Covenant Presbyterian Church

Two important legal decisions were handed down last week. In a highly publicized case, the United States Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s law permitting doctor-assisted suicide. Since the Federal law in question neither specifically disallows the dispensing of medicine to bring death nor intends to restrict existing state medical laws, Oregon’s law must be upheld, according to the Court’s reasoning. The Alabama Supreme Court released convicted rapist and murderer, Renaldo Adams, whose crimes landed him on death row. The jury took less than thirty minutes to recommend his execution. He committed these atrocities as a minor, and as the Supreme Court generally frowns upon administering the death penalty in such cases, he was released from death row. The Alabama Chief Justices cited Roper vs. Simmons, a Supreme Court decision from last year, that justified its decision by citing "evolving standards of decency."

Legal positivism, the opinion that law is created by society, reflects its ever changing mores, and is unchained from any objective standard, creates legal and societal chaos. Morality is trumped in favor of legality, with morality being left behind, disregarded as a cultural relic. Christians rightly criticize legal positivism and its attendant injustices and absurdities, but criticism is insufficient. We must understand. Our current legal paradigm will progressively erode every foundational value of western culture, which was at least generally Christian at its zenith. That is the goal of its most ardent defenders. Any stopping places along the way are purely arbitrary, opportunities for the forces of evil to regroup and plan their next attack. There should be no surprise here. A war does not end until one side is driven from the field or surrenders. A truce in our cultural wars will only signal the capitulation of conservatism - an admission of defeat.

Several Christian observations are in order. First, we must remember Jesus’ parable of the wheat and tares. The world is God’s wheat field, and upon it he has unfurled the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as his standard and power of salvation. But the tares are still growing and will not be completely rooted out until Jesus’ final coming. Tares will flourish prolifically when the wheat field is not carefully tended by the church - when the tares are not being converted to wheat by God’s grace - when the church does not confront the tares with the weed killer of the gospel - when preachers inform the tares that God "loves them as they are" provided they pray a prayer and try to look a little like wheat. And when the tares proliferate in a corner of the wheat field, they endeavor to take over. Tares are like the weeds in your lawn - one or two can multiply to thousands in a brief period of time unless they are dealt with properly. In our nation, the tares are multiplying because the harvesters are not watching the field with kingdom-oriented prayer, tending the field with the pure milk of the word, and are actually affirming the tares by trying to appease them. Therefore, we get legal positivism, legalized suicide, released murderers, and pornography on demand. Though there will always be tares, you cannot give ground to them by retreating within the four walls of the church, trusting in the Republicans, or practicing family isolationism. You must confront them, expose them, and use the gospel sword to overcome them.

Second, God has definitively made foolish the wisdom of the world in the cross of Jesus Christ. The wisdom man cannot obtain through his own understanding, the paradise of God’s favor to which he cannot return by his own religiosity, the power to overcome his sinful propensities that he has lost, God has revealed in Jesus Christ, in him alone. These blessings are granted to men and nations only when they submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, personally and culturally, as Savior and Lord. And since these blessings are to be found in Christ alone, God continues to expose the foolishness of all who seek them apart from faith and submission to Jesus Christ. With respect to our nation, laws granting civil union status to perversion, permitting doctors to assist suicide, releasing death row inmates, these are God’s judgment upon his. He is exposing our foolishness. He would not be God and Christ would not be King if he did not. While it is therefore painful to live in such times, they are necessary to defend the kingdom of Jesus Christ. God will not allow fools to be wise, rebels to enjoy his blessings, humanists to enjoy liberty and peace. The history of the world is a powerful testimony to God’s continual warfare against the folly and impotence of man. That we are witnessing it should not surprise us. It should cause us to rejoice in his providence, repent of our sins, and cling more closely to his word. This is our wisdom in such times.

Third, we must remember that God is working out his purposes for our particular nation, and his purpose is to exalt his Son and advance the kingdom of grace. We long to see in our day God send revival and reformation to our churches and nation, but this is not the only way God works out his purposes. The branches on the tree that do not bear fruit are purged, gathered, and burned. This applies to formerly Christian nations and apostate churches as well as to individuals. And as our Savior purges from his tree the false, he also prunes the true. He sanctifies them through adversity, creates within them more fervent longing for his kingdom, and purifies their affections and faith. The apostasy we are witnessing in our nation will be of great benefit to the faithful church of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it will experience firsthand the need to reject the world’s wisdom - whether liberal theology leading to compromised churches or humanistic politics leading to the demise of western liberty. And as the pressures of both come to be felt in our own lives, we will be led to depend more completely upon the power of God, that it is the zeal of the Lord of hosts that guarantees the victory of Christ’s kingdom over all its enemies - not our political machinations, hubristic and inflated ideas of our self-importance, or our intellectual arrogance that a few refutations of humanism will rout Christ’s enemies. This is God’s battle, and our best policy is greater dependence upon his faithfulness, submission to his providence, and earnest prayer for his intervention.

Fourth, we should be thankful for the labors of believers whose hearts beat with the desire to see our nation reformed again by the Word of God. We should be making the same efforts in our own little corner of the vineyard. But our goal must be far more than a pseudo-return to Constitutionalism or the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2008. Our goal is to see our nation bow before the Savior in faith and repentance. And as this begins with our friends and neighbors, perhaps the most important thing we can do is to evangelize with zeal and ardor, pray with consistency, and let the light of a sanctified life shine to all within the sphere of our influence and friendship. This may seem a small thing, but it strikes me as an indisputable truth that this is the method by which the early church overcame her enemies, persecution, and political irrelevance. Top-down politics did not defeat the Beast of Rome, and it will not defeat the imperialism of the United States. The earliest believers spoke the truth in love, manifested the power of the truth in their lives, and submitted to the seemingly harsh providences through which their loving Lord purified them and simultaneously defeated their enemies. Rome’s mockery of Christ and his followers, moral degradation, popular materialism, and military imperialism laid the foundation for its historical oblivion. Our nation has many of the same traits and will experience the same end, unless it returns to the Lord in faith and repentance. The future of Christianity in the west is secure if faithful believers will utilize our divinely empowered weapons. They will destroy every citadel of unbelief raised in opposition to Jesus Christ. They do not require political recognition, academic respect, or popular approval. They only require the blessing of Jesus Christ, which he always extends to those who dedicate their lives to him and live in obedience to his word.

Finally, this is not a time for despair or surprise. It is a time for faith. It is likely that we will see many more court cases and legislation that will effect the further erosion of western liberty, civil justice, and religious freedom. But we also see Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, possessing all authority and power, always doing what is best for the protection of his people and extension of his kingdom. The events unfolding around us are evidence that he is reigning, that he will never bless rebels with peace or liberty. And as they cannot touch him, inspired by the evil one, they will endeavor to attack his people. Stand boldly for his truth. Expose the folly of unbelief. Lead loving, serving lives of light and gospel grace. Teach your children. Pray for your enemies. Trust God. This is his battle, and he will win it. Such faith is our wisdom, our hope, our victory.