Yours in Christ: Pastoral Letters from Resurrection, State College

You can see this gospel logic at work in Romans 8:30, where Paul writes that everyone God “predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” The heartbeat of the whole T.U.L.I.P. paradigm is the idea that salvation is the work of God from start to finish. Such a grace can never fail. This is summed up explicitly in Philippians 1:6—“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The same person who wrote “Rock of Ages” put it like this in another hymn:

(Augustus M. Toplady, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #434)

Grace-Based Action Point

God has called you to persevere in the Christian life. He has set before you a vision for the Christian life that involves great exertion, dedication, and endurance: to be able to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). But behind that call lies the grace-alone promise that it is God who saves, that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

So as you fight, as you run, as you persevere, let this be your song:

(Christian L. Scheidt, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #432)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

(Anonymous, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #427)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

In this third truth about God’s grace, we’re trying to get at the question, “What did Jesus’ death on the cross really do?” Two possible ways of answering this question have been explained using the word picture of two bridges over a river. One bridge is very wide, but it reaches only part of the way across. The other bridge is much narrower, but it spans the complete distance between the two banks.[1]

Some people believe that when Jesus died on the cross, He did so to create the possibility of salvation for everybody. That’s what the first bridge pictures. But when the Bible talks about Jesus’ death, it paints a picture much more like that second bridge. G.I. Williamson phrases the contrast like this: Did Jesus’ death go (A) “some of the way for all” or (B) “all of the way for some”?[2] The Bible’s clear answer is “(B)”—“all of the way for some.”

In John 17, Jesus is praying to God the Father just before He goes to the cross. In that prayer, He says, “I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (v. 9). Earlier he had told the crowds, “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37) and that “I lay down my life,” not for every human being, but specifically “for the sheep” (John 10:15). “I know my own,” Jesus said (John 10:14). That means that everything Jesus did, He did not for sinners in general as a faceless class. No, He lived and He died for a very specific group of sinners with names and faces, sinners whom He loved personally by name—His sheep, His own, given to Him by the Father.

Some people feel the Bible’s teaching about limited atonement seems too narrow, as though it somehow underestimates the real scope and power of God’s grace. But the reverse is really true. This doctrine means that when Jesus died on the cross, He was really dying for you, personally and specifically. His death didn’t merely make salvation possible for the human race; Jesus really saved his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Grace-Based Action Point

If the T in T.U.L.I.P. (total depravity) should make you humble, and the U (unconditional election) should make you grateful, the L (limited atonement) should give you great comfort. It should comfort you to think that on the cross, Jesus was dying for _______ (fill in your name), because He loved you; because the Father had given you to Him; because you are and always have been His sheep.

(Isaac Watts, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #341)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

[1] G.I. Williamson, The Westminster Shorter Catechism for Study Classes, 2nd ed., p. 109.

[2] See note #1.

(Augustus M. Toplady, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #426)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

’Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me hast cleansed and set me free;
Of old thou hast ordained me, that I should live to thee.
(Josiah Conder, Trinity Psalter Hymnal #428)

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

P.S. All quotations are from this edition of Communion with God.

P.S. All quotations are from this edition.

After describing the special communion we have with God the Father in love, John Owen goes on to describe the special communion we have with God the Son in grace (see 2 Corinthians 13:14).

This grace includes what Owen calls “purchased grace” (the blessings of forgiveness and acceptance with God that Jesus earned for us through what He did). But it’s not just that. Owen wants to focus our attention on what he calls “personal grace”—the grace that is found in Jesus Himself—who He is. Jesus came to earth “full of grace” (John 1:14). He is everything that the king described in Psalm 45 was meant to picture: “You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace” (Ps. 45:2a NIV).

As fully God and fully man, Jesus “fills up all the distance that was made by sin between God and us; and we who were far off are made near in him.” Whatever you lack, Jesus can give. “Is [a person] dead? Christ is life. Is he weak? Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Guilty? “Christ is complete righteousness. . . . Whether it be life or light, power or joy, all is wrapped up in him.”

Owen is especially interested in the biblical image of Christ as the church’s heavenly husband. This spiritual marriage union is a mutual self-giving where “Christ makes himself over to the soul . . . and the soul gives up itself wholly to the Lord Christ.” In this relationship, everything lovely about us is given to us by Christ. “He loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he loves us also into covenant, loves us into heaven.”

As our heavenly husband, Christ delights in us (“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you,” Isaiah 65:2b), and we respond by delighting in Him. (“Delight” Owen defines beautifully as “the flowing of love and joy.”) Christ values us as His treasured possession, and we respond by valuing Him above anything else in the world. Christ shows compassion to us, and we respond by giving ourselves in exclusive loyalty to Him. Christ showers us with His bounty of provision and blessing, and we respond with willing obedience. That is what communion with Christ in grace looks like.

Grace-Based Action Point

Owen challenges us to ask ourselves how our desire for Christ compares with our desires for other things. “What have you gotten by them?” Owen asks. “Let us see the peace, quietness, assurance . . . that they have given you?” Owen challenges us to fill our hearts instead with Christ. “You love him not, because you know him not,” which is why we spend so much of our lives “in idleness and folly, and wasting of precious time.” Owen asks the probing question: “Has Christ his due place in your hearts? Is he your all? Does he dwell in your thoughts?” So often we live as though we “prefer almost anything in the world” to thinking seriously about the glory and goodness of Christ. “What poor, low, perishing things do we spend our contemplations on!” when Christ’s “excellency, glory, beauty, depths, deserve the flower of our inquiries, the vigour of our spirits, the substance of our time.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

P.S. All quotations are from this edition.

Would you like to grow closer to God? When it comes to your relationship with God, do you feel like there’s a gap between your knowledge and your experience, your thoughts and your feelings? This month I’d like to share with you some gems from John Owen’s Communion With God, which is about how the Father, Son, and Spirit each draw near to you in a special way (Ephesians 2:18), inviting you into closer fellowship with God and helping you to grow in a deeper, living, heartfelt devotion to the Lord.

Owen starts with God the Father, focusing particularly on the Father’s “love—free, undeserved, and eternal love” (see, for example, 1 John 3:1, John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 13:14; John 16:27).  Some Christians know that Jesus loves them but aren’t sure whether the Father does. Instead, Owen encourages you to see the Father’s love “as the fountain from whence all other sweetnesses flow.” God the Father doesn’t love us based on our performance or because of anything good he sees in us. Rather, Owen says, the Father’s love “is the love of a spring, of a fountain,” and “every thing that is lovely” gets its loveliness from His love.

So how can this get lived out in your relationship with God? “Communion,” Owen says, “consists in giving and receiving.” So the first thing to do is to receive God’s love, and you do that “by faith.” “The receiving of it,” Owen says, “is the believing of it.”

The other half of communion is giving, and for a Christian that means loving God. Love, Owen says, is “an affection of union and nearness.” Proverbs 23:26 says, “My son, give me your heart,” and that is what God the Father is seeking from you, His beloved child.

Of course, when you single out the Father’s love for special attention, you shouldn’t forget how you come to know, feel, and experience that love—through Jesus! The Father’s love comes to you “through Christ,” Owen says, and in fact, when you return love back to the Father, you do that “through Christ” as well. Christ, he says, “is the treasury in which the Father disposes all the riches of his grace, taken from the bottomless mine of his eternal love; and he is the priest into whose hand we put all the offerings that we return to the Father.”

Grace-Based Action Point

In Psalm 116:7, David says, “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." “The soul gathers itself from all its wanderings, from all other beloveds,” Owen writes, “to rest in God alone—to satiate and content itself in him; choosing the Father for his present and eternal rest. And this also with delight.” So as you seek to grow deeper in your relationship with God, let your heart be “much taken up with . . . the Father’s love.” If you do Owen says you “cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared to him. . . . Exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see” God work in your heart “to delight in him.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

So often when our feelings are hurt, our desires ignored, our preferences crossed, our thoughts contradicted, our first instinct is to withdraw, to avoid each other, to disengage, thinking that by doing that we’re keeping the peace. But that’s not really peacemaking; it’s what one writer named Ken Sande calls “peace-faking.” God is calling us instead to bear with one another—to endure patiently and humbly each others’ differences and even each others’ sins.

If you want to grow in bearing with others instead of lashing out or retreating inward, start by considering how patiently your heavenly Father bears with you. He is “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6). “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). You are to bear with one another because your Father “is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35). The cross is the ultimate picture of Christ bearing with us—patiently enduring not only our sin, but even its consequences in His own body and soul.

Grace-Based Action Point

Proverbs 19:11 says, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” On a scale of one to ten, how willing are you to “bear with” other people’s differences, foibles, mistakes, and even sins against you? The Lord’s patience with you is off the scale, and He will help you grow in bearing with each other.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

In one of his letters, Augustine recalls an anecdote where a famous orator was asked for his top three principles for eloquent public speaking, and for all three he gave the same answer (“Delivery!”). Riffing off of this, Augustine says that on the path to Christian maturity, “the first part is humility; the second, humility; the third, humility.” This month, we are going to examine four more “one another” passages from the New Testament, this time focusing on the theme “Living With Humility.”

Recently, a dear friend who is a skilled gardener visited from out of town and offered to help us with some landscaping-related tasks while she was staying with us. To prepare for this, she had packed her yard-working clothes, and one morning she put on those clothes and went outside and starting doing all kinds of things around our yard that we either didn’t have the knowledge to do properly or hadn’t had the bandwidth to work on so far this spring. She didn’t just talk about helping; she intentionally brought and then put on the clothing she would need to do the actual work of helping. Wearing those yard-working clothes demonstrated that she had not come to our house to be served, but to serve.

1 Peter 5:5b says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” Peter uses the imagery of humility as an outfit that we are to put on—to run our feet through the pantlegs, our arms through the sleeves. You can tell a firefighter, a police officer, a nurse by the clothes they wear. Humility is to be the distinctive clothing of a Christian. Humility is not just an accessory to the Christian life, something you can pick up or put down, bring with you or leave at home, depending on your personal preference that day or the worthiness of the people you’re interacting with. It’s the uniform of a Christian that you are to wear at all times.

The night before the crucifixion, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet—that profound illustration of self-denying servanthood that Jesus wanted to stick in his disciples’ hearts forever. Do you remember how John describes it? It says, “He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist” (John 13:4). Jesus literally clothed Himself with humility. And really, this was an illustration of Jesus’ whole mission. In the incarnation, God the Son clothed Himself in our human nature. He clothed Himself with humility. And that’s why the people of Christ are given this uniform and told to put it on: “Clothe yourselves, all of you,with humility toward one another.”

Grace-Based Action Point

The Lord may not be calling you literally to change your clothes to serve others. Then again, that could be exactly what’s needed! When you dive into the work of Christian body life with self-forgetful gusto, there’s no telling what you might find yourself wearing! But whether your way of loving your brothers and sisters requires a change of clothes or not, don’t forget to dress yourself each morning in this spiritual outfit that’s been handed down to you from the Lord Jesus: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

When we say the Bible is clear, we don’t mean that every part of the Bible is easy to understand. In 2 Peter 3, as Peter is talking about the letters of Paul, Peter acknowledges that “there are some things in them [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”

When we say the Bible is clear, we also don’t mean that every person understands it just as easily as everybody else. Sometimes God’s word has the effect of hardening people’s hearts against the truth (Isaiah 6:8-10; Mark 4:10-12). As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Even among Christians, variations in age, maturity, learning, and giftedness make a real difference—not everybody is the same.

So, not everything in the Bible is equally clear, or equally clear to everyone (WCF 1.7). But when we say the Bible is clear, here’s what we do mean: The Bible’s central message is clear. The Bible’s teaching about how to be saved through faith in Christ because he lived, died, and rose again for sinners is clear. The Bible’s explanation of God’s character, His law, and His grace is clear. All of these basic aspects of the Bible’s content are repeated over and over in the Scriptures, and anyone can understand them without extraordinary effort or expert help.

In Isaiah 55:10-11, the Lord says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout … so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” If God means to communicate His truth to His people, nothing is going to stop Him from doing so—not even our ignorance and the hardness of our hearts. God has given us a clear word, and His message gets through.

Grace-Based Action Point

One early church writer said that the Bible is like a stream where a lamb can wade, but an elephant can swim. Even the wisest and most mature Christian could spend a lifetime studying the Bible and never get to the bottom of it—there is always more to learn. But any of us can pick up the Bible, read it, and understand what God wants us to know and love and do. There is much you can gain from listening to learned students and teachers of the Bible, but don’t wait for an expert to tell you what the Bible says. Read it for yourself! You may understand it better than you think you will, because the Bible is God’s word, and God’s word is clear.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

The Bible is not the only way God has revealed things to people. Romans 1:19-20 explains that “what can be known about God is plain to” all people, “because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

There is also a sense in which everybody knows something about God’s law, even without reading the Bible. Romans 2:14-15 says that when people “who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires … they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.” Their conscience “bears witness” inwardly either to “accuse” or “excuse” them. Even people who have never heard of the Bible have an inward sense of right and wrong that corresponds to some degree with the law of God.

This revelation of God’s existence, glory, and law in nature and in our hearts we call general revelation. As Romans 1:20 says, this general revelation of God is enough to leave people with no excuse for rejecting God and disobeying His will. However, this general revelation is not enough to show people the way back to God. It is enough to tell us we are guilty. It is not enough to tell us how to be forgiven.

That is why the Bible is necessary. The Bible shows us that God is gracious, that He has moved towards sinful, broken, disobedient people in love, and that He has provided a way for us to be forgiven and reconciled to Him through His Son, Jesus. Nature doesn’t tell us anything about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. People don’t naturally “just know” that by repenting and turning to Jesus in faith they can have their sins blotted out and receive the gift of eternal life. We only know this because God has made it known to us in the Scriptures.

The Bible also tells us a lot more about God’s will for our lives than nature does. It comes naturally for people to know that things like murder, stealing, and adultery are wrong. But only Scripture can tell us how God wants us to worship Him and what a life truly pleasing to Him looks like. It was the living experience of the Lord Jesus that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

Grace-Based Action Point

Does your life show that you believe God’s word is necessary—that it’s something you cannot live without? Let’s seek to cultivate hearts like Job’s, when he said, “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12, NKJV).

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

If the Bible is God’s word, that also means that people should believe everything it says and do everything it commands. This is what we mean when we say the Bible is “the rule of faith and life” (Westminster Confession of Faith 1.2). We know that we’re “to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism #1). But how? We learn that from the Bible, “the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him” (Westminster Shorter Catechism #2) by teaching us “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (Westminster Shorter Catechism #3).

Grace-Based Action Point

The prophet Amos felt deeply the awesome responsibility of encountering the word of God. “The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8). When you pick up your Bible and read it, God Himself is addressing you, telling you the truth about Himself, about yourself, and about the world, and calling you to faith and loyal obedience to everything He tells you. Is that the way you treat your Bible? Do you live your life under its authority? The lion has roared. The Lord God has spoken. What are you going to do about it?

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Welcome to Yours in Christ, Pastoral Letters from Resurrection in State College, Pennsylvania. I’m Pastor Zach Simmons, and this is letter number 13, “Into Your Hands,” the fifth in a series of five letters about Jesus’ words from the cross. For more, visit resurrectionopc.org/letters.

Dear Resurrection,

Luke 23:46 records the last words of Jesus before His death: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” We might be inclined to imagine Jesus speaking these words in a subdued undertone, but Luke says He called them out “with a loud voice.” What a striking contrast with that other great cry to His Father from the cross just a few minutes before, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). In both cases, Jesus was quoting from the Psalms, first from Psalm 22:1, then from Psalm 31:5, but the emotions and spiritual realities on display in each case could not appear more different. Together, those two moments on the cross show us several important things.

First, they show us how full Christ’s heart was of the word of God during His final moments of suffering. As He bore our sins and suffered the ultimate penalty for us, so full was His heart of the Scriptures that the Psalms formed the spiritual framework for His thoughts and feelings. More particularly, Jesus saw His life and death as the unique fulfillment—the goal and completion—of all the history and prophecies of the Old Testament.

Second, these two Psalm quotations help us understand the wide-ranging spectrum of Christ’s experience on the cross. On the one hand, Christ was enduring the wrath of God against the sins of all His people, experiencing the total abandonment and darkness and terror of God’s just condemnation that every sin and every sinner deserves. At the very same time, Jesus knew that He was doing His Father’s will; that His body and soul were being upheld and strengthened in the midst of His suffering by the Holy Spirit; that the sacrifice He was offering was acceptable to God; and that on the other side of these moments of agony lay the unspeakable reward of resurrection and glory. Christ knew that God the Father was trustworthy, and that not even the cross could snatch Him out of the Father’s hand (John 10:29).

Finally, these two cries from the cross provide in Christ a pattern for the Christian life. The Christian life is a cross-shaped life, where we become like Jesus in His death even as we experience the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10). Understanding these twin prayers of Jesus can help us learn to cry to God out of our desperate need when we feel forsaken and alone, while at the very same time entrusting ourselves to Him, believing His promise that the joy set before us (Hebrews 12:2) will cause this “light and momentary affliction” to give way at last to “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Grace-Based Action Point

Trust and anguish fit together perfectly in Christ—trust without presumption, and anguish without despair. In fact, it was out of Christ’s anguish that His faith cried out all the more ardently. As you walk through the cross-shaped Christian life, it is right for you to cry out to God in the words of Psalm 22, but always accompanied by Psalm 31: “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame…. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Welcome to Yours in Christ, Pastoral Letters from Resurrection in State College, Pennsylvania. I’m Pastor Zach Simmons, and this is letter number 12, “It Is Finished,” the fourth in a series of five letters about Jesus’ words from the cross. For more, visit resurrectionopc.org/letters.

Dear Resurrection,

John 19:30 says, “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’” So, what exactly was “finished” when Jesus spoke those words from the cross just before He died?

The first thing that was “finished” was Jesus’ fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures that prophesied and pointed forward in various ways to His crucifixion. John repeatedly says that the things Jesus experienced happened to fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures (John 13:18; 15:25; 17:12; 18:9, 32; 19:24, 28, 36, 38). In verse 29, Jesus had just been given sour wine in response to his cry of thirst in verse 28, echoing and bringing to completion the experience of David in Psalm 69:21, where David says of his own enemies that “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” Jesus taught that the whole Old Testament was written in anticipation of his life and work—not only the direct Messianic predictions of the prophets, but also the images of the sacrificial system and even the historical experiences of Israel and its leaders (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). In his final suffering and death, Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and history accelerated and intensified, and in His final moments, He knew this Scripture-fulfillment aspect of His suffering was complete when He said, “It is finished.”

A second thing that was “finished” when Jesus spoke these words was His perfect obedience to God the Father on our behalf. “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), submitting His human will to the divine will of His Father (Matthew 26:39), and fulfilling the charge He had been given (John 10:18). Here, just before entrusting His spirit into His Father’s hand, Jesus affirmed that He had fought the good fight and finished the race (2 Timothy 4:7).

A third thing that was “finished” (all except the fast-approaching experience of death itself) was Jesus’ atoning suffering for sinners. On the cross, Jesus had finished enduring the full weight of God’s wrath that our sins deserved, an innocent victim vicariously bearing the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6), a Good Shepherd laying down His life for His sheep (John 10:11).

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we;
Spotless Lamb of God was he;
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
(Philip P. Bliss, “Man of Sorrows! What a Name,” TPH #352)

Grace-Based Action Point

There is nothing you can add to the sufferings of Jesus to make you more acceptable to God. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.… God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (Romans 8:1, 3). Never forget that Jesus’ work for you is a finished work, and you cannot add any of your work to it to make it better. His sacrifice cannot be repeated. His obedience cannot be supplemented. His grace cannot be improved upon.

Lifted up was He to die,
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in heaven exalted high;
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Welcome to Yours in Christ, Pastoral Letters from Resurrection in State College, Pennsylvania. I’m Pastor Zach Simmons, and this is letter number 11, “I Thirst,” the third in a series of five letters about Jesus’ words from the cross. For more, visit resurrectionopc.org/letters.

Dear Resurrection,

John 19:28 says, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

Thirst is a maddening sensation. Think of the sailor in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, becalmed at sea, “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” “And every tongue,” he says, “through utter drought, / Was withered at the root…. There passed a weary time. Each throat / Was parched, and glazed each eye. / A weary time! a weary time!”

The hours Jesus hung upon the cross were a weary time, a weary time—His body wracked with the fiercest torture Roman justice could deploy; His spirit wracked with the soul-agony of the wrath of God against His people’s sin. And as this careening torment neared the terminus of death, one more searing ray of anguish exacerbated all the others: the parched dryness of utter thirst.

Thirst is an important Old Testament image for the desperate spiritual craving of the soul. Think of Israel in the wilderness and the water from the rock. Think of David and his reflections on his wilderness experience in Psalm 63: “O God, … my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). In Jeremiah, the Lord laments that “my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

That Jesus should thirst on the cross is profound because in His ministry He identified Himself as the giver of the very living waters Jeremiah spoke of. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,” he told the woman at the well, “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” How could it be that the source of living water could come to thirst so desperately on the cross?

Jesus thirsted so that you might drink. Christ is the rock in the wilderness from which the waters flow (1 Corinthians 10:4), but only because that rock was struck (Exodus 17:6) so that you might be spared.

Grace-Based Action Point

In Revelation 21:6, the risen Jesus promises, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” For those who endure the “great tribulation” of this life, Christ promises a future where “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore…. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water” (Revelation 7:16-17).

The next time you feel the relief and satisfaction of a long draft of pure, cool water, consider: what are you soul-thirsty for? What are you counting on to slake that thirst? Are you hewing out broken cisterns for yourself that can hold no water? Or are you thirsty for Christ, who thirsted on the cross so that He might give you the fountain of living waters welling up in your heart to eternal life?

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Welcome to Yours in Christ, Pastoral Letters from Resurrection in State College, Pennsylvania. I’m Pastor Zach Simmons, and this is letter number 10, “Today, You Will Be with Me in Paradise,” the second in a series of five letters about Jesus’ words from the cross. For more, visit resurrectionopc.org/letters.

Dear Resurrection,

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus spoke these words from the cross to one of the two criminals who were crucified with him. One of them had started railing at Jesus, saying that if He really was the Christ, He should save himself and the two of them. The other criminal admitted that he had been justly condemned, that he was receiving what his crimes deserved, but that for Jesus it was different—Jesus had done nothing wrong. Then he turned to Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus’ reply tells us five very important things. First, it tells us that there is life after death. Death is not the end of anyone’s conscious existence. Death rends the soul from the body, but your soul will then experience immediately either the glory of Christ’s gracious presence or the torment of His just judgment. What Jesus promised this man is inconsistent, for example, with the Adventist doctrine of “soul sleep”; “today,” Jesus said, “you will be with me in Paradise.”

Second, this episode illustrates what makes the difference in this life between a future in heaven or hell. It’s the same for you as for those two criminals: your attitude towards Christ. The first criminal was selfish, arrogant, and defiant. The second was humble, trusting, and repentant. And humble, trusting repentance is what Jesus still is looking for today.

Third, Jesus’ promise tells us that there is hope for the worst of sinners. The sin of the repenting criminal did not disqualify him from the grace of Jesus. Jesus underwent the most debasing kind of death alongside the most contemptible of felons so that no sinner might ever be driven to despair, thinking, “My sin is too bad or too big for Jesus to forgive.”

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day
and there have I, as vile as he, washed all my sins away.
(William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” TPH #340)

Fourth, Jesus’ reply tells us that on the cross, Jesus’ heart was tender toward sinners—ready to forgive, ready to receive, ready to welcome sinners to join with Him in the glory He was about to enjoy. Jesus’ suffering did not embitter Him towards sinners like that man. It did not embitter Him towards you. It only deepened His love for you.

Finally, this scene reminds us the best part of heaven is being with Jesus. The best part of the promise Jesus gave that man was not that “today you will be in paradise,” but that “today you will be with me.”

Grace-Based Action Point

Sometimes people use the story of the thief on the cross as an excuse to put off trusting in Christ. You must never do that. Death comes suddenly, and if you’re counting on getting serious about turning to Christ later, you almost certainly never will. Today is not too late for you, but tomorrow may be. Now is the time to humble yourself in trusting repentance, and embrace in faith the hope that for those who die in Christ, death is the gateway to being “with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

P.S. This song by Andrew Peterson reflects profoundly on Jesus’ words from the cross by intricately layering them together. I'd encourage you to give it a listen!

Augustine’s contribution to later theology is vast and varied; both Reformation theology and Roman Catholic theology look back to Augustine as a foundational voice. Reflecting on this, B.B. Warfield argued that Augustine’s teaching about God’s grace (which was beloved by the reformers) was inconsistent with his teaching about the sacramental system of the church (which informs Roman Catholicism). In fact, the Reformation, Warfield argued, was in a sense “the triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the church.”

However one assesses that particular claim, one thing is certain: many of the doctrines we treasure, including the Reformation’s emphasis on God’s sovereign grace towards helpless sinners, have been passed down to us through Augustine’s hands. As Charles Spurgeon once said, “The doctrine which I preach to you is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.”

Grace-Based Action Point

If you read one Christian classic this year (and I hope you will!) consider making it Augustine’s Confessions. You will find there a deeply human character, warts and all. You will also find a brilliant mind and a warm heart challenging you to love Christ more deeply and devote yourself to Him more completely. And from the very first paragraph, you will be reminded that God made you for Himself, and that your heart will find no peace until it rests in Him.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

P.S. For a short biography, read this section from Philip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church, volume 3. For more, read Henry Chadwick's The Early Church starting here (p. 136 in the print version). To read something by Athanasius himself read On the Incarnation (online here).

Welcome to Yours in Christ, Pastoral Letters from Resurrection in State College, Pennsylvania. I’m Pastor Zach Simmons, and this is letter number 6, “Vibia Perpetua,” the second in a series on four heroes from the first four centuries of Christian history. For more, visit resurrectionopc.org/letters.

Dear Resurrection,

A rare and gripping first-hand description of an early Christian’s final days before her martyrdom is found in the words of Vibia Perpetua, who was executed for her faith around the year 202 A.D. in the North African city of Carthage. As you would expect, most early martyrdom accounts are based on reports by outside observers. In this case, though, Perpetua wrote down her own story from prison, and her account leaves off just days before her public execution. In doing this, she left behind a sort of journal of her experiences and reflections during that final imprisonment, giving us a window into her thoughts and feelings as she prepared to face the wild animals in the city amphitheater.

The most moving part of Perpetua’s account is the very beginning, where she describes her father pleading with her to give up her faith, not for her own sake, but for the sake of her baby boy. You can imagine the intense inward conflict she must have felt as she was still nursing this child who was going to have to grow up without her if she did not give in. Her feelings come across as very real, not contrived or unrealistically serene. When she remembers being “taken into the dungeon,” she says, “I was very much afraid, because I had never felt such darkness.” She also says, “I was very unusually distressed by my anxiety for my infant.”

But listen to Perpetua’s response when her father tries to persuade her to deny Christ: “‘Father,’ said I, ‘do you see, let us say, this vessel lying here to be a little pitcher, or something else?’ And he said, ‘I see it to be so.’ And I replied to him, ‘Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’  And he said, ‘No.’ ‘Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.’”

If you read Perpetua’s account (and I hope you will), you will notice an unusual approach to spirituality, much of which is not biblical and I’m not encouraging you to emulate. She seems to have been part of a group of Christians influenced by a teaching called Montanism (the early church father Tertullian was also influenced by this group). Montanism emphasized having visions and ecstatic experiences, and that is reflected in the way you see Perpetua processing her final days of life. But that should not take away from our admiration and gratitude for her courage and example of faithfulness to the death under the intense pressure of her family’s pleading and her own love for her son.

Grace-Based Action Point

It’s easier to imagine standing up for Christ when the only harm would be to yourself. But what if being faithful to Christ means that your parents will suffer, or your children? Perpetua’s story reminds us of the great cost of loyalty to Christ, and it invites all of us to examine how seriously we are taking those hard words of Jesus about loving father, mother, son, or daughter more than we love him (Matthew 10:37-39). At the same time, though, Perpetua’s courage also beautifully illustrates what Jesus says next: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

“Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?” Those are the words of a man named Polycarp, when the governor told him he could be set free if only he would swear by the fortune of Caesar and reproach the name of Christ. This was sometime in the 150s A.D.; we don’t know the exact date, but we do know that Polycarp was an old man who for many years had been a leading overseer of the Christian church in the city of Smyrna. In fact we have very good reason to believe that Polycarp personally knew the apostle John.

Christians for the first two hundred years after Jesus lived in a pluralistic society. Many ideas and religions were tolerated in the Roman empire as long you didn’t interfere with the official religion of the state or draw people away from their local religious practices. Christianity, of course, did both. The early Christians sought to be good citizens, but they could not join in with key aspects of social life in their culture that to most people were just routine. This put the early Christians distinctively out of sync with their contemporaries. Their unwillingness to participate in Roman civil religion and their rejection of local practices that formed the bedrock of the culture around them—these were unforgivable offenses. In a pluralistic culture where supposedly “anything goes,” true Christianity never does.

The early persecution of Christians was not always driven by the emperor; there were often local outbreaks of violence from the people Christians lived among. That’s what was happening in Smyrna in the 150s. Polycarp’s death was the culmination of this particular local outbreak, and the memory of his death has endured not only because it marked a generational turning point for the church (historian Philip Schaff calls him “the last witness of the apostolic age”) but especially because of the outstanding courage and composure and heartfelt devotion to Jesus that this old man displayed when he had one last chance to save his own life by simply conforming with the mainstream culture around him.

“I have wild beasts at hand…. I will cause you to be consumed by fire,” the governor said. But Polycarp simply said, “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil…. You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour … but you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment…. Why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will.”

Grace-Based Action Point

Take some time to read the story of Polycarp’s martyrdom. At points it may make you scratch your head—the history seems to have been embellished at points. But don’t let that distract you from the bones of Polycarp’s story. Like Polycarp, you and I live in a pluralistic culture where we are increasingly out of sync with the world around us. So often, it is so easy simply to conform to avoid some personal cost. When you feel that pressure, you need the memory of people like Polycarp, who with courage and conviction paid the ultimate price in service to the one who paid the ultimate price for them.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

So, how do Christians stir each other up? You might think at first of a football team getting all pumped up, like that “left side, strong side!” scene from Remember the Titans. But of course, what Hebrews is talking about isn’t something that depends on lots of sweat and testosterone. It depends instead on God’s people coming together in God’s presence to have God’s word mobilize them by the power of God’s Spirit to believe God’s gospel and go out to do God’s work. The very next verse in Hebrews 10 says how we’re to “stir up one another”: by “not neglecting to meet together” (Hebrews 10:25).

Grace-Based Action Point

Corporate worship is not just a collection of individuals; it’s a place for our individual embers to combine into a flame that is hotter and brighter than the sum of the parts. When we sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” we are not just speaking to the Lord; we are also “teaching and admonishing one another” (Colossians 3:16). So, the next time you come to worship, don’t just think individually. Instead, think, “I’m here (in part) to stir up my brothers and sisters in Christ, and for them to stir up me to love and good works.”

Let’s grow as a congregation in stirring each other up to love and good works. Help each other stay committed to obedience (Hebrews 3:13) by speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and living out the truth in action (1 John 3:18) whenever the brother or sister next to you needs to be admonished or encouraged or helped (1 Thessalonians 5:14; James 5:20).

Any coal by itself, no matter how hot, will go out if it is alone. God has thrown you together in the church to keep each other warm, to maintain that flame of love for God that the Holy Spirit has kindled in your heart. So don’t expect each other to go it alone. Go get a gospel poker, and “stir up one another to love and good works.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Yours in Christ is a series of pastoral letters from Resurrection OPC in State College, Pennsylvania (resurrectionopc.org/letters). This is Letter #2, "Bear One Another's Burdens."

Dear Resurrection,

Has anyone ever told you, “God will never give you more than you can handle”? It’s a very common idea. People mean very well when they say it. The problem is—it’s not true! In fact, the Scriptures often teach the exact opposite—that your sin, your sorrow, your suffering—it all is too much for you to handle (2 Corinthians 1:8-11; 4:7-10). And that is precisely the reason you need the Lord, and one another. 

This is why Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” That verse assumes that the burdens each Christian carries are not designed to be carried solo. 

Yes, each one of us is accountable, personally responsible for our own choices and commitments. In fact, Paul goes on to say exactly that in the next three verses (Galatians 6:3-5). We’re each accountable directly to God and can’t blame other people for our sins and shortcomings.

But Christians also live in community, and we are called to be deeply invested in each other’s lives. What happens to one of us has a real impact on all of us. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26). And that’s not just a fact; it’s a duty. We must “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). 

The responsibility to bear one another’s burdens flows from the very heart of the gospel—the way that Christ bears our burdens. Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” When Christ became man, He was stooping down to take on His shoulders a burden that was too heavy for you to carry: the burden of your slavery to sin and condemnation under the wrath of God. On the cross He bore that burden for you. When He calls you to bear one another’s burdens, He’s calling you to join Him in His work, to do for one another something like what He has done for you. 

Grace-Based Action Point

The Christians you know are bearing many kinds of burdens, and God is calling you to stoop down and put your shoulder under their load, and lift. 

1) There’s the burden of suffering. Someone you know is debilitated by chronic pain, discouraged by bitter disappointment, weighed down by some form of mental anguish. How can you put your shoulder to the load and bring relief? 

2) There’s the burden of sorrow. The Lord wants you to be His messenger of consolation and peace, bringing to bear the comfort of Christ in words and actions of compassion. 

3) There’s the burden of sin. If you know someone is struggling to overcome temptation, be willing to wade into the awkwardness and help “restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). 

4) There’s the burden of ordinary life. I guarantee you know someone who is overwhelmed by the basic shape of their everyday responsibilities. Where can you help to shoulder the load?

This week, look around you, and let’s get to work. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Simmons

Yours in Christ is a series of pastoral letters from Resurrection OPC in State College, Pennsylvania (resurrectionopc.org/letters). This is Letter #1, "Encourage One Another."

Dear Resurrection,

This is the first in a series of letters I’m planning to write and send weekly to our church family this year. Each letter will be a bite-sized reflection (about the length of a Tabletalk devotional) on some aspect of Christian faith and living. This year, I plan to cycle through four big subject areas (Christian Community, Christian History, Christian Spirituality, and Christian Doctrine), with a new particular theme each month. To start with, our theme for January is going to be “One Anothering, Part 1: Investing in One Another,” looking at four of the New Testament’s many “one another” instructions for living together in the church.

At the end of one year and the beginning of another, many people take a close look at their personal finances. You look back over the past year and think, where did we do well, where did we overspend, where did we give? Are we on track towards reaching our financial goals?

And here’s a big one: do I need to make any changes to my investments? Am I investing the right amount in places that are likely to give me a good return in the long run?

As you think about adjustments you’d like to make in 2021, don’t just think about how to invest your money better for retirement. Why not ask the question, “How can I invest myself—my time, my energy, my gifts—more effectively in the kingdom of God?”

Let’s start with something very simple:.1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

When I look at Resurrection, I see this command in action all over the place—people helping and comforting and praying for each other. This was especially true last year, as all of us walked together through some very discouraging days. Encouragement is a real strength for Resurrection. It’s also an area where all of us can grow. That makes it a good place to begin.

The Greek word for “encourage” is “parakaleo.” It’s closely related to the name parakletos that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit in John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7 (translated “Helper” in the ESV). The para- part of the word suggests the meaning “beside.” When you encourage someone, you are coming alongside that person to impart spiritual strength, spiritual courage, which you have received from Christ through the Holy Spirit in the first place.

The Greek word for “build up” is “oikodomeo.” It’s where we get our word “edify,” which literally means “build.” The imagery is of a person building a house, carefully using your God-given resources, skills, and opportunities to reinforce the spiritual structure of another person’s heart with the help and strength that comes from Christ.

Grace-Based Action Point

Conduct a new-year review of your personal “investment” in God’s people. Ask yourself:

1. What is a specific way I encouraged someone at church in the past year? Is this a regular and intentional part of my Christian life?
2. How did someone encourage me in the past year? How might I do the same in the year to come?
3. Who do I know needs encouragement? (How would I know?) And what is one specific action I can take this week to encourage someone who needs it?

Remember, Christ is the great encourager and builder of the church. As you draw your spiritual resources from Him, He will give you opportunities to encourage others. Resolve this year, by His grace alone, to invest yourself in this: “Encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”