Posted on August 5, 2014 at David’s page at the PCA website:
Solidarity
According to real estate agents, it is all about location, location, location.
It is precisely the same according to the Christian gospel when it applies to the believer’s experience of God.
Once we were located in Adam, now by God’s grace, we are located in Christ (see Romans 5:12 – 21). So Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have decamped, and our new address is in Christ. This was one of the first lessons Saul (Paul) learnt on the Damascus Road, that to persecute Christians is to persecute Jesus, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:5)”.
Being now located “in Christ” means that there is solidarity between Jesus and his people, and that when Christians are persecuted, Jesus takes that personally.
Jesus speaks of the same solidarity when he sends out the twelve on mission in Matthew 10:40, “he who receives you, receives me and he who receives me, receives the one who sent me”. There is solidarity between the believer and Jesus Christ, just as there is solidarity between God the Father, “the one who sent me” and God the Son, “the one whom He sent”.
In Psalm 14:4 – 7, David says that those who devour God’s people ought to be overcome with dread, for the Lord is in the company of the righteous, he is their refuge and he will watch over the fortunes of his people!
Therefore let ISIS and other such groups be warned, the outrageous threats and attacks on Christians in Iraq, the similar attacks in Nigeria, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Gaza will not go unpunished, Yahweh is in the midst of His people. He alone is Lord and he will punish the persecutor, either now, or in judgement in eternity.
Let us go to prayer for both our persecuted family and for those who persecute them. Pray that God will be merciful to the persecutor, that they will have their eyes opened to their willful rebellion and bow the knee, as did Saul, to the resurrected Lord. If they don’t, they are in for a terrible, eternal shock.
Pray for those who take the gospel of light and peace to such antagonists that they will be sensitively bold and faithful in the task.
“All wickedness flows from a disregard of God”, wrote Calvin, and in another commentary, “the hatred of sin proceeds from the fear of God”. What a wicked world we live in, it is a world under God’s judgement and we must not be sidetracked by trifling concerns, but seriously pray and reach into the heart of the rebellious with the momentous news of the gospel.
Remember the gospel is God’s power to save. Saul was the chief persecutor of the ancient church, “the worst of sinners” was his self description, but God’s power vanquished him, and we can be confident that the gospel of God will continue to melt the rebellion of even the worst hardened opponent.
David Cook
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