Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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God Means It

God Means It

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A common misunderstanding about baptism is thinking it’s a big sign pointing towards the amount of faith in the one being baptized. But since we can’t read men’s hearts, we’ll never know what degree of faith is present when someone is baptized.

This apparent problem has led some to ask what we should do if someone is baptized but doesn’t mean it, or, from another angle, if a child is baptized in infancy can they really mean it? The reply of Scripture is that regardless of whether the one baptized means it or not, God does (Gal. 3:27, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rom. 6:3, 11). When we’re baptized, God reckons us as His own, He promises all the blessings of union with Christ, and He warns against unbelief.

Baptism isn’t an opportunity to showboat how great our faith is. It’s a sign of how great God’s promise is. A baptized person may not be old enough to grasp it yet, they may go through a season of doubting that promise, or old age may cause the mental recall of their baptism to fade. But God does not forget His promise. In short, when we baptize someone, we aren’t highlighting whether they mean it or not. We’re proclaiming that God means it. We’re simply commanded to trust Him when He says He means it (Mk. 16:16).

When God Hates the Sacraments

When God Hates the Sacraments

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Many churches have embraced informality as the primary adjective of corporate worship; some give off the vibe that spontaneity is the only fruit of the Spirit. This is like trying to stay warm in February using a box of poppers leftover from the July 4th. But in our pursuit to have a well-ordered service of praise to our Father, we should know that there is a yawning pothole which has broken the axle of many before us. 

That pothole is to think that as long as we get the outside of the dish clean, then the inside of it doesn’t matter. The liturgical order which our service follows is derived from Scripture, and is thick with meaning. It’s hard work. And because of that, it is all the more likely that we will pat ourselves on the back if we stick the landing.

It’s no contradiction to say that the God who gave the sacraments also hates them. God hates the sacraments when all the stuff is tidily arranged, but the hearts receiving them are a disordered clutter of dead faith. God doesn’t want a table full of bread and wine and hearts empty of joy in Christ. Will God be pleased to find all the right elements present, but true repentance nowhere to be found? A table with a spotless and perfectly starched white tablecloth surrounded by people clothed in the tattered rags of self-righteousness arouses God’s wrath.

As Jesus insisted, you must be born again. You must take this meal in faith. Your salvation isn’t because you sang all the right notes, stood at the right time, or can precisely outline the doctrine of the real spiritual presence. No. You are saved because the Spirit gave you a new heart to treasure in this simple sign of bread and wine the body and blood of Christ which was given for you.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

It All Belongs to Christ

It All Belongs to Christ

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We often emphasize what baptism promises for us––the forgiveness of sins, the washing our conscience clean, the gift of a new heart. But we ought also to foreground what baptism promises for Christ.

Baptism is a promise that God gives faith, salvation, forgiveness, and resurrection to those in Christ. But it’s also a promise that God gives everything you are and have to Christ. Your hands, your feet, your silver, your gold. It’s all is His. Jesus lays claim to it all as your King and Sovereign. 

These parents are baptized saints, Christ promises all that His redemption purchased for them, but Christ also lays claim on all that is theirs: their child included. This is why we baptize the children of believing parents.

These are citizens of the Kingdom of Christ, and their child enjoys all the glorious blessings which are promised in the Gospel, and must hear all the warnings of the severe curses which accompany unbelief. Christ has laid claim to this home. This man, his wife, their child, and all their possessions belong to Christ and are to be rendered up to the King for His glory and service. This is God’s promise to us and to His Son in the sign of baptism.

So welcome, covenant child, to Jesus Christ.

Slave or Royalty

Slave or Royalty

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Looking to your personal activity log as the basis of your peace and assurance is a recipe for either self-righteousness or self-pity. But looking to your track record is thinking like a slave rather than royalty. Slaves to sin think they need to get enough good works on the scales in order to outweigh their evil deeds. Slaves live in perpetual terror, and so scurry to appease their masters, their idols. Those idols never soothe their guilty conscience, but gladly sear it. Thinking like a slave swaps out the living God for dead idols. It creates a false security; “if only I do enough good, then my idols will be pleased with me.” Or it creates an endless fear of the whip; “I will never be free of these chains.”

But, those who are in Christ are joint-heirs with Him who is the crowned King of the world. You are no longer slaves to sin. You are no longer on the hamster wheel of self-determined morality. You no longer owe the slave-driving idols another drop of blood. All your sins are not only forgiven, but God has promised to forget them, and sink them to the bottom of the deepest ocean on Jupiter. Your acceptance into God’s presence is not based on your works, but on Christ’s blood which clothes you like a garment. 

To put it another way, both self-righteousness and self-pity are false gospels. One promises glory if you look the part of a moral, clean-shaven citizen. The other places the anvil of guilt on your shoulder and gives no relief. The Gospel of Christ is that your guilt is forgiven, and you are clothed in His glory. When we vacillate between self-righteousness and self-pity our testimony is either that of vain-glory or paralyzed fear. Is it any surprise that our prayers for reformation are ineffectual?

So have you fondled your good works with smug self-righteousness? Or have you moped in worldly sorrow over your sins? Slit the throat of both self-pity and self-reliance. Look to Christ. Stop thinking like a boot-licking slave. Stop living like a whipped dog. The Gospel is your manumission papers. You are free. You are the Emperor’s beloved brother and sister, and He now sends you forth to conquer your remaining sins in the power of the Spirit.

Always remember: your joy and assurance aren’t rooted in how well or how badly you did this week. You aren’t forgiven by being righteous enough, feeling badly enough, or anything other than faith in the saving blood of Jesus.

Homesick at Home

Homesick at Home

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Chesterton once described feeling homesick even at home. He puts his finger on a truth that every human knows in their bones. There’s a restlessness, a desire, a longing in the human heart which is always there, just out of reach. It lingers in our peripheral vision, and the moment we try to look directly at it, it dances away. We experience a pleasure and yet want that joy to linger just a moment longer, but off it goes like a mist.

This desire drives us to hunt for the pleasure that will satisfy. While mankind is fallen, and our desire has been deformed and misdirected, still it is there. After the binge. After the bender. After the porn. After the cut. After the sex-change operation. After the gossip. After the trophy is lifted. After the award is won. After the glowing profits report. After the investment gains. After the divorce. After the feast. After the rave. Desire lingers, still longing.

The Christian is one who knows that the desire that aches even after enjoying some earthly pleasure, is because we haven’t imagined the joys which are laid up for us in Christ. The homesickness we feel even at home is because we’re not home yet. We’re pilgrims seeking a kingdom whose Builder and Architect is the Lord.

The Lord’s Supper is a meal that is a promise. It holds out a promise that the elusive joy is real. But we won’t find the joy in the stuff. Our thirst won’t be slaked, our hunger won’t be sated, our nerve endings won’t be overwhelmed with everlasting pleasure by anything in this world. The Christian Gospel proclaims that the joy is there. The Joy has a name. The Joy is a person. Joy is found in the presence of One who died, was buried, but rose again, and now reigns eternally.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

Grip the Sword

Grip the Sword

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Throughout the Gospels and in the Epistles are frequent reminders to watchfulness. Christians are to be known by our love (Jn. 13:35), but the adjective of watchful should hang around the neck of the Christian. By watchfulness over your own soul and the soul’s of those under your care, you demonstrate Christian charity.

But being watchful is wearisome. Anyone who’s had to pull an all-nighter knows the magnetic pull of the pillow, the siren-song of the sheets, beckoning to yield to the weight of your eyelids. It takes force of will to keep alert and not give way to the weariness. In warfare, one of the most vital duties is that of the night watchman. To fall asleep on the watch was punishable with death.

Now, God doesn’t ask you to be superhuman. He provides for our daily bread; or we could say our daily rest. After all, He’s the one who blessed one day a week as a day of spiritual and physical refreshment. But in the battle against sin, the Christian does not have the luxury of sheathing his sword.

There isn’t a “break” from God’s command to put to death the varmints of jealousy, lust, drunkenness, anger, and idolatry that try to breach the wall of your life, your family, your church, your city. He summons you to put on the armor of light, and do battle. He calls you to follow the example of Eleazar who once smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and then his hand clave unto the sword, and yet he still fought on.

Have you wearied of being hospitable? Have you grown tired of having such strict entertainment standards? Have you folded your hands in indifference about the discontentment you harbor towards your job, your wife, your kids? The Word of God to you is this, “Be watchful.”

Remember, God knows that we often grow weary in the fight. That’s why He sent us the Holy Spirit, who does not grow weary and gives us strength to stay steadfast, to confess when we fail, and to comfort our hearts with the assurance of God’s great mercy and forgiveness.

Selfish Sheep

Selfish Sheep

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In 1991, a flock of sheep spied some tasty green grass in another field. They somehow managed to get through the fence and began to eat, and eat, and eat, eat, eat. The shepherd discovered it too late, and the sheep’s stomaches had exploded. All 83 sheep were dead from their own selfishness.

Sheep will eat until they kill themselves. Sheep are foolish, and need their shepherd to carefully watch over what they eat and how much. Without our Lord Jesus shepherding over us, we would become the most selfish sheep ever. We’d want all the toys, all the things, all the stuff, and we might even eat the other sheep to get all that good stuff.

In other words, don’t be selfish. Trust that the Shepherd will give you everything you need. Be grateful for everything He gives. Also, be grateful for how your parents and pastors care for you, because they are shepherding you to make sure you don’t eat until you die of selfishness! 

Ben Zornes