This weeks AP article was initially entitled ‘dissolution and disease’ but I guess that didn’t sound too great for Christmas! You can read the original here.
“We have a vaccine!” And so the world rejoices and looks forward to getting back to normal. “There has been a tremendous cost this year because of Covid – firstly in lives – over 900 Australians have died”; says the commentator on the ABC news even as I am writing this. What strikes me about these statements is that ‘normal’ appears to be a world in which no one dies, and that the commentator seems to forget that this year there will be 160,000 deaths in Australia this year – the death rate will not increase because of Covid. Yes, Covid is real and horrific and we should do what we can to alleviate its spread and effects. But we need to remember that the real world is a world where everyone dies, and where everything dissolves.
John Owen has a wonderful sermon on 2 Peter 3:11 which is as relevant as anything you will hear about this crisis and to be honest, is as good a Christmas sermon as you will hear this Christmas. The following is a summary which I hope you will find helpful.
“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives“
2 Peter 3:11
Dissolution
It is madness and folly for human beings to pride themselves in anything on earth, given that all dissolves. “Everything you see in the world of order, of power, they are all but endeavours in the creation itself to free itself from this state of vanity, to preserve itself as long as it can from dissolution”. Even the mountains – which seem to stand forever shall be dissolved.
But especially human beings. All our powers, riches, glory, wisdom, gifts – they are all like grass and all will be dissolved. All political alliances, religions, countries and ideologies will be dissolved. Politicians and leaders think that they can band together to save the world – to prevent it from dissolving. But they will fail.
Everything is unstable. So where can we find certainty and stability? “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:8). “In this fading condition of all things, you would come to anything of stability, it must be in the stability of the word of God, that abides forever.”
We have a great interest in things that dissolve. Surely it would make sense to have an even greater interest in what will not dissolve?
False Security
Owen notes that it is when nations think they are secure, that dissolution comes upon them. It is when people are ‘eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage’ that disaster often strikes. Or when people are given over to the temptations of life, sin and wickedness. When we become aware or have a sense of some impending disaster, we look to other things to give relief and not God.
Owen argues that God is so good and tender towards mankind, that he does not delight in bringing judgement and always gives providential warnings. God uses wars, persecutions, famine and plagues to cause us to seek him. But his greatest warnings come in his word.
“A man that is not utterly stupid cannot sometimes but wonder and stand amazed why it is that mankind should be so secure when judgements are all around them”. Owen argues that this false security in an insecure world is the work of Satan.
Universal Corruption
Apart from the sense of security being a sign of an approaching judgement, the other sign is “a universal corruption of life in all sorts of persons… there is a general corrosion and corruption of life and manners”. Add to that an increasing persecution of the church. “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famine, and pestilence, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you pup to be afflicted, and shall kill you.” (Matthew 23:34-36).
“I could name many other signs; – visible apostasy, the love of many waxing cold and God taking away some of his servants from the evil to come”.
How Then Should We Live?
Owen does not leave it there. How should we live when we are faced with crisis and dissolution? We should recognise that Christ is in it and live holy lives which are worthy of him. We look for the return of Christ. We long for it. How long O lord? How long? But when he comes what will he expect of us? “Christ comes not to gratify men’s lusts; he comes not to exalt them in the world…Christ comes to make us more holy, more humble, more mortified and weaned from the world.” We should live as if Christ were coming every day.
It will be a time of salvation but also of judgement. Then we will discover who is for real.
I found all of this really helpful in our current circumstances. In so many ways life seems surreal. But Christ is real. This Christmas may we know the reality of Christ…and may we remember the truth expressed in Newton’s great hymn – Amazing Grace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.
You mention David that it is “madness and folly” for anyone to pride themselves in anything on earth. Taken to it’s logical conclusion no parent would ever take pride in a child’s achievement, say at school. Or no-one would take pride in their work. Yet in scripture is it not true that children are instructed to act in a way that their parents can be proud of them and didn’t the apostle Paul take pride in his ministry?
And what about love? Are people not to love themselves? Love others as yourself must surely come with having compassion for yourself. How can you give away what you don’t have?
Yes it is not wise to trust in things that a transitory. It’s building castles on sinking sand to do so. At the same time, it is not silly to take pride in some things in the world, in fact it is positively encouraged!
If there is “madness and folly” it is in false teaching that somehow the kingdom is something for the future or a different place than here. The reality is that there is dual citizenship in the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven. And the kingdom being within you.
“Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one… I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. “(Jn 17:11b, 13).
And it is with Jesus’s joy and his purpose in us having fullness of life that we can go into the world and be the changes we would like to see. Not something only for the future wiht the now being transitory. There is purpose and meaning in the now to embrace!
Is there a risk of slipping into gnosticism, if we focus exclusively on the hereafter? The Christian worldview calls us to reflect on earthly issues; like the Covid vaccine, and some associations with foetal tissue which may be form abortion. Clear judgement on that question might help believers just now? HEK-293 etc…might HEK-293 be the Christmas child for 2020 or 2021?
May God bless you and your family this Christmas, David, and in 2021. Many thanks for your blog!