Machen For the New Year

Today I had the privilege of preaching from Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." My emphasis was that because God had placed eternity in our hearts, we would remain dissatisfied with earthly things, uncomfortable in time (it either moves too fast or too slow), and that we possess a longing for heaven which would only grow stronger as we age. Calvin wrote about man's innate sense of God's presence (sensus divinitatus), but Christians, by grace, also have a sensus aeternitatus - an awareness that our homeland is in heaven. "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).

Longing to be with the Savior, and for the heavenly perfection which marks our predestined communion, is the mark of a saint. Protestants don't officially canonize anyone, but there are individuals whose faith, dedication, and sacrifice make their lives seem like bright lights which illuminate our spiritual landscape, if only for a brief time. One such light, J. Gresham Machen, died on New Year's Day, 1937. He was only 55 years old when pneumonia took his life in Bismarck, North Dakota. He was given a glimpse of heaven on his deathbed, and said to his pastoral colleague, Samuel Allen, "Sam, it was glorious, it was glorious." John Piper has a rich tribute and analysis of Machen's life available at this link.

Machen believed the church was looking in the wrong places for solutions to its problems. The church was looking externally, to the culture for answers, when it should be looking internally, to the kingdom of heaven within, which offers eternal and unchanging truth and power.

"The Church is puzzled by the world's indifference. She is trying to overcome it by adapting her message to the fashions of the day. But if, instead, before the conflict, she would descend into the secret place of meditation, if by the clear light of the gospel she would seek an answer not merely to the questions of the hour but, first of all, to the eternal problems of the spiritual world, then perhaps, by God's grace, through His good Spirit, in His good time, she might issue forth once more with power, and an age of doubt might be followed by the dawn of an era of faith" (Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 11, 1913).

At this, the turning of the year, I feel inspired to follow Machen into that secret place of meditation, and be empowered by the gospel to turn away from the tawdriness of the world, and gaze upon that glorious eternity where Christ sits enthroned in majesty. Machen was willing to give his life for that gospel, and so I can at least give my time and my attention.

"The world is lying in misery, we ourselves are sinners, men are perishing in sin every day. The gospel is the sole means of escape; let us preach it to the world while yet we may" (ibid).