Friday, May 7, 2010
John 16:21-22 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
SORROW THAT BRINGS JOY!
Christianity is neither all joy nor is it all sorrow. If I pictured the Christian life as one or the other of these two things, I would not only have to deny many Biblical truths, but would have to speak of a type of Christian life that I've never experienced. Dr. C. F. W. Walther, a Lutheran theologian, warned against this type of teaching when he said: "Do not, for God's sake, draw a false picture of a Christian; but whenever you have drawn the picture of a Christian, see whether you can recognize yourself in that picture" (Law and Gospel, p. 313).
With confidence in God's Word, David beautifully pictures in Psalm 30:5 how "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." The apostle Paul felt the sorrow of sin and wickedness in his own flesh to such a degree that he cried out in distress, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). But that same wretched man was given the grace to sing triumphantly: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). It is this priceless joy we find in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, and that we hear Jesus comfort us while singing:
Ever shall My eyes behold you; On My bosom you are laid.
Ever shall My love embrace you; Never shall you lack My aid.
Neither Satan, war, nor stress, Ever take your happiness:
In this blessed consolation, You are held through tribulation.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 268:5)
