John Mahaffy writes:

Were you to visit Trinity Presbyterian Church (the congregation I serve) next Sunday morning, you would experience something rather unusual in our North American culture.

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Michael Brown writes:

Nowadays, ordinary is a bad word. In a culture that is constantly looking for the next big thing, who wants what is ordinary? We want the spectacular. We want what is bigger, better, and exciting. We desire extraordinary gadgets, extraordinary kids, and extraordinary lives. To feel validated as a person, one must not settle for what is ordinary.

Our approach to church is not much different.

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15 December 2013 — 10 AM Worship

15 December 2013 — 3 PM Worship

Who has never gotten themselves into such a jam that they needed someone else to get them out of it? Some borrow money, but later find themselves drowning in debt and in need of rescue.

The Bible says that we actually incur debt with God every time we break one of his laws, like “do not lie” or “do not steal” or “do not gossip,” etc. These things are so commonplace that we take them lightly. But God doesn’t! Because he is a perfectly just Judge, he has sworn to inflict the infinite punishment that these sins against him deserve. And because the debt of each of our sins is infinite, we can never pay it back, not even if we suffer for all eternity—which is exactly the punishment that God has sworn to inflict.

That’s why it’s such good news that at the event we commemorate each year at “Christmas,” the eternal Son of God—who created and upholds all things—added to himself a human nature (body and soul) and was born as Jesus. The Bible makes it clear that this was no promotion; it was a demotion. By doing this, the eternal Son of God was actually volunteering for a death sentence that wasn’t really his. Why then did he do it? Because his great love motivated him to sacrifice himself in order to rescue us. The meaning of the name, “Jesus,” can actually be paraphrased as “God-to-the-Rescue.”

How does Jesus rescue? First, Jesus rescues by what he did. He died a perfect death in order to satisfy the infinite punishment of God’s white-hot wrath that we each deserve for our sins. He also lived a perfect life in order to provide the righteousness that the holy God requires for us to enter his heaven. Jesus is the only one who was qualified to do this. That is because he alone is at the same time 100% God and 100% human in one person. This means that his perfect life and his perfect death were the life and death of the righteous God-man. This makes his obedience and sufferings infinitely valuable and worthy of God’s blessing. No wonder the Bible says that “No one comes to the Father except through [Jesus]” (John 14:6).

Second, Jesus rescues by what he does. The Bible says that because the life and death of Jesus were perfect, it was impossible for death to hold him. He was resurrected to life and put in charge of the universe. As a living Saviour, he is still able to rescue sinners, and is actively doing so. He takes the benefits of the rescue-work that he accomplished and gives them to people.

God says that if you entrust yourself to Jesus to save you, then he will make the perfect life and death of Jesus count as yours. God will count Jesus’ death as paying all your debt of sin in order to deliver you from hell. He will count Jesus’ life as performing all your duty of perfect obedience in order to earn you heaven. In a way, it’s like swapping places. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Have you experienced that swap? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:33). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Jesus is the Saviour you need.

~ Pastor Larry Wilson

John Calvin beautifully summarizes our duties in Christ in our several vocations:

Finally, let each one see to what extent he is in duty bound to others, and let him pay his debt faithfully.

For this reason let a people hold all its rulers in honour, patiently bearing their government, obeying their laws and commands, refusing nothing that can be borne without losing God’s favour [Rom. 13:1 ff.; 1 Peter 2:13ff.; Titus 3:1].

Again, let the rulers take care of their own common people, keep the public peace, protect the good, punish the evil. So let them manage all things as if they are about to render account of their services to God, the supreme Judge [cf. Deut. 17:19; 2 Chron. 19:6-7].

Let the ministers of churches faithfully attend to the ministry of the Word, not adulterating the teaching of salvation [cf. 2 Cor. 2:17], but delivering it pure and undefiled to God’s people. And let them instruct the people not only through teaching, but also through example of life. In short, let them exercise authority as good shepherds over their sheep [cf. 1 Tim. 3; 2 Tim. 2; 4; Titus 1:6ff.; 1 Peter 5].

Let  the people in their turn receive them as messengers and apostles of God, render to them that honour of which the highest Master has deemed them worthy, and give them those things necessary for their livelihood [cf. Matt. 10:10ff.; Rom. 10:15 and 15:15ff.; 1 Cor. 9; Gal. 6:6; 1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17-18].

Let parents undertake to nourish, govern, and teach, their children committed to them by God, not provoking their minds with cruelty or turning them against their parents [Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21]; but cherishing and embracing their children with such gentleness and kindness as becomes their character as parents.

As we have already said, children owe obedience to their parents.

Let youth reverence old age, as the Lord has willed that age to be worthy of honour.

Also, let the aged guide the insufficiency of youth with their own wisdom and experience wherein they excel the younger, not railing harshly and loudly against them but tempering their severity with mildness and gentleness.

Let servants show themselves diligent and eager to obey their masters—not for the eye, but from the heart, as if they were serving God.

Also, let masters not conduct themselves peevishly and intractably toward their servants, oppressing them with undue rigor, or treating them abusively. Rather, let them recognize them as their brothers, their co-servants under the Lord of heaven, whom they ought to love mutually and treat humanely [cf. Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-25; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-20; Col. 4:1; Philemon 16].

In this manner, I say, let each man consider what, in his rank and station, he owes to his neighbours, and pay what he owes. Moreover, our mind must always have regard for the Lawgiver, that we may know that this rule was established for our hearts as well as for our hands, in order that men may strive to protect and promote the well-being and interests of others. (Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.viii.46)

HT: Kevin DeYoung