Articles

Our Rock

In caring for a house, I have made one surprising discovery: Houses are anything but still.

They look still. They look stable and immovable. But it’s not true! There’s a reason why they call house care “upkeep,” because you have to keep the house up! It is always falling down in one way or another.

Winds ruffle and rip its shingles. Rain rots its seals. Vines find its walls. Sunshine blisters its decks and trim. Bugs find its chinks. Foundations settle. Drywall cracks. Mice nibble its insulation. And the list goes on.

This refuge I run to – in heat and in storms, in cold and in rain – is not that stable. It is literally breaking down daily, sometimes imperceptibly…but truly nonetheless.

This fragility marks our existence. We are frail and flappable. Even our strongest strongholds won’t hold forever.

Yet we have one sure Foundation.

The psalmists often reach for one reassuring truth about God. In tumultuous times, they recite and declare that God is a rock, the rock, our rock. He is a sure and steady foundation forever.

In Psalm 62, David writes, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1–2). David runs together three concepts here: rock, salvation, and fortress. This combination enriches each term with the other. God is a rock, and that means he can save us and protect us. And that God will save us and protect us is a bedrock truth.

These three concepts combine to form an image of unshakeable hope. And so David concludes, “I shall not be greatly shaken.” God’s strength and stability becomes ours when we lean on him.

Over against this image, David asks, “How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?” (v. 3). David knows the vulnerability of the leaning wall and the tottering fence. We’ve all seen such fences rotted and bent. This is the feeling, and this is the reality of our life in the flesh. But God is not subject to these weaknesses.

Again and again, David returns in this Psalm to the imagery of the rock. He sounds the refrain: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 62:5–6). Notice that now he is speaking to himself, reminding himself to hold fast to the Rock.

And again he concludes, “On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God” (Psalm 62:7). The key word here is “rests.” David rests his salvation and his glory not on himself or his circumstances but on God the Mighty Rock.

This is the way forward. God is an unshakeable rock, and he can be our rock of redemption.

When all around is falling, we will stand on the Rock.

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We Will Rise Physically

By Derek Leave a Comment

Because Christ is risen, we will rise physically.

In every story with a jailbreak, there is one thing everyone is trying to get, one thing everyone is straining and reaching out for, one thing everyone is trying to slide off the hook, one thing everyone is trying to wrench from the guard’s belt: the keys. He who holds the keys has the power of freedom and life.

In the Book of the Revelation of the Apostle John, the risen Jesus appears to John, and he tells him the most amazing thing. Jesus says, “[17]…Fear not, I am the first and the last, [18] and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18). Jesus alludes to his death and resurrection. He says I was dead, but now I am alive…forevermore! And then there is a pause, and he holds up a set of keys, and he declares he now has the keys to death and the place of the dead.

I love this. This is our hope. Take this image with you!

Picture that hospital room, the family gathered around the bedside. The doctor shakes his head and says they have tried everything. It is only a matter of time now. Jesus walks in that room and holds up a set of keys. Death will not have the last word.

Picture that family huddled around a small grave, praying over a lost little one. Jesus interrupts the prayer with the sound of clanging keys emerging from a pocket. The story will not end at this graveside.

Picture that nursing home room, loved ones now weakened and waiting. There is a knock on the door. Jesus steps in the the room, holding the keys to death. Let’s get out of here he says!

Picture yourself ten years from now. You ache and creak a bit more. You stand in front of the mirror and count the wrinkles. You sigh. There is so much you can’t do anymore. Your body can’t keep up. There was so much you wanted to do, so many places you wanted to go, so many things you wanted to see, so many things you wanted to learn, but you are running out of time. But then you spy in the mirror Jesus stepping out of the shadows behind you with a grin, as he spins a set of keys around his finger. This isn’t the end. The person you see in the mirror is not who you will finally be. You will run again and not get tired. Your strength will be renewed. The risen King has returned with the keys to death in his hand, and he has come to set you free from its chains.

How can this be? Well we already know the answer. The wages of sin is death. But Jesus has paid that penalty with the sacrifice of his perfect life, so death is undone. And now we are offered eternal life in Christ as a free gift (Romans 6:23). You can have the keys.

The Apostle Paul goes into great detail about the physical nature of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me read for you one particularly poignant part. In verses 20 and following, Paul writes, “[20] But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. [23] But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:20-23). There is a lot of good stuff in these verses, but let me draw your attention to one word: firstfruits. The resurrection of Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have died. This term tells us three things. First, it indicates that his fate is the same as ours. His resurrection is not a different fruit. It is just the first fruit of the same fruit. So, we see in Christ our future state. Second, firstfruit tells us something of the order and timing. We still die because the full harvest has not come in. But, and this is the third thing the term tells us, firstfruits tells us the harvest has already begun! So, we see in the physical resurrection of Jesus what the harvest is and will be.

So the promise of Easter, the joy of our risen Lord, is not just that we are forgiven. Yes, yes, that, but so much more! Easter is the day we remember the dead in Christ will rise! No more sorrow, no more shame! We will rise! The millions dead on a thousand hillsides will rise. And we will live, and we will have our bodies restored, and we will dwell on earth as we were meant to forever with God.

Our Carrier

By Derek Leave a Comment

I don’t know that we consider this image much when we think of God, but it comes up fairly frequently in the Bible, and it is easily one of my favorites: God is our carrier.

We have already encountered this image in talking about God as our Father. Deuteronomy 1:32 says, “the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son.” In His role as our heavenly dad, God carries us.

This motif is picked up in the shepherding imagery, too. When the prophet Isaiah describes God as a Shepherd, he says this: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).

Later, when Isaiah looks back at the history of Israel, he realizes the only way they got from here to there was because God had carried them. He writes, “I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love…in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:7, 9b). If they were anything, it was because God had carried them.

Our redemption is also described in these terms. When Isaiah is speaking of the coming Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, he concludes, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). The Lord has not just carried us in the good days but has also picked up our sorrows and sadness.

And so, when your strength fails, when fatigue sets in, when you can go no farther, put your hope and your trust in your Carrier, and pray with the Psalmist, “Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever” (Psalm 28:9).

Amen.

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We Rise Spiritually

By Derek Leave a Comment

Because Christ is risen, we rise spiritually.

Apart from Christ, our hearts are darkened by sin. We are slaves to sin. We are cursed souls. We are incapable of pleasing God. Even our best moments are tainted by mixed motives and selfish conceit. But in Christ’s death we have found full and final forgiveness. The debt we owed has been paid, and the subsequent curses of our sin have been removed. But more than that, now, in his resurrection, the spoils of the King are being distributed.

In the resurrection, the King has not just won the battle, but he has also returned, and he has brought with him gifts. He has been raised to now apply the justification he has won (Bavinck, 1956), and it begins with hearts that are raised. This is all over the New Testament. Let me give you just a quick sampling…

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he declares that we have been raised up with Christ. Ephesians 2:4-6 reads, “[4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—[6] and raised us up with him…” So, with Christ, we died to sin, but not only that, with Christ, we were raised to walk in newness of life. In Christ’s resurrection, we have a spiritual resurrection. We are spiritually alive, and out of this the church is birthed.

How does this happen? Christ sends the Holy Spirit. This is what the Apostle Peter explains in the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit arrives. He says, “[29] Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. [30] Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, [31] he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. [32] This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. [33] Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:29-33). So how is it that the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all who believe? Peter says it is because Jesus is not dead. He is alive, and he has gone to His Father and sent back the Holy Spirit. If he had not been resurrected, we would not expect the Spirit to come. But because he is alive and well, it only makes sense that the Spirit has now arrived.

Later, in the same letter, Paul describes Jesus as the victorious King who returns bearing gifts for his people. But these gifts are not material blessings but spiritual gifts. Jesus gives his people spiritual gifts to bless them and build the church. Here is what we read: “[7] But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. [8] Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men’” (Ephesians 4:7-8). So the creation of the church is an overflow of Christ’s resurrection victory. We, the church, are here because the victorious King returned, bearing gifts to equip and build the church.

And by the way, you must understand that Jesus did not raise us to new life in some second-rate way, passing out little Hershey kisses of the Spirit. Paul clarifies earlier in his letter to the Ephesians (1:19-20) that the very same power that raised Jesus from the grave is the same power that is now at work in us through the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 8:11).

And of course, this is exactly what Christ said he would do just before his execution. He promised that he would go back to the Father and he would send the Holy Spirit to be in us (John 16). In his rising and his ascension to heaven, he has kept that promise.

Easter means we can know a new kind of spiritual life. We can be enlightened and awakened. We can be free from darkness. So we celebrate because Christ’s resurrection means our spiritual resurrection.

References

Bavinck, H. (1956). Our reasonable faith: A survey of Christian doctrine (H. Zylstra, trans.). Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Our Shepherd

By Derek Leave a Comment

In my life, I have once seen a shepherd personally.

We were on a mission trip with a group of students, and it was a rainy day. We were traveling up and down windy roads in rural Portugal.

Out in the downpour sat a shepherd. I think he had a rain jacket on. (I can’t remember if he had an umbrella.) But there he sat in the rain, watching his flock.

That image has stuck with me. It was an insider look at true shepherding: muddy and cold, longsuffering attentiveness. It was not the idyllic shepherding of Christian bookstore paintings and Precious Moments figurines.

And yet, the Lord says he is this for us: The Lord is our shepherd (Psalm 23).

What does it mean that God is our shepherd? We may not be familiar with all the responsibilities of a shepherd, but the Bible fills in the meaning of the metaphor.

As a shepherd, the Lord…

Provides (Psalm 23:1)
Soothes (Psalm 23:2-3)
Protects (Psalm 23:4)
Delivers (Psalm 78:52)
Guides (Psalm 78:52)
Gently Leads (Isaiah 40:11; Psalm 80:1)
Tends (Isaiah 40:11)
Gathers (Isaiah 40:11)
Carries (Isaiah 40:11)
Keeps (Jeremiah 31:10)
Searches (Ezekiel 34:11)
Rescues (Ezekiel 34:22)
Feeds (Ezekiel 34:23)

And most amazingly, Jesus says that he is the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

This level of care is incomprehensible.

Sure, a shepherd might put himself in harms way to protect his sheep (e.g., 1 Samuel 17:34-36), but to sacrifice himself for the sheep? What shepherd would give his life for some rather cantankerous sheep?

What wondrous love is this!?

This is the love of our God.

The Lord walks among us and leads us and provides for his flock, and he loves us to the end, even to the cost of death on a cross.

May we entrust ourselves to our Good Shepherd and follow Him always.

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Our Salvation Is Sure

By Derek 1 Comment

Because Christ is risen, our salvation is sure.

When Jesus walked this earth, he made an audacious claim.

Jesus said he was the Son of God. He said he was the Messiah. And he said he had come to die for the sins of the world.

In fact, just before he was executed, he had a passover meal with his disciples, and he said the bread of the meal, which was broken, symbolized his body that was about to be broken. And he said the wine poured out was to remind them of his blood that was about to be poured out, and then he added one critical detail. He said his blood was being poured out “for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). Elsewhere he said that he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:8; Mark 10:45). So, Jesus saw himself as the chosen one of God, the Messiah, and he said he had come to die for the world. He came to set captives free by giving his life as a ransom. The wages of sin is death, and he came to pay that debt. He came to die in our place.

But here is the million dollar question: Did it work? Anybody can say they are the Messiah. Anybody can say they are dying for the sins of the world. But how do you know if it worked? Well, if the payment for sin is death, which is what the Apostle Paul reminds us (Romans 6:23), then if that payment had been paid, once and for all, it would seem that death would be undone, right?

To use another analogy, if someone goes to debtors prison, they stay until the debt is paid. If you see them walking the streets later, you figure the debt must have been paid. So, if everything we heard Jesus saying was true, then I suppose we would expect to see him up and about, no longer dead.

But of course, the good news of Easter morning is that Jesus is risen and death is undone, and therefore, because of this, we know that our salvation is sure!

The Apostle Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). But Christ is risen, so we are not in our sins!

In Romans, Paul declares that Jesus was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). To be justified means to be declared righteous. So, his resurrection declares us righteous. This is not to say that his resurrection achieved our righteousness; his death did (Bavinck, 1956). We have been justified by his blood (Romans 5:9). But Christ’s resurrection is the “final proof that he had earned our justification” (Grudem, 1995, p. 615). As Bavinck (1956) puts it, “His arising was the public declaration of our acquittal” (p. 370). “The resurrection is the day of Christ’s crowning” (Bavinck, 1956, p. 369).

So, Easter morning declares that the price for redemption has been paid. Because Christ is risen our salvation is sure! Thus, in his substitutionary death, our sins are paid for, and in his resurrection, we have the receipt, the proof of payment. With the rising of Christ on Easter, we remember and rejoice in our sure salvation.

Easter means we can be justified. We can be forgiven. We can be free from our sin and shame. This redemption, which Christ has won and his resurrection has declared, is wonderfully good news. We could stop right here, and go on celebrating the rest of our lives. We are forgiven and free!

But forgiveness and freedom is only the beginning…

References

Bavinck, H. (1956). Our reasonable faith: A survey of Christian doctrine (H. Zylstra, trans.). Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Grudem, W. (1995). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine. Zondervan.