problem for the short term but leave the underlying cause untreated. Namely, this person does not want to submit to authority, and a failure to repent of this attitude will only continue to bring problems in their life.
We must be wise in how we assist people.
For someone who needs financial help, you need to ask: Where is your family? Do you have extended family that can help? Have you tried government assistance? Are you a member of a church, and have you approached your deacons? Again, you aren’t looking for a reason to say no to people but rather are trying to figure out why they have problems to begin with. Perhaps they are estranged from their family. Perhaps they have been disciplined by their church. Regardless of the scenarios, don’t just throw money at people. It may make you feel better if you toss money at a problem, but in the end, you may do more harm than good.
We should always seek to help the needy, but we must be wise in how we assist people. It could be that by failing to do your due diligence and ask questions, you give money to someone and make their life worse. Then you run out of money and can’t help the person who genuinely needs it. Take note of when people cross lines. Seek to treat the causes of a person’s problems, not merely the symptoms.
This article by J. V. Fesko is adapted from “A Pastor’s Reflections: Crossing Lines” and was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on February 5, 2019. For more helpful content by Dr. Fesko, please visit jvfesko.com.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
While many Christians know that spending time in Scripture must become a priority—a valuable discipline—in our lives, we will keep ourselves from much blessing if we don’t also make the discipline of meditation an essential part of our worship.
The moment I mention the word meditation, however, it is possible that you are immediately drawn to images of people sitting in the Lotus Position: eyes closed, legs crossed, with palms up on one’s knees, with the thumb and middle finger on each hand slightly touching. That’s because our culture is fascinated with Eastern meditation and, most recently, something called “Mindfulness” (although mindfulness experts do not all insist on one specific kind of posture, even though they would say posture is important).
What Biblical Meditation Is Not
This kind of meditation is generally characterized by the use of repeated mantras, the constant act of releasing one’s “bad” or “harmful” thoughts or the clearing of one’s mind of any “thinking” whatsoever. Mindfulness is not meditation per se but is usually achieved through a kind of meditation that focuses on controlled breathing and fixing all of one’s concentration on the “now” of one’s experience. “Mindfulness,” we are told, “is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”
It is not an exaggeration that biblical meditation is almost completely antithetical to the brand of meditation described above. First, we know that biblical meditation doesn’t include the use of repeated mantras, for Christ himself tells us to not multiply thoughtless words in our prayers to God (Matt. 6:7).
Second, biblical meditation is best understood, not as mind-emptying, but mind-filling; not thought removal, but thought replacement. Nor is biblical meditation mere “mindfulness,” for without the instruction of God’s Word our act of being “fully present” may leave us vulnerable to deceitful spirits (Eph. 6:12); and our endeavor not to be “overly reactive or overwhelmed” will merely be an act of our will, unguided and unprotected by divine wisdom.
Finally, the effectiveness of biblical meditation is not dependent on a certain kind of posture. In fact, it’s not dependent on posture at all. You can meditate on your bed (Ps. 63:6), or you can meditate in the midst of your preparations for battle (Josh. 1:8). You can meditate day and night, no matter what you are doing (Ps. 1:1-6).
What Biblical Meditation Is
Meditation, very simply, is ruminating on, thinking over, and pondering God (Ps. 63:6), his works (Ps. 72:12; 119:27, 148; 145:3, 5), and his Word (Ps. 1:1-6; 119:15, 23, 48, 78). In Hebrew, the word for meditation literally means to mumble to oneself; speaking to oneself audibly or in one’s heart. But it is not a mindless activity or the repetition of a mantra. Biblically, to meditate means to ponder, consider, chew on, and mull over the word of God. Biblical meditation is full of content, not void of it; it is thoughtful, not thoughtless.
Why Is Biblical Meditation So Important?
The central reason why meditation is vital in the life of the believer is that meditation is the bridge between knowledge and obedience (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 119:98-100). How many of us have our minds filled with a broad knowledge of biblical truth, but have remained, for the most part, superficial and spiritually immature because we don’t allow the truth to go deep into our hearts through meditation?
Meditation is how the word of Christ dwells in us richly (Col. 3:16a), which leads to a life of joy and gratitude (Col. 3:16b), of universal obedience (Col. 3:17), and of being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:15-17; cf. Col. 3:16). Meditation, according to John Owen, is one of only two disciplines (prayer being the other) that have “a special tendency towards the ruin of the law of sin” (Temptation and Sin, 224). As Maurice Roberts wisely observed years ago,
It is not the busy skimming over religious books or the careless hastening through religious duties which makes for a strong Christian faith. Rather, it is unhurried meditation on gospel truths and the exposing of our minds to these truths that yields the fruit of sanctified character. (Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines, 55)
Meditation plants the truth of God’s word deep into our souls so that we are genuinely changed and enabled to walk in faith and obedience. I am willing to risk exaggeration at this point by saying that the primary reason most Christians plateau in their spiritual growth is for lack of true meditation. Install meditation firmly into your arsenal of spiritual disciplines, and you will do much to promote intimacy with Christ, spiritual maturity, and wisdom in your life.
How Can I Meditate on God’s Word?
If meditation is so important, how do I make it happen? Here are a few practical suggestions to help you establish this important discipline.
1. Read less (if necessary) to meditate more. Donald Whitney offers this advice: “If you could not possibly add more time to your devotional schedule for meditating on your Scripture reading, read less in order to have some unhurried time for meditation” (Spiritual Disciplines, 55).
2. Make observations and ask questions about the text. One of the best and simplest ways to meditate on Scripture is to observe what’s there and ask questions about the text as you seek to understand the author’s meaning. Observe and ask questions about the words used, connections between sentences, and specific points of application. This last point is crucial because we want to be doers of the Word, not mere hearers (James 1:22).
3. Meditate on a single verse for the good of your soul. I’ve written about this practice before. Suffice it to say here that you might find it spiritually nourishing to choose one verse (e.g., John 14:6; Rom. 4:5), write it down on a sheet of paper, and think about that verse over the course of weeks, writing down observations, questions, and points of application on that same sheet of paper. During the course of the week, you might take a couple of one-hour sessions to simply sit with that verse and think over it. It is simply amazing how much we grow from spending much time—even several hours—over one verse.
4. Keep a journal. Does the Bible command us to keep a journal? No. Yet, for many of us, a journal is a useful tool in the practice of meditation. Why? Because writing in a journal helps you exercise sustained thought over the Scripture, which allows you to ask and answer questions, synthesize this particular text with other biblical texts, all of which enables you to better apply the truth, solidify your convictions, and deepen your affections.
“Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That!”
If you think you don’t have time for regular Bible reading, meditation, and prayer, consider the following chart.
I’ve allowed a total of sixty-five hours for your work (time at work and your commute) and given you eight hours of sleep a night. You have a little over an hour and a half each day for meals and for getting ready for the day. You have about forty minutes a day, six days a week, to get some exercise, and seven total hours for corporate worship and fellowship. You also have fourteen hours a week for family time, friends, or other miscellaneous activities. That leaves you with an “extra” ten hours a week. Perhaps you only work fifty hours a week. Well, now you’ve got a discretionary twenty hours a week.
Granted, this table above reflects the schedule of one whose work is outside the home, but a mom could fit her own categories into this chart and find a similar result (besides, it is the husband’s job to make sure his wife has time alone in the Word and in prayer). My point is simply to show you that you do, in fact, have time during the week to devote to the Lord in biblical reading, meditation, and prayer.
Spending Time Alone with God in His Word and Prayer Is Essential to Our Spiritual Lives
But framing it the way I just did with the above chart is actually a little backward. We’ve noted in the last few posts that spending time alone with God in his Word and in prayer is essential to our spiritual lives. When we think of “all the things we need to do” during the course of our week, the spiritual disciplines of prayer and the Word should already be on the list.
John Owen is right when he reminds us: “It is certain that God gives us time enough for all that he requires of us” (p. 230). If it is essential for our Christian life, God will ensure that we have time for it.
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The apostle John stood on Golgotha and watched Jesus die in agony. He heard him utter, “It is finished,” and he saw his head drop at the moment of his death. He saw the soldier take his spear and plunge it into Jesus’ side, right into his heart. And he saw something remarkable: an immediate flow of blood and water (John 19:34). This distressing and surprising sight gripped John’s mind and soul. We know that because of the very weighty testimony he gives to it:
The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. (John 19:35; see also 1 John 5:6-8; all Scripture quotations from NIV)
This makes us think of the temple. The temple was God’s house, and a person could only go into God’s house via the altar and the sea (1 Kings 7:23-26 and 2 Chron. 4:2-5). At the altar sin was atoned for by the blood of a substitutionary sacrifice. At the sea—which held some seventeen tons of water—sin was washed away.
Reconciliation to God means blood atonement, and washing. Jesus’ death, releasing water and blood, accomplished both for his people.
Jesus’ death has washed us.
My impression is that we focus very much on the blood. I believe in Jesus, he died for me and his blood atoned for my sins, and so I have been saved from the punishment of hell. This is glorious, but he did not die just to free us from punishment. He died also to wash us and make us clean. He died to save us from the punishment of sin, and he died to wash away the corruption of sin: the guilt of our sin, and its power over our lives.
A believer therefore not only has a new ultimate destiny, but a new life right now. The old sinful nature has been crucified (Rom. 6:6). We have been freed from its slavery (Rom. 6:18). We were once wedded to the sinful nature; but that cruel old husband is now dead, and now we belong to a good husband (Rom. 7:4). Our sinful hearts of stone are transformed into tender hearts of flesh (Ezek. 36:26). There is rebirth (John 3:7) and a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
Sanctification is the process of growing in holiness.
Jesus’ death has washed us. We are free to walk in this new life, we will want to walk in this new life, and we must walk in this new life. This is sanctification.
The word is built from the Latin sanctus, meaning “holy.” In the Latin Bible the angels around the throne in Isaiah 6 call out Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus! Sanctification is the process of growing in holiness.
At this point we must distinguish between definitive and progressive sanctification. Definitive sanctification is really the same as justification; it is an act of God whereby he declares us right and holy in his sight on the ground of Jesus’ death:
…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).
And John saw in heaven a great multitude of the saved, dressed in white robes before the throne of God: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). These passages describe a once-off, complete, and definitive sanctification, wholly wrought by God.
Believers have been sanctified, and they have also been called to grow in holiness.
Notwithstanding, there are many passages that describe a progressive sanctification, a steady growth in holiness through the believer’s life:
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
Notice here the process: believers are being transformed. We see something similar in Ephesians 5.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Eph. 5:25-27)
Husbands are called to steadily wash and sanctify their wives with the Word of God in the same way that Jesus is steadily washing and sanctifying his church.
Holiness is not something to which only some special Christians aspire.
We see both definitive and progressive sanctification in 1 Corinthians 1:2,
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified [definitive sanctification] in Christ Jesus and called to be holy [progressive sanctification], together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours. [“Sanctified” and “holy” translate Greek words with the same root.]
There is nothing optional about sanctification.
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)
Holiness is not something that some special Christians will aspire to. Every Christian will “make every effort ... to be holy,” for the Lord is holy and without holiness we will never see him.
Thus, while justification and definitive sanctification are things that the Lord declares true of us, without any cooperation on our part, progressive sanctification is something in which we participate. Progressive sanctification is a work of God in and with us. God commands us by his Word to work and strive for holiness, and as we do this by power and strength of his Holy Spirit he transforms us into the likeness of his Son (Romans 8:29).
How does God do this? There is a fighting against and a fighting for.
Like Joseph, who fled from Potiphar’s wife, we must flee and fight against what is corrupt and sinful. “Flee from sexual immorality!” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:18. And in 1 Timothy 6:11-12, “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.” The Greek word for fight is ἀγωνιζομαι (agonizomai), a word used to describe athletic contests: struggling, striving, and straining every nerve.
And we fight for holiness. This means taking hold of the “means of grace,” the tools that Jesus has lovingly given us to sanctify us. In Clash of the Titans the gods gave Perseus special gifts that they knew he would need in order to survive his ordeals, and to rescue Andromeda from the Kraken. They gave him a sharp sword, a polished shield that could be used as a mirror, a helmet to make him invisible, and Pegasus to fly him swiftly from place to place.
The living God has given us the gifts of his word, prayer, fellowship, and the sacraments.
We fight for holiness, for this leads to true peace and joy.
You can tell those Christians who are fighting for holiness. They are systematically and greedily devouring God’s word. They have calluses on their knees. Wild horses could not keep them from meeting with God’s people. They often remind themselves that they are baptized: not the event itself, but the fact of their baptism, an outward sign and pledge that Christ has cleansed them with his blood. And they treasure the Lord’s Supper, that regular tangible seizing of the body and blood of the sacrificed Jesus, without which we have no life.
There is nothing passive about the Christian walk. We trust and rest entirely on the grace of God for our salvation, and from there we struggle and fight for holiness with “might and main.”
We fight for holiness, for this leads to real peace and joy. We fight for holiness, “for without holiness no one will see the LORD” (Heb. 12:14). We fight for holiness, because our Father, whom we love, is holy and he wants us to be like him. “Be holy, because I the LORD your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23).
May the blood and the water that poured from Jesus’ side do its work in you as you strive for holiness.
This article was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on October 3, 2019.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
“Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times’” (Matt. 18:21-22).
Most of us have gone through the experience of being hurt badly by someone. Maybe the person asked for our forgiveness or perhaps seemed to think they had done nothing wrong. As Christians we know God commands us to forgive as we have been forgiven, so we strive to obey God and forgive the person with a sincere heart.
When we experience pain over past wrongs, we need to remember God’s word.
Yet, even when we’re confident that we have truly forgiven the person, it can happen that at some point the feelings come back suddenly and unexpectedly: feelings of rejection, pain, and anger, and the sense of being terribly wronged. What then? Did we not forgive well enough the first time? Do we need to forgive again (and maybe again and again) or perhaps somehow do a better job of forgiving?
I want to encourage you to have patience with yourself in the area of forgiveness. Because we have truly forgiven someone from the heart doesn’t mean all our memories are gone. Our act of forgiveness doesn’t mean all the pain goes away. This is particularly the case in very grievous wrongs committed against us and the people we love dearly, those in which the aftereffects plague us in one way or another for the rest of our lives. Instead of despairing over our struggles to forgive, we can take our struggles to God in our prayers.
It is God’s will for Christians to forgive others.
In the passage above where Jesus says we should forgive others “seventy-seven times,” he is telling us that there should be no limits to our forgiveness. There is no sin that anyone can commit against us that is beyond our forgiveness. Jesus emphasized the critical importance of forgiveness after teaching his disciples to pray, stating:
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt. 6:14-15)
We can look to Jesus as our example when we are struggling to forgive.
But do we have to forgive others who haven’t asked for our forgiveness? While some Christians teach that this isn’t required of believers, it’s difficult to think of a good reason not to forgive others regardless of the level of repentance on their part.
On the cross Jesus asked his Father to forgive his persecutors because they didn’t know what they were doing (Luke 23:24). And what greater example do we have of what it means to be a Christian than the one our Lord has given us? If we are following in Jesus’ footsteps, we should want to forgive as he forgives. How can we be stingy with our forgiveness when God has so generously poured out his forgiveness upon us?
Forgiving others involves humility and wisdom on our part.
Charles Spurgeon once stated, “Humility is to make a right estimation of one’s self.” When we remember all that God has forgiven us, including the countless acts of selfishness and rebellious behavior that we never even recognize we’ve done, it should bring us to our knees. As we look inwardly and consider the evil thoughts and actions our own fallen hearts have produced, both knowingly and unknowingly, we remember that without God’s mercy we would be without hope.
Forgiving people, however, does not mean that they deserve our immediate trust. When trust is breached in a relationship, it takes time and work to build it up again, and hopefully the trust will be even stronger. Sometimes, however, trust can never be rebuilt. Sometimes it will be the case that we must never again risk placing ourselves in certain situations due to even the remotest possibility of being harmed. Still, we can—and should—forgive those who have hurt us as Jesus commands us to do.
We need God’s help to forgive others as God has forgiven us.
In her book The Hiding Place, Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom describes meeting one of the Schutzstaffel (SS) guards her sister Betsy and she encountered at Ravensbruck:
It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. (Baker Publishing Group, 2006, p. 247)
Our loving God makes seemingly impossible forgiveness entirely possible.
As Corrie Ten Boom so poignantly recounts, if we depend only on our own ability to forgive the most horrendous wrongs done to us and those we love dearly, we will likely fall short. We need God to give us his perfect, unending love so we can then give it to those who have trespassed against us. In forgiving others again and again we show compassion instead of condemnation—the very way we want God and others to treat us.
God sent his only begotten Son all the way to Calvary to die a horrible death so that we could be forgiven by Christ’s perfect righteousness and perfect sacrifice counted to us through faith in Christ alone. At the cross God found a way to be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Since God showed us such unfathomable love in redeeming us, we can be confident that he will not forsake his beloved children in their ongoing struggles to forgive.
Like Corrie, may we pray to our Lord to give us his love to forgive and then forgive again and again, even when it seems impossible, and may we trust that God will work in our hearts to help us forgive completely and love fully as we have been forgiven completely and loved fully by him in Christ.
This article is adapted from “When It Seems Impossible to Forgive” in Beautiful Christian Life’s September 2024 monthly newsletter, “Forgiveness.”
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. — 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
Resurrection is supposed to be happy news, a celebration of joyful victory and sweet reunion. Yet, you can’t reach the shores of the resurrection without passing through the bitter trenches of death. So it was when Jesus raised Lazarus. Before he could call his friend from the tomb, Jesus was brought to tears with Lazarus’s two distraught sisters. And so it is with Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. As he displays the glory of the resurrection before us, he does so mindful of our grief and with the aim to comfort.
Some saints in Corinth were skeptical of Christ’s own resurrection.
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is dealing with an issue that some of the saints of Corinth had—they were saying there is no resurrection. Some of them may have been skeptical of Christ’s own resurrection, but the chief sticking point seems to be our own resurrection. Surely, the average Christian is not raised from the dead. And it is definitely not a bodily resurrection.
Paul makes the point that if there is no resurrection, if those who died have perished forever, if we hope in Christ only in this life, then we are the most pitiful people ever. If there is no resurrection, then the whole Christian religion is pointless, a hoax, a waste. This is how important the resurrection is to our faith.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hopein this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor. 15:16-19)
Next, Paul transitions to make a positive point. He declares a factual assertion: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20a). Paul states as a fact of history that Christ was resurrected. Jesus was once dead; he was laid in the ground and covered with the stone door of death.
But he did not stay dead; he did not remain under the power of death like every human before him. Jesus was raised—it is a fact of history, an actual event of our physical world. The popular religions in Corinth within the Roman world believed all sorts of things and stories about the gods and goddesses.
The problem, though, was that these religious sagas were just that, stories. They were fiction, make-believe fantasy novels. They didn’t actually happen. Not so with Christ and his resurrection.
Christ is indeed risen from the dead.
Beloved saints, your faith is not based on a nice, emotional story that gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling; it is not founded upon a myth, on fake news, on a conspiracy story, or upon wishful thinking. Rather, your faith is established on a true fact. Jesus Christ has been raised. God acted marvelously in history to raise Jesus Christ from the dead to be alive forevermore.
After stating this fact boldly, Paul adds a line of description:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 15:20).
Christ was raised as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Paul labels and characterizes Jesus’ resurrection as the firstfruits. But how is Jesus’ resurrection a firstfruit? And what is meant by firstfruit?
What is meant by the word “firstfruit”?
This idea of firstfruit comes from the Old Testament. Now, the basic idea of firstfruit is just like it sounds: it referred to the first ripe/processed fruit of the harvest. Let’s say that you are living during the time of the old (Mosaic) covenant administration and have an acre of fig trees, and from your first picking you get a bushel (firstfruit). Or perhaps you have a plot of grapes, and the first jug of wine finished is your firstfruit.
Firstfruits were often considered some of the best of a harvest—they were to be given to God as an offering. That first bushel of figs had to be handed over to the Lord. Yet, aside from this general idea of firstfruits, there was actually a special day of firstfruits on Israel’s calendar.
Israel had a special day called “the day of firstfruits.”
Generally, firstfruits could be brought at any time, but one day on the sacred calendar of Israel received the label of “the day of firstfruits” (Num. 28:26). And because this is a calendar day, Paul’s first point is one of history. Jesus was raised not just as a firstfruit, but on the day of firstfruits. Yet, when did this day fall on Israel’s calendar?
The day of firstfruits came in the first month, during a festive season. First, there was Passover on the fourteenth day of the month. The next day, the fifteenth, was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was a special day of convocation that could be called a sabbath. Then, on the next day of the sixteenth fell the Day of Firstfruits. So the order was Passover, Unleavened Bread, Day of Firstfruits—the 14th, 15th, 16th—1,2,3.
Jesus was raised on the third day.
You can see how Leviticus 23:9-14 is an Old Testament text that pointed to Jesus’s resurrection on the third day. In 1 Corinthians 15:4, Paul writes that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. Yet, what Old Testament text predicted a third day resurrection? Well, by calling Christ’s resurrection a firstfruit, Paul echoes Leviticus 23.
Indeed, think of your history. Jesus died on Passover, the fourteenth day, as the true Passover lamb. The next day, the fifteenth, was a high Sabbath, meaning the weekly Sabbath aligned with the festival convocation of the Unleavened Bread. This is when Jesus lay in the tomb and the disciples waited at home. Then, on the sixteenth, the day of firstfruits, the women ran to the tomb and found it empty.
This means that Sunday is both the Day of Resurrection and the Day of Firstfruits. Just as God linked Jesus’ death to the fulfillment of Passover, so he tied his resurrection to the fulfillment of the day of firstfruits. Our Lord’s resurrection is both an event of history and the fulfillment of one of the Old Testament’s ancient promises.
Our Lord’s resurrection is not a firstfruit just for its historical value, but also for its meaning.
Here you have further evidence for your faith that you should not doubt, but rest confidently and joyfully in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul labels our Lord’s resurrection as a firstfruit not just for its historical value, but also for its meaning. Firstfruit describes the nature and character of his resurrection.
So, what was the day of firstfruits all about? Again we see how the Lord worked out the truth of our redemption within the realities of the lives of his people. Passover fell right at the beginning of the barley harvest, and the offering brought on the day of firstfruits was a sheaf or bundle of barley.
And this barley offering did two things. First, it opened up the harvest season for food. Before this day, the Lord prohibited Israel from eating any of the new harvest; they could only eat last year’s crop. Yet, with the day of firstfruits and the barley sheaf, the harvest could officially begin; they could now taste the sweetness of fresh new grain.
This is as though, after months of eating frozen or canned fruit, you get to walk up and pick a fresh berry on the vine—delicious! The second part of firstfruits was that the barley sheaf was offered so that Israel may be accepted. The offering of barley firstfruit obtained favor and acceptance for Israel from the Lord.
The Lord’s acceptance of the firstfruits was a seal that he would protect his people to safely bring in the full harvest.
And this acceptance was a guarantee, representation, and seal that the Lord would protect his people to safely bring in the full harvest. Without a full harvest, the people would starve. And the spring harvest season for Israel was a scary time, coated in apprehension and uncertainty. For during the barley harvest, April to May, it is the season of the sirocco.
Like California’s Santa Ana winds, the sirocco is a scorching east wind that sweeps in off the high desert to burn up and destroy every blade of standing grain. A sirocco can blow in dust storms (80 mph) that jump the temperature thirty degrees in a matter of minutes and reduce visibility down to a few yards. The sirocco can sizzle your entire crop and livelihood in no time.
This danger and fear also align with Israel coming out of Egypt when Pharaoh’s army was chasing after them. Thus, the barley sheaf for Israel’s acceptance was God’s assurance that he would watch over them during this scary season and bring them to his full harvest. The barley sheaf represented the whole harvest, and it is this significance that Paul explains.
The first sheaf of barley represented and was the avenue for the entire harvest.
First, Paul underscores the representation: The first sheaf of barley stood for and was the avenue for the entire harvest. So, for this representation, he brings up the two federal heads. By a man came death for all. In Adam, all die. Human death is an inevitable reality of our existence. It is all we know—people are born and people die.
They say death and taxes are the two certainties of life, but with accounting gymnastics, you can evade taxes. Devious people can avoid taxes, but the most brilliant and nefarious person has never evaded death. Since the heritage of Adam and Eve belongs to you, then you will die. Adam is the captain for team death. In Adam, the grim reaper is our mascot.
Yet, there is an opposing team: another team captain arose in Christ. He stands as the representative for team resurrection. By the man Jesus Christ comes resurrection from the dead. All those in Christ will be made alive. Jesus is the firstfruit for all who have died. Jesus is the head and representative for all who will be raised through him.
Order is another important aspect of firstfruit.
By this two-Adam scheme, Paul explains what it means that Christ was raised as the firstfruits. Still, there is another aspect of firstfruit that Paul stresses, which is order. By definition, firstfruits come first. There is the Day of Firstfruits, then the full harvest, and finally, when the entire harvest is finished, there is a celebration.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Cor. 15:21-22)
Of course, Paul is not dealing with barley, wheat, and figs, but rather he is working with the realities of death and new life. He is focused on Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. Hence, he says, “each in his own order.” As the firstfruits, Christ’s resurrection must be temporally prior to our resurrection.
Waiting for our resurrection challenges our faith.
Part of the issue with the Corinthians was this order, this waiting: “Okay, maybe Christ was raised, but why not us? Where is our resurrection? If we are not like Christ now, then it is not going to happen! Doesn’t the waiting negate our chances of resurrection?” We have to admit that the waiting also can trip up our faith.
History records Jesus’ resurrection, but no other humans have been eternally raised yet, so maybe it is not going to happen. Thus, Paul states that Jesus’ resurrection was a firstfruit, which includes the very order of delay and waiting. Each in its own order: firstfruits, then the harvest; Christ, then us. Indeed, Paul shows himself to only be concerned with the resurrection of believers.
For you who believe in Christ, Jesus is the firstfruit of your own personal resurrection.
Jesus is the firstfruit of those who have fallen asleep, which parallels those who will be made alive in Christ and further aligns with those who belong to him at this coming. For you who believe in Christ, who rest in him, Jesus is the firstfruit of your own personal resurrection.
The resurrection of the saints, Jesus’ second coming, and the subduing of all things under Christ and the Father, all add up to the end. In these complex series of events, the end will break into history. And Paul clearly underscores the end of this age in order to make clear we are not yet there.
Our resurrection, Christ’s coming, and the subjection of everything have not happened.
Right now we are in the time between the firstfruits and the harvest. We live between Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. And what is the season like between the Day of Firstfruits and the final harvest? First, Paul tells us that Jesus is presently reigning:
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:24-28)
Before the end springs, Jesus reigns. Right now Christ Jesus is at the right hand ruling. The chaotic tragedies of our lives and histories may seem like no one is behind the wheel. Is anyone steering this ship called life? Yes, Jesus Christ the Resurrected Son of God, is ruling from heaven. And what is he doing?
Jesus is in the process of subduing authorities and hostile forces.
One by one, Jesus is knocking pieces off the chess board. When Jesus brings you or another saint to faith, what else is he doing? By saving you, Jesus subdues you from being a hostile to being a servant, a child, and a friend. In our redemption, Jesus turns enemies into devoted loved ones. Yet, not all of Christ’s subduing is so transformative.
Some enemies will not be transformed but destroyed. Some enemies will not be raised to Christ’s side, but will be subjected under his feet. And Paul mentions one adversary that will be kicking and striving until the end. One chess piece from the opposing team will stand until the end. And this final foe is death.
The combatant death yet wages war; it still takes victims. The sword of the grave still drinks blood and consumes flesh. The grim reaper works his business of turning wives into widows. Death steals babies from cribs and buries young people in the spring of life. Death robs dads from their teenagers and turns the warm touch of love to cold.
Yes, in stating that our final adversary is death, Paul is acknowledging and substantiating your grief. The sirocco danger was real in Old Testament times; it gusted upon their lives fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. A sirocco storm was something to lament. Indeed, by calling death the last enemy, Paul confirms the evilness of death, that it is not something we should merely make light of.
Death is still an evil for God’s saints.
Even for us saints, when in death we go to be with the Lord, death is still an evil. Death kills a life created good and valuable by the Lord. Death kidnaps those we love. Death traffics humans away from us. Death murders the beautiful into the ugly; it darkens light, turns off all audio, and putrefies the pleasant into the disgusting.
Life as we know it is touching, talking, listening, eating with, and enjoying other people. But death erases all of this. This is why Mary and Martha were stricken with anger and anguish at the death of Lazarus. And this is why in compassion Jesus wept with these two sisters. With the same compassion, Paul confirms Jesus’ resurrection as the firstfruits.
In Christ, you also will be raised up.
As a firstfruit resurrection, Jesus is your representative and paradigm. In Christ, you also will be raised up. And your resurrection body will be like the glorified flesh of Christ. Yet, most poignantly here, the firstfruit offering was for acceptance; it was a seal of guarantee for the full harvest.
As surely as Christ was raised as the firstfruits, so you also must be raised. The resurrection of Christ doesn’t make your resurrection just possible or probable or likely. It makes your resurrection necessary. Since Christ was raised as your firstfruit, you have to be raised. It is like a law of new creation—it cannot happen any other way.
Furthermore, to harvest grain is corporate activity; it is not about one single grain but rather all the grain being brought in together. Your resurrection isn’t just about a new body, but about reunion with all those in Christ that death stole from you. Where death kidnaps our beloved saints, the resurrection is Christ’s family reunion.
And this is your comfort and assurance every Lord’s Day, as each Lord’s Day is the day of resurrection, a fulfillment of that Day of Firstfruits. The anxiety of death is yet felt within us, but sure consolation of your Savior is that he was raised as firstfruits. And it is this consolation that solidifies and strengthens your faith in life, especially in death.
The burden of death is far outweighed by the sweet glory of Christ’s resurrection.
We will still feel the agony of death, but death is not the victory. The grief of death is still heavy upon us, but the sweet glory of Christ’s resurrection far outweighs the burden of death. Christ is our strength and song whose burden is light and whose joy is eternal. Indeed, the sweet reunion we await in the resurrection is especially about us being reunited with our Holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
As Paul says, at the end Christ will offer everything, even us, up to the Father so that God will be all in all. This is the greatest wonder and good of all—God being all in all. So, may we praise God as our all until this final day. May we sing Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day of Christ’s glories. And may we ever praise him as the Resurrected One, the firstfruits of our resurrection.
This article is adapted from the Rev. Zach Keele’ssermon on 1 Corinthians 15:20-28preached on October 23, 2011, and was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on June 14, 2019.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
We know prayer is a “must” of worship. Yet, even with something as “safe” as the Lord’s Prayer, we need to think, “Can we do this?” And if so, “Why should we do it?”
Here are three reasons why we should say the Lord’s Prayer in our church services:
1. Jesus told us to use it.
Jesus, in instructing his disciples on the basics of prayer, uses the imperative and tells them to “Pray in this manner!” (Matt. 6:9), going on to then give what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. This has been taken to mean—and rightly so—that the Lord’s Prayer should be used as a template for prayer, that we are to pray like this. This is true. Yet, in Luke’s account, Jesus’ words are slightly different: “When you pray, say this…” (11:2). This shows us that the Lord’s Prayer is not just a guiding principle, but rather a model prayer which should be constantly used.
We can be so easily distracted and misguided in our prayers, and what better way to protect against this than by using words Jesus himself composed for our communication with the Father! As John Calvin noted, “We know we are requesting nothing absurd, nothing strange or unseemly—in short, nothing unacceptable to him—since we are asking in his own words” (Institutes, 2.20.34).
2. The church has historically used this prayer.
The tradition of reciting the Lord’s Prayer in worship goes back long before the Reformation, all the way to the ancient church fathers. The Didache, a guide to Christian life and worship dating back (at least) to the second century, instructed that this prayer be used three times a day! The use of the prayer was a staple in the medieval church, and the Reformers retained the practice. After all, the Reformers were only ridding the church of idolatrous worship—they kept the biblical parts!
The Westminster Assembly’s The Directory for the Publick Worship of God (1645) suggests the corporate use of this prayer in service: “And because the prayer which Christ taught his disciples is not only a pattern of prayer, but itself a most comprehensive prayer, we recommend it also to be used in the prayers of the church.”
3. It’s a tool for learning the Christian faith.
If you look at the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, you will find that they include an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer. Why? Because the theologians who wrote these catechisms recognized that learning this prayer was a great tool in teaching doctrine.
Think about this in terms of our children in worship. Admittedly, there will be elements of the service that they will not fully comprehend or be able to participate in. They may not be able to read along with the scripture text completely, or pay attention during the entire sermon, or sing the words to all the hymns. But they certainly learn well by imitation and repetition. By including certain forms on a weekly basis, our children will pick them up in no time and be able to participate in these areas of worship.
There is great theology about our great God behind the brief stanzas of the Lord’s Prayer. By providing an opportunity for that to seep into our minds, we provide one more way for believers to learn about their heavenly Father’s power, provision, and protection—and thus the need to pray to him often.
This article was originally published at Beautiful Christian Life on March 29, 2018.
