day. More specifically, the lot you have received from the Father, the details of your life, were foreordained by Him who is constantly working in your life to bring about His purpose, a purpose that ultimately is for His own praise and glory. In order for us to live this out, to trust what God is doing, it is vital that we pre-hope in Christ, that we hope with a future expectation of fulfillment. We see this idea constantly taught in Scripture, (see Romans 8:24–25, Romans 15:12, 1 Corinthians 15:19). Like a woman in labor, like a tri-athlete finishing the Iron Man competition, so we endure present pain and suffering looking for the payoff, the time of fulfillment and joy, the final redemption of our bodies.
The only way you can pre-hope in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus our Prophet, Priest, and King, is to know God better, to trust Him in His attributes. Consider three of them. First is His aseity (from the Latin a se, meaning from Himself). God is self-existent, independent of us, (see Psalm 115:3, Isaiah 45:6–7, Acts 17:24–25). God is not helped or hindered by anything we do or do not do. He does as He pleases because He is sovereign. If we stop here, however, then God seems capricious, arbitrary, austere, cold, like the god of the Muslims. Second, our God is also filled with goodness, meaning that all He is and does is worthy of praise, (see Psalm 100:5, Psalm 145:14–16). Everything God does is motivated by His goodness. Ultimately we must say that all He does is good. But we must go further, which brings us to the third attribute. God is also wise, meaning He always does the right thing at the right time, the first time, every time. He makes no mistakes. His timing and execution are impeccable, (see Isaiah 40:13–14, Job 12:13).
What is your lot in life? Suffering is normative. It is not the exception but the rule. Are you willing to pre-hope in Christ by growing in your practical, experiential understanding of His aseity, goodness, and wisdom?
But why does God allow or bring suffering? Why must this be our foreordained lot? Secondarily because He knows that suffering weans us from the world, drives us to Christ for salvation, keeps us as believers at the foot of the cross, and sanctifies us, makes us more holy, (see 1 Peter 5:10). But primarily because He is worthy of our praise and everything He does is calculated to bring praise to Him. This statement would be arrogant if it were not made by God Himself. You see, our Savior is, to use the words of Jonathan Edwards, “All together lovely.” Seek after a deeper, greater, more experiential knowledge of the Triune God and His attributes. As you do, you will find that your ability to pre-hope in Christ will grow and flourish.
6. Piper, Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen, 45ff.
Knowledge
. . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Ephesians 1:17
Aaron Burr was less than two years old when his father, the president of Princeton, died suddenly and unexpectedly in September 1758. A few months later Aaron’s Grandfather Jonathan Edwards, who had been elected President of Princeton to succeed his son-in-law, died from complications due to a small pox inoculation. A few months after that Aaron’s Grandmother Sarah Edwards died, and finally his mother, Esther Edwards Burr died. Thus in less than one year little Aaron Burr lost both his parents and grandparents.7 By his teen years during his studies at Princeton, Burr consciously and willfully rejected the faith of his parents and grandparents. In time he became vice president of the United States, serving with President Thomas Jefferson. Most historians consider Burr a political scoundrel, the first in a long, sordid line of machine politicians. When people from his home state of New York wished for him to run for Governor, his long time nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, spoke privately of Burr’s dishonesty and unfitness for office. When such information surfaced publicly, Burr felt his character was besmirched, and as was customary in that day, challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton reluctantly agreed but then chose not to fire his gun at his opponent. Burr had no such hesitation and killed Hamilton on the spot. Burr fled first to Maryland, and then to his good friend Colonel Butler on a plantation at what is now St. Simons Island, Georgia. Later Burr was charged with sedition but acquitted. He is buried at the feet of his parents and grandparents in the cemetery at Princeton, this being one of his last requests, saying that he was unworthy to be buried beside them.8
Young Aaron Burr certainly faced very difficult tests of faith, and we may wonder how well we would hold up under similar circumstances. May I suggest, however, that tests of faith, hardship, and trial are normative in the Christian life? The question is—how well will you weather them? Paul, in Ephesians 1:17, after saying he makes mention of the Ephesian believers in his prayers, gives us the purpose for his prayer. He prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give them a Spirit of wisdom (applied knowledge) and of revelation 9(apocalypse, an unveiling or making known) in the knowledge (super-charged, abundant, experiential) of God. Paul knows how vital it is for these believers to grow constantly in the grace and knowledge of Christ. If you live in New England or the Midwest, then you know winter is coming. You must prepare for it. If you live on the Gulf Coast and you hear that a hurricane is coming, then you prepare. Likewise Paul, knowing the normative nature of the tests of faith wants us to prepare for them. This preparation requires an abiding (Psalm 42:5), deepening (Psalm 139:1ff), growing (Psalm 73:28), and living (Habakkuk 3:17ff) knowledge of God. A superficial one (see Psalm 73:10–14) or a stale one (like Demas in Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:10) simply will not do.
Contrast John Winthrop with Aaron Burr. Winthrop left for the New World in 1630 at the age of forty-two and became the governor of Massachusetts Bay. He came with a little over three hundred people, and within the first six months, two hundred of them had died. His first two wives died from complications in child birth. Of his four daughters, three died in infancy and the fourth died in her twenties. His oldest son Henry drowned shortly after arriving in Boston. His younger son Forth, a promising candidate for the Puritan pastoral ministry, died shortly after John left for the New World. And his steward, due either to ineptness or dishonesty, nearly brought Winthrop to financial ruin. Yet in all these trials, these tests of faith, John and Margaret Winthrop never doubted God. He remained their one, true constant and abiding hope.10
The greater your knowledge of God then the greater will be your peace, if applied in faith. Jesus tells us at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24ff) that to listen and obey Him means to build our house on a rock, but not to listen means we build our house on sand. The storms of life are sure to come, and a house built on a weak foundation will be swept away. What are your tests of faith? Are you prepared to face the storms that are sure to come? On what are you building your hopes? To build on sand is to be man-centered, to view life as being fundamentally about your own comforts, desires, happiness, and prosperity. When you build in this way, without putting a growing, experiential knowledge of God as your foundation, then when the storms of life come you will be given to disappointment with God, disillusionment with your place in His plan, and despair over your future. But if you build with a growing, living, abiding, and deepening experiential knowledge of God, then you will begin to see all of life’s circumstances as being under His sovereign control. You will see that God’s primary aim in everything, including your salvation, sanctification, and glorification is His own glory. For a mere human to make such a claim is audacious and arrogant. Not so, however with the God of creation. He is in heaven and does as He pleases. He has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all.
May God give you a growing, living, deepening, and abiding experiential knowledge of Him! This knowledge is the essence of revival living. How can you get there? You can purpose to become a theologian of the heart by reading a good book or two on systematic theology. A good place to start is the Westminster Confession
