A matter of perspective

I was reading a novel yesterday and in one scene the central character was on an airplane, awaiting take-off.  The wait was a bit longer than usual and he was feeling some anxiety about being on a plane, something which could potentially crash.  He knew, as most people do, that planes do crash but also that those events are exceedingly rare.  And as he thought about the plane, and perhaps a brush with his own mortality, he asked himself this question:

“Could there be a person alive whose life was so full (loved ones so well-loved, affairs so well-ordered) that thoughts of an imminent demise would seem in any way acceptable?”

That struck me as an interesting question, one that in the sense it was asked, and if it was asked to me, my answer would likely be ‘no,’ but when considered a bit differently my answer would be an unqualified ‘yes.’

Today marks four years since our youngest daughter came into our family.  No matter how well-organized, or whatever, my life is at any one point, I think it will be another full 20 years before I will feel that I will have done my part to ensure that her feet are planted firmly enough for navigating life in this world.  In the sense of tending to the life responsibilities I currently have my “imminent demise,” as the author called it, would be unacceptable.

But when considered from a different perspective, from where I stand as a believer in Jesus, the notion of my “imminent demise” has a different look.  And that is because no part of my life, death included, is outside of the knowledge and authority of God.  From that place, my death, whenever it happens, is not just acceptable, but dare I say appropriate.

The Bible speaks to us time and again of God’s intimate knowledge of everything in the world.  One of the most well-known examples is during the Sermon on the Mount, when in Matthew 6:26 Jesus says,

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

In the first question-and-answer of the Heidelberg Catechism we are reminded of how firmly all who have faith in God, through Christ, are held by Him.  It says:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,¹ but belong—body and soul, in life and in death²—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.³
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,⁴ and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.⁵ He also watches over me in such a way⁶ that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;⁷ in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.⁸
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life⁹ and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.<sup>10

1</sup> 1 Cor. 6:19-20 
² Rom. 14:7-9 
³ 1 Cor. 3:23; Titus 2:14 
⁴ 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:2 
⁵ John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-11 
⁶ John 6:39-40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:5 
⁷ Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18 
⁸ Rom. 8:28 
⁹ Rom. 8:15-16; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14 
¹⁰ Rom. 8:1-17

I left the scripture references in so you can look through the Bible to read the sources that were used for this powerful affirmation of security in Christ.

My death won’t happen outside of where I am with Christ.  It can’t.  It may not happen at the time I think is best but it will be at the time that He has always known as best.  My prayer is that in both life and in death I can point others to the glory of Christ Jesus.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Review: The Supremacy of God in Preaching

“People are starving for the grandeur of God.  And the vast majority do not know it.” (107)  These words begin the conclusion to John Piper’s short and excellent book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), a book where he lays out a vision of God that he believes should drive the words that pastors bring to their pulpit, not just occasionally but every time that they rise to speak from the Bible the words that God has laid on their hearts.    

Piper wrote the first edition of this book in 1990, drawing from two lecture series, given in 1984 and 1988, and the book is divided accordingly.  In Part 1 he discusses the topic “Why God Should Be Supreme in Preaching,” beginning with preaching’s goal, the glory of God, which he believes is rightly paired with the Christian’s delight in God.  He summarizes the connection between God’s glory and the believer’s joy with these words: “God’s deepest commitment to be glorified and my deepest longing to be satisfied are not in conflict, but in fact find simultaneous consummation in his display of and my delight in the glory of God.” (29)  The task of the preacher is to make God’s glory so central, and essential, to faith that the Christian is fully satisfied in God and finds every other desire wanting in comparison.

Piper uses a Trinitarian framework in Part 1.  God’s glory is in relation to the Father, the Ground of Preaching is connected to the Son, and Gift of Preaching is derived from the Spirit.  A deep understanding of this theology of preaching will guide the preacher to approach his or her task with both gravity and gladness.  He writes, “Gladness and gravity should be woven together in the life and preaching of a pastor in such a way as to sober the careless soul and sweeten the burden of the saints.” (55)

The topic of Part 2 is “How to Make God Supreme in Preaching.”  In this section Piper does not offer his own wisdom but turns to a preacher he has had a life-long admiration for, Jonathan Edwards.  As Piper discusses Edwards and Edwards’ ministry the twin keys are Edwards’ grasp of, and submission to, God’s sovereignty and a consequent, and constant, desire to proclaim God as supreme.

Everything that Edwards understood of God flowed from his sovereign nature.  Piper writes, “For Edwards the infinite power; or absolute sovereignty, of God is the foundation of God’s all-sufficiency.  And his all-sufficiency is the fountain of his perfect holiness, and his holiness comprehends all his moral excellency.  So the sovereignty of God for Edwards was utterly crucial to everything else he believed about God.” (78) 

Understanding the otherness of God’s nature in relation to humanity then is the basis for preaching and delighting in his sovereignty. “In summary, then, when Jonathan Edwards becomes still and knows that God is God, the vision before his eyes is of an absolutely sovereign God, self-sufficient and all-sufficient, infinite and holiness, and therefore perfectly glorious.” (82)  That is an amazing vision of God!

Are people, people who believe in God as made known through Jesus Christ, starving for God’s grandeur?  Generally speaking I would have to agree with Piper.  Living after the Fall we are so broken, and our gaze is so inward, that we rarely look beyond ourselves to glimpse the glory and majesty of God as made known in the Bible.  And when we glimpse it, even rarer are the moments when we savor it. 

Last week I read the Christian atheist, by Craig Groeschel, (my review is here). His central assertion is that there are many common ways in which people professing Christian faith live in ways that suggest their faith is often in something else.  Groeschel offers valuable and practical wisdom to strengthen the faith of faltering believers and their witness in the world. 

In The Supremacy of God in Preaching John Piper offers something equally practical and necessary to today’s preacher, which is encouragement and wisdom so that every sermon is one that is saturated with a vision of the glory of God, a vision so majestic that God’s people may find the satisfaction of every need in God alone.