2 June 2020
Uncertainty is unsettling and these are uncertain times! As human beings we like to be sure about things. Not knowing what’s going to happen is stressful. And now we find that many of our assumptions were just that – assumptions. Who would have thought that schools around the world would close for months or that airplanes wouldn’t fly? It seems barely conceivable that the Olympics would be postponed for a year or that football leagues would be suspended. So there really weren’t any guarantees after all – no assurances that our plans would work out. COVID-19 has given us all a reality check; the future is uncertain! But what made us ever think it was certain in the first place – what were we pinning our hopes on?
Christians are often ridiculed for believing superstitious nonsense, of being out of touch and unsuited for a twenty-first century, technically advanced, sophisticated world. It’s true that Christians may also have been lulled into thinking some assumptions gave assurances when they didn’t – like hopes of a promotion, or a spring wedding or a summer holiday at the beach. But the things Christians have always had certainty about, remain. Isn’t this what it means in Hebrews: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). While others thought Christians engaged in unhealthy amounts of wishful thinking, the reality is that our faith isn’t hoping for things that aren’t real or true – rather, our faith is certainty about things we cannot see.
Through faith we know that God is loving toward us. It is not just that God is love, though he is, but that he loves us. He declares to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). The God of the universe describes himself as, “abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). In reflecting about God’s love, Augustine wrote, “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.”
We know that God is good and we are called to experience his goodness for ourselves: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Joseph may well have doubted the goodness of God when he was thrown into a pit by his brothers, when he was sold on as a slave and when he was falsely accused and imprisoned for years in Egypt. But later, reflecting on it, he said to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Never lose sight of God’s goodness: “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28).
We know that even in the darkest days, God is with us. As human beings we crave relationship: we aren’t designed to be ‘lone rangers.’ So it is very special that everything Jesus promises to his disciples is relational. He says, “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). To the Pharisees he said, “Where I go, you cannot come” (John 8:21) but to his disciples he says, “I am going there to prepare a place for you… I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2,3).
We are assured God loves us; that he is always good towards us and he is continually with us. When we need reminding of these certainties, let us consider and reflect that Jesus came (his incarnation); that he died for our sins (his crucifixion); that he was victorious over death (his resurrection) and that now he is seated at the right hand of God in heaven (his ascension).
Paul assures his Christian brothers and sisters in Rome of the reality of their faith, when he wrote, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32). In this we see that God’s love is certain; God’s goodness is guaranteed and God’s presence is assured. While there remains plenty we don’t know or understand, the Irishman William Fullerton, summarised it beautifully in his hymn ‘I cannot tell.’ Read, or better, sing the words of this hymn, taking time to meditate on them:
I cannot tell how silently He suffered,
As with His peace He graced this place of tears,
Or how His heart upon the cross was broken,
The crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, He heals the brokenhearted,
And stays our sin, and calms our lurking fear,
And lifts the burden from the heavy laden,
For yet the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is here.
I cannot tell how He will win the nations,
How He will claim His earthly heritage,
How satisfy the needs and aspirations
Of east and west, of sinner and of sage.
But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory,
And He shall reap the harvest He has sown,
And some glad day His sun shall shine in splendour
When He the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is known.
Henry Craig
