Don’t Stop At Changing What You Do. Change What You Believe
By / May 26
Surrounded by the Colorado mountains, Lauryn Maloney-Gepfert is teaching people how to walk. Or rather, I should say, she is teaching people how to walk….again. The physician’s assistant developed a program called Neuroplastic Functional Training (NFT) and the results are nothing short of miraculous. People with debilitating injuries were beating insurmountable odds. Patients whose prognosis was lifelong paralysis, who were told that, at best, they might be able to feed themselves, were now fully functioning, walking, even getting up from the ground unassisted.
They relearned how to walk through Maloney-Gepfert’s whole person approach. She found that recovery was indeed possible, but it had to include all aspects of a person’s being. He method focuses on physical movement (the body), neuroplasticity (the brain), and one more element – the mind.
She explained that patients begin the healing with mental barriers that impede their recovery. These barriers inhibit the brain from changing and, as a result, keep the body from moving. Someone who hears she will never walk again and accepts that message inhibits her brain from relearning how to function.
Maloney-Gepfert discovered that what we believe about ourselves affects how our brain neurologically functions, which quite literally affects how we live. Our minds consciously choose what messages it accepts about ourselves, which changes ours brains, which changes how we live. In other words, a vital factor to whether a paralyzed patient will ever walk again is what she believes. Before she can go from immobile to fully functioning, she has to believe that she will walk again.
As I heard these miraculous stories, I thought of how much this applies to spiritual change. Our minds choose what we will believe, which changes how we think, and changes how we live.
Scripture tells us to be transformed not by making lists and resolutions, but by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:1-2). Ephesians 4:23 tells us to be renewed in the spirit, or the attitude, of our minds.
This isn’t some kind of humanistic, “if I can see it I can be it” spirituality. It’s not pumping yourself up with a pep-talk. It’s total surrender, wholehearted dependence on what God has told us about who He is and who we are in Him.
Throughout Romans 6, the Apostle Paul wants us to know who we are as believers in union with Christ. We have been crucified with Christ. We are dead to sin. We have been raised to walk with newness of life. This is who we truly are.
Paul is telling us who we are in Christ to tell us who we must believe we are. We are to “reckon yourselves dead to sin….and not present our members as instruments of unrighteousness.” Why does he say that? If Christ made us free from sin, why do we have to “reckon ourselves dead to sin”?
Because what we believe changes what we do. Our Christian lives grow the same way they began – faith in God’s promises. Colossians 2:6 says that we must walk in Him as we received Him – by faith! We never “graduate” from faith. And we know that the “righteous will live by faith,” and “without faith it’s impossible to please God.”
We all have barriers to belief that keep us paralyzed, messages we have believed about God and ourselves that keep us from changing. We have to replace with new beliefs. We have to choose what we will believe.
So how do we do that? By abiding in the Word of God. By reading, studying, thinking on, and talking about the truths of Scripture and choosing to believe what the Lord – whose name is Faithful and True – has said.
Maybe you made some resolutions this year. Maybe this is the year you want to really change. Before you launch out to change what you do, take an inventory of what you believe. Changing what we do starts with changing what we believe. Because what you believe will change what you do.
Do you believe God loves you, that He will cause everything to work together for your good if you love Him and are called according to His purpose? When you do, it will change how you live.
Do you believe you are forgiven and free from sin, have every spiritual blessing in Christ, and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ? When you do, it will change how you live.
Do you believe the Lord Jesus is sovereign over our lives and our world despite what we see, and that He is coming back? When you do, it will change how you live.
We don’t have to be paralyzed by our patterns. We can be renewed in the spirit of our minds the Word of God, and walk in our new identity (Gal 5:16). Let’s not stop at resolutions just to change what we do. Let’s change how we think and choose to believe what God has said. When we do, it will change how we live.
Editor’s Note: This originally published at Biblical Woman
Manners for Social Media in Polarized Times
By / May 26
1. Describing others with demeaning epithets is arrogant and unbecoming. Let’s run as far from it as we possibly can. Calling a person “stupid,” or “an idiot,” for instance, tells us more about our character than theirs.
2. Making uninvited humorous comments about physical characteristics of others is childish at best, but also rude and condescending. It often shows disrespect for God as Creator. Even in jest, it should be cut out of our speech repertoire. It would help to take a look in the mirror first.
3. Reacting immediately to hearsay and unsubstantiated “news,” rather than seeking out the facts is dangerous and demonstrates how much we love to be first with the bad news and last with the good. It’s rejoicing in the downfall of others. Is immediate reaction the way we wish others to treat us? Delay your judgment. You may well be wrong in your assessment.
4. Wearing the judge’s robe the first thing in the morning as if to say we are the all-knowing one shows a superior view of ourselves that no one really appreciates. Christians do evaluate in order to avoid evil and wrong associations and to lead others, but only after carefully understanding the facts. The ultimate judge is God, and he hasn’t assigned that job to you or me, except in special cases (1 Cor 6). “‘Vengeance is mine,’ says the Lord . . .”
5. Catching a person in a word rather than seeking to know what he or she truly means reveals an impatience and determined bias against those we accuse. We want them to look bad. We should be among those who do not assume but discuss to know the heart and intentions.
6. Rejoicing over the calamity of others is calloused and truly reprehensible. It’s the opposite of love. Such news should typically make us sad rather than happy, even if the Lord has wisely administered it for the good of all.
Christian friends, we must be careful to watch our heart and our words. Have we adopted the spirit of the age? Most of the time our family and social media friends can get along without our condescending viewpoint. Is all our careless ranting displaying the glory and beauty of Christ? Surely it is time to change.
Remember, if we “live by the sword, we’ll die by the sword.” The spirit and unloving way we give it out to others will be returned in kind.
As one pastor wisely stated, “Be careful who you pass on the way up, because you’ll pass the same person on the way down.”
I’ve often been stopped by this thought: We have a God in Heaven who has full knowledge of who we are-—our thoughts, motives, hidden sins, biases, and sometimes untutored and distorted values.
Will you work on your words and attitude along with me?
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be” . . .
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; and then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:9-10; 17)
Putting together a worship service isn’t always an easy task. There are songs to be selected and volunteer slots to be filled, which means there are songs people won’t like and volunteers who might cancel for one reason or another. And, of course, there’s always the temptation to go through the motions. After all, there are technical errors to sort through, live streams to keep in check, and rehearsals to run.
No matter how many things go haywire leading up to our Sunday services, there is one thing I can always count on: my friend Evie will be in the pews to my left as I lead worship. Evie is three years old. Sometimes she’s dancing. Sometimes she’s clapping. Sometimes she falls asleep, and other times she stands in the pew. On my favorite mornings, she’s trying her best to follow along with “His Mercy is More.”
She is becoming my favorite encourager, even when I bore her to sleep.
Without fail each Sunday, Evie reminds me of one of the most important parts of my job: instilling God’s great truth in little hearts. As I’ve settled into my first full-time ministry position, I’ve learned to sing for the children—and I think more worship leaders ought to consider making this a priority. Here’s why.
Children listen to the songs we sing.
When I first stepped into my role at First Baptist Alcoa, one of the only maxims I gave for myself was a refusal to sing songs that did not make much of Jesus. I wanted to be certain our congregation heard the gospel message proclaimed in our singing just as often as they heard it in our preaching.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have children myself, but I never anticipated being tagged in videos of congregants’ children singing the Doxology or singing hymns from the previous Sunday’s service. I didn’t expect parents to be mildly disappointed on their child’s behalf because they didn’t get to sing their favorite song at church in a particular week. Quite frankly, not even once had I thought to plan the worship service with children in mind.
More than any episode of Kids Say the Darnedest Things or any viral video, leading worship has taught me that our children are always listening to us. More specifically, they are always listening to the songs we sing at church. No matter how squirmy or sleepy they appear, they are inexplicably attentive enough to pick up on the words and melodies we sing. Some of them even learn songs better than the congregation!
Little ears are always absorbing the environment around them, almost like osmosis. When children hear the gospel sung, even if they don’t fully understand what it means, they get a head start on learning the vocabulary of the gospel. They learn things like “Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again,” or, “Behold our God, seated on His throne; come let us adore Him.” If you don’t believe me, ask my niece who has been memorizing Scripture and catechisms by means of song.
Worship leader: part of your job as a leader is to help plant these truths in children’s hearts at a young age. When you are tempted to be thoughtless toward song choice or theological depth, sing for the children—that they may grow up repeating the truth of the gospel to themselves. By selecting theologically rich songs, children are hearing theologically rich songs. Conversely, when we teach our kids songs without meaningful lyrics, we run the risk of actually teaching them that me-centered worship is the point.
Parents need help with family worship.
Another benefit to thinking about the children in your congregation as you plan your service is to serve the parents in your church as they seek to disciple their children.
For many families, whatever picture you have in your head of “family worship” is a big ask. Getting children to sit still for the duration of dinner is enough of an accomplishment for most, let alone trying to get them to listen to a devotional or sing songs. When our churches sing for the children, however, our churches help cultivate a joy for worship in their hearts. “Family worship,” in other words, becomes less of a chore and more of a desire.
It makes me think of a few more kids from my church: I know for a fact that they love the Getty’s “Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love.” In fact, they love it so much that they sometimes won’t go to bed until their mom or dad sings it with them.
Not only are they learning truths about God’s character and how He has saved us; they are excited to sing about these things with their parents. It makes the burden of family worship significantly lighter when children actually get excited to talk about Jesus. It opens up conversations about what songs mean, why we sing at all, and what Jesus has done for us.
As a brief caveat, I recommend giving hardcopy access to the songs in some capacity. At FBA, we have chosen to print all the lyrics in the bulletin even though we have them on a screen so that parents can take them home and discuss or sing the lyrics with their kids. Every publisher has its own rules, but you can likely get in contact with the publisher of various songs and hymns to try to get permission to copy CDs for personal use for your congregants—or, with the rise of streaming, put together a playlist of the songs that are in your rotation so that people can play it throughout their homes.
As a leader, you are responsible for those who have been entrusted to you.
It’s all over the Proverbs: what happens in childhood inevitably carries into adulthood (Prov. 1:8–9, 13:24, 17:6, 22:6, 29:17). You have been entrusted with little hearts as the unique role of “worship leader” in their lives. You are not their parent, and you may not even be a pastor, but they sit beneath your leadership. Do not waste the time that has been given to you. It is incumbent on us worship leaders to seek the spiritual wellbeing of our whole congregation from womb to tomb.
If we take seriously our responsibility of leading God’s people, we will take seriously our responsibility to sing for the children. The lyrics, melodies, prayers, and postures of worship sown in their hearts will, by God’s grace, return fruitful in the years to come and create a generation of worshippers that treasure Him above all else.
It’s Only A Church Service
By / May 21
Editor’s Note: The weekend can be an incredibly distressing time for many pastors to enter into. The desire to spend quality time with family while juggling the pressures of an unfinished sermon can be an exhausting reality. What many pastors need are not more tips on how to prepare better sermons as much as some encouragement to better prepare their hearts to preach the sermon they have. Join Ronnie Martin every Friday for The Preachers Corner, where he offers some words of comfort and stories of hope to help preachers enter the weekend encouraged by the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus.
“It’s only a church service,” he said.
And I looked at him with that “Did you just say what I think you just said?” kind of look on my face that made him smile. He wasn’t trying to be shocking, nor did he care less than I did about our church service. He was simply an older and wiser pastor catching me in a Mary and Martha moment where I was clearly not being very Mary-esque.
But this line has always stuck with me because I think pastors put an inordinate amount of pressure on themselves to put on a great church service. So let me get the qualifications out of the way because yes, a good and orderly church service is a right and good endeavor. We are worshipping the King of Glory, so our efforts should reflect in awe and reverence of Him. That doesn’t mean we need to be fancy and flashy, it simply means that our posture is one of love, honor, and respect.
But our motivations don’t always run that pure, do they? Here are some of the dangerous things we pastors can use the church service for:
A Proving Ground. The work of the pastor is largely an unseen work. We labor in relative obscurity all week, and then on Sunday, the congregation gets to see us actually “do something.” Because of the fear that this can breed in us, Sunday can feel like a proving ground of sorts, in that our sermon becomes the make-or-break moment that can seal or steal every ounce of our self-worth and identity.
The Greatest Show On Earth. Some of us love to be listened to and love to be looked at, so Sunday morning services are that moment to feel a sense of importance and grandiosity. We know that a service isn’t a show, but that doesn’t change how we feel when all eyes are upon us and a deceptive sense of satisfaction and arrival comes to rest upon our glory-starved egos.
Achieving Perfection. There is so little in our ministry that goes to plan, mainly because ministry is almost 100% relational, and doesn’t operate in the sterile confines of a laboratory or a craftsman’s workshop where every detail can be honed down to perfection. Because of this, pastors can use the Sunday service as that moment where “everything goes according to plan.” Except for the part I just mentioned about people being the ones who actually execute a church service. But it’s this mentality that can make a church service the pastor’s “baby,” and create an unhealthy ownership over it.
A Job To Be Completed. Some of us have a very workman-like approach to life that probably stems from our family of origin where we had parents who were very practical, methodical, and efficient when it came to running the household. Pastors can take this approach during Sunday services, too. Instead of a liturgy that is flowing, worshipful, and filled with natural rhythms of grace and truth, a pastor can approach Sundays with a sense of duty and obligation, like a weekly lawn service that comes in and landscapes your yard with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of proficiency.
What have Sunday services personally become for you, pastor? What kind of joy needs to be reclaimed so that Sundays remain what God intended them to be, which is an
Hour unlike other hours,whenthe people of God, worship God, as a community redeemed by the blood of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit for good works.
It’s only a church service when it ceases to be a worship service.
Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever (Ps. 111:1-3).
One often-overlooked characteristic of Scripture is its perspicuity (or, to use a more modern theological term, its clarity).[1] According to the doctrine of perspicuity, not only is the Bible divinely-inspired (or “God-breathed,” 2 Tim 3:16), inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and authoritative, it is a clear Word from God. The Bible is “not a dark and cloudy book.”[2] It is neither opaque nor outside of our reach. Instead, as the early Princeton theologian Charles Hodge once put it, the Bible is “a plain book.”[3] It is accessible. It is understandable. It is clear.
Sadly, this generation suffers from “[a] strange combination of theological amnesia and an uncritical acquiescence in the least disciplined forms of postmodernism have made many Christians highly suspicious of hearing any sure or clear word from Scripture.”[4] What a sad indictment this is, considering that Scripture testifies internally to its clarity. In no uncertain terms, the Bible itself declares: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105); “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130); “in your light do we see light” (Ps 36:9); and “we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19). What each of these passages communicates to us is that God’s Word is clear. Scripture shines light on God’s person, plans, and purposes in the way a lamp—or the moon—shines light on the nighttime traveler’s path.
The central contention of this article is that the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture ought to be a treasured truth for pastors in particular. For those who have been called to “shepherd the flock of God” (1 Pet 5:2), there is a special charge to devote themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). And the Word that Christ’s undershepherds are called to minister—whether through their own devotional study, their counseling, their discipleship, or in their public preaching and teaching ministries—is a clear Word, a Word that serves as “a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Pet 1:19). This article traces out how the doctrine of the perspicuity (or clarity) of Scripture ought to shape, influence, and profit the pastor as he commits himself to prayer and the ministry of God’s perspicuous Word.
Perspicuity Promotes Prayer
The doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture benefits the pastor first in his own communion with God – specifically, as he prays over God’s Word and engages in his personal study of Scripture.
First, the pastor who truly appreciates the great gift God has given us in the Word overflows with praises to God for who He is and what He has revealed in the pages of Scripture. He praises God not only for revealing Himself to mankind both through creation and conscience, but also for revealing key aspects of His limitless wisdom, His perfect purposes, and His unfathomable ways in the pages of Scripture. He praises God for the fact that Scripture itself is God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and authoritative. He praises God that His Word convicts, corrects, sharpens, and edifies the follower of Jesus Christ. He praises God that Scripture is a divinely-given instrument (a spiritual “sword,” Eph 6:17), and as such, it is a powerfully-effective instrument. And he praises God for the fact that, as John Owen put it, “all necessary truth is plainly and clearly revealed in Scripture.”[5] He praises God, in other words, for a clear and perspicuous Word—a Word that does not need to be interpreted by a Pope, corralled by a man-centered hermeneutic, or corrected by modernized, anti-biblical notions of “justice.” Instead, what he reads and studies is a clear and a timeless Word which can rightly be understood through the illumination of the Spirit who indwells him.
In addition to promoting praise, the perspicuity of Scripture promotes petition. It does so because what the perspicuity of Scripture does not mean is that every passage of Scripture is equally clear or immediately understandable. Indeed, we know from Scripture that this is not the case. Peter, writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit, recognized that there were “some things” in the writings of his Paul, his apostolic contemporary, which were “hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:16). In the fourth century, John Chrysostom, likened Scripture to a river: “In one part there are whirlpools; and not in another.”[6] According to Section 1.7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all.” The aforementioned Charles Hodge noted: “It is not denied that the Scriptures contain many things hard to be understood.”[7] There truly are “hard sayings” in the Bible. “The clarity of Scripture means that understanding is possible, not that it is easy.”[8]
What all of this means is that the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture does not eliminate the need for hard work in the pastor’s study as he seeks faithfully to mine the truths of the text before him. Scripture’s clarity is not to be confused with its simplicity. To the contrary, the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture drives the pastor to his knees as he petitions the Lord for a clearer understanding of what he knows is a sure and clear Word.
John Webster picked up on this link between perspicuity and pastoral prayer when he said: “the very act of interpretation is itself an episode in the struggle between faith and repudiation of God. We can cloak our own darkness by calling it the obscurity of the text; we can evade the judgment which Scripture announces by endless hermeneutical deferral; we can treat Scripture not as the clear Word of judgment and hope but as a further opportunity for the imagination to be puzzled, stimulated and set to work…That is why the promise of claritas scripturae is inseparable from the prayer: ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law’.”[9]
The pastor who understands the parameters of the doctrine of perspicuity—both what the doctrine means, and what the doctrine does not mean—is a pastor who prays.
Perspicuity Promotes Proclamation
Pastors, though divinely-appointed heralds, are still imperfect vessels and fragile earthen jars (2 Cor 4:7). We are known to mumble, we occasionally fumble, and there are times when we trip over our words—just as some of the prophets and the apostles did who came before us. However, though we can be guilty of speaking with a lack of clarity, no such charge can be laid against God’s perspicuous Word. Instead, the perspicuity of Scripture is, in part, what powers our proclamation of God’s Word to others, whether that proclamation takes place in private settings (counseling, discipleship relationships, Sunday patio conversations, interactions over meals in church members’ homes, etc.) or in public settings (in a formal preaching or teaching capacity).
John Wesley, who along with his brother Charles was used by God to spark the Evangelical Revival in England in the 1730s and 1740s, understood this link between the clarity of God’s Word and a pastor’s responsibility to faithfully proclaim the truths of God’s Word. Wesley remarked:
“I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself was condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. Here than I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In his presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read? Does anything appear dark or intricate? I lift up my heart to the Father of Lights: ‘Lord, is it not thy word, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God”? Thou hast said, “If any be willing to do Thy will, he shall know.” I am willing to do, let me know, Thy will.’ I then search after and consider parallel passages of Scripture, ‘comparing spiritual things with spiritual.’ I meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced in the things of God; and then the writings whereby, being dead, they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach.”[10]
In his public ministry, as he preaches the Word, counsels the Word, and otherwise ministers the Word, the pastor who has an understanding of the perspicuity of Scripture will be far less prone to dispensing trite platitudes. Instead, he will be able to deliver God’s truth without varnish and without compromise, knowing that the Word he has been charged to minister is not only clear in its content, but it clearly compels a response. Since he is ministering a clear Word, he can, with a clear conscience, call on his people to respond to the Word. As Martin Luther said: “Christ has not so enlightened us as deliberately to leave some part of his word obscure while commanding us to give heed to it, for he commands us in vain to give heed if it does not give light.”[11]
Knowing that he is ministering a clear Word will propel the pastor’s proclamation of the Word, which will be of great benefit to the people he is shepherding, regardless of their stage of spiritual development. As the English Puritan poet John Milton once wrote:
“The very essence of Truth is plainness and
brightness. The Scriptures protest their own
plainness and clarity, calling them to be
instructed, not only the wise and learned,
but the simple, the poor, the babes.”
Conclusion
A recurring theme in the pages of Scripture is the connection between light and truth (Ps 43:3 (“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me”); John 3:21 (“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light”)). Scripture, having originated with God, is truth. And Scripture is truth which has been clearly delivered by a God who is perfect in all of His ways—including the clarity with which He communicates.
Especially in the confused culture climate in which we live and minister, may we who have been entrusted with proclaiming the riches of Christ remain committed to doing so unashamedly, unapologetically, and prayerfully—knowing that He has given us a clear Word to proclaim.
[1] The word “perspicuity” comes from the Latin perspicuus, which means “transparent, clear, evident, or manifest.”
[2] Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 346.
[3] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979 repr.), 183.
[4] Mark L. Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The Clarity of Scripture (New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. 21) (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 9-10.
[5] John Owen, Works of John Owen, Volume 14 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1966), 276 (quoted in Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 146)).
[6] Larry D. Pettegrew, “The Perspicuity of Scripture,” The Masters Seminary Journal 15/2 (Fall 2004), 213.
[8] Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 317.
[9] John B. Webster, Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics, volume 2 (London: T.&T. Clark, 2005), 67 (quoting Ps 119:18).
[10] John Wesley, Works of John Wesley, Volume 5 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959), 2 (quoted in Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible, Earl D. Radmacher and Robert D. Preus, eds. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 477-478)).
Covid-19 Vaccines and Abortion-Derived Human Cell Lines
By / May 19
Should Christians use Covid-19 vaccines? I have been asked this question numerous times in recent months by pastors and laypeople. The primary moral concern raised to me regards the use of cell lines derived from abortions in the production of the vaccines. Earnest Christians with a commitment to the sanctity of human life are concerned about possible complicity with the evil of abortion. In what follows, I will argue using the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines clearly do not entail moral complicity with abortion. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine raises more difficult questions about complicity with evil, but I conclude its use is still morally permissible.
I will not be addressing the broader debate regarding the anti-vaccination movement. To be clear, I find anti-vaccination arguments unconvincing and based on poor argumentation, inaccurate summary of data, bad data, or conspiracy theories. My focus here is very narrow: As a person who believes vaccines have been an unusual blessing to humanity and celebrates the common good of immunization for public health, how do I respond when a profoundly effective method of preventing disease – vaccination – intersects with my moral opposition to abortion? For the sake of focus, I also will only be addressing the connection between Covid-19 vaccines and abortion and will save discussion of other recommended vaccines and abortion-derived human cell lines for another occasion.[1]
A Summary of the Three Covid-19 Vaccines and Human Cell Lines
Three Covid-19 Vaccines have been approved for use in the United States: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson / Janssen. The process of developing these vaccines occurs in three stages: 1) design and development; 2) confirmatory lab tests on the vaccines; 3) actual production of the vaccines. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine used an abortion-derived human cell line in all three phases; The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines used an abortion-derived human cell line only in the confirmatory lab tests phase, but not in the design nor production phases. The following chart shows the differences for each vaccine:
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use the human cell line HEK293 – an acronym which stands for “Human Embryonic Kidney 293” – in the confirmatory lab tests phase. HEK293 was developed in Holland in 1973 by a team led by molecular biologist and virologist Alex van der Eb at the University of Leiden. The cell line originates from kidney cells taken from a female child aborted around the year 1972. The abortion was not specifically performed in order to provide cells for research, but the cells were acquired after the fact. In 2001, Van der Elb commented on the source of the cells and said: “The fetus, as far as I can remember was completely normal. Nothing was wrong. The reasons for the abortion were unknown to me. I probably knew it at the time, but it got lost, all this information.”[3]
These fetal kidney cells were then transformed by introducing Adenovirus-5 DNA into their genome. This means certain strands of Adenovirus DNA were introduced into the kidney cells to improve the cell-lines usefulness for research.[4] Normal human DNA can only replicate and divide a finite number of times, but the modified DNA in HEK293 can replicate for an apparently infinite number of times, making it useful in research. HEK293 is now one of the most widely used cell lines around the world.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses an abortion-derived human cell line known as PER.C6 – an acronym which stands for “Primary Embryonic Retina Clone 6” – in the development, testing, and production phases. Also developed by Alex van der Eb’s team at the University of Leiden, this cell line was developed in 1995 from retinal cells taken from a child aborted in 1985. This abortion was not performed specifically to provide cells for research, but the cells were collected after the fact. Van der Eb described the original source of the cells, saying:
So I isolated retina from a fetus, from a healthy fetus as far as could be seen, of 18 weeks old. There was nothing special with the family history [and] the pregnancy was completely normal up to the 18 weeks, and it turned out to be a socially indicated abortus . . . and that was simply because the woman wanted to get rid of the fetus.[5]
The DNA in the PER.C6 line has also been modified to allow limitless reproduction. Pharmaceutical manufacturers like PER.C6 because it can be grown in huge 10,000-liter vats, allowing for large-scale production of vaccine components.[6]
To summarize, Johnson & Johnson uses abortion-derived human cell lines in all three phases of production of its vaccine, but Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna only used abortion-derived human cell lines in the confirmatory lab tests phase.
Use of Human Cell Lines: What Does that Mean?
To say human cell lines have been used in the production of a vaccine can lead to some misunderstanding. This confusion has led to some imprecise discussions of the moral issues related to vaccine development. Clarifying the exact nature of the cell lines and their role in production helps one make a better decision.
One persistent rumor claims infants are currently being aborted to manufacture vaccines. This is completely false. No ongoing abortions supply fetal cells for vaccine production. The question about Covid-19 vaccines revolves around two abortions: one in 1972 and one in 1985. And to be clear, neither of these abortions took place specifically to provide cells for research; the researchers took advantage of the abortions after the fact.
Another false claim which continues to circulate is that vaccines contain fetal parts. This widely disseminated rumor is based on a misunderstanding of what it means to say human cell lines are used in research or development of vaccines. Both HEK 293 and PER.C6 are called immortalized cell lines. The adjective immortal can be confusing, and leads some people to think the original cells from the aborted fetuses have been kept alive forever and are somehow present in a vaccine, but this is incorrect. Immortalized cell lines are cells that have been manipulated to multiply and divide indefinitely and thus can be cultured for long periods of time.[7] The current HEK293 and PER.C6 cell lines are significantly modified and innumerable generations distant from the cells originally cultured decades ago. There are extremely small, residual quantities of trace DNA from the original abortions in the cell lines, but this is quite different from the defective assertion that vaccines contain fetal parts. The cells used in the modern HEK293 and PER.C6 cell lines are not the same cells as those taken from the aborted children.[8]
The specific moral question regarding Covid-19 vaccines involves one’s possible complicity with the evil of abortion. To be complicit means one is cooperating in an evil act. Reasonable Christians ask, “If I take the vaccine, am I tacitly participating in the abortions used to found the HEK293 and PER.C6 cell lines?” Others ask, “If I take the vaccines, am I indirectly approving of abortion?” Most troubling for many Christians is the fear that taking the vaccine will encourage future abortions.[9]
Moral Reflection
The term sanctity of human life is a shorthand way of referring to the value God gives to all human life along with its inherent preciousness. The sanctity of life is theologically grounded in our belief that God is the creator of human life and that humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26 – 28). As such, the right to life is the basis of all other human rights, natural and legal, and the foundation of a civilized society.[10] The concept begins with an affirmation of the beauty and richness of biological human life itself.[11] The word sanctity means human life has ultimate importance and is not to be violated. The principle of the sanctity of human life demands that a human being, regardless of prenatal stage of development, age, health, gender, or race, is always treated with respect and that a person’s life not be ended prematurely, unduly, carelessly, without Biblical warrant, or merely for reasons of utility.[12] Southern Baptists believe in the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.[13]
We decry the abortions which provided the fetal tissue for the development of both HEK293 and PER.C6 because they violate the sanctity of human life. Pharmaceutical companies should find morally licit ways of developing vaccines that do not raise questions of complicity with the evil of abortion. Doing so removes a major moral concern for Christians who affirm the benefit of vaccines.
When considering sanctity of life concerns, we must also consider the lives which can be saved by the vaccines. When we are vaccinated, we are protecting the lives of other people by helping prevent the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus. Doing so also shows love for our neighbor (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39) by acting in a responsible way that helps lessen the possibility we might inadvertently pass along a potentially terminal disease. In this way, receiving a Covid-19 vaccination reflects a commitment to the sanctity of human life by preventing the infection of others. When we are vaccinated, we are protecting our neighbor, and affirming our neighbor’s value as a human. At the same time, Christians with a deep concern for the sanctity of human life are disturbed by the use of abortion-derived human cell lines in testing or producing the Covid-19 vaccines. Is there a way forward? I think there is.
Again, the moral question is, “Am I complicit in the evil of abortion if I receive a Covid-19 vaccine?” For the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, I think the answer is clearly no. While both to these vaccines used abortion-derived human cell lines in confirmatory lab tests, no human cell lines are used in either development or production.
The answer to the question is a bit more difficult for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine since abortion-derived human cell lines are used in all three phases of its production, but I conclude its use is still morally permissible. The distinction between formal and material cooperation with evil helps in evaluating the problem. Formal cooperation in evil means one directly participates in an evil act; it takes place when a person intends in his or her action to further the wrongdoing of the principal agent. In our case, the person in question is someone receiving a Covid-19 vaccine and the principal agents are the abortionists themselves. Formal cooperation is always wrong, because it is not permissible intentionally to perform an evil act, even for a good end.[14] Taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not entail formal cooperation in evil since we did not assist in the abortion which provided tissue for PER.C6.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine does raise more specific questions about material cooperation in evil. Material cooperation in evil refers to cooperating in an evil act in ways not directly related to causing the act in question. Two distinctions within this category are vital: Proximate material cooperation and remote material cooperation. Someone who is proximate to the evil in question makes a direct contribution to the act that leads to the commission of the act. Taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine seems clearly not to be making a direct contribution to the act of abortion, so a person taking the vaccine is not guilty of proximate material cooperation.
Remote material cooperation means one makes a contribution to an evil act but his or her contribution does not lead to the commission of the act. I think when most Christians express concern about abortion-derived vaccines, they are expressing concern about remote material cooperation and want to avoid complicity in evil in even a manner which is far removed from the original acts of abortion. They feel using the vaccine contributes to the wrong-headed thinking of our culture that abortion is permissible, and in this way might promote additional evil acts of abortion.
We should celebrate Christians who have a tender conscience. Certainly, we live in a day when, as the prophet Jeremiah said, “People don’t even know how to be ashamed” (Jeremiah 6:15). Yet, I believe it is possible to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and in the process not contribute to the furtherance of the evil of abortion. At the same time, I prefer using vaccines in which the use of abortion-derived cell lines is not raised at all, thus I personally chose the Moderna vaccine.
Christians burdened by concerns about remote material cooperation in the evil of abortion can take the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines since no abortion-derived cell lines are used in their production. But if, for some reason, health concerns mean one can only take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I suggest it is morally permissible to do so in an effort to avoid the danger of spreading Covid-19 to other people who may be immuno-compromised and at extremely high risk for death from the disease. Keep in mind, the human-cell line used to develop the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not contain cells from an aborted fetus. I concur with Arbo, Mitchell, and Walker when they say, “We should concede the ethical validity of vaccine use while not ignoring the problematic origins of its development.”[15]
At a deeper level, I think most Christians want to avoid becoming religiously-minded ethical utilitarians. Paul warns in Romans 3:8, “And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.” Without getting into a discussion about Paul’s opponents, it is clear the apostle forcefully rejects the idea that salvation by grace and Christian freedom grants moral right of way to some twisted form of utilitarian thinking enabling us to justify any means by well-intended ends. In this light, the entire point in the discussion about Covid-19 vaccines is that Christians are not doing the evil act of aborting the child, nor do we condone it. Furthermore, no abortions are ongoing to produce the vaccines.[16]
Perhaps an illustration can help us think about Covid-19 vaccines and abortion-derived human cell lines. Imagine an evil father attacks his three-year-old child. The child is rushed to an emergency room where the ambulance is met by a distraught mother, a woman who had not been present when the father flew into a rage. Despite the best efforts of medical personnel, the child dies. Several floors up at the same hospital is another three-year-old child needing a transplant of some sort, and the deceased child is an ideal match. No one would think the grieving mother would have sinned by donating her deceased child’s organs to save another child’s life. While this scenario is not exactly analogous to the elective abortions which provided the original fetal cells for HEK293 and PER.C6, the cases are similar in that the original evil in both cases – killing an innocent child – cannot be undone. In neither case – killing of a child by a violent father and killing of a child via an abortionist – do we affirm the evil act. But the child who received the transplant is not considered complicit in the evil act of murder. Likewise, I do not think taking a vaccine makes us complicit in the evil of abortion.
Let me be explicitly clear: I want modern science to give us human cell lines developed in ways that do not raise any concerns about the sanctity of human life. I am confident that smart people with a commitment to moral excellence can achieve this goal. Because vaccines are a benefit for all people, developing such cell lines will, I think, encourage greater compliance with vaccinations.
To summarize, neither the Pfizer-BioNTech nor Moderna vaccines are produced from abortion-derived human cell lines. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is produced from abortion-derived human cell lines. There clearly is neither formal nor material cooperation with evil in using the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. From my perspective, using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine also does not entail either formal or material cooperation in evil. Christians concerned about possible remote material cooperation in the evil of abortion should use the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. But using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is morally permissible for those who cannot safely use the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. There are no ongoing abortions supplying human cells for any vaccine. Furthermore, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not contain cells from the aborted child, though it does contain extremely small amounts of residual DNA from the aborted infant. Pharmaceutical companies should respect the sanctity of human life and work to develop vaccines which do not raise concerns about complicity with the moral evil of abortion. Doing so will eliminate one further objection to vaccines.
[1] Five recommended vaccines are developed from cell-lines derived from abortions: Varicella (chickenpox), rubella (the “R” in the MMR vaccine), hepatitis A, one version of the shingles vaccine, and one preparation of rabies vaccine.
[2] Christian Medical and Dental Association, “Courage in the Crisis: CMDA and Covid-19,” March 4, 2021, https://cmda.org/coronavirus/.
[3] Testimony of Alex van der Eb before United States Food and Drug Administration Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research meeting in Gaithersburg, MD, May 16, 2001, 81. https://web.archive.org/web/20170516050447/https://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/01/transcripts/3750t1_01.pdf. Alvin Wong, “The Ethics of HEK 293,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 6.3 (Autumn 2006): 477. Catholic physician Alvin Wong has argued forcefully that though the exact circumstances surrounding the abortion in question are uncertain, “It is already known that the cells are embryonic in origin, so there is a high probability that they are from an induced abortion.” Alfred Wong, “The Ethics of HEK 293,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 6.2 (Autumn 2006): 477.
[4] A portion of human adenovirus 5, nucleotides 1-4344, is integrated into chromosome 19 of the HEK cells. Washington State University, “HEK 293 Cell Lines,” https://biosafety.wsu.edu/?s=HEK293.
[5] Testimony of Alex van der Eb before United States Food and Drug Administration Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research meeting in Gaithersburg, MD, May 16, 2001, 91. https://web.archive.org/web/20170516050447/https://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/01/transcripts/3750t1_01.pdf.
[9] Edward J. Furton, “Vaccines Originating in Abortion,” Ethics and Medics 24.3 (March 1999): 3.
[10] Thomas Wood, “Life, Sacredness of,” The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics, James F. Childress and John MacQuarrie, eds. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1986), 353.
[11] This definition is my revision of Thomas A. Shannon, An Introduction to Bioethics, 3rd ed. (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), 46.
[12] I’ve modified and expanded this sentence from Stanley J. Grenz and Jay T. Smith, Pocket Dictionary of Christian Ethics (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 71. I believe Scripture allows for taking of human life in cases of self-defense, executions performed by a legitimate state authority as punishment for capital crimes, and in a just war.
[13] The Baptist Faith and Message, Article XV, “The Christian and the Social Order.”
[14] M. Cathleen Kaveny, “Complicity With Evil,” Criterion 20 (Autumn 2003): 24
[16] If, hypothetically, some a vaccine was developed which required procurement of fresh human tissue from ongoing abortions, using such a vaccine would be material cooperation with evil.
Breakfast with Jesus
By / May 19
“Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. (John 21:12)
These are some of the most mundane words you will find in the Bible. But in context, they are some of the most moving words of all.
“Come and have breakfast.” I’ve spoken these same words to half-awake boys on many a morning, and they’ve been forgotten as soon as I’ve said them. But when Jesus spoke these words, they were unforgettable. That’s why they are recorded for us in John’s Gospel.
Consider the context. The crucified and buried Lord has risen from the dead and appeared to the disciples on two separate occasions. As they adjust to this life-altering event, Peter and some of the other disciples decide to do something familiar. They go fishing. (Remember, they were fishermen before Jesus called them to follow him.)
They get into the boat, fish all night, and catch nothing (not the first time this had happened). Then, just as day is breaking, Jesus calls to them from the shore, but they don’t realize it’s him. “Cast your net on the right side of the boat,” he tells them. And the resulting catch is so large that they’re unable to haul it in.
When they arrive onshore, there is a charcoal fire, some fish laid out on it, and some bread—a welcome sight to weary fisherman. Jesus tells them, “Come and have breakfast.” Then we read that, “Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish” (John 21:13).
What is so moving about this breakfast scene?
First, there is the miraculous catch after a fishless night on the water—a reminder that “apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). It was a memorable object lesson for those who would soon be fishing for men.
Then there is the Lord’s gracious offer of hospitality. He invites those who had earlier fled from him to the intimacy of a shared meal on the shore. For Jesus to feed breakfast to such failed men must not only have provided satisfaction for their stomachs, but grace to their souls.
And then there is the charcoal fire. Peter had warmed himself by a “charcoal fire” (John 18:18) just moments before denying three times that he knew Jesus. Now, this same Jesus is inviting Peter (who had just jumped into the water from the fishing boat and swam to shore) to the warmth of a charcoal fire. The grace-filled irony of this should not be missed.
John mentions elsewhere that, even after his resurrection, Jesus’s hands bore the marks of the nails that were used to crucify him (John 20:27). Consider that Jesus handed out fish and bread to his disciples with nail-scarred hands that morning. Jesus, the risen Lord who has defeated sin and Satan and death, is there, on the shore, serving breakfast to his tired and hungry disciples—the very men for whom he had suffered and died to save.
Along with the net full of fish, the crackling fire, the fresh-baked bread, and the satisfaction of a hot breakfast, the presence of the risen Lord signals to those weary disciples that everything is going to be okay. And that is true for anyone who receives grace and mercy from those same, nail-scarred hands.
Disciple of Jesus, however you’ve failed, however weary and worn out you’ve become, however fruitless your efforts to serve him may seem, remember that breakfast on the shore. Remember the hot bread and the fish and the fire and the miraculous catch. Above all, remember the Lord who is full of mercy and grace, and who calls his disciples everywhere to come and have breakfast with him.
To Pause Is Divine
By / May 14
Editor’s Note: The weekend can be an incredibly distressing time for many pastors to enter into. The desire to spend quality time with family while juggling the pressures of an unfinished sermon can be an exhausting reality. What many pastors need are not more tips on how to prepare better sermons as much as some encouragement to better prepare their hearts to preach the sermon they have. Join Ronnie Martin every Friday for The Preachers Corner, where he offers some words of comfort and stories of hope to help preachers enter the weekend encouraged by the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus.
You’d think it wouldn’t be a big deal by now.
“Hey Ronnie, if you could just record a quick one minute video for such and such a thing that would be great,” they asked. “Yep…on it,” I replied.
Fifty-seven takes (give or take) and one afternoon later, they had their video. And here I was, accepting my award for most frustrated dude in the world
Sometimes, little things become big things, and when it comes to ministry, that may be the truest thing you hear all day next to your daily Bible reading.
So what was it about that 57th take that it made it the “good one?” It was simply that after the 56th take, I decided to pause for a moment to collect my thoughts and give my vast acting skills some time to regroup.
Although pausing is a practice I’ve used countless times over the years, it’s also something I need to remind myself of constantly. But I like to think of pausing as a divine practice, because it’s really the art of waiting, of refusing to become frantic, and of resetting our gaze on the One who told us “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Sometimes in our nerve-wracking rush to complete a sermon on Thursday or Friday, we can forget the divine art of pausing, praying, and slowing down our mental and emotional engines, and taking a minute of silence to listen to what the Spirit might be speaking to us in our stuckness.
Here is a procedure of pausing that has been helpful for me when I’m wound a little tight:
I Just Stop. Sometimes we go over and over our words and sentences to the point that we’ve lost all sense of clarity and objectivity. Recognize when that is happening and literally…stop.
I Change My Environment. The old English proverb a change is as good as a rest is incredibly accurate. It does wonders to stand up, go to another room, step outside, take a walk, and get yourself away from the intensity for a spell.
I Shift My Focus. A short conversation, a mindless task, a quick errand, or a quiet moment of reflections helps shift my focus to something else for a minute. At no point does my mind become superhuman during my study process.
I Pray Before I Begin Again. The Lord sees you when you are knee deep in a quagmire of Bibles, commentaries, computers and moleskins. He knows what your sermon is lacking, and more importantly, he knows what your soul is lacking in those desperate moments. Pause, and pray. Ask Him for what only He can provide and allow the peculiar peace of Jesus to bring some perspective back to your sermon prep.
A pause helps me to remember that Jesus cares more about me than my sermon.
It helps me to remember that His love for me is more sure than even the sun rising in the morning.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning (Psalm 130: 5-6).
The Fear of Death and God’s Grip
By / May 12
The Coronavirus itself may have turned out to be more frightful in the projection than the reality of it — unless you or someone you love died from it. Like all things that bring us fear, there is truth behind that fear. The truth that choked us is that all of us will die (unless escaping at the coming of Christ). It is only a matter of time. We’re sure, as well, that our lives could end in an unexpected way. And, beyond this, most of mankind fears what is beyond death, a just judgment for their actions and thoughts. So, when the artist inserts an unknown intruder virus on the canvas where such dark knowledge is already broad-washed as its background, fear is the result.
The aftershocks of the virus have created further fears of immense earth-side troubles throughout our world. The unknown virus will likely topple the economies of many nations, some of which were remarkably efficient and, from appearances, stable. Like the pretentious banker, they were well-creased in the front, but threadbare in the rear. This virus has exposed the pretense of wealth sitting upon debt. With businesses closing and governments bankrupt, we could see a broad expanse of poverty and joblessness, bold socialistic actions from which we will not soon be liberated, and prevailing discouragement as people try to push themselves upward with no sound footing beneath. It may bring suicides.
Or, these things may not happen.
Fear is the emotional reaction to a person’s ideation of destruction, loss and pain anticipated and imaginated [yes, that’s a word]. There is truth concerning ultimate death, pain and judgment at its roots.
Christians are subject to viruses and failing economies as well. It’s true that we live in the world. But we are not of the world. We are called by God whom we serve to embrace ultimate truths, not fear them, for Christ has done something remarkable for us. There are many such truths for believers, both related to this world and the next. We can let our emotion and mind fully wrap around those truths, and by doing so, not fear, but rise above those fears binding the hearts of unbelievers. As we know, the truths concerning the believer’s end are not designed to be fear-producing. The writer of Hebrews said that Christ became man and died so that “he might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (2:15).
Recently I brought back into use an outline of biblical ideas I had written years before on a teaching Christians call “the security of the believer.” They are well-suited for this time of new experiences that have potential to shake us. Don’t be put off by the outline itself, with each part neatly starting with the same letter of the alphabet. It may help you remember it. Rather, examine the chapters and context of the verses supplied and see how the verses say exactly what the outline reports. We could think of these as five fingers of God gripping the true believer to keep him secure. I suggest that some of you would do well to memorize this outline and the verses supplied in order to meditate on them. It will give you stability even if the world around us morphs into something we have not seen before in our lifetime. Maybe you can teach these to others, placing the verses in their Bible context to better appreciate their strength. And, by all means, put it in your Bible and on your bulletin board. Let this speak to you.
How the Believer in Christ is Kept Secure in God’s Five Finger Grip
We are kept by the PROMISE of God.
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37-40)
We are kept by the POWER of God.
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)
We are kept by the PASSION of God.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
We are kept by the PRIESTHOOD of God.
“The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:23-25)
We are kept by the PRESENCE of God.
“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Imagine God in his royal study behind the desk that runs the cosmos. If he were like you and me, he would be intensely focused. He probably wouldn’t even notice us enter the room. From somewhere deep within, we muster up the courage to say something. Maybe we don’t even know what we’re saying, but we want his attention. So we stumble over our words. Eventually, something resembling a sentence comes out and he looks up. What now?
He’s a busy God. He has the universe to uphold, you know. But we’re not asking for much. Not really. I mean, we want a lot. We have requests. We want to see him. We want to be with him. But we understand. He’s so important, and we’re just us.
So we make our requests known quickly. We just spew it out. It doesn’t sound impressive because it’s not. And we don’t wait long enough to get an answer. We’re too scared, either afraid that it’ll be a no when we want a yes or afraid of his presence. Worst of all, maybe something else will come up we weren’t prepared for. He may, you know, actually say something to us. So we go on about our day and leave God to his work.
Is that the God you know? Too often, it’s the image that comes to my mind when I sit down to pray. I know he’s busy. I also know he cares. But the busy God outweighs the caring God. Perhaps that’s less a reflection on his business than my own. I have things to do. I need to get going. But God? Of course, he has a lot coming at him. Throughout the world, people are praying. The stars never stop shining. The universe never stops turning. Evil must be kept at bay. People need to be saved. How does he do it all?
This is the excellent greatness of God (Psalm 150:2). He is not limited as we are. I can do very little. He can do very much. I grow frustrated with interruptions because I can’t multitask, no matter how many times I tell myself I can. When my kids visit my study as I’m hard at work, I grow impatient and frustrated. I will answer their questions when I’m done. How will my world keep spinning if I take a break?
But God’s world spins, and it doesn’t come at our expense. He does not have to delay our interaction. He can do it all.
As we enter that royal study where the universe is upheld by his very word, we find not a distracted Father too busy for us. No, he smiles when we come in. He’s happy to see us because Jesus has paid our entry fee. We can come boldly, as a child, because by Christ’s blood we’ve been given that right (John 1:12). He gets out of his chair and bends down to pick us up. He listens to the rambling stories and disconnected thoughts. He bears with our weakness because he knows we are but dust. He takes his time with us. He lets us linger. He’s not worried about the wars and rumors of war rising in the background. He’s in control of that even as he speaks with us. He’s able to be everywhere all the time. He’s at every point in history as if it were the present. He’s over it all and above it all but not disconnected from it all. He cares on a level we cannot because we cannot see what he can. His capacity for trouble outweighs ours. His endurance is limitless. His stamina never fades. God can, at the same time, sit us in his lap and hear our prayers while hearing the prayers of all the saints throughout the world, receive praises from all on earth and those in heaven, and oversee the smallest detail in the most hidden corner of space.
God’s excellent greatness is that he’s not too great for you. He’s never too busy. He always has time. And nothing ever goes against his perfect plan. Who God is for you is all you need him to be at every moment of your life. He’s not too great for you; his greatness is for you.
