Why Was I Made?

I just read an article written by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones - published on the internet. He asked the question concerning "What does God truly wants for us?" In short, his answer is, our worship and service. We were made to love God, to walk with God, to live and move in his Being. This is the last thing in our hearts desire till God reaches out to us in mercy, uniting us to Jesus Christ through a covenant sealed by His blood. This is the evangelical truth. To publish this glad tiding is to live out our very reason for being as individual Christians and, even more so, for the Body of Christ collectively. We are wrong or we are right based on our faithful execution of this purpose.

As the worldwide web will often do, this article led to another, then another. A string of links landed me on an in-house feud within international evangelicalism. This uneasiness came to full flower in 1966 when Dr. Lloyd-Jones addressed a conference along with his fellow Anglicans, JI Packer and John Stott. Since the late 1940's these three Christian men stood head and shoulders above all others in their witness to the cause of the Gospel within British evangelicalism in general and the Anglican Church in particular.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones challenged his two friends to join him in withdrawing from the Church of England to form an independent denomination whose witness and mission was clearly in line with a message all three held to be true. His argument was that remaining in an ever increasingly liberal denomination confused the hearers of the Gospel. By association, the lost would justly draw the conclusion that the message of Liberalism was equal to the Gospel. They will assume we can faithful if we can recite mindless liturgies, if we take part in pointless rituals, if only we love the earth, if we are vaguely spiritual, if only we seek peace at the price of liberty, and sexual justice at the price of righteousness.

This passage in Isaiah has tormented me over the years I have ministered as an evangelical in a liberal denomination,


Isaiah 62:1 (RSV)
¹ For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until her vindication goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a burning torch.


If this current scandal is approved I may have to say,

Despite Zion's sake I have kept silent,
For the sake of the board of pensions or the deed to a nearly empty building I have rested the Lord's case,
I have incited God's judgment by becoming too comfortable with the darkness,
and I have quenched the renewing light of God's righteousness with the message of peace, peace when their is no peace.

I wonder how we who know the Lord will fair when we are asked for a stewardship report concerning how well we managed the mysteries placed in our custody. Have we handled the truth with due zeal and faithfulness.



In his exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, says, "Do you know anything of this fire? If you do not, confess it to God and acknowledge it. Repent, and ask Him to send the Spirit and His love into you until you are melted and moved, until you are filled with his love divine, and know His love to you, and rejoice in it as his child, and look forward to the hope of the coming glory. 'Quench not the Spirit', but rather 'be filled with the Spirit' and 'rejoice in Christ Jesus'".