What Is Your Only Comfort?

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perhaps none is as well-loved as the Heidelberg Catechism. In the opening question and answer, the personal and distinctive tone of the catechism becomes evident. “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” This is not a theoretical question — “What would be necessary if God were to comfort sinners?” Rather, this is a very practical question — “How do I have comfort as long as I live and then when I die?”

The key word in the opening question is comfort (German, trost). The word refers to our assurance and confidence in the finished work of Christ. This comfort extends to all of life and even to the hour of death. As one of the authors of the catechism (Zacharius Ursinus) puts it in his commentary on the catechism, this comfort entails “the assurance of the free remission of sin, and of reconciliation with God by and on account of Christ, and a certain expectation of eternal life; impressed upon the heart by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, so that we have no doubt but that we are saved forever, according to the declaration of the apostle Paul: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Note that the catechism speaks of our “only” comfort. There is no other such comfort and assurance to be found apart from Christ.

In answering the opening question, the catechism asserts that “I, with body and soul, both in life and in death,” will have this comfort. A paraphrase of Romans 14:7–8 here, we are reminded that God’s care extends to us throughout the course of our lives. Christ has removed the curse; there is assurance of salvation in this life and the resurrection of our bodies at the end of the age (see Q & A 57–58). This knowledge comforts us now and prepares us for whatever lies ahead.

Our comfort derives from the fact that “I am not my own.” These words are taken from 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” We are Christ’s, and He will do with us as He wills. This comfort is based on the fact that God is sovereign and has the power to do as He has promised. Continue reading →

What did Jesus Believe About the Scriptures?

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stormsDr. Sam Storms:

The question: “What think ye of the Bible?” reduces to the question: “What think ye of Christ?” To deny the authority of Scripture is to deny the lordship of Jesus. So what did Jesus think of the Scriptures (or at least of the Old Testament)?

Consider the people and events of the OT, ambulance for example, whom/which Jesus frequently mentioned. He refers to Abel, Noah and the great flood, Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, Isaac and Jacob, the manna from heaven, the serpent in the desert, David eating the consecrated bread and his authorship of the Psalms, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha,, and Zechariah, etc.

In each case he treats the Old Testament narratives as straightforward records of historical fact. But, say the critics, perhaps Jesus was simply accommodating himself to the mistaken beliefs of his contemporaries. That is to say, Jesus simply met his contemporaries on their own ground without necessarily committing himself to the correctness of their views. He chose graciously not to upset them by questioning the veracity of their belief in the truth and authority of the Bible.

However,
• Jesus was not at all sensitive about undermining mistaken, though long-cherished, beliefs among the people of his day. He loudly and often denounced the traditions of the Pharisees and took on their distortion of the OT law in the Sermon on the Mount.

• Jesus challenged nationalistic conceptions of the kingdom of God and the coming of the Messiah. He was even willing to face death on a cross for the truth of what he declared.

• In referring to the OT, Jesus declared that “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Again, “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law” (Luke 16:17). See also Mark 7:6-13; Luke 16:29-31. He rebuked the Sadducees saying, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Mt. 22:29).

• When faced by Satan’s temptations, it was to the truth and authority of the OT that he appealed (Mt. 4:4ff.). Note especially his words: “It has been [stands] written.”

• Jesus didn’t hesitate to deliberately offend the religious sensibilities of his contemporaries when he chose to eat and socialize with both publicans and prostitutes.

Jesus held to an extremely high view of the Bible’s inspiration and infallibility, and therefore so do I.

What to do when you are angry at God?

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Questions and Answers: From the 2014 Ligonier National Conference: R.C. Sproul Jr., Stephen Nichols, Voddie Baucham, and R.C. Sproul.

Transcript (from around the 20 minute mark)

Question: I am trying to reconcile the death of my adult son, whom I believe not to be saved, with my Christian faith. How do I deal with my anger toward God and this long dark night of the soul?

Answer – R. C. Sproul:

Repent and repent in dust and ashes! Crawl over glass in your repentance, if you are angry at God. There’s never been anything that has happened to you in your entire life, including this great tragedy and most painful experience that could ever possibly justify being angry at God. There are ten million reasons why He should be angry at you. God does not owe us a life without pain and tragedy. He’s given us a life of grace and a promise of eternal felicity, and any being that does that for us, 100% graciously, can never righteously be the object of our anger, only of our gratitude. We understand humanly speaking, the anger.. because if you’ve experienced anger, its always caused by some kind of pain. Behind the anger is pain. And you’ve allowed that pain t produce an anger that will destroy you. And it has greater consequences than even the loss of the one that you love so well. So really, you’ve got to deal with this. And understand that God does all things well. And if we were listening carefully to Derek’s sermon where he talked about Genesis 18 and the plea for the sparing of Sodom. you know, the comment that Abraham made, “far be it from Thee, O God, to do that which is not right.” And even Abraham our father, I don’t think even had a clue of how far it is from God to do anything wrong. And when we accuse him of it and are mad at Him for it, then we don’t understand who He is or who we are. Its devastatingly harmful for anybody to be angry with God, no matter what.

Question: Since God is slow to anger and patient then why, when man first sinned was His wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting?

Answer – R. C. Sproul:

Timeout! Didn’t we just have that question a second ago?

(we did, with a little nuance)

God’s punishment for Adam was so severe?

This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting holy God. After that, God had said “the day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die” and instead of dieing (thanatos) that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness, by pure grace, and had the consequences of the curse applied for quite some time, but the worse curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe? What’s wrong with you people? I’m serious! I mean, this is what’s wrong with the Christian church today. We don’t know who God is, and we don’t know who we are.

The question is, why wasn’t it infinitely more severe? If we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is, that’s the question. Isn’t it?