Not That Kind of Blessing . . .

A few years ago, I wrote eleven theses on birth control, which you can read here. But the fact that a certain line of discussion broke out in the comments of another recent post made me want to develop my eighth and ninth points, which is that children are covenant blessing, not an automatic blessing.

In my recent post, I was exhorting Christians not to use their liberty in the area of birth control to blind them to the fact that some forms of birth control are unlawful. After all, abortion is also used by many as a form of birth control, and the fact that the phrase can be okay doesn’t mean that it must be okay. We must not take a phrase that can be used lawfully and stretch it to cover unlawful practices. In the course of making that point, I said that if not using these unlawful forms of birth control meant that you were going to have “ten babies in a row,” well, then, I said, you need to have ten babies in a row.

This was taken by some as a disparagement of having ten children, as though I believe having a large family is the necessary lesser of two evils. Not at all — I was stepping into the thought processes of someone who was thinking about using an abortifacient, and I was saying that if given a choice between what you would regard as inconvenient and what we all should agree is the taking of your children’s lives to avoid such inconvenience, you should choose the inconvenience. To understand this better, use the scare quotes — “inconvenience.”

But the interaction revealed some things that we have to develop further. I believe with all my heart that children are a blessing, and more children are more of a blessing. When children are being brought up to love the Lord their God, no one believes more heartily than I that the more we have of that the better. Don’t forget that every Saturday evening, when we celebrate our Sabbath dinner, our house is teeming with a covenantal future. That delights me — but it delights me because the kids are all Christians.

So they are a covenantal blessing, not simply a sentimental one. Covenants among men, by their very nature, bring blessings and curses with them. We live in a world where choices make a difference, and this includes the choices made by us in bringing up our children, and by our children as they grow. A man is not more greatly blessed if he has five sons sleeping through harvest instead of two (Prov. 10:5). Samuel would not have been more greatly blessed with five sons who took bribes instead of two (1 Sam. 8:3). Eli would not have been more greatly blessed with four sons who slept with the women attendants at the tabernacle instead of two (1 Sam. 2:22). And the man who contends with his enemies in the city gate would not be more greatly blessed if his sons were all across the way, on the wrong side, standing shoulder to shoulder with his enemies (Ps. 127:5).

A covenantal understanding allows us to speak to this pretty forcefully, and a sentimental understanding does not. “Every life is precious.” Yes, it is, but not the way many people assume. If I say that under some circumstances, it would be better if a particular family had not had that baker’s dozen, the comeback seems easy — which child would you pick out of the line-up, and say it would have been better if that one had never been born? But never forget . . . Judas had a mom.

“The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born” (Mark 14:21).

Children are a blessing. Scripture speaks that way, and so should we. But children are a blessing in the covenant. The cup of blessing at the Lord’s Supper is a blessing — it is called the cup of blessing. And yet, there were some at Corinth who were sick and who had died because of how they mishandled that blessing (1 Cor. 11:30). The mercy seat on the ark of the covenant was a mercy seat — but was Uzzah struck dead because he touched it (2 Sam. 6:7)?

This means that children, in order to be experienced as the kind of blessing that God wants them to be for us, must be received in faith, by faith, and through faith. The just shall live by faith, and this includes life together in a family as the children are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

To anticipate one objection, obviously parents cannot use birth control in order to weed out the Judases. That is not possible for us to do — we do not have that kind of knowledge. What they have to do, walking by faith, and refusing to listen to the anti-child propaganda that the world dishes up, is to make their decisions before the Lord. They have to refrain from unlawful means, and they have to walk in true wisdom with the rest.

The Greatest Blessing Mary Received

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! (Luke 1:42)

Mary was unique in human history. It is absolutely true. She was “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42), and among men as well. She received the singular holy gift of being the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:43). God dwelled inside of her body in human form. Then he lived in her home and was under her care until adulthood.

The mystery woven into Mary’s calling as Jesus’s mother has tempted some to attribute near divine status to her and worship her. It was a temptation from the very beginning, even when Jesus was still walking the earth. We get a glimpse of this when a woman in a crowd shouted out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed” (Luke 11:27)!

We don’t know exactly what was in this woman’s mind when she said this. But the human heart, which makes idols out of almost anything, can easily progress from considering a womb blessed by Jesus’s presence (which it was) to believing that the womb must have somehow been worthy of such a blessed presence (which it was not).

Jesus knew the woman’s line of reasoning was dangerous. So he responded to her, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:27–28)!

Do you see the guarding grace in Jesus’s response? In a single sentence he was protecting Mary’s true blessedness and protecting us from idolatry — if we listen to him. The blessing is not in bearing the Son, it’s in believing the Son. The blessing is not in caring for the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14) but in keeping the Word’s word.

Gabriel told Mary that she had “found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Certainly bearing and raising the Christ Child was an incredible favor. But it was not the greatest favor God bestowed on Mary — not by a long shot. Though he gave Mary a completely unique calling, the most important way God favored her is the same way he favors you and me and all his children.

The biblical canon nowhere teaches that Mary was sinless. She was not immaculately conceived. Like us, she “was brought forth in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). Unless God did something to remove her sin, his wrath would have remained on her like any other fallen human.

This means that God’s favor on Mary was unmerited. The grace he showed to her was of staggering proportions, and I’m not even referring to her calling as the mother of The Child. The greatest blessing Mary received was that her Child saved her from her damning sins (Matthew 1:21) so that he could bring her to God (1 Peter 3:18) — the same blessing that is given to everyone who believes in him (John 3:16).

That’s why Jesus directs our attention away from Mary, whom he loved, to his Word in Luke 11:28. He wants our attention on the gospel he came to proclaim: the free gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23) to all who believe in him (1 John 5:13). Mary’s vocational calling as the mother of Jesus was a great blessing, but it was nowhere near the blessing of having her sins paid for by the fruit of her womb.

God was “Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) to Mary in a way no one else has experienced and in that way she was “blessed among women.” But the most important way God dwelled with Mary was the same as he dwells with all his children: through faith (Ephesians 3:17).

So as we ponder Mary’s experience this Christmas, let us join her relative, Elizabeth, and say of her: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Because God’s greatest blessing is given to those who believe him.

The Christian Home: Another Protestant Reformation Blessing

The Reformation was a time of rediscovery. The church, in a sense, rediscovered justification by faith alone. The reformation also rediscovered biblical worship, and this was seen as the second pillar of the protestant reformation. As the church was freed from the bondage of a fear based religion, other blessings were brought forth.

Other aspects of the reformation affected the life of the church and had profound implications on a developing Christian society. One such blessing in the rediscovery of biblical religion was the Christian home and the Christian marriage, which brings us to Psalm 128.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
 who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed,
and it shall be well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” What an assuring introduction. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all blessedness. If you fear the Lord, the psalmist says, “It shall be well with you.”

In April of 1523, twelve nuns who had been convinced of Lutheran theology escaped in a fish barrel-wagon to Wittenburg. Martin Luther made sure that each of the nuns were able to safely continue their journeys to their parents, new husbands, or others who would care for them. After two years there was one nun left, Katherine Von Bora, and she had her eyes set on The Doctor himself—Martin Luther. However, his opinion of her was that she was proud and stubborn, and he would hear nothing of the idea of marriage for fear of ruining what was begun in the Protestant Reformation.

Eventually, Luther prayerfully considered marriage according to God’s Word and the blessed promise this this psalm puts forth about marriage and family: “It will be well with thee.” Subsequently, he confided to a friend that he would marry Katie, because  “My marriage would please my father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep.”  Classic Luther, for sure.

In 1525, the Doctor Luther proposed to Katie. She accepted and they married, some sources claiming that very same day. Indeed they were blessed as they entered into marriage in the fear of the Lord.

Psalm 128 goes on to describe the blessedness that comes to a man when he is living in the fear of the Lord. Verses 2, 3, and 4 each describe the blessedness in this life which makes up the Christian home. The Word of God tells us that belief in the gospel will result in temporal blessings–even a home unto the glory of Christ. We must cling to this promise.

These blessings also show us that what was destroyed at the fall, as the man was cursed to labor by sweat and the woman was cursed to labor by pain, is reversed under the gospel and becomes great blessing unto Christ’s glory.

The husband who fears the Lord is promised in verse 2: “You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands. A reversal of the curse delivered to man in The Garden.  The wife is described in the following verse as “a fruitful vine” within the house. The vine is a symbol of fruitfulness and joy and even of covenant faithfulness. The wife is seen here as productive and joyful and faithful. The curse is reversed for her as well as the kingdom labors within the home are shown as fruitful and blessed!

And then verse 3 continues that the children of the home will be “like olive plants” around the table. They will prove to be a blessing, but one that needs to be cultivated—the olive trees being described here as plants, or saplings, needing much love and care and food.

As we think again of Martin and his Katie, we know that they set a biblical example for all protestant marriages to follow. Love, industry, and mutual duties were well cultivated in the home. They lived in the former Augustinian monastery where Martin pastored, taught, wrote thousands and thousands of pages, and directed so much of the early stages of the Protestant Reformation. He had up to 30 theological students at a time that he was training for ministry!  So Martin was a busy husband laboring for the kingdom and seeing the fruit of those labors.  As verse 2  describes, he was blessed.

Equally blessed was Katie. Martin called her “Lord Katie” partly in fun, but partly because of her industry. She was a fruitful vine within the home. She administered the finances of the home. She purchased and bred cattle, even butchering them herself. She ran a fish pond. She was a well respected brewer of fine beer (a staple of German  Reformed Christianity). She  managed many of the affairs of the theological students as well.

Besides all these duties, Katie raised 6 children, one of whom died at the age of 13. She and Martin also had 4 long-term foster children in the home. A busy place indeed, but a place where kingdom work was central, and a place that was being watched by newly-wed Protestants in those early days of reform.

And all of this was kingdom work, as we see in our psalm, and it is called blessedness.

Katie was a fruitful vine for the kingdom of God—and  this idea of a godly marriage was something that was recovered at the time of the Reformation. The official Roman Catholic doctrine was that marriage was for the weak and celibacy was for the pious. Martin and Katie helped to normalize intimate, loving, industrious marriage with Christ at the center, a powerful force in the kingdom of Christ.

Each of their children grew to be productive in the kingdom as well—physicians, politicians, theologians. In our reflection on Psalm 128, we reflect on the man who believes the gospel and is blessed. We reflect on his wife who is blessed. We reflect on his children – who are blessed.

In verse 4 we are called to step back and to see this great blessing yet again, “Behold! Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”  The result of this great blessing is that the family–the  Christian home—receives  the benediction of God and it results in Jerusalem’s blessing. “The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel.”

When the family is in submission to God and his Word, there are resulting blessings that flow. We see that the church will prosper as families prosper. And we see that the covenant is expanded again to another generation. The psalm says, “You will see your children’s children.”

To look back to our believing grandparents or forward to believing grandchildren is a blessing that results from a gospel-centered home. The church of Jesus Christ will only be as strong as her families. During the reformation, the biblical concept of a loving, Christ-centered, and biblically ordered home was recaptured and the church prospered because of it, under the blessing of God.

One historian said of dear Katie and Doctor Martin’s marriage, “It is likely that no marriage has done more for establishing and demonstrating to the world the power and beauty of the gospel in a time when so many desperately needed to be rescued from the torments and prison of monasticism, depression, and guilt—all products of a burdensome and corrupted religion that had wreaked havoc upon the Church.”

May the Lord Jesus strengthen our homes and establish us in our roles as Christian fathers and husbands, mothers and wives, and children.And may we see the blessing of Zion and the covenant extended to the next generation of sons and daughters of the reformation.