Christian Living

A Reminder of What Will Not Change Today

Author Stand to Reason Published on 11/03/2020

A quote by J.I. Packer in Packer on the Christian Life seemed appropriate for today’s election:

Whatever cultural shifts take place around us, whatever socio-political concerns claim our attention, whatever anxieties we may feel about the church as an institution, Jesus Christ crucified, risen, reigning, and now in the power of his atonement, calling, drawing, welcoming, pardoning, renewing, strengthening, preserving, and bringing joy, remains the heart of the Christian message, the focus of Christian worship, and the fountain of Christian life. Other things may change; this does not.

Let’s remember what is most important today—the things that will not change regardless of the election results. Perhaps after the election you will feel overjoyed. Jesus Christ is still the focus of our worship. Perhaps the election will bring more suffering into your life. Jesus Christ still strengthens. Perhaps it will bring you hope, perhaps discouragement. Jesus Christ is still risen and reigning, greater than all others, above all others. And whether you feel devastated or elated, whether you face suffering or an alleviation of suffering, whether you lose or win politically, no one and nothing can stop God from fulfilling his promise to

[cause] all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

And why can nothing stop him?

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. (Rom. 8:28–29)

The truth is, conforming you to the image of his Son, not ensuring your comfort, is the Father’s good plan for you. And conforming you to the image of his Son, not ensuring your comfort, is what he has promised. He will do this when things go the way you want them to. He will do this when the bottom falls out of everything you care about. He will do this. This will not change.

After the election, it’s okay to grieve what might have been. It’s okay to rejoice at what you think will come. But regardless of how it turns out, because of the truth of who God is and what he is doing in this world, we ought to be people who stand out from the crowd as those who securely rest in the knowledge that our future—whether painful or comfortable—is in the unfailing hands of God, “those who weep, [living] as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice…for the present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 30–31), and we know that as it passes, it will accomplish the predestined ends for which God created it.