Pearls of Great Price

Thanksgiving can be a difficult holiday for many people. It’s hard to give thanks when you don’t feel thankful about what’s going on in life. As Ed Welch wrote in his article I Am Not Giving Thanks, “There are plenty of hardships in this world, and they are not good. What is good is that evil cannot stand in the way of God’s essential work of making his people more and more as they were intended to be, which is portrayed most clearly in the Son. This, indeed, is a glorious good, but it could feel as though it falls short of our lesser versions of good.”

We may feel like we’re just going through the motions. Commands such as “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! …Come into His presence with singing! …Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise!” (Psalm 100), may feel like salt on an open wound. A podcast I was listening to recently made the comment that when the church gathers, maybe I don’t have the heart to sing right now, but I can listen to others sing. Another week I may be the one singing when others can only listen. We tend to forget that many of the commands in Scripture are for the church as a whole, not merely an individual mandate.

Some of the things we are not thankful for now may one day be reasons for praise. The Apostle Peter wrote, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6-7). Even if we can’t give thanks for the hard things in this life, there will come a day when it all becomes worthwhile.

In the novel Silver Birches, by Adrian Plass, one character is a minister who has lost his wife. He tells the others in his group:

“Apparently pearls are formed by oysters as a reaction or defense against a foreign body or irritant… I think something very similar has happened in my own life—and yours. There’ve been troubles and weaknesses and negative influences that haven’t just threatened but come very close to moving in and ruining parts of my life… I’m sure we shouldn’t take any pride or satisfaction in these irritants that enter our lives, but, look, I do think we should greatly value the way in which God’s able to form a pearl of protection around each of them. He hasn’t got rid of most of them because he’s good enough to allow us to go on being the person we are. We wear God’s pearls as symbols of our vulnerability and perhaps as pictures of the way God can make something beautiful out of weakness.”

So, I ask myself and I ask you, what are some of the troubles and trials that God has turned into pearls? What weaknesses and places of pain is He still working to transform? Though I can’t list everything publicly, I will share a few:

• I’m thankful for the depression that causes me to search Scripture for words of comfort.
• I’m thankful for the seasons of loneliness in which my words come out in writing and prayer.
• I’m thankful that struggles I’ve dared to share have been used to comfort and encourage others in similar trials.

I know my pearls are not yet fully formed, but one day they will be laid at Jesus’ feet with gratitude and thanksgiving. 

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (Col. 3:15).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Planned Obsolescence

Our church has been working through the book of Galatians for the past several weeks. The recurring theme is that salvation is by faith and not by works. “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16-17).

Obedience to the Old Testament law cannot save us. As James says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails at one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10). Try as we might, we cannot perfectly obey and therefore we cannot obtain righteousness through our obedience. The law was never intended to justify anyone, but only to point us to our need for a Savior. As Paul wrote in Romans 7, “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ …The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me” (7:7, 10). But now, if we are believers in Christ, we have “died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God” (7:4).

We are now under a new covenant by faith in Christ. “In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). The author of Hebrews doesn’t just say that the old covenant of the law is inferior to the new covenant, but is actually obsolete. How is that possible? Jesus fulfilled all the demands of the law by perfect obedience. Through His sacrifice on the cross, we who trust in Him receive His perfect record.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:13-14). In Christ, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

We as individuals and as churches can tend to lean in one of two directions. We may lean toward legalism and create our own set of rules and regulations: don’t drink, don’t smoke, no tattoos, never skip church, read through your Bible every year, always look respectable, etc. That is likely to make people feel a constant vague guilt for not measuring up to the “standards,” and may lead to an abandonment of anything related to the church.

Or we may lean toward license and say “Do whatever feels good so long as you aren’t hurting anyone by it.” But that is to ignore the necessity of sanctification in the life of the believer. We are set free from the law, not to do as we please, but to become who God always intended us to be: people who reflect the perfect image of His Son. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).

We belong to Him body and soul, and if we are living in His grace through faith, we will desire to do all that we can to please Him—not because we have to in order to retain our citizenship in His kingdom, but because we love our Father. We will fail and fall at times, but He picks us back up and dusts us off and reminds us that His love is not dependent on our perfect obedience. “For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5).

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand” (Psalm 37:23-24).

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You might enjoy this poem from Glenn Scrivener:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/we-should-not-balance-license-and-legalism/

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Effects of Faith

Faith gives us eternal hope.

For those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we have the certainty that there is coming a day when God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

When life is hard and it seems like things will never change, there is always the hope of eternity. Eternal life means that the trials of this life are temporary and they will one day seem insignificant. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).

Faith gives us purpose.

Life is about more than getting an education, earning a living, raising a family, or saving for vacation and retirement. For the believer, every aspect of life is infused with the purpose of loving and serving God by loving and serving those around us. Joseph Hellerman wrote:

“Experiencing God and serving God are not unrelated. God offers a wonderful alternative to an otherwise aimless life that must rely on regular shots of experiential escape—secular or spiritual—to provide a sense of significance. That alternative is to give our lives to a community with a mission—a local church charged with the task of proclaiming the ‘excellencies’ of the God who has called us ‘out of darkness into his marvelous light’ (1 Pet 2:9)” (Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus, ch. 6).

If we expect this life to fulfill all our hopes and dreams, we will be sorely disappointed. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24).

Faith joins us to a family.

Through faith in Christ we are adopted into God’s family. We don’t just have a relationship with the Father, but with all of His children. We have more in common with those in our Christian family than we do with non-Christians in our nuclear family. We may share history with our nuclear family, but we share an eternal future with our Christian family.

Our brother and sisters in Christ are meant to be those with whom we can share both our joys and our struggles. “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor… Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:10, 15). “So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thess. 2:8).

Faith assures us that we are loved by God.

“Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us… God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:5, 8). By His love and grace our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to Him. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3), so we are just as beloved as Jesus is. “For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you” (1 Thess. 1:4).

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).

 © 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.