Back to Basics
It’s almost Christmas! Only a few more days
to go, and all the crazy shopping, wrapping, eating and drinking will be over.
But despite its craziness, I have to say, I love Christmas. I love seeing
family that I don’t get to see much of throughout the year, I love eating
plenty of good food and I love finding presents that I know my friends and
family will enjoy (trust me, it doesn’t happen every year!). But most of all, I
love Christmas carols. I love them because they proclaim good news of great
joy!
…
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God
and sinners reconciled!
Joyful all ye
nations rise, join the triumph of the skies,
With angelic
host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Hark the herald
angels sing, Glory to the new born King!
I’m often blown away that for a good month
and a half, every shopping centre and cafe blasts the news of Jesus’ work of
salvation through their speakers. It’s amazing! I really appreciate the carols
throughout the Christmas period, because they bring me back to the reason for
celebrating. They bring me back to the basics of Christmas; the Son of God born
in a manger, so that he might bring sinners back to God.
John Stott’s book, Life in Christ, is a true Christian classic. It brings us back to
the basics of Christianity, found in Jesus. And these basic truths are so
foundational, so vital and so necessary for life and faith that it is worth
sitting down to read and be reminded of in the busy season, and in every
season.
I love how Stott looks at the prepositions
used in the Bible in relation to Jesus, to discuss a Christian life and faith,
which is focused on Christ. They’re phrases we read all the time in our Bibles,
but I wonder just how often we read them as familiar words without stopping to
think what grand truths they are describing.
And so in the first half of the book, Stott
walks us through four of these individual phrases: through Christ our mediator,
on Christ our foundation, in Christ our life-giver and under Christ our Lord. The
second and fourth of these struck me the most.
As Stott helpfully points out, the stability
of human lives depends largely on their foundations. What great assurance and
hope we as Christians have then, to have our lives firmly built and established
on Christ the rock! I have to say that, knowing of the saving work of Christ, I
cannot think of any other foundation in the world that I would rather rest my
life upon. And what a joy it is to rest on Christ. As he is resting from his
work, having completed it once for all, we rest on His work, depending on Him
alone for our acceptance with God. This should give us such great peace as
Christians. For the many of us who keep (even subconsciously) trying to do
things to gain God’s acceptance, Stott offers this necessary rebuke:
“Work and rest exclude one another. If we
are working for our salvation, we are not at rest, but if we are resting in
Christ’s finished work, then we are also resting from those feverish works we
used to do to try to win God’s favour.”
Let us rely entirely on the mercy of God
and His true promises to us, and not sink back into silly ideas that we need to
do anything to win God’s favour.
That said, I was struck by the importance
of humble obedience to our Lord and King as Stott examined the phrase “Under
Christ our Lord”. We do have full assurance as we rest in Christ’s work, but
this doesn’t mean we can sit around, be lazy and do whatever we want whenever
we feel like it! If we are trusting Jesus as our Lord, then we need to live in
submission to Him. This is something we Christian women don’t think about too
much. But to obey Christ and follow Him wholeheartedly will require listening
constantly to Him as we read the Bible. It will require godly decisions and
godly lives. And it will require patient endurance.
I’m praying that this Christmas I can spend
more time rejoicing in the rest that is mine in Jesus Christ and reflecting on
what my obedience to Him will look like in the coming year and the years ahead.