Forty Years Later: There is something wonderfully strange about the Christian faith: we spend our lives returning to the same story, and somehow the story never grows old. Christ came. Christ obeyed. Christ suffered. Christ died. Christ arose. Christ accomplished the salvation of His people. We know the words. We have heard the Scriptures. Some have listened to them preached for forty, fifty, perhaps even more years; and yet sometimes we sit down to hear them again with the anticipation of a child waiting for something wonderful.
I was reminded of this yesterday when a friend wrote and told me that, if I had the opportunity, I ought to tune in to the livestream of his church service. For some reason, he was particularly anticipating the message. What I loved about it was that this was not a new believer discovering these things for the first time. He has attended the same church for more than forty years and has listened to the same minister preach for much of that time.
Forty years. You would think by then you had pretty much heard everything there was to hear. And in one sense, you have. There is no new revelation coming. No one is waiting for some new message to appear. We are returning again to the same glorious truths concerning Christ and His finished work. It is still the same Christ, the same grace, the same redemption, the same gospel.
We may see familiar truths from different angles. Certain things may be brought freshly to remembrance. Connections may become clearer. Things we once passed over may suddenly appear wonderfully precious. But in the end, it is still what people have sometimes called “the same old story.” Christ and Him crucified. So what is all the excitement about?
I wrote back to my friend and told him he sounded like a little child anticipating some special event. And I love that. After more than forty years, he is still excited to hear about Christ. Perhaps that tells us something about the gospel itself. How can this ever grow old? The mercies of the Lord are “new every morning.” Not because God invents new mercies every day, but because the mercies flowing from Christ never become stale. Like the manna that came morning by morning, there is always enough for today.
And perhaps there is something of this in David’s words: “Thou preparest a table before me.” In one sense, what a table has been spread before the believer in the gospel. Election, redemption, justification, reconciliation, forgiveness, resurrection, eternal life – all those great clusters of truth gathered around one glorious Person, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we keep returning to the table.
My friend once described the fellowship of his church in a wonderful little phrase. He said that when they get together, they “brag about Christ.” I do not personally know these brethren, but I know enough to know that these are not young believers caught up in the excitement of something newly discovered. Many of them have been walking together in grace and truth, following Christ for decades. And they are still talking about Him. Still rejoicing together. Still hearing the same Scriptures. Still gathering around the same gospel. Still bragging about Christ.
There is something deeply beautiful about believers who have heard these things for decades and still have not tired of speaking about Christ. They are not chasing something new. They are still rejoicing in what has always been true. And perhaps that is one of the quiet mercies of growing older in the faith: the same Christ who was precious at the beginning becomes dearer with the years. MPJ