Renewed Day by Day

Well, it’s almost the end of another year, and I can hardly believe that this is actually podcast number 260 and that today is actually the last day of Things Unseen. And I want to express my thanks to three members of Ligonier staff who have made Things Unseen possible: to Barry, to Daniel, and to Alex. And I want to thank you also for the privilege of being with you over these weeks and months when we’ve tried to reflect together on all kinds of different themes related to our Christian lives. And over the past year, we’ve thought about some doctrinal and theological themes, we’ve thought about some pastoral themes, we’ve thought about some personal themes. And I’m sure not all podcasts are equal. They’re not all equally well done, but also because we are wired differently and we’re in different places and stages in our spiritual experience, some of these themes will have been more helpful to us than others, and that’s true of me too.

But what we share in common is this: that in a couple of days’ time when the clock strikes twelve, we will be in a new year, and at least from our human point of view, a new beginning. The old year will have gone forever. And that’s quite a thought, isn’t it? Gone forever. It really underlines the importance of putting into practice Paul’s encouragement in Ephesians 5:16 to “redeem the time,” or as the English Standard Version translates it, to “make the best use of the time.”

One of my earliest memories of New Year’s Eve is of my parents telling me to go into the bedroom and to decide on ten new year resolutions—yes, ten. I think the number probably had something to do with the Ten Commandments, or perhaps I was so difficult a child, they assumed that there would be at least ten ways I could easily come out of the room slightly improved. But to be honest, after I got the first few obvious ones written down, I actually struggled to get to ten. I suppose I just didn’t know myself very well. It wouldn’t be so difficult today for me to find ten points of improvement.

But what struck me in later life looking back was that while my mom and dad loved and cared for me very deeply, they didn’t yet understand that my life would be transformed not first by laws that told me where I needed to change but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ actually transforming me. We were a moral family, certainly, but not yet a churchgoing, gospel-hearing-and-understanding family. And I thought that perhaps reflecting on this today would be a good place to bring our year of podcast to a conclusion because it brings us back to a theme that in a variety of ways has been part of the background music to the whole of Things Unseen.

And it’s this: we don’t get God’s grace by what we try to do. It’s God’s grace that transforms all we do. We don’t become acceptable to Jesus by our efforts, not our efforts to follow His example or live according to the Sermon on the Mount. It’s really the other way around. It’s only when we come to recognize our own spiritual bankruptcy and then entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and embrace Him in all His saving sufficiency—it’s then that life begins to change.

And that’s exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 8:3–4, isn’t it? What the law with its commands couldn’t do because of our sinfulness, God Himself did for us by sending His Son to take our flesh in order that He might take our place and bear our sins. And then, when we come to Him in faith and are united to Him, the very things we couldn’t do—the righteous requirements of the law—begin to be fulfilled in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And instead of crushing us, we find that God’s law and will becomes light on our path. In fact, it becomes like the tracks on which a train runs. It’s the path along which the Spirit of Christ directs us and empowers us to live for the glory of the Savior—and that’s how we begin to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Perhaps those famous words of the Shorter Catechism might be a good way to sign off so that we would pray the Lord Jesus will come to mean more and more to us as we go on in the Christian life glorifying God. But maybe we should leave the last words of the podcasts to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:16–18: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen as temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Well, may God continue to bless you richly. And thank you for listening.