Embracing The New Year

The uneventful change from 2014 to 2015 is to be seen as one of the many fulfillments of God’s sovereign purposes in moving his creation forward to its appointed end. The transition is a loving reaffirmation that history moves in a linear manner, from one point to another, from beginning to end, and that the Triune God is the sovereign Lord of history and, indeed, of all. The development from the old to the new is an expression of God’s common grace to all mankind, one which we typically embrace with thankless expectation as well as thoughtless reception. In so doing we profane God’s common grace in the form of his sovereignly superintendence of his creation, which is the stage for his accomplishment of his continuing work of redemption. By our wretched ingratitude, we have made divine common grace to be truly common. This necessarily confronts us with the questions: what can we do and what should we do differently this year to repent of and to reverse this pattern of ingrained ingratitude? I offer two suggestions.

We should remember that, in the same manner that our lives are not our own for we have been bought at the price of Christ’s blood, 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; cf. Acts 20:28, our length of life is not under our control. Like the psalmist, we are to boldly confess “My times are in your hand; ..” Ps 31:15. In so doing, we are acknowledging that, in the first place, we are the undeserving recipients of his gift of life and, where applicable, eternal life that he has freely granted us by regeneration of the Holy Spirit unto faith in the sinless life and atoning sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. Yes, our life is a gift of God. All that we have and are flow from his grace alone, 1 Cor 15:10.

To confess that our times are in God’s hands also means that we are to submit ourselves to him in thankful acknowledgment of his Providence, praising him for its expressions whether in sickness or in health; in peace or affliction; in poverty or plenty; etc. Such a confession requires us to exercise total trust in his dispensations which ultimately are not many but one-a dispensation of love, knowing that, regardless of their demonstrations, they are meant for our good and for his glory, Rom 8:28. Such a recognition demands as well as rests on a mature and robust faith, a faith that is forged in the furnace of trials, being continually tested and refined by the Divine Blacksmith so that its genuineness “ – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Pe 1:7. Without such a faith, it is impossible for us to please God, Heb 11:6.

My second suggestion moves us from the individual to the cosmic realm. I suggest we embrace the year 2015 by remembering God’s grand design for his entire creation. In the first chapter of Ephesians, the apostle’s extended doxology in vv. 3-14 include the following: praise to God for his ante-creation election of sinners unto salvation in Christ and for his predestination and adoption of them as sons through Christ according to the purpose of the divine will, vv. 3- 5; praise to God’s grace for blessing us in Christ v. 6; praise to God for lavishing us “in all insight and wisdom.. according to the riches of his grace..” with the fullness of redemption and forgiveness of trespasses that are freely ours in Christ, in vv. 7-8; praise to God for revealing the mystery of his will that he set forth according to his purpose in Christ, v. 9. Whither are these sovereign, redemptive acts of God leading? What is their end? These he set forth in Christ “as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” v. 10.

We embrace the New Year by remembering that God’s plan for his creation will attain its consummation at the Second Coming of Christ at which time the Father will sum up, in, with, under, and through Christ – note the staccato repetition of these historical, redemptive, consummating prepositions!-all things in heaven and earth in Christ. God’s purposes in creation have their meaning in Christ alone. In Christ, God the Father is moving his creation forward to its appointed consummation. History is Christocentric in its meaning. Regardless of the discouraging accounts we see and hear on the daily news, we are to remember that the Lord God is in charge of all history and life. At the moment we see things darkly but by faith we have hope that Christ will come again to restore all creation to the beauty and harmony infinitely exceeding the splendor that pre-fallen Adam enjoyed. We embrace 2015 by praying “Come, Lord Jesus.”