Godfrey: Well, as I sat listening to the international panel, one of the things that struck me was
how truly global Christianity is today, much more so than it was at the time of the Reformation,
and to some extent that is the fruit of the Reformation, and we can really rejoice in
that, but the historian in me sat and pondered those parts of the world that once were full
of churches and Christians and gospel light, where that light has so significantly gone
out.
And I’ve been contemplating writing a book for which I have title.
I have a friend who’s keeping all the titles of books I don’t write, and he’s going
to publish them, the titles, after I die.
So, this may fall in that category.
But I think we need a book entitled something like ‘Embracing Weakness,’ because when
we read the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that God’s strength is made perfect in
our weakness.
And when I thought of the struggle of Christians with Islam, and with secularism, and with
sin and with trouble all around the world, it reminded me belatedly, that into the end
of the day, Jesus builds His church.
And he’ll do it.
He’ll gather the elect, not one will be lost, and so we need to embrace the weakness
of suffering, hard as that is, and have confidence that He will accomplish His purpose, and he’ll
be glorified in it.
Ferguson: You know, the man who was my minister when I was a student said, “I’m not quite
sure what I’m doing here, but I think what I’m trying to do is to be a minister of
the gospel to build a church that will either be prepared and ready for revival or able
to withstand persecution.”
And just reflecting on what Steve was saying earlier about Luther, this was a big thing
for Luther wasn’t it?
The theology of glory or the theology of the cross.
And my observation is that we always have this tendency towards the theology of glory.
We want to be bigger, we want to be stronger, we want to be dominant, but we don’t want
the cross.
Which is what Bob was saying.
And we just, I think need to keep reminding ourselves of this, that all the way home we
are under the theology of the cross.
We will have all eternity for the theology of glory, but now is the time for the theology
of the cross.
And it must always be in our minds that whatever we do in the life of the church we must always
be cautious about this issue; is this helping to build a church that will be able to withstand
persecution.
Because that’s what it means to live life under the cross.
Whether that mean incidental persecution or whole church persecution or the persecution
of the church in a nation, life under the cross.
Remember how Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 13, in distinction from the kind of things
he seems to say in Philippians 4, “I’m weak, but I can do all things in Christ.”
He says, “I’m weak in Christ.
I’m weak in Christ because of my union with Christ.
I live this life in this world always with weakness.”
And I think until we grasp that we’re always going to be reaching out for what we think
is the real Christian life — when Christians are dominant, when Christians are dominant
in politics, when Christians are dominant in science, and when we don’t need to live
to need live under the cross.
But we’re under the cross and we will be there all the way home and the Heidelberg
catechism puts that almost perfectly.