The Highest Court on Earth

... but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (II Cor 4:2).

For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you (II Cor 1:12).

Yesterday, my pastor spoke at my work about endurance in ministry from II Corinthians 4. Apart from the conviction and edification that always comes from his faithful expositions, he was right on target in applying v. 2 to our work:

The highest court on earth is your own conscience, it will either slaughter you or pat you on the back. Paul’s conscience was clear. Take some time to follow Paul’s use of “conscience” throughout his epistles, and you will see that the only defense against public criticism is the testimony of your conscience. Long-term ministry faithfulness is a result of winning the battle on the inside.

What a true and terrifying reminder for anyone, let alone a para-church organization. How do you measure success? Donor dollars? Expansion of staff and programs? Glad-handing from public officials? No... the testimony of your conscience.

Only John Murray-like "heroic honesty" will validate success (read, "faithfulness"). This is terrifying because "honesty" requires a heroism unheard of in today's squishy, evanjellybean world. Success, regardless of popular conceptions, is not a matter of accumulated numbers and programs. It is a matter of conscience and its verdicts should bring pause. Lord, help us to listen.

(For more about enduring in ministry from II Corinthians 4-5, see Certainties that Drive an Enduring Ministry, Part 1 and Part 2).

The Joy of the Faithful

Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:18).

If you have been paying attention recently, you know there is a global food crisis. Millions of people are now in need of food assistance. Even rice in Asia can no longer be assumed.

Our global distress is not far from that which Habakkuk imagined for himself. In verse 17, he wrote:

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls

Habakkuk writes of a time when everything assumed failed. The trees that you assume will bear fruit are barren. The fields that you assume will sprout food are dry. The cattle that you assume will help in the toil of farming and give protein are absent. Just insert your assumption and its lack and you will understand Habakkuk's sorrow.

Yet in this state of total collapse, Habakkuk confesses joy? Exactly. The Genevan reformers made this note in the first study Bible:

He declares in what the joy of the faithful consists, though they see ever so great afflictions prepared.

- Note on Habakkuk 3:18, 1599 Geneva Study Bible

Universally, we wrap our joy around the assumed rhythms of life. Birth. Growth. Health. Age. In our assumptions we forget that none of it is assured. There is only One who is constant. There is only one hope that is assured. There is only one joy unassailable... and it is not in this life. So when even the floor drops out from beneath us, our joy consists in Him.

The King Would Not Rule

... if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain (I Cor 15:14).

To assist your celebration and worship of the resurrected Christ this weekend, another comment from Piper, but dealing with the implications of the resurrection. Tomorrow, we will move past the ellipsis to uncover the purpose of the resurrection.

But there would be no gospel if Jesus had stayed dead… The King would not rule over a ransomed people if he were not raised from the dead. And if the King of kings is not ruling, there is no gospel. Jesus made clear that he would rise from the dead [cf. Matt 12:40; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; John 2:19], and Paul made clear that this was an essential part of the gospel: “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel” (2 Tim 2:8). Therefore, the living God, the Creator, the King of the universe has come in his Son, Jesus the Messiah, and has died for our sins and has been raised from the dead. All this is the gospel...

- John Piper, God is the Gospel, 29-30

But Because He Was Forgiven

But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I BELIEVED, THEREFORE I SPOKE,' we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you (II Cor 4:13-14).

Our apologies to both of the readers of The Prostrate Calvinist, as our regular posting schedule has been interrupted by some recent periodontal surgery which has left me, shall we say... a little down in the mouth.

However, this forced slow-down has also afforded me the time to read D.A. Carson's newest volume, a moving biography of his father, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. While there's much to commend in this book (including how the humility of his father gave us A Call to Spiritual Reformation, one of Carson's most celebrated volumes), the central melody is a transparent telling of how a very typical pastor persisted amidst discouragement, and even depression, in a rather unsung ministry.

When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paide by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man - he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor - but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.'

- Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, p. 148.

It was the certain, and amazingly simple, faith in the risen Savior that transformed a regular guy into a mighty servant of Christ. It is always faith in the risen Savior that compels the most ordinary, the most normal, and the most fearful of men to live - despite all appearances - the most extraordinary of lives.

No Easy Matter

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands - remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Eph 2:11-12).

Us Calvinist-types are occasionally criticized for being overly morose and off-putting with our harping on such doctrines as total depravity. I think, however, that Dr. Sibbes clues us into the spiritual benefit of remembering one's past and present sin,

It is a very hard thing to bring a dull and an evasive heart to cry with feeling for mercy. Our hearts, like criminals, until they be beaten from all evasions, never cry for the mercy of the Judge.

Again, this bruising makes us set a high price upon Christ. Then the gospel becomes the gospel indeed; then the fig leaves of morality will do us no good. And it makes us more thankful, and, from thankfulness, more fruitful in our lives; for what makes many so cold and barren, but that bruising for sin never endeared God's grace to them?

Likewise this dealing of God establishes us the more in his ways, having had knocks and bruisings in our own ways... Ungodly spirits, ignorant of God's ways in bringing his children to heaven, censure broken hearted Christians as miserable persons, whereas God is doing a gracious, good work with them. It is no easy matter to bring a man from nature to grace, and from grace to glory, so unyielding and intractable are our hearts.

- Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed.

As Paul set the glory of saving grace against the backdrop of the Ephesians' prior exclusion from God, so must we set our own minds on the sin which is ever-present in our lives. Walking in holiness is no easy matter and takes a little bruising along the way.