With One Another – Forever!!! (4)

 

 

Just before graduating from seminary, I spoke at a breakfast meeting on the North Shore of Boston, it was as close to pure joy as I have known, for during the morning I saw friends meeting friends. There were two groups of our friends at the breakfast – friends from seminary and friends from the North Shore community, and these two groups of friends were meeting each other for the first time. I don’t recall my message that morning, but I recall the joy of witnessing the koinonia of the saints, of seeing some of my favorite people get to know one another.

 

O dear friends, if we take joy in seeing community and fellowship among those we love, how much more does our Father take joy in seeing His sons and daughters discover and delight in one another? After all, as we have seen, our Father is bringing many sons and daughters to glory through Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:10), so that our dear Lord Jesus might be “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).

 

Can there be any doubt that our eternal future includes a never – ending discovery of the glory of God within our brethren, the seed of Abraham? Consider that Abraham’s seed is as the stars of the heavens (Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 26:4), and that our Father calls all of the stars by name (Ps. 147:4) – how many names shall we discover in eternity that display the glory of God in Jesus Christ? O what a many – faceted family we have, O what a glorious Body is the Body of Christ, a Body raised from the dead, raised from the grave to the heavens.

 

Psalm 139 portrays God’s intimate formation of each one of us, He formed us in the womb, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” we were “skillfully wrought” by God – O the glory of discovery that awaits us in Jesus Christ – the discovery of the beauty of Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

 

But as much as we look forward to being with one another in Christ, in beholding Him in one another, there is One who has an even greater yearning for that Day, and that is our dear Lord Jesus, “…who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

 

For you and I are the joy set before Him, He saw us as the fruit of the Cross and the Resurrection, and because He saw us He endured the cross, despising its shame – for He was bringing us back to His Father and our Father, His God and our God (John 20:17). Jesus was the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying, so that a glorious resurrection harvest might come forth from the earth to the glory of God the Father (John. 12:24).

 

Now consider what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 – 20: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.”

 

Paul has entered into the heart of Jesus Christ, and Christ in others have become the “joy set before him,” as Paul looks forward to that Day when we know as we are known. While Paul most certainly desires to be in the fulness of the Presence of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:21 – 24), this desire encompasses being in Christ’s Presence with others – the two cannot be separated…after all, we are members of one another (Eph. 4:25; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12).

 

To be continued…

With One Another – Forever!!! (3)

 

 

“When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:4.

 

For the present time, our lives are “hidden with Christ in God,” (Col. 3:3). As John writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).  

 

When Christ appears, then we appear in glory. In the present, we don’t see Him fully, nor do we see ourselves fully; we “see in a mirror dimly” right now, but a Day will come when we will see “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). Then we will see Jesus Christ in His fulness, and we will see one another in our fulness in Christ Jesus. Now we are hidden in Christ, then we shall be revealed in Christ. We will see those who have gone before us as we have never seen them before, and they will see us as they have never seen us before – and we will also see Jesus Christ as we have never seen Him before.

 

No wonder the creation is groaning and travailing as it yearns for the unveiling of the sons and daughters of God (Rom. 8:19 – 23).

 

John writes (1 John 1:3), “…what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have koinonia with us; and indeed our koinonia is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

 

Consider the order of this verse. Why does John want the recipients of his letter to have fellowship (koinonia) with him and his companions? So that the recipients might also have koinonia with the Father and the Son. In other words, having koinonia with John and his companions in Christ means also having koinonia with the Father and the Son.

 

Most of us would not use this language. Our language is more likely to be, “We are writing so that you may have fellowship with the Father and the Son; and indeed if you have that fellowship then you will also have fellowship with us.”

 

If we have been made partakers of the koinonia of the Trinity (see John chapters 13 – 17), then to have koinonia with John and his companions is to have koinonia with the Trinity, and to have koinonia with the Trinity is to have koinonia with John and his companions. This is the Divine Nature of our Life in Jesus Christ – and that glorious Divine Nature will be fully unveiled on that Day – and just as we will see Jesus Christ in His fulness, so shall we see and know one another in our fulness in Him…we cannot dismember the Body of Christ. 

Eternity is a place  where glory upon glory is revealed in and through and upon the sons and daughters of the Living God as we live in koinonia with one another in the Trinity. We shall know Him and one another as we have been known by Him.

 

To be continued…

With One Another – Forever!!! (2)

 

 

Our Father desires a family with Jesus Christ as the Elder Brother, the Firstborn. The nature of family is koinonia, it is knowing and being known – it is a glorious feast of love and joy and mutual edification. There are no invisible people in God’s Family in Christ, there are no unacknowledged people – for we were each formed in the image of God, and we were each formed to display a special dimension and facet of the Image (we’ll explore more of this in forthcoming reflections). Jesus Christ has redeemed us by His blood and the Cross and Resurrection, He has redeemed us individually and collectively.

 

“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons [and daughters] to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He [Jesus] who sanctified and those who are sanctified [us] are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren…” Hebrews 2:10 – 11.

 

Jesus came to bring His brothers and sisters home to their Father. This is a story that we can title, The Faithful Elder Brother. Unlike the elder brother in the Prodigal Son who not only remains at home but who begrudges the younger brother’s reconciliation to his father, Jesus our Elder Brother leaves the Father’s House to search for us, to die for us, to redeem us, and to bring us back home to the Father’s House. O how Jesus loves us! O how our Father loves us! Our Father sent His firstborn Son to bring us home!

 

Because we have one Father, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. Can we see this? Can we see the nature of our relationship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ? Can we see that we share their very life because of the Cross and Resurrection?

 

Note that the Father is “bringing many sons to glory.” Jesus says to the Father, “The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them…” (Jn. 17:22).

 

In Romans 8:17 and 18 Paul writes of us bring glorified with Christ and of God’s glory being revealed in us. Then in Romans 8:29 – 30 we read:

 

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified, and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

 

Can we see, once again, that Jesus is “the firstborn among many brethren,” that Jesus is our Elder Brother, that our Father desires a Family. Can we also see that our Father glorifies us in Jesus Christ?

 

In 2 Thessalonians 1:10 we read that Jesus is coming “to be glorified in His saints on that day.” Then in verse 12, “…so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Here again it is important to see the nature of God’s Family, the nature of the Body of Christ, the nature that lives within us – for it is none other than the Nature of God. For our Father to share His glory with His Family is not inconsistent with His statement that, “I will not give My glory to another…” (Isa. 42:8b) for His sons and daughters are not “other” than He is, for He has given them His very life through and in Jesus Christ – Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches (John 15:1ff). In Revelation chapters 21 and 22 we see the Heavenly Bridegroom sharing His glory with His Bride – we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh (see also Eph. 5:27).

 

To be continued…

With One Another – Forever!!! (1)

 

 

A few months ago a dear friend asked me if I was looking forward to being with my brothers and sisters in Christ in heaven, and I said, “O yes! O yes! I am looking forward to family and friends who know Him.” Then he asked me why we, the Church, don’t talk about this, and I said that I didn’t know.

 

If we don’t talk about this glorious hope, then I think it must be a recent phenomenon, because I think it has been a "given” throughout the ages. If we don’t talk about being with one another with Jesus and the Father for eternity and of enjoying one another as we enjoy the Father and the Son, perhaps it mirrors our individualism and failure to appreciate one another in the Body of Christ.

 

I look forward to being with others in eternity throughout every day, for in one sense I am with them right now and they are with me – this is what we experience in the communion of the saints, it is a natural way of life in Jesus Christ; for the Church of Christ, the Body of Christ, transcends time and space and we are connected, in Christ, to one another – we are all members of the organism of the Body of Christ.

 

A few years ago I explored Geerhardus Vos’s beautiful sermon, Heavenly Mindedness, preached at Princeton Seminary in the early 20^th century. I spent well over a year on my Mind on Fire blog traveling with Vos through Hebrews Chapter 11. One of the many things that struck me was Vos’s deep sense that the fathers and mothers of faith lived in the communion of the saints, that their fellowship transcended time and space, that they were looking for that City whose “builder and maker is God”, a City God has prepared for them (Heb. 11:8 – 16). If our fathers and mothers of faith lived in this fellowship, we ought to also live in this blessed communion and glorious hope.

 

Of course the idea of a city carries with it the idea of community, of communion, of sharing a common life, and in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 we see that our future is a future in that City where the Father and Son are ever our Light – we are that City even as we live in that City.

 

Jesus tells us that, “…many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven…” (Mt. 8:11). What is a feast without fellowship? What is a feast without knowing our table companions? Is not the joy of a feast the joy of sharing bounty with others? Is not this Eucharistic joy? Eucharistic pleasure? Eucharistic delight? The Table, now and forever, is not for just one, it is not just “Jesus and me,” it is also gloriously “Jesus and we.”

To be continued…

Grace & Law (5)

continued from previous post... 

The law can only produce condemnation, transgression and sin. We try to produce righteous behavior by the law and we can’t do it – in fact the law is designed to show us that we can’t do it. The Law produces transgression – when we use law to try to produce righteous behavior we produce the opposite.

            If we are law-focused we work at producing a façade. If we are grace-focused our security is in Christ and we have nothing to defend.

            ‘I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go,” is a chant of those who live under the law.

            Grace is, among other things, God’s empowering life within us.

And let me say something for the first of many times, there are two statements which, when taken together, give us perfect freedom in Christ. The first is:

“I’m guilty. Whatever you wish to accuse me of, I’m guilty…for I know that outside of Christ that I am capable of anything and everything – so it really would be ridiculous for me to put on a façade, for outside of Christ I am guilty.”

The second is, “In Christ I am perfect and complete, I am justified and glorified, and what I already am in Him…is being worked out by the Holy Spirit in me.”

So you see, my behavior doesn’t define me – only Christ and Christ alone defines me. Now that that is settled I can get on with a life lived for Christ and others.

When I realize this, then I can risk, I can love, I can lose, I can serve, I can do all these things in Christ Who strengthens me. My entire perspective on life changes, the way I look at other people changes…and the way I view God changes. And when a people, when a church, realize this – they have the bread of life to give to their surrounding communities.

The movie, The Hunt for Red October, is about the captain and officers of a Soviet submarine, named Red October, who want to defect to America. Once the Soviet government realizes that Red October plans to defect they send another submarine to destroy Red October.

            The captain of the pursuing Soviet sub is an arrogant man, bent on destroying the captain and officers of Red October at all cost. As both submarines execute a series of maneuvers in a high-speed cat and mouse game, the Red October seeking to avoid destruction and the pursuer doing all it can to torpedo its dreams of freedom, the pursuing submarine fires a torpedo which, after a series of evasive maneuvers on the part of the Red October, turns around and heads back to the submarine which had fired it – and it destroys the very submarine which fired it. It turned on its own sub and destroyed it.

            When the church fires the torpedo of the Law that torpedo destroys the church. Law destroys the church. In our text Paul uses the language of sorcery to describe the effect of the Law – it makes slaves of all of us. 

            And knowing this, Paul declares to the Galatians and to us in 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty, within Christ has made you free…and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.”

            Bait & switch Christianity? Not for us. Not for New Hope Church in Shenandoah County, Virginia.

            The car wash was free. The coffee at Liberty Gas in Mt. Jackson was free. The salvation in my brother-in-law’s life was free – and God’s grace and His love in New Hope Church are free.

            And dear reader, God’s grace and His love for you are also free, in Jesus Christ.

           

 AMEN.

           

 

           

Grace & Law (4)

 continued from previous post...

So let’s look at our handout and follow with me as we read some straightforward statements about bait & switch Christianity versus real Christianity:

            “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Ro. 3:20

            “…for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Gal. 2:16

            There are a lot of translations of the Bible today, some are good, some are bad and some are ugly. Some are literal and some are paraphrases and some are in between. I enjoy some of the paraphrases, like Eugene Peterson’s The Message, but when I read them I remind myself that I am reading a paraphrase and I make sure that I also read a more literal translation, because there are some words whose technical meaning is so important that a paraphrase alone is not sufficient for our understanding. The words justified and justification are two of those words. The word grace is another such word. The meaning of these words is so big and vast that I will spend the rest of my life engaged with them, and that is as it should be, for they are God words, special God words, God words which draw me deeper and deeper into relationship with the Trinity.

            What does this word justification mean? Briefly, it means not only that God looks at me in Christ as if I have never sinned, but that He looks at me in Christ as if I have always, always, always kept His law – as if I have always lived a righteous life. And Paul writes that I can never attain this position in God and with God by trying, by my own efforts. In fact, he says that if I try I will learn about sin – because I will fail. And then we have Ro. 4:15.

            “…the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.” Ro. 4:15

            What does the law produce? It produces transgression and transgression incurs judgment and wrath. The law does not produce righteousness, it does not produce good behavior, it produces bad behavior. Perfect law does not produce good behavior, perfect law produces bad behavior; but great grace produces the fruit of righteousness.

            Perfect law produces transgression; Great Grace produces righteousness.

            Perfect law brings condemnation; Great Grace brings the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

            “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” Gal. 1:21

            If there is one thing I can do produce or to maintain a righteous relationship with God then guess what? Christ died in vain. That notice I read in the back of my brother-in-law’s church was really proclaiming, “Christ died in vain because we can do it ourselves.”

            “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace.” Gal. 5:4

            Now Paul doesn’t say that they’ve lost their salvation – but he does say that they’ve chosen another way of life, that they have removed themselves from the way of grace.

            “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Ro. 6:14

            So many folks teach that if sin isn’t going to have dominion over us that we need to make sure our behavior measures up, that we become externally focused; but here the key to not allowing sin to have dominion over us is not by focusing on outward behavior, but on inward relationship, on a relationship with Christ enabled by grace.

            Let’s remember that we are justified – just as if I’ve never sinned and just as if I’ve always kept the law.

            Grace is internal; law is external.

            Law is religion; grace is relationship.

            Grace is lived by the life of God; law is lived by the life of man. Gal. 2:20

to be continued...

 

Grace & Law (3)

 continued from previous post....

So the agents of the evil wizard from Middle Earth have showed up in Galatia and they are saying, “Oh, Paul was here? Well, you know that Paul, he didn’t tell you everything you needed to know. He didn’t tell you that in addition to believing in Jesus that you also need to keep the Law, you need to keep special rules and regulations, you need to do certain things to make sure that God will accept you. It isn’t all about Jesus and it isn’t all about the Holy Spirit, oh no, there are other things you need to do – so let us help you out.”

            And all of a sudden, what had been a joyous Christian experience, pristine in its understanding of Jesus and God the Father, what had once been like a pure mountain stream from which anyone could drink, now was like a river flowing beside a paper mill, filled with pollutants, a river in which no life could live and no life could drink from.

            Of course, one of the insidious elements of bait & switch Christianity is that it appeals to us. The idea that there is something we can do appeals to us. The idea that we have a certain way of doing things that others don’t have appeals to us. The idea that our brand of Christianity is just a little bit better than someone else’s, that we have our own special tee shirt to wear, our own bumper sticker, that does have its appeal to our egos and sense of self.

            When Paul hears about this bait & switch he writes the letter we call Galatians, which might be said to be the Magna Charta of Grace. And look at the language he uses in our text, the language of witchcraft – “who has bewitched you?” he asks. Who has cast a spell on you? Who has robbed you of your joy in Jesus? Who has added something to your lives other than Jesus? Who has changed your focus? Do you really think that having entered into a life in the Holy Spirit that you can now improve on that life, improve on the DNA of God, by your own efforts?

            Do you think these are strong words? In 1:8-9 he writes that whoever these people are, they should be accused. And in 5:12 he suggests that these false teachers who are imposing legalism on the Galatians make an anatomical modification to their bodies. This is serious business, this business of bait & switch Christianity. Now remember, we aren’t talking about people teaching other people to commit what we think of as egregious sins (though legalism will lead to egregious sins – they just happen to often be well hidden) we are talking about people teaching other people to keep an external law to regulate behavior, and we all think behavior is important.

            The difference is that there is a behavior that is the fruit of a relationship with Jesus and with others; and then there is a behavior which is the result of an attempt to keep an external law by my own efforts – and the latter will always result in one thing, failure and sin. The imposition of an external law, whether it is the Law of Moses or the law of Bob Withers or the law of the First Church of the self-righteous, will always result in sin.

            Now if you’re not familiar with the story of Galatians, for every Biblical book is a story, I want to encourage you to dive into the book. Read it in 2 or 3 translations to stimulate your heart and mind, get the full context of this morning’s passage, a passage which I’m simply highlighting this morning for this morning my purpose is simply to put this truth in front of us – the truth that we are a people called to grace and not to law, that we are a people who are to share grace with others and not law, that the basis of our relationship with Christ AND with each other is grace, grace, always grace…and never law.

to be continued...

 

Grace & Law (2)

 continued from previous post...

Terry Minnick was telling me about a car wash New Hope did that was free – free as in it didn’t cost anything to have your car washed. Not only was it free – we wouldn’t accept any donations. There was one woman who insisted on paying, she tried again and again to pay, but we wouldn’t accept any money. Finally she drove away…only to return with barbeque chicken – she just couldn’t stand the grace that we were trying to extend by washing her car for free, she just couldn’t accept the gift.

            Two weeks ago I was visiting David Moore at his office. When I told him I was going next door to Liberty Gas for coffee he said, “The coffee is free.”

            Now I did hear those words, “The coffee is free,” and it isn’t that I disbelieved David, but I felt funny going into this store which I’d never been in before and just pouring a cup of coffee and leaving…I believed David, but I really felt funny.

            So, after pouring my cup of coffee I approached the cashier…who looked at me…and when I indicated that I had coffee…well…imagine what she said… “Oh, that’s free.”

            I knew that what David had told me was true – but it just felt so funny to walk into a store and get free coffee…especially when I’d never been in there before.

            Now I guess the cashier could have said, “Oh, the coffee is free but if you want to leave the store we need you to stock some shelves, or clean the bathrooms, or take out the trash.”

            I reply, “But I thought the coffee is free.”

            “The coffee is free,” she responds, “but now that you’re in here we have these things we need you to do.”

            “But I thought the coffee is free?” I continue.

            The cashier is getting impatient, “I don’t see your point. You’ve got the coffee, we didn’t charge you for it. Now please stock some shelves.”

            Bait & switch?

            Let’s turn in our Bibles to Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter 3:1 – 3.

            The letter to the Galatians, along with 1 Thessalonians, is thought to be one of Paul’s earliest letters, written around 52 AD, it may in fact be his earliest. Galatia was a province in the center of what today is Turkey and the churches which were planted there were some of the earliest churches in the ministry of Paul.

            Most of the people in Galatia were Gentiles, non-Jews, and when they received the good news about Jesus they freely accepted the grace of God. They simply believed that Jesus loved them, that Jesus had died for them, and that Jesus had been raised from the dead for them and that by accepting Jesus as Lord that Jesus would come and live inside of them. That’s pretty basic and that’s Good News, that’s the Gospel. No bait and switch, no $99.99 high definition TV’s, none of which are in stock, no trickery, just the straight news about Jesus Christ.

            But of course, every story needs a Simon Legree, a Darth Vader, a Wicked Witch of the East, and Lex Luther or an evil wizard in Middle Earth – and every story needs that because the story of life has that, which is something we’ll probably explore on a future Sunday.

            For you see throughout Paul’s ministry he had company and I’m not talking about coworkers such as Barnabas and Silas and Timothy and Titus and Phoebe and Priscilla, I’m talking about unwanted company – company like the White Witch in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I’m talking about someone, actually a group of someones, who want it to always be winter and never Christmas – people who want to take all the joy out of life and to impose their will on others.

            These were the masters of bait & switch Christianity. These were the people who would make certain that my brother-in-law Rod Barton would never really rest in the grace of Jesus in this life – and these were the people dedicated to never giving Paul the apostle a day of rest.

            They followed Paul from Jerusalem, to Antioch, across Asia Minor, into Macedonia and Greece and finally into Italy. They have followed Paul and Jesus for 2,000 years and they can be found lurking in most churches, waiting to snatch the love and joy of Jesus away from His people.

            They showed up in Galatia with a message that we’ve all heard at one time or another, “Now that you’ve accepted Jesus, if you’re going to be a good Christian, here is what you have to do. Now that you’ve accepted Jesus, if you want to make sure you get to heaven, here’s what you have to do. Now that you’ve accepted Jesus, if you want to make sure that God still loves and accepts you, here is what you have to do.”

            That does make sense doesn’t it? After all, behavior is important to us and we want to live good lives, we want to live moral lives, and we do want to be close to God. It makes sense. It makes sense that a high definition 90” TV really isn’t $99.99, it makes sense that the coffee really isn’t free, it makes sense that Jesus may have provided a free way into the house of God but that now I need to work, work, work to maintain my salvation, my eternal life.

            Well, actually it only makes sense if I forget just what it is that Jesus did and who I am outside of Jesus; for Jesus paid a price that I could never pay and outside of Jesus I am utterly helpless to help myself, dead in sin and alienated from the life of God – the grace of God makes perfect sense if I remember the facts. But then again, most of us have a tendency not to let the facts get in the way of what we want to believe, and we want to believe that there is something we can do to earn a relationship with God…and we definitely want to believe that there is something we can impose on others to make sure they act like good little Christians – for behavior is important to us.

            So I wonder if C.S. Lewis was right – and I wonder if we really don’t have a bait & switch Christianity – in which everything is good news…until at least we get inside the building and have our membership card issued.

to be continued....

Grace & Law

 Good morning...this is a Sunday message on Grace & Law, or we might say Bait & Switch.

I'll post, the Lord willing, daily installments.

I sure would love to preach this one again!

Love,

Bob

Grace & Law

 

Preached in Woodstock, VA

Robert L. Withers, 2006

 

            Author and professor C.S. Lewis was walking through a lecture hall one day when he overheard a debate taking place regarding Christianity and other religions. The question at hand was, “What, if anything, makes Christianity different from other religions?”

            Lewis stopped in his tracks, looked toward the debating group and interjected, “That’s easy…the difference is grace.” And having made that statement Lewis resumed his walk, leaving the lecture hall.

            But I wonder if Lewis was right. Is grace the distinctive feature of Christianity – or are we all victims of a classic bait-and-switch advertising ploy? Is Christianity like reading the Sunday advertising supplements?

            “Huge 90” high definition televisions, only $99.99.” Of course the small print reads that the sale is limited to what is in stock and when you get to the worldwide retailer you find that the nearest store with the televisions in stock is in Outer Mongolia and that for a mere $10,000 they will ship you the set…as long as you also pay transportation costs and duty fees at the port-of-entry.

            Is that what Christianity is like when it comes to grace? Is it a bait-and-switch ploy?

            My brother-in-law Rod Barton came to know Jesus in his late 30’s. And while he would not live many more years due to complications associated with juvenile diabetes, he made the most of those years by sharing Jesus with others. Since Vickie’s family lives in Iowa I didn’t get to see a lot of Rod but we did have many telephone conversations. A subject which Rod often brought up in our talks was whether Jesus really accepted him – he was always concerned about his salvation, always concerned about whether God’s love and mercy and grace were unconditional in Christ.

            Of course I tried my best to reassure him - for Jesus and the Scriptures are clear on the matter…but…well…anyway…now that Rod is with Jesus he knows all that worrying was for nothing.

            But, I understood Rod’s concern better when on a trip to Iowa about three years ago Vickie and I attended Rod’s old church. As I was meandering around the back of the church and reading notices on bulletin boards I read a notice something like this:

            “There are those who teach that when a person gets saved that that person is always saved and that that person need not work hard to maintain his salvation. We do not believe that but we believe that we must always work to ensure that we are worthy to go to heaven.”

            That is pretty close to the wording…and when I read that I thought:

            “Now I understand why Rod was always so concerned about the certainty of his salvation. No wonder his heart was never truly at rest in the love and grace of Jesus.”

            I wonder if Rod ever thought that he was the victim of a bait-and-switch Christianity?

            In many places we have a schizophrenic Christianity. The sign on the outside of the store proclaims: GRACE, GRACE, GRACE. However, once inside every aisle is labeled: WORK, WORK, WORK. The message is: “You got into the store by grace (we didn’t charge you) but now you’ve got to work, work, work to remain in the store…because…don’t forget, this store has a back door and we can show you to it if you don’t behave.

            Could C.S. Lewis really have been right?