Grace Grows Best in Winter
God, through the winter, is working grace in us, though now we may not see it. In this way we might liken winter to night. It is ominous because it is lightless. But if you’ve ever sat near a field on a hot summer night you can hear the corn growing. We are growing in the night. But to grow we must stand. We must endure the night. We must face the blinding snow. And amid it we must look to Christ in whom we are rooted and grounded.
In the fall I visited Lowe’s and spoke to the clerk about planting grass seed in a few places where my lawn is more dirt than turf. His advice was simple; don’t waste your time or money. Planting in the cold season (or just before) is counterintuitive and counterproductive. Grass and plants don’t grow in the winter. I left the store that day without seed but thinking to myself, there are some things that grow in winter. Several years ago, a friend sent me a book with Samuel Rutherford’s famous quip, “I see grace groweth best in winter.” Grace grows in winter, but what does that mean?
Life has ebbs and flows or seasons of summer and winter. Yes, there are transitions like spring and fall but they are just that, transitions. We are either moving into winter or out of it and into summer. These are the seasons of life. Some winters are hard. Some are harder than others. But God gives us winters in order that grace might grow. For that to happen we need to remain rooted during those months of bitter cold and biting snow. I like the tree analogy because we are prone to wander and seek the summer. A tree is rooted. Paul calls this withstanding and standing.[1] But standing or staying rooted is hard. It means facing the snow rather than turning from it. Not everyone is used to that sort of thing. But if you faint in the winter your strength is small.[2]
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A New Sin, and a New Salvation Requirement?
If you have questions about the efficacy of masks, or lockdowns, or the new Covid vaccines, you are looked at like some sort of despicable heathen. You are treated with contempt by some of these ‘Christians’ as they try to make you feel like you cannot possibly be saved. You are now a heretic who dares to differ from this New Gospel of theirs.
Are you saved? The new Covid Gospel:
Yes we have actually got to the place with all the hysteria and fear over this virus that the traditional understanding of sin and salvation are now being thrown in the air. You may have thought that there are no new sins – just the plain old standard ones like murder, theft, lying, etc. Well, it seems that some folks have managed to create a whole new sin: the sin of being unvaccinated.
Sadly we have gotten to the place where some believers are basically arguing that fully submitting to medical mandates is somehow tied in with being a good Christian. Indeed, one wonders if some of these folks now believe this to be a requirement for salvation!
Two millennia ago the Apostle Paul had to chew out the Galatians because they were adding to the gospel. They wanted to add works of the law to their salvation by grace through faith. Paul asked them: ‘Who has bewitched you?’ (Gal. 3:1).
There have always been temptations to add to the gospel and to make salvation dependent upon various works that we might perform. Now we have those who have hesitancy about various health mandates being viewed as subpar Christians – maybe not even Christians at all.
If you have questions about the efficacy of masks, or lockdowns, or the new Covid vaccines, you are looked at like some sort of despicable heathen. You are treated with contempt by some of these ‘Christians’ as they try to make you feel like you cannot possibly be saved. You are now a heretic who dares to differ from this New Gospel of theirs.
In the old days one could ask if a person was actually saved if they had not been baptised or who had not done certain religious works. Now we have a new test for Christian orthodoxy. And we have the zealous Covid evangelists preaching their gospel to the unclean unconverted. Sadly I have had to deal with many of these evangelical Pharisees.
I know of too many of these folks who are utterly obsessed with the Rona jab, and they spend all their time attacking and denouncing any believer who dares to ask honest questions and show the least bit of hesitancy about them. They are convinced that we are all evil, deluded conspiracy theorists who must repent and get saved – saved to the New Covid Vaccine Gospel.
Thankfully many Christian leaders are standing against all this nonsense, including the matter of the State forcing churches to ban the unvaxxed from entering churches. I wrote about this very alarming matter just yesterday: billmuehlenberg.com/2021/09/09/the-big-brother-war-on-churches/
This shocking new development should greatly bother every true Christian out there. And some are speaking out. Sydney church leaders like Archbishop Anthony Fisher of the Catholic Church and Archbishop Kanishka Raffel of the Anglican Church have both taken a strong stance against this.
The latter for example said this: “Jesus is Lord of all, and his gospel is a gospel for all. A ‘No Entry’ sign at the door of the church is wholly inconsistent with the gospel preached inside. Neither race, gender, ethnicity, age, nor economic or educational status – or vaccination status – are to operate as divisions within the Christian community or barriers to the fellowship we share because of Jesus.” sydneyanglicans.net/news/consultations-begin-on-post-lockdown-plans
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Reflections on the Death of my Friends
My prayer is that we would receive God’s comfort, care, and love while we mourn. Praise our Heavenly Father that through Jesus, He offers us eternal life. What more could we ever ask for? What an incredible blessing! At the same time, my prayer is that each one of us would not waste the moment either. Rather, we would do self-inventory to respond wisely even in the midst of our deep suffering, sadness, and sorrow.
Over the past few weeks, an entire handful of friends and past students have died. All of them my age or younger. All of them followers of Jesus. As I have worked through each of these deaths – some I have mentioned before here and here, I have been tracking some thoughts that have been helpful to me. Over the past few days, I have been writing and thinking. Today, I want to share some of these to perhaps help you as well. Many of you readers have been impacted by these same deaths.
We Grieve with Hope
One of the great blessings that we as followers of Jesus Christ enjoy together is our hope. Paul explains:
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thess 4:13-18).
Oh yes, we grieve; however, we grieve with hope. The world grieves with ignorance. They may hope and believe many things about the afterlife, but at the end of the day, they truly have no real hope. But, not us! We grieve with hope. Our grieving is based upon the Word of God, God’s covenant faithfulness, and trust in God’s love.
Our loved one who has gone to heaven to be with the Lord is more alive than ever. Paul also wrote, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8). Immediately. No purgatory. No delay. Those who have a personal relationship with Jesus immediately go to be with Him in heaven.
What if our loved one inconsistently followed Jesus at best? There’s good news for us there too. We do not go to heaven based upon our faithfulness to Him; we go to heaven based upon God’s faithfulness to us (1 Pet 1:3-5). Consider the Apostle Peter’s words:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:3-5, emphasis mine)
Thankfully, if we have followed Jesus, going to heaven does not depend upon our faithfulness, it depends upon the faithfulness of God.
We are Better in a Funeral Home than at a Party
The Bible teaches that we are better off in a funeral home than at a party. In King Solomon’s wisdom, he wrote:
Better to go to the house of mourningThan to go to the house of feasting,For that is the end of all men….
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The Psalms Are a Little Bible
The Psalms teach us about salvation. There is no salvation to be found in chariots or spears or horsemen or political power. Salvation is from the Lord. When God saves sinners, he forgives their sins. He counts righteousness to them through faith. God is the refuge and the rock of his people. He pulls them from the mire, he delivers them from the water, he snatches them from Sheol, he rescues them from the darkness, and he pours out his abundant mercies upon their helpless estate.
In Martin Luther’s A Manual on the Book of Psalms, he says in the preface, “So that you may truly call the Book of Psalms, a little Bible; for in it all things that are contained in the whole Bible are given to us in the most wonderfully brief and sweet manner, and condensed into a most beautiful manual.”
Luther makes a strong claim, but when you read the Psalms, you see the truth in what he said. The Psalms are a little Bible, engaging the reader with a myriad of doctrinal truths that are taught outside the Psalms as well.
The Psalms teach us about God. We learn that God is trustworthy, holy, righteous, sovereign, powerful, just, everlasting, worthy of worship, faithful, loving, and supreme over all things. He is the Creator. He is the maker and sustainer of all things, and the echoes of his glory fill creation. There is none like the Lord. He shares his glory with no idols, and he reigns in unrivaled majesty.
The Psalms teach us about mankind. God made us a little lower than the heavenly beings, and he commissioned us to exercise dominion over creation. We rebelled and are thus corrupt and sinful. Instead of seeking the Lord, mankind pursues evil out of the overflow of their evil hearts. Society is filled with acts of injustice from one person toward another. We need salvation. We need forgiveness.
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