John Mark, Forgiven
Dr. Mark Coppenger, retired professor of philosophy at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a former professor at Wheaton has given us an excellent study of how God’s lordship in creation lays the groundwork for aesthetics. Mark is an effective writer and author, an engaging teacher, has served in numerous positions of service among Southern Baptists at the national and state levels and also been pastor of churches. He is the author of a new book entitled If Christianity is So Good, Why are Christians so Bad? Also, he is an author/editor of a book highly pertinent to the topic of this Journal, Apologetical Aesthetics. Since the triune God is Creator and Sustainer and Owner of the earth, it is impossible that every aspect of it not reflect some element of his glory. The existence of everything is dependent on him and his power, intelligence, beauty, purpose, and glory. The study of aesthetics is the investigation of principles underlying our perception of beauty and awe. This could be applied to art, music, poetry, physics, chemistry, or the mere pleasure of standing in awe of natural things. Mark has given a narrative of how aesthetics has its foundation in the realty that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” He has shown the confluence of nature and art in how the beauty, symmetry, threatening danger, and power of the one inspires the other. His article itself is an engagement with aesthetics of language.
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God’s Faithfulness Our Hope
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
— Lamentations 3:22-23
There is a vital relationship between your memory and your anticipation. Memory provides the foundation for expectation. What you remember powerfully influences what you expect. What you know and can recall inevitably fuels what you anticipate.
My favorite restaurant is a local place called The Blue Dog. I have always enjoyed wonderful meals served by friendly staff there. My past dining experiences make me anticipate another excellent meal the next time I eat there.
The same thing is true of gathered worship. The sweet memories of meeting with and hearing from God that believers share together on the Lord’s Day cause them to look forward with great anticipation to the next opportunity to meet.
But it works the other way, too. If you remember bad experiences in a restaurant then it will be difficult to have high expectations when you are invited there for another meal.
What you remember necessarily influences what you anticipate. Because this is true your memory can either work FOR you or AGAINST you when it comes to your spiritual life.
Are you ever haunted by memories? David was: “My sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). The sons of Korah also were plagued by difficult memories: “All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face” (Psalm 44:15).
Remembering your past failures and sins can keep you locked in the dungeon of despair.
John Bunyan graphically portrays this in Pilgrim’s Progress. Giant Despair captures Christian and Hopeful and locks them in Doubting Castle, where they are beaten and tormented for four days. What kept them in that sad condition? It was their memory of their past failures! They had left the right road—despite having been warned of that danger. They also took their ease in by-path meadow and fell asleep when they should have been watching. It was the memory of their many sins that kept them in despair.
Has that ever happened to you? One of my favorite hymns expresses it well:
When I look all around me
And all I can see
Are my mountains of failure and sin
When I’m standing accused
And I’m guilty as charged
And I’ve nothing that I can defend
Those times when you are facing hardships, and you know that they are the result of your own sin and foolish choices. Or the times you look back on opportunities squandered and your mind begins to play the “what if” game.
• What if I had not married so hastily?
• What if I had not committed adultery?
• What if I had stayed in school?
• What if I had not cheated on the job?
• What if I had never smoked that first joint?
Memory can supply the club in Giant Despair’s hand to bludgeon you until you are almost spiritually senseless.
But memory can also be the chauffeur of peace, hope, and comfort to your soul, when, in addition to remembering your sins, it brings back to your mind the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ.
What finally delivered Christian and Hopeful from Doubting Castle? It was the memory that they had in their possession a key called promise! When that thought occurred to him, Christian said, “What a fool am I to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk in liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise; that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.”
He was correct. The memory of God’s grace & of His mercy-filled promises in Christ set them free. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
The steadfast love of the Lord cannot ever cease because it has been given to us in Christ. By His life, death, and resurrection, He has sealed and secured it forever for all who trust in Him.
So, what do Christians do when all they can see is their sin? What do we do when we are justly accused with no defense to make for ourselves? We return to the One who has proven faithful throughout all of our life.
I will hope in the One
Crucified in my place
Jesus Christ the Redeemer of men
I will trust in the righteousness
Given to me
By Jesus my Savior and Friend
Trust and hope in our crucified, risen, reigning Savior. Remember Him. Remember His faithfulness in the past. He never forsakes His people. He never has let one of His promises fail. So, regardless of where you are or what you are going through, trust Him now. Trust Him for your future.
Remember His goodness, wisdom and power. And say with Jeremiah, “Great is Your faithfulness.”
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Lessons from Hurricane Ian
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian slammed the coast of Southwest Florida with a fury not seen in nearly a century. In the immediate aftermath, our county sheriff’s office reported hundreds of fatalities from the storm. Fortunately, those numbers were not confirmed, although currently, the death toll has risen to 60 in my county and 100 in other areas. Property damage has been conservatively estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
Due to a late jag to the southeast, the storm came right over my city of Cape Coral and the barrier islands to the west of us, Pine Island and Sanibel. Both the church I serve (Grace Baptist), and Founders Ministries were significantly affected. Some Grace members suffered significant loss. Nearly all suffered some loss. Businesses have been destroyed, homes devastated, families displaced, schools closed, and hospitals rendered inoperable.
I have lived through several serious storms during my 36 years in Cape Coral, including the last direct hit, Hurricane Charley, in 2004. Ian’s impact exceeds them all by far. In God’s providence, Donna and I were out of town when the hurricane landed. By his providence, the kindness of Delta Airlines, and the help of a good friend, we were able to get back to Cape Coral September 30. What I experienced in watching the storm from afar and seeing the aftermath up close has taught me several lessons.
Lessons About Grace
It is impossible not to see God’s grace in the storm. I write that fully aware of the deep grief that many are experiencing because of what they have suffered. Yet, grace is on display everywhere. From tens of thousands of linemen from across the country who staged just outside the storm’s path and deployed as soon as possible to get electrical services back online to trauma surgeons on standby to assist in medical emergencies, help has been extended to the people of SW Florida from all over.
There are dozens of examples of specific ways that I have seen God’s grace displayed in and after the storm. A few of them will suffice to make the point.
Within hours of the storm’s impact, I started receiving texts, phone calls, and emails from family, friends, and strangers with offers to help with relief and recovery work. Churches and individuals gathered food, water, and other supplies and sent them to us. Financial gifts were sent not only from people we know but from those we have never met. This outpouring of generosity enabled our church to distribute supplies to people in our community who were devastated by Ian. In addition to this, through the tireless work of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and the Red Cross, we were able to provide hot meals to people for several days. Some of the recipients wept with gratitude.
Under the leadership of the deacons and elders, the members of Grace have poured themselves out in serving one another and our larger community. I long ago lost count of the number of houses that have had roofs tarped, drywall cut, mud raked out, and other repairs done by willing volunteers.
Speaking of volunteers, I must mention the teams of workers that have come to help us with such work. Men and women, including young people, have traveled hundreds of miles with a willingness to do whatever they can to help. Through a previous connection with our church, Sheepdog Impact Assistance staged in our facilities and was still at work serving our community nearly a month after the storm.
In addition to these more visible and obvious displays, God’s grace has been steadily at work in more covert, “behind-the-scenes” ways. Homes have been opened to those who have been displaced from their own homes. Meals have been shared and practical hospitality has been multiplied. Counsel, personal encouragement, and prayer have been readily and effectively offered by those who themselves are dealing with difficult challenges left in Ian’s wake.
Lessons About Sin
While the displays of God’s grace in acts of kindness and generosity can be traced to His saving work in Jesus Christ as well as to the fact that even unbelievers bear the image of God, Hurricane Ian has also provided opportunities to learn more personally the truth of the Bible’s teaching about sin. The world, obviously, is not the way that it is supposed to be—not the way it was originally designed to be and one day will be. Hurricanes, tornados, and floods are all part of what the Apostle Paul calls the “groaning” of creation as it awaits release from being made “subject to futility” (Romans 8:18-23). There will be no hurricanes in the new heavens and new earth.
Nor will there be looters or liars. Immediately after Ian’s winds subsided, some people began to ransack what was left of local businesses. Fortunately, both Governor DeSantis and our local sheriff publicly declared such wickedness unacceptable and warned looters that engaging in such activity could, and in some cases, likely would—result in death. From indications that I received, that message spread quickly among opportunistic thieves and most businesses did not suffer much loss from looting.
People who lost their homes on the barrier islands (which were hit the hardest) did not fare so well. Due to bridges being washed out to Pine Island (near our church) and Sanibel, the only access in the immediate aftermath was by boat or helicopter. The latter almost exclusively was limited to government officials or local news crews. Stories abounded of thieves in boats surreptitiously invading the islands, rifling through the remains of families’ possessions, and spiriting off with their stolen booty. It is a tragic display of Romans 3:10-18.
We saw similar, albeit less flagrant, expressions of human depravity in the conduct of some who received direct help from our church. Because of the generosity of so many from around the nation, our church quickly became a distribution point for much-needed basic supplies in our community. Most of those who came for help were deeply appreciative. Some had to be persuaded to take more than they originally planned to take (fresh water doesn’t last as long as you might think in Southwest Florida heat).
But others expressed frustration as if they had been mistreated when they weren’t given more or when supplies ran out. The creativity of depravity was also on display as various schemes were employed to get double, triple, and quadruple supplies. This occasionally resulted in tensions (“The greedy stir up conflict,” Proverbs 28:25) that had to be resolved by the wisdom that comes from above.
Lessons About Government
The last few years I have given more attention to the role of government in God’s world. There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which include the response to the Covid pandemic, the Black Lives Matter riots, and my study of Romans 13:1-7 as part of my regular exposition of that letter in our Sunday morning worship times at Grace.
Every thinking American Christian recognizes displays of failed government leaders and policies that are currently all around us in this nation. From President Biden’s promise to make abortion-on-demand the law of the land if Democrats control the legislature to the Supreme Court decision that undermines the institution of marriage and defies that God who instituted it, wickedness and corruption are evident in the halls of government. Examples could be easily multiplied.
So it has been refreshing to see government work in positive ways—ways that God intends and the Bible prescribes. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has done an exemplary job in marshaling resources for and giving help and encouragement to the parts of the state that were ravaged by the hurricane. Under his leadership, over 40,000 electrical linemen were staged just outside of the storm’s path and deployed as soon as possible to begin rebuilding electrical infrastructures and restoring power for over 2.5 million people. He also cut through governmental red tape when federal officials said that it would be “months” before bridges to the barrier islands could be rebuilt. He helped unite efforts to get two bridges built in 14 days. I told one of his staff that the governor is a poster-boy for what the Bible means in Romans 13:4 when it says that the civil magistrate “is God’s servant for your good.”
I attended a town hall sponsored by my congressman, Byron Donalds, and was greatly encouraged by the practical help both he and Cape Coral Mayor, John Gunter, were providing in their official capacities to serve our city. Everything from expedited trash collection to Federal Emergency Management Agency resources was quickly made available to residents of Lee County and Cape Coral.
As I have reflected on these lessons, I am reminded that a stable government, kind and generous neighbors, and churches uniting to serve devastated communities are blessings that God has showered on our nation, state, and community. I have been to other nations in the wake of natural disasters. The contrast between those places and people who have benefitted from the blessings that flow from biblical truth and those places and people where that truth has never been known or has been forgotten is stark. Today, in America, even with the manifest wickedness in many of our cultural, economic, educational, and political institutions, we still have much for which to be thankful. There are still blessings of common grace that flow through and to those who hate the very God who is their source.
Hurricane Ian did not make that so. But it has certainly made it evident. -
Mary Remembers Jesus Christ
This article is part 8 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7).
To remember Jesus Christ, we must affirm his deity. To reject the true eternal deity of the singular person, Jesus of Nazareth, is to deny him and bring on us the consequence that he will deny us. This mysterious reality that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, was at the same time and in the same person the Son of God constitutes our redemption and the source of our eternal worship.
Twice Luke tells us that Mary kept certain things “in her heart.” (Luke 2:19, 51). On the first occasion, Luke adds the words, “pondered them.” Both the events and the words that accompanied the event were too large for immediate comprehension. But that she kept them in her heart means that she remembered them intensely, she sought more expanded understanding of what had happened and what she had been told. Not only deeper cognition was needed, but a spirit of adoration and worship fitting for the eternal wonder of the event.
As a virgin, she was told that the Holy Spirit would come upon her to impregnate her in order to bear a child that she would call Jesus (Luke 1:31). He would be called “the Son of the Most High” (1:32). She learned, therefore, that not only does the Holy Spirit make her pregnant with a child according to her seed to be established and nurtured in her womb, but the “Most High” Himself, God the Father, will overshadow her simultaneously with the Spirit’s coming upon her. The result of that is that not only will her child conceived by the Holy Spirit in her womb be a man called Jesus, but as the result of the overshadowing of the “power of the Most High,” the Holy One conceived in her would be called “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
To reject the true eternal deity of the singular person, Jesus of Nazareth, is to deny him and bring on us the consequence that he will deny us.
Within the time span of a few minutes, the leading mysteries of classical orthodoxy were present in the very body of Mary. The Trinity and the duality of natures in the single person of Christ were concentrated in a moment in the angel’s announcement and in her own body. The fulfilling powers of redemptive history operated in perfect harmony to assure that “her seed” would bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15) and destroy “him who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). Paul said it succinctly, “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4). Her womb was the location of the “fullness of the time,” and Holy Spirit, Holy Father, and Holy Son all converged, as it were, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” to bring into the world the Redeemer. This Redeemer could, and did, effect forgiveness, procure righteousness, rob Satan’s fold, reconcile God and sinners, overthrow death as sin’s boon companion, and fit his people for heaven. The glory of the Father would be most fully and beautifully expressed when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10, 11). Just as was announced the name “Jesus” would designate the Savior and Lord. His humanity in the womb of Mary was due to the Holy Spirit’s impregnation of her seed; his deity as Son of God comes from the Most High’s extension of his eternal generation of the Son onto this fertile egg; his singularity of person with a complex combination of natures came from the Son of God’s condescension to take the form of a servant and be made in the likeness of men in Mary’s womb, though eternally he was “equal with God” (Philippians 2:6-8).
When she went to visit her relative, Elizabeth, Elizabeth exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed in the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43). This child was indeed the fruit of her womb, a seed of David but also was the Lord.
Mary’s immediate response to the words of Elizabeth were, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. … He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy” (Luke 1:46, 47, 54). When John the Baptist was born, Zacharias saw this child as “the prophet of the Highest,” as the one who would “go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” This birth of John was in concert with the coming birth of “the horn of salvation in the house of His servant David” (Luke 1:76,69). These events were the action of God, “to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham” (Luke 172, 73). We remember Jesus Christ, because God remembers his covenant. In remembering, we confess with the mouth and believe in the heart the Person and the pre-ordained events by which we are “delivered from the hands of our enemies,” and that we “might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74, 75).
We remember Jesus Christ, because God remembers his covenant.
When the Shepherds heard the speech of the angel, they learned that a child was born in Bethlehem who was “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Without doubt, this was told to Mary by the shepherds. The accumulation of titles of deity for this child surely startled and puzzled her, but she believed them. “Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Upon his presentation in the temple after the days of Mary’s purification, Simeon, under the immediate direction of the Holy Spirit and anticipation that he would see “the Lord’s Christ,” took the child and called him the Lord’s Salvation, with the affirmation that the child would be a “light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 30, 32). Upon that, Joseph and Mary “marveled at those things which were spoken of Him” (Luke 2:33). Marveling, pondering, and keeping are necessary and helpful responses to these events that are the fulcrum of time and eternity.
When he went to the temple during the week of Passover at twelve years of age, He took the position of a teacher, staying there several days beyond the week. He had gathered a fascinated and amazed group of scholars and teachers around him, answering their questions. As Joseph and his mother approached him, oppressed by worry at his whereabouts, He responded, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” They were puzzled at the calmness and confidence of his demeanor and “did not understand the statement which he spoke to them” (Luke 2:49, 50). In spite of not understanding the fullness of Jesus’ meaning and how his business in the temple was his “Father’s business,” Mary “kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).
The “mystery of godliness” that “he appeared in flesh” (1 Timothy 3:15) will never be exhausted of its wonder and mystery. It is infinite as an expression of wisdom; it is inexhaustible as matter for worship now and in heaven; it is full as the substance of the covenant of redemption. The interpenetration of all the persons of the Trinity both in their fitting personal operations and their singularity of purpose, power, essence, mind, and will is startling to the soul. These actions of God with their ontological implications press the intellect with its insufficiency in investigating the ways of God. But the “hope of eternal life” is filled to overflowing with the prospects of living in the presence of this God and of observing and participating in the praise and worship of the man Jesus Christ in the eternal glory of his deity and his work of redemption. “Remember Jesus Christ.”
This article is part 8 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.
Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.