Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/67

Contributor - J. Schriel

Title - Good Friday- Easter Meditation- Renewal

Topic - Easter

Revelation 21:5 -

AND HE WHO SAT UPON THE THRONE SAID: "BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW."

Our Church is reformed and yet always reforming: reformed from errors and reforming, because our Church is a living Church.

So has our living God constantly brought renewal to His Church and her members, because the Head and King of our Church is a living Saviour.

At Easter the triumphant Spirit of Jesus Christ burst all the fetters by which men had tried to subdue it. "He lives, God has raised Him from the dead" was the joyful statement, made by an ever increasing stream of His followers. And John on Patmos repeated this in other words in his prophecy: "And he who sat upon the throne said: "Behold, I make all things new."

The history of the Jews in a history of constant renewal, a history of turning away from God and return to Him, of renewal of vows of obedience and from God's side of assurances of His grace. We also can point at renewals that God has effectuated in the Christian Church throughout the ages: Not only renewal at Easter and Pentecost, but also renewal through the labours of zealous servants of the Lord. In the dark ages we notice renewal attempts by some monasteries and monks; The great renewal of the Reformation; the renewal of different revival movements, just to name a few.

But is God still making all things new? Or is He dead in our atomic age? We are living in a world completely different from that of the early Church. Does Easter still mean for us the feast of Resurrection, of renewal?

Yes it does! The Resurrection meant that the world had died but that it was reborn, renewed. When the apostle Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus, he was renewed, reborn, because he looked at that moment upon the eternal purpose of God. And then he went out, as did the other apostles, to proclaim that the new age had arrived. They did not explain how that came all about. They could not. Never has anybody been able to fathom the greatness of the price paid by Jesus Christ on the Cross. Never has anybody been able to explain the Resurrection. They simply proclaimed the mighty acts of God, consisting of Jesus' incarnation, His life, death and resurrection. And they lived it: they had received a firm foundation for their faith and their Church would be a community of the Resurrection.

And so our Church should be a community of the Resurrection; and so our faith should be: a resurrection faith, for our gospel is a gospel of the Resurrection, of Renewal. of God reshaping the old man into a new man. By His Grace we can go through the open gates of Christ's empty tomb and receive a new life. We may not stand still at the Cross, for the Cross is not the end, is not Christ's final act. The joy of Easter is precisely the power of the Christian Church. Christ has once and for all Paid for our sins on the Cross of Calvary. But His Crucifixion was followed by His victorious Resurrections He defeated death.

That's why the apostle Paul said: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified", but also said elsewhere: "O death, where is thy victory? 0 death, where is thy sting?" Of course, the Cross is at the heart of the Christian faith; we may never loose sight of that. But the Cross is only effective when it is followed by the Resurrection.

The history of the Christian Church is illuminating here. It is full of renewal. And so it is with man's life. When he has seen the deplorable state he is in, when he by God's grace accepts forgiveness at the foot of the Cross, then, and then only renewal of his life will take place. His Good Friday of repentance is followed by his Easter of his Christian life.

God works in many and various ways. My personal experience of His work is not necessarily yours. The experience of our congregation is not necessarily the experience of your congregation. But we see His work. One of the ways God has used in our congregation is the PTR program. Perhaps your congregation has used the same program and experienced just as much renewal as ours. Renewal brings automatically evangelism. Because the new man cannot hold his peace. He has to go out into the world and proclaim the gospel, the good news in Jesus Christ. If your Church did not participate in the PTR this year, do it this year and you will see how God makes all things new.

God give that we may be or become Easter-members of our Church, and that our Churches may be Easter Churches, Renewed by God's Spirit and Preaching, Teaching and Reaching.

God is not dead. He lives also in our atomic age. And He still renews His people and His Church. The words of our text are still true:

"And he who sat upon the throne said: "Behold, I make all things new." J. Schriel

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