“We Are His Family”
I have resisted the temptation. Here I was going to share some excerpts from volume 2 of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, but I resisted. There is a necessary being “against,” but it can consume you and eat away at your soul. Philippians 4:8-9 is still in my Bible. There is growth in sanctification even in a sinner like me, believe it.
So, instead of Uncle Herman (the brother of Father Abraham), I have a beautiful passage from Bryan Chapell’s Reformed Expository Commentary on Ephesians. Here he’s commenting on Ephesians 2:19-22:
God says in this passage that we are his family. We are treasured in his house always, always. Whatever transitions come, whether they are transitions away from current location or away from his approval, whether they are transitions of success or failure, whether they are transitions of family or difficulty or career, the love of our Father will never waver. His heavenly power and protection are active in our behalf wherever we go — near or far, to places familiar or alien — because we are citizens of his kingdom and members of his family. Through Christ we not only have access to our Father’s presence, we also have access to our Father’s heart. There his Spirit advocates for us with tenderness beyond our provoking and pronounces to our heart what the heavens announce to the world: “You are our child, and you will always be.”
Praise God for the gospel!
I love it! Much as Herman Bavinck was a gift to the church, I also have become aware of the fact that we can’t always stay “stuck” with what he was trying to get across. I believe that is also true with the different struggles we have experienced as church through the times of the Secession, Doleantie, Union, and Liberation. I have seen a lot of where it “consumes you and eats away at your soul”. Thank you for showing us the better way week after week.
Just finished reading the latest Clarion. One of the best I’ve read in a long time, I was able to devour it from cover to cover in one sitting!
This is really rich and comforting, thanks Wes