From Christmas Gifts to the Gift of Christmas

Is it wise to give Christmas gifts?

Personally, I don’t think it is wise. Once commenced even on a minor level, the dangers are great to push Christ out of Christmas.

There is, of course, something beautiful about gift-exchange. But I think it wisest to choose another time, so as not to impinge on the centrality of Christ on Christmas day.

Our ministers often open a service with Revelation 1:4-5a. Why do they stop in the middle of this verse, and not speak its conclusion: “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen”?

Blessings (or salutations) which follow the votum (“Our help is in the Name of the LORD who made heaven and earth”) at the commencement of corporate worship, as well as benedictions at the close of a service, have traditionally included references that embrace a Triune Cod. This is true also of Revelation 1:4-5a: the Father (v. 4b), the Spirit (v. 4c), and the Son (v. 5a) are all included. Hence there is no need to proceed further into verses 5b and 6 from the perspective of church liturgy, since the blessing of each Person of the Trinity has been pronounced.

This is not to say that the beautiful conclusion you quote may not be added or would not be appropriate. Church liturgy is flexible in matters such as this. But what is fundamental is the trinitarian emphasis in all blessings and benedictions.

Many members in our congregations urge young people to become educators in our Christian schools. Wouldn’t it also be worthwhile to teach in public schools where we could impart something to those who have not received religious instructions as we have?

We certainly would not dare deny the worthwhileness of a Christian public school teacher. He/she may certainly do considerable good in terms of communicating moral teachings and exemplifying a Christian walk of life.

Nevertheless, we must also remember that no education is irreligious. At root, the “non-God,” public educational system tends to spawn humanism. And humanism is certainly alive and well in North America today as the fastest growing “religion.”

Indeed, the current debate about public school textbooks throughout North America is a vivid example of the antinomy between Christianity and humanism as two viable lifestyles. Hundreds of complaints are being filed in North American courts by parents who are finally awakening to the fact that many “of the texts their children read are biased against their Judeo-Christian heritage” (Ted Gest, “The textbook tug of war heats up,” U.S. News and World Report, November 17,1986, p. 29). Jordan Lorence has rightly stated that this controversy is “a clash of two world views” (ibid).

Consequently, it would seem that the Christian public school teacher’s witness to the truth could not but be strait-jacketed to some degree by the educational system in which he/she is imbedded. Certainly, the public school teacher is hampered by law from praying, reading/discussing Scripture, and underscoring that the heartbeat of every subject is Jesus Christ. In terms of concrete instruction, the central thrust of all true education — Jesus Christ and Him crucified — must be forfeited.

In one sense, therefore, Christian public school teachers need a double portion of God’s grace in order to submit to the non-Christian structure of their governmental employer while retaining the Christian truth they embrace. In this sense, we may greatly admire those who have the courage and grace to be salt in the earth and light on the hill within the system. Would to God we had more such Christian public school teachers!

In sum, we wish the Christian public school teacher “Godspeed” and divine blessing in his/her difficult undertaking, but must maintain, generally speaking, that the most effective way to reach others is not through the public school system where God is relegated to a nonentity. Rather, we believe most teachers will do more for the church, and ultimately society as well, by propounding Christian truth daily and directly to children. For these children, by God’s grace, may one day serve as salt and light themselves in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. There is no substitute for the hourly presentation of the gospel in the classroom. Particularly with the present need in our Christian schools for teachers — a need which will multiply, humanly speaking, in years to come as schools expand both in grades and quantity — the call to teach in this setting of positively setting forth the truth, must have prominence.

What does Ishmael mean?

God will hear. Or, he will hear God.

/ have heard that there is a connection between Christ’s resurrection and our observing the first day of the week for worship rather than the last. Please comment.

There is at least a fourfold connection: First, the Lord commanded this change of the day of worship by His example of arising on Sunday and repeatedly meeting with His disciples on the first day of the week (Mt. 28:1; Jn. 20:26; Acts 20:7, etc.). This example was followed by the New Testament church from its earliest period. The Epistle of Barnabas, one of the earliest post-New Testament Christian letters, states this: “We keep the eighth day with joyfulness; the day also in which Jesus arose from the dead.”

Second, this change was foretold in the Old Testament to be a fruit of Christ’s resurrection (cf. Ps. 118:24 and Ez. 43:27).

Third, the Old Testament Sabbath on Saturday pointed to the Messiah to come and to the need for fulfillment. The New Testament Sabbath on Sunday points back to the heaven-confirmed, resurrected Christ, who has come and fulfilled all the conditions of salvation.

Fourth, the Old Testament Sabbath commemorated the creation of the material universe by the Father; the New Testament Sabbath commemorates the validation of the even greater work of spiritual re-creation wrought by the Triune God, and victoriously ratified by the Father on Easter morning. (For resurrection as work of the Father, cf. Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:32; Rom. 4:25; Eph. 1:17-20; 1 Pet. 1:3; of the Son, Jn. 2:19, 10:18; Rom. 1:4; Heb.2:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; of the Holy Spirit, Rom. 1:4, 8:11).

What does it mean to experimentally learn how to be instructed from a “dead” Jesus to a “living” Jesus?

When God first works spiritual life in His elect, they are convicted of actual, and ultimately, of original sin. Particularly when convicted of original sin, they learn that their entire heart is corrupt, and they stand in need of a fullorbed Savior. By stripping away all of self and self-righteousness, the Holy Spirit leads them to Calvary’s cross to find their only hope and life in a dying Jesus. When Christ crucified is revealed to their hearts, they are filled with joy — especially for two reasons: First, that in Christ God’s justice is satisfied, for the Father Himself is pleased with the sacrifice of His Well-Beloved; and second, that this Savior has died on the cross precisely for the kind of hell-and death-deserving sinner that they are. With this joy in hand, Calvary-witnessing sinners often think never to have to be in spiritual need or to die to themselves again.

Nevertheless, in the ongoing way of sanctification, God teaches His people that they need more than a dying Jesus on Calvary for their justification. They also need a living Jesus, an Almighty Lord, at the right hand of the Father, to keep alive within them what He has merited for them on Calvary. With all their experiences, God’s people are not able to maintain themselves. They learn to need not only a humiliated, dying Jesus for their justification, but also an exalted, living Jesus for their sanctification.

With all their experiences, God’s people are not able to maintain themselves. They learn to need not only a humiliated, dying Jesus for their justification, but also an exalted, living Jesus for their sanctification.

Put another way, they first learn to find their life in a dying Jesus on Calvary, but later learn to find their death in a living Jesus at the Father’s right hand. That is, they learn through the ongoing poverty of their sanctification efforts to die to themselves, and to surrender by grace their own identity into the hands of their living Lord and Savior. Hence their only comfort in life and death is not in belonging to themselves, but in belonging to their faithful, living Savior, lesus Christ.

It is in this vein that God’s people may confess, in Rutherford-like language, when attacked by Satan and numerous enemies: “Oh, my enemies, you are at the wrong address! I don’t hold my life in my own hands, but I die daily to myself and live only out of the living Jesus. Would you want to destroy me, you must first destroy my Master, for He has captured my heart and run away to heaven with it. And He holds it in His safe-keeping.”

Oh, my friends, especially in times of grievous trial, the living church learns to love and embrace the living, exalted Christ! Then God’s people learn as never before the beautiful truth expressed in our Lord’s Supper form: “whither [at the right hand of the Father] all the articles of our faith lead us.”

AIl? Yes all. All the doctrines of truth, for true believers travel, as it were, from eternity, through Bethlehem’s manger to the Cross of Calvary, and ascend back via their hearts (wrought upon by the Spirit) to the right hand of the Father to end wholly in Christ Jesus, and through Him, in God Triune.

My dear friends, have you learned the sweetness of Calvary’s cross, but even more, the superlative preciousness of the Father’s right hand? Have you learned experientially that Jesus makes things well at Calvary, but keeps things well at God’s right hand? And has this keeping become, by grace, even a greater wonder for you than this making? Then you know something experientially of what it means to be instructed from a dying Jesus to a living Jesus.

Oh, may God grant us His unspeakable Gift this Christmas season to the praise of His glorious, sovereign grace!

May a living Jesus be the Gift of Christmas for us! For, is there, dear child of God, a better Christmas gift than an exalted Jesus at the right hand of the Father who “ever liveth to make intercession for us”?

Forward questions intended for this department to: Rev. I.R. Beeke, 2115 Romence St., N.E. Grand Rapids, Ml 49503 Questions will be published anonymously.

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