Trinity

I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that I don’t go a bundle on the church’s liturgical year. True, this is ancient enough; and it is a useful aid to memory that certain events are marked at their appropriate season of the year. But for me all the ritual and pageantry of it get in the way of simple heart worship. Yet there is one Sunday I am generally careful to observe: Trinity Sunday.

To me, this Sunday embodies something that is at the heart of right-believing Christianity. Indeed, without the Trinity, the faith would not be what God meant it to be. Yet, because it jars with merely human logic, it has had to be stoutly defended from the start. Often the opponents have come from within the church’s own ranks.

For many thoughtful critics, this business of Trinity, the Three-One God, is the one belief of Christians above all others which sticks in the craw. Why have it? they wonder. Isn’t it divisive? Doesn’t it go against the grain when we are trying to develop an “advanced” religion that will commend itself to thinking people? Why apparently compromise the truth of the One God when this was so hard won over so many centuries?

After all, humankind has spent long ages groping painfully towards the mighty concept of one god, not many. In the 1300’s BC Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh, sought to abandon the worship of the many Egyptian gods in favour of Aten, the sun’s disc. After his death this reform movement was reversed. However, the neighbouring Jews later developed a firm belief in one God, who is, repeatedly, reverently referred to as “LORD” in the Bible. This conviction had to compete with the persistent and seductive view that other gods were in charge of their different territories.

The apostle Paul was a fanatical champion of this hard-won belief in the one God. He had a lot of thinking to do when he encountered the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road. Jesus, he concluded after much mental anguish, must be accorded the title “the Lord Jesus Christ”, because He did things that only God could do – forgive sins and conquer death. Jesus had also introduced the Holy Spirit as a “personality” rather than just a life force. Equally with Jesus, the Holy Spirit had an essential part in the personhood of God.

Yet Trinitarians have had to battle a constant stream of dissent down the ages. The followers of an early bishop, Arius, denied the Trinity. So do, among others, Jews, Muslims, deists, Unitarians, Free Christians and a number of cults. Some readers may be astonished to know that Sir Isaac Newton collected a list of Bible verses which, he said, went against the notion of Trinity. Some years ago I came across Pentecostal believers who held to the once-fashionable “Jesus Only” teaching. For them, Jesus is the Father and similarly Jesus is the Holy Spirit. It is not for them a matter of three “persons” within one God, but one “person” in successive phases.

Why do I defend the Trinity so stoutly? Because I am convinced that only the inescapable evidence of their eyes could make Paul and the other early Christian leaders use the title “Lord” for Jesus that belonged to God alone. Because I believe that the way Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together as one is a beautiful object lesson in true relationship. And because the power of the three Persons combined is a triple lock guaranteeing my eternal safety.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ESV).

Church or Christ?

When introducing people to Christianity, there is a strong temptation to ask them, "Why don't you come to church?" instead of what the question should be, "Why don't you come to Christ?"

Of course it is incredibly sad to see churches by-passed and marginalised. What an influence they could have for good if more people openly supported them! They were once the glue that held society together. They contributed in a healthy way to the rhythm of life. I remember my father telling me that he knew when to come in for his morning coffee by the ringing of the church bell. In my own life there was a time when the church stream I was part of laid on insurance, holiday centres, leisure activities, endless ways to meet other people. It offered care homes for the elderly, housing and some financial support for those of its workers who were in need, safe spaces for youth to enjoy recreational activities, adventure holidays for various age groups … you could practically live your life by availing yourself of facilities supplied by the church.

The church is undoubtedly of the utmost importance. It is one of God’s appointed ways of carrying on the work of the Lord Jesus now that He has risen and ascended into heaven. Jesus was well aware of what would happen to Him at the close of His earthly ministry, and had a thoroughly thought through strategy for continuing His service in the world following His death. A central plank of that strategy was the re-equipping of His circle of followers to form the nucleus of a new People of God. The very first church apparently understood that that core should consist of twelve “apostles”, consciously modelled on the twelve tribes of Israel, the old established People of God. (Arguments rage back and forth as to whether the church has entirely replaced Israel as the chosen people.) So, when the traitor disciple Judas Iscariot died, leaving a gap, moves were quickly made to fill his place. It was not long before the church was swelling dramatically in numbers, a sign of God’s endorsement.

The church, of course, is made up of fallible human beings. There have been many low points in its history. Yet whenever it seems irreversibly bruised, battered and completely discredited, it always manages to take on second wind and emerge again. That is because it is central to God’s purposes and He will not be defeated.

You can’t see the risen Christ but you can see the church down the road. So isn’t it natural to invite an outsider to “come to church”? There you hope she will meet people whose company is good for her and will find herself exposed to good preaching. Maybe then she will become a habitual attender. You could say that person has moved from being an enquirer to an insider, a regular “Christian”.

It is easy to forget that becoming a Christian is actually not about joining a church, important though that step is. It is about meeting a Person. Jesus once declared,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23 ESV).

A faithful Christian once told me the story of a keen believer who was working with a man who still did not know Christ – we’ll call that man Fred. The faithful Christian tried every angle he could think of, but somehow Fred still did not get it. Finally he told the puzzled unbeliever, “Fred, it’s like this. Jesus, meet Fred. Fred, meet Jesus”. That did the trick. The Person Jesus was introduced to the person Fred, and Fred came through.

Liberation Day

A month ago I wrote about the wartime German occupation of my native Channel Islands. Today is celebrated there as a public holiday. It is the anniversary of Liberation – 9 May 1945, the day after VE (Victory in Europe) Day. I found myself thinking about what liberation meant for my fellow Channel Islanders (at least, those who were alive at the time), and what it means for Christians.

It is hard for those of us who weren’t there to enter into the spirit of that amazing day. Islanders and occupiers alike gradually came to realise that the last days of the Second World War were at hand. The occupiers made themselves scarce. The islanders found flags and decorations from somewhere that would allow them to put on at least some sort of celebration and welcome for their liberators. There was a day’s delay while the Nazi authorities grandstanded. Then finally the time came, the troops and transports landed, and joy was unbounded. Those islanders who still had wireless sets listened to speeches and announcements which brought it home to them that it was all true and not a dream. A few days later the Nazi troops who had once manned the concrete bunkers and strutted around the islands were herded onto transport ships, with a few spectators to wish them good riddance.

Then the realisation of the road ahead set in. Those who had perhaps been too friendly to the invaders had much to fear. And the islands did not become well-stocked again overnight. Even when I was born, eight years later, some items were still on ration. As on the mainland, austerity would be the watchword for many years to come. Island life had to be remade from the top down. Coming to terms with a difficult legacy was something that had to be worked at. The military stayed around for quite a while as a reassuring presence, giving assistance where needed. And gradually normality and even prosperity returned to the islands.

Liberation for Christians is freedom from occupation by sin. As the liberation of the Channel Islands depended on troops from over the water, so that of the sinner can only come from outside forces. Ephesians 2:4-9 includes these words:

But God, being rich in mercy, 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 ... And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (ESV)

Sin is an old, dead, unsavoury smog that weighs heavily on us, oppresses us, clings to us. Whoever accepts the lordship of Jesus Christ lets in a wonderful liberating army that banishes the murk and gives freedom to look ahead and breathe. The joy of someone who has found that out for him- or herself is wonderful to behold. But now there is a life to be remade – and our spiritual liberator can help there too. Look down at the tenth verse of Ephesians 2:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The freedom we have won is not the freedom of anarchy. Having been liberated, it is incumbent on us to live the rest of our lives to the glory of God. What is so breathtaking is that the God who provides a Saviour also prepares in advance for us good works that we can do to glorify Him and thank Him!

If you’ve met your Liberator, may God bless you in your wonderful new adventure. May you have the joy and satisfaction of finding the work He has freed you to carry out.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray -

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

my chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. 

                                            - Charles Wesley, 1707-88

A Christian country?

I am intrigued by all the fuss there has been over the recent speech by Prime Minister David Cameron affirming that Britain remains a Christian country, should be proud of it, and should evangelise the fact. A letter signed by more than 50 prominent figures protested against this, maintaining that Mr Cameron had no right to call this a Christian country as only a small minority were Christians.

I have always been of the opinion that you cannot truly call a country Christian until every last person has bowed the knee before Jesus Christ and acknowledged Him as Lord. This runs counter, I realise, to the view held since the days of the Protestant Reformation that a person’s country determined his or her religion. This strange concept produced the historical oddity (as I would call it) that anyone resident in a parish had an automatic right to a baptism, a wedding or a funeral in their local church, whether they were believers or not. To my mind this has resulted in no end of disastrous misunderstanding.

So talk of a Christian country seems to me misleading. What you can reasonably say, however, is that we have a country whose laws and institutions have been based on Christian values. We abandon these at our peril. I found it most unsettling when a leading judge gave as his opinion that judgements in court could no longer be given on the basis of Christian values and standards of behaviour. Does that mean that people will be able to get away with behaviour that has always over the years been considered unacceptable? A great deal of misery, it seems to me, will follow.

A Christian country? What really counts is a Christian heart and spirit triumphing in one individual after another. The Book of Acts talks about this in terms of “souls” being added to “the number”:

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. … 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 favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:38-41,46-47 ESV

I was mightily encouraged by a service of believer’s baptism I attended on Easter Sunday. Four young adults declared their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and all in their different ways witnessed to the fact that this allegiance had transformed their lives. It was a thoroughly wholesome and positive experience.

But there’s another country I’ve heard of long ago,
most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
we may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And all her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.

Cecil Spring-Rice, 1859-1918

That, of course, is anathema to the sceptics. A great deal of work needs to be done to dispose of the persistent opinion that Christianity is dangerous and that by teaching Christian ways to children we will somehow pervert or brainwash them. In fact the reverse is true. Letting them find their own way and giving them no guidance for belief will result in despair. Generations will grow up following patterns of thought and life that are harmful, because different from what the Maker originally intended. If this is allowed to continue, we will all be the losers.

How would you cope?

Currently I am reading a book called “Outpost of Occupation”, written by Barry Turner. It shows how the Channel Islands survived Nazi rule during the years 1940 to 1945. It was of particular interest to me because I was born in Guernsey.

It is shocking to read of the terrible deprivation that those in the Islands faced during the war, especially after D-Day, when mainland France was cut off and could no longer supply any resources either to the German garrison or to the islanders. Today we take it for granted that essentials and even luxuries will be freely available. Yet only a few generations ago there were people just like us, people whose families we may have known, for whom utter starvation was often only days away. It is more painful still to read of all the crises of conscience that went with the situation – the moral dilemmas that faced people during those desperate days. Even doing a basic kindness could mean arrest and death for both the helper and the one helped.

Yes, there is so much that we take for granted. We can ask many questions: how would we react? How would we survive? Would it make or break our characters? Would we help others or push them aside in a desperate bid for self-preservation? These are things that very often we can never know until we are put to the test.

When the time comes, will we be found sufficient or will we be found wanting? Sometimes we are such a puzzle to ourselves that we simply have to rely on our sovereign God knowing all about us, understanding and being patient with us.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16 NIV

For our part all we can do is fortify ourselves against the day of calamity with a living faith in the Saviour. Beyond that we can only trust that a true sense of values, guided and shaped by God, will see us through in the end.

To encourage us, God offers us Himself as an inspiration. The Lord Jesus Christ had everything when He was with His heavenly Father in glory. He let all of that go, even His dignity and His physical well-being, in order to sacrifice Himself for us and to win for us forgiveness and newness of life. It is very hard to imagine what it cost Him. No ordinary mortal has ever started from such heights and been brought to such depths – and then ascended again!

As we come back to our own situations, often really quite pampered, we can think of our Lord and what He willingly surrendered to make us spiritually rich. We should also remember that our fellow human beings, not far from us, are even now undergoing friction, deprivation, desperate times. Often the reason is not the high-flown politics that the news presenters love to attribute regional conflicts to. On the ground, the cause of conflict may equally likely be a squabble over limited resources.

May God help us to be realistic about who we really are, to appreciate all that we have, to steward it wisely, and to ensure that the world has its fair share. It may well be in our own interests on earth and it will be building up treasures in heaven. Our incentive is that God has no intention of being mean towards you and me in heaven simply because we lived in a rich country on earth. Charles Wesley, the sweet singer of sovereign grace, once wrote these lines:

Thou waitest to be gracious still;

Thou dost with sinners bear,

That, saved, we may Thy goodness feel,

And all Thy grace declare.

Its streams the whole creation reach,

So plenteous is the store,

Enough for all, enough for each,

Enough for evermore.

Sin – a taboo subject?

A younger friend of mine and her family are trying to find their way into church life. “The trouble with the church we’ve been going to,” she complains, “is that they keep talking about sin. It frightens my daughter.”

These days, the world’s easy-going view of sin gives the word an aura of enticement and daring. It is the name chosen by at least one nightclub in the UK. Another friend refers to a tasty treat that is laden with calories as “sinful squares”. A person who dabbles in a bit of sin is credited with a sense of adventure, imagination, fulfilment.

In the Bible, however, sin wears a much more repugnant and disturbing aspect. It isn’t even just limited to the odd acts of swearing or stealing or lust. It is nothing less than a way of life that we inherit at birth and that makes us all fall short of God’s standards. A word frequently used for it in the New Testament originally meant “missing the mark”. In archery terms, sin is any behaviour that fails to hit the bull’s-eye. In God’s version of an archery competition, simply getting your arrow to hit the target is no better than missing it altogether. Since He is a perfect God, nothing less than a bull’s-eye will do. He will not be pleased simply because there is a bit of good in us mixed in with the bad. A perfect God cannot even look on what is flawed.

Scared? If someone really is frightened of the consequences of sin, that’s surely a good thing. It will drive them to put their trust in the One who carried the sins of the world and is the bringer of forgiveness, the Lord Jesus Christ. When they do this, an amazing transformation occurs, even though they don’t suddenly become perfect and indeed never will in this life. Christians throughout the ages have viewed it like this: when we receive Christ as Lord and Saviour, God looks away from our blemishes and towards Him. He made on the cross a faultless self-offering to atone for our sin.

But to go into denial about the way sin clings to us is to court disaster. According to the Bible it turns us into self-deceived dupes who know nothing of God’s truth – even though we would pride ourselves on never telling lies. Worse still, it is effectively calling God a liar.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10 ESV

Agreed, making people feel guilty all the time is no help to anybody. Jesus certainly didn’t aim to do that. For most people, most of the time, He was a joy to be around. He was and is our Hope. But it would be infinitely dangerous to leave anyone thinking that sin is no worse than the world makes it out to be.

After all is said and done ... sin must be bad if it caused the Son of God to surrender His life!

Families

Reading the broad sweep of the Bible, you become aware that families are important to God – sacred, even. The apostle Paul speaks of bowing his knees before the Father, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:15). According to Acts 3:25 God’s covenant with the ancient patriarch Abraham included the clause, “And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. Much is made of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly life joined a human family, with parents, brothers and sisters. He had his few days of early independence as a 12-year-old boy when He went missing from the side of His parents on their return from Jerusalem. When they had gone back and collected Him, however, it is written that He “went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them” (Luke 2:50).

I grew up an only child. When I left home, living on my own became a way of life. My parents have since died. There are some good things about living with your own company, but you miss out in certain important ways. One of the joys of travelling round the country and accepting hospitality from friends is that I learn, albeit belatedly, how different families work.

At home I am used to having things as I like them to be. There is nobody else, humanly speaking, to please. I can eat the foods I like. (That was until the medical people took to lecturing me on having too many ready meals, so that I am now having to adjust my diet.) I can arrange my life in a thousand different ways, happily going on from day to day without giving much of a thought as to what could be done more pleasantly or more productively. I have my own way of organising my waking hours, having adjusted to early retirement for the time being. For me, this daily routine is or is becoming the norm.

But it is not uniform for every household. Each one is like a different country with its own culture and customs. As a lifelong learner I am ready to pick up new insights from my visits. In many homes, unlike mine, the main meal takes place in the evening. I mostly have mine in the middle of the day because that’s the way I was used to from childhood: my dad always came home from work, and I came home from school, and mum gave us our main meal. We then returned to work and school for the rest of the day. It became a habit that I have never thought of changing. But when in someone else’s house I cheerfully adapt myself to their meal pattern.

The television is another means whereby I learn to see life as other households see it. Left to my own devices I watch the programmes I like and regard as important. This mainly means the news and historical and other factual documentaries. It is an eye-opener to go to someone else’s home and watch them enjoy something I would never have considered viewing. One such example is the couple who like tuning in to Michael Portillo’s railway journeys. I used to notice this offering on the schedules without giving it a second glance! Now I have watched more of the series at home, with real pleasure and profit.

Christian believers are one great family under the fatherhood of God. They enjoy a marked family identity and share in the eternal benefits. Marvellously, this family identity is shared not only throughout the earth but also in heaven. Believers in the West have little concept of their invisible family; but how I look forward to joining them one day! What more I shall learn there, and what extra riches there are to be had, God only knows. All I know is that I shall be more than satisfied with God’s fatherly, family likeness.