Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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The Wiring Behind the Sheetrock

The Wiring Behind the Sheetrock

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From the beginning, this world has been a world in which resurrection was a possibility. Before God created the heavens & earth, there was nothing. Nothing, of course, but the Eternal, Triune God, dwelling in the uncreated light, life, and joy of His own being. But then by His Word, all created things came to be. First there was not life, and then there was life.

Resurrection isn’t an anomaly in this world. Rather, resurrection is the wiring behind the sheetrock. It was hidden for ages & generations. However, the entire arc of OT history was anticipating the moment when God would throw the switch to illumine the whole world with the light of His life.

When Christ rose, by the Father’s power, the lights began to come on. The darkness receded as the power of the Gospel brought this light into every corner of the world. God Himself had come, taken death by the throat, drug it into the grave, and emerged three days later with eternal light & life to bestow on all those who come to Him by faith.

The resurrection is both the focus & vindication of our entire faith. Because of this, your faith in Christ isn’t a matter of “privately held religious beliefs.” Your Christian witness isn’t like going into a pitch-black cave full of deaf people, and attempting a sign language Gospel presentation. Rather, it’s like taking a 10,000-watt spotlight into the darkness, and those with eyes to see will see and come to the light of Christ. 

Genuine faith in Christ isn’t capable of being tucked away in a corner. Your faith, given to You by God’s grace, is a light which cannot be extinguished; because its source is the Faithful One who Himself died to death to live forevermore. Resurrection is the story God’s been telling from the very beginning.

The world order was overthrown the moment the Father raised the Son from the grave. This Gospel undoes all the sham-righteousness which mankind had concocted. Mankind cannot proceed with our business as usual. We cannot continue dealing in envy, lust, unjust weights & measures, false witness, theft, blasphemy, and idol worship. All our sin, shame, and guilt was left in the tomb. Though it never made sense before the resurrection, now in light of it our sin is exposed as a double folly. In light of this truth, we must cease living as if the resurrection hasn’t happened, and that we still need to either appease God with our filthy rags of faux-righteousness, or avoid Him through the indulgence of our twisted desires. May God grant that we might ever live in the light of the resurrection, the light which scatters all our darkness away.

And so, here is the Gospel, the simple, glorious Gospel: Christ took your sins into the grave, and when He emerged they did not. And so, you are clean, you are free, you are alive. Have you confessed your sins in true faith? Then, do not fear, do not be afraid, the Word of God to you is this, your sins are forgiven through Christ.

Hope not Wish

Hope not Wish

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We often speak of hope the wrong way. It’s not uncommon to hear Christian parents say of their children, “We hope they grow up to follow Christ.” That sort of use of the word hope is more akin to wish. However, that isn’t how Scripture speaks of hope. 

Christian hope is certitude. It’s the rope of faith tied to the anchor of God’s promise. So, when we bring our children to be baptized, we’re to do so in evangelical hope. Hope that is assured that God’s promise is sure and steadfast. Hope that God will grant saving faith to those who are baptized into His Triune name. Hope that isn’t wishful thinking, but is true faith in God’s promise to be our God, and the God of our children, and the God of our children’s children to a thousand generations and beyond. That is our certain hope.

So welcome covenant child to Jesus Christ…

The Gospel isn’t a Riddle

The Gospel isn’t a Riddle

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The Gospel is not a complex riddle to be solved. It isn’t an answer that can only be found after going to college and taking a class in Advanced Physics. It isn’t a hidden knowledge found only by a quest to a remote mountaintop. It is this, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

This baptism is a sign of that Gospel promise. The water is like a crown, which shows everyone that this one belongs to the promise of Jesus. Jesus promised that those who believe in Him will be saved from their sins and receive everlasting life, because they belong to Him. This is what is confessed when anyone is baptized: they belong to Christ, and Christ’s promise belongs to them.

The Crescendo of Our Worship

The Crescendo of Our Worship

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The whole of our service deliberately leads up to this moment. This communion meal is the crescendo of a glorious symphony. The grandest crescendo you can recall is like a dollar store penny whistle compared to the culmination of this worship service culminates. We’re raised up into glorious union with God, a great host of saints and angels. This meal is the whole point of our worship.

Imagine attending a London Philharmonic Orchestra performance. But imagine you’re deaf. You’d see the instrumentalists wiggling around in an odd way with their various funny-looking pieces of wood, string, and metal. You’d see the rest of the audience caught up in the rapture. You’d see the vocalists with mouths agape. You’d see the delighted applause at the end. But to you, it would all be a seemingly random set of senseless motions.

Taking this meal without faith is like that. You see all the motions, but hear none of the melodies. You can observe it all, but without faith you do not partake at all. 

Our worship thunders up to this point. This is the trumpet blast, the timpani roll, the payoff for all the motifs. It all comes to this head. In the Lord’s Supper, God assures those who’ve heard His call, who have come in Christ––with the clean water of baptism upon their brow––that He is theirs, they are His, and nothing can separate them from the Father’s love. 

You’ve been called to worship. You’ve been invited to confess your sins. You’ve witnessed a baptism and been reminded of yours. You’ve heard God’s Word proclaimed to you. And now,  in this simple sign of bread & wine, you’re assured that all the promises of forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God are given to you. So, if you hear the crescendo, it’s because you’ve been given ears to hear it.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

Gospel Basics Then and Now

Gospel Basics Then and Now

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We sit here, 500 years downstream from our Reforming brethren, and celebrate and proclaim the same Gospel which turned the world topsy-turvy then. Your salvation, from top to bottom, is by grace through faith alone.

It isn’t because you came to church, sat up straight, and nodded piously along. It isn’t because you did a sufficient amount of good deeds this week with a healthy dose of humble brag. It isn’t because of which family or nation you were born into.

We come to this meal and proclaim here that God saves sinners. Proud sinners. Craven sinners. Corrupt sinners. Self-righteous sinners. Hypocritical sinners. Sinners of every stripe are invited to come. But because of what is proclaimed here in this meal we know that we’re no longer known by our sins, we’re no longer known as sinners. Instead, we’re known by the One in Whom we’ve trusted. He has taken away our soiled rags of sin, and clothed us with white robes of His righteousness. 

And we receive all this by faith. We receive it all with hands He gave us. We behold it all with eyes which He opened. We taste it with mouths He made new. We delight in it with hearts which were once stone, but are now alive. By this faith we see that everywhere we turn is gift after gift after gift of God’s kindness to repentant sinners, even the faith which lets us see this is itself a gift.

God gives you this gift of forgiveness and everlasting life, and by that first gift of faith you receive it. That’s the Gospel the Apostles, Church Fathers, Reformers, Puritans, and Evangelists have proclaimed. We enjoy it once more in this memorial meal, and proclaim the great redemption truth: by grace you have been saved through faith.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

Jesus in Your Heart

Jesus in Your Heart

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One of the best truths of the Gospel is that Jesus lives in our heart. What we mean by this is that He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and so that from the inside out He can change us more and more into looking and talking and acting like Jesus.

But it is important to know HOW Jesus lives inside of us. It isn’t because of your last name, or because your Grandpa was a pastor, or you have enough quarters in your piggy bank, or because you tell really funny jokes, or because you have lots of verses memorized.

Jesus lives in your heart by faith. That means that you don’t look at how good you are, but you look to His promise to forgive your sins as the only way to be saved from the punishment of your sins.

When Baptism Burns

When Baptism Burns

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You can have saving faith, and not have received the physical sign of baptism; and of course, you can be physically baptized and not have faith in what your baptism is a sign of. But the cliché that baptism without faith is just “gettin’ wet” isn’t quite the full picture. Rather, baptism without faith is like those moments in the Lord of the Rings where the pathetic creature Gollum has the elven rope tied around his neck. In short, the very nature of the rope makes it a burning torment to him.

The grace of faith may arise before or after the sacrament itself. But if the grace of faith never arises, the sacrament is like a heavy chain which you can’t be free of. The bright glory promised in baptism will turn out to be fiery wrath if faith is absent. Because in baptism you’re buried and risen with Christ and you enjoy this by faith in the operation of God which raised Jesus from the grave (Col. 2:12). So the charge to those who have been baptized––or are about to be baptized––your faith in Christ and your baptism into Christ must go hand in glove.

Ben Zornes