Meditations

The Debt We Owe

by Ben Zornes · May 2, 2017

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]Every time we sin we are breaking a part of His creation[/epq-quote]He declared His creationÂ “good”, and thus, every time we sin we are breaking a part of His creation. It’s like the fellow who recently went into an Apple store with a rock and smashed up thousands of dollars of merchandise. But imagine him doing this daily, and as a result, the debt he would be racking up in lost merchandise. His income would certainly never allow for him toÂ pay off his obligation to make restitution withÂ Apple!

The only hope for such a debt is for it to be forgiven, but as any good economist would tell you, “Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Our forgiveness was costly,Â as someone had to “eat the cost” of our sins. God must judge sin, and the wages of sin is death. This is why Christ’s death is spoken of as a ransom, a payment made on our behalf which satisfies the justiceÂ and mercy of God. When we think of Christ’s merit, we must take from our minds the Catholic notion that Mary and the saints have some too which,Â all told, can get us across the finish line to heaven. Rather,Â all our human “merit” is itself tainted by evil.Â Christ alone is able to pay the debt we owe, and by faith in Him He freely appliesÂ His righteousness to our account.

A World of Pleasure

by Ben Zornes · Apr 24, 2017

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. Psalm 43:4

Bacon and eggs, washed down withÂ coolÂ orange juice. A winning basket in the final seconds. A fresh evening breeze after a hot summer day, with a bowl of home-made ice cream. Morning snuggles with your family. A sunset painting the raincloudsÂ with variegated colors. A new satellite photo of some distant nebula. Placing the final piece of a 5000 piece puzzle.Â An unexpected $20 bill found in your pocket. A pillow at the end of an exhausting day of hard work. Were we to go on cataloguing such pleasures we would certainly be able to fill out endlessÂ volumes of joys and delights. All this to remind us that we live in a world of pleasure.

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]We live in God’s world, and in this world there are nerve endings. We are not just a line of code in some galactic super computer, with no way of expressing joy or experiencing delights.[/epq-quote]We live in God’sÂ world, and in this world there are nerve endings.Â We are not just a line of code in some galactic super computer, with noÂ way of expressing joy orÂ experiencing delights. Though God has perfectly ordered the universe, he has ordered it to include a tear duct in the corner of our eyes; these then spurt out water as we experience the delight of watching our toddler grow so quickly, or reunite with an old friend. He hasÂ ordered this world to includeÂ facial muscles that convert our feelings of joy intoÂ contagious smiles andÂ laughter.

Yes there is pain here in this world, lots of it, because of sin. But evenÂ in the pain, if we look closely, we can see that the Father’s hand isÂ working in it to bring about greater joy. The Psalmist calls us to look unto God as our exceeding joy; which means we must have some acquaintance with the more pedestrian joys of everyday life. YouÂ know, the sort of joy you experienceÂ when slipping on your favorite pair of slippers. These earthly joys certainly are intended by God to lift our spirits, but He has orchestrated them so that they have a “top floor”. They leave us longing for a Joy eternal, and the Psalmist teaches us to go to God and find in Him the never failing fountain of delight, joy and satisfaction.

Planes, Trees, Gunpowder

by Ben Zornes · Apr 18, 2017

God’s aim in your redemption is you growing up to maturity in Christ. This is not to be thought of as independenceÂ from Christ, for that would be tantamount to the sinful folly of unbelief. Think of a passenger on airplane;Â if he is ever to overcome gravity the plane is his only hope. When it is 10 feet off the ground the consequences of exiting the plane are not quite so severe as when itÂ is at cruising altitude. God is growing us up into greater dependence on Him, and this maturation process requires us to recognize how insidiously deceptive the sin of unbelief is.

SinÂ whispers to us thatÂ we’ve been a well-behaved Christian and deserve a little selfishness, self-indulgence, and self-pity. “Surely,” it opines, “all this time in the plane has equipped you for self-sufficieny.” Growing in maturity in Christ should result in a more pronounced understanding of our great need for Christ.

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good. C.S. Lewis[/epq-quote]Now, to change metaphors, saplings are much more endangered byÂ frost, drought, and wind than a well-established tree; by nature, a full grown tree is more capable of enduring such trials. But it is because its roots are firmly enmeshed with the soil beneath it and its trunk has hardened to the severitiesÂ of the changing winds around it. It doesn’t somehow need less soil, less air, less water, less sunshine; but by design it is made to endure these trials and temptationsÂ because of its growth in maturity.

C.S. Lewis points out that “ripening” goodness learns to not only differentiate from good and evil, but good and greater good. And R.M. M’Cheyne wisely reminds us to not become conceited to think that as we grow we gain immunity from sin, he says, [epq-quote align=”align-right”]One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. R.M. M’Cheyne[/epq-quote]”One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark.” Â We need this reminder often, and true Christian maturity does not grow weary of such reminders.

Samson’s Strength

by Ben Zornes · Apr 12, 2017

And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. Judges 16:6

The forwardness of Delilah’s question is striking. She asks a straightforward question, plain with what the intention is, and Samson dances around the truth, failing to give a straightforward answer. Samson was a man in covenant, a Nazarite vow bound him to certain covenant duties, and the sign of his covenant was his famous locks of hair. Now, though a might man who boasted great feats of strength, it should be remarked that atÂ this point in his story he is allured by the charms of Delilah and the temporal delights she may offer.

He is tantalized by sin, and as a result he does not answer this straightforward temptation with a straightforward answer. Rather, he tries to evade temptation without meeting it head on, and even when he admits the source of his strength (Jdg. 16:17) he points at the sign of his covenant, and notÂ the LORD whom he is covenanted with!

When Delilah asked wherein was his great strength, his answer ought to have been the same as the Psalmist: “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him (Psa 28:7).” Now, we must be careful to not simply toss aside the sign of the covenant as irrelevant here; Samson’s hair was a sacramental sign of sorts, and as such there was a real (or true) correlation between his unshaven head and the strength which God imparted to him because of that Nazarite covenant.

Our baptism and our taking of the Lord’s supper are signs of our covenant with God, wherein He is truly presented to and present with us. [epq-quote align=”align-right”]Our strength does not lie in the signs themselves, but in our Christ who is mystically present in them.[/epq-quote]OurÂ strength does not lie in the signs themselves, but in ourÂ Christ who is mystically present in them. We ought not to toss aside our covenant signs as irrelevant, nor should we look to them as more important than that which they signify. Samson resisted temptation feebly, by failing to distinguishÂ the signs of his Nazarite vow from the God with whom he was avowed! We must not make the same mistake.

Good News in an Age of Fake News

by Ben Zornes · Apr 4, 2017

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3

It is astounding that those who have insisted for years that truth is relative, are remarkably nimble in suddenly demanding that the truth matters. Fake news is now the buzzword inÂ media and politics, and the debate is over who gets to decide what is true. For decades, the big media corporations have carefully presented “news” stories in such a way as to advance theirâ€“for the most partâ€“liberal agenda.Â Trump has now arisen to challenge their narrative and it has both sides of the political aisle scrambling to figure out a way to find the solid ground of objective truth.

The Psalmist wisely asks in his song the rhetorical question what can righteous men do when the foundations of truth and justice are destroyed by wicked governments and societies. Likely he has in view the corruptions of Saul’s kingdom. In order for any family, city, orÂ nationÂ to thrive, truth must lie outside of our determination and must be something every individual can be held accountable to and can point to in times of injustice, wrongdoing, and wickedness.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus stands forth in the midst of a subjective culture as good news in an age of fake news. It proclaims peace through the violence done to Christ. It proclaims justice through the innocent suffering of the Lord. [epq-quote align=”align-right”]It is only in the cross where we find the starting to point for making sense of all the mess.[/epq-quote]It proclaims freedom through His death. It proclaims the satiation of wrath through the substitution of His life for ours. In all this, we find that we need a central point of truth in order to sort through all the tangles of human wickedness. It is only in the cross where we find the starting to point for making sense of all the mess; for in Christ crucifixion we see God reconciling man with Himself and thereby giving us the only firm foundation upon which lives, families and cultures may be built successfully. There is forgiveness. There is reconciliation. There is truth. There is good news, with no fake news in sight.

Hands Full of Christ

by Ben Zornes · Mar 27, 2017

We areÂ taught in various passages that we are to “lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:12 & 19) and “lay holdÂ upon the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:18). Grasping eternality with our human hands may seem like a strange imperative for Scripture to place upon us mere mortals. It is like asking us to make circles square, or water that parches rather than slakes thirst, or count to infinity three times.

But by faith we do in fact “lay hold” of that which is infinite, bottomless, shoreless, and measureless. As Hudson Taylor once well remarked:Â “[Faith]Â is not less than sight butÂ MORE.”<fn>http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/hudsontaylor/hudsontaylorv2/hudsontaylorv212.htm</fn> Insofar as we still think of faith as less sturdy than the reason which our five senses inform, we display how deceived we are by ourÂ materialistic age.

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]Insofar as we still think of faith as less sturdy than the reason which our five senses inform, we display how deceived we are by our materialistic age.[/epq-quote]Think upon the bread & wine of the Lord’s Supper, for there our hands are full of Christ, and by faith we acknowledge that beneath the elements, Christ is really present with us, though He be seated a the Father’s right hand. As we pass the bread, and hold it in our hands, if we have faith in the Christ which these elements signify, we indeed hold Him. The Belgic Confession (article 35)<fn>https://www.christkirk.com/our-church/book-of-worship-faith-practice/</fn> puts it this way:

He did this to testify to us that just as truly as we take and hold the sacraments in our hands and eat and drink it in our mouths, by which our life is then sustained, so truly we receive into our souls, for our spiritual life, the true body and true blood of Christ, our only Savior. We receive these by faith, which is the hand and mouth of our souls.

So, do not simply hold bread in your hands with Christ absent from your hand of faith. He is presented to you here in these signs, that by them your faith may be nourished, built up, and sustained.

When Christians Terrify

by Ben Zornes · Mar 23, 2017

We have largely been duped into thinking that the cardinal characteristic which should distinguish us as Christians is “niceness”. Christ said it was our love which ought to denote the fact we are His disciples (Jn. 13:35); we have taken this love to mean a simple, placid docility. ButÂ agape love is not easy, quaint or tidy. It is hard work, and takes courage. Loving our enemies implies having enemies.

In the first two chapters of Joshua an interesting contrast is presented. After Moses’ death, God is imperative that Joshua “be strong & courageous” and Joshua, in turn, exhorts the tribes to “be strong & courageous” (Jos. 1:6, 7, 9, & 18). They face a vicious fight inÂ front of them, and must be braced for the battles ahead. Their enemies were indeed fierce and mighty, with towering cities.

Yet, it is remarkable that when the two spies are hidden with Rahab the Harlot in Jericho,Â she intimates that it is the enemies of God’s people who are terrified ofÂ them and (as the KJV puts it) their “hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you” (Jos. 2:11). God’s people, when obedient to God’s commands are to be a terror to their enemies.[epq-quote align=”align-right”]God’s people, when obedient to God’s commands are to be a terror to their enemies.[/epq-quote]

The Church is to be militant in our advancement of the Gospel of Peace. Our sword is the Word of God, and it is unloving toÂ not proclaim the kingship of Christ over all the nations. The mealy-mouthedness of many Christians has had the net of effect of inhibiting the Gospel’s advancement. Note how fearful many secularists are of the distinctively Christian policies whichÂ the TrumpÂ administration seems poised to enforce and advance.

However, we must bear in mind too, that God will destroy His enemies and often this means turning them into His friends.Â We must be known by our agape, which will truly terrify the enemies of God and His people. For manyÂ Christians, we think having enemies is a bad thing and weÂ go about making peace treaties with our enemies primarily by conceding the truth and purity of the Word of God. It is peace through compromise, which is no peace and is no love. But in this Gospel Age, God aims to destroy His enemies by converting them through the potency of theÂ truth of His Word. This isn’tÂ about merely “winning arguments”; it is about Gospel-confidence and love which invariably will accomplish the very thing which God intended it to perform. As aÂ pastor once memorably lamented, “Wherever the Apostle Paul went there were riots, wherever I go, they serve tea.”

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