Has anyone ever lived in times that were normal? Probably not, I suppose. Every time and every context has its peculiarities, I’m sure. Regardless, there’s no doubt that we are currently living in unusual times—in what seems like a transitionary phase during which old traditions, old morals, and old ways of understanding the world are giving way to new. There are new questions, new concerns, and new challenges to those who want to live well in a world like this one.

Where do we go to learn to live well in new times? There is no better place to turn than to old wisdom—to the very same book that guided our forebears as they lived through the challenges that defined their own eras. The Word of God is, after all, living, active, and powerful, able to teach and to guide us no matter our times and no matter our circumstances.
In The Christian Manifesto, Alistair Begg takes an extended look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (which, though it bears certain similarities, should not be confused with his longer Sermon on the Mount). “This sermon,” he says, is “Jesus’ invitation to you to experience life at its very best. It is his description of what life in his kingdom—a kingdom where all that is wrong is being put right—looks like as we live in this world.”

In this book, we’re going to look at what can be helpfully seen as a “Christian manifesto.” A manifesto is a public declaration or proclamation issued by a monarch or head of state, or by a representative of a company or organization. Here is a manifesto for the Christian life, straight from the lips of Jesus… It is a manifesto that is not oriented towards the political arena, but towards the relational and individual one.

That’s not to say this sermon (and therefore this book) has nothing to say about how we live and relate to others in the political arena, but that this is not its primary purpose. Rather, it is a manifesto that calls us to live significant, meaningful, and distinctly Christian lives in our everyday affairs and our very normal interactions with others.
An especially important word in this manifesto is “blessed,” one we all recognize from the Sermon on the Mount. In this context “blessed” means “How happy!” “How fortunate!” or “How privileged!” Being a follower of Jesus Christ unlocks a happy, fortunate, privileged life and this Manifesto is aimed at helping us achieve it—to live the kind of blessed life Jesus offers.
The Christian Manifesto is simply an extended exposition of the Sermon on the Plain, and one written by an especially skillful and proven expositor. Though the book may have had its genesis in a series of sermons, it has been well adapted for the new medium. Begg shows how Jesus calls us to so reverse the values we hold dear that they became practically upside down to what they were before. He calls us to an exceptional kind of love—a love that would be impossible if it was not first modeled by Jesus Christ. He helps us understand how to live by the Golden Rule and how to freely and genuinely grant forgiveness, even when it is costly and even when it seems impossible. Along the way he writes with passion and conviction, often pausing to help the reader do some appropriate application. He is vulnerable about his own life, his own struggles, and his own tendencies to fail to do what Christ commands. It makes for a powerful product.
“We are not called to be like the world,” he insists, “and the world does not need us to be like the world.”

We have something better to say because we have someone better to follow. That means the call of Christ to you and me is both greatly exciting and deeply challenging. The call is not to be comfortable but to be Christ-like—to discover the surprising means of experiencing real blessing, and in doing so to point others the way to it too.

This book, and the great sermon that lies behind it, provide a powerful manifesto for living well, living courageously, and living in a way that honors God in uncertain times. I would encourage you to read the sermon, to read the book, and to apply them both deliberately and prayerfully.

Merry Christmas, my friends. May this day bring you heartfelt worship and tender joys.

On this day, I am pondering a lovely quote I found in one of De Witt Talmage’s sermons—a quote that calls us to not only be joyful at Christmas, but to see in Christmas proof that Christianity is a joyful faith. He means to counter the “delusion that the religion of Christ is dolorous and grief-infusing.” Here is how Christmas counters any such notion:
The music that broke through the midnight heavens was not a dirge, but an anthem. It shook joy over the hills. It not only dropped upon the shepherds, but it sprang upward among the thrones.
The robe of a Saviour’s righteousness is not black.
The Christian life is not made up of weeping and cross-bearing and war-waging.
Through the revelation of that Christmas night I find that religion is not a groan, but a song.
In a world of sin, and sick beds, and sepulchres, we must have trouble; but in the darkest night the heavens part with angelic song. You may, like Paul, be shipwrecked, but I exhort you to be of good cheer, for you who are trusting on Christ shall all escape safe to the land.

We live out our Christian lives in a place between Egypt and the Promised Land. We have been justified but not yet glorified—we have been delivered safely through the Red Sea but have not yet forded the Jordan and arrived on its far bank. We may not physically wander as did the Israelites of old and we may not actually follow pillars of fire and cloud, but we no less make a pilgrimage and we are no less dependent upon the goodness, the grace, and the guidance of our God. We are no less reliant upon his promises to sustain us when the path is uncertain, when our enemies rise up, when the way before us seems to stretch on interminably.

The Israelites were prone to doubt God—to doubt his strength, his power, his intentions. They were prone to doubt that he would prove true to his promises and lead them to the land that flowed with milk and honey, the land that would be their home and their rest.
In so many ways the story of the Pentateuch is the story of God proving his faithfulness over against his people’s faithlessness. It is for good reason that so few who saw God parting the sea between Egypt and the wilderness were permitted to see God parting the river between the wilderness and Promised Land. There were consequences for their doubt and for its many manifestations in grumbling, rebellion, and idolatry.
But then, as promise gives way to fulfillment and winter gives way to spring, the Pentateuch gives way to Joshua. And now we see the mighty warrior at the head of a great army. He leads the people across the Jordan where, fighting in the strength of the Lord, they experience victory after victory. Bit by bit and battle by battle they stretch the boundaries and expand the borders until war at last fades to peace. By chapter 21 we read a stirring summary of their success and, even more so, an inspiring summary of God’s faithfulness. Here is what we find in its many superlatives:

Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43–45)

God drove out the inhabitants, he protected his people, he gave them a home and a land of their very own. In short, he did all he said he would do. He proved true to his every promise. Not one word was broken, not one was left unfulfilled. He showed himself to be truly, perfectly, sublimely reliable.
As God made many promises to his people, he makes many promises to you and me. Just as he promised to lead his people to the safety of the Promised Land, he has promised to lead us safely to heaven. Just as their clothes did not get full of holes and their shoes did not wear out, so the Spirit will preserve us with joy intact, character intact, godliness intact.
The day will come when the history of our lives will be summarized with just such superlatives. One day it will be said of me that the Lord gave to me all that he had said he would give and that he delivered me to the sweetest and fullest rest. One day it will be said of you that not one of the good promises God made to you in his Word failed, but that each and every one came to pass. One day it will be said of all those who are his that God was faithful to his every word and true to his every promise. And together we will praise the name of the Lord our God.