It’s Friday and that means I’ve got another Free Stuff Fridays for you. This week’s sponsor is Shepherd Press, a name I’m sure most are familiar with. “Shepherd Press is committed to provide God’s people with solid biblical books and materials. … At Shepherd Press we look for materials that … will enable us to identify the idols of the heart that pollute our service to Christ, keeping us mired in confusion, unable to obey God. They will also encourage us that we can “do all things through Christ who gives [us] strength.” Remember the gospel is for Christians. We daily repent and cast ourselves on the abundant grace of Jesus Christ.”

This week five participants will each win a copy of Paul David Tripp’s new book Broken-Down House: Living Productively in a World Gone Bad along with his previous title Lost in the Middle. “Sin has ravaged the house that God created. It sits slumped, disheveled, in pain and groaning for the restoration that can only be accomplished by the hands of him who built it in the first place. The good news is that the divine Builder will not relent until everything about his house is made new again. The bad news is that you and I are living right in the middle of the restoration process. We live each day in a house that is terribly broken, where nothing works exactly as intended. But Emmanuel lives here as well, and he is at work returning his house to its former beauty.”

Here is a video in which Tripp describes this book:

Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

A couple of weeks ago I said that I was Monitoring Mohler (so to speak), reading through his entire suggested summer reading list. At that point I had read The Unforgiving Minute, With Wings Like Eagles, Hunting Eichmann and World War One. Since then I’ve read several of the other titles on this list and thought I’d check in.

Number five on the list was Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. Mohler says, “Horse Soldiers is a story that demands to be told and Stanton tells it well. No one reading this account will believe that the establishment of a lasting peace in Afghanistan will be anything but unspeakably difficult—and unquestionably important.” This book tells the story of a tiny handful of US soldiers who were among the first American servicemen to deploy to Afghanistan after 9/11. What they did there was pretty incredible and Doug Stanton tells the story very well. Anyone with an interest in military history or modern warfare will want to read this one to see how twenty-first century warfare came face-to-face with the nineteenth century in the mountains of Afghanistan. And, as Mohler says, this book shows the great and perhaps impossible challenge Afghanistan faces as it tries to build a lasting peace. Having said that, it’s hard to believe that what the Americans did there has had any lasting value as it seems that the violence continues to escalate and that the nation is a long, long way away from any kind of peace. Time will tell, I suppose. Do note that there is some swearing in this book since these are, after all, soldiers we are talking about here.

Up sixth was Sultana by Alan Huffman, a book about the worst maritime disaster in American history. Through gross greed and negligence, the Sultana, hugely overloaded with Union soldiers recently liberated from Confederate prison camps, exploded and sank in the Mississippi. Around 1700 of the 2400 passengers aboard the ship died. Mohler says, “Sultana is a book that makes for compelling reading that reaches the heart.” The book does more than recount the disaster. It follows several of the men involved through their service in the Union army, through their imprisonment and it is only in the final few chapters that we come to the Sultana. Ironically, I found the earlier chapters more interesting and more compelling than the tale of the disaster itself. I appreciated that the author saw fit to widen the scope of the book by making it about the whole war and not just about a single tragedy. Any Civil War enthusiast will appreciate this book, I’m sure.

Next in line was For the Thrill of It, the New York Times bestseller that describes the brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. The crime scandalized and riveted the nation. Mohler says, “Simon Baatz tells his tale with the skill a reporter and the skill of a historian. For the Thrill of It is one of most compelling criminal legal thrillers of our times. Readers of this book will gain an understanding of America in the 1920s even as they follow one of the most interesting criminal investigations and trials and the nation’s history. Beyond this, the reader will have to think through some of the most difficult moral and theological issues that arise when we are confronted with the darkness of human depravity.” This was a very odd story of homosexual lovers who were also arrogant intellectuals and who were out looking for depraved thrills. Honestly, I found the story hard to read and recoiled a bit at the depravity portrayed. I found little of redeeming value (as is usually the case, in my experience, with “true crime” books)—I did not sense that this murder and the subsequent trial have had a lot of long-term impact in America and, though it was a scandal in its day, I think it has largely been forgotten. Therefore, I wondered at what value there was in reading about it. I’d recommend any of the other titles on this list ahead of this one.

The eighth book on my list was The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans. This is probably the most “niche” book Mohler recommended and it is going to appeal to only a narrow spectrum of readers. Thankfully I am among that group and I enjoyed it a lot. It is a huge book with over 750 pages of text (and over a hundred pages of end notes and indexes). Mohler says, “Richard J. Evans’ achievement is to tell this massive story in a way that maintains the reader’s attention and provides detail missing from other accounts. The Third Reich ‘continues to command the attention of thinking people around the world,’ Evans states. For this reason, thinking people will be especially appreciative of The Third Reich at War.” And he is right on. This book not only completes Evans’ trilogy on the Third Reich but it does so in a way that is interesting and wide-reaching. He looks to far more than the battles but looks as well to the home front and the foreign frontiers. He looks to economies, media and even art during the Second World War. This is a must-read for any serious student of World War II. But beyond that crowd I suspect it will have only very limited appeal. If there is a knock on this book it is the sheer space it gives to atrocities. There must be at least two hundred pages that describe the various ways and means by which the Germans put people to death. We cannot downplay such acts and yet, at the same time, it may be that Evans gives them just a little bit too much ink. It is hard to know. Regardless, the book is fascinating and well worth the read.

I mentioned in my first post that in his “Reading List” feature Mohler had recommended a novel that looked rather interesting: City of Thieves by David Benioff. I decided to give it a read. Mohler said of it, “City of Thieves is brutal, and is not for the faint of heart. It glides very close to nihilism, but pulls back. It is one of the most thought-provoking coming-of-age novels I have read in years.” It is, indeed, a great story—so simple and yet so interesting. Quite simply, it tells of two young men, one a deserter and the other a thief, who, during the German’s brutal siege of Leningrad, are given a chance to save their lives by complying with a commander’s strange request: find a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. Again, the story is brilliant and the writing is nothing short of excellent. But the language and much of the narrative is absolutely filthy. There is constant profanity and more vulgarity than in any other novel I’ve ever read. There is lots of (mostly non-graphic) sex and ongoing coarse jesting from cover to cover. So I’m not quite sure what to say. I usually hand any novels I read to Aileen so she can enjoy them after me; but this one I just got rid of. As good as the story is, I just don’t think I could recommend it to her or to anyone else. It is brutal, indeed. And I have to think it could have been just as good, or maybe better, without all the filth.

And that’s it for now. I have just two left to complete Mohler’s list: Maverick Military Leaders and Masters and Commanders. Both books showed up at the door while I was writing this post, so give me a week or two and I’ll let you know what they are all about. And then I’ll have to go looking for another reading list to make my way through. Any suggestions?

Virginity Rocks…But not on a T-Shirt
This article from Boundless is worth reading just for this one section: “You see, since being married I’ve learned a lot about the differences between the male and female mind. I’ve learned how something that may seem innocuous to me may be viewed as sexual by a male. I’ve learned that a young man reading “Virginity Rocks” on a tight, hot pink t-shirt is probably not going to immediately start contemplating purity. And it was discouraging that this young lady didn’t seem to be aware that her message was not matching her medium.”

---

Duncan and Keller on Women in the Deaconate
Here is the audio from the discussion that Ligon Duncan and Tim Keller had at the 2009 PCA GA concerning the role of women and the deaconate. I think Duncan does an especially good job of arguing that the deaconate is open only to qualified men.

---

Good News for Toronto
My friend PMac is interning at our church this summer, working as an evangelist. He has begun a blog to share some of his experiences.

---

Fancy Fast Food
I love the premise of this site. “These photographs show extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants. No additional ingredients have been added except for an occasional simple garnish.” They can somehow make a Big Mac look delicious.

---

July Wallpaper
Fancy up your desktop with some new wallpaper courtesy of Smashing Magazine.

---

Deal of the Day: Fabulous Fridays
CBD has a few good deals in this week’s Fabulous Friday sale. There are a couple of Randy Alcorn books for $5.99 and $0.99, Prince Caspian book plus audio book for $3.99, Mohler’s Culture Shift for $5.99 and a picture book of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for $1.99.

---

Today we come to our third reading in Jeremiah Burroughs’ The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. If you have not yet started the book but would like to read along with us, you’re not too late. We are only three chapters in and you can still easily catch up. Another couple of weeks and it may be difficult to catch up, so join in while you still can!

Summary

This is going to be a bit of an abbreviated summary. We’ve got sick people in the home and I’ve got to split my day between work and doctoring (or, at least, running to the store to buy soda crackers and ginger ale).

Last week, in chapter two, Burroughs introduced “The Mystery of Contentment.” The business of this book, he says, is to do just this—to open to you the art and mystery of contentment. The mystery is this: how can a person be content with his affliction and yet thoroughly sensible of it at the same time, so that he even endeavors to remove it. “How to join these two together: to be sensible of an affliction as much as a man or woman who is not content; I am sensible of it as fully as they, and I seek ways to be delivered from it as well as they, and yet still my heart abides content—this is, I say, a mystery, that is very hard for a carnal heart to understand.” In the second chapter he provided seven “things for opening the mystery of contentment.” This week he continued with six more.

First, he (the Christian) lives upon the dew of God’s blessing. Like a person does not know what a grasshopper feeds upon (at least, he did not know back then), “in the same way a Christian can get food that the world does not know of; he is fed in a secret way by the dew of the blessing of God.” In other words, a Christian receives contentment in a way that is a mystery to the unbeliever. Here Burroughs offers five considerations of why a Christian finds contentment in what he has even though it may be only very little: all that he has is an expression of God’s love to him; what he has is sanctified to him for good; a gracious heart has what he has free of cost; what he has he has by right of Jesus Christ, by the purchase of Christ; and every bit of what he has is a down payment of sorts, a shadowing of the greater good that is to come. “Just as every affliction that the wicked have is but the beginning of sorrows, and forerunner of those eternal sorrows that they are likely to have hereafter in Hell, so every comfort you have is a forerunner of those eternal mercies you shall have with God in Heaven.”

Second, in all the afflictions, all the evils that befall him, the Christian can see the love, and can enjoy the sweetness of love in his afflictions as well as his mercies. Or, to quote Jerome, “He is a happy man who is beaten when the stroke is a stroke of love.”

Third, a godly man sees contentment as a mystery because just as he sees all his afflictions come from the same love that Jesus Christ did, so he sees them all sanctified in Jesus Christ, sanctified in a Mediator. The Christian can have all taken away from him and realize that Jesus, too, had no place to lay his head. He can be persecuted and realize that Jesus, too, was persecuted. And so “the exercising of faith on what Christ endured is the way to get contentment in the midst of our pains.”

Fourth, a gracious heart has contentment by getting strength from Jesus Christ; he is able to bear his burden by getting strength from someone else. Through faith a Christian is able to gain the strength of Christ. And so “faith is the great grace that is to be acted under afflictions.”

Fifth, a godly heart enjoys much of God in everything he has, and knows how to make up all wants in God himself. Here he uses an interesting and effective illustration that relies on pipes. “This indeed is an excellent art, to be able to draw from God what one had before in the creature. Christian, how did you enjoy comfort before? Was the creature anything to you but a conduit, a pipe, that conveyed God’s goodness to you? ‘The pipe is cut off,’ says God, ‘come to me, the fountain, and drink immediately.’” An extended quote will help, I think:

Now the Lord would not have the affections of his children to run waste; he does not care for other men’s affections, but yours are precious, and God would not have them to run waste; therefore he has cut off your other pipes that your heart might flow wholly to him. If you have children, and because you let your servants perhaps feed them and give them things, you perceive that your servants are stealing away the hearts of your children, you would hardly be able to bear it; you would be ready to send away such a servant. When the servant is gone, the child is at a great loss, it has not got the nurse, but the father or mother intends by sending her away, that the affections of the child might run more strongly towards himself or herself, and what loss is it to the child that the affections that ran in a rough channel before towards the servant, run now towards the mother? So those affections that run towards the creature, God would have run towards himself, that so he may be all in all to you here in this world.

Finally, for this chapter, a gracious heart gets contentment from the Covenant that God has made with him. This section will receive more attention in the next chapter.

And so Burroughs continues to do what he does so well—sharing biblical wisdom in a pointed, relevant, compassionate way. He uses occasional illustrations but useful ones. And through it all, he is pastoral, constantly drawing the Christian’s heart to the Savior. I continue to really enjoy this book.

Next Week

For next week, simply read chapter 4. Then, on Thursday, swing back by this site and we can discuss the chapter together a little bit.

Your Turn

The purpose of this program is to read these classics together. So if there is something you’d like to share about what you read, please feel free to do so. You can leave a comment or a link to your blog and we’ll make this a collaborative effort.

Church: Love It, Don’t Leave It
Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck are guest voices in the Washington Post, talking about the church. “Here’s what Bono, Oprah, and the guru speakers on PBS won’t tell you: Jesus believed in organized religion and he founded an institution. Of course, Jesus had no patience for religious hacks and self-righteous wannabes, but he was still Jewish. And as Jew, he read the Holy Book, worshiped in the synagogue, and kept Torah. He did not start a movement of latte-drinking disciples who excelled in spiritual conversations. He founded the church (Matt. 16:18) and commissioned the apostles to proclaim the good news that Israel’s Messiah had come and the sins of the world could be forgiven through his death on the cross (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:14-36).”

---

Free Christian Audio
This month’s free download from Christian Audio is Francis Chan’s Crazy Love, a book that is well worth reading and/or listening to.

---

My Canada Includes Canada
An opinion column from the Ottawa Citizen that may interest my fellow Canucks. “I will not, and vow I will never, call it “Canada Day” without inverted commas. It would not matter to me if every other living Canadian called it that without further thought. It continues to be Dominion Day, in my view: the patriotic anniversary of my own country. God Himself cannot rewrite history; I recognize no Act of Parliament that attempts to do so.”

---

The Worst First Page Ever
This may well be the worst opening page of a novel in all of human history. I think we can blame self-publishing for this monstrosity!

---

Death by Show Business
Jim Spiegel: “The death of Michael Jackson last week is in some ways a distinctively American tragedy. While there is nothing new under the sun about the soul-crushing effects of fame and fortune, the dynamics involved in the demise of the greatest pop icon of his generation are eerily familiar.”

---

Top Commentaries
Keith Mathison has completed his look at the top five commentaries on every book of the Bible. You can see a series roundup here.

---

It is Canada Day today and I’m taking the day off. My kids have been begging go to a ball game so a bit later on I’ll be taking them to see the Jays play the Rays. It seemed that on Canada Day it would make sense to write a little bit about Canada’s national anthem.

Canada may be unique as a nation that has two official national anthems. I was too lazy to do the legwork to find if there are any other nations with two, but I suspect there are not. To add to the strangeness, both of Canada’s anthems are entitled “O Canada.” Many people erroneously spell “O” as “Oh.” In reality the “O” is used as a vocative to apostrophize Canada and rather than as an exclamation. But most people prefer it as an exclamation.

O Canada was proclaimed to be Canada’s official anthem on July 1, 1980 (July 1 being Canada Day). Yet it was first sung almost exactly 100 years earlier. The music was composed by Calixa Lavallée who at that time was a well-known composer. But, as we know, popularity is fleeting and I’d guess you do not have any of his albums in your collection. The lyrics were written in French. Though it was well received on the occasion it was first performed, it had little immediate impact beyond that evening. Here is the song as it was first composed. For those who do not speak French, I’ve included a rough English translation:

Ô Canada ! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux !
Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
Il sait porter la croix;
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur de foi trempée
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits;
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

O Canada! Home of our ancestors,
Your brow is wreathed with glorious garlands!
Just as your arm knows how to wield the sword,
It also knows how to bear the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of the most brilliant feats.
And your valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights;
Will protect our homes and our rights.

In 1908, Dr. Thomas Bedford Richardson, a Toronto doctor, completed a translation into English. A quick look at the lyrics will show why we no longer use this particular version.

O Canada! Our fathers’ land of old
Thy brow is crown’d with leaves of red and gold.
Beneath the shade of the Holy Cross
Thy children own their birth
No stains thy glorious annals gloss
Since valour shield thy hearth.
Almighty God! On thee we call
Defend our rights, forfend this nation’s thrall,
Defend our rights, forfend this nation’s thrall.

“Forfend this nation’s thrall?” I’m sure God is eager and willing to do that, but I can’t recall the last time I used either “forfend” or “thrall”, which incidentally mean “ward off” and “slavery” or “bondage.”

That same year Robert Stanley Weir, a lawyer living in Montreal, penned another adaptation that eventually formed the basis for the song as we know it today.

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love thou dost in us command.
We see thee rising fair, dear land,
The True North, strong and free;
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! O Canada!
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.

The version that was official adopted in 1980 is quite similar.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Thus we have two official national anthems, one written in French and one in English. It must be noted that the lyrics of these songs, even when translated to the same language, bear little resemblance to each other. Beyond the first two words there is little correlation in language or underlying themes. It is also interesting to note that while the songs are written in different languages, they were also written by men of different theological backgrounds. The English version is Protestant and emphasizes hard work and duty. The French version, written by a Roman Catholic, emphasizes history and national glory.

Today it is common for performances of the anthem to mix the French and English versions of the song. This leads to a rather interesting mixture of thoughts that actually makes the song seem quite militaristic.

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
Just as your arm knows how to wield the sword,
It also knows how to bear the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of the most brilliant feats.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

In recent years the song has come under attack from various parties who claim that the anthem is either sexist or too religious. Some have suggested removing the words “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.” Others have suggested ways of removing the references to God. So far these suggestions have met with resistance, but it is likely only a matter of time before the changes are made. After all, this is the nation that has legalized homosexual marriage and has decriminalized marijuana. We’re on the forefront of political correctness.

In How To Be A Canadian, Will and Ian Ferguson suggest that a defining characteristic of Canadians is that they do not know their own anthem. Certainly they do not loudly sing it with pride as do our American neighbours (as I noted last night when I was at the ball game—barely a person there bothered to sing along). “First lesson as a newcomer to Canada: Whatever you do, do not learn the words to ‘O Canada’! Nothing will mark you as an outsider more quickly. Canadians don’t know the words to their national anthem, and neither should you.”

To live is to suffer. It is sadly inevitable that in this sinful world, we will all suffer. Some suffer more than others and some suffer for different reasons than others. But the fact remains that all of us will face hardship and pain. Knowing this, we are wise to arm ourselves for those times, to prepare ourselves for the inevitable affliction. Does Grace Grow in Winter?, authored by Ligon Duncan and J. Nicholas Reid is just the kind of book that does this so well, offering wise, biblical, pastoral counsel useful to those in the fight and to those only preparing to fight. The book considers suffering in the light of the sovereignty of our wise and loving God.

“The problem with the way many Christians treat suffering,” say the authors, “is that they simply attempt to put a happy face on trials. A little personal suffering, however, goes a long way in revealing how vacuous careless platitudes can be. The issue of suffering is not to be treated in a cold and pedantic manner. Suffering is real and not something to be handled several steps removed. Yet if we address suffering merely subjectively, without focusing on the objective truths of the Bible, then there is all the reason in the world to despair.” Through this short book they attempt to address suffering from a biblical perspective, asking why we suffer, how we are to suffer and how we ought to respond to such difficult times.

The authors cover this territory through four chapters. First they look at the question of “Why Me?” and seek to provide the background to suffering and then look at several ways of suffering well (which is to say, suffering in a way that brings glory to God). In the second chapter they ask “What is God Up To?” and show how important it is that we always see God right at the center of our suffering—that we do not begin to believe that when we suffer, we do so without God. They look at four things God says he intends to accomplish through suffering. Chapter three asks, “How Can We Profit From Suffering?” and offers seven things believers can do to profit from affliction. The fourth and final chapter asks, “What Should We Think of Jesus’ Suffering?” Here they show that Jesus’ suffering allows him to be sympathetic to us in ours’ and then asks what we are to learn from what and how Jesus suffered. Thus, though it is short, the book offers a well-rounded look at the topic.

Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? was first delivered at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi as a series of lectures and that format remains evident even in the book. There is an urgency to the message, an applicability to the message, that comes, no doubt, from the fact that Duncan only had a few hours (and, hence, only a few pages) to communicate his message.

I suspect that the large type, thick paper and seven pages of related books from the publisher are meant to make this look like a more substantial volume than it really is. All-told the actual text comes to 87 pages though, again, this is with a rather large font size. So do know when you buy this book that you are not purchasing an exhaustive volume offering a thorough treatment of suffering. This book can be read in an evening and that is one of its great strengths. It is short but it packs a punch. It may not be the only book you’ll want in your library dealing with this subject, but it is certainly a worthy addition on its own merits. I highly recommend it.

Buy it at Monergism Books

How Rude Was Jesus?
This week Mounce looks to Jesus’ words to his mother at the wedding of Cana to seek to understand whether (as many have said) those words were rude.

---

Letter to a Pastors’ Wife
From the True Woman blog: “Believe it or not, one of the things I would love to be is … a pastor’s wife! Obviously, there’s not much I can do about that. But, I did have fun asking several current and former pastors’ wives to share their words of wisdom with me—just in case God has this in store for me. The following letter is from my current pastor’s wife, Holly. I love it. I hope it will help you as you seek to support, love, and respect your pastor and his wife as they shoulder the responsibilities and burdens of shepherding the church daily. So, here you are…”

---

Keeping a Child’s Gender a Secret
Jill Stanek reports on this awful story. “Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few - those who have changed the child’s diaper - nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information.”

---

Firefox 3.5 Review
Firefox 3.5 releases today and Slate has an early review. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, this is probably a good day to make the switch.

---

Deal of the Day: Ligonier Clearance
Ligonier Ministries has a great clearance area where you can get some good bargains. For example, Onward Christian Soldiers which originally sold for $16.00 is now marked down to just $6.08. There are lots of good titles, both new and old.

---

Earlier this morning I finished up Richard J. Evans’ The Third Reich at War, a very long, very thorough, very interesting tracing of the rise and fall of German military might from 1939 to 1945. More than just another account of the Second World War, this book looks to battles, but also to atrocities and to the German home front. It provides an overall perspective on the German experience of war, from the men on the front lines, to the Jews in concentration camps, to the men and women who lived in the cities and worked in the factories. It goes so far as to look at German art and music during the war. It is, in a word, thorough.

Whenever I read about Germany in the Second World War, I am amazed that so many normal people, people not unlike you and me, were involved in acts of astounding evil. While many Germans disagreed with the wholesale extermination of Jews and Gypsies and people with mental disabilities, few had the will or courage to voice their disagreements. Many were complicit in these crimes, many others were actively involved, even if they did not fully support the ideology behind them. We read of otherwise ordinary men who murdered hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of helpless people. We read of monsters who found joy in torture and mutilation. We read of doctors, sworn to protect human life, who instead took the opportunity to carry out barbarous experiments on young children, torturing them and killing them with no apparent attack of conscience. Surely Satan had a field day in Germany in those days.

As I read about these crimes, these atrocities, my heart cries out for justice. This is a natural cry, I think, and a good one. Yet so often it seems that these people got away with their crimes. Hitler, the mastermind of it all, died in 1945, but did so at his own hand. A bullet to the head hardly seems to satisfy the demands of justice based on the lives of 6 million Jews and countless millions of other lives destroyed in the war he began. It almost seems that he got away with it. Or Josef Mengele who carried out ruthless medical experiments at Auschwitz and, who after the war, escaped to South America where he lived in relative peace until he died of a stroke in 1979. Where is the justice in this? Did he get away with it?

When we read in the Bible that the law of God is written on our hearts, surely this is some of what we mean—that we have a sense of justice and that we want this sense of justice to be served, to be satisfied. We also know from Scripture that justice will be served. Indeed, it must be served. And we want it to be served. Justice is “the quality of being just or fair;” it is “judgment involved in the determination of rights and the assignment of rewards and punishments.” But it is more. A Christian definition of justice goes further. Justice is the due reward or punishment for an act. God must punish evil. We know this. We tremble at this thought. Or we ought to.

God must punish evil. When we come to know Jesus Christ, we are shocked at the reality that He willingly paid the penalty for the sins of all who would believe in Him, even those who have committed unimaginable sins. When I believed in Him I saw that He suffered for me. I deserve to be punished for all those things I’ve done to forsake Him. But Jesus, through His great mercy, accepted this punishment on my behalf. Justice has been served.

But those who do not turn to Him must be punished for their own sin. And it is here that we see how justice will be served. The sin of even a man as blatantly evil as Adolph Eichmann, who relentlessly hunted down Jews throughout the Reich, differs from mine only in degree. He and I are both sinners through and through. We are both sinners in thought, word and deed. But God has seen fit to extend grace to restrain me from doing all of the evil I’d otherwise so love to do. And He has accepted Jesus’ work on the cross on my behalf. Justice has already been served on my behalf. But for those who do not turn to Christ, justice is still in the future. Justice hovers just over the horizon.

We do not look forward to the punishment of another person with a sick glee. We do not rejoice in what they must suffer. But we do look forward to the fact that justice will finally be served. God will not and cannot allow sin to be unpunished. And while we are humbled by the grace that is ours through Christ, we still thank God that there will be justice. We do not have unlimited license to sin knowing that death allows us to escape just punishment. Instead we see that death is just the beginning, just the entrance, to the courtroom where justice will be served. Death is no escape.

World Reaction to Jackson’s Death
When a celebrity dies I’m often amazed to see how many people had, in a sense, lived vicariously through him. This is easy to see in this photo essay of people remembering Michael Jackson.

---

Piper vs. Wright on Justification
Trevin Wax has an article in Christianity Today that serves as a primer on the justification debate between Piper and Wright. It is a good way of getting oriented in the debate.

---

See it to Believe it
This car makes quite the statement.

---

Counting the Cost of Sexual Immorality
Randy Alcorn: “About twenty-five years ago, while pastors at Good Shepherd Community Church, my friend Alan Hlavka and I both developed lists of all the specific consequences we could think of that would result from our immorality as pastors. The lists were devastating, and to us they spoke more powerfully than any sermon or article on the subject.”

---

The Buzz Around the SBC Meetings
Denny Burk explains why there’s a bit of a buzz around this year’s SBC meetings (at least if you read certain blogs!).

---

Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics
Just owning this set of four volumes adds about 3 points to your I.Q. and is guaranteed to impress your friends. Monergism Books is offering it $79 or a 61% discount.

---