Comfort Ye My People

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God,

Speak Tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her.

that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned

that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Isaiah :40 1-2

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him. (Heidelberg Catechism Q and A 1)

           As 2019 comes to a close and with the rise and fall of Advent, I have been reflecting upon a single word that I believe summarizes the season that I have enjoyed thus far. This word is comfort. The Meriam Webster Dictionary defines the word comfort in this way: to give strength and hope to; to ease the grief or trouble of.  According to the dictionary the word can also be described as a noun: strengthening aid; consolation in time of trouble or worry;  a feeling of relief or encouragement; a satisfying or enjoyable experience. As the dawn that will soon be the first day of 2020 approaches, as I have watched my beloved friends suffer unspeakably hard circumstances, as I anticipate the freightening possibility of my own suffering, as I have been consistently reminded of the sufficiency of Christ in my life every Lord's Day, I have come to realize that comfort , particularly Gospel comfort, is what is needed to travail this veil of tears that we call life. Where will the people of God find comfort in 2020? I cannot think of any other place more satisfying than the source of all comfort: Christ. 

Jesus comforts us in His incarnation

Comfort is found in a little babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, this Christ who condescended to dress Himself in the frailty of human likeness. He also endured this veil of tears and wept with us and for us, with the culmination of His suffering being at the cross, forsaken by the Father. He did this to reconcile us back to the Father. He did this to become our great and merciful high priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness because " he is one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" Hebrews 4:15. By His suffering, He learned obedience, the perfect obedience that is granted to those grafted to Christ by faith, able to withstand judgement.

The Gospel comforts our hearts and assures us before God.

 We believers have been regenerated, and with that comes a new awakening and awareness to our sin. The more we behold the holiness of God in the law, the more we can see our sin for what it is. With this heightened sensitivity to our sin,  it is easy waiver into doubt and despair. For how can a holy and righteous God still love us after we have blown it over and over again?  The Gospel consoles us. It calms our terrified consciences and assures us that Christ did all that was necessary to approach God as our Father. He lived a life of perfect obedience in our place. He absorbed the wrath of God in our place. He was buried and was raised for our justification three days later. He is now sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. This age old Gospel story is not just for unbelievers, but also for the comfort and consolation of the people of God.

Comfort is found in the promise of the age to come. 

The world we live in is plagued by the consequences of the sin of our first parents. Believers and non-believers alike live with these consequences every day. We endure the sting of disappointment, the hurt of broken relationships, and the loss of loved ones. We see injustice, hatred, and malice. We endure the wasting away of our own bodies and eventually we all will succumb to the sting of death. We live in the tension of the already and not yet. As believers we wait with joyful anticipation of the second coming of Christ. It will be a time of great joy for us, for our faith will be made sight. We will see and be satisfied by the coming of the Lord. He will wipe away our tears forever. He will be our everlasting light. Our long and arduous struggle with sin will be won in a blink of an eye. We will be transformed into the image of Christ- perfectly impervious to sin and death. What a glorious day that will be!

To know that we belong to Christ is a great comfort. It is a comfort that fills our hearts with joy and gratitude.  May Paul’s words from the last few verses of Romans 8 give you the comfort to wait patiently and endure with hope the trials that are sure to come in 2020:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us?32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[j] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-37)