New Morning Mercies #259

You will face loss, trouble, and disappointment, but nothing has the power to separate you from your Redeemer’s unrelenting love.

As I’ve said before, I really do love the honesty of the Bible. I don’t need vacuous religious platitudes that delude me into thinking that life is better than it really is. I don’t need a form of faith that requires that I deny pieces of reality in order to have peace of heart. I don’t want to be in the position of having to close my eyes to things and make believe that they are not there. If it is anything, the Bible is honest. The blood, guts, and dirt of the fallen world stain its every page. Filled with brutally honest stories of flawed people and marked with stinging analyses of the brokenness of the world, the Bible requires us all to be honest as well.

John 13–17 recounts Jesus’s last hours with his disciples before his crucifixion. He is preparing them for life without his physical presence. He is warning them of the things they will face in this broken world. This passage is way more than “Goodbye, I love you.” It is honest to the point of being scary. Jesus says, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (15:20). He says, “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (16:2). He says, “Behold, the hour is coming . . . when you will be scattered” (16:31). It’s not a very bright picture of the disciples’ future. His words are probably enough to make the disciples panic, but this is not all Jesus says. This passage is also dyed with amazing grace. This grace is formfitted for everything the disciples will face (and everything we will face too). Again and again he reminds the disciples of his presence and power. He assures them that he will not leave them like a bunch of orphans (14:18). He comforts them with the promise of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit (14:25ff.).

The disciples’ reason for hope in the trials they will face (and ours for the ones we face daily) is captured by the final words of John 16: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (v. 33). This world can be a tough address. Yes, there will be times when you feel that you simply don’t have what it takes to deal with what you’re facing. Yes, you will be tempted to think that you have been singled out to endure particular difficulty. Yes, you will have moments when you look back with regret and moments when you look forward with fear. But in all of this there is real reason for peace and hope. It’s not the peace that comes when life seems to be working well, when the people around you seem to appreciate you, or when your health and finances are good; there is a sturdier peace to be found. It is found in knowing that your heavenly Father is not afraid of, or will not be defeated by, what makes you afraid or has the power to defeat you. Peace comes when you rest in the fact that grace has connected you to the One who has overcome everything that could cause your heart to be troubled, and nothing can sever that connection.

For further study and encouragement: Romans 8:31–39