How is your faith?

“How is your faith?” That’s THE pressing question on Paul’s mind as he waits to get word about his dear Christian friends in Thessalonica. Acts records his first visit there (17:1-10)—a short stay in which Paul taught from the Scriptures and summoned the people to entrust their lives to Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah. Several people were persuaded (both Jews and Gentiles, 17:4) and embraced Christ in faith, and thus was born the church at Thessalonica.

But trouble struck this young body of believers quickly: within weeks of arriving, Paul was forced to leave town. He then proclaimed the Gospel in the next town (Berea), only to be tracked down there by his aggressive Thessalonian opponents. So he sailed 200-plus miles south to Athens, leaving the infant Thessalonian church behind. These were new believers and they were facing intense pressure from the Gospel’s enemies. Paul knew they could be in great spiritual danger.

Eventually he sent Timothy back to check up on them (1 Thess 3:2). Notice that when he did this, the aim was NOT to find out if the persecution has lightened up and the believers were safe and comfortable. No, the key concern was the status of their faith: were they still trusting and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ? Look at 3:1-10: Paul sent Timothy “to strengthen and encourage you in your faith” (3:2); “I sent Timothy to find out about your faith” (3:5); thankfully, Timothy “has brought good news about your faith and love” (3:6); “Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith” (3:7); “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith” (3:10).

This is the issue that matters. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you have a great family or wonderful friends or athletic ability or skill to succeed as a doctor or politician or nuclear scientist. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re popular or beautiful or strong or smart, or if your church has big numbers and attractive programs: heart-reliance on Christ is what matters.

Are you trusting Jesus today for saving grace and the sure hope of eternal life? Are you relying on him for reconciliation with the Father and adoption into his forever family? What do you “need” to be content in this universe? Is it enough to know Jesus and rest in his sovereign care? Will you still depend on him and look to him for peace that passes understanding and true meaning in life even when enemies of the Gospel mock and exclude and threaten and assault you? Paul eventually got good news: the faith of the Thessalonians was alive and strong! “How is your faith?”

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DeYoung reviews McLaren's new book

I'm sure we'll hear more about Brian McLaren's recent book (A New Kind of Christianity) in due course, as reactions to his views and writings abound. The recent review of McLaren's book by Kevin DeYoung (click here) raises pointed and profound questions. It's worth reading carefully.

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God's Love and Human Suffering

In a recent sermon on God’s compassion (Jan. 31, on Luke 15:11-32), I noted that there was an elephant in the room: “How can we speak of a loving God in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake?” This question arises in many honest hearts—I’m guessing we’ve all struggled with it. It’s also a question that has lunged into popular atten­tion in surges in the past (e.g., after the 2004 Tsunami, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, etc.).

Just to be clear, we’re not asking about suffering that results from sin, such as trafficking, terror, or murder. Natural disasters don’t stem from God-defying impulses in the human heart. (And yet, even with sin-based suffering, questions about God’s permission and intentions arise—but that’s another discussion.)

Can we reconcile the love of God with harrowing affliction due to earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods—and let’s add diseases like small pox and cancer? Please see my posts, Haiti Earthquake and In the Wake of Disaster, for some intro­ductory thoughts to provide a biblical framework even as we voice sincere questions.

In his article, “A Fault Is Not a Sin,” atheist Christopher Hitchens says it’s idiotic to blame anything other than geology for the Haitian quake. But of course, what else can he say from where he stands: if God is excluded from one’s vision of reality, all is material and temporal, and we live and move in a meaningless abyss. End of conversation.

On the other hand, if one means to consider seriously the interpretation of reality presented in the Bible, one has to reckon with a God who’s able to intervene within his created order and, for example, prevent natural disasters. God isn’t helpless; he’s no mere bystander looking on as nature takes a chaotic course. The Lord is active within creation and history.

In Christ God demonstrated his power over nature (e.g., calming storms, walking on water, multiplying food, raising the dead). The Bible teaches that God is powerful—all-powerful—and that his might is exercised within the sphere of this-world, this-life experience. He parted the sea (Exod 14), toppled the walls of Jericho (Josh 6), protected Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Dan 3), and so on. And of course, the grand miracle of all time was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With God, all things are possible (Matt 19:26; Luke 1:37). “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen 18:14; cf. Jer 32:17). So we won’t solve our problem by denying the power of God: he is able to do anything and everything that he chooses to do: the Lord does whatever he pleases (Ps 115:3).

The Bible also insists that God is a God of love: He is love (1 John 4:8), and in all things he works for the good of his people (Rom 8:28). God loves “the world” and in Christ he reaches out with open arms of com­passion (John 3:16). In the cross God demonstrates breathtaking love for undeserving sinners (Rom 5:8): there is no greater love than Christ’s (John 15:13).

The keys to comprehending God’s love, however, are two: 1) He does not promise and is not obliged to show his love by giving humans pleasant or even tolerable earthly circumstances. In fact, the Lord has all eternity in which to enact and express his love toward his people. Suffering here and now is no sign of the absence of God’s love.

2) There’s more to God’s character than love—he is love, yes; but he’s also just and holy, and in his white hot moral purity he abhors sin. Both love and holiness are true: sin must be punished (holiness), yet God makes a way for Another to take our guilt upon his shoulders (love).

Let’s step back: a huge turn in the plot of God’s story takes place in Genesis 3: sin enters an otherwise perfect world. With sin came inter­personal strife, physical toil and bodily death (3:16-19), and all humanity was plunged into calamity along with Adam and Eve. And more: notice how the curse brought serious damage upon creation itself (thorns and thistles, 3:18). So in some sense, nature itself was twisted and damaged by sin. In Romans 8 Paul describes how creation itself now “groans,” awaiting the final reversal of sin’s destructive effects (8:22). Nature’s convulsions fall in this category: they signal the terrible destructive effect of sin in the realm of God’s creation.

Let me clarify: I’m not saying we can identify each instance of suffering due to natural disasters as a direct punishment deserved by the specific person(s) who undergo such suffering. John 9:1-3 proves otherwise: there’s no simple blame-line to link all suffering back to a person’s sins. So too in Luke 13:4-5: when the tower at Siloam fell (due to an earth­quake?) and killed eighteen people, was it because they were worse sinners than other people? Jesus says NO. And yet, he urges onlookers to repent: let the sudden snuffing out of others’ lives move you to turn from sin and trust in Christ and thus be ready to meet your Maker.

It’s also true that our loving God often weaves searing hardship into the fabric of our ultimate good (e.g., Heb 12:5-11; 2 Cor 1:3-11; Gen 50:20). Paul pleaded for relief from a “thorn in the flesh,” but in time he realized his healing wouldn’t be for the best (2 Cor 12:7-10). Still, living with an affliction isn’t the same as being struck dead. The suddenness in which death can strike is used by God to warn us not to be presumptuous about the future or assume all will be well (Jas 4:13-17; Luke 13:1-5). The door of opportunity to repent and be saved is not held open forever (2 Pet 3:8-9).

But what about the children, even babies, tragically killed in Haiti? How does God love them? If being allowed to live at least an average earthly lifespan is the measure of God’s love, then love fails. But isn’t God free to show his love in the age to come, beyond this fleeting, temporal existence? The Bible doesn’t say a great deal about the eternal state of those who die in infancy, but a solid bib­lical case is made that they enter into glory with Christ. See, for example, messages and studies on this topic by Charles Spurgeon, Al Mohler, Sam Storms, and Desiring God Ministries.

In the end, then, I urge you to look around at this troubled world, imitate the Savior's heart of compassion for the lost (Matt 9:36), look up to the Master of All Things and echo Genesis 18:25, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

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