Application: Reflecting on the Goodness of God's Words
We continued our reflections on application this evening. The reason for this is that I realised at the end of our first session that it would be good to think not only about the presence of commands, promises, warnings, and good news in Scripture. But also the goodness of these things. We ought to listen for them when God speaks to us, and teach the children to do so. But we ought also to love them, consider them as treasure in our Bibles and in our lives. Below is an outline of the discussion I led this evening in pursuit of these things.
Recap: What should we be listening for when God is speaking to us? Commands, promises, warnings, good news. What do we do with commands? Obey. With Promises? Believe, trust. Warnings? Heed. Good news? Enjoy.
It’s important to learn to identify the way God is speaking to us and respond rightly. But we should also ask why it is good that God speaks to us in these ways. Why is it good that the Lord gives us commands, promises, warnings, and good news?
Commands
Why is it good that God gives us commands? Help: (1) Imagine what the world would be like without God's commands. (2) What must a world be like that needs God’s commands? Order. The commands of God are good because they provide us with order, direction, and this is certainly a world that is out of order.
Aside. An objection is often made to the church that ‘no one needs God to say “You shall not murder.”’ Answer: Why then do so many people murder? There is apparently more to it than simply knowing what not to do. In any case, the objection misunderstands the intention of the giving of the law.
Illustration. Imagine a great wall erected between heaven and earth. Everyone on earth knows that they ought to shoot arrows at the wall and do their very best. But the wall is blank. There is no target. Question: How can anyone know if their aim is good or not? They can’t. But what if God carved into the stone wall, as it were, a great target? What if people shot their arrows now, and some missed by a little and some by a lot? What would be different? It would now be clear that all were missing the mark. It would be obvious that we all had bad aim, and something needed to be done about it. This is one of the major reasons God gave the law.
It is good to have the commands of God in a disordered and directionless world. It is good to know that, even with His commands, our aim is very bad, and we need a major intervention. It is good not to be in the dark about the darkness within us.
Promises
Why is it good that God gives us promises? Help: (1) Imagine what the world would be like without God's promises. (2) What must a world be like that needs God’s promises? Recap what a promise is, and how it is different from a command. A promise is something God does, not us. And it is a declaration of something He has not yet done, but will do. We wait patiently, and in hope, for God’s promises to be kept.
Hope. It is good that God makes promises, because we can have hope. What a hopeless world this would be if God left us without promises, without any confidence about the future. Example: the return of Jesus and the new creation. This world is in a very bad state, and the future is not bright from a human perspective. But God has promised a major and irreversible intervention - a new creation. It is good to have the promises of God.
Warnings
Why is it good that God gives us warnings? Help: (1) Imagine what the world would be like without God's warnings. (2) What must a world be like that needs God’s warnings? Warnings help us to avoid danger. Think of the warnings you receive from your parents. ‘Listen to us, or you’ll become a fool,’ someone said. Indeed. What might happen if parents stopped reminding their children to listen to them? Think about the warnings you receive outside, near the road. ‘Watch out for cars!’ What might happen if parents didn’t warn their children to watch for cars? It is good to have warnings from God in the word of God.
Good News
And finally, and most importantly, why is it good to have good news from God? Because our world would be a bleak, miserable, and hopeless place. “Jesus is risen” is news that has changed the course of history. “By grace you have been saved, through faith,” is news that can change the course of someone’s life. It is a frightening thing to imagine a world without the gospel. Thankfully, we don’t have to. It is good that God gives us good news.
The purpose of this exercise was to push through the identification of the ways God speaks to us to an appreciation of them. It is good to look for them and find them, but this is not enough. We must also seize and treasure them once we’ve found them. The commands, promises, warnings, and good news of God are our life. They enable us to live to God both now and forever.