UNTIL HE BRINGS ME HOME

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:24-26

a new quarter/semester commences

along with new year resolutions, job searches, research position hunting, fresh notebooks, commitments to killing certain sins, bible reading plans, uninstalled games, plans for GPA-raising, and promises to ourselves to spend less money, study harder, hit the gym, and cut all dessert in the dining hall.

Praise God for new beginnings, indeed!

But somehow, few things change. I’m not just referring to the 5th week silent emptiness of the gyms. Or to the fact that once we rationalize ditching a single lecture, going to class seems henceforth optional. Or to the huge desire to procrastinate (and the correspondingly huge number of YouTube videos on our subscriptions pages).

Because beyond—and at the root of—all that is our humanity; the depravity, sinfulness, weakness, inefficiency, idolatry, flesh—they’re still there.

So while clean slates are wonderful evidences of grace and provide great opportunities, we need something far more powerful and substantial to answer our true problem.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. -Romans 6:5-12 (ESV)

The gospel is everything! Christ, our king and savior, has made atonement for the sinful elect by his sinless life, sacrificial death at the cross, and victorious resurrection. And by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, we are new creations. Thus we have new affections—no longer chasing after the things of the world, but by grace pursuing greater knowledge of and obedience to God. We are reconciled to him. We were dead and hellbound in our trespasses. Now we’re justified and saved, via Christ’s sovereign work at the cross.

Indeed, I can’t think of a better new beginning! Or, in fact, any other that matters.

I am glad if this new quarter/semester/year finds you resolving to do better than you did in the last. Resolving is good; JEdwards did a lot of it. But let’s keep, above all, depending on grace to obey Christ, reminding ourselves of his gospel, and building on the solid rock of his Word. 

Winter Quarter, 2012, let’s go. Soli Deo gloria!

  1. changwinston posted this