Lux Lucet

If UC had been of a mind to lose, they could have found lots of good excuses to blow the game.  They were playing on the road in front of a huge and enthusiastic crowd.  They were playing against a team coached by one of the best coaches in college football.  They were playing against the most storied program in all of college football.  Oh, and by the way, Notre Dame has a deep and talented pool of players.    

UC could have fainted in the third quarter and gone on to lose.  No one would have been terribly shocked if they had lost.  And not a few people would have congratulated them on winning a great moral victory, on their great effort, etc.  You know, the sort of things people say to cope with a disappointing loss.

But they didn’t faint.  They didn’t fold.  They didn’t choke. 

They won.

There is, I think, a lesson for us Christians in that.

Here in America in the Year of Our Lord 2021, we have an illegitimate president who is very obviously working as hard as he can to destroy the remaining political and economic liberties of the American people, to destroy our national sovereignty, to destroy our constitutional order, and to replace it with an antichristian, oligarchic, Satanic, globalist system, in which those at the top will lord it over everyone else, ordinary people will own nothing, and civil rights will cease to exist other than those the elite technocrats graciously decide to grant for the moment.

Put another way, Christians in the West are facing a day of adversity of the sort most of us likely have never faced. 

Not that dealing with authoritarian and corrupt governments is a strange thing for Christians.  The Lord’s people have had to face this sort of thing throughout the history of the church going all the way back to the Old Testament.  Think of Israel’s suffering under Pharaoh or during the Babylonian captivity.  Or consider the Christians under the Caesars and the great cruelty inflicted upon them.  Consider the Reformers who suffered at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church-State.  If you haven’t read it, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is a good place to start.           

They all, in their own way and in their own time, faced the day of adversity.  And they didn’t faint.  Rather, they triumphed through Christ who strengthened them. 

But if you’re an American, or an Australian, or a citizen of some other Western nation, there’s a good chance that this is the first time you’ve faced the sort of virulent anti-Christian, authoritarian hate that is rapidly becoming the norm. 

It’s fair to say that you and I, we’re facing our own day of adversity. 

So, what do we do?

For starters, we know what we don’t want to do.  As the proverb says, if we faint when facing our day of adversity, our strength is small.

It’s doubtful that any of us would like it said of us, “your strength is small.” 

That’s a bit like saying we’re spiritual choke artists.

And no one likes being called a choke artist. 

And yet, isn’t one of the great themes of Scripture the notion of our own inability?  Didn’t the reformers, in agreement with the Bible, teach that we’re dead in our trespasses and sins and unable to do anything to save ourselves?      

Yes, they did.

But then that raises the question, how do we reconcile what Solomon says in this proverb with the idea of our own inability?  After all, isn’t Solomon, when he writes about those who faint in the day of adversity having little strength, teaching a sort of pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps theology? 

In short, no.  That’s not what he’s teaching. 

Scripture does not contradict Scripture.  That’s one of the basic principles of the Reformation, a rejection of logical contradiction. 

So when we come across a passage that possibly could be read as if it were urging us to run the race in our own strength, we need to consider it in the context of what the Scriptures teach on a subject.  Sometimes this is called the analogy of Scripture.  A better term for it is “comparative exegesis.”  That is, we consider what the whole Bible has to say on a topic and then square our understanding of a particular passage with the Scripture’s overall message.

Here’s what John Gill has to say on Proverbs 24:10

[S]uch who are truly gracious are not indeed at such times wholly without strength; they are in some measure helped to bear up; but yet their sinkings and faintings show that they have but little strength: they have some faith that does not entirely fail, Christ praying for it; yet they are but of little faith; they have but a small degree of Christian fortitude and courage; there is a want of manliness in them; they act the part of children and babes in Christ; they do not quit themselves like men, and much less endure hardness, as good soldiers of Christ, as they should.

Put another way, Gill understands this passage as referring to those, who while possessing genuine faith, have it only in small measure and are of little help to themselves or to others when things get tough. 

Important too is to consider this passage in the context of what the passage quoted above from Hebrews says about running the race.  The Author of Hebrews tells us to run the race “with endurance,” but note what he says about the source of that endurance.  He tells us that we run the race with endurance, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” 

And how do Christians learn to “look unto Jesus.” The Author of Hebrews goes on to tell us that it’s through facing adversity.  Following his exhortation to his readers to “run the race with endurance,” the Author of Hebrews goes on to introduce the ideas of facing hostility from unbelievers and chastisement from the Lord.   Interestingly, the Author of Hebrews quotes Proverbs to make his point.  “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

This chastening, we are told, is unpleasant at the time, but later, “it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

Peter tells us that we shouldn’t be surprised when we encounter difficulties.  He writes, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”

It’s interesting that Peter would write this.  Peter, who himself had famously boasted of his own strength and then went on to famously faint in the day of adversity by three times denying Christ, came to understand that his own strength was small.  But by looking unto Jesus, not long after he and John were able to stand before the Sanhedrin and give a bold Christian testimony.    

When answering King Saul’s objection to his decision to fight with Goliath, David argued that he had successfully killed both lions and bears while working as a shepherd to defend his flock.  David said he was confident that this training prepared him to face Goliath.   

Just as the Lord trained David to face Goliath by teaching him to fight lions and bears, so too does he teach his people today to look unto him by sending “lions and bears” their way. 

Nothing that takes place in this world occurs apart from God’s bringing it about.  He is sovereign and nothing takes place apart from his will. 

These present difficulties we face – whether it’s lockdowns, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, deplatforming, threats of loss of employment, charges of being insurrectionists and domestic terrorists, slanderous charges that we’re hate-filled bigots of one sort or another – all these chastisements are opportunities not only to exercise faith in Christ but to grow as Christians. 

I don’t know what the future holds for any of us.  From the looks of things, it appears likely that the tyranny we’re facing is going to grow worse rather than better.  Therefore, looking unto Jesus and not to ourselves, let us not faint in the day of adversity but rather run the race before us with endurance.

Let us quit ourselves as men.    

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