God Can Handle Chaos—Including Yours

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. — Genesis 1:1-2

If we are going to get anything out of Genesis, then we must prepare ourselves. 

Basil of Caesarea (330-79) said at the beginning of his Hexaemeron, a series of sermons on Genesis 1,

How earnestly the soul should prepare itself to receive such high lessons! How pure it should be from carnal affections, how unclouded by worldly disquietudes, how active and ardent in its researches, how eager to find in its surroundings an idea of God which may be worthy of Him!

And John Calvin (1509-64) said in his commentary on Genesis, “The world is a mirror in which we ought to behold God.” “If my readers sincerely wish to profit with me in meditating on the works of God, they must bring with them a sober, docile mild, and humble spirit.”

So remember that the author of these words, Moses, saw an appearance of God at the burning bush, and God spoke with him “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exod. 33:11; cf. Num. 12:6-8). And don’t forget the power of these words, “which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

The Hebrew word for “beginning” is ראשׁית (rēshīt), which may also mean “starting point” or “first,” and is closely related to ראשׁ (rōsh), which means “head.” The word God translates אלהים, Elōhīm, which may be the plural for אל (el), the generic word for god. The plural does not in itself teach the doctrine of the Trinity, that there is one God and three persons in the godhead, but is more likely a “plural of majesty.” God is not just god, he is GOD. Elōhīm. GOD! The very sound of this word, naming as it does the Creator of the universe, should fill us with awe, dread, and love. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Before there was an earth and atoms, life and light, time and tide, there was God. He is eternal, which does not mean that he is very old, but that he had no beginning. He always was, is, and will be. Many have mockingly asked, “What was God doing before he created the world?” In his Commentaries on Genesis, Calvin relates a humorous answer he had read to this question:

When a certain impure dog was in this manner pouring ridicule upon God, a pious man retorted that God had been at that time by no means inactive, because he had been preparing hell for the captious.

We cannot speak reasonably of what God was doing “before creation,” because before creation there was no time as we know it—there was no “before.” Certainly there was nothing that brought God himself into existence.  

The Hebrew verb for create is ברא (bārā); it is only ever used with God as the subject. What did God create? The “heavens and the earth.” Heaven, שׁמים (shamayīm), also means sky. Earth, ארץ (erets), also means land and ground. These words do not have a special meaning in Genesis 1:1; but when put together like this, “heaven and earth,” that is, “sky and ground,” “everything that’s up and everything that’s down,” they emphasize that God made everything. Only God himself is not made.  

There are no time indications in these first two verses. The earth (erets) was formless and empty. There is some lovely alliteration here in the original, the earth was תהו ובהו, tōhu va bōhu. These words are neither “good” nor “bad” but are exceedingly and perhaps unpleasantly bland. Tōhu can refer to a barren wasteland, “a barren and howling waste” (Deut. 32:10; also Job 6:18). It can refer to futility (1 Sam. 12:21) and meaninglessness (Isa. 29:21). Bōhu appears only three times in the Old Testament. Isaiah 34:11 describes how “God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation,” and Jeremiah uses just the same phrase as Genesis 1:2: “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty (tōhu va bōhu); and at the heavens, and their light was gone” (Jer. 4:23). We will return to Jeremiah’s hugely significant phrase in a moment.

Darkness was over the surface over the deep.

Creation at this point was empty and black. The same word describes the penultimate plague over Egypt: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days” (Exod. 10:21-23).   

This blackness was over the surface of “the deep.” תהום, tehōm, refers only to “deep waters.” The Septuagint reads ἀβυσσος (abyssos, “abyss”). The Old Testament talks about God leading Israel through “the depths of the sea” (Isa. 63:13, Ps. 106:9) and Pharaoh’s army being drowned in the “depths” (Exod.15:5). In Deuteronomy 8:7, it refers to subterranean water.

So here is our first look at God’s creation: formless, empty, black, and watery. Light was yet to be created. The water was yet to be put into its place. Solid ground for living and walking on had yet to be exposed. The celestial mirrors of God’s light had yet to be fashioned. God’s life had yet to break out on the earth. Humanity was yet to be fashioned and enlivened in the delightfully different forms of male and female.

Calvin calls creation at this moment “the seed of the whole world,” and Basil “the foundation of a house, the keel of a vessel.” These are pleasing and correct analogies, for it is neither beautiful or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant. It is full of potential.

The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Hebrew word for Spirit in verse two, רוח (ruach), is a wonderfully rich Old Testament word that can refer to wind, breath, or a personal spirit. Exactly the same range of meaning applies to the NT πνευμα (pneuma, from which we get such words as pneumatic and pneumonia). Ruach (elohīm, Spirit of God) always refers in the Old Testament to a person, God the Holy Spirit.  So the Spirit was near to his creation, but not just near. He was hovering—fluttering is probably a closer translation—like a mother bird flutters over her young. Basil describes the early Syrian Christians’ delightful interpretation of this: “The Spirit cherished the nature of the waters as one sees a bird cover the eggs with her body and imparts to them vital force from her own warmth.” And in his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) John Milton sang:  

Darkness profound
Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outstretched,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,
throughout the fluid mass.

“Hovered” is used by Moses again almost at the end of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) to describe God’s intense care of Israel his people:

In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. (Deut. 32:10-11)

Whatever we might think about God’s formless, empty, lifeless, black, and watery creation, the Spirit of God loved it and sustained and upheld it (John 3:16); for as Psalm 104:29-30 says: “When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath (ruach), they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit (ruach), they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.”

Why didn’t God complete creation instantaneously?

The burning question is this: “God is omnipotent and omniscient, so why would he not bring about a fully developed and complete creation instantaneously?” If the universe’s greatest good is that God glorify himself, then we can know that it was more glorifying for him to develop his creation over six days, to allow his great power and wisdom to unfold over this time. Moreover, by creating the world in this way, God taught the world that he can rescue us from darkness, lifelessness, and chaos, and that when he rescues us, he does it not instantaneously, but in a way that unfolds his omnipotence, omniscience, and omni-benevolence step-by-wonderful-step.  

For although I have said that Moses’ description of initial creation in itself is neither beautiful nor ugly, similar words were used in different contexts to describe God’s people in distressing circumstances. As I mentioned above, Jeremiah uses this kind of language in the sixth century BC to describe Judah in a state of godless apostasy, who were about to face the fierce judgment of God by the hands of the brutal Babylonian army:

My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good. I looked at the earth, and it was formless (tōhu) and empty (bōhu); and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. (Jer. 4:22-26; cf. Isa. 34:11)

Moreover, the very first readers of Genesis, the Israelites who had just emerged from centuries of brutal slavery and death in Egypt—slavery to Pharaoh’s building projects and slavery to the false gods of Egypt—would also have seen their situation mirrored in what was “formless and void,” black, and chaotically watery. Indeed, as we’ve already seen, God would rescue them from the “deep” (Ps. 106:9).

Perhaps these adjectives describe your own situation.

Confused. Empty. Lifeless. Dark. Chaotic. You are not yet a Christian, and you don’t know why you are on this planet and what is the meaning and purpose of your life. There is spiritual blackness and obscurity, and everything is immersed in chaos. Or you are a Christian, and the chaotic trials of life are pressing on you, and even the darkness of despair. You feel the “waves and breakers” crashing over you (Jon. 2:3).

Whoever you are, and whatever the depths and agony of your trials, God is hovering over you: he loves you, he is near to you, and he can rescue you. We see a living picture of his rescue unfold in the subsequent six days of creation.  

God does not stand aloof from the world in all its chaotic agony. His caring, brooding presence is very near, and he is at work.

Related Articles:

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• 3 Ways God Saves You from Drowning—the Second Day of Creation

• Want Abundant Life? It Only Grows on the Solid Rock (the Third Day of Creation)

• You Are Very Important—the Sixth Day of Creation

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Campbell Markham has been a pastor in the Australian Presbyterian Church for over twenty-two years and lives in Perth, Western Australia. He blogs at Campbell Markham: Thoughts and Letters.

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3 Ways to Grow in the Fear of the Lord

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My sons recently trained together for a marathon. While they both enjoy running, they could not run a marathon right out of the gate. Over a number of weeks, they incrementally increased the number of miles they ran. So it is with many things in life. To grow and improve in something, we must first learn it. Then we must labor at it. Practice it. Train in it. Then we will see the fruit of our labors.

This is just as true when it comes to the fear of the Lord. Numerous times in Scripture, God calls us to fear him with a holy fear—a fear that is filled with awe, wonder, reverence, worship, and love. The Bible tells us this fear is something we can learn and grow in: “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD” (Ps. 34:11). But we are not left on our own to develop this fear. God provides us all we need to grow in it (Tit. 2:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:3). What grace! God calls us to fear him and then provides us just what we need to do so. 

The following are three practical ways we can train our hearts in the fear of the Lord.

1. Study God’s word.

To grow in the fear of the Lord, we want to center our focus on God’s word for everything we need to know about God. We also find in the pages of Scripture why we are to fear him. Indeed, if we are not in the Word, we cannot expect to grow in a holy fear of God. The Puritan John Bunyan spent years in prison for his faith. He wrote an excellent book on fear, and in it he noted the importance of being in God’s word,

For as a man drinketh good doctrine into his soul, so he feareth God. If he drinks it in much, he feareth him greatly; if he drinketh it in but little, he feareth him but little; if he drinketh it not in at all, he feareth him not at all.[1]

As we read and study the Bible, we can ask ourselves, “What does this teach me about God?” The more we learn about who God is, the more we grow in our fear of him. We can look for examples of his attributes and characteristics. We can take note of the numerous names used to describe him in both the Old and New Testaments. We can look for evidence of how people responded when they encountered him. In so doing we can learn what it looks like to live in a holy fear of him. We can also read and study more of what he has done for us in Christ. For when we encounter his abundant grace for us in Christ, our hearts can’t help but respond in holy fear. 

2. Remember God’s works.

Are you forgetful like me? I forget names of people I’ve previously met. I forget birthdays. I forget passwords. But what is far worse is that I forget who God is and what he has done. 

God’s people were forgetful as well. When Moses came to deliver them from slavery to Pharaoh, they saw amazing signs and wonders. They saw the angel of death pass over their homes while the rest of Egypt woke up the next morning to the death of all their firstborn. They witnessed the parting of the Red Sea so they could walk safety through to the other side. Yet the first time they felt hunger, they desired to return to Egypt (Exod. 16:3). This became a pattern. Whenever they faced difficulty, they grumbled and defied Moses. They constructed a golden calf to worship out of fear that Moses would not return from the mountain to lead them (Exod. 32). Everything became bigger to them than the God who had rescued and redeemed them. They forgot the works of the Lord; and instead of fearing him, they feared everything else. 

“if we are not in the Word, we cannot expect to grow in a holy fear of God.”

God then instilled into their yearly calendar ways for his people to remember him and all he had done for them. From the Sabbath to yearly festivals, celebrations to remembrances, they learned the importance of remembering and reflecting on who God is and what he has done. To grow in our fear of the Lord, we too need to remember his works. We must remember our redemption from sin. We must rehearse the gospel in our hearts each day. We must remember all the ways he has provided for us and met our needs. We must remember his faithfulness and care for us.

One way we can do this is by recording what God has done so we can look back on it when our memories fail us. Another way is to remember what God has done when we worship together with the gathered saints each Lord’s Day, singing praise to him, confessing our shared faith, and feasting together at the communion table. 

3. Pray for greater fear.

Last, but certainly not least, we can pray for greater fear. Prayer is a privilege given to the children of the Father, one purchased for us by our elder brother, Jesus Christ. When we pray, we respond to what we’ve learned in God’s word. Prayer is how we abide in and live out our unity with Christ. As we pray to him, we receive from him all the benefits of our union.

In pouring out our hearts to the Lord, we depend upon him more and ourselves less. We find our hearts reshaped to want what God wants more than what we want. We grow to want his glory and fame spread throughout the world and not our own. Indeed, prayer not only feeds and nourishes us, it transforms us. Therefore, we can pray for the Lord to bear in us the fruit of holy fear. As John Bunyan wrote:

Wouldest thou grow in this grace of fear? then be much in prayer to God for abundance of the increase thereof… Pray therefore that God will unite thy heart to fear his name; this is the way to grow in the grace of fear…for it is the praying soul, the man that is mighty in praying, that has a heart for the fear of God to grow in.[2]

Since that first race, my sons have gone on to run many more. And to do so, they continue to train. May we also labor and train through the grace of God at work in us to grow in the fear of the Lord.

Related Articles:

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• 10 Words Every Christian Should Know (and Be Able to Explain)

Christina Fox is a is a counselor, writer, retreat speaker, and author of several books including A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament, Closer Than a Sister: How Union with Christ Helps Friendships to Flourish, Idols of a Mother’s Heart, Sufficient Hope: Gospel Meditations and Prayers for Moms, and A Holy Fear: Trading Lesser Fears for the Fear of the Lord. You can find her at www.christinafox.com.

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[1] John Bunyan, A Treatise on the Fear of God, https://ift.tt/2QVPknS, p.60.

[2] Bunyan, p. 121.

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25 Bible Passages About Having Fun

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Though we don’t find the specific mention of the English word "fun" in the Bible, we find many activities throughout Scripture that we most certainly associate with having fun. These bountiful joys are gifts from God. Here are 25 Bible passages about having fun (all Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version)!

Eating and Drinking

1. “And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” (Deut. 12:7)

2. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? (Eccles. 2:24-25)

3. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh. 8:10)

Playing

4. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. (Zech. 8:5)

Singing, Dancing, and Making Music

5. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. (Ex. 15:20)

6. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…a time to mourn, and a time to dance. (Eccles. 3:1, 4b)

7. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord. (Ps. 27:6)

8. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! (Ps. 149:3)

9. Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! (Ps. 150:3-6)

10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isa. 35:10)

11. “Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” (Jer. 31:13)

12. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. (James 5:13)

Laughing

13. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” (Gen. 21:6)

14. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…a time to weep, and a time to laugh (Eccles. 3:1, 4a)

15. “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.” (Job 8:21)

16. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21)

Rejoicing

17. “Let those who delight in my righteousness
shout for joy and be glad
and say evermore,
“Great is the Lord,
who delights in the welfare of his servant!” (Ps. 35:27)

18. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)

19. A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. (Prov. 15:13)

20. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. (Prov. 15:15)

21. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

22. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (Phil. 4:4)

23. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet. 1:8-9)

Celebrating

24. “‘And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’” And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:23-24)

25. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:8)

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4 Ways to Turn Failure into Growth in Your Child's Life

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There are many hard and difficult things about parenting. Potty training, for starters. The candy aisle at the grocery store. Watching your child suffer from illness. Early adolescence. I could go on.

One area of parenting hits me right in the heart. It's painful to watch and hard to endure. It reminds me of my own heart and my own weak flesh, but it's part of life and something through which our children need us to disciple them. What is it? Failure.

We have all failed at something in our life.

Perhaps we didn't make the team we tried out for. Maybe we studied hard for a test and failed. Many of us know what it’s like not to get a job or promotion we wanted. Perhaps a ministry we created crashed and burned, or a dream we long hoped for never came to fruition. In one way or another, we all know what it’s like to fail. 

How we respond to and handle failure is crucial; and that's where our children need our help and counsel, because they will experience failure in life. It may look different than the failures we’ve experienced. Some of the failures our children experience may seem small, but their response to failure now, as children, will help them when they face bigger failures in the future. For example, helping our children learn through failing a test now will help prepare them when they fail to get the job they want in the future. Here are four ways to disciple your children through their failures:

1. Teach your children to lament their failures.

Failure is disappointing. It hurts. Our children may be frustrated with themselves, maybe even angry. They may be sad that they didn’t achieve the thing for which they worked so hard. As parents we ought to expect our children to have an emotional response to failure. Having emotional responses is part of being human. We need to listen to those emotional responses and respond in understanding and empathy. We also need to help our children learn what to dowith those emotions.

The Bible teaches us to come to God with our emotions. We need to help our children learn to cry out to God in lament. We can model it for them by praying out loud, telling God about the disappointment, sadness, anger, or other feelings associated with a failure. We ask God to be with our children and help them work through it, to be their comfort and peace. We also praise God for who he is and what he has done, acknowledging that he knows and rules over all things. We encourage our children to lament to God on their own as well.

2. Remind your children why we fail.

When our children fail at something, it’s a good opportunity to remind them that no one is perfect. Humans are limited and finite. We make mistakes. We forget things. We don’t always get a perfect score. We can affirm the longing they have for perfection because we all have that feeling that things are not as they should be. We can remind our children about the Fall of man and what happened to our first parents. We can also point forward to eternity when all things will be made right.

3. Help your children learn from their failures.

There are always lessons to be learned in failure. Often, after a failure has first happened, it’s not the time to teach those lessons. But after their emotions have settled down and they are ready to talk about it, we can help our children think through what happened and consider what they learned from it. Perhaps failing a test reveals a need to study more or study in a different way. Perhaps not making the team means more practice is required. There may also be some lessons to learn about perfectionism, idolatry, and dependence upon God in all things.

4. Point your children to Christ who never failed.

Above all, we need to point our children to Christ who was perfect for them. He never failed. He lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved. When God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin but sees Christ’s righteousness. Though we may fail, Christ never will. He will be for us what we can’t be for ourselves. 

Failure is a part of life. It’s hard for all of us, but it’s important that we help our children learn and grow through it. They will fail at things, and we need to teach them to fail well.

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Christina Fox is a speaker, editor, writer, blogger, and author of several books including A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament, Closer Than a Sister: How Union with Christ Helps Friendships to Flourish, Idols of a Mother’s Heart, Sufficient Hope: Gospel Meditations and Prayers for Moms, and Tell God How You Feel: Helping Kids with Hard Emotions.You can find her at www.christinafox.com.

This article is adapted from "Discipling Our Children Through Their Failures" at christinafox.com.

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What Point Was Jesus Making to the Rich Young Ruler?

Heinrich Hofmann (1795-1845); image from Wikimedia Commons; .

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On Twitter, on February 18, 2022, a person hitherto unknown to me proposed, “I will never get over Jesus being asked how to get into heaven and basically says, ‘Don’t be rich.’”

On what principle was our interlocutor operating? He announced, “Sorry, but the bible says, I believe it, that settles it” (sic). This is exactly the wrong interpretation of the story of the rich young ruler (hereafter RYR) because it follows a poor method of interpreting texts.

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:18–30)

What does the Bible mean to say and how do we know?

For orthodox Christians there is no question that whatever the Bible means to say is binding. That the Bible says something in Luke 18:18–30 is not question. What is a question, however, is just what the Bible means to say and how do we know? These questions are relevant and pressing for those outside and inside the Reformed churches. I recall hearing this passage explained by a Reformed minister, who announced to his congregation, in effect, that our Lord really was calling the RYR to sell all he had. The implication seemed to be that, had the RYR done so, he would have received the benefit in question, i.e., eternal life.

The RYR asks, “What must I do…?” As he asks that question he assumes that he can do something to inherit eternal life. It is the very assumption, our interlocutor also accepts, that Jesus is going to challenge. Jesus begins to question his premise when he says, “Why do you call me good?” The RYR assumes that he has goodness and that his goodness and Jesus’ goodness are on a continuum. They are not.

What was Jesus saying to the rich young ruler?

Jesus says, “No one is good but God.” The RYR is not God; therefore, he is not good. If Jesus truly is good—if the RYR understood what he had just said—then the proper thing would have been for the RYR to throw himself at Jesus’ feet in worship and to beg for grace and mercy. He did not. He did not see himself as an object of grace and mercy. He saw himself as a fellow doer, if you will, of righteous deeds.

Jesus also changes the terms of the outcome: “you will have treasure in heaven.” The RYR came asking how to earn “eternal life,” but our Lord knew the RYR’s heart. He knew what he really loved. He just wanted to add another possession to his collection. So, Jesus preaches the law to the RYR. This is the crucial thing to understand about this narrative. There are two kinds of words here: law and gospel.

The rich young ruler had not actually loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.

The first function of the law is to teach sinners the greatness of their sin and misery, and that is what Jesus does. The RYR needs to be shaken from his self-righteousness and complacency. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” Our Lord, who himself had given these very commandments to Adam before the fall and to Moses at Sinai, knew very well that the RYR had not actually loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, but the RYR did not know that and says as much when he replies to Jesus’ summary of the law: “All these I have kept from my youth.”

By contrast, we see that Paul, in Romans 7, knew that he was not able to keep the law. In Romans 7:18 he lamented, “…for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” The RYR really believed that he was good, so our Lord turned up the heat, as it were: “One thing you lack. Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” The RYR went away said because he did not know the greatness of his poverty. He did not see that eternal life was standing before him. He still thought that he had to “do” something, that he had to perform. He was still under the covenant of works.

It is easy for the rich to fall in love with this world.

The RYR went away sad because he was wealthy and because he loved his stuff more than God. He went away self-condemned because he thought of himself as righteous but, in reality, he was still in his sins. He had not fled to Jesus the only righteous one. He was not covered in the worthy, imputed righteousness of Christ.

Our Lord’s analysis is telling. It is difficult for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God. It is so because wealth often hides our misery in this world. It is easy for the rich to fall in love with this world. Had the RYR really kept the law, had he really understood what Jesus was asking, he would have said, “Savior, after all that you have given me (e.g., new life, true faith, and salvation), I will happily sell all I have and give it to the poor.” He did not because he was still in darkness and still in his sins. He still thought that Jesus was talking about money, but Jesus was talking to him about his heart.

To make the narrative about the rich young ruler about selling and giving is to entirely miss Jesus’ point.

Those who were around them were as blind as the RYR. They too thought it was about doing. “Who then can be saved?” Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Peter thought it was about self-sacrifice: “See, we have left our homes and followed you.”

The good news is that Jesus grants needy sinners, rich and poor, what they could never buy: new life, true faith, and free salvation. That is why he told Peter, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).

Our love for God and neighbor is not a precondition of our salvation; rather it is the natural consequence of the grace of Christ.

The same Christ who saves sinners also sanctifies them. It may be that there will come a time when the needs of the brothers and sisters are such that the rich must sell what they have to love them, but that love follows grace, it does not precede it. Our love for God and neighbor is not a precondition of our salvation. It is the natural consequence of the grace, the free favor, of Christ. Those who give freely are those who have received much freely. They know that they cannot earn heaven and that they cannot buy it. It was bought for them by Christ.

If Jesus really meant that everyone ought to sell all they have and give it to the poor, to whom did he imagine all the rich were going to sell their stuff? After all one has to have some wealth to buy the stuff other wealthy people are now selling. If everyone sold everything simultaneously, there would be no wealth since everything would lose its value instantly. To make this narrative about selling and giving is to miss the point entirely.

The law teaches sinners the greatness of their sin and misery; the gospel gives us salvation in Christ.

The Bible does say it and we should believe it. The Bible distinguishes between the law and the gospel. The law demands perfect, exact, personal, and perpetual righteousness from us but the gospel gives to us salvation and life freely for the sake of Christ, who is our righteousness and freely through faith, which itself is a gift. Praise God for the gift and its wonderful consequences.

Related Articles:

• What Does It Take to Become a Christian?

• 2 Things Jesus Did That Everyone Desperately Needs

• What Is the Difference between the Law and the Gospel?

• The Difference Between the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

• What Is Necessary for a Christian to Believe?

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R. Scott Clark is professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, California) and the author of Recovering the Reformed Confession (P&R, 2008).

This article by R. Scott Clark is adapted from “Hermeneutics Matter: Law And Gospel In Luke 18:18–30” at heidelblog.net.

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Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World by Michael Horton

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10 Quick Tips for Becoming an Excellent Bible Interpreter

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Becoming a skilled interpreter of Scripture is not a complicated task. It is hard, but it isn’t complicated. God does not hide the riches of his Word from the simple; he hides them from the proud and ungodly. Right interpretation, then, is first a matter of personal character and piety, and then a matter of methodology. Here are ten basic tips. There is much more to say, of course, but you must start here.

1. Pursue holiness and humility by faith in Christ.

Our character is of first importance in our endeavor to understand and teach the Bible. Without humility and fear of the Lord, we cannot grow in genuine knowledge of God’s Word (Prov. 1:7). God only guides the humble in rightly interpreting and applying his Word (Ps. 25:9); but he will oppose the proud, self-reliant student (James 4:6; cf. John 5:44). And without holiness, we will not have the spiritual capacity to be able to see what’s really in the Scripture (Matt. 5:8; Titus 1:13-14). To rightly pursue holiness and humility, however, we must be born again through faith in Christ (John 3:3), so genuine conversion is a necessary prerequisite to correctly interpreting God’s Word (see 1 Cor. 2:10-16).

2. Pray diligently that God would enable you to understand and believe his Word.

Because of our sin, our finitude, and the fact that Scripture is God’s Word, we need his help to rightly understand it (1 Cor. 2:10-16). Prayerlessness during Bible study is nothing less than arrogant presumption, for it signals that we don’t need God’s help to understand his Word (John 15:5). Those who love the Scripture pray diligently that God would unlock its treasures (see Ps. 119: 12, 26, 27, 29, 33, 64, 66, 68, 100).

3. Be willing to bring your thinking, feeling, and practice into compliance with the Word of God.

That is, be willing to change where Scripture requires you to change and repent where Scripture requires you to repent, no matter the cost (to your theological system, your ego, your wallet, your daily habits, relationships, work ethic, priorities, etc.). As Jesus reminds us, our interpretive abilities are enhanced or hindered to the degree we are willing or unwilling to do God’s will (John 7:17). The psalmist rejoiced that his obedience to God’s Word enabled his growth in the knowledge of God’s Word (Ps. 119:100). As David Gibson wisely observes, “Reinterpreting the Bible to mean something different is always a moral exercise before it is ever an intellectual one” (Living Life Backwards).

4. Discipline yourself to read through the entire Bible on a regular basis.

In order to understand the various features of the Bible and how the diversity of Scripture fits together into a coherent unity, we need to constantly get a feel of the whole landscape of the Bible. Robert Plummer comments:

In order to understand the Bible, one must read the whole. Thus, it is essential for any faithful interpreter of the Bible to have read the entire Bible and to continue to read through the Bible regularly. Can you imagine a teacher of Milton who admitted to having read only portions of Paradise Lost? How foolish it is for a minister of the gospel to seek faithfulness in expounding God’s Word while remaining ignorant of the contents of that revelation. (40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible)

5. Work hard! Spend a lot of time with the biblical text before you visit commentaries and other resources.

It is easy, once we’ve engaged the text, to drift toward secondary literature in order to get answers to the tough questions posed by the text. But this is a kind of slothfulness that will not often be rewarded with greater insight into God’s Word. We must spend time with the text and labor to see what’s really there before we move to hearing what other people have seen in Scripture. Disciplining ourselves to spend time with the text will also give us a better handle on the text when we teach it.

6. Be willing to learn from other excellent Bible interpreters via their commentaries and other resources.

We must be careful that we do not isolate ourselves from the wisdom of other excellent teachers! To do so would actually be unbiblical, for God has given us godly men and good books for the sake of better understanding his Word (Eph. 4:12). If you are unwilling to learn from other teachers, you are probably more proud than you are skilled at studying the Bible.

7. Write for the sake of your own clarity and learning.

You have to know yourself, but I’ve found that writing forces me to clarify my thoughts, solidify my arguments, develop ideas, and see connections in Scripture. I encourage you to make writing part of your Bible study and reading so that you can train your mind to think more carefully and, thus, see more truth in the Bible.

8. Regularly read good books on theology, Christian living, church history, and Christian biography.

Develop the habit of filling your spare time with good reading rather than aimless entertainment. By reading the works of others, you will become a better Bible interpreter and teacher as you are exposed to their interpretations of Scripture and the illustrations these writers use to better understand the Bible. Reading good Christian books will also broaden your understanding of theology which will help you better answer the theological questions posed by the biblical text.

9. Keep yourself firmly planted in the local church.

We are bound to drift into error if we don’t keep ourselves grounded in the local church and within a community of Spirit-filled interpreters (Prov. 18:1). We need the accountability and wisdom of other capable teachers and Bible readers, as well as the correction and rebuke of our friends in order to remain humble, teachable, and holy (see Heb. 3:12-15; 10:24-25).

10. Remain teachable. Remain teachable. Remain teachable.

Practically, this means that we should welcome feedback and criticism regarding our interpretations of Scripture. If we are unwilling to hear criticism about our private and public teaching, we not only will remain stagnant in our capacity to teach the Bible to others, we run the risk of leading ourselves and our students astray (Prov. 10:17).

Related Articles:

• How to Read the Bible in Context and Stay on Track

• Christian Basics: What Are the Five “Alones” and Why Do You Need to Know Them?

• 8 Covenants in the Bible and What They Mean for You Personally Today

• Who Is Representing You—Adam or Jesus?

• 10 Facts You Need to Know about the Reformation (Rumors and Legends Dispelled)

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Derek J. Brown is Academic Dean at The Cornerstone Seminary in Vallejo, California, and associate pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley where he oversees the college and young adult ministry, online presence, and publishing ministry, GBF Press. Derek blogs at fromthestudy.com.

This article was originally published at fromthestudy.com.

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Do You Have the Guts to Remain in the Church? — Revelation 21:1-8

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My impression is that nowadays the word church evokes more unpleasant than pleasant feelings. There are many reasons for this.

First, we’ve been saturated for decades with the phrase “church sex-abuse scandal.” The abuse of children, so wicked, so monstrous and abhorrent to the gospel and all that the church is intended to be, has nonetheless stained the church’s name.

Then, church leaders are a sorry parade of more-or-less flawed people. There are fallen celebrity preachers like Jimmy Swaggart (who contracted prostitutes) and Joshua Harris (who kissed Christian sexual ethics, his wife, and Christ goodbye). There are the great intellectuals whose good work was flawed in some way, like Augustine (who taught baptismal regeneration) and John Wesley (who taught perfectionism). All the Reformation fathers bore a magnum vitium, a great blemish, like Martin Luther (who wrote fiercely against the Jews) and John Calvin (who oversaw the burning of Servetus). Local church leaders are more-or-less weak, inconsistent, ungodly, and hypocritical. I know.

We may add a nagging sense that the church seems little, feeble, and pathetic in comparison to such world powers as Google, Hollywood, and the CCP. And who hasn’t suffered conflict, disappointment, and a lack of love and care in the church?

To top it off, Christians are now routinely demonized or ridiculed in the social sphere, so church membership is not safe. That was certainly true for the first readers of Revelation, for whom church attachment meant social ostracism at best, and even violent death.

Perhaps you feel all of this, and you are already treading the well-worn path out of the church: losing your joy in church; losing your desire to serve and give to the church; losing your confidence in the church and your love for the church; and learning to dislike and despise the church. You make excuses and take opportunities to stay away. In your heart you have left, actual leaving is imminent. In short, we are all somewhere on a spectrum where the church looks more-or-less irrelevant and unattractive, and where we are tempted to leave.

How does the church look in God’s eyes? Does he share our negativity, our pessimism, our dislike? Is it something he would like to leave? Not at all. In Revelation 21:1-6 God shows us the church as he sees it. We may highlight four things from this magnificent passage, this Mount Everest of Scripture.

1. God is preparing an extraordinary place for the church. 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Rev. 21:1).

Compare this with the opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). To punish sin, God justly cursed his good creation with pain in child-bearing, marital conflict, frustrating and toilsome labor, and death (Gen. 3:16-19). Yet, Christ comprehensively destroys sin in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). He lifts the curse for sin, and John sees the “new” heaven and earth. 

Revelation 21 shows heaven and earth remade, renewed, restored, and vastly greater because we will see something that Adam and Eve could not see before the Fall—God’s grace. The renewed heaven and earth, astonishingly glorious, is nonetheless only the setting for something greater.

2. God has prepared the church to be his Son’s bride.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2).

We decorate wedding venues with beautiful and expensive things. Guests dress up in their better clothes. The groomsmen’s beards are clipped and their new shoes shine. A pianist plays calming ballads amidst fragrant bouquets of ivory roses. Yet, the person everyone is waiting for, the focus of attention, is the bride. What groom would disagree that all the beautiful accoutrements are a setting for his bride?

It is the same with the new heaven and earth. God renews it and prepares it as the breathtaking setting for the arrival of his Son’s bride. The bride is described as Jerusalem, the City of God, God’s chosen dwelling. 

By the time Revelation was written, earthly Jerusalem had been razed. Jesus prophesied this, and the Romans under Titus came in AD 70 and obliterated the city that had committed both cosmic and political rebellion. Here in Revelation 21 is the true Jerusalem of which the earthly city was a pale and flawed shadow. It is the new Jerusalem, Jerusalem renewed, restored, vastly greater than its earthly type. 

“Note a poignant detail in Revelation 21:4. God does not promise to “wipe tears” from our eyes, but to “wipe every tear,” as in every individual tear.”

God prepares and adorns the city-bride for his Son. The Greek word kosmeō means, on one level, to tame chaos, “to put in order so as to appear neat or well organised.” On another level it means “to adorn, to decorate ... to make beautiful or attractive” (BDAG, p. 560). 

This is the church in God’s eyes, the beautiful bride that he has adorned for his Son. Note that God did not pick up the pre-existing institution of human marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and the Church. Christ and the Church is primary and human marriage is secondary. Our marriages are meant to be object lessons—living billboards—showing our children, our society, and the world the love of Christ for his church. The church is heaven’s brightest jewel, as verses 9-27 show. Though we will see even greater glories.

3. God sees the church as his home.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3).

After Adam sinned, God banished and drove him out from Eden, where God was present (Gen. 3:23-24). Revelation 21 shows that our banishment has ended. “Dwelling” translates the biblical word for tabernacle (σκηνη, skēnē). As God camped with Israel in the desert, so God will come in the new heaven and earth to live closely with his people. 

Yet, whereas Israel’s tabernacle served to separate the people from God’s holy and dangerous presence, there will be no such separation in the new heaven and earth: 

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Cor. 13:12)

Since the Temple veil was torn during the crucifixion of Christ Jesus (Matt. 27:51), God has not tied his presence to any building or city or “sacred space.” Now his Holy Spirit blazes over the heads and within hearts of each and every one of his people—just as the Pentecost tongues of fire demonstrated. And the Father’s grace, mercy, and peace is with us “in truth and love” (2 John 1:3). And the Son has thrillingly and abundantly kept his promises to be a constant living presence among his people:

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt. 18:20)

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)

The church is glorious because God is not just El, “God,” but Immanu-El, “God with us.”

4. God sees the church as creation perfected.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:4-5a).

Sin brought the curse, and the curse brought death and pain, grief and tears. But God does away with these things because the πρωτα, prōta, these “first things” or “former things,” have completely gone.

Note a poignant detail in Revelation 21:4. God does not promise to “wipe tears” from our eyes, but to “wipe every tear,” as in every individual tear. He will specifically and individually assuage every single cause of upset and every single manifestation of upset.

Mourning refers to inner anguish, the quiet sorrow that we so often feel. Crying refers to those loud outward expressions of grief, to wailing, and even shouts of pain and distress. The point is, every type and expression of grief will be removed. There will be nothing left to grieve for.

Here and now pain stabs and claws at our hearts. Warm friendships grow cold. Family ties are rent by stinging words. Drenching cascades of bitter regrets soak us to the bone. Our frail bodies ache and tire under the inexorable grinding disintegration of ageing. Death’s arrows, black and sharp, defeat every armor, pierce every tender place. Sin, that bleak ghoul, that anti-Midas, turns everything it touches to poison and shame.

For now, sackcloth is our native garb. Dust and ashes are our wretched crown:

I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping. (Ps. 6:6)

My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?” (Ps. 42:3) 

Yet, the Man of Sorrows came to help: “Surely he has borne our griefs” (Isa. 53:4). He has lifted from us our sin and grief, sin’s poisonous fruit. He has wiped away every tear. God loves the church because in the new heaven and earth the church will never grieve and will always rejoice.

While we live in the midst of the picture, God sees the whole finished picture: “It is done!”

Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done!” (Rev. 21:5b-6a).

There is something thrilling about those three words, “It is done!” It is not the same as “It is finished” (John 19:30) when Jesus declared his redeeming accomplished. “It is done” translates a word (γινομαι, ginomai) that refers to the process of being born, created, and becoming. 

“Revelation 21:1-6 shows us the church as God sees it. He’s created a new heaven and earth for it. It is his Son’s precious bride. The church is the home of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ”

Imagine God’s work of new creation painted on a vast canvas. On the left-hand side is the death and resurrection of Christ. In the middle are the Last Days in which we now live. On the righthand side is the Final Judgment, and the final presentation of the bride to the Son. 

We live in the midst of the picture, and what we see around us is far from complete. God sees the whole finished picture, “it is done.” (Word nerds will want to know that this verb is in the perfect tense. The action is completed, and the resulting state is ongoing now.) And here he shows us the completed picture so that we can enjoy it and be encouraged by it!

Do you want the new heaven and earth? Do you hunger and thirst for it?                                

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:6b-8).

Do you want the new heaven and earth? Do you hunger and thirst for it? It is free. It comes free from the grace of God. All we must do is hold onto Christ and stand firm in the onslaught of evil. 

The character traits of those who succumb reflect the reasons why people leave the church. Sometimes they give in to cowardice, for it takes guts to remain in the church. They leave to be free to unbelieve, to act vilely, to hate, to indulge in sexual immorality, to indulge in alcohol and narcotic substances (that’s what “sorcery” involves), and to pursue other world views, other gods, and untruth. 

Yes, the word church may evoke unpleasant feelings. Monstrous scandals, flawed leaders, weakness, conflict, disappointment, and lovelessness have stained the church’s reputation. Church-membership is not safe.

We’re always tempted to leave. Many have, and many more will. Maybe you are half out the door.

Revelation 21:1-6 shows us the church as God sees it. He’s created a new heaven and earth for it. It is his Son’s precious bride. The church is the home of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he will ultimately perfect the church from sin and the grief of sin. In fact, he will transform our flaws into tools, tools that create humility, empathy, hatred of sin, and total dependence on the Savior. 

May we learn to see, love, cherish, and honor the church as God does. May no persecution or hardship push us out of the church. May we stand firm now, so that we will stand and enjoy her then, and for all eternity, in all her perfected glory.

Related Articles:

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Campbell Markham has been a pastor in the Australian Presbyterian Church for over twenty-two years and lives in Perth, Western Australia. He blogs at Campbell Markham: Thoughts and Letters.

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