Applied Studies

It's Saturday. I'll be stopping in at a birthday party, catching a little college football (hopefully), but mostly getting ready for Sunday's lesson and sermon. Here's a quotation from an old Lutheran pietist for the occasion.

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752), speaking of the Scriptures:

Apply yourself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to yourself.

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At War with Sin

Leadership Journal asked Matt Chandler, "What does warring against sin look like?"

Sanctification here at The Village [the church where he serves as pastor] begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They're not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn't take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It's not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. After a funeral I walked around the cemetery and found a grave of a guy who died when he was my age. I felt my mortality in that moment and it made me love the Lord. It really did. Some types of epic films do that for me, and so does angst-filled music.

We want our people to think beyond simply what's right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they're not immoral.

Chapter and Verse

Some pastors like to talk about verse-by-verse expository preaching. There's nothing wrong with that, if you mean that you carefully consider each word, phrase, sentence, paragraph and so on.

However, we must also understand that the chapter and verse divisions are not divinely inspired. That means that we need not preach every verse the same way, with the same weight. Simply put, not all verses are complete sentences, and therefore cannot stand on their own. Frankly, that's also true of most complete sentences-- they shouldn't be divorced from their paragraphs or larger sections.

So what about those chapters and verses? Here's some background. Click the box at the end for a nifty interactive feature from Bible Study Magazine.

Chapters and verses in the New Testament were never intended to guide preaching or devotional reading. They were introduced so that reference works could be created. Chapters were added by Stephen Langton at the University of Paris around 1200 so passages could be cited in commentaries. Verses were put in around 1550 by Robert Estienne, a French scholar and printer who was working on a concordance to the Greek New Testament.

Chapters are designed to be about the same length. But the stories, oracles, poems and discussions that make up biblical books are of many different lengths. Chapters typically cut longer units into pieces. They add to the confusion by combining shorter units. In 1 Corinthians Paul discusses twelve different topics. His longer discussions have been cut up into chapters 1–4, 8–10 and 12–14. Shorter discussions are combined in chapters 6, 7, 11 and 16. Only two chapters (5 and 15) correspond accurately with a single discussion. This example shows why, in most cases, it’s difficult to make sense of a biblical book when reading or preaching through it chapter-by-chapter.

But if we eliminate chapter and verse numbers, won’t we be cast adrift on a sea of unorganized type? Isn’t something better than nothing?

Actually, the alternative isn’t nothing. Far from it. The biblical authors built natural structures right into the text of their works. We can learn to recognize these structures and follow them as we read, study and preach.

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More Americans Say "No Religion"

Dan Gilgoff reports on the percentage of Americans who identify with no religious tradition:

1990 - 8%
2009 - 15%
2029 - 25% (projected)

We've got some work to do.

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Is This Gossip?

These nine questions can help you decide whether what you know should be shared.

1. Am I telling this to someone who can do something about the problem by helping the person or offering discipline or correction?

2. If not, am I telling this to someone who is wise enough to help me sort out my feelings and courageous enough to make me do the right thing: to confront the person or to confess where I was at fault?

3. Is this news approved for sharing?

4. Am I breaking a confidence? If so, is it only because the person is endangering someone's life, including his or her own?

5. Am I willing to say from whom I got this information so the information can be checked for accuracy?

6. When I say this, does it break my heart?

7. Have I taken time to examine my life and confess to God how I also sin like that?

8. Am I praying for the person?

9. Would I feel comfortable if someone were saying this about me?

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Our Cross and Our Christ

This quotation goes well with our text from Matthew for the week.

John "Rabbi" Duncan (1796-1870)

If we have not got a cross, alas! we may conclude that we have not got Christ, for it is the first of his gifts.

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Next Sermon - Matthew 16:21-28 on 09/27/09

Here's what I'll be preaching from this coming Sunday.

Matthew 16:21-28

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." 23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

When Relationships Are Built Around the Truths of the Gospel

Fitzpatrick & Johnson:

When relationships are built around the truths of the gospel—the truth that we are walking in light even though we are still sinners in need of cleansing by his blood—we can be free from feelings of inferiority and the demanding spirit that is born of pride. We can pursue relationships without fear of being discovered as the sinners we are. This kind of open relationship rests solely on the realities of the gospel. We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, and so is everyone we know. Because of this, we won’t be surprised by other’s sins. They won’t expect us to be sinless either, so we don’t have to give in to self-condemnation and fear when they see us as we really are. We don’t have to hide or pretend anymore.

The gospel also tells us that we are loved and welcomed without any merit on our part, so we can love and welcome others whose merits we can’t see. We can remember the circumstances under which we have been forgiven, and we can forgive in the same way. We don’t deserve relationship with the Trinity, but it has been given to us. We can seek our relationships with others because we know that we have been sought out by him and that he is carrying us all on his shoulders. (Yes, he is that strong!)

From Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ
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The Trinity Matters

Kevin DeYoung:

There are lots of reasons [why the doctrine of the Trinity matters], but borrowing from Robert Letham's work, and in Trinitarian fashion, let me mention just three.

One, the Trinity matters for creation. God, unlike the gods in other ancient creation stories, did not need to go outside himself to create the universe. Instead, the Word and the Spirit were like his own two hands (to use Irenaeus’ famous phrase) in fashioning the cosmos. God created by speaking (the Word) as the Spirit hovered over the chaos. Creation, like regeneration, is a Trinitarian act, with God working by the agency of the Word spoken and the mysterious movement of the Holy Spirit.

Two, the Trinity matters for evangelism and cultural engagement. I’ve heard it said that the two main rivals to a Christian worldview at present are Islam and Postmodernism. Islam emphasizes unity—unity of language, culture, and expression—without allowing much variance for diversity. Postmodernism, on the other hand, emphasizes diversity—diversity of opinion, believes, and background—without attempting to see things in any kind of meta-unity. Christianity, with its understanding of God as three in one, allows for diversity and unity. If God exists in three distinct Persons who all share the same essence, then it is possible to hope that God’s creation may exhibit stunning variety and individuality while still holding together in a genuine oneness.

Three, the Trinity matters for relationships. We worship a God who is in constant and eternal relationship with himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Community is a buzz word in American culture, but it is only in a Christian framework that communion and interpersonal community are seen as expressions of the eternal nature of God. Likewise, it is only with a Trinitarian God that love can be an eternal attribute of God. Without a plurality of persons in the Godhead, we would be forced to think that God created humans so that he might show love and know love, thereby making love a created thing (and God a needy deity). But with a biblical understanding of the Trinity we can say that God did not create in order to be loved, but rather, created out of the overflow of the perfect love that had always existed among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who ever live in perfect and mutual relationship
and delight.

Next Sermon - Matthew 16:1-20 on 09/20/09

Here's the text for this coming Sunday's sermon:

Matthew 16:1-20

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

A Dog's Life

Yesterday morning, the sermon covered the latter half of Matthew 15, including this passage:

25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." 26 And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

Then last night, our small group began our journey through A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul Miller. So far, he is emphasizing prayer as a simple relationship with the Father that we often complicate by focusing on the act of praying rather than the person of God.

Then this morning, I ran across this from Mark Dever, which seems to combine these two in an interesting way.

Prayer focuses us on our dependence on God. Once, when Martin Luther’s puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master. As Luther watched his dog begging, the dog’s mouth open and eyes motionless, Luther said, “Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope” (Luther’s Tabletalk, May 18, 1532).

The Same Place

It's the day to finish writing the sermon for tomorrow. Pray that this will be true of me, and of us.

Joel Beeke:

Faithful ministers aim to give God the same place in their own hearts and in the hearts of their people as He holds in the universe.

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Remembering and Forgetting

Lars Walker:

It’s one of the tragedies and mercies of human life that (with rare exceptions) we always say “We will never forget,” but we always do. One of my ancestors fought in the Great Northern War. How many people today—even in Europe—know anything at all about the Great Northern War?

It’s obvious that we’re beginning to forget the 9/11 attacks. We say we don’t. The broadcast networks are making time for commemorations, but we can all tell that, behind the pieties, a lot of people consider it old news. It’s done. It’s over. What’s the use in opening old wounds?

That’s the way it is. That’s the way, in fact, it has to be. Because we’re transient beings. Our lives are too short to spend in constant mourning (and if they are spent that way, it constitutes a compounded tragedy). Our wounds heal, or at least grow over. Eventually we die, and our children can’t understand, and have commemorations of their own to mark. Our species has long-term memory loss.

So when we say “We’ll never forget,” we’re making a vow we can’t keep. We’re writing a check beyond the balance in our account.

But that doesn’t make it wrong.

It’s a matter of faith, really. When we use words like “forever” and “never,” we’re implicitly appealing to God (like it or not). The words have no meaning unless they cry for the attention of some Mind that can know all things, some Mind which doesn’t lose track, which marks the fall of a sparrow.

Christian theology doesn’t answer all questions concerning injustice and suffering, the whole theodicy issue. There are many questions to which our Scriptures simply give no answers.

But Christianity does present “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” a declaration that Jesus is the full expression of God. It proclaims that if we trust Him (who Himself suffered pain and injustice), we can trust that all things will be made right, somehow in the fullness of time.

Blessed be the memory.

Not One Whit Less

John White:

Were you a likely candidate for salvation? Yet didn't God save you? And while he may have used some human instrument, don't you see that he would have saved you with or without any instrument? And haven't you seen other 'impossible' brothers and sisters delivered likewise by the incredible power of the invisible God?

Do you realize from whence you came? You were in the grip of hell. Demons had wrapped their chains about you. The god of this world had blinded your understanding. Yet God struck off your chains and the face of Christ illumined your soul. The damned around you are no more damned than you were, their chains no thicker, their darkness no deeper. Nor is the power of Christ to save them one whit less.

From, The Golden Cow

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Rethinking Our Rejoicing

Luke 10:17-20

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" 18 And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Ask yourself--

Do I rejoice that God, by some mystery to me, chose me before the foundation of the world, due to nothing in me, and wrote my name in his Book of Life?

Do I rejoice that God, from the beginning, had me in mind when he was carrying out his plan to redeem a people for the glory of his name?

Do I rejoice that God sent his Son on a mission from heaven to become the Word made flesh on my behalf, in order to save me from my sins?

Do I rejoice that Christ lived perfectly without sin, fulfilling the law in my place, in order that its righteous requirements might be fulfilled in me by grace through faith?

Do I rejoice that the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his body on the tree, so that I could receive forgiveness for every sin that I have or will commit?

Do I rejoice that day by day, these truths are sinking down into my soul and, as C.S. Lewis says, re-working my house; re-building, re-furnishing, preparing me for greater works ahead and ultimately for a greater Kingdom ahead.

Do I rejoice in counting everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord who is bringing me to God?

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Building Bridges

John Stott:

In all evangelism there is… a cultural gulf to bridge. This is obvious when Christian people move as messengers of the gospel from one country or continent to another. But even if we remain in our own country, Christians and non-Christians are often widely separated from one another by social sub-cultures and lifestyles as well as by different values, beliefs, and moral standards. Only an incarnation can span these divides, for an incarnation means entering other people’s worlds, their thought-world, and the worlds of their alienation, loneliness, and pain. Moreover, the incarnation led to the cross. Jesus first took our flesh, then he bore our sin. This was a depth of penetration into our world in order to reach us, in comparison with which our little attempts to reach people seem amateur and shallow. The cross calls us to a much more radical and costly kind of evangelism than most churches have begun to consider, let alone experience.

From The Cross of Christ

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Next Sermon - Matthew 15:21-39 on 09/13/09

This is the text for this coming Sunday's sermon. Can you tell what ties these together? (It's not miracles, so much.)

Matthew 15:21-39

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." 26 And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

29 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way." 33 And the disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?" 34 And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish." 35 And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38 Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And after sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath

Proverbs 15:1
1 A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 16:32
32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Matthew 5:38-45
38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Watch this video to hear how the Reverend Wade Watts "disarmed" this (now former) Klu Klux Klansman.



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How Paul Worked to Overcome Slavery

It just might be longer than the book of Philemon itself (which is only 25 verses), but this article by John Piper shows how Paul does eleven things to undermine slavery in this short letter.

The historic and contemporary reality of slavery is never far away from how we think about the Bible. Instead of a frontal attack on the culturally pervasive institution of slavery in his day, Paul took another approach, for example, in his letter to Philemon.

Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel

Albert Mohler:

Just as parents rightly teach their children to obey moral instruction, the church also bears responsibility to teach its own the moral commands of God and to bear witness to the larger society of what God has declared to be right and good for His human creatures.

But these impulses, right and necessary as they are, are not the Gospel. Indeed, one of the most insidious false gospels is a moralism that promises the favor of God and the satisfaction of God's righteousness to sinners if they will only behave and commit themselves to moral improvement.

The moralist impulse in the church reduces the Bible to a codebook for human behavior and substitutes moral instruction for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far too many evangelical pulpits are given over to moralistic messages rather than the preaching of the Gospel.

The corrective to moralism comes directly from the Apostle Paul when he insists that "a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus." Salvation comes to those who are "justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." [Gal. 2:16]

We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." [Gal. 4:4-5]

We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.

Read the whole article here.

Caring for Animals

Did you see the story in the news earlier this week about the animal rights activist group releasing a video of an egg hatchery that was grinding up baby chicks?

Many of us are likely to respond to a story like this based on our previously held political inclinations, emotions (or lack thereof), or views on farming and food production.

What would the Bible bring to the discussion? We might think first of the fact that human beings are uniquely created in the image of God, unlike any other creature (Genesis 1:27). This implies that, in some sense, humans have rights in a way that animals do not. However, one does not have to be an "animal rights" advocate to be concerned about how we should or should not treat animals.

Here's a portion of a recent editorial from Christianity Today that helps explain what I mean:

But while Christians happily acknowledge the charge [of "speciesism"-- human priority or privilege over animals], we misstep when we brush off animal cruelty with nonchalance. Showing animal compassion does not de facto assign animals the same worth as humans. It merely acknowledges that animals have worth and dignity—something plainly assumed in biblical passages like Exodus 21-22:14 and Deuteronomy 25, which outline upright ways to handle livestock, and Proverbs 12:10, which praises the righteous man who "cares for the needs of his animal." The church has traditionally interpreted Isaiah 65's well-known apocalyptic imagery of lions and lambs not as a cozy metaphor of human community, but as a picture of fully restored creation, people and animals. And while Luke 12:6's five sparrows sold for two cents usually refer to God's sovereign care for us in our daily lives, it's remarkable that those five sparrows aren't forgotten by God, but are part of his sovereign care as well.

Instead of leading us down dangerous paths toward secular humanism, animal compassion becomes part of our privileged role as custodians of the creatures in which God delights. In fact, C. S. Lewis, who wrestled in many essays with the seeming senselessness of animal suffering, argued that it was precisely because humans are higher than animals in creation's hierarchy that they should oppose animal cruelty. Our very superiority to animals, he said, ought to motivate us "to prove ourselves better than the beasts precisely by the fact of acknowledging duties to them which they do not acknowledge to us."

Fellowship and Solitude

Small Groups start on September 13, so sign up this Sunday. Here's an apt quotation from Mike Bullmore, a pastor and former professor of mine.

We need fellowship with others to be alone safely.
We need solitude to be with others meaningfully.

Or, you can choose quasi-fellowship and isolation...



No further comment.


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What Suffering Means

More on the theme of suffering from Colin Smith:

"Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or ashamed of me his prisoner... That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed." 2 Timothy 1:8, 12 (NIV)

Why does Paul tell Timothy not to be ashamed? Why would suffering make Paul ashamed? We have a hard time separating suffering and shame. Suffering raises two questions that lead to shame if we don't know how to answer them.

Does suffering mean God has failed?
Paul spends his life serving the Lord and ends up chained in a prison in Rome. Imagine Timothy trying to share the gospel with an unbeliever in Ephesus. "How can you believe in a God of love who allows his own apostle to languish in jail?"

The world's view is that if God is loving and He is powerful, then He must be able and willing to deliver us from all suffering. So, why is Paul in prison? "My tears have been my food day and night,while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'"(Psalm 42:3)

The first instinct of the unbeliever looking at suffering is to conclude that God has failed. You can see why Timothy might have been ashamed. Evangelism would be easier if God didn't let all these disasters happen.

Does suffering mean that we have failed?
The believer has a different question. In the story of Job, when Job suffered greatly, his friends came to comfort him. The friends were believers. They were quite sure that God had not failed, and so in their minds that only left one alternative and that was that Job had failed. There must be some sin for which Job was being disciplined.

We find the same assumption about suffering in the Gospels: "As he went along, he [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.His disciples asked him [notice this is a question coming from the believers],'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?'"John 9:1-2 (NIV)

Jesus' disciples hold a deep conviction that all suffering is a direct consequence of sin. If this man had become blind at age 20, instead of at birth, they would assume it was the result of some sin in his life. Now they are wondering, "Where is the sin?" Was it a past sin of the parents that brought this consequence on him? Or was it the man's own future that God already knew about before the man was born?

We are deeply convinced that suffering and shame belong together. That's why among Christians our deepest question is often, "Does this mean that God is judging me for something I have done?"

Pain is a platform
When suffering comes, the first instinct of the unbeliever is to think that God has failed. The first instinct of the believer is to think that we have failed. Either way the assumption is that suffering and shame belong together: "'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus. 'But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'" John 9:3 (NIV)

This is the biblical view of suffering. Far from being evidence of shame, the pain in this man's life is a platform on which God's glory will be revealed. When you experience pain, it's good to pray that God's work will be displayed in your life.

The Righteous Suffer

Someone from our congregation wrote this to me:

I’ve been reading the book of Job in my daily bible reading and I have a question. When Job and his friends are talking, it seems that is friends are telling Job that he has sinned and he needs to repent and turn back to God. Job maintains his innocence and his righteousness. Yet I’m wondering how Romans 3:23 applies? Would it be more correct to say that what has happened to Job is not a result of his righteousness or his sin, but because God is God?

This was my reply:

David sometimes speaks this way in the Psalms as well (see Ps. 26, for example). It strikes us as odd because we are well versed in the doctrine that all men are sinners, as concisely stated in Romans 3:23.

What Job is asserting is not that he is sinless, but that he does not believe that he has committed a sin that would bring on all his trials and suffering. The friends' logic is simple and, to a certain extent, biblical. It reflects justice: sin leads to judgment/punishment. Thus, in their equation, because they see Job's suffering as judgment/punishment from God (notice that they don't believe in impersonal forces or coincidences), therefore, Job must have committed some sin to bring it upon himself. This is why Job struggles-- he believes he has maintained his integrity before God. He searches his heart, but he has not been harboring hidden sin. At some level, Job is using the same logic, and that's why he has great anxiety. "Why am I suffering if I haven't done some big, bad sin to bring it on? Hadn't I been maintaining a close walk with God?"

I think one of the big lessons from Job (or John 9) is the reminder that all suffering is not a direct consequence of our sinful actions. Sometimes it is the result of the sinful conditions of this world (the Curse), it can be spiritual forces of darkness (Satan, demons), but in all things, God is at work for his glory. This is hard to hold together in our finite minds.

In the end, Job acknowledges his sin-- not that he actually had some bad sin that brought on his suffering, but that he was wrong for challenging and questioning God. The book concludes as you say, the suffering is not a result of Job's righteousness or sin, but for reasons we cannot know. How do we live in a world where things happen that don't fit the logic of justice (good wins, evil loses, righteous rewarded, wickedness punished)? We have to trust in the God who is far more powerful, wise, and good that we are or could ever comprehend, and also believe that perfect justice will be established in the end.

Our hope is in the fact that, because of Christ, we do not have to face perfect justice, but may receive mercy by his grace. If anyone ever suffered while innocent, it was Jesus, but he did so, making it possible for the guilty to be relieved of eternal suffering.