Gospel Prism

The VaTech killings have struck a nerve all across the country. I can’t imagine what the parents of those kids must be going through right now. To think that your child is safe studying, and to be killed while sitting at desks and listening to lectures, seems unthinkable. And yet, as James tells us, it can happen to any of us. Life is but a vanishing mist, a wisp. So how does one process such horrors? As so often happens with the Lord, the right passage of Scripture comes front and center.

In reading Psalm 27 this morning, I was struck by David’s words:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

Meditating on these two descriptions of God was deeply satisfying. At the Sov Grace Leadership Conference (LC), RC Sproul focused on God as holy. And the image that Scripture often gives to describe this holiness is light. RC did a great job of describing just how terribly blinding this light is. A thousand suns cannot come close to the radiance of this light. Moses’ face, as RC noted, only refracted God’s light, and that refraction could not be witnessed by any or perhaps the eyes would have fallen right out of the sockets. This holy light is a depiction of God’s immeasurable brilliance.

Also, God is our salvation. He saves those who are completely unable to dwell in this light. As the Lord told Moses in Exodus 33:20: “But,� he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.� Moses would be unable to bask in God’s light or he would die. His sinfulness, despite being God’s friend, would still lead to his immediate destruction. And yet, God is not only our light but our salvation. And this is solely by the work of God’s Son on the cross. There is no hope save Jesus, but in Christ, God is both just and loving, He is light and salvation.

Then, in view of these twin truths, David exclaims, “Whom shall I fear?� Apart from Christ, there is much to fear about God. His holiness, as the OT depicts, has destroyed many people as a result of continual sin. But in Christ, in David’s trust that God will eventually save through a Savior, David is not afraid, no matter the circumstances that swirl around Him. And so David would agree with Paul as he writes in Romans 8:37-39: “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.� “Whom shall I fear� carries the same sentiments as “nothing can separate us from the love of God.�

I hope the parents, relatives, and friends of the dead, dying, and wounded might find these comforting words of David.

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DJ Chuang has some great links for some of the goings on at VaTech. You can check him out here.

Tim Challies has some info from the perspective of the local Presbyterian Church in Blacksburg