In this world it is easy to lose hope, to lose our bearings, to complicate matters, or even to drift away the narrow path God has called us to. Our hearts yearn to be intimately connected with our Creator and Sustainer, the Source of Life; who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Yet our hearts are easily distracted by ‘newness’ (which new ways are usually old heresies rehashed in today’s vernacular); and easily dismayed when we are not setting our minds on things of the Spirit (pause here to read and remember Romans 8:1-9).
The battle for our hearts and minds (our inner man, inseparable, not really two parts) begins in earnest when our Union with Christ is established.
“Purify your hearts, you double-minded!” (James 4:8)
He frees us from slavery to our lusts, our inordinate desires that have controlled us. Once freed, we still feel the old desires, but now are capable of recognizing how they are opposed to God’s glory, how they seek to master us and destroy us, and how we are not truly satisfied in or by those old desires. We still feel them, and now join the Holy Spirit in putting those things to death, crucifying them. It is hard, it sometimes feels impossible; many wish God would simply snap His fingers and make us godly.
Jesus calls us to learn from Him, to walk humbly with Him, yoked to Him. He teaches us, and commanded His apostles to be faithful teachers–and the elders of the Church have been commanded since to be teachers who raise up faithful teachers. Men and women are to teach the next generation what is good, to contend for the faith, to encourage one another to keep growing in grace and knowledge. Let us learn!
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11-14)
Until Christ takes us home, we will be in this battle of flesh vs. spirit; of the old man and its affections needing to be crucified (Galatians 5:24; Ephesians 4:20-24; Romans 8). And in the midst of growing in our new life in Christ, we will also be tempted away from the ordinary means of His blessing, of Communion with our Triune God. We will be tempted toward complicated means, new fads, or towards other religions.
There are some who will tell you “all truth is God’s truth, therefore all means of seeking God and His truth are from God.” These are those who will tell you it is ok to eat meat offered to idols, in the temple in which it is offered to strange gods, during the ceremony that honors and worships those strange gods. After all, they will say, those others are worshipping idols in this time and place but you are with them while worshipping to true God “in spirit and truth.”
Worshipping in Spirit and Truth does not mean that time and space do not matter in this sense. The God who created Time and Space wants us to come away from idol worship, from ungodly desires, from worldly pursuits, from that which wages war against our souls. Not just “in my mind” but in and with my whole being.
We no longer worship in the time and space allotted for temple worship in the Old Covenant, so does God care about a New Covenant time and space? We do not mix the beauty of the New Covenant with pagan rituals, or pagan ideas. We are not free to abandon the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
God has made plain how to commune, how to seek, how to enjoy. He created His world with an end in mind; He created each of us for His ultimate purpose. We can know that end, that purpose; He has spoken. It is in His Word, and blessed are those who remain in that Word! Blessed are those who hear and act accordingly! (see Revelation 1:3 & 22:7; and John 13:17 & 8:31-38)
The Ordinary Means
Ordinary means, though He is not ‘ordinary’! How does one approach a holy God? Or commune with a holy God?
We ought to be mindful that we commune with a holy God because of Christ’s mediation on our behalf. We do not commune with God apart from Christ our Mediator, who currently intercedes for us! We can glory in His cross, because we have been crucified with Christ, we now live by faith because He loved us and gave Himself for us. We are alive in Him!
Catechisms are timeless teaching tools, assisting us as we learn and as we pass on the faith to the next generations. They are based on Scripture, and point us to the Scriptures. The authors never intended to replace Scripture, rather from their love of the Word and desire to teach the Word have crafted ways to summarize and learn. Ordinary means, as discussed beautifully in the Westminster Confession of faith, include the Word, prayer, and the two sacraments instituted by Christ.
Q. 88. What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are, his ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.
Q. 89. How is the Word made effectual to salvation? A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.
Q. 90. How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation? A. That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation? A. The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.
In the Heidelberg Catechism, we learn of the Proclamation of Word and it coming alive in the sacraments:
Q 65. Since then we are made partakers of Christ, and all His benefits, by faith only, from where comes this faith?
Answer: The Holy Spirit works it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments. Ephesians 2:8; 6:23; Philippians 1:29; Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 4:11
Do not despise the ordinary means, or the small faithful Church gatherings (spend some time in Zechariah 4 and Revelation 1-5). Do not fall for those whose focus is on the presentation, and not the Word presented.
From Jonathan Edward’s lecture, Heaven, a World of Love:
They are those who, from the love that is in them, are, in heart and life, in principle and practice, struggling after holiness. Holy love makes them long for holiness…it has much to struggle with. In the heart in this world there are many opposite principles and influences; and it struggles after greater oneness, and more liberty, and more free exercise, and better fruit… (page 357, in Charity and Its Fruits, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust; 1996).
And, free for Kindle until Sunday: How do You Read Your Bible?