The Critical Question

Joy to the World!

Joy to the World (Isaac Watts, 1719)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

This song oozes with joyful praise rooted in Psalm 98.  But what is “joy”?  It’s so much more than mere thrills or pleasure or momentary happiness:  joy a deep peace in God’s love and a confident wonder at his majesty.  Now this coming of God into his world to reign as King demands a response:  prepare him room; enthrone him, exalt him!

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

What’s all this about fields, floods, rocks, and hills?  Psalm 98:7-8, like Psalm 19:1 (“The heavens declare the glory of God”), tells us nature is programed to spotlight its brilliant, magnificent Maker.  And when we worship God, in a sense all creation echoes our praise.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Here we harken back to Genesis 3 and God’s curse upon sinful humanity and on nature itself.  We sing with hope for the day when sin will be no more, and the curse resulting from it (e.g., sorrows, thorns) will be undone, and death itself will be abolished.

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders, of His love.

The certainty of God’s final victory exudes from this stanza:  every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).  God’s reign unites grace and truth, love and righteousness—the theological balance here is exquisite.  But in the end, Isaac Watts just can’t resist repeating the wonders, wonders, wonders, wonders, wonders, wonders of Christmas love!

.

Half-Truth and Happiness

I thank God for revealing his truth to humanity—for sending Jesus, who is the truth (John 14:6); for his written revelation:  “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).  The Scriptures give light to show the way in a dark world (Psalm 119:105).  How we need God’s truth!

But still, distorted or veiled or incomplete or diluted or slanted words of truth are dangerous:  half-truths hurt people.  Like teach­ing that “God is love” while ignoring the fact that “God is light.”  Or teach­ing that we’re not saved by good works without clari­fying that we are saved unto good works.  Or favoring the NT and ignoring the OT.  Or tell­ing people to love neighbors without helping them first love God.

A certain half-truth recently went viral online:  Victoria Osteen (co-pastor with Joel Osteen at Houston’s positive-thinking Lakewood Church) declared, “When we obey God, we’re not doing it for God … we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy.  Just do good for your own self.  Do good because God wants you to be happy.  When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really.  You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy.”  Here's the video:

The Christian blog-o-sphere lit up like fireworks in response.  First it was everyone saying how outrageous Osteen’s remarks were.  Then, after a bit, it was how some of the criticisms revealed an opposite error.  One half-truth was being exchanged for another.

So, what’s the grain of truth from Osteen?  It’s that God doesn’t need our worship—he has no need.  We don’t do good “for” God in a way that makes up for any deficiency in God because, of course, he has no deficiency.  The Maker and Master of all things is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24). 

What’s more, everything that exists belongs to God (Psalm 24:1; 50:10-12).  We’re merely stewards of his property entrusted to our care (Luke 12:41-48; 1 Cor 4:7).  So we’re just not in a position to “give” God anything.  Even you yourself belong to God (“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price,” 1 Cor 6:19-20).

So Victoria Osteen touches on something true:  we don’t act for God in a way that makes up for any lack on his part (he lacks nothing).  Plus, all that we might give to God is really his already.

But still, there is a grievous distortion of God’s true word in Osteen’s remarks.  In response, Ligon Duncan points to the Westminster Catechism:  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”  Duncan contends, “Our fullest joy cannot be realized or exper­ienced apart from the pursuit of God’s glory.”  “True worship is both God-glorifying and soul-satisfying.”  Psalm 73:25 comes to mind, Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  And 16:11, You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The whole truth is that God does want you to be happy—so much so that he insists you find your happiness in what’s truly, eternally satis­fying.  So don’t just worship or do good because “it’s the right thing to do.”  Saying the right words or doing the right thing without a heart of love for God is not Christian worship (Matt 15:8; Rev 3:16).

Here’s a good word from eighteenth century evangelist, George Whitefield:  “A life spent in communion with God, is the pleasantest life in the world” (from his sermon, “Walking with God”).

The Bible commands us, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).  So again, God wants you to be happy.  Now a reckless reading of this verse locks in on Part B:  Hey, here’s my ticket to getting what I desire—let’s see, I desire a big house, luxury cars, perfect health, high status, trouble-free rela­tionships…  But that interpretation is crazy—and wrong.  Any response to Psalm 37:4 that takes joy in God’s gifts more than in the All-Satisfying Giver himself (remember:  “Delight yourself in the Lord”) amounts to idolatry. 

It would have been so much better if Victoria Osteen had said, “God wants you to be happy in Jesus:  in his love and acceptance, in his forgiveness and comfort, in his purifying and refining work to make you holy and help you walk in his steps!  That’s what you were made for, and no pleasure in mere prosperity will ever satisfy your heart.”

(For a devastating critique of prosperity theology, see John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 3rd edn., pp. 15-32.  For other helpful resources, search on “prosperity” at Desiring God.  See also the Sept­em­ber 3 article from Al Mohler).
.

On Singleness

A good word that gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to following Jesus as a single person.

.

The Casting of Crowns

At our church we recently sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” and read Revelation 4:8-11 together, and the Lord grabbed my attention afresh with the image—there in both the hymn and the biblical text—of passionate worshippers casting their crowns before him.  Think of it:  joyfully-reverent praise to Christ expressed by the throwing of crowns!

Here’s a Scripture preview of heaven’s exuberant worship: 

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.  They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (4:9-11).

And here’s verse two of Reginald Heber’s great hymn (1826): 

Holy, holy, holy!  All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

So what’s this business of “casting crowns”?  Let’s back up:  in the age to come believers will be rewarded for godly, faithful living by the granting of crowns (e.g., 2 Tim 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4; Rev 2:10).  And as those appointed to rule with Christ (see Luke 22:28-30; Rev 3:21), it’s imaginable that faithful disciples would receive and be adorned by the symbols of his royalty.

So, then, what might it signify to have been granted a royal crown and yet to take it off and hurl it down before the Lord?  A snubbing of God’s gift?  Hardly.  Instead, it’s the reflex of joyful zeal and love for Christ—that the All-Glorious Lord seated on his throne would be fervently praised!  And more:  that the reigning King of Kings would look out over the faces of his beaming subjects and see their gesture of pure, glad submission to his authority.  And further:  that the greatest reward of every citizen of heaven is not a crown or any other blessing given to us, but simply to be in the all-satisfying, ever-radiant, eternally-increasing delight of God’s presence! 

My mind gets going as I imagine the throwing capabilities of believers in glory:  how far and how fast will we be able to cast those crowns?!

. 

Powerball Mania

As of yesterday, the Powerball jackpot had reached $550,000,000.  And today's news indicates that winning tickets have been sold in Arizona and Kansas City.

Playing the lottery is actually a huge gamble.  Now I know you can buy a Powerball ticket for a mere $2.  It's not that spending $2 is a “huge” deal.  What’s enormous is the risk that, if you did win, your life would unravel in chaos and isolation and disaster. 

Just consider some of the big winners of recent years.  Of course, there are stories of careful millionaires who've invested their winnings wisely and kept their heads on straight.  But there’s also a lot of sorrow and human wreckage strewn along Lottery Lane.

• In 2006 Sandra Hayes split a $224,000,000 Powerball jackpot with a dozen co-workers.  She later said, “I had to endure the greed and the need that people have, trying to get you to release your money to them.  That caused a lot of emotional pain.  These are people who you’ve loved deep down, and they’re turning into vampires and trying to suck the life out of me.” (source)
• In 2002 Jack Whittaker of West Virginia hit the Powerball jackpot:  $315,000,000.  But later, as a devastated man, he lamented how his windfall was to blame for his granddaughter’s fatal drug overdose, his divorce, hundreds of lawsuits, and an absence of true friends. (source)
• In 2009 James Groves of New York City won a 50% share of the Mega Millions $336,000,000 jackpot.  But promptly thereafter he was flooded with calls from friends and acquaintances wanting money.  “It’s a dream turned into a nightmare.” (source)

I could go on with stories of lottery winners’ lives ruined by bankruptcy, cocaine, pros­ti­tution, violence, and suicide.  But I’ll spare you.  My point is simply this:  Americans were lining up to buy 6.3 million tickets per hour yesterday (source) because they yearn for joy—for pleasure, for true happiness.  In fact, the human heart is spring loaded to seek happiness—God made us that way.  We've been designed to crave maximum delight in the all-satisfying presence of the Lord, here and now by foretaste, and one day with unspeakable joy in eternal presence of Christ!  But in this world we also lust after idols—after what’s created rather than the Creator, delights that don’t last, rewards that can never really satisfy our deep longings. 

John ends his first letter this way:  “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”  So guard your heart:  don’t let yourself run after this world’s fleeting pleasures, but pursue the glorious joy of Christ with all your strength.  How foolish and sad it would be set your heart on a passing payoff.  Frankly, today’s jackpot—whether we speak of money or status or power or fame (etc.)—isn’t worth a thing compared to “Jesus priceless treasure.”  The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:46).
.

"God Is the Gospel"

Lately I’ve been reading John Piper’s book, God Is the Gospel. He raises some incredibly important issues about the essence of the gospel and the core reality of salvation. For example:

• “… even though the gospel purchased and promises many good gifts, from the most spiritual to the most material, yet God him­self is the ultimate good promised in the gospel” (145).

• Redemption, forgiveness, imputation, sanctification, liberation, healing, heaven—“none of these is good news except for one reason: they bring us to God for our everlasting enjoyment of him. If we believe all these things have happened to us, but do not embrace them for the sake of getting to God, they have not happened to us” (47).

• “The critical question … is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?” (15).

• “The best news of the Christian gospel is that the supremely glo­rious Creator of the universe has acted in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to remove every obstacle between us and himself so that we may find everlasting joy in seeing and savoring his infinite beauty” (147).

• Behold your God! (Isaiah 40:9). This “is the most gracious com­mand and best gift of the gospel” (56).

• “There is no gospel where the glory of God in Christ is not shown. And there is no salvation through the gospel where the glory of God in Christ is not seen” (97). See 2 Corinthians 4:4-6.

• “There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell” (121). Wanting to avoid hell isn’t wrong, but the evidence we’ve been changed is that we want to escape hell and enter heaven in order to revel in God’s glorious presence (121).

The impact of reading this book has been to stimulate me to lift up my eyes, look away from myself, and gaze upon our magnificent Lord and gracious Savior!

.