NCC Q5: A Personal Response to God's Creation

New City Catechism Question 5

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Q: What else did God create?

A: God created all things by his powerful Word, and all his creation was very good; everything flourished under his loving rule.

Genesis 1:31

“And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
                             

This is a very simple, yet mind blowing truth. God created everything. We often water down this discussion of what God made with the tangential discussion of how God made it. Was it in seven literal 24 hour days? Are the days in Genesis 1 referring to ages that account for the seemingly old age of the earth? The list of questions goes on and on. Now while it is not necessarily a bad thing to reflect on how God made everything, it can distract us away from the more foundational (and certain) truth… God made everything. And everything he made was good. What Genesis 1 draws us to is not a scientific debate but to a powerful statement of God’s power and might and rule… God made everything and it was very good. God made each and every galaxy that exists, and he made each and every one of the hundreds of millions of stars in every single one of those galaxies. And he made each and every thing in those galaxies, down to the smallest atom and particle. And in the New Testament we see more specifically that all things are made by, through, and for Christ, God the Son (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-17). All things are created through the cosmic Christ. Kent Hughes explains it well in the catechism material when he says that if he commandeered the starship Enterprise from Star Trek and travelled at warp speed past galaxy after countless galaxy, and ended up in some remote corner of the universe, even the smallest piece of stellar dust would be created by Christ and sustained by Christ.

And such a powerful truth should evoke a powerful response from those who love God. And yet this is where so many Christians stand underwhelmed looking at creation and the work of the cosmic Christ. Maybe we simply don’t think enough about the awesomeness of God’s creation, or maybe we just don’t allow enough time for such a powerful work of God to shape our minds and our hearts. But if we do allow ourselves some reflection on the cosmic Christ, at least two responses become very clear.

First, the cosmic Christ leads us into deeper worship. When we are overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of all of God’s creation, then worship will naturally follow. Focusing on the vastness of God’s creation while at the same time reflecting on the intricate details of that creation takes us away from ourselves and the daily stresses we face and prepares our hearts to truly cry out “How Great is Our God!” It is not surprising then, that Kent Hughes in the catechism material notes that he often begins his time of daily devotion and prayer by reflecting on the universe and God’s creation. The glorious work of the cosmic Christ truly does lead to deeper and more heartfelt, genuine worship.

Second, the cosmic Christ challenges us to let go of our anxieties. Christ has created and continually sustains very part of our vast universe. Everything is sustained by his loving care. And when we compare that to the situations in our lives that cause us anxiety, they are relatively miniscule. This is not to say that these situations are trivial; certainly many of the situations that cause us anxiety are very real situations with very serious problems. But the cosmic Christ reminds us that those problems that seem so big and terrifying to us are not a problem for him! Our difficulties and struggles are not a problem for the one who creates and sustains even the smallest piece of stellar dust light years away! So when Jesus exhorts us not to worry about our lives, about what we will eat, or drink, or wear, this is not some a motivational pep talk (Matthew 6:25ff). This is not about us simply being positive in the face of tough circumstances. This is the creator God who loves us and died for us telling us that whatever uncertainty we face, he has it taken care of and we don’t need to worry about it!

Certainly there are further responses we can have to the cosmic Christ, all of which are worth times of deep reflection. We can reflect on the divine power and authority that Christ has in all things and over all things. And we can reflect on how there is order and purpose in creation, and not randomness. But if we can just begin by allowing the cosmic Christ to lead us into deeper worship where the focus is off ourselves and on our great creator God, and then respond by casting our anxieties on him, our lives will be radically transformed. Will you do it? 

NCC Q4: Human beings and the Image of God

New City Catechism Question 4

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Q: How and why did God create us?

A: God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.

Genesis 1:27

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.”

What an awesome truth that we as human beings are made in the image of God! The more we understand that we are made in God’s image; that we are made to reflect something of God, the more we will be motivated to live fully for God and for his glory. The catechism material will further explore how we can glorify God in the weeks to come, and rightly so.

However before we can dive into a discussion of how we can glorify God, it is well worth reflecting on the significance of the truth that we are made in the image of God. God made us to image himself! What a staggering concept! And while the image of God has certainly been marred in sinful humanity, there is nothing in the bible to indicate that the image of God is gone in human beings, or that some people have more of the image of God than others. Therefore we can safely say all human beings are made in the image of God, which means that we should view every single human life as sacred. And with that comes several powerful implications:

First, the sacredness of human life should shape our understanding of current events and issues. That human beings are sacred should shape how we view what is going on in our world today, from war to poverty to global pandemics such as AIDS. It should also shape how we think about hot button issues of our day, such as abortion, euthanasia, and modern technologies such as stem cell research and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Often Christians support or oppose such events and issues because of what a few public Christian voices argue for, or because it just “feels” right or wrong. But the sacredness of human life coming from being made in the image of God gives us the ability to think critically and to make a real contribution to public discourse surrounding these events and issues. It allows us to state why we believe what we believe, not just what we believe.

Second, the sacredness of human life means that we should NEVER dehumanize another human being. Sadly, so much of the public debates in our world today are dehumanizing debates…instead of actually discussing an issue on its merits, pundits attack each other and try to portray their opponents as evil or idiotic for holding a different view (and yes this happens on both sides of the political spectrum!). And what is even sadder is that Christians are often guilty of engaging in the same dehumanizing behavior. For example, while we rightly advocate for the rights of an unborn child we can easily dehumanize the woman who is considering an abortion or who has had an abortion. While rightly arguing for a deep commitment to Christ and obedience to the Scriptures it is easy to dehumanize individuals and denominations that have moved away from such commitments. While we rightly grieve some of the directions our culture is heading in, we also attack that same culture as evil and hopeless instead of trying to transform that culture through being salt and light for Jesus Christ in the world. And while we rightly take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, it is easy to judge and stereotype and dehumanize people of other religious faiths, the very people we are trying to reach.

Finally, the sacredness of human life means that we should have a healthy view of ourselves. Certainly we cannot become arrogant or self-centered. But being made in the image of God means that we are incredibly valuable to God! In such a competition driven culture, our self worth often comes not from the God who made us in his image but from comparing ourselves to others or looking to others for affirmation, which usually leads to us feeling inferior and in turn drives so much of the depression, anxiety, and stress that we experience. But being made in God’s image means we can be confident in who God made us to be, and strive to live more for God and not to please others or to get their approval.

Every human being is made in the image of God. Every human life is sacred. How does that challenge how you view the people, events, and issues in your life and in the world today? If we are to truly glorify God then we must uphold this awesome truth and let it daily impact how we view ourselves, others, and the world around us.

NCC Q3: Triune Community

New City Catechism Question 3

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Q: How many persons are there in God?

A: There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

2 Corinthians 13:14

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Pastor Kevin DeYoung rightly points out that the Doctrine of the Trinity is “the most important Christian doctrine that most people never think about.” And those who do think about the triune nature of God can get confused very quickly. How is it that there is one true God, that is three persons, where each person is fully God, and each person is not the other person (in other words there is no Clark Kent to Superman transformation in some divine phone booth!)? And yet even if we cannot wrap our mind around the Trinity, the bible clearly affirms every part of this doctrine, from the oneness of God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), to the three persons of God (2 Corinthians 13:14, Matthew 3:16-17) to the divinity of all three persons (John 1:1-2, 8:58, Acts 5:3-4). And each part of this truth is critical to the Christian faith. For example, if Jesus Christ is not fully God, how can the atonement have any power to save us from our sin? And so even if we cannot fully wrap our finite minds around the triune nature of God, we must clearly affirm what the bible clearly teaches, that there are three persons in the one true and living God.

But even when we accept that God is a triune God and accept that this truth is critical to our Christian faith, there is still the problem of applicability. What practical meaning does the Trinity have for us in our day to day lives? DeYoung does a great job in the catechism material outlining three areas where the Trinity practically applies to our lives. 1) We can have unity within diversity, we don’t have to settle or push for one at the expense of the other. 2) The Trinity teaches us about the role and importance of community. And 3) we learn about what DeYoung calls the eternality of love; that love is not some construct created by human beings, but it has always existed in the perfect community of the triune God.

Each of these areas of application is worth further study and reflection. However given the increasingly individualistic understandings of spirituality in our culture today (both Christian and non-Christian), the area of application that possibly requires the most immediate attention is the nature of community found in the Trinity. God has always eternally existed in community, and God’s creation reflects that community. Human beings were made to be in community, not in isolation (Genesis 2:18-25). In the Old Testament God calls a people (not individuals) to himself as his chosen covenant community (Genesis 12:1-3). The early church existed as a tight knit community of faith (Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-37). And the Scriptures refer to the Church as the body of Christ, a community that is intertwined and interdependent on each other for health and survival (Ephesians 4:1-16).

Therefore the Trinity teaches us that community is foundational and critical for every aspect of the Christian life. The take home message then is this: You cannot be a lone-ranger Christian. You cannot experience any significant spiritual growth as a Christian outside of Christian community. You cannot effectively develop and use the gifts that God has given you outside of Christian community. You cannot be an effective witness for Christ if you are cut off from Christ’s body. I will go so as to suggest that you cannot even survive spiritually outside of Christian community, because without the community of faith supporting you and speaking truth into your life, you will be carried off to wherever the waves of our culture are heading. To be a healthy Christian means to be in community.

So what is keeping us from experiencing this kind of community and growing in this kind of community?  Some will shy away from being invested in community because of problems they see in their local church. Ironically, sinless perfection in churches then becomes the standard by which sinful imperfect people invest in community. But there are no perfect churches because every church is full of sinners! Others will shy away from community because of sin in their lives, either because they are afraid it will get exposed or because they know it will get exposed and they don’t want to let go of that sinful part of their lives. But the reality of sin in each of our lives means we actually need community more, not less! And others will shy away from community because investment requires time, and time is too precious of a commodity to spend in our already very busy over scheduled lives. And the list of reasons goes on…

But none of these reasons even come close to justifying us giving up on the community that we were created to be in, that flows out of the community of the triune God. And since an intimate, loving, community is at the heart of the triune God, then our hearts should be set to invest ourselves and dive deeper into our local church community, and not to move away from it. Are there difficulties about growing in community? Absolutely! But those difficulties pale in comparison to the rich blessings we receive from growing in community. And ultimately, growing in community prepares us for the perfect community we will one day experience, when we are finally home with our Heavenly Father.

NCC Q2: Our Amazing God

New City Catechism Question 2

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Q: What is God?

A: God is creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.

Psalm 86:8-10, 15

“There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God… You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

This is one of the more frustrating questions in New City Catechism for me…not because of the content in the answer, but because of the amount of content. There is so much here, trying to take it all in is like participating in a food challenge that various restaurants have, where if you eat an insane amount of food in a certain period of time you get a t-shirt and get on their wall of fame. There is just so much to take in it is impossible to do in one sitting! In this statement, we see God as a creator God. We see who God is, evidenced in his attributes. We see that all of those attributes must be held together; we cannot pick and choose what parts of God we like and don’t like (when we engage in such picking and choosing we actually cease to talk about the God of the Bible!). And we see what God does in how he sustains all things and governs all things according to his will. So within this one question and answer there is a lifetime of truth that we can reflect on and feed our souls with.

But while we may not be able to take it all in at once, we can go a little deeper with part of this awesome truth. So here I want to look at the first and last parts of this answer: that God is the sustainer of everyone and everything, and that nothing happens except through God and by his will. These are bold statements, and really are only possible because of who God is. It is only an eternal, infinite, perfect, powerful, good, glorious, wise, just, and true God who can sustain and govern everyone and everything. And these bold statements form the foundation of what is known as the Doctrine of Providence: God sustains and governs all things. And all things means…all things. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that the laws of physics will remain the same tomorrow as they are today. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that regardless of what happens to us, that our lives are sustained by our creator God. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that when we face struggles and situations that seem to have no solution, God is working in that situation and he works all things together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). God sustains and governs all things, which is one of the most comforting and practical truths for Christians in our world today.

Now whenever God’s Providence is affirmed as it is here in Question 2, there is invariably some pushback in the form of this question: But what about _________________? What about this evil we see in the world today? What about this pain and suffering I’m going through? What about this senseless killing? What about this tragedy in my life? Because of the brokenness of this world that is marred by sin, we will see these things, and yes, God in his wisdom does allow this evil, even though he does not cause it. Evil, pain, and suffering do fall under God’s Providence. And philosophers and theologians have offered excellent responses to this problem of evil as it pertains to God’s Providence and can be explored more in deeper study. But in this space, let me offer a few brief pastoral responses to these questions that get raised:

When we see or experience pain and suffering, it is far better to have a God who is in control than a God who is not. The alternative to a God who sustains and governs all things is a world of chaos and despair, where evil wins the day and there is no hope. While we may not understand why something happens, affirming God’s Providence in light of the pain and suffering we see and experience means that we take hope in the fact that evil does not have the final word. Evil is not greater than God! God is in control, and a day is coming where there will be no more pain and no more suffering (Revelation 21:1-4). What a glorious hope! We may never get the answer to those “why?” questions, but we know and trust and believe in a God that does know why. And that is enough.

And so God’s Providence stands firm, and we can rest and take comfort in his Providence, even in the midst of pain and suffering. How will this awesome truth about God impact your lives this week? My prayer is that the following words of the Heidelberg Catechism would be the cry of our hearts now and for the rest of our lives:

“We can be patient when things go against us,
thankful when things go well,
and for the future we can have
good confidence in our faithful God and Father
that nothing in creation will separate us from his love.
For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand
that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.”[i]

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[i] Heidelberg Catechism, Question 28.

NCC Q1: The hope of not being our own

New City Catechism Question 1

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Q: What is our only hope in life and death?

A: That we are not our own, but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Romans 14:7-8

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

I love that New City Catechism begins here with this question. It is a question that assaults our fierce independence and reorients us to view ourselves in light of a God who made us, loves us, and has bought us with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is a question that challenges our fundamental presuppositions that we carry in this culture, mainly that we think we belong to ourselves and that we are masters of ourselves, our decisions, and our futures. And it is a question that truly does give us hope, when we realize that on our own we have no hope in life and in death, it is only through belonging to God through Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins that we can have a glorious eternal life with our Heavenly Father. And because of that hope we should not live for ourselves and make plans and decisions that promote our self-interest and desires, but we should live fully and completely for God. Our hopes, dreams, goals, and decisions should always be centered around God and a desire to see him glorified.

Now it is not hard to affirm this truth that the bible states so clearly. We are not our own, but we belong to God. What is far more difficult is to actually live in light of this truth. For even though we may believe that we are not our own, that we were bought with a price, and that we belong to God, every single day we make countless decisions that are centered around ourselves and our own self-interest. And many may not even be aware that this is actually selfishness. We are ingrained in this culture to focus on what brings us pleasure and fulfillment. We are encouraged to do that which leads to our own self-improvement. And both religious and secular research has demonstrated that even institutions like marriage, that have historically been about serving others and the common good, are now viewed as vehicles for self-enhancement.[i] Therefore if we do not take time to think about our daily decisions, we will inevitably fall into the pattern of our culture and automatically make decisions that are centered around ourselves and our self-interest and pleasure.

How then can we start living in light of this glorious truth that we are not our own but that we belong to God? How can we go through our day so that our minute by minute decisions are geared towards God and his glory, not our own? While there are many suggestions that can help us in this, let me suggest that one key to living for God and not for ourselves on a daily basis is an issue of thanksgiving. How thankful are we for what God has done for us? How often do we reflect on the depth and depravity of our own sin, and how hopelessly lost we were being separated from God? How often do we reflect on the lavish grace of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross? How often do we reflect on how costly God’s love for us is in that he sent his one and only son to die for our sin? Familiarity with Jesus dying on the cross for our sin can sometimes lead us to gloss over the severity and costliness of God’s love for us, and to take the radical self-sacrifice of God for granted. But if we can recover some sense of how much God has given to save us and how much he has given because he loves us, then the thanksgiving that accompanies such reflections will begin to shape our thought processes and our decision making. The more we are thankful for what God has done for us, the more we will think about how we can respond to God out of that thanksgiving. And when we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving towards God, then it will be far easier to give ourselves and everything we are and have to a God who has given everything for us.

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[i] Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (New York: The Penguin Group, 2011), Chapters 1&2.