Well, the most frustrating, vexing, and exhausting election of my lifetime is over. After the inauguration of our new president, things have not seemed to get particularly less chaotic. While there are both good and bad things to observe among American life today, I’d like to offer a couple of questions that Christians would do well to ask.
The questions Christians must ask themselves today are, “What has Christ promised?” and “What am I supposed to do?”
1. What has Christ promised?
Jesus Christ promised that bad times would come (Jn. 15:20; Rom. 8:18; 1 Pet. 4:13). You may or may not know it, but the experience of difficulty is to be expected in the Christian life. While no one in their right mind welcomes adversity and suffering, we should not be surprised when the unwelcome guest arrives on our doorstep.
Jesus Christ promised that He would be with His followers (Matt. 28:18-20; Jn. 15:7). Christians may go through any number of valleys, but they never travel them alone. Christ is always with His people, and He is a faithful friend like no other. The divine King of glory knows well how to keep that which He has taken as His own.
Jesus Christ promised that He would build and glorify His Church (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 8:28-32; Jude 24). Christians are to remain faithful in the task to which Christ has called them, but Christ Himself is responsible for producing the results. The marvelous reality is that Christ cannot not be successful, and Christians may rest assured that the Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation.
2. What is a Christian to do?
Christians are to uphold truth (1 Cor. 15:58; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Tim. 6:11). The most difficult task that Christians will set out to do is to live according to an absolute standard of truth and morality. This will anger those who disagree, and it will enrage those who want to live immorally. And yet, upholding truth in personal practice and public proclamation is exactly what every Christian must do.
Christians are to proclaim the Gospel (2 Cor. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4:2). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only message that actually carries with it the power of God to make dead sinners live. God has decided to include Christians in His endeavor to make His glorious Gospel known to all the world, and there is no greater calling. The joy and privilege of Christianity is that those who are transformed by the Gospel are also commissioned to proclaim it.
Christians are to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Making disciples includes proclaiming the Gospel, but it goes further. Disciple-making is the lifelong process of growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Every Christian is a disciple, learning to follow Christ; and every Christian must also be a disciple-maker, teaching others what it looks like to follow Christ as well.
Today, Christ’s promises have not changed, nor has the Christian task.
Let us throw off our false hope in any lesser thing, and let us affix our eyes today upon the victorious Lamb upon the throne. Christ is King, His Church shall prevail, and we shall one day see the glorious end to which He has been moving all things.
Holding the Line 