Cross Controlling Corona Not Corona the Cross
Do Not Make Corona World a Justifier
It seems that in this season, self-righteousness has been given a new stage to play itself out on. People feel righteous based on how fearful they are and others feel righteous due to how courageous they are. People feel righteous due to how faithful they are to the guidelines and also others as to how indifferent they are to them. We, as the people of God, must always remember that our righteousness is outside of us in the Jesus story (Romans 3:3-6). We are righteous because of Jesus’s thirty-three years of obedience and His moments of death, resurrection and ascension and not any of our Corona moments (Romans 5:12-21). Jesus is always our justifier and we, in this season, need to lay down the gavel of justifying self or others based on certain responses. Legalism is deeply embedded in the human heart and so in a season where endless laws and requirements are being created and enforced we must see ourselves as ultimately righteous in what happened in the Christ story not what we do in the Corona story. We are not justifiers we are the ones who have been justified by Another and because of Another.
Do Not Become the Lord over Another’s Conscience
Another common issue in this season is concerning the endless dictatorial enslavement of people’s consciences. Meaning that whatever convictions one feels about the pandemic in its broader elements and or its specific elements is being forced on others. Certain views and practices are being forced on others. I am speaking mostly as it pertains to people doing such to other people and not so much about institutions. The bible is very clear that God alone is Lord of the conscience (Romans 13:3) and that it is the blood of Christ that has cleansed our conscience (Hebrews 9:13). Which means that every believer has been freed by God in order to be bound only where the Lord has bound them. It seems that many refuse to let the Spirit of God and scripture make the connections for others to walk wisely in this season and would rather replace the Spirit of God and scripture with humanistic enforcement. It seems that many refuse to let the Spirit of God and scripture make the connections for others to walk wisely in this season and would rather replace the Spirit of God and scripture with humanistic enforcement. We would rather people rely on us and our perspectives than rely on the gospel of grace and the Holy Spirit. In this season let your conscience be captive by the gospel and allow other’s conscience to be captive and driven by the gospel. When fear is rampant and common there is always the destruction of conscience and the obscuring of the Christ who has freed the conscience to live before and for Him. We should be more concerned with connecting people’s conscience to the gospel rather than connecting people’s conscience to our conscience. Our view of others and our own conscience must go hand-in-hand with our view of the gospel. Imposing ourselves on others is a practical denial that the power of the gospel is sufficient to govern souls. I fear that much of what people are doing in this season is based on the fear of someone else’s overstepping conscience. I fear that many believers are not helping each other as to how to think but rather thinking for people.
Do Not Claim Divine Certainty
One of the things that has happened in this pandemic is an idolatrous quest and claim for certainty. Meaning that many are claiming either narrowly or loosely to know exactly what will happen and how the scenario will play itself out. Humans are claiming to know who, and how many, and how often, and in what way the numbers will play out, and it seems that we, as people, are finding much comfort in this so-called certainty. As much as we can make plausible observations due to common grace we are finite and lack an ability to have the kind of certainty that God has. We do not like uncertainty and open-ended things because such things make us feel small and feel as if we lack control. Uncertainty brings out the reality that we are unable. Uncertainty demands us to live a life of dependence on God’s character and promises. As the people of God, we must allow God to be the One who alone holds the certainty as to what will occur in all the various scenarios (Isaiah 36:10). As the people of God, we must feel most confident that God is certain that He is certain and that He is ruling all things according to who He is and what He wants. In a sense we can only be certain that God is certain about the future and He has given us certainty about the future in the hope of the gospel not in having some humanistic certainty of the future (1 Peter 1:13). As people in this season prove themselves wrong about their certainty, let us hide in God rather than find a new claim to certainty. In a world of self-proclaimed experts who are certain about the future and function with a divine sense of certainty, we as Christians embrace our limitations and lack of clarity in light of a God who knows and loves us with infinite perfection.
Don’t Believe the Corona Version of the Prosperity Gospel
The prosperity gospel is the message that God exists in heaven and the church exists on earth for the primacy of temporal benefits. It is a religion that is driven by the primacy of the now. The prosperity gospel has many faces and expressions. The prosperity gospel is humanistically demeaning as it reduces life to being about quality rather than sacredness. It seems that the church is subtly conveying a message to the world that our functional hope is in living the longest life possible and in avoiding any kind of human weakness in the form of sickness as we live. Paul speaks of living in the primacy of some immediate hope in any way as being contrary to the gospel (Philippians 3:18-21) The church is a people that have the hope of living an eternal kind of life that awaits the climax of eternity not a people that exist in the hope of living a long disease-free life (1 Peter 1:3-9). The gospel is not the good news that we can live an 80 year lifespan without a dangerous virus; it is the good news that the virus of sin has been canceled in Christ in the hope of the resurrection (Romans 8:31-39). As believers we all know that we will die and return to the dust and so our hope is not in not dying or living with biological prosperity, but our hope is that Jesus died and was raised so that we could live now and then in eternity with Him (1Corinthians 15:32-39). As believers we all know that we will die and return to the dust and so our hope is not in not dying or living with biological prosperity, but our hope is that Jesus died and was raised so that we could live now and then in eternity with Him.It is one thing to say that we are a people who live in the hope of eternity and yet still live in the primacy of how life is qualitatively long and prosperous in the now (2 Timothy 3:10). We cannot be ultimately hopeful about the extent of temporal life and the extent of eternal life at the same time. The hope of the gospel means that we live in the hope of eternity with Jesus who triumphed over death not that we live in the hope of temporal life being abundant in some way (whether it be in possessing things or possessing health). As a matter of fact, Paul tells us that those who live their Christianity in light of the quality of the now are the most pitiful (1 Corinthians 15:19). Let the supremacy of the resurrection shape life in the present rather than the supremacy of potential death. The good news is not that God will give us long life now but that Jesus has given us everlasting life now and all finally in the then. Live as those who already died and have been raised not as those who primarily hope to avoid or delay death (2 Corinthians 1:9-11). Live like you will never die since you are spiritually raised with Christ and though you die yet you still will live (John 11:26). We have been sold the lie that Christianity is only worthy living if you can avoid poverty and non-prosperous living; please don’t buy the lie that Christianity is only worth living if you can avoid the risk of Corona. Christianity is powerful enough to exist in the face of all sorts of weakness and lack and threats due to the hope of the gospel and the new creation. Paul says that though our outer man is wasting away the power of grace is always renewing the inner man irrespective of what occurs (2 Corinthians 3:16). Whether you have or don’t have the corona virus you are dying and wasting away and yet whether you have or don’t have the corona virus you are raised with Christ and will one day be holistically and bodily raised with Christ.
Don’t Be Naive About the Reality of a Fallen World
The word of God tells us that the world we live in is cursed and dying and full of death (Romans 8:18-25). This is inevitable and will continue until Christ judges the world and brings in the final stage of the new creation. Because disease, death and disaster are not an issue of nature and needing to master nature, but a supernatural issue related to the sin of Adam. The effects of the fall are not a reality that we can master, but rather that which masters us (Genesis 3:13-19). The reality is that in a fallen world disease and death and disaster will and must occur no matter how much we rightly try and mitigate the effects. God’s common grace has given us some ability to mitigate the effects of the fall, but common grace does not give us the ability to live in a world devoid of those effects. It seems that many believers have been living in the illusion that we can control the effects of the fall and if we only follow certain steps and do certain things can either partially or fully eliminate chaos. It seems that we have a view of loving our neighbor in a way that can eradicate the realities of a fallen world (the fact that those who stayed at home and those who did not stay at home have died somewhat proves that point). If the church falls into the cultural humanistic illusion that it can control and remove the effects of the fall it will fall into the spiral that leads to suffocating life. However, we as the people of God know that death and destruction and disease are simply a part of this fallen reality that is groaning for the new heavens and the new earth (2 Corinthians 5:2-3). If the church falls into the cultural humanistic illusion that it can control and remove the effects of the fall it will fall into the spiral that leads to suffocating life. Meaning that we will stop living because we have been deluded that in this world, we can somehow control disease and death if we just all play our part. We must avoid the extremes that lead us to simply embrace disease and death recklessly and yet also the extreme of seeking to control and avoid disease and death presumptuously. In a fallen world we are always face to faith with our mortality and vulnerability, and no amount of ingenuity will ever change that. We must learn to live wisely but not naively in a world that is inevitably and always deadly and dangerous. We, as the people of God, know that there is a time to be at more risk and yet also times to be at less risk, there is a time for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Contrary to what the culture is saying there is a time for life to be riskier in a fallen world and to deny and reject this is simply humanistic delusion.
Do Not Divide the First and Second Table of the Law
One of the things that has come up many times lately is the need to abide by the second table of the law and love one’s neighbor (which is absolutely appropriate). Various Christians have said that we must avoid each other in larger or smaller meetings in order to love our neighbor and not put them at risk. The assumption is that the second table of the law competes with the first table of the law. The assumption is to obey God’s call to gather is to disobey God’s call to love our neighbor. The other assumption is that real risk negates true love of neighbor. We cannot love our neighbor if there is any kind of potential risk in what is occurring. It seems that the gospel would disagree as God loved us in the very fact that it was holistically risky to love us. The first four commandments deal with the worship of God and the last six with the love of neighbor. Let me say firstly, that the first four are connected to the last six and the last six to the first four (Matthew 22:33-39). Meaning that the worship of God is connected to loving our neighbor and the loving of our neighbor connected to the worship of God. Meaning you cannot say that Christians continuing in the worship of God in some cautious way is invalidating the love of neighbor as the worship of God is one vital way as to how we love our neighbor (Hebrews 10:25). To love our neighbor is to give them what is best for them and that which is best is the worship of God in the way God has commanded that He be worshipped. God’s commandments are in harmony with each other and so we can both worship God and love our neighbor rather than choose one over the other (James 2:10). It is a false dichotomy to say that one command necessarily negates the other. That said, the church must learn how to love neighbor and worship God as He has commanded rather than separate and divide love of neighbor with the worship of God. Loving your neighbor who is unable to enjoy the first four commandments is not loving one’s neighbor since your neighbor needs to encounter Jesus corporately (1 Corinthians 13:23). Is there a way to safely love one’s neighbor and worship God with one’s neighbor? Yes. Are you actually loving neighbor by depriving him of the means of grace so that he avoid the potentiality of contracting a virus? No. We must love neighbor with both tables of the law. We just need to pursue a means by which all of God’s commands which are in harmony with each other can coexist without reverting to the oversimplification of saying I am loving neighbor devoid of the first four commands. To separate loving neighbor from the public worship of God is to assume that the covenant love of Jesus in His assembly is not deeply loving (Colossians 3:16). The gospel compels us to love people holistically not partially (1 John 3:16-18). Which means that we cannot neglect people’s practical needs as we attend to their spiritual needs nor can we neglect people’s spiritual needs as we attend to their practical needs. People are complex and so loving them must have a complexity that consolidates the whole law and not merely certain portions.
Wisdom over Oversimplification
One of the issues that has been occurring in this season is concerning that of oversimplification. People have trivialized reality by living in a world that lacks nuance. For example, people are saying that to go out in public is to destroy lives and to stay at home is to save lives. Or people are saying that to live life as normal has no effect on life at all. Wearing a mask is an absolute or wearing a mask is an atrocity. Everything must close and or nothing must close. Faith and no fear or fear and no faith. Being around people cannot happen or being around people must happen with no qualification. Opening church is premature and dangerous and or reopening church is perfectly safe. We love to live in the world of oversimplification for a few reasons. First of all, oversimplification makes us feel righteous in a self-righteous manner; in our sin, we need to draw distinguishing lines to vindicate ourselves. Second, oversimplification allows us to not walk in gospel-saturated dependence unto wisdom. To oversimplify something is to make a reality that we do not need the gospel for (Islam is an example) however, to nuance reality in applicatory wisdom is something that only grace saturated dependence can sustain. Not having an explicit formula for every scenario causes us to go deep into the gospel while endless explicit formulas cause us to go deeply into ourselves (we trust our formulas more than God’s grace). Third, oversimplification manipulates and controls people for whatever personal agenda a person or group has. Leaving life open to nuanced wisdom will allow many to walk in differentiation in a way that does not affirm a certain conviction. We do not like that and so we tend to use the rhetoric of oversimplification in order to enforce our agenda on others. People being allowed a level of differentiation is a threat to us when we are operating in any kind of humanistic agenda. The grace of the gospel however gives us a sense of righteousness that allows for nuanced wisdom and not the monopoly of overstatements. The gospel frees us from lesser agendas to greater ones. The gospel frees us from the need to control others. The gospel frees us to make statements of conviction that do not reduce any other kind of conviction to being unrighteous and unacceptable. We are secure enough in the gospel to take a stand on a matter that does not always demand us condemning an alternative stand. The gospel wise will commit to things that reflect the truth of the moment rather than the generic rhetoric of the pandemic. Meaning we will make the best decisions in a way that does not make our decisions some kind of royal decree. Being righteous in Christ frees us to do what is right in a way that does not make our view of right some kind of universal decree however, self-righteousness will always lead us to be grandiose and legislators over all reality.
Be Aware of the Devil Not Conspiracy Theories
In the time of pandemic, it seems that there are a few categories of people. One category is the one that believes in everything that is being said about the dangers and needed precautions of Corona. Another category of person is the one who believes nothing that is said or required concerning the Corona. Another category of person is the one that sees a political agenda hidden in every aspect of the Corona. We either trust everything or we trust nothing, or we trust that we know exactly what is behind the whole thing. As believers we know that the world has a ruler who is said to be the God of this age (Ephesians 2:1-3). We know that behind all that we see there is a dark conspiracy that is actively engaged in all (1 John 5:19). And we know that His primary agenda is to destroy the church of its gospel ministry (2 Corinthians 3:3). And we also know that he works through the false disguise of righteous causes (2 Corinthians 11:13). Christians must be aware that the mass fear (legitimate or illegitimate) is most dangerous in the hands of the Devil not governments nor political groups. He is using the Corona virus to advance his cause as he hides behind various more obvious causes. He is working his illegitimate concerns through the various legitimate concerns. He is using the Corona virus to advance his cause as he hides behind various more obvious causes. He is working his illegitimate concerns through the various legitimate concerns. Another way this can be said is that he is using good things like human safety and other such things to work his bad anti-gospel purposes. Another way this can be said is that he is using good things like human safety and other such things to work his bad anti-gospel purposes. He is a master of diversion and deflection and is the most capable and powerful created figure behind reality (Ephesians 6:12). As believers it seems that we are often looking for some obvious anti-God mechanism for the Devil to work through and do not realize that He often works in a way that achieves his ends without showing his hand. The church needs to be most concerned not with the various conspiracy theories, not even mostly concerned with the Corona virus but with what the dark prince does with and behind these things. The Devil wants to get the church to think more about the Corona virus than Christ and think more about conspiracy theories than the devil. He wants the church to find good reasons to disrupt the essential work of building the church. He wants us to trust everything and also trust nothing so that he can achieve his ends. He wants believers to be more concerned with pandemic guidelines than his instructions for governing and expanding the church. He wants us to define ourselves in the same manner as any other business or institution. He wants us to be captured by the moment and be indifferent to the truths that are bigger than the current moment. He wants us to find good reasons to hinder the advancement of the gospel and he wants to do so without it being obvious that he is doing so. It is time for us to take our greatest enemy very seriously and to consider what he is doing in these times.
