Romans 4:16 “Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”

If the things God promises are merely rewards for good behavior, then we have little more than a business contract. It is a cold obligation, and nothing more. But if it is a gift we receive by faith, then it expresses God’s grace. Now we have the warm love of God setting his heart on us, choosing us for his blessings, loving us as his own. Then he is giving to us freely, because he wants to, even though we have not given him any reason to do so.

Still more, then we have a guarantee: “Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring…” If we possessed God’s promises by law, we could never be sure that we would get them, at best. We would live in never ending uncertainty about whether we had done enough, or whether we would blow it in the future. That’s at best. Actually, if we are honest enough to admit our sins, we would be certain that we had lost the promises. Either way, we would live in fear and doubt of God, not faith.

But since the promise comes by faith as a gift of God’s grace, it is guaranteed. God isn’t going to change, and what he does never fails. Forgiveness will never be exhausted. Love will always be our lot. Heaven will always be the home waiting for us at the end of our journey. Then we live in the happy security of children who are convinced their parents love him. They know mom and dad will always give them everything they needs. They never need to be afraid to ask. Even the household rules and discipline, which they may test, are setting loving boundaries around them that keep them safe. They never lose their trust and love for their parents, because the love they give is so certain. Even stronger is the faith God is building in the hearts of those who know that his gracious promises are guaranteed.

Finally, since the promises are possessed by faith, it brings a certain universality to them. “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring–not only those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” Today we Bible-believing Christians often need to emphasize the exclusivity of Christianity in comparison to all the other religions of the world. Even some Christians ignore Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.”

But there is an inclusivity here as well. The road to God and heaven through faith in Jesus is available to all. Since the promise comes by faith, not by keeping the Law, Paul recognized that this bridged the gap between Jews and Gentiles. Wherever there was faith in Jesus, there were children of Abraham, and they all received the same gospel promises once possessed by our common spiritual father. Regardless of race, or gender, or age, they found that faith, not law-keeping, was the key.

That’s still a truth worth making our cause, stirring our passions, even inspiring our sacrifice. God give us the faith to possess his promises, experience their power, and proclaim them to all.

Romans 4:14-16 “For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith…”

God’s law is good for the purposes he gave it, as Paul confirms later in his letter to the Romans 7:7, 12). But if keeping God’s law was the only way to possess God’s promise, that would introduce some big problems.

The first problem would be this: “For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless.” If God’s promises are something we possess through keeping the law, then we have lost the promise, and it does us no good for God to make it. If I said to my children, “I will take you out for ice cream, but first you must solve this problem in quantum physics,” or “first you must play this Paganini violin concerto flawlessly,” or “first you must dunk this basketball,” what would be the use? It would be a waste of my breath. The promise would be useless to them. My children have their own gifts, but none can do any of the things I just listed. If God were to say to us, “You can have my promises when you keep all my commandments,” He may as well just say, “You can all go to hell.” We don’t keep his law. That’s is just the reason that we need his promises of grace and forgiveness.

The second problem is this: far from bringing sinners like us closer to possessing God’s promises, the law produces the opposite: “…because law brings wrath.” The law itself isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t make for a happy relationship between God and man. People get mad at God because his law puts things off limits that they want. They get mad that God demands a perfect keeping of his law that they can’t achieve, like Jesus said in the sermon on the mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Thomas Jefferson said, “That kind of God is a monster.” Unitarian minister William Channing said, “The God of the Bible is the kind of a God in whom we ought not to believe. We could not believe if we wanted to, and if we do we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.”

On the other side, our law-breaking makes God mad. Back in chapter one of this letter Paul had begun this whole discussion, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men…” God’s wrath is not exactly what we hope to obtain.

Is that any less important for us to understand today than in the past? Is this any less practical for Christian faith and life? One popular Christian author would like to skip past this kind of theology and get right to the details of daily life. “I’m not called to…expound on deep theological doctrines or disputes that don’t touch where people live,” he says. But doesn’t this touch us right at the source of Christian life? We can talk until we are blue in the face about good behavior, but what good will it do if we don’t understand its failure to bring us closer to God and his promises? We may as well try to teach people how to breath in outer space without a space suit. That’s the problem with performance-based religion. The law lacks the power to enable us to claim and enjoy God’s promises.

If not the law, then what? Faith fits the bill: “Therefore, the promise comes by faith.”

A righteousness that comes by faith is a righteousness that starts outside of us. It is not an innocence, an absence of guilt, we produce. Then we would be back to keeping a law of some kind. It is something we receive. It begins outside of us. Everything that I have ever received existed outside of me before I ever received it–gifts, money, applause, affection. The same is true of God’s gift of righteousness. Jesus produced it on the cross before I even existed. There, the forgiveness he purchased produced a sinless image of me that God gives as a gift. When God led you and me to faith, that sinless image became our very own. And with that gift comes every other promise he has made.

It is faith in Jesus’ performance—his perfection and sacrifice—that makes us confident God’s promises belong to me.

Romans 4:13 “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”

We don’t receive God’s promises of grace and blessing by way of his law. No one ever has. Even Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, didn’t get these things from God’s law.

Just what are the promises Paul has in mind here? He speaks of the promise that Abraham would be heir of the world. Now, no individual promise given Abraham in the book of Genesis promises him the world in so many words. The Lord tells him he will make him into a great nation, that all nations on earth will be blessed through him, that he will have a son from his own body, that his descendants will outnumber the stars of the sky, that the land of Canaan will belong to him and his family. That’s all very interesting, we might feel, but what does that have to do with Abraham becoming heir of the world? More importantly, what does all that have to do with us? Why should we care?

A little context will help. In Romans chapter 4 Paul is using the life of Abraham to illustrate this point from the previous chapter: “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” The main promise on Paul’s mind is that of justification–God’s not guilty verdict. How can God consider a sinner like me not guilty? How can I be considered righteous? How can we receive forgiveness? This was not a concern for any one generation. It wasn’t new with the teachings of Jesus. It goes thousands of years back to Abraham and beyond. How was it that God could treat a sinner like Abraham like a son? How could Abraham receive so many good things from God? The promise that all nations would be blessed through him was the key. This was only possible if Abraham had descendants. That God promised, too. And of all the nations of people descended from Abraham, his greatest single descendant was Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of the world. He was the one who would inherit the world for Abraham’s family. More than that, he was the one who would bring forgiveness and eternal life to the world by his perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection from the dead.

Was there something better about Abraham that led the Lord to single him out for such promises? Was he better at keeping God’s law? A re-read of Genesis 12 through 24 shows us that, on the contrary, Abraham was capable of some horrible lapses into sin. That is why Paul concludes, “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise.” The Lord does not make his gospel promises–the ones that promise forgiveness and eternal life–dependent on human behavior, conditional on keeping his law.

In our church, we recite the Nicene Creed on communion Sundays. These words renew and review our faith in God as our heavenly Father, the divinity and saving work of his Son Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit. When we recite them, they don’t feel like a rallying cry in a great controversy anymore. They don’t stir our passions as though we were taking a stand in a battle between right and wrong. We live thousands of years after the debates and battles for the divinity of Christ that inspired the creed to be written. The issue still comes up, but it doesn’t strike us as so urgent.

Something similar can happen with the issues before us in these words of Paul to the Romans. A great struggle to understand the proper roles of faith and works in God’s saving work existed during the days of Jesus and his apostles. It arose again 500 years ago at the time of the Reformation. The intensity of the battle for a right understanding of this teaching has died down, though it never goes completely away. People turn their attention to other teachings. Some believe the really pressing issue is how people live their lives each day. Whether God’s saving promises come by faith or by works doesn’t seem so critical. What difference does it make?

Paul’s words reinforce that it makes all the difference in the world. It is not an overstatement when our spiritual forefathers spoke of this issue as the teaching on which the church rises or falls. If we don’t get this right, nothing else will matter–including how we live our lives each day. Only the righteousness that comes by faith makes Abraham and his spiritual descendants heirs of the world…and the world to come.

Joshua 23:7-8 “Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. But you must hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.”

You probably know enough Old Testament history to know that Joshua’s warning was something of a prophecy. Israel was constantly dabbling in the religions of their neighbors. Why were these other gods so appealing? For the most part, these other religions were much more “this worldly.” The native religions of ancient Canaan were fertility cults. That meant that they were focused on the here and now. Worship was all about making a living and having a family. Do it right and your land would produce a good crop, your sheep would have lambs, and your wife would give you children. There wasn’t so much focus on the life to come which seemed so far away. Worship was about everyday life. Worship was practical.

On top of all that, worship was fun. There was none of this heavy talk about sin and forgiveness. It was supercharged with emotion. Even sex was a big part of the program. It was all designed to make you feel good. It’s not hard to see the appeal.

Finally, these other gods seemed to demand less faithfulness. These other religions were less exclusive. You were free to practice more than one of them at the same time. There was none of this “our god is the only god,” or “our way is the only way.”

Practical. Fun. Open-minded. It’s not that God wants Christian faith to be impractical and boring, but real faith deals with weightier things, issues of life and death, heaven or hell. And the God of the Bible is the only God. His way is the only way. Everything else is just imaginary. If Christianity makes exclusive truth claims, that’s because its God is the only one who actually exists.

Christians in our time seem less and less sold on these truths. According to a survey taken by the Pew Forum several years ago, the majority of Protestant Christians, the majority of Catholic Christians, and the majority of Evangelical Christians believe that many religions lead to eternal life. Now, if by “many religions” they mean “other Christian denominations” I have no argument. But if they mean non-Christian religions, they are out of tune with the warning Joshua is giving us here.

The issue is not one of Christians being better than the followers of other religions. Christians are just as bad as they are. Christians are so bad that they can be saved only by God’s grace, only by a Savior fulfilling all that God demanded instead of them, only by Jesus dying for their sins in place of them. But Christians aren’t worse than the followers of every other religion, either. No man, of any faith, can save himself by his good character or his selfless charity or his kind actions or his exceptional love. Jesus is the only Savior God has given humanity to rescue us from sin and death, because Jesus is the only Savior who has done all of the saving work for us.

Joshua’s God offers more than instant fun and success. He gives his people more than a few principles by which to live. He gives life and immortality. He paid for it by giving himself. Hold fast to him.

Joshua 23:6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.”

Are Christians weak or are they strong? We can look at great Biblical leaders of the past–men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, Peter, and Paul. We can see how they took their stand on the truth, and lived and sometimes even died there, and it looks to us as though they are strong. Maybe you have had some great Christian role model in your life. You have seen how he or she resisted temptation, weathered personal tragedy or persecution with a robust, unwavering faith, and you aspired to stand strong like they do. Maybe Christians are strong.

Oh, but “pride goeth before a fall.” Noah got drunk, Abraham slept with a servant girl, Moses and David committed murder, Peter denied his Lord, and Paul admitted his unending struggle with sin. The idea that the church is more a hospital for wounded sinners than a gymnasium for burly saints goes back at least as far as Luther. Given enough time, even the Christians you respect the most will let you down. Their feet are made of clay, not iron. Maybe Christians are weak.

So which is it–are they weak or are they strong? True to reality, it’s not a simple “either/or.” The best answer is “both.” Like Paul says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Huh? In these words of farewell to his people Joshua urges us, “Be very strong.” But what’s the point of telling people to do that if they always are? Because we often struggle, we need this encouragement. But we also need to know what real strength looks like and where real strength comes from. That’s where Joshua’s words direct us.

When Joshua says “Obey everything written in the law of Moses,” he is commanding more than obedience to a list of rules. “The Law of Moses” was the technical term for the first five books of the Bible. While it is true they contained many commands, they were also filled with history and promises and examples. A fuller translation of “obey” would include the words “keep” and “do.” There were certainly things to “do” here. None of the commandments was optional.

But just as important as the laws were the promises and examples for them to keep and preserve in their hearts. These five books of Moses contained the first promises of a Savior–the One who would crush Satan’s head, make Israel a blessing to all nations, a Ruler who would come from Judah, a Prophet who knew God more intimately than Moses, the Sacrifice that all the sacrifices at the Tabernacle were pointing to. Joshua and his people knew this Savior as a promise. We know him as Jesus, and we know the full story of his love and the full forgiveness he died to give us. If you are standing on a foundation of God’s grace and love like that, you can be strong for the struggle.

These five books of Moses contained examples of God’s great power to deliver his people like Noah’s Ark, Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt, the 10 plagues and the Passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea. They were filled with providential promises like, “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:26-27). An old hymn reminds us that we are “Standing on the Promises,” and that is just what Joshua was urging his people to do so that they would stay on the right path.

When God’s weak, fallible people hold on to the promises, and depend on his power, they don’t just find help. They are very strong.

Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God… Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

The Lord called a friend of mine to teach at a Lutheran seminary in the Ukraine. One of the most difficult adjustments he had to make was getting used to the way government works in this formerly communist country. Just to get his car registered, he had to go through these steps:

1) He drove to the customs department on the other side of town.

2) After waiting for half an hour, he was sent to a second office in another part of town.

3) There he waited another 45 minutes while his application was being typed and he paid a fee.

4) He was sent across town again to have the car’s value professionally estimated.

5) The people in that office sent him to another office.

6) He waited 45 minutes for another application to be typed and paid a fee.

7) By now it was closing time. He had to wait until the next day to continue his quest.

8) When he went back to the customs office the next morning, he was told he needed a form from the police department.

9) When he reached the police department, they had no idea what form was needed.

10) He went back to the customs office, where the man in charge learned he was a religious worker. As a result, he sent him to the Dept. of Religious Affairs for a work permit, then to the police to get a special stamp for his passport.

11) In order to make sure that the man at the customs department would follow through with this the next day, he had to pay a “token of gratitude” (a bribe).

12) The next day he was told he would need to have a full medical examination and submit the medical records before the car could be registered.

13) Finally he phoned a high ranking friend, who simply gave the order, “Just give them the sticker.”

And we sometimes complain about the way our government works.

So long as our government provides peace and order, it is a blessing of God for which we ought to give our thanks. The Lord has established two great kingdoms on earth to take care of us. One watches over our bodies, the other watches over our souls. He places his representatives in each of them to work for our good.

For our souls God gives us the church with its pastors and teachers. Here the emphasis is not so much on what we do for him, but what he did for us to save us. Here God leaves no role for us to play in our own salvation, whether big or small. He simply points us to Jesus who has done it all. Here we find full forgiveness for our failure to submit to God’s commands and those who enforce them. Here God rules us not by force but by faith, not by guns but by grace, not by laws but by his love that captivates our hearts and makes us want to follow him wherever he leads us to go.

Those who govern us work in the other great kingdom God has established. They take care of our bodies, and they do so in a particular way. “But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” In general, we might say that the purpose of government and those who govern is to protect the weak from the strong. In a world where not everyone trusts God or willingly follows his ways, God has given those who govern weapons of force and punishment. If the policeman cannot use his sidearm, if the soldier cannot fire his rifle, if the judge cannot sentence people to jail or even to death, then the government cannot keep us safe.

But so long as the government has the power to punish, God can use it to protect us from those who want to take our property, our freedom, and even our lives. When we are submitting to the government ourselves, they are in a better position to protect us, and that is all for our personal benefit.

Perhaps no one on earth is better protected by their government than we Americans. As we celebrate our nation’s anniversary, let’s be thankful for the blessing of peace and order it provides.

Acts 5:29-31 “Peter and the other apostles replied, ‘We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead–whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”

An astounding change had taken place in these men since the morning Jesus rose from the dead. John described their earlier lack of courage: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews…” Not much confidence or determination there. Their only determination then was not to end up executed as Jesus was.

Now they were ready to stand before the highest ruling body of their people and defy their orders with no apparent concern for what happened to them. In the course of time, all but one of them would die an unnatural death, executed for their refusal to stop preaching Jesus’ death and resurrection. What inspires men to display such determination? Certainly not a hoax, a cover-up, something you know to be false. You don’t sacrifice every earthly advantage, you don’t accept rejection, torture, and even death for something you know to be a lie.

Wasn’t their determination the result of the resurrection of Jesus they had witnessed, and concerning which they now gave their witness? “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead.” Here is an event that puts an end to every fear. Here was living proof that life after death is not just a possibility. It is a certainty. In Jesus they had seen what would become of their own bodies. In Jesus they had the promise that God himself was on their side and fully intended to raise their bodies.

For Jesus’ resurrection is more than a display of the raw power of God. That might be a rather frightening thing. You better watch out for a God who can bring dead bodies back to life, if that is all you know about him. Nor was Jesus’ resurrection merely an entertaining magic trick. Of what value is that? “Hey, that was fun. Do it again!”

No, these men understood more than the fact of the resurrection. They understood its meaning. Yes, it demonstrated God’s power and Jesus’ glory, “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince…” But the main intent was to demonstrate their love and grace. “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that me might give repentance and forgiveness to Israel.” By his death and resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand Jesus is the Savior who brings us to repent of our sins and grants us full forgiveness for them. Here we know that God loves us. Here we know that we are safe with him no matter what happens. Here we know that he has secured our eternal future. Here we find the determination to obey him no matter what men threaten to do to us. Here we reap the results of witnessing Jesus’ resurrection–they through their eyes, we through their words.

This determination can carry through to every other Christian service or endeavor. Have you ever heard anyone speak of a resurrection faith? Of course, all true Christian faith believes in Jesus’ resurrection, and in ours as well. But when people speak of a resurrection faith, they are talking about letting our faith live out the implications of that wonderful truth. That is what the apostles were demonstrating here. A resurrection faith is brimming with confidence, confident that God is on our side and God is the winner, so in the end we win, too.

That does not mean that our service to him will always be easy. It doesn’t mean that we will always meet with earthly success. It means that even if our service is filled with opposition, and ridicule, and heartache, and setbacks, and even ends in death, we don’t lose our determination because Jesus lives and we win.

Matthew 11:4-5 “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

What does Jesus’ list reveal about himself? In Christ, we have a God who does care about the earthly plight of his people. None of these rescues are the big rescue–the rescue from sin and death, Satan and hell. That was coming later. But they do reveal someone who rescues his people. These little rescues from the suffering imposed on our lives by sin reveal Christ’s heart of compassion. Think of the tears he would later shed when he saw the grief of Mary and Martha at the death of their brother Lazarus. Think of Jesus reaching out and touching the untouchable leper to heal him. Think of Jesus seeing the widow of Nain carrying her dead son out of the city to bury him. “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry’” (Luke 7:13). Then he raises that young man from the dead. Doesn’t such compassion inspire our trust in him?

These miracles also reveal that Jesus is the powerful Son of God who has the ability to help. It’s nice to talk to a sympathetic friend about your problems. But it doesn’t change anything if he or she lacks the power to do something about it. Jesus lacked no power to help his people. Jesus referred John the Baptist to these powerful miracles to assure him his faith in Jesus was not misplaced.

Yet someone might object that miracles themselves don’t have the ability to convince the skeptic or create faith in the hearts of doubters. In the story of the rich man and poor Lazarus, Abraham told the rich man in hell that if his brothers wouldn’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even if a man were raised from the dead. At most, mere acts of supernatural power will only entertain those who do not believe.

But Jesus’ works of mercy were not mere acts of power, nor was John the Baptist a hardened unbeliever. These were expressions of God’s love for his people, a little foretaste of the even greater deliverance to follow. They fulfilled prophecy, promises God had made about the times when he would come to save his people: “Be strong and do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a dear, and the mute tongue shout for joy” (Isaiah 35:4-6). The miracles preached a message. That message assures us that Jesus is the One God sent to save his people.

And don’t these same things apply to the great rescue? Peter Kreeft once noted that if you take miracles out of religions like Islam or Buddhism, you end up with basically the same religion. They remain the same lists of rules, the same guidelines for human behavior they have always been.

But take the miracles out of Christianity, and you lose all the essential elements of Christianity. Our faith is not primarily a list of rules or guide for human behavior. It is the supernatural, miracle-working love of God breaking into our world to save us. God entered our world in the miracle of the virgin birth, by which he became a man to live and die for us. He takes our sins away by his sacrificial death on the cross, where he supernaturally applied all our guilt to himself, and paid the full penalty of our sins, setting us free. Our confidence of heaven and eternal life springs from Jesus’ resurrection. You can hardly imagine a more miraculous event than a dead man taking his life back again and walking out of the grave. These are all more than mere acts of power. These miracles are God’s work of saving us. They deliver the message that Jesus is worthy of our trust. Just look at what he has done.

So Jesus ends this listing of miracles with “…the good news is preached to the poor.” When we consider just how good Jesus has been to us, it is very nearly understatement to describe his life and message as “good news.” For poor prisoners in a hard and hostile world, no news can be better. In his love and by his power, Jesus is the one who sets us free. “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

Matthew 11:2-3 “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

If John’s imprisonment prompted his question, it wasn’t necessarily because he was complaining about his condition. He was not a man looking for great things for himself. Unlike the prosperity preachers of our day, he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle on the gifts of his followers. His food was locusts and wild honey. He didn’t wear custom-tailored suits with a Rolex watch and expensive rings. He wore rough, simple, cheap clothing made of camel’s hair. He showed no attachment to the things of the world.

Nor was he a self-promoter. He told his own disciples, jealous of the larger crowds Jesus was drawing: “He must become greater; I must become less.” He was willing to sacrifice and suffer for the Messiah’s cause.

John didn’t expect great things for himself. But was Jesus going to let the bad guys win? Should the king who put John in prison for preaching against his sexual immorality get away with it? Where was the judgment John had been sent to preach? Where was the unquenchable fire that was going to burn up the chaff? It seemed like something was missing from Christ’s ministry.

None of us live a life as stark and simple as John the Baptist. But that doesn’t mean our lives are free from crosses and trials. Many of those who don’t share our faith work hard to portray our beliefs in a negative light. Those who mock Christian belief try to turn godly morals upside down. The defense of life from conception to old age, promotion of monogamous heterosexual marriage as the only place for godly sexual practice—these beliefs aren’t merely rejected. They are vilified. Yet those who do so don’t seem to be suffering. They are respected members of their communities. Often they have the ear of those in power. A growing number of churches are switching to their side. How can our Savior tolerate such contradiction of his word? Is he going to let the bad guys win? Where’s the judgment he promised?

John had more reason to wonder. He heard what Jesus was doing. He was healing and driving out demons and raising the dead. He was having mercy on all kinds of people. Like the crowd of 5000 he fed, their interest often stopped at the help they could get for their bodies. They only wanted Jesus to enrich their lives now. They weren’t tuned in to spiritual matters. They weren’t focused on repentance and faith. Still, they were healed. They were fed. They found help while John rotted in prison. Was that fair? What about me?

What about me? Jesus still hands out blessings in ways that strike us as inconsistent. How come I don’t have as much money as he does? I’m just as good as she is. How come I don’t enjoy the business success of other Christians I know? I work harder than they do. How come God hasn’t blessed me with a big happy family, never failing health, a circle of close friends when others have them? Is Jesus fair? Is he the One we expect?

Our complaints and concerns about the way the Lord treats his enemies, or the faithful, meddle in issues that are none of our business. Whether or not we perceive it, he governs the world flawlessly, and everything he does will benefit us in the end. Questioning his ways is evidence of weakening faith. It erodes our trust. It is a sin to be repented. It will only lead us away from him.

The problem isn’t that Jesus acts in ways we don’t expect. It’s that we fail to see that this is better. Paul said it this way to the Romans: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

We want a gracious and merciful God, don’t we, not just one who is “fair”? He may not always be what we expect. But that is what makes him always the One we need.