This message is part 1 of a three-part seminar on practicing the habits of grace in a hectic world. See here for the other two messages:

Let me start with a text before we do some more orienting work on where we’re going this weekend. Let’s get a little glimpse of the early church, the church that endured these various heresies and challenges of legalism, distraction, and competition in the first century. We get this little glimpse, like a little honeymoon moment, early in the Book of Acts. Peter has preached, three thousand people have come to faith, and then we find this out in Acts 2:42–47. Here’s what they do:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This is an amazing, shining, warm, bright moment. Early in the church, before persecutions come one after another, and before the Book of Acts moves from one obstacle to the next, we have this little, early moment. Who wouldn’t want these things? Awe coming upon every soul? Many wonders and signs? People want to sign up for signs and wonders. They want to see the spectacular.

And they were sharing their stuff. They weren’t forced to have all things in common. They chose to do this. They were selling their possessions. They were attending the temple together. They were receiving their food with glad and generous hearts. It was so ideal. They were praising God, and they had favor with all the people (that will change). God added to their number day by day those being saved.

Who doesn’t want to be part of a church like this? What’s the recipe? We want to know. What were they doing that had the Holy Spirit flowing through them like this? We want to be part of a church like this. We want to have lives like this. People want to sign up for numbers increasing and signs and wonders being performed.

Spectacularly Unspectacular

In Acts 2:42, it’s just so unspectacular. It’s so normal. In Acts 2:42, what did they devote themselves to? “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The apostles were teaching the word. They had this message about Jesus called the gospel, and they were teaching Jesus from the Old Testament Scriptures. This is the apostles’ preaching and teaching about Christ and how we should live. Then it mentions “the fellowship” — we’ll say more about that tomorrow morning, and focus on it as a means of grace.

We have teaching. We have the word being taught. We have the community, the fellowship, the company, the congregation. There’s the breaking of bread. (I take this to be a reference to both the sharing of their meals and to the Lord’s Supper.) And we have the prayers. It’s very basic, normal stuff. It’s Bible teaching, prayer, the gathering of the congregation, and fellowship. And in the midst of that, they share food and the Lord’s Supper. These are very unspectacular things.

And yet, that’s what our focus is going to be on this weekend. As we think about distraction, competition, and legalism, we don’t want to just survive but to thrive in the Christian faith, with joy. So we’re going to talk about these seemingly mundane, very ordinary, electric-with-power means of grace for the Christian life.

This is our outline here for tonight and for tomorrow. As we’re breaking this into three sections, it’s important that we do some introductory work here first tonight. Tonight is going to be the most principled, theological, or visionary component of the three sessions. Then I’m going to try to get way more practical tomorrow morning and afternoon.

Tonight, we’ll start off with an introduction to the means of grace. We want to get our theology right at the outset. What’s the deal with the means of grace? How does that relate to our habits of grace? And tonight we’ll introduce God’s “chief” and “soul” means of grace: the word. That’s what Jonathan Edwards called it. Tomorrow morning, God willing, we’ll come back and do some practical focus on the word, and I’ll introduce prayer. Then in our final session, I’ll focus on some practical aspects of prayer, and then tackle this remarkable and often forgotten means of grace called “the fellowship.”

Clarify, Simplify, Inspire

Let me state here my aims for us in our time together tonight and tomorrow. Here’s my aim for these sessions: I want to clarify, simplify, and inspire. I’d like to clarify the source of the Christian life in God’s ongoing grace for us and how to access that grace. Then I want to simplify our pursuit of God’s grace through his appointed means. God has told us how he means to bless us. He has told us how he means to have the flow of his grace coming into our lives. I want to rehearse those things and then seek to sync up the habits of our lives with the remarkable flow of his grace.

Then I want to inspire you to cultivate habits of grace in your life, whatever season of life and whatever your personal bent, so that you can develop habits that would help you to know and enjoy him. And in knowing and enjoying him, to glorify him. It’s all so that he would be glorified in our delight in him and in the expressions of that delight, as it works its way out into our lives. It’s so that we would let our light shine in such a way that others would see our good deeds and give glory to our Father (Matthew 5:16).

My hope here is to keep the gospel and the energy of God at the center. As we talk about these actions, these efforts, and these initiatives we might take, we don’t want to fall into our own version of Christian legalism. We’re going to put the gospel at the center and the grace of God at the center.

Then we’re going to want to emphasize corporate dynamics as well. This is often overlooked in discussions of the spiritual disciplines. It becomes a very me-and-God-oriented thing, which is good. That has its place, but there are also amazing things in the Christian life that are corporate. There are means of grace that are corporate.

I want to present God’s means of grace and your own habits that develop around those means as not just accessible and realistic but truly God’s means for your knowing and enjoying Jesus, for a lifetime. That’s where we’re going, as our goal: we want to know him, enjoy him, be close to him, and hold fast to him, that he would be the great, personal life and source of our spiritual survival and thriving — and do so for a lifetime.

This is what we aim at: we aim at lives that glorify God through hearts that are happy in him, through souls satisfied in Jesus. That’s going to happen through his ongoing supply of grace to our lives, and he has given us his appointed means of grace. Then we’re going to seek to have our own habits and corporate habits whereby we access his grace and know, enjoy, and glorify him. We want to see God glorified through our joy by God’s threefold means of grace in our own habits of grace.

Primer on the Means of Grace

Session one is an introduction and a focus on the word. I want to introduce “the means of grace,” this concept, and then talk about God’s first and foremost means of grace for our Christian lives. Just to set this up, let me talk about Proverbs 21:31, which is a great means text. One danger in applying Christian theology and human responsibility would be that we think our means — the things that we do — just bring about our ends no matter what, as if it’s just a closed system, as if it’s pure cause and effect. We’re responsible; we get it done. That’s it.

Or we could have a more fatalistic view, thinking, “Well, it really doesn’t matter what we do because God’s the one who does things decisively.” So, we need to bring these two together theologically and experientially when we talk about the means of grace. It’s just a little glimpse of glorious means all throughout the Bible, once you see it:

The horse is made ready for the day of battle,     but the victory belongs to the Lord.

Now, a godly king gets his horses ready for the battle. If he has a battle, he prepares for the battle. Get your soldiers ready for the battle. Prepare, execute, have a strategy, engage. And he’s not so naive as to think that there are no prayers to be prayed and a God to be leaned on and seen as the One who decisively does it. You can have the best army and chariots and guns and tanks, and if God decides you lose the battle, you lose the battle.

Means are important in the Christian life. If God appoints that a nail be in a board, he also appoints a hammer and a hand driving it into the board. Or as a father and a homeowner, I can’t help but think of faucets and light switches. One reason I think about this is that I have a father-in-law who’s a plumber. I did not grow up in a plumber’s family — my dad was a dentist. He did stuff around the house, but he also hired other people to do stuff around the house. I didn’t grow up a handyman. So, when I became a homeowner for the first time fifteen years ago, it was all new to me, and I felt all this pressure because my wife’s dad is a plumber. If something goes wrong, she just expects me to fix it. I’ve had a lot of learning to do.

But an amazing thing about the plumbing or the electricity in the house is that if you want some water, you don’t just walk around the living room going, “Water, fall on me. Water, give me water.” No, the home has been plumbed and wired, so to speak, in a certain way. You go to the sink to get water, and then you turn on the sink. You do the action. You engage the means, and hopefully, water comes out of the spigot. When you do that, you don’t celebrate and say, “Look what I did. I made it water. I made the water come out.”

Or maybe you walk into a room to turn on the lights. By the way, Canadians — you guys are funny sometimes with the hotel lights. The same thing happened to me in Montreal. I could not figure out the lights in Montreal, and it took me about ten minutes last night to figure out the lights in the hotel. There are mood lights, and there are all sorts of different lights. When the lights come on, because I flick the switch, I don’t celebrate that I did it. The city provided the electricity, and some electrician wired up the walls and got the outlet installed.

But it would be silly for me just to walk around and demand that light to come on or to have water without engaging the appointed means. That’s the kind of thing we’re dealing with here in the Christian life. God has told us that he has provided power, he has wired things up, and he has provided various switches. He provides faucets where we engage the means and get the flow of water.

Now, here’s where we’re going in this session. First, we want to talk about the God of grace. We have to start with him. He’s the personal provider of this grace. It’s not this rogue thing, a power that you try to access and find. It’s his power through his Spirit. Second, he has given us his appointed means of grace. Third, we’ll talk about various habits in our lives for accessing his grace. Fourth, we want to emphasize the end of the means as well. To have a means implies there’s an end. You have to have an end of the means. We’ll talk about that and introduce his first and foremost means: his word.

1. Know the God of grace.

First, let’s celebrate the God of grace. First Peter 5:10 says,

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Our God is a God of grace. When he reveals himself to Moses, he reveals himself as “a God merciful and gracious, full of steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). This is the kind of God who is overflowing. He’s eager to help his children. He wants to shed his grace. The very coming of Jesus is the climactic expression of his grace.

So, we have a God of grace. That’s a very important starting point in coming to the means of grace — that we see that we don’t have this miserable God who’s holding back his stuff. He wants to give. He’s happy, he’s generous, and he wants to give his grace to his people, especially as they come through his means.

First Timothy 1:11 says, “Sound doctrine [is] in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” I just want to linger over the word makarios, which means “blessed” or “happy.” Our God is the infinitely happy God. He’s not miserable up in heaven. He’s infinitely happy. He lives for all eternity in the infinite bliss of the Trinity. He’s the happy God who radiates out with his glory and, because of that, has a gospel to save sinners.

And then in 1 Timothy 6:15 he says of this God, “He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion.” Our God is overflowing in his riches, in his goodness, in his fullness. That fullness comes to us and meets us in his grace toward us sinners.

So, first and foremost, we have the God of grace. And then very importantly, we need to recognize how this grace manifests in our lives, and how it comes to meet us.

The Grace of Justification

The God of grace justifies us. You may be familiar with this language of justification, of God justifying us. If you’re not, I’ll try to explain it. If you are, glory with me in it, that the God of grace does this for his creatures.

Romans 4:4–5 says, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.” So, if you work, you get wages, and they aren’t given to you as a gift. They’re what you are due. You deserve the wages. You enter into this arrangement, and you get the wages.

Then Paul continues, “And to the one who does not work but believes—” The opposite in this contrast he sets up is that one is working for it, and the other is believing. He is contrasting belief here. He says, “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

Justify means he counts them righteous. He accepts them fully. He declares them to be in the right with him. “Faith,” at the end of the verse, goes back to “belief” at the beginning of the verse. This is justification by faith. This is coming before the holy God for his acceptance not on the basis of anything we do. We are coming to him to believe in him. We come as the ungodly, and by faith — because of Jesus and his righteousness in our place — we are justified. We are declared to be in the right. Working is one path, and belief is another. That’s the realm of justification.

Here’s more of his blessedness, his fullness, his riches, his goodness, and his lovingkindness. Titus 3:4–7 says,

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us [justification], not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Not only is he excluding from our acceptance with God poor works, partial works, or flawed works, but he is also excluding works done in righteousness — the best works you can do. God justifies us by his grace. Our full acceptance before the holy God is not based on anything we do. Our habits of grace, however good, even if they’re done in righteousness, do not earn our right standing with the holy, rich, blessed God. That comes through faith in Jesus Christ. God justifies.

The Grace of Sanctification

You might just say, “Well, that’s enough. That’s enough grace for me. I’ll just take that grace and go home.” But God says, “I’m the God of all grace. I have more grace than that. That justification is spectacular good news, and I’m not done.” This is double grace — what Calvin called duplex gratia. This is the grace of God that sanctifies. Sanctification, our own becoming holy, is not an annoyance or a burden; it is another grace.

Titus 2:11–12 uses the same kind of language. He just talked about the appearing of God’s mercy and goodness and lovingkindness in Jesus. Now we’re talking about how the grace of God has appeared. Jesus is God’s grace, embodied and personal. The passage says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people —” Then you might say, “Oh, that’s great. Grace means there’s nothing for me to do, right?” Well, there’s some grace here for your training. He continues,

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. (Titus 2:11–12).

Brothers and sisters, self-control, uprightness, and godly lives — these things aren’t burdens. This is more grace. God is more gracious than to just save you from your sin, forgive your sin, reckon you righteous, and then leave you in the misery of your sin. He says, “I want to save you out of your sin, I want to forgive you of it, and then I want to pull you out of the misery of your sin.” Ungodliness is miserable. Worldly passions are miserable. Self-control, uprightness, and godly living empowered by grace is double grace.

Now we’re getting into how this grace works in our lives as a means, and how we might work. We don’t work in justification. We only believe. But in sanctification, we get to work. We act, and we put some effort in by grace. Here’s how it happens. Paul says, “By the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). So you might think, “Oh — grace. Does that mean you’re going to find the apostle Paul on a couch?” Probably not with Paul. (It’s not that the couch is a problem. There’s a time for couches, though I don’t know if Paul had any time for it.) Instead he says,

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Now, when Paul said he “worked harder than any of them,” do you know what he’s talking about here? He’s not talking about bums in Crete or the lazy folks in Galatia or whatever; he’s talking about the other apostles. Paul must have had such a gargantuan work ethic that he could say something like this in utter humility. I don’t think there’s any posturing here. I don’t think there’s any pride. I think it was just so well-known. Paul was just wired differently. Peter is not the same. John is not the same. But Paul is just Herculean.

But you know what? Paul says, “That’s the grace of God. It’s not I.” All these long journeys, all that he went through, all the labors and works — he does it by grace. I’m not saying you have to be as tireless as Paul. What I’m saying is that the grace of God empowers us to make effort. There’s no effort for justification. You cannot earn God’s acceptance. But in grace, you can experience the joy of walking in real holiness.

Here’s the dynamic as Paul talks to the Philippians about it:

Beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12–13)

He didn’t say work for it. That would be in the realm of justification. If he said work for it, that would be a breach of justification. He’s saying, “Work out your salvation. God is saving you. You’re righteous in Christ. Work it out.” How? Is it that in your own effort you work it out? No, he says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). God works in you.

We saw this in the Titus text about the Holy Spirit being given to us richly. The reason that justified sinners don’t become lazy or antinomian is that with this gift of justification, which you did not earn with any of your works, another gift comes. His name is the Holy Spirit, and through him God loves to continue to pour out his grace.

He’s at work. He works in you by the person of his Holy Spirit, both for your willing and working, which is deeper in us than we can sense. We’ll see that tomorrow when we talk about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is deeper in us than we can even sense. He’s at work in us for our will and for our work, for God’s good pleasure.

The Grace of Glorification

We’ve spoken of the grace of justification, the grace of sanctification, and then there’s a triple grace (and another one, and another one, and another one). This is the last one we’re going to do for right now. The grace of God glorifies.

Second Thessalonians 1:11–12 says, “[May God] fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you—” At this point we think, “Amen. To him be the glory. Glorify Jesus.” Then Paul surprises us here and says, “. . . and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:12).

So, Christ is being glorified in us Christians, and we are being glorified by grace in him. There is a coming glory, a glory that’s already happening in our lives as we grow in holiness and Christian maturity. Second Corinthians 3:18 talks about moving from one degree of glory to the next. There’s a final glory coming, and it’s coming by grace. It’s when the groom glorifies his bride with himself. Ephesians 2:4–7 says,

But God, being rich in mercy [more “richness” language], because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

This is what he has begun in you if you have faith in Jesus, and this is what he will do for endless ages. He will lavish on us the immeasurable riches of his grace in Christ Jesus. So, the God of grace justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies. We are in a matrix of God’s grace in Christ in the Christian life. And God has given us appointed means of grace.

2. Grasp the means of grace.

How do we pursue sanctification? How do we pursue one degree of glory to the next? There are God’s appointed means of grace. Now, sometimes people talk about the spiritual disciplines. It’s a common term. It’s a subtitle in my book because I tried to set it up within the genre of spiritual disciplines.

But I like the term “means of grace” because I want to try to coordinate our actions with God’s actions. I want to see that first and foremost, we have the God of grace, and then in light of who he is, we’re now taking action from a creaturely posture of receiving his grace, rather than only the language of “spiritual disciplines.” Spiritual disciplines could begin and end with you. They could be about what you have to do.

“My most pressing need is not to master the Bible but to be mastered by God through his word.”

This is why D.A. Carson says, “Means of grace is a lovely expression less susceptible to misinterpretation than spiritual disciplines.” That’s your good Canadian brother right there. Or consider J.I. Packer. (Look at all these Canadian voices! He’s originally from England, but he spent a lot of time in Canada.) I first got onto this term “means of grace” from this quote from Packer: “The doctrine of the spiritual disciplines is really a restatement and extension of the classical Protestant teaching on the means of grace.”

Then Packer gives us a little helpful summary. What are these means? We have to know what these means are. Packer is going to help us here. There are four means of grace, he says: “The word of God, prayer, fellowship, and the Lord’s Supper.” He gave us four. We’ll keep coming back to that.

Here’s another quote by J.C. Ryle. As far as I know, he never lived in Canada. He’s a good British brother. He says,

The means of grace are such as Bible reading, private prayer, and regularly worshiping God in Church, wherein one hears the Word taught and participates in the Lord’s Supper. I lay it down as a simple matter of fact that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. I can find no record of any eminent saint who ever neglected them. They are appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul, and strengthens the work which he has begun in the inward man . . . Our God is a God who works by means, and he will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual that he can get on without them.

Don’t you want that? Don’t you want fresh supplies of grace to your soul from the Holy Spirit? Thank you, J.C. Ryle. We’ll come back to Ryle.

So then, how might we approach these means? I think there’s a helpful paradigm here in Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus. They’re back-to-back stories in the Gospel of Luke. I wonder if Luke’s putting them back to back to get at this very purpose. Whether he’s trying to do that or not, let’s look at the story of Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus and the Road

Jesus drew near to Jericho, and there was this blind man sitting by the roadside, right? He was by the road. That’s significant. He didn’t think, “Well, let me just go wander in the wilderness, and maybe I’ll bump into the Messiah.” He’s by the road. You’re going to get help by the road. Position yourself by the road. Then it says,

And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” (Luke 18:36–37)

Because he was by the road, Jesus was going to come by him. The passage continues:

He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. (Luke 18:38–43)

The reason the grace comes to Bartimaeus is that he’s by the road. He went to the place where grace was passing. Jesus wasn’t over there in the wilderness. He was coming down the path, and Bartimaeus was by the path, and so he has the encounter with Jesus. He asks for mercy and receives the grace of healing because he’s by the path where Jesus is passing.

Zacchaeus and the Tree

Now, let’s see what happens with the wee little man, Zacchaeus.

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. (Luke 19:1–6)

Zacchaeus doesn’t run out into the desert and hope to encounter the Messiah out there. He hears Jesus coming. He comes to see Jesus. He sees he’s too short and there’s too big of a crowd, so he goes up to a sycamore tree by the road, gets up in the tree, and gets Jesus’s attention. He positions himself along the path where the grace of God will be passing. Here’s what Jonathan Edwards had to say:

Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.

By that, he means that you can’t want too much to be happy in God. You don’t have to curtail that. There are no bounds on your desire to be happy in God, which is what you were made for. He continues:

Rather, they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement.

In other words, cultivate your desire for God’s grace and for God’s Son by laying yourself in the way of allurement, along the paths where Jesus will be passing. If he tells us where he is going to be passing, we should position ourselves along those paths.

His Voice, His Ear, His Body

So then, what are these means? How do we put ourselves on the path of God’s grace? Why don’t we come back to Acts 2:42 where we started? It says,

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Remember that we saw Packer mention the word of God. We saw Ryle mention Bible reading and the word being taught. “The apostles’ teaching” is mentioned here. The apostles were doing word-ministry and teaching. Then you have “the fellowship,” the body of Christ, the corporate dynamics of the covenant people together in relationship with each other. They are a means of God’s grace to each other, which is an amazing thing. It’s not just God’s word that is a means of grace, but we are means of grace to each other, back and forth. And finally it speaks of “the breaking of bread and the prayers.” I think the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace fits in the context of the fellowship, in the corporate life of the church.

Here’s how I organize them. Here are my three principles, my way of doing it. You could take a pie and cut it into twelve pieces, or eight pieces, or four pieces. I like to cut my pie into three pieces. I’m cutting the pie of the means of grace into three pieces, and I have reasons for that. I’ll show you those briefly. Here’s my summary:

Hear his voice in his word.
Have his ear in prayer.
Belong to his body in the fellowship of the local church.

I’m making the effort to make it personal here. We hear his voice in his word. Don’t hear his voice out in the wilderness. Don’t close your Bible and “hear his voice.” That’s your own voice talking to yourself. You hear his voice in his word. You have his ear in prayer and belong to his body in the context of the local church.

Matrix of Means

So, where does this threefold matrix come from? I think it’s a whole-Bible doctrine for me. This is a whole-Bible synthesis. You test it this weekend or next week, for months and for the rest of your life. See if this is a viable three-part summary of God’s means of grace.

I do think it’s Trinity-like, in the sense that it’s a kind of whole-Bible synthesis. I think God is very clear that his first and foremost means of grace is the initiative he takes in revealing himself in his word and climatically in his Son, who is the Word. Clearly, he means for his people to respond in prayer, and he doesn’t create those people as individuals alone, but in the context of the church. So, there’s my three-dimensional bringing together of his means of grace that we will be walking through tonight and tomorrow.

I think you can observe the pattern in Hebrews. This is what I’ve often done. I love Hebrews. If you’re allowed to have a favorite Bible book, mine is Hebrews. Hebrews does a really good job of summarizing these. Some of the best texts on hearing God’s voice are in Hebrews. We’ll see those in a minute. We also see this amazing passage about drawing near to the throne of grace with confidence, which means at least a kind of prayer and having his ear. And then regarding fellowship, I don’t know what to say except that Hebrews has probably the two best texts on fellowship.

Hebrews does this so well. You can see God’s means of grace in wanting the Hebrews to persevere. He commends God’s ongoing speaking through his word by the Spirit, approaching the throne of grace in prayer, and then enduring in the context of the local church.

Over time, I think the Psalms shaped me the most, and I started to see this more and more. There are so many texts in the Psalms about God’s word, God’s ear, and the congregation of the covenant fellowship. We could spend hours on it, but we won’t spend hours on it. I’m going to race through it in a few minutes. Here’s the pattern.

God’s Voice in the Psalms

In the Psalms, hearing God’s voice comes from his word. Psalm 19:7–8 says,

The law of the Lord is perfect,     reviving the soul;the testimony of the Lord is sure,     making wise the simple;the precepts of the Lord are right,     rejoicing the heart;the commandment of the Lord is pure,     enlightening the eyes.

The Bible is God’s personal revelation of his law, testimonies, precepts, and commandments. Psalm 29:4 says,

The voice of the Lord is powerful;     the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

And Psalm 46:6 says,

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;     he utters his voice, the earth melts.

It’s a symbol of his power. It’s a sign of his power that he doesn’t take out the divine sword or the divine muscles. All he has to do is speak. He’s that powerful. The nations do their raging, their plotting, and he just speaks, and it all melts. As Psalm 68:33 says, “Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice,” and with it comes much grace for its people.

On the flip side, sin is not listening to his voice. The Psalms lament those who do not listen to God’s voice. It’s very basic. Our Father says, “Son, daughter, listen to my voice. You will be safe if you listen to your daddy’s voice and obey your daddy’s voice. You have a gracious daddy who’s speaking so that you can have joy and be protected and not go into misery. Listen to my voice.” But he says,

My people did not listen to my voice;     Israel would not submit to me.So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,     to follow their own counsels.Oh, that my people would listen to me,     that Israel would walk in my ways! (Psalm 81:11–13)

He speaks to the wilderness generation. They’ve come out of Egypt, they’ve been through the Red Sea, and they’re on the cusp of going into the promised land. God has given them promises. He has said, “Go take the land.” They see the giants, and they’re getting fearful. Psalm 106:24 says,

Then they despised the pleasant land,     having no faith in his promise.

He had promised, saying, “I’m going to give you this land. Obey the promise.” The passage continues:

They murmured in their tents,     and did not obey the voice of the Lord. (Psalm 106:25)

It’s a tragedy when his people do not attend to his voice, and it’s delight, joy, glory, and life when his people attend to his voice.

God’s Ear in the Psalms

The Psalms are also a massive example of having his ear in prayer. The psalmist prays,

Give ear to my words, O Lord;     consider my groaning.Give attention to the sound of my cry,     my King and my God,     for to you do I pray.O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;     in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. (Psalm 5:1–3)

And Psalm 17:6 says,

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;     incline your ear to me; hear my words.

Don’t you see it in the Psalms over and over again? The psalmists know that God stoops, and he listens. He wants to hear from his people. Not only does he reveal himself in his word, but he wants to hear from his people. He wants this to be a relationship. He doesn’t just broadcast it. He speaks and then wants to hear from his people in prayer.

The psalmists pray for his ear. They ask:

Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,     when I cry to you for help,when I lift up my hands     toward your most holy sanctuary. (Psalm 28:2)

O God, hear my prayer;     give ear to the words of my mouth. (Psalm 54:2)

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!     O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentive     to the voice of my pleas for mercy! (Psalm 130:2)

I say to the Lord, You are my God;     give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord! (Psalm 140:6)

And as they ask for his ear, as they pray for it, they’re already confident that he hears. So they not only pray for his ear; they declare that they have his ear:

The Lord hears when I call to him. (Psalm 4:3)

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;     you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear. (Psalm 10:17)

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God. (Psalm 17:6)

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous     and his ears toward their cry.The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,     to cut off the memory of them from the earth.When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears     and delivers them out of all their troubles.The Lord is near to the brokenhearted     and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:15–18)

The psalmists celebrate having his ear:

In my distress I called upon the Lord;     to my God I cried for help.From his temple he heard my voice,     and my cry to him reached his ears. (Psalm 18:6)

Blessed be the Lord!     For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. (Psalm 28:6)

You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy     when I cried to you for help. (Psalm 31:22)

Come and hear, all you who fear God,     and I will tell what he has done for my soul.I cried to him with my mouth,     and high praise was on my tongue.If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,     the Lord would not have listened.But truly God has listened;     he has attended to the voice of my prayer. (Psalm 66:16–19)

You might say, “Well, maybe he would listen to David because David was a king. David had this special role. But does this apply to me?” The answer is that this applies to us all the more in Jesus. We have all the more reason, because of Jesus, to know that the Lord hears our prayer.

We’ll talk about that foundation. We’ll talk more about Jesus’s high priesthood, his coming into the throne room, and his pouring out his Spirit so that even as we cry out, it is God himself, the Spirit, crying out in and through us. You have all the more reason than ancient Israelites and Davidic kings to know that he hears your prayer if you are in Jesus.

God’s Body in the Psalms

Belonging to his body and having fellowship appears in the Psalms as well. This is the congregation of the righteous in the Psalms:

I will tell of your name to my brothers;     in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (Psalm 22:22)

I will thank you in the great congregation;     in the mighty throng I will praise you. (Psalm 35:18)

You get the point. Again and again, the psalmist is not alone. He’s with fellows, covenant fellows, which has pretty clear application for us.

3. Practice habits of grace.

God’s matrix of grace for the survival and joy of his people’s souls includes hearing his voice in his word, having his ear in prayer, and belonging to his body in covenant fellowship. What about these various habits of grace? If those are the means of grace — word, prayer, and fellowship — what about our habits? What is a habit?

This is from Charles Duhigg’s book, Power of Habit. He says,

Habits emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices, the brain will try to make almost any routine into a habit because habits allow our minds to ramp down more often so that the mind can attend to something else.

This is from Gretchen Rubin:

The real key to habits is decision-making, or more accurately, the lack of decision-making.

So, if every time you get in a car, you have to go through the process of thinking, “Should I put the seat belt on or not?” habit comes along to help with that. Or when the light turns red, do you want to stop at that moment and have a decision-making party and ask, “Well, the light turned red, what should I do about this?”

No, the life-saving habit is to just hit the brakes. The life-saving habit is to say, “It’s Sunday morning. Let’s worship with God’s people.” We don’t need to have a decision-making party here on whether to go this week. Or if it’s Saturday morning, do you ask, “Should I start the day with God’s word?” It’s a good habit to form.

What do good habits do? Habits free our focus to give attention elsewhere. They protect what’s most important. They keep us persevering. They’re person-specific, and they can change in various seasons of life. You may have habits that are not lifelong but just for this season. Habits can change. They’re driven by desire and reward. Your brain generates habits because there’s some reward that you’re looking to, however consciously or subconsciously, which is very important for forming spiritual habits.

Habits also change us. They condition us. You’re not hardwired in such a way that habits themselves aren’t part of changing you. Habits are part of a process of you being changed, your neural plasticity, and the changing of your soul and your heart by these habits.

As we already saw, “the grace of God has appeared . . . training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions” (Titus 2:11–12). We are being trained by God’s grace. God’s grace should form various habits in our lives for the ongoing flow of his grace and the ongoing changing of our souls, of our hearts. It’s reforming us for self-control, for upright and godly lives.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

If I had more time, we would talk about training and the importance of it. We’re in an Olympic city. When you train for the Olympics, it changes your body. You condition the body. And when you are trained by grace, or you train in righteousness, it changes your heart, it conditions your heart, it makes you more able to delight in God rather than all the stuff of the world.

A big question for Christians as we look at the various habits and patterns of our life is this: Am I conditioning my soul to delight in God or the world five years from now? You may be believing right now, but if we audited the habits of your life, perhaps you are conditioning your soul to no longer believe in five years. The question for us, if we want to delight in God, is this: Am I conditioning my soul to delight in Jesus?

4. Long for the end of the means.

This relates to the end of the means. It’s the reason why we’re doing it. There’s an end. And the end is John 17:3, which says,

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Or consider Philippians 3:7–8, which says,

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Knowing Jesus and enjoying him is the reason that we talk about the means. We could have gathered this weekend and done meditations on the glory of Christ (which is my preference). That’s what we want to do, and that’s where this is going: enjoying Jesus, delighting in Jesus, talking about Jesus. But I’m hoping that by focusing on the habits of grace we’re preparing ourselves for how to enjoy him and conditioning ourselves for enjoying him so that we can see him, know him, and enjoy him. He, enjoying him, is the great end of all these means.

Engaging His Voice

Finally, I’m going to close by introducing the word, and then we will come back tomorrow morning to talk more practically. How do I engage the word? If the word is God’s first and foremost means of his grace — God reveals himself through his speaking — how might I go about accessing his word? Tonight, let’s introduce the principle. God’s first and foremost means is his word. I told you Hebrews had great texts:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. (Hebrews 1:1–2)

This is the Book of Hebrews’ way of saying that Jesus is the Word. He’s the speaking of God. He’s the climactic revelation of God.

Then, in Hebrews 3–4, taking up the Old Testament text from Psalm 95, it says, “The Holy Spirit says . . .” (Hebrews 3:7). This is so important. When he’s talking about Old Testament Scripture, he doesn’t say, “The Holy Spirit said this once.” Rather, he says, “The Holy Spirit says . . .” He’s saying it right now. He said it then, and he continues saying it right now, as you hear it. The passage continues:

The Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:7–8)

That’s what he’s talking about, then, when he says, “The word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12). It’s not a dead word. It’s not like God spoke in the past, but he’s not saying it right now by his Spirit to his people.

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12–13)

The Holy Spirit continues to speak God’s word. Then the last warning in Hebrews 12:25 says, “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.” He is speaking. It’s amazing to see this live, present doctrine of God’s ongoing speaking by his Spirit here in Hebrews. Our God is a talking God. He’s a speaking God.

What Is God’s Word?

Let me give you a quick summary of God’s word, because what I want to do is get outside of our thinking only of God’s word as this book that we flip through. The book is infinitely precious. But sometimes, if we just think about the letters on the page and not the larger concept and all that it means for God to reveal himself and speak to us, we may not appreciate what we hold in our hands. Our God is a talking God.

He spoke to create. That’s how he created the world. It was not a show of power with his hands, but speaking. And he speaks through creation. In Psalm 19:1, it says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” He spoke in human words through his prophets, like the text we already saw about his law, testimonies, precepts, and commandments from Psalm 19:7–11. He speaks definitively in his Son, who is the Word, as we saw in Hebrews 1. John also says, “In the beginning was the Word . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). That’s the climactic revelation of God.

So, what is the word of God? Here’s my summary. Just think about the concept of God’s speaking. He speaks, he reveals himself, he’s communicative, he’s talkative. Isn’t that amazing that we have a God who speaks? Where would we be if he did not speak? He speaks to create, he speaks through creation, and he speaks particularly through his prophets. And then his word, spoken through the prophets, is written down and preserved in Scripture. When you hold that book in your hand, this is the preservation of God speaking.

Next comes his incarnate word. That’s his word made personal in his Son. Jesus is the Word of God. I put this in because I was marveling over that this morning in Matthew 17. Moses is there, Elijah is there, and Peter is like, “Oh, let’s build three tents. Moses can have a tent, Elijah can have one, and Jesus can have one.” And the voice speaks from heaven,

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. (Matthew 17:5)

I mean, how amazing is that? In the presence of Moses, he says, “Listen to him, the beloved Son.” That’s what Moses was anticipating. The great prophet Elijah anticipates the coming of the Son.

Then we have the word preached or spoken. That’s the gospel. This is the main way the New Testament uses the word word. In the New Testament, when you see “word,” it’s usually not referring to Scripture. That’s the word Scripture. The word word usually refers to the gospel.

Then Christ’s spokesmen, his apostles, write down their letters and their Gospels — the New Testament. So we have the prophets’ word, and we have the word about Jesus, captured by the apostles. So when we take up our Bible — this is such an amazing thing — we have here not only a record of what God has spoken into the world for his people, but we have the speaking. This is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in God’s Word.

Gather a Day’s Portion

Let me give you this last thing as we go. I want to give you one practical thing because, between now and tomorrow when we talk through the practicals, there’s a morning. I’d like to influence your morning tomorrow, if you would let me, before you come out. I call this “gather a day’s portion.”

This is my reminder for me in a world of distraction, competition, and legalism — in a hectic world — to have my focus be where it should be when I pick up my Bible in the morning. A temptation for me is, “How much can I do here?” rather than, “Can I feed my soul? God, would you feed my soul this morning?”

This comes from Exodus 16. God’s people are in the wilderness. They’ve come out of Egypt, and he’s going to give them this gift called “manna.” This is not exegesis that I’m doing here. This is a parallel, an analogy.

Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day. (Exodus 16:4)

Here’s what’s behind it. Your Father wants to provide food for you every day. Don’t store it for tomorrow. Don’t store it for next week. Don’t fill a barn. These are daily provisions. The passage continues:

Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. (Exodus 16:18)

Lamentations 3:23 talks about how his mercies are new every morning. And Jesus prays, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Sometimes God gives you daily bread in five minutes. Usually, it’s a little longer than that. Sometimes it’s twenty minutes. Sometimes you may really wrestle with him like Jacob, and it might be an hour.

But I want to encourage you tomorrow morning to come before him and pray, “God, would you give me a day’s portion? Would you feed my soul this morning? Even more than my stomach is hungry, because I slept all night and need breakfast, my soul is hungry. Would you feed my soul this morning in your word?”

So, “gather a day’s portion” is my reminder not to try to do too much in morning devotions and have them get hectic. I don’t want to miss the main thing. My most pressing need is not to master the Bible in a few short months or weeks but to be mastered by God through his word, just a little each day, on the arc of a lifetime.

Developing a daily habit of feeding on him in Christ is more like a marathon than a sprint. It’s not hectic and hurried, but it’s coming before him saying, “Father, would you feed my soul this morning?”

Imagine that moment when Jesus first opened his mouth to begin his Sermon on the Mount.

The Gospel of Matthew sets the scene. Jesus has been baptized by John (3:13–17) and endured forty days of wilderness fasting and temptation (4:1–11). He has quietly begun his public ministry in the region of Galilee and called his first disciples (4:18–22). He started by teaching in synagogues. But now as his fame spreads, the crowds swell, and his ministry is increasingly consigned to open air (4:23–25).

Seeing the crowds, Jesus goes up a mountain. The gentle slope will serve as a natural theater where he might be seen, and his words heard, by the masses.

Has humble Galilee ever seen anything like this — anyone like this? Not only does this tradesman’s son heal, but he speaks with a captivating weight. The scribes borrow their authority (as they should) from Scripture as they teach and explain God’s word. But this man, perfectly in sync with Scripture, somehow speaks on par with Scripture — and even in some enigmatic sense, his authority seems to rise above it.

There are whispers. Might this be the prophet to come? Might this be the Messiah himself? It all makes for an electric moment — the air thick with energy and excitement.

A hush ripples through the crowd. He is about to speak. What will Jesus say? How will he start? What will be the first topic he addresses at such a poignant moment?

He opens his mouth and says, “Blessed . . .”

Ninefold Happiness

Remarkably, Jesus’s first topic — his repeated first topic — is to the blessedness, the happiness, of his hearers. He assumes they want to be happy, and he makes an extended appeal — a holy, perceptive, profound appeal — to their happiness. Not just once but over and over again.

The refrain of these precious opening words, which will come to be known as “the Beatitudes,” addresses the deep and enduring desire of the human heart to be happy — that is, blessed.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. . . . Blessed are those who mourn. . . . Blessed are the meek. . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . . (Matthew 5:3–11)

Nine times Jesus makes his stunningly hedonistic appeal and tops it all off with the exhortation — for those in the face of persecution no less — “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (5:12).

The opening salvos of Jesus’s most famous sermon promise true happiness. His refrain is reward; his charge is “rejoice and be glad.” Many of us today are so familiar with these Beatitudes that we miss the shock, the scandal, the gall of a preacher unleashing such a pleasure-seeking manifesto on an unsuspecting audience.

Our Blessed God

Part of the reason we miss this edge in Jesus’s message is because our word blessed has lost much of its power. In the first century, blessed was no overused hashtag. It wasn’t Christianese, suffering from overuse and shallowness. “Blessed” in the Hebrew Scriptures was “the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord” — so rich and full and sweet a delight that “on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1–2). Blessed was no small promise from the mouth of Jesus to the ears of the crowds.

“The kingdom of heaven is, first and foremost, the sphere of God’s happy smile and favor.”

The Greeks had mused about the “blessedness” (makarismos) of their gods as “the transcendent happiness of a life beyond care, labor, and death . . . the happy state of the gods above earthly sufferings and labors” (TDNT). In 1 Timothy, Paul applies the term to the Father of Jesus Christ. He is “the blessed God” who has entrusted Paul with “the gospel of his glory” (1:11). He is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:15).

Accordingly, Peter van Mastricht, favorite systematician of Jonathan Edwards, would come along centuries later and define divine blessedness as God’s

perfect enjoyment of his own self, from which there is said to be fullness of joys with his face (Psalm 16:11). In it is contained not only an exact knowledge of his own self, a knowledge proper to him alone (Romans 11:34; 1 Corinthians 2:11), but also a fullness, repose [rest], and joy in himself, in the communion of the persons, and in all his works (Proverbs 8:30; Matthew 17:5). (Theoretical-Practical Theology, 2:489)

In other words, to be God is to be happy — infinitely, unshakably happy. Because what makes him happiest — who makes him happiest — is infinite and unshakable: himself. God is not an idolater; he has no greater joy than himself. He is supreme being — highest, infinitely so, in value, glory, beauty, and happiness. God is far and away, utterly unrivaled, the most valuable and most delightful reality. And before anything else existed, through his creative mind and hands, he was fully satisfied in himself. He alone is the bottomless source of all delight, even for himself. He is God, and to be God means to possess and enjoy infinite bliss. And apparently, to be inclined to share it.

Our Blessing God

What’s so stunning in Jesus’s repeated call to true happiness is that it presupposes God’s willingness, even eagerness, to extend his own happiness to his creatures. The blessedness Jesus promises is the blessedness of God himself shared with his people. In fact, as his disciples and their expanding circle come to learn, Jesus himself stands among them as the fully human (and divine) expression of God’s happiness.

Jesus comes as an extension of his Father’s own blessedness, and he offers that blessedness to those who hear him in faith. The kingdom of heaven — so prominent in Jesus’s teaching — is, first and foremost, the sphere of God’s happy smile and favor.

Unexpected Conditions

Still, the repeated invitation to such blessedness is not yet the end of the surprise. Nine unexpected, seemingly upside-down qualifications follow Jesus’s ninefold promise of God-given happiness. Counter to our natural expectations, these promises are not for the strong, the glib, the proud, the vindicated, the exacting, the worldly triumphant. This happiness, the happiness that comes from God himself, is on offer to the weak, the lowly, the despised, the ones who look foolish and shameful in the eyes of the world —

the poor in spirit . . . those who mourn . . . the meek . . . those who hunger and thirst for righteousness . . . the merciful . . . the pure in heart . . . the peacemakers . . . those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake . . . . (Matthew 5:3–10)

The blessed God is not into icing the cakes of otherwise happy people. He takes the empty and fills them, from the very bottom, with his surpassing blessedness. He takes the needy and shares with them his own boundless bliss. He recruits those who lack, that he might fill them. He receives the dependent, that his own joy in them might be seen to be as rich and full and thick as divine joy really is.

The happy God, in his fullness and bounty, in his infinite joy and delight, generously overflows to give, enrich, comfort, feed, extend mercy, show himself, adopt, vindicate, and reward all who will abandon the pretense of being fine without him and gladly receive the lavish abundance of his grace and mercy.

Happiness Rewards the Humble

Jesus’s opening lines in this sermon call us to acknowledge the depth of our emptiness, recognize the extent of our neediness, even glory in our lack and our dependence, and acclaim the fullness of God’s generous provision and contagious happiness.

He is both the blessed God and the blessing God, who sent his own Son not only to speak of our blessedness in him but to secure it. The happy God is the giving God — giving mercy, the kingdom, the whole earth, and great reward (Matthew 5:3, 5, 7, 12). He comforts and satisfies (5:4, 6). He reveals his own heart to his children and calls them his sons (5:8–9).

This happy God and Father makes his sun rise, and sends his life-giving rain, even on the evil and unjust (Matthew 5:45–46). He rewards those who seek him in secret (6:4, 6, 17). Indeed, he knows what his children need before they ask, and he is eager to give good things to those who ask (6:8, 32; 7:11). He feeds them far better than the birds (6:26) and clothes them far better than the lilies (6:30). He gives daily bread, forgives debts, and delivers from evil (6:11–13, 15).

“Blessed . . . Blessed . . . Blessed . . .” Jesus says. And he invites us into the very happiness of God.

Audio Transcript

What makes for a best friend? That’s the question from one listener today, a friend of ours. “Pastor John, I was recently asked by a friend of mine to explain your theology of friendship. I’ll say what I said and see if I got it right or wrong. Here’s my summary, and I’ll let you approve or disapprove or correct this and then substantiate it as you please. Okay. I said this. First, in this universe, Christ is of greatest worth. There’s no greater attainment in life or in death than to know and to love him. That means — he means — the value of our friendships is determined by how much of Christ we see in a person and how closely we can work to share Christ to the world through that relationship.

“So, a non-Christian friend, all about themselves, their own self-image and success, is a dead end. There’s nothing of Christ being magnified in them to us or to the world. We get nothing of Christ in them, and we cannot partner to show Christ to the world. So, a friendship with a non-Christian is of lesser value, beyond us seeking to be Christ to them — which itself is important. However, true Christian friends, our best friends, those whose lives are all about Christ and living for his glory, are a means of us seeing Christ and receiving his grace. And with such friends, we participate together to show the worth of Christ to the world, which is the highest value and delight friendship can ever attain or experience.

“This raises the bar on all our friendships, even the friendship we have with our spouse too. Christ gives our relationships worth — reflecting him to one another and sharing him together. Pastor John, what do I get right? What do I get wrong?”

Well, that’s pretty weighty and amazing. And yes, I think I could affirm that vision as essential to friendship and the way I would think about friendship. So, I’m happy with what he said there. It might shed light on the more relational nature of friendships — or the nitty-gritty, practical dimension of friendships — if we start not with the great, ultimate values (which he did and I’m fine with; I love it), but also you can come at it with the nitty-gritty statements about friendship in the Bible. So, let’s try that. Let’s see what happens if we put together these two approaches, one from the bottom up and one from the top down.

Friends and Neighbors

Here’s one remarkable thing about the word “friend” in the Old Testament, for example. There is one Hebrew word, re’ah, behind almost all the uses of the word “neighbor” and the word “friend.” It’s the same Hebrew word behind both. About eighty times, the word re’ah is translated “neighbor,” and about thirty times that same word is translated “friend,” and only a tiny handful of other Hebrew words are translated “neighbor” or “friend.”

“Friendship is crucial for us in life and ministry.”

Now, one of the implications of this is that the Jewish people who spoke this Hebrew language did not have a peculiar word that they used for friend — that’s amazing — the way we do and the way the New Testament does. We’ll get there in just a minute. The word they used most often for “friend,” almost always, was the same generic word used for “neighbor.”

One dictionary defines re’ah as “those persons with whom one is brought into contact, with whom one must live on account of circumstances of life.” Well, good grief, that’s about as general as you could get. So, the generic word re’ah covers those who are ethnically near you or geographically near you or vocationally near you or near you because of some common interest. It’s very broad. So, our understanding of friendship as it emerges from the Old Testament is not based on the meaning of a particular word but rather on the nature of the relationship in different situations.

Closer Than a Neighbor

Here are some examples, because there really is a vision of friendship in the Old Testament, but not because of a peculiar word.

“Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel” (Proverbs 27:9). So, clearly, the reality of friendship as a close relationship of trust and helpfulness is there. It really existed. Or Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” So here, there’s a clear difference between someone who is near and hostile and someone who is near and friendly. So, “friend” is someone who’s not only near you, but for you. Or Proverbs 18:24: “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” So here, “friend” is closer than many companions, but not a biological brother, yet even more committed to you than a brother. And Proverbs 17:17: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

So, it’s clear, I think, that even though there is no peculiar word for “friend” as distinct from “neighbor” in the Old Testament, the reality of a close, deep, strong bonding is clearly present in the Old Testament: earnest counsel, sweetness of camaraderie, faithful wounds, no enmity, closer than a brother, trusted to be there in the worst of times.

And like our friend said (who sent in this question), in a God-besotted culture — like Old Testament Judaism was at its best — this earnest counsel, sweet camaraderie, faithful wounds, brotherly closeness, constancy in the worst of times, all of this is in the service of knowing and trusting and enjoying and obeying the greatness of God. If a friend began to take us away from devotion to God, he would by definition pass from being a friend to being an enemy.

One Who Loves

Now, here’s what’s remarkable when we turn to the New Testament. We just read in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times.” Now, unlike the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Greek of the New Testament does not treat “neighbor” and “friend” with the same word. It separates “friend” and “neighbor” into two words. “Neighbor” picks up on the idea of nearness. That’s what plēsion means, essentially, when it’s translated “neighbor” (and that is the word for “neighbor” in the New Testament), “the one who is near.”

And “friend” picks up on the idea of love. “A friend loves at all times.” About 30 of the 36 uses of the English word “friend” in the English New Testament are a translation of philos. Philos is a word relating to love. We get Philadelphia: brotherly love, city of brotherly love. We get philosophy: love of wisdom. Friend is never a translation of plēsion — “neighbor” or “the near one.” It always is carrying this idea of “a friend loves at all times.” So, the vocabulary of friendship in the New Testament becomes less geographical or spatial and more affectional.

And here’s a really significant illustration of that. In James 2:23, it says, “[Abraham] was called a friend of God.” But when you go back to Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7, which are the only two places where Abraham is called God’s friend, in both texts, the word “friend” is not the word re’ah, but the participle of the word love, ’āhaḇ. “The one who loves God” is the literal translation which comes over into New Testament Greek as “the friend of God,” because the word “friend” carries such connotations of love.

Crucial Companions

So, the upshot of all this is to say that, in addition to that big picture that our friend painted for me — capturing the big, Godward notion of friendship — to that can be added now some details (put some flesh on the bones) by observing that friendship involves earnest counsel coming from each other, a sweetness of camaraderie, faithful wounds if necessary, constancy of being there for each other in the best and the worst of times.

A friend is unique in not quite being the same as a brother or a sister, and not being quite the same as a spouse, but being a — what should we say? — a comrade in a shared vision as you pull together for some significant cause. And my assumption is that the importance of this kind of friendship is why Jesus always sent out his emissaries — his apostles and workers — two by two, not by themselves, and why the apostle Paul always traveled and ministered in groups, in friends. He was very eager not to be left alone anywhere. In other words, this kind of friendship is crucial for us in life and ministry.

As I sat in the dermatologist’s office, I scanned the bottles of serums and ointments on display in the waiting room — moisturizers, exfoliates, anti-aging serums, under-eye treatments. Although many people (like me) were probably there for typical skin scans or skin problems, it was clear that the dermatologist was also in the business of helping women look younger.

I peered into the mirror and noticed the “eleven lines” on my forehead. Surely there’s some sort of magic cream that can reduce their visibility, I thought. When I asked the dermatologist for a recommendation, her answer surprised me: “The only cure for those is Botox.” The eleven lines were here to stay.

Our exchange made me wonder, Why do I want to erase the signs of aging on my face? Didn’t I earn these lines raising four kids, working hard, pouring myself out for others?

Shiny (and Expensive) Lies

In our society, the pressure to appear youthful and fit comes from every corner. From the ads on TV, to the filtered images on social media, to the endless beauty products lining the shelves of stores, the message is clear: Do everything you can to turn back the hands of time — and never reveal your real age!

But as Christian women, how are we supposed to think about aging? The Bible’s view of beauty and aging is an upside-down perspective compared to the world’s. Often, when we use cosmetic procedures to try to disguise our age, we’re buying into the message that our value lies in our appearance.

The willingness to endure painful, expensive procedures to enhance our appearance should make us step back and consider our motives. Are we fearful that our husband won’t find us attractive anymore, or that we’ll be single forever? Are we worried about others thinking well of us, getting the promotion, or being liked by the right crowd?

Certainly, it’s not a sin to want to take care of our bodies — we honor God by stewarding them well. But when we become consumed with looking younger or fitting into a smaller dress size, we make our bodies into idols.

God’s Upside-Down Kingdom

While some of us may not want to admit how old we’re turning, the Bible celebrates the growing number of candles on your birthday cake. Often, as Job 12:12 reminds us, “wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.” Then there’s Proverbs 16:31: “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.”

Few of us see gray hair as a crown. We think it’s something to hide! Yet the Bible tells us to prize gray hairs as we might a long life devoted to following Jesus. God, through his word, wants to take our minds off our appearance (and all the fears that go with it) and give our attention to spiritual maturity instead. Suddenly, it becomes possible to celebrate becoming older as we delight to see how God has shaped us over many years.

“True beauty isn’t found on a magazine cover, but in our perfect God.”

The longer we’ve been on this earth, the more opportunities we’ve had to trust Jesus and to grow in wisdom. We’ve experienced more ups and downs; our perspective spans decades of life. God has used the trials we’ve walked through to shape who we are. Singleness, financial loss, raising children, chronic illness, bereavement — these trials have not been easy, but God has been present through each of them. Changes to our bodies can serve as a reminder of this.

Next time you look in the mirror and notice the ways your body has changed, try looking in a different way. Those stretch marks and loose skin around your abdomen — maybe they’re a reminder of the gift of children. Perhaps those dark circles under your eyes show the late nights you’ve spent counseling a troubled friend or anxious teen. That furrowed brow reveals the trials you’ve worked through, figuring out how to be a diligent friend or family member or worker. Those crow’s feet and laugh lines are sweet reminders of time spent delighting with others.

In Christ, the physical signs of aging are not marks to despise, but signs of how God has worked through your circumstances to turn you into the person you are today. Seen this way, they can encourage you to trust him with your future, whatever your fears.

True Beauty

Our desires to attain flawless skin, a toned body, or the size we were twenty years ago point to the longing to be beautiful. We so easily measure ourselves by the standards of the world. Yet true beauty isn’t found on a magazine cover, but in our perfect God.

Jesus suffered on the cross and died for our sins in the most beautiful, selfless act of love. When we place our faith in him, we are covered in his righteousness. Now, God sees us as beautiful — because Christ is.

The beauty God esteems is displayed through character attributes like grace, mercy, steadfast love, and faithfulness. Instead of focusing our efforts on becoming more beautiful through make-up, salon visits, or workouts, may we seek to emulate Christ and embrace his beauty.

As we do, we will be freed from enslavement to self. We will be like David, so taken with the Lord’s beauty that we forget our own troubles:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,     that will I seek after:that I may dwell in the house of the Lord     all the days of my life,to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord     and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

True beauty makes Christ visible through our acts of love. The truly beautiful use the body God gave to joyfully serve others in need, from making a meal for the neighbor who just had surgery, to speaking words of kindness and compassion to a friend walking through depression, to hugging the child that fell and scraped his knee. As Paul reminds us in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!”

Notice, there is no mention of the beauty of their faces or the strength of their muscles, but their feet — so often dirty and stinky — are called beautiful. They allow us to carry the good news of Jesus to others.

Look to Eternity

Pursuing the Bible’s definition of beauty will not come easy in our day and age. But 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 reminds us of the fight to keep an eternal perspective:

We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

As believers in Christ, we are called to have a different mindset than the world’s. We’re called to look beyond what eyes can see and hands can touch, remembering that God longs for us to fix our eyes on him instead of on our own wrinkles and bodily changes. The weightiness of life’s trials and our fears of aging pale in comparison to the riches of eternity.

Ladies, the gospel is good news for aging. Despite the added candles to our birthday cakes, we will grow more beautiful as we grow more like Christ.

Once you see it, you cannot unsee it; once you really read it, you realize it is reading you; once you have wrestled with it for a blessing, you cannot walk away the same. Hebrews 13:17 is a text for both pastors and their people: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”

The verse speaks about the office of pastor but is written to the whole church. Its truth instructs as well as sobers our souls. As for this passage, stammers John Chrysostom, “though I have mentioned it once already, yet I will break silence about it now, for the fear of its warning is continually agitating my soul” (Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood, 6.1). All need to ride along for this single-verse foretaste of the final judgment, where pastors and their people, shepherds and sheep, stand together before the awesome throne of the chief Shepherd.

I hope God will stamp this verse upon our souls and that our communities will never be the same. This verse has had a deep effect on many men of God before us, and boasts a cloud of pastoral witnesses who would counsel us as we pass. I hope to allow a few to speak. Consider, then, Hebrews 13:17 in three parts: (1) the pastor’s business, (2) the pastor’s report, and (3) the response of the church.

The Pastor’s Business

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls . . .

Pastors can lack fruit because pastors can lack clarity. With so many needs and so many differing opportunities for good, pastors can be pulled in as many different directions as he has people. To this, Hebrews 13:17 purifies the pastoral office: his business is to care for souls, to watch over them. As doctors deal with the health of the body, pastors deal with the health of the soul. Summarizes John Owen,

The work and design of these rulers is solely to take care of your souls — by all means to preserve them from evil, sin, backsliding; to instruct and feed them; to promote their faith and obedience; that they may be led safely to eternal rest. For this end is their office appointed, and herein do they labor continually. (An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 4:454)

Pastors keep their eyes on souls and seek to lead them safely to eternal rest — an ambition “without which [pastor] is an empty name.” To see how this charge focuses the work, consider more carefully the words souls and keeping watch.

Souls. The soul is that part of a man, woman, child that shall live forever, somewhere. Do you appreciate the value of your soul — that which Jesus tells you not to barter for the world and all its pleasures (Matthew 16:26)? Pastors, do you appreciate the awful greatness of your stewardship? Lemuel Haynes puts it bluntly: “The man who does not appreciate the worth of souls and is not greatly affected with their dangerous situation is not qualified for the sacred office” (Collected Writings of Lemuel Haynes, 183).

“As doctors deal with the health of the body, pastors deal with the health of the soul.”

Notice, we are discussing the work of a pastor, not just a preacher. Keeping watch over souls entails receiving information, not just giving it. When many think of pastoring, they think about standing up front, mic turned on, Bible open. But how many want the long hours with souls — asking and listening, speaking and repeating, praying and encouraging and correcting, house after house, family after family?

How does a pastor fulfill this charge? Practically, soul-watching includes at least three activities: knowing, feeding, and warning.

1. Knowing

The pastor deals not only with the differing spiritual conditions of his own soul and the souls of his family, but with dozens more simultaneously. How variable their conditions, how varying the remedies. See them there: Some are drawing swords against Apollyon; others pant, climbing Hill Difficulty; still others submerge neck-deep in the Slough of Despond. A few feast within Palace Beautiful, but more window-shop at Vanity Fair or receive bruises from Giant Despair. Flatterer seduces; Demas beckons; Lord Hate-Good is still hating good. What few aids to the Celestial City, and what towering opposition. How needful are pastors?

The pastoral plurality must regularly acquaint themselves with each member’s state. Paul commands, “Pay careful attention to . . . all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28). To “all the flock,” not “favorite sheep”; “careful attention,” not “occasional glances.”

How? By being with them. Inquire into their love for Christ, their time in the word and prayer, their fellowship in the church, the presence of family worship in their homes. Eat meals together, pray together, sing together, and open the word together. Develop care records and organize your prayer life so that none fall through the cracks. Make time to counsel, and be intentional to press past life updates to see how is it with their souls. Are they beginning to doubt, walking in sin, growing in grace? Are they still traveling safely toward Immanuel’s land?

2. Feeding

We know them, and then we feed them. With what? These leaders have already been described as “those who spoke to you the word of God” (Hebrews 13:7). These men spoke, “Thus says the Lord” and “Behold your God!”

Oh, to have his word! Not just to preach it (though we love that too) but to sit with sinners, sufferers, and unsatisfied ones — to address the soul’s raw wounds with the balm of the word that reveals our God.

Caesarius of Arles gives us examples:

[The minister applies] heavenly remedies, saying to each sinner: Do not be proud, brother, because it is written: “God resists the proud.” Do not be angry, because we read: “Anger lodges in the bosom of a fool”; and again: “The wrath of man does not work the justice of God.” If they perchance see disobedience, they say kindly and humbly: Do not be disobedient, brother, because it is written . . . “Obey your superiors and be subject to them, for they keep watch as having to render an account of your souls.” . . . If by speaking well he recognizes that he is Christ’s helper and a defender of justice, let him rejoice and give thanks to God, and with his help let him persevere to the end, for not he who has begun, but he who “Perseveres shall be saved.” (Sermons of St. Caesarius of Arles, 2:352–53)

Pastors strive to lend a listening ear and bless with a Scripture-speaking mouth. Apply the heavenly remedies.

3. Warning

“Keeping watch over your souls” is no mere sightseeing assignment. Elders watch from the high tower of the watchman given in Ezekiel.

Son of man, I have made [you] a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (Ezekiel 33:7–8)

We are not at peace; a holy war rages, and our enemy cannot spell surrender. Lemuel Haynes describes it this way:

When soldiers are called forth, and sentinels stand upon the wall, it denotes war. The souls of men are environed with ten thousand enemies that are seeking their ruin. Earth and hell are combined together to destroy. How many already have fallen victims to their ferocity! The infernal powers are daily dragging their prey to the prison of hell. (Collected Writings, 45)

And so, we must warn — men, women, and children. We cannot be blind watchmen, “silent dogs [who] cannot bark” (Isaiah 56:10). “Pretend not to love them,” corrects Richard Baxter, “if you favor their sins, and seek not their salvation. . . . If you be their best friends, help them against their worst enemies” (The Reformed Pastor, 100).

As ministers, we know, feed, and warn against the soul’s enemies for the Christian’s eternal good and Christ’s honor.

The Pastor’s Report

Now, the pastor’s report: How did he, with his fellow elders, keep watch over their souls?

It is this part of the text that disquieted John Chrysostom: “Our condition here, indeed, is such as thou hast heard. But our condition hereafter how shall we endure, when we are compelled to give our account for each of those who have been entrusted to us?” (Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood, 6.1). Undershepherds are accountable shepherds. And what shall a negligent shepherd say on that great day?

Let’s consider it both negatively and positively. First, imagine the horror of a negligent pastor seeing those under his care led away to judgment. Philip Doddridge paints the chilling scene:

It is a tragic spectacle to behold a criminal dying by human laws, even where the methods of execution are gentle . . . and I doubt not but it would grieve us to the heart to see any who had been under our ministerial care in that deplorable circumstance. But, oh, how much more deeply must it pierce our very souls to see them led forth to that dreadful execution, with those of whom Christ shall say, “As for these Mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring them forth, and slay them before Me!” Oh, how will it wound us to hear the beginning of those cries and wailings which must never end! How shall we endure the reflection, “These wretches are perishing forever, in part because I would not take any pains to attempt their salvation!” (The Evil and Danger of Neglecting the Souls of Men, 27)

Yet on the other side of that heavy contemplation, see the equally dense delight of seeing them enter glory, as pictured by Haynes:

Ministers will meet the pious part of their congregations with great rejoicing, especially those to whom they had been instrumental in saving good. Such will be the ministers’ own crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus. . . . Ministers and their people when they have finished their course will remember those Bethel visits that they have enjoyed in the sanctuary and around the Table of the Lord and the sweet counsel they have taken together. They will remember the seasonable reproofs given to each other, and whatever differences have taken place between them will all be forgiven and forever exterminated. They will see the wisdom and goodness of God in all these things. Thus when the ministers of Christ have finished their course, that will put an end to all their troubles; and so their ministry will end or issue in their unspeakable joy and consolation. (Collected Writings, 189–90)

May we all know such unspeakable joy and consolation with our people on that great Day.

A Word to the Sheep

Finally, how should the church respond? We do not need to search for an application: care for your pastor’s soul. How? Hear the verse in full:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

The author places the happy obedience of the sheep in the shadow of the great pastoral task on their behalf. John Calvin helps us feel the connection:

His meaning is, that the heavier the burden they bear, the more honor they deserve; for the more labor any one undertakes for our sake, and the more difficulty and danger he incurs for us, the greater are our obligations to him. And such is the office of [pastors], that it involves the greatest labor and the greatest danger; if, then, we wish to be grateful, we can hardly render to them that which is due; and especially, as they are to give an account of us to God, it would be disgraceful for us to make no account of them. (Commentary on Hebrews)

Some need to be reminded to obey your pastors — and how could you not if they be true pastors keeping watch over your soul? Consider how they have your best in mind. Consider what burdens they bear on your behalf, what judgment they venture for your good. Should you make their job heavier than it is by ignoring their teaching, counsel, and correction?

O church, consider how mountainous is their task and how serious their coming judgment, and let the pastors do this work — this eternal work, this trembling work, this hard and sad and sometimes lonely work — with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to them or to you.

My son loves photography. He knows how to frame the shot just so, using the right amount of zoom to bring out the subject. Looking at original paintings displayed in a gallery, in a similar way, allows you to move yourself both closer and farther away. Your perspective on the whole picture and its detail changes as you move in and out.

Reading Scripture is similar — we need to zoom in and out to understand properly what God is saying. For example, how do you respond to the picture of the vine and branches that Jesus paints in John 15? Is it reassuring or confusing? Stabilizing or destabilizing?

Worryingly, is Jesus saying that we can be truly one with him but then lose our place? Does he intend to leave us feeling shaky and insecure? Thankfully, as we zoom in and out, we see that the answer is no. Jesus teaches us about the vine and branches so that we might know his joy and our joy might be full (John 15:11).

You-in-Me and Me-in-You

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus paints a picture here of a living vine — green, full of fruit, and flourishing. Jesus is together with those he loves, made one. This is real you-in-me and me-in-you connection and relationship with Jesus.

Zoom in closer and you’ll see something else: dead, fruitless branches (15:2), not vitally united by the Spirit to the person of Jesus and his life. They’re on the vine, hanging around Jesus. They might claim to be Christians, but they probably wouldn’t even be comfortable saying to Jesus, “Lord, you’re in me, and I’m in you.” Some people are existing like that lifeless wood. They’re not united to the source of life, not “grafted in.” It’s a precarious position, to say the least (15:2, 6).

Zoom out to the big picture, however, and you’ll find the friendship formula of you-in-me and me-in-you in John 14 and 17 too. It’s how Jesus, in John’s Gospel, describes life as opposed to death. It’s union with him as opposed to being apart from him — or vitally connected, fruit-bearing branches as opposed to empty ones (15:5–6).

That friendship formula of mutual indwelling stands out in John 15 as well. The Greek word for “abide” means staying put. Here’s a good translation of verse 5: “Whoever is lastingly in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” You in Christ and him in you, for keeps. No single translation is perfect, but “lives” or “dwells” also captures the thrust. This is unbreakable friendship and, wonderfully, friendship where he loved us first.

Forever Secure

Zoom out even further and you’ll find the same friendship formula of mutual indwelling in John 6 (and throughout 1 John), describing what it means to be vitally united to Jesus — one with him.

John 6 explains, in effect, how someone becomes “grafted into” the living vine. Changing the metaphor, they’re hungry and thirsty. They come to Jesus (6:35). They trust him, person-to-person, looking to him now for life. They put themselves in Jesus’s hands. It’s decidedly relational. At the same time, from God’s side, the Father is giving the person into Jesus’s hands (6:37). This is so beautiful. Think about it: the Father and the Son agreeing to hold someone, in eternal life, forevermore.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. . . . For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (6:37, 40; my translation)

You actively believe and trust Jesus; his arms embrace and hold you securely, tenderly, within the vine. On that last day, those same arms will be sure to raise you up into glory. Jesus promises here that he doesn’t cast out; he doesn’t abandon. You can’t lose your place in the living vine. It just can’t happen.

Keep the focus on John 6 for a moment longer. You see that if you’re trusting Jesus and his death for you, the eternal life you already have is, at its heart, you-in-me and me-in-you relationship with Jesus (6:54, 56). It’s spiritual and real — the difference between life in the vine and death.

“As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me” (6:57). It is no more possible for his people to fall out of loving relationship with Jesus than it is for him to fall out of you-in-me and me-in-you relationship with the Father. It just can’t happen!

Sweet Invitation

Let’s take our cameras and zoom back in now on John 15. “Abide [live] in me, and I in you,” Jesus says (15:4). It’s the same two-way formula that describes vital union with Jesus. But here, Jesus is urging, even commanding, us to find life in him, in the vine.

For someone who doesn’t know Jesus, this is a sweet invitation to come to him. For those already in real relationship with him, here is the voice of Jesus reminding us what salvation and life are all about. Jesus’s sheep know (and are known by) him, and so they listen to his voice (10:15–16). They need his words, they desire his words, and they listen to him. They ask for the fruit he has promised to produce in and through them (15:7–8), and they step out in love for one another.

Whoever we are, this is a sweet, sweet invitation from the Lord of everything to keep on receiving and returning his love. Paul also urges believers to keep doing what believers do: “Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel” (Colossians 1:23).

This hope of the gospel flows from the love of the Father and the Son. And Jesus loves his own as the Father loves him (15:9). So lean in! It’s no burden to rest in the vine and in that love, any more than it’s a burden to drink when we’re thirsty. If you’re somehow fearing Jesus’s rejection, then verse 4 is very good news — someone’s command to dwell or live in him, and him in us, cannot be withholding. Jesus’s command here is the sweetest and most generous of invitations.

To “abide,” then, is not some special spiritual technique, but instead the posture of trust in Jesus, resting in his love (15:9), lived out in glad obedience to him (15:10). It’s joy-full (15:11). And every branch united to him in two-way friendship is guaranteed fruit that will stand the test of time.

Share and Participate

It’s possible to hang around Jesus (and Christianity) and not actually be relating to Jesus. Someone can subscribe to doctrines, but not actually trust and lean into the one who is love and life. Someone can show up, but not love and worship Christ — and so misunderstand the very nature of the Christian life.

What should worry us? Independence, being determined to go it alone, apart from Jesus (15:5). Peril consists in refusing to come and be cleansed, pruned, and beautified by the Father (15:2–3); refusing to lean into Christ’s love; refusing to be vitally united to him. Do you see obedience as a burden rather than the chance to share and participate in everything that Jesus and the Father love (15:10)?

When someone you really want to be with says, “Marry me!” you know it’s not just a sweet invitation for that day or year, but one that anticipates living and dwelling together as one, every day into the future. It’s a statement of commitment, each to the other — to keep inviting the other person in relationally, and to keep making oneself available. It anticipates being reciprocated. And there’s the joy of a beautiful, ongoing dynamic.

“Abide in me, and I in you,” Jesus says. Eternally.

That’s got to be stabilizing, to say the least!

Audio Transcript

We are reading the Navigators Bible Reading Plan together. And today in our reading, among other things, we read 2 Chronicles 13:1–16:14. It’s a big section with one line worth underlining and memorizing. It’s a line from the mouth of Hanani the seer, the father of the prophet Jehu. Hanani, speaking to king Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9, gives us this promise: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” It’s a key text for life, one of sixteen essential Bible verses to have memorized to meet life’s hardest battles, according to you, Pastor John. That’s a list you gave us back in APJ 1798, summarized in the APJ book on pages 44–46.

So, the point is that God is eager to work for his people. That’s the main point of that line. As we meditate on this text today, after we read it together, explain three things for us. (1) God’s eyes in this verse. How are they roving and roaming? What theology do you draw from this? (2) God’s support. What comfort do you take from the “strong support” being promised? And (3) explain the qualification of who is “blameless toward [God]” or “whole toward [God],” as the ESV footnote puts it. The KJV translates this as a heart that is “perfect toward him.” The NIV says that it’s a heart “fully committed to him.” The Holman version says a heart that is “completely his.” A listener to the podcast, Sarah in the Philippines, has heard you teach on this text in the past, drawing a distinction between blameless and sinless as not being the same thing. But she needs you to explain the difference.

Well, I love this verse. I really love it because it has a special place in my affections, because my awareness of it came into my life while I was discovering (back in 1968–1969) the preciousness and the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God.

The reason it had this effect on me in those days was that it put the sovereignty of God in the service of his eagerness, like you said — the eagerness of God to help me if I simply trust him. Not to help me if I work for him, but if I trust him, he’s going to work for me. He’s going to be strong on my behalf if I look away from myself and look to my heavenly Father — his broad shoulders, his huge biceps, his strong back, and those bright eyes just full of eagerness to show himself powerful on behalf of those who simply trust in him. So, that was just an amazing picture for me. I don’t know how I had missed it for 22 years or so, but it certainly made the embrace of the sovereignty of God a more precious thing.

The verse says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro [they roam about] throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong [I’ll explain that translation in a minute] on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, let’s take your three questions.

1. Roaming Eyes

What about those eyes of the Lord roaming in the earth? The phrase “in the eyes of the Lord” in Hebrew occurs 92 times in the Old Testament. It’s really quite amazing. And there are other phrases with “the eyes of the Lord” that don’t include the word in — “in the eyes of the Lord.” And it has several meanings. It can refer to God’s omniscience, like in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Or it can refer to his awareness and assessment of things, like 2 Chronicles 34:2: “[Josiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Or it can refer to God’s special approving and helping gaze, like Psalm 34:15: “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”

Now, in 2 Chronicles 16:9 it’s referring to God’s intense attentiveness and eagerness to act in a certain way toward a certain kind of person. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” And it’s a striking contrast to what many people feel. Many people think that if God has eyes and they’re running through the world, they’re scrutinizing the world on the lookout for something to punish. That’s the way a lot of people feel. The eyes of the Lord are snooping. They’re not looking for ways to help; they’re looking for ways to punish.

“God is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.”

That’s the kind of image of religion that H.L. Mencken had when he said that famous thing, remember? “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy.” That’s rubbish. That’s rubbish both for Puritanism and it’s rubbish for the Bible. And this verse says that God’s eyes are roaming around, not looking for someone to make unhappy, but the opposite — namely, what? Now that leads to your second question.

2. Eager to Serve

So, what is he wanting to do? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” So, this peculiar form of the Hebrew word is reflexive: “show himself strong.” A reflexive verb in Hebrew — the hitpael here — means the action reflects back on the actor. It’s not wrong to translate it “gives strong support.” But the peculiar reflexive idea of God showing himself to be the kind of person who loves to give strong support would be missing if you only said it that way, I think.

And that’s part of what makes this verse so precious and powerful. God’s eyes are roaming around — stalking, so to speak, to put a different twist on it — stalking, like in Psalm 23:6: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me [stalk me, pursue me] all the days of my life.” And they’re doing it in order to be on behalf of someone. He wants to show himself strong on behalf of someone, not against someone.

So, when I came to see 55 years ago that this inclination of God to show himself strong was for me and not against me, what I saw was that it was flowing out of his total self-sufficiency, where he has no need of my services at all. Instead, he wants to serve my good. And Acts 17:25 became part of that season of discovery: “[God is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything.” So did Isaiah 64:4 in those days: “No eye has seen a God [like] you, who acts for those who wait for him.” The same thing is in Psalm 147:10–11: “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs [strong legs] of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

That whole cluster of texts came alive for me as I was discovering the sovereignty of God and how his total and complete lack of need for me made him eager to serve me when I depend on him. It was just a glorious discovery.

3. Those with Whole Hearts

Which leads now to the last question you ask about: Who gets to qualify for this? Who is blameless — or who is whole? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong” — on behalf of whom? — “those [my translation] whose heart is whole toward him.” I think translating it “those whose heart is blameless” is hard for English readers to grasp because almost everybody thinks of the term “blameless” as perfection, and if that were the case, he wouldn’t help anybody. There aren’t any perfect people except one.

The phrase “whole heart” was used, for example (just to show its limits), to contrast Solomon with David. “When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not [whole]” — or wholly true — “to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4). Oh my goodness. David was anything but perfect, but on the whole — no pun intended — he repented as he should and stayed true to the Lord. And so, he could be contrasted with Saul, who turned away from the Lord. David stayed with the Lord and was said to have a whole heart for God.

I think there’s a good picture of it in James 1:8, when it talks about doubting and praying for wisdom. It says that when we pray for wisdom, we should not be “double-minded.” What does that mean? I take it to mean that part of us says, “God is good; God is reliable; God will help me,” and part of us is saying, “No, God is not good; he probably is not going to do any good at all when I pray.” A whole heart says, “I trust God to be wholly good to me. He’s going to give me all the strong help I need to do his will. My heart’s not split in half. I’m whole toward God. Half of me is not saying God is unreliable while half is saying he is reliable.”

I think that’s what a whole heart is, and that’s the point here in 2 Chronicles 16:9. Asa — this is the king who has been good and doesn’t end so well in his life — was helped in his victory over the Ethiopians and the Libyans, it says, “because you relied on the Lord” (2 Chronicles 16:8). Your heart was right toward God. You looked away from yourself, and you depended on me. I gave you the victory. I showed myself strong on your behalf.

So, conclusion: Let’s ask God to shape our whole mindset, our whole disposition, toward God. He is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.

I love J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. From the first time I picked up the well-worn paperback volumes of Tolkien’s works from the shelves of our family’s library, I have felt a strange kinship with the places and characters of Middle-earth. Undoubtedly, I am drawn to this world and story because it is, as Tolkien himself admitted, “a fundamentally religious . . . work” that reflects the True Story of our own earth (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 172). Rather than serving as a momentary, illusory escape, it illuminates from real life, reminding me of what is true and urging me to fight for all that is good and noble and right.

Just as powerful (and in some ways even more so) is that in the pages of this epic adventure, I also see my own story. As a younger reader I was, like most preteen boys, drawn first to those characters who exhibited the greatest feats: Aragorn, in particular, was a favorite, along with the wizard Gandalf. As the years have passed and I have returned again and again to this story, however, I have been drawn ever closer to the Hobbits.

I am not drawn to the Hobbits because I have faced dragons, scaled the heights of Mount Doom, or borne the fate of the earth on my shoulders. Those tasks have already been accomplished by Another who long ago bore a great weight up a hill to defeat a dragon. The particular affinity I have felt with the Bagginses comes from their peculiarity — a peculiarity I share as someone who has been “there and back again,” or what some have called a “Third-Culture Kid.”

Strange Hobbits

Both Bilbo and Frodo, during their adventures with the big folk of the world, undergo a change that sets them apart from the other Hobbits of the Shire. For Bilbo, the change brought no burden. Though he was “held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be ‘queer,’” he was “quite content.” He may no longer have fit the expectations of a respectable hobbit, but he was at peace in his own home and “remained very happy to the end of his days” (The Hobbit, 275).

Frodo’s own experience bears some resemblance to Bilbo’s, though without the same measure of peace. After he and his companions save the Shire from Saruman, Frodo departs for the Gray Havens. A deeply saddened Sam exclaims, “I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years, after all you have done.” Frodo responds, “So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam” (Lord of the Rings, 1029). Bearing the mark of his wound at Weathertop and the effects of the One Ring, Frodo is no longer at home in the Shire. Though no one can easily see it, the indelible marks of his adventure have made him an alien among his own people.

Children who grow up away from their home culture bear a similar resemblance to the Bagginses. By all appearances, they seem to fit in with the good folk of their “Shire.” Yet prolonged adventures in distant lands have produced changes in them that do not disappear upon their return. Because they have spent time in the worlds of men, dwarves, and elves, the Shire becomes for them a different place. A certain sense prevails that they do not quite fit in with the other Hobbits.

Third-Culture Kids

The technical term for this group of people is Third-Culture Kids (TCKs). A TCK (also referred to as a “Global Nomad”) is defined as

a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background. (Third Culture Kids, 19)

In other words, they have absorbed and assimilated to aspects of multiple cultures such that they belong partially to all of them without fully belonging to any, a “confusion of cultures,” as one TCK put it (37). They sustain a wound that will “never really heal” (Lord of the Rings, 1025). Everywhere they go (except when together), they are prone to experience a sense of alienation. They recognize that they don’t really belong, at least not as others do. At home everywhere, they are home nowhere. In their countries of origin, they are often difficult to recognize. TCKs are hidden immigrants who bear all the marks of citizenship yet often feel distinctly out of place. They are Hobbits without a home.

TCKs respond to their out-of-placeness in different ways. For some it proves a more challenging identity than for others. Upon return to a “home” culture, some just want to fit in and leave behind all the strangeness their upbringing carries with it. Having learned to adapt to new settings, they blend like chameleons into their surroundings, often escaping all but the most practiced eye. Others revel in their cultural nonconformity, eager to invite others to share in their unique upbringing, taking every opportunity to recount the joys (and perhaps hardships) of their adventures.

“TCKs are hidden immigrants who bear all the marks of citizenship yet often feel distinctly out of place.”

Regardless of how TCKs feel, the experience of being a global nomad means that, for this group, the biblical description of saints as “sojourners and exiles” is palpable (1 Peter 2:11). They experience the reality of being an alien everywhere they go. This terrain can be difficult to navigate, of course, but few TCKs would trade their nomadic past. Time spent as aliens abroad has given them a deep appreciation for others. They’ve learned to see the world through multiple lenses. Many gain insight and wisdom beyond their years.

One TCK puts it this way:

Besides the drawbacks of family separation and the very real adjustment on the permanent return to the [home country], a child growing up abroad has great advantages. He [or she] learns, through no conscious act of learning, that thoughts can be transmitted in many languages, that skin color is unimportant . . . that certain things are sacred or taboo to some people while to others they’re meaningless, that the ordinary word of one area is a swearword in another. (Third Culture Kids, 77)

In other words, the “wound” may be permanent, but — as I and many other TCKs have discovered — it unlocks passages to whole new worlds.

Rich Tapestry

We might be surprised by how many people today fit the description of a TCK. In an increasingly globalized world, many families spend significant time overseas. Business developments or a military reassignment might require an international move. A church might send a family to the mission field. Local circumstances might cause a family to relocate to a new country. There are more TCKs among us than we realize.

These global nomads bring with them a unique opportunity — quite simply, the opportunity to discover. Understanding what it means for TCKs to have spent significant time overseas requires knowing more than where they lived and what strange foods they ate. The complex of interweaving histories, cultures, experiences, and questions requires time to unravel and draw out. To those who don’t share similar experiences, the intricate web can appear too daunting to even attempt navigating.

Many TCKs discover that few have the patience or desire to get to know their past lives beyond the bounds of the Shire. Content simply to know the strange Hobbit grew up overseas, they move on with life as normal and expect the TCK to fit right in. Too often, TCKs receive the unspoken and unintended message that their background, while interesting, doesn’t really matter. Leaning in to their past and drawing out their experiences will reveal that what first appears as an incomprehensible tangle turns out to be a rich tapestry of intermingled hues.

Seek Out the Stranger

In my experience, it will take work to discover that beauty. Most TCKs do not go about spilling the myriad details of their past. They’ve learned that the lack of shared background creates an unconscious impasse that few seek to traverse. The few who do often find that they’ve entered worlds unknown, filled with dichotomies of the strange and familiar, the shocking and beautiful, the sorrowful and joyful.

Don’t neglect seeking out opportunities to get to know the TCKs in your midst. Identify who they are in your church (whether among adults or youth). Invite them over for dinner or take them out to a global restaurant of their choice. Ask them to show you their mementos. Participate in their traditions. Listen to their stories. If you’re a pastor or ministry leader, consider reading about TCK experiences so you can better minister to their unique needs. Learn to see the strange Hobbits in your midst, embrace them as fellow pilgrims, and lean in to the beauty you are bound to discover.

I don’t have any tattoos, but if I did, one would picture a man charging a group of soldiers, with this caption: “Set down my name, Sir.” John Bunyan shows us the scene in his classic allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress (33–34). I hope Bunyan will tattoo the phrase on your mind as well.

Before Christian stood a palace, “a stately palace, beautiful to behold.” Atop this citadel, the inhabitants walked, clad in gold. How did anyone enter that palace? A little distance from the door sat a scribe, ready to write down anyone’s name who would attempt to enter. But Christian saw that none dared to give their name and approach the door. Outside the palace doors, in fact, stood a great company of men who desired to enter but didn’t. Not one of these many men would give their names and advance.

Why not? In the doorway of that palace stood a small army of soldiers, ready to batter and bludgeon any who drew near. These were “resolved to do the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.” The palace itself, any sane man would enter; the palace protected by a small army, only a madman would attempt. And then we see it:

At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying, “Set down my name, Sir.”

Among his shrinking, retreating peers, one man among them seeks glory, honor, and immortality (Romans 2:6–7). He’ll go forth against the foe, come what may. He tells the scribe, “Write down my name, Sir. Sign me up.”

Once his name was recorded, Christian “saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet upon his head, and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force: but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely.” Opposed but undiscouraged, he cuts and hacks most fiercely.

After he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying —

“Come in, come in;Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

So he went in, and was clothed with such garments as they.

At this episode, Christian simply smiles and asks for no further explanation of the Interpreter; he knows the meaning already.

Unused Weapons

This man of stout countenance captures a Christian’s holy warfare. This is a reprise of Jonathan storming the Philistines with only his armor-bearer, Samson picking up his jawbone against a thousand men, David requesting to fight the blaspheming giant, Paul foretelling that persecution awaits him yet declaring, “none of these things move me” (Acts 20:24 NKJV), and our Lord Jesus, facing an army in the garden of Gethsemane, and, “knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” (John 18:4).

“Church Militant, she has been called in ages past; what is her name now?”

In Christian’s smile, we see Bunyan’s — the man who himself wrote this scene from prison for refusing to cease preaching. For many today, Christianity is conceived of solely as a soft affair, a gentle boat ride, a walk through the meadow. We tour ancient strongholds, but do not mount them. Few mistake our discipline, zeal, or witness as having to do with a militant, advancing faith. Few would depict the way to heaven as fighting through a group of soldiers.

Surely, the factors for this are many. Perhaps our swords have turned prematurely into plowshares, our arrows to bonfire sticks, because we have not faced the persecution that sent our forefathers to the front lines. Or perhaps the “muscular Christianity” movement was onto something, and the feminization of our faith has come on the heels (or in the heels) of the Industrial Revolution. Maybe David Wells is right to say we have been blunted by a pluralistic society, leaving behind a democratized faith — polite, not prophetic. Church Militant, she has been called in ages past; what is her name now?

Take Heaven by Force

Yet for all of that, the Christian life is inescapably one of war. He who would set down his name and lay siege to heaven must know he charges upon real enemies who possess real hatred, and take up real weapons. The enemy undertakes to be your undertaker. At baptism, the Christian renounces the devil, and pledges total allegiance to King Jesus. That is, he declares war. You must “cut your way through them all,” giving and receiving many wounds, to enter the real glory. In the words of Thomas Watson,

Heaven is inherited by the violent. Our life is military. Christ is our Captain, the gospel is the banner, the graces are our spiritual artillery, and heaven is only taken in a forcible way. (Heaven Taken by Storm, 3)

Heaven must be fought for. Both men and women must learn the masculine instinct to persevere to heaven. Paul does not simply suggest it; he commands it: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). The whole church — full of men, women, and children — must act like men and be strong.

Be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might, Christian. Resist the devil, and he will flee. Smother temptation in its crib. Whet your sword. Awaken the hunt for souls. Prepare your mind for action. Quit playing footsie with the world. Death remains for the flippant. Don’t look so perplexed at tribulation as if something strange were happening — but rebut, renounce, defy, fight back, following the risen Christ who split the sepulcher asunder. Here, unceasing warfare; there, unceasing rest. Here, under siege; there, overjoyed. Here, cutting and hacking; there, a crown and homeland.

Taking Names

The true Christ tells us to take up our crosses, cut off limbs, die daily, that we might rise and reign with him in a new world. Those who would dress in gold and walk atop this palace enter through the doorway of many tribulations (Acts 14:22). “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). If they hated him, they will hate us. Jesus tells us to count the cost — of going and of not going.

We follow no squeamish soldier. Christ, in the truest sense, said, “Father, set down my name. I will charge the fray of devils, the furnace of wrath, for them.” His name was the only that could be set down for sinners: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Watch him ride forth — alone. Down, down, down into an animal’s stable. Down, down, down into the muck of his ruined world. There, see him take off his helmet, lay down his sword, and charge forth into that great hoard. Oh, with what deadly force did they assail him! How they beat him beyond human semblance, how they mocked him who gave them tongues, how they chopped mercilessly at the stump of Jesse. Down, down, down into the grave.

But see how he cut and hacked his way through. He slashed the throat of death, crushed the serpent’s skull, and returned with the head of that Goliath who mocked his Israel. He won a gold robe for himself and for others — all who would take up their swords, wear his armor, and follow after him.

The world needs this Christ, not the pretend one of low expectations and groveling suggestions.

Men are ready for a Leader who will unhesitatingly claim the last ounce of his followers’ courage and fidelity. . . . This is no time to be offering a reduced, milk-and-water religion. Far too often the world has been presented with a mild and undemanding half-Christianity. The Gospel has been emasculated long enough. Preach Christ today in the total challenge of His high, imperious claim. Some will be scared, and some offended: but some, and they the most worth winning, will kneel in homage at His feet. (James Stewart, Heralds of God, 26–27)

Enter the Fray

Men and women and children, resolve now, God helping you: “Set down my name, sir!” Knowing the outcome of the conflict, and that we will live to partake of the spoils, how valiant should we be? Hear the song in this day of grace:

Come in, come in;Eternal glory thou shalt win.

Then, live as you would if you could travel back to earth from heaven. Thomas Watson again:

Consider then, seriously, the more violent we are for heaven and the more work we do for God, the greater will be our reward. The hotter our zeal, the brighter our crown. Could we hear the blessed souls departed speaking to us from heaven, sure thus they would say, “Were we to leave heaven a while and to dwell on the earth again, we would do God a thousand times more service than ever we have done. We would pray with more life, act with more zeal; for now we see, the more hath been our labor, the more astonishing is our joy and the more flourishing our crown. (78–79)

Heaven’s palace, any sane man would enter; heaven’s palace surrounded by an army of tribulations, only a madman would attempt — apart from grace. But all who fight and die faithfully behind Christ will outlive the conflict, and be exalted to high towers to shine with immortality in the kingdom of their Father. And such will sing the more joyfully because we knew what sorrow was. Brighter will be the Day, sweeter the rest, higher the joy because we fell and fought and cried. The soldier’s warfare gives way to the soldier’s triumph. Brother and sister, set down your name.

Audio Transcript

Well, we start the week with a weighty question: Will God judge a person for being born into a Muslim family and nation? A very real question for global listeners, like one young woman who sent us today’s question. “Hello, Pastor John! I love listening to episodes of Ask Pastor John. They are helping me grow in the faith. Keep pressing on! My story is a long one, but I’ll keep it short. I was born into a Muslim family in an Islamic country in North Africa. I still live here. Unlike my family, I became a Christian and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and treasure.

“My question for you is this: Will my unbelieving family go to hell? They don’t know anything about the good news of Jesus Christ! And I can’t tell them about him because they will not listen. They call me crazy. And it’s not safe to tell anybody in my country. You may get killed for that. Leaving Islam to become a Christian is illegal here! So, will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim? And how is that their fault since they were born that way? And will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them? And if all things go by God’s plan, does that mean it was meant for them to be Muslims? Or is this by chance? What should I do? I know God is just, but I am deeply worried for my family. Thank you.”

I hear six questions, which is overwhelming.

Will my unbelieving family go to hell?
Will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim?
Is it their fault since they were born Muslim?
Will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them?
Is their Muslim situation God’s purpose or by chance?
What should I do?

And we have ten minutes.

So, at the risk of oversimplification, I will try to say something biblical and, I hope, helpful about each of those questions.

1. Will my unbelieving family go to hell?

John said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Peter put it like this: “There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus], for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul put it like this: “[Christ will return] in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not . . . obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

There is a principle in the Bible that human beings will be punished by God in accord with the knowledge that they have access to. We see this in Romans 1:19–20:

What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived . . . in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

And that word so is really crucial because it shows the ground of accountability. His argument is that everybody has sufficient knowledge to be held accountable to respond with worship and trust toward God, but nobody does. We’re all such sinners that we suppress truth apart from the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the hearing of the gospel of Jesus.

2. Will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim?

Since, for millions of people, the word Muslim encompasses so much that is cultural and political and ethnic, I think a proper way to answer that question is to say this: to the degree that the word Muslim signifies the rejection of Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, crucified for sinners, raised from the dead — to that degree will the word Muslim imply lostness. People who reject Christ’s offer of himself as God’s crucified sacrifice and substitute for sinners as a way to be reconciled with God will go to hell.

3. Is it their fault since they were born Muslim?

Nobody is born Muslim or Hindu or Christian; we are born sinners. We have a corrupt nature that, without salvation and transformation through Christ, is in rebellion against God. We become Muslim, we become Christian, we become Hindu or Buddhist by the truth or error that our hearts embrace or reject as we grow up.

“Nobody is born Muslim or Hindu or Christian; we are born sinners.”

At the final judgment day, God will not say to anybody, “You perish because you were born Muslim.” Nor will he say, “You are saved because you were born Christian.” We will give an account of how we have responded to the truth of God as we have access to it. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for sinners, is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

4. Will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them?

The reason this question is difficult, not only for this woman in her situation but for all of us in all of our situations, is that there are always more people that we could talk to about Jesus. We can talk to people instead of sleeping — stay up another hour, get up another hour early. We can talk to people instead of eating — skipping meals. We can talk to people instead of reading a book at night. Love wants to share the gospel. Faith trusts Jesus for the power to share the gospel. But the path of love and the path of faith have limits.

What are they? God said through Ezekiel,

If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand [who didn’t blow the trumpet]. (Ezekiel 33:6)

So, there is a kind of lovelessness, a kind of indifference to people’s lostness, that will receive God’s judgment. But whom we should talk to and how many times we should talk to them and how many of them we should talk to is a matter of genuine love and God’s guidance.

5. Is their Muslim situation God’s purpose or by chance?

At this point, I think it’s fair to say that Muslims and I believe the same thing, or at least similar things — namely, nothing happens by chance. Muslims believe that; I believe that. There’s no such thing as chance given the sovereignty of God, not ultimately. From our human perspective, given the limits of what we can see, there are coincidences and flukes and random acts and accidents and luck. But in relation to God, nothing is by chance. “[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11) — all things.

6. What should I do?

The apostle Paul prayed the way he did in Philippians 1:9–11, I think, precisely because of some of the ambiguities that this woman lives with and, in some measure, we all live with. He didn’t just pray that we would be loving people — he did pray that, taught that — but also that our love would have a Spirit-given discernment and insight to know how to love, how love should act.

Here’s what he prays, and this is what I think you should do. She said, “What should I do?” I think you should pray this earnestly and expect God to answer it for you. “[I pray] that your love may abound more and more . . .” So, you pray, “God, help my love for my family to abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that I may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

That’s the only way that I know how to walk in such difficult situations with a heart of obedience and peace.