To merely look and fail to really see . . .
That’s the awful tragedy of it all—if we are content, whenever the calendar calls for it once again, to observe the Christian holidays by taking another look at Jesus in a manger, on a cross, in and out of the tomb, and ascending to heaven—without ever having seen Him as the God-man in the gap.
Without this, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day and the whole chain of our Lord’s Mediatorial work are for us nothing more than “sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.”
Hallelujah, our Savior bridged the gap!
That awful, yawning chasm between God and the sinner has now been spanned for His people. The divine, crucified, risen Jesus is the Way on which God and man can cross over and be reconciled. That’s what Good Friday and Easter are all about.
Man’s know-how of the past in building bridges, ships, and planes to span chasms, rivers, and oceans has in our day been completely eclipsed by the phenomenal achievement of landing earthmen safely on the moon.
Man’s unprecedented exploits in this space age leave us startled and stunned. Is there no limit to what man’s brain can devise and his daring will achieved will there eventually be any gulf or chasm or distance left that man will be unable to traverse or bridge? Dare we still say of man with all of today’s know-how that there is anything impossible for him to achieve?
Absolutely, unequivocally, find eternally the answer is: Yes! However man’s achievements and exploits may continue to mount and increasingly amaze us, man is and forever will remain unable to bridge the gap between God and himself as a lost sinner. Of the crucified and risen Christ it is as true as ever: “And in none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Age-old gap – Gap is an in word today, even though there is actually nothing new about that for which this word stands. It is common in our time to speak of “the generation gap” and “the credibility gap,” and those who do so may think they have come upon something new under the sun. Fact is, however, that the disturbing and distressing situations to which this word calls attention are as old as the parent-gap that came about when man sinned and thereby separated himself from his Maker.
By his sin man effected the age-old gap and has thus opened a Pandora’s box of gaps, gulfs, chasms, and separations that have plagued and cursed those who remain in their sin ever since. To be separated from God in this world and the next means that one is of all men most pitiable. The Psalmist spelled it out like this:
“Apart from Thee I long and thirst,
And nought call satisfy;
I wander in a desert land
Where all tile streams are dry.”
Without Good Friday and Easter there would not he a single ray of light in the eternal darkness of the gap or chasm between God and the guilty sinner. Without this there would he no bridge to cross over from damnation to glory, from death to life, from the curse to the crown, and from the bondage of sin and Satan to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Without the God-man of Calvary and the empty tomb everything and everyone on the wrong side would be hopelessly abandoned to doom and the devil because the awful and accursed gap would be fixed forever.
He bridged the gap – But the Gospel of Good Friday and Easter now herald the end to all our gloom and doom. Out of the heart of God’s infinite love and out of the mystery of His omnipotence, the God-man has been given to suffer and die and rise again, thus to bridge the gap so that in Him we may cross over to be accepted of God and thus to live and reign with Him forever.
Man of himself can no more fill that gap than a leopard can change its spots or a hippopotamus fly like a bird. The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable tried it in vain as he spread out before the Lord the filthy rags of his own self-righteousness. And from his home in glory Abraham, in another parable, told the selfish Rich Man: “And . . . between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us” (Luke 16:26).
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! and once more, Hallelujah! Think of it, and let us celebrate the eternal good tidings that the Son of God became man so that, as the God-man, He might do the impossible. That which is impossible with man is possible with God! Being man Jesus could become our substitute and suffer in our place; and, being God, He could bear the eternal wrath of God and finish it, and also take us with Him across the gap back to God and to life eternal! That’s what Good Friday and Easter are all about! The God-man in the gap . . . if we now merely hear and then refuse to give heed, and if we merely look and then refuse to see, good were it for us if we had never been born!
But, if by God’s grace we now truly own this God-man in the gap as our Lord and Savior, then we may join the sacred throng and celebrate as we have never done before!
Because our Lord and Savior became for us the God-man in the gap, this life already now and all of eternity are ablaze with the glory of redemption.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
FLASH ON NEW TIV SEMINARY
The following item about the opening of the new Tiv Seminary in Nigeria will be of special interest to our readers:
“On Saturday [Feb. 13] of this week we were thankful to be able to attend the opening of the Reformed Theological College of Nigeria, temporarily loa ted eighteen miles south of Uavande. One of the board members spoke on living in Christ. Pastor Manyam brought greetings from the Tiv Church; Rev. Baker gave greetings from the Mission; and the Chief, dressed in a very fancy, beautiful robe, brought the greetings from the district council. There are eighteen student’s, five of whom are married. They have three teachers (Nigerians): the Principal, Mr. I. Achineku, and his wife Rachel and Rev. P. Agbe. They face many problems; but they, with the Tiv Church, are confident that this is God’s will, and they are trusting Him with the future.”
Support for this new Seminary, with its aim to be distinctively Reformed, is sorely needed. Contributions may be sent to the Treasurer, ML Peter Ayaka, Mkar P. A. via Gboko, Benue Plateau, Nigeria. Checks drawn on any bank in North America should be made out to the Church of Christ in the Sudan among the Tiv. Or money may be sent by international money order or international certified check.
“THEE” AND “THOU” FOR FUDDY-DUDDIES ONLY?
That the use of You and Your in prayer instead of Thee, Thou, and Thine is catching on also in Reformed circles is obvious. But it should be equal1y obvious that the preference for the traditional form to show reverence in addressing God is not necessarily confined to a handful of old fuddy-duddies or a group of has-beens unable to communicate to the flow generation.
Having been asked quite some time ago to contribute one or more prayers for a Zondervan publication (God’s Minute, Volume II – A Prayer for Every Day in the Year), when recently the book came off the press I was interested to know who’s who among the contributors and also to check for those who still address God as Thee and Thou.
Among the outstanding contributors to God’s Minute (Vol. II), as listed on the jacket of the book, are the following: J. Sidlow Baxter, Myron F. Boyd, W. A. Criswell, Mark O. Hatfield, Carl F. H. Henry, J. Edgar Hoover, Bruce Larson, John W. Montgomery, Harold J. Ockcnga, the late J.C. Penney, Charles C. Ryrie, and Paul B. Smith.
Well, what form do these “outstanding contributors” use in addressing God? It was interesting to discover that eleven of them (all but one) still say Thee and Thou. Now it is beyond a doubt that these men (as well as Billy Graham) are effective in their ability to communicate and that they do not feel the need of abandoning the use of Thee and Thou for that purpose.
Recently, while guests at his family’s home, we heard a nine-year-old pray at the family altar and it struck us that he could use Thee and Thou and the proper verb forms without any apparent difficulty. Evidently he has not been told that it is impossible for this generation to learn or to understand this traditional form of addressing God. While we marvel at the increased knowledge and know-how of today’s youngsters, we do not forget that at their age we were able to learn to pray as our parents, teachers, and pastors did.
Awkward situations can arise in public worship or on other occasions when some who have long been accustomed to Thee and Thou want to switch to You and Your. There are those who scramble these pronouns so that the person in the pew may begin to squirm and think: I wish you would make up your mind what form you want to use. Or is this an effort to please everybody?
Some time ago it was reliably reported to me that someone in the pulpit was praying You and Your right along and when he all of a sudden made a slip and said Thee he quickly inserted a correction and made himself ridiculous by saying, “I mean You.” Recently I listened to a guest preacher who al1 through his pastoral prayer never once used any pronoun at all to address God. A mere coincidence or a studied effort to avoid giving any offence, what was it? OK, I should try harder to keep my mind on the what and not on the how of another’s prayer. The choice, the scrambling, or avoiding of pronouns in prayer are not necessarily a matter of principle or a test of sincerity; hut at times they can contribute to some awkward and unedifying situations.
Well, all that these few lines are intended to say is that, if you feel more comfortable and reverent in sticking to the old-school Thee and Thou in addressing God, you are not necessarily a fuddy-duddy or a has-been. Eleven of the twelve outstanding contributors to God’s Minute (to say nothing of a lot of us lesser lights who have also made our contributions to that little volume) are still doing the same.
That’s the awful tragedy of it all—if we are content, whenever the calendar calls for it once again, to observe the Christian holidays by taking another look at Jesus in a manger, on a cross, in and out of the tomb, and ascending to heaven—without ever having seen Him as the God-man in the gap.
Without this, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day and the whole chain of our Lord’s Mediatorial work are for us nothing more than “sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.”
Hallelujah, our Savior bridged the gap!
That awful, yawning chasm between God and the sinner has now been spanned for His people. The divine, crucified, risen Jesus is the Way on which God and man can cross over and be reconciled. That’s what Good Friday and Easter are all about.
Man’s know-how of the past in building bridges, ships, and planes to span chasms, rivers, and oceans has in our day been completely eclipsed by the phenomenal achievement of landing earthmen safely on the moon.
Man’s unprecedented exploits in this space age leave us startled and stunned. Is there no limit to what man’s brain can devise and his daring will achieved will there eventually be any gulf or chasm or distance left that man will be unable to traverse or bridge? Dare we still say of man with all of today’s know-how that there is anything impossible for him to achieve?
Absolutely, unequivocally, find eternally the answer is: Yes! However man’s achievements and exploits may continue to mount and increasingly amaze us, man is and forever will remain unable to bridge the gap between God and himself as a lost sinner. Of the crucified and risen Christ it is as true as ever: “And in none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Age-old gap – Gap is an in word today, even though there is actually nothing new about that for which this word stands. It is common in our time to speak of “the generation gap” and “the credibility gap,” and those who do so may think they have come upon something new under the sun. Fact is, however, that the disturbing and distressing situations to which this word calls attention are as old as the parent-gap that came about when man sinned and thereby separated himself from his Maker.
By his sin man effected the age-old gap and has thus opened a Pandora’s box of gaps, gulfs, chasms, and separations that have plagued and cursed those who remain in their sin ever since. To be separated from God in this world and the next means that one is of all men most pitiable. The Psalmist spelled it out like this:
“Apart from Thee I long and thirst,
And nought call satisfy;
I wander in a desert land
Where all tile streams are dry.”
Without Good Friday and Easter there would not he a single ray of light in the eternal darkness of the gap or chasm between God and the guilty sinner. Without this there would he no bridge to cross over from damnation to glory, from death to life, from the curse to the crown, and from the bondage of sin and Satan to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Without the God-man of Calvary and the empty tomb everything and everyone on the wrong side would be hopelessly abandoned to doom and the devil because the awful and accursed gap would be fixed forever.
He bridged the gap – But the Gospel of Good Friday and Easter now herald the end to all our gloom and doom. Out of the heart of God’s infinite love and out of the mystery of His omnipotence, the God-man has been given to suffer and die and rise again, thus to bridge the gap so that in Him we may cross over to be accepted of God and thus to live and reign with Him forever.
Man of himself can no more fill that gap than a leopard can change its spots or a hippopotamus fly like a bird. The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable tried it in vain as he spread out before the Lord the filthy rags of his own self-righteousness. And from his home in glory Abraham, in another parable, told the selfish Rich Man: “And . . . between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us” (Luke 16:26).
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! and once more, Hallelujah! Think of it, and let us celebrate the eternal good tidings that the Son of God became man so that, as the God-man, He might do the impossible. That which is impossible with man is possible with God! Being man Jesus could become our substitute and suffer in our place; and, being God, He could bear the eternal wrath of God and finish it, and also take us with Him across the gap back to God and to life eternal! That’s what Good Friday and Easter are all about! The God-man in the gap . . . if we now merely hear and then refuse to give heed, and if we merely look and then refuse to see, good were it for us if we had never been born!
But, if by God’s grace we now truly own this God-man in the gap as our Lord and Savior, then we may join the sacred throng and celebrate as we have never done before!
Because our Lord and Savior became for us the God-man in the gap, this life already now and all of eternity are ablaze with the glory of redemption.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
FLASH ON NEW TIV SEMINARY
The following item about the opening of the new Tiv Seminary in Nigeria will be of special interest to our readers:
“On Saturday [Feb. 13] of this week we were thankful to be able to attend the opening of the Reformed Theological College of Nigeria, temporarily loa ted eighteen miles south of Uavande. One of the board members spoke on living in Christ. Pastor Manyam brought greetings from the Tiv Church; Rev. Baker gave greetings from the Mission; and the Chief, dressed in a very fancy, beautiful robe, brought the greetings from the district council. There are eighteen student’s, five of whom are married. They have three teachers (Nigerians): the Principal, Mr. I. Achineku, and his wife Rachel and Rev. P. Agbe. They face many problems; but they, with the Tiv Church, are confident that this is God’s will, and they are trusting Him with the future.”
Support for this new Seminary, with its aim to be distinctively Reformed, is sorely needed. Contributions may be sent to the Treasurer, ML Peter Ayaka, Mkar P. A. via Gboko, Benue Plateau, Nigeria. Checks drawn on any bank in North America should be made out to the Church of Christ in the Sudan among the Tiv. Or money may be sent by international money order or international certified check.
“THEE” AND “THOU” FOR FUDDY-DUDDIES ONLY?
That the use of You and Your in prayer instead of Thee, Thou, and Thine is catching on also in Reformed circles is obvious. But it should be equal1y obvious that the preference for the traditional form to show reverence in addressing God is not necessarily confined to a handful of old fuddy-duddies or a group of has-beens unable to communicate to the flow generation.
Having been asked quite some time ago to contribute one or more prayers for a Zondervan publication (God’s Minute, Volume II – A Prayer for Every Day in the Year), when recently the book came off the press I was interested to know who’s who among the contributors and also to check for those who still address God as Thee and Thou.
Among the outstanding contributors to God’s Minute (Vol. II), as listed on the jacket of the book, are the following: J. Sidlow Baxter, Myron F. Boyd, W. A. Criswell, Mark O. Hatfield, Carl F. H. Henry, J. Edgar Hoover, Bruce Larson, John W. Montgomery, Harold J. Ockcnga, the late J.C. Penney, Charles C. Ryrie, and Paul B. Smith.
Well, what form do these “outstanding contributors” use in addressing God? It was interesting to discover that eleven of them (all but one) still say Thee and Thou. Now it is beyond a doubt that these men (as well as Billy Graham) are effective in their ability to communicate and that they do not feel the need of abandoning the use of Thee and Thou for that purpose.
Recently, while guests at his family’s home, we heard a nine-year-old pray at the family altar and it struck us that he could use Thee and Thou and the proper verb forms without any apparent difficulty. Evidently he has not been told that it is impossible for this generation to learn or to understand this traditional form of addressing God. While we marvel at the increased knowledge and know-how of today’s youngsters, we do not forget that at their age we were able to learn to pray as our parents, teachers, and pastors did.
Awkward situations can arise in public worship or on other occasions when some who have long been accustomed to Thee and Thou want to switch to You and Your. There are those who scramble these pronouns so that the person in the pew may begin to squirm and think: I wish you would make up your mind what form you want to use. Or is this an effort to please everybody?
Some time ago it was reliably reported to me that someone in the pulpit was praying You and Your right along and when he all of a sudden made a slip and said Thee he quickly inserted a correction and made himself ridiculous by saying, “I mean You.” Recently I listened to a guest preacher who al1 through his pastoral prayer never once used any pronoun at all to address God. A mere coincidence or a studied effort to avoid giving any offence, what was it? OK, I should try harder to keep my mind on the what and not on the how of another’s prayer. The choice, the scrambling, or avoiding of pronouns in prayer are not necessarily a matter of principle or a test of sincerity; hut at times they can contribute to some awkward and unedifying situations.
Well, all that these few lines are intended to say is that, if you feel more comfortable and reverent in sticking to the old-school Thee and Thou in addressing God, you are not necessarily a fuddy-duddy or a has-been. Eleven of the twelve outstanding contributors to God’s Minute (to say nothing of a lot of us lesser lights who have also made our contributions to that little volume) are still doing the same.