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The Family of God | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. So imagine for a second that it
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is June of 1859. You are sitting on the Muddy
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Waters of the Pejo River in China, right by the Taku Forts.
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That is a brutal historical moment.
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Yeah, it really is. A British naval squadron is
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trying to bypass these forts and, well, things are going
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horribly wrong. The Chinese artillery is just
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treading the British ships. Right.
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And the Americans are sitting right there watching it happen.
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Yes. Sitting just out of range is an
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American Commodore. Just say a Tatnall.
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Now the United States is strictly neutral in this
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conflict. Tatnall has absolute orders not
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to engage. He is supposed to stay
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completely out of it. Spot on.
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But as he watches these British sailors, people who speak his
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language, who share his ancestral heritage, getting
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decimated in the water, he just snaps.
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He just cannot take it anymore. No, he cannot.
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He turns to his men, orders his American ship to tow British
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reserves straight into the line of fire, and utters this phrase
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that is basically echoed through history ever since.
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He says blood is thicker than water.
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And, you know, we praise that kind of loyalty.
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We make movies about it, honestly.
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We are totally hardwired to look at that visceral, undeniable
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pull of earthly kinship and call it a virtue.
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But today we're going to look at a text that makes a pretty
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startling claim. A.
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Massive claim, really. Yeah, the claim is that this
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kind of blood loyalty, as beautiful as it is, is fragile.
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It is temporary, and in the end, it is entirely doomed.
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Our mission for today's Deep Dive is to unpack an essay
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titled The Family of God. Written by the 19th century
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Anglican Bishop JC Ryle, it is from his book Practical
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Religion. Right, and he zeroes in on this
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tiny bit massive phrase from Ephesians chapter 3, verse 15,
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which talks about the whole family in heaven and earth.
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It is a phenomenal piece of writing and it requires a
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complete shift in how we think about our relationships.
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Ryle is aiming straight at our most cherished earthly
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institutions and pointing out their fatal flaws.
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But he does not do it just to be pessimistic, right?
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No, absolutely not. He does it to set up a robust,
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concrete theological argument about an entirely different kind
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of family. He wants to walk us through the
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doctrine of sovereign election, the mechanical necessity of the
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new birth, and the absolute, unshakable security of the
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believer. He builds his stark contrast
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between our present, often painful reality and a
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guaranteed, flawless future. Yeah, he takes the very real,
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agonizing struggles we face in our earthly homes and puts them
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up against the backdrop of an indestructible spiritual bond.
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And for you listening right now, whether you are, you know,
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driving to work or doing the dishes or just trying to catch
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your breath, I want to frame this clearly right out of the
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gate. We are not just tossing around
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abstract theological vocabulary today.
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Well, this is highly practical. Very practical, this deep dive
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is meant to be a lens for you to view your own daily
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frustrations, the pain of your broken relationships, and the
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final destination you were speeding toward.
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This is about real life. So we should probably start
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right where Ryle starts. He actually begins by heavily
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validating the earthly family. Yeah, he brings up that exact
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anecdote about Commodore Tatnol at the Taku Forts.
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He talks about the warmth of Christmas gatherings and the
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undeniable comfort of shared blood.
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He does, and it is a brilliant rhetorical move.
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I mean, Rile is not some monk living in an isolated cave
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shaking his first at human affection.
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He is writing from a specific theological view regarding
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common grace. And just to break that down for
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a second, common grace is this idea that after the fall of
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humanity in Eden, God did not just let the world instantly
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descend into absolute chaotic darkness.
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Right. God preserves certain
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institutions to restrain evil and promote human flourishing,
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and Ryle views the earthly family as the chief surviving
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relic of Eden. It is one of the few pleasant
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things that actually made it out of the garden.
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When human nature became corrupted, a lot of institutions
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just fractured immediately, but that community of blood stuck
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around as a huge unifying principle.
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And Ryle says he approves of these family gatherings with all
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his heart. He says it does his soul good to
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see them kept up. But, and this is the turn, he
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refuses to let the reader just stay in that comfortable,
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sentimental place. He quickly pivots to the built
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in inescapable tragedy of the earthly family, the tragedy of
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the vacant places. Yeah, the gaps that inevitably
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appear at firesides as the years pass.
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I was actually trying to think of the best way to describe
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this. An earthly family is not really
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like a stone fortress. It is much more like a
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beautiful, lavishly decorated rented house.
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Oh. That is a great way to put it.
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Like when you first move in, the rooms are full of life, the
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lights are bright and it feels so permanent.
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But the reality is the lease is always running out.
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Eviction is a mathematical certainty.
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Even the closest family cannot freeze time.
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The nest eventually scatters. Yeah, old heads might survive
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long enough to see their children launch into the world,
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but disease, distance, time, they all take their toll.
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After a certain number of years, it is incredibly rare to see the
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entire family in one room ever again.
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The sorrow is just unavoidable. And what is fascinating about
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Ryles argument is how he leverages that exact sorrow.
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He uses the grief we experience in the earthly family to point
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toward the superiority of the spiritual one.
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So the pain of the empty chair at a holiday gathering acts as
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the main catalyst in his logic. Spot on.
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Why does it hurt so much when a family member moves away or
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passes on? Ryle would argue that the grief
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we feel points directly to a human longing for an unbreakable
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family structure. We grieve because we were
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designed for permanent communion, but we are stuck
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living in a temporary decaying setup.
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Yes, Ryle takes that natural loyalty we feel for our blood
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relatives and says, well, imagine a family where that bond
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exists without the fragility. Imagine a family where the least
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never expires. He is forcing the reader to look
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past the scene temporary reality to the unseen permanent reality.
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The ache we feel is actually a symptom of a larger design.
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And that leads to a massive, highly practical question.
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Because earthly blood ties are strong, but they expire.
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Right. So if the earthly family is
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something you just fall into by natural birth, how does a person
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enter this permanent spiritual family?
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What are the actual criteria for membership?
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And Ryle is completely unyielding on this point.
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Our earthly qualifications mean absolutely nothing here.
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He strips away every single human credential.
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So membership does not happen by natural reproduction.
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Not at all. You can be born into the most
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devout, historically religious household in your country, but
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that natural birth grants you 0 status in the spiritual family.
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Wealth cannot buy a seat at the table.
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And he says outward church affiliation is completely
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insufficient, which had to be controversial for his Victorian
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audience. Oh, highly controversial.
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Ryle explicitly states that being a baptized Protestant or a
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faithful churchman does not secure your membership.
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The only entrance is through a new birth authored entirely by
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the Holy Spirit. We really need to pause and
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explain that because when Ryle says new birth, what is the
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actual mechanism he has to talking about?
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It sounds like he is saying religion is not about polishing
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up your outside behavior. Right, it is not about behavior
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modification, it is about undergoing a complete structural
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overhaul on the inside. This is often discussed under
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the category of effectual calling or regeneration.
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Because the natural human heart is not viewed as just slightly
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flawed, right? No, it is viewed as spiritually
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dead. You cannot teach a corpse to
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love God. Therefore, the new birth has to
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be an act of sovereign resurrection.
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The Holy Spirit changes the core disposition of a person.
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Yes, he gives them new affections, a new understanding,
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a new will. Ryle uses terms like the
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household of faith and the mystical Body of Christ to
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define this group, noting that it is entirely the result of the
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election of God. God chooses the members and the
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Spirit regenerates them. And once that happens, Ryle
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argues, you can identify the members of this family by three
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defining characteristics. Let us walk through those
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because they really explain how this massive, invisible group
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functions day-to-day. OK, so the first characteristic
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he lists is that they have one father, and he contrasts this
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with the typical dynamic of his era.
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Yeah, in the 19th century, the concept of a father could often
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carry connotations of this austere, distant disciplinarian.
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Someone you feared more than you loved.
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Absolutely. But Ryall points out that
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believers approach God not with a slavish fear of a punisher,
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but with the tender, bold confidence of adopted children.
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They cry. ABBA father.
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They look to him as a reconciled parent.
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A parent who is full of pity even to the least and feeblest
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of his children. The phrase our Father which art
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in heaven is not just some empty recited routine for them.
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It is a legal and relational reality which.
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Shifts the entire paradigm of religion from a cold transaction
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to a really intimate relationship.
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It changes everything. Then he moves to the second
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characteristic. They share one name,
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specifically the name of Jesus Christ, and I love the
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historical image he uses here. He compares this to a common
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surname uniting a Highland clan. It is such a brilliant metaphor.
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In a Scottish Highland clan, your individual identity was
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totally secondary to the clan identity.
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The name you wore on your tartan dictated your alliances, your
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protection, your standing in the world.
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Exactly. Regardless of what visible
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church these believers attend or what earthly labels they wear,
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as living members of Christ, they all rejoice in one Savior.
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The name of Christ ties them all together.
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To the outside world, the name might just seem like historical
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trivia, but to the family members it is a total shield.
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It provides comfort, hope, rest, peace.
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If you are in the clan, the chief's reputation becomes your
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reputation. Right.
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Someone comes after you, they have to deal with the head of
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the clan. Yeah.
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Which leads us right into the third characteristic.
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And this is where things get slightly complicated.
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Ryle says they all have one likeness.
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They share a spiritual DNA, Yeah.
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They're all led by the same spirit.
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They hate sin, they love God, they rely on the Bible as a lamp
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to their feet, and they share an identical inward experience.
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That inward experience is the key identifier.
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Ryle lists things like repentance, faith, hope,
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charity, humility, and inward conflict.
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Every single member of this family, without exception, knows
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what it is like to battle against their own internal
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corruption. They share the same spiritual
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immune system. Basically they are fighting off
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the same types of spiritual diseases.
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To illustrate this shared spiritual DNA, Ryle gives a
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really striking example. He talks about a converted
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Englishman trained at Eton and Oxford.
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A man who has enjoyed every privilege of highly civilized
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19th century society, right? Then, Ryle says, imagine this
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highly educated scholar meets a converted Hindu who comes from a
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background of gross heathenism and holds entirely different
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cultural habits. Massive cultural chasms.
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Massive educational chasms. But Ryle insists that if they
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can speak the same language, they will feel like old friends.
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In half an hour, the Oxford scholar will find he has far
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more in common with this man than he has with his old college
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dreaming buddies. Ryle attributes this instant
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kinship entirely to the unity of the Spirit's teaching.
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It is a shared supernatural grace that just completely
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bypasses natural barriers. I have to push back on this a
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little bit, though, because reading that in the 21st century
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raises some immediate red flags. Does this idea of a universal
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family likeness not sound like, well, forced conformity?
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That is a very fair question to ask.
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If an Oxford scholar in a Hindu convert suddenly share an
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identical inward experience, are we talking about a kind of
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spiritual colonialism here? Does Ryle expect the whole world
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to adopt the manners and sensibilities of a polite
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Victorian Englishman? It is a highly perceptive
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challenge, and it is a question modern readers almost always
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bring to texts from this era. But if we examine Ryle's
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theological framework, he is not arguing for the erasure of
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personality or cultural background.
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He is not saying everyone starts drinking afternoon tea and
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reading Latin. No, not at all.
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The unity he describes is a unity of affection and
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allegiance, not a uniformity of cultural habits.
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The Oxford scholar remains an intellectual shaped by his
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environment. The man from a different
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continent retains his distinct cultural heritage.
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But their core unseen affections have been entirely realigned.
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Precisely, it is less about them adopting the same diet or
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wearing the same clothes, and much more about them grieving
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over the exact same internal flaws.
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They have the same center of gravity, yes.
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They both look at their own hearts and recognize their
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desperate need for grace. They both look at the cross of
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Christ and see their only source of hope.
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In an era of extreme cultural division and rigid class
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systems, Riles vision is actually a pretty radical,
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subversive social concept. It is.
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He's describing A unifying force that makes 2 socially opposite
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individuals instant kindred spirits.
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It bypasses class, race, wealth, education.
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It is a bond far stronger than any earthly metric of
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compatibility. It is a complete reordering of
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human loyalty. But this brings up a massive
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tension. If this family is so tightly
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unified, and if they possess such a strong, unbreakable
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spiritual DNA, why does the daily lived experience of a
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Christian often feel so incredibly fragmented?
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That is the big question, is it not?
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Yeah, Why does it feel so battered and chaotic?
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If you are listening to this and looking at your own life, you
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might be thinking my experience does not feel like an unbroken
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Highland clan. It feels like a daily disaster.
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And Ryle actually anticipates that exact reaction.
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That is the logical next step in his argument.
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He addresses that feeling of fragmentation by explaining the
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family's current geography. Right.
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To understand why things feel chaotic, you have to understand
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where the family is physically located right now.
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The geography of the family He points out that the family is
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currently split into exactly 2 parts, heaven and earth.
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And we need to note that Ryle firmly and explicitly rejects
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any 3rd state. He does, he states clearly.
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There is no purgatory. There is no intermediate House
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of purifying or training for those who die.
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Because the work of Christ is viewed as entirely sufficient.
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Exactly. I mean absolutely.
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There is no remaining penalty for the believer to pay after
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death. Therefore, there are only two
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locations for this family. The heavenly part is safe in
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paradise, while the earthly part is scattered across a wicked
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world, fighting, feeling and struggling.
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The contrasts he draws between these two parts of the family
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are just staggering. Let us look at their daily
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activity. OK, so the earthly family is
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described as being at school. They are carrying heavy crosses.
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They are militant, which means they are actively fighting the
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world, the flesh and the devil. They are on a live battlefield,
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but the heavenly family, Raoul says they are on an eternal
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holiday. Their warfare is completely
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accomplished. Their swords are permanently
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laid aside. The contrast in their condition
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is just as extreme. Earthly Saints are constantly
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groaning under the reality of the flesh.
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And when Ryle says the flesh, he means the lingering, sinful
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default programming that remains in a believer even after the new
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birth. It is a constant, exhausting
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internal friction. But the heavenly Saints are
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described as spirits of just men made perfect.
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All internal friction is gone. And their perception of reality
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is different too. Earthly members love by faith.
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They love with a massive amount of imperfection.
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They're trying to see through a thick fog.
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Yeah, while the heavenly members walk by sight, they love God in
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each other without any distraction whatsoever.
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The earth's members are often sick of themselves and sick of
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the sin around. Them they are daily learning
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wisdom, often very slowly and often through painful
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chastisement. While the heavenly members have
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finished their appointed tasks. You know, I was thinking about
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how to visualize this massive split in experience.
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It is kind of like a family where the older siblings have
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already graduated from university, they have their
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degrees, the pressure is off and they are resting comfortably at
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home on the sofa. But the younger siblings are
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currently sitting in a freezing exam hall, sweating profusely
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through their final exams. Oh man, the worst feeling.
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The exams are brutally hard. The younger siblings are sleep
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deprived, their pencils are breaking, they are stressed and
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they feel certain they're failing the test.
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That is a highly accurate way to capture the psychology of the
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earthly believer. And I think a lot of earthly
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Christians mistakenly judge the success, the size, or the health
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of the entire family based solely on those exhausted
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siblings in the exam room. We really do.
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We look at the struggling, weeping, tired believers on
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earth, the militant part of the family, and we assume the whole
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family is in a state of crisis, ISIS.
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We measure the privileges and the security of the family
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strictly by what we can see with our physical eyes.
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But Ryle points out that we are only seeing a tiny fraction of
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the reality. Right a massive company has
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already reached heaven. The far greater part of the
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family has already gotten home and is resting.
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But. Even for those older siblings,
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the ones resting at home in paradise, there is still a sense
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of anticipation, is there not? Heaven is not just a static
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state of floating on clouds. Absolutely not.
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The heavenly members are entirely happy.
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They're entirely free from sin and sorrow, but they are still
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actively waiting for three specific events.
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What are they waiting for? They are waiting for the second
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advent of Christ, the resurrection of their own
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physical bodies, and the final gathering of all believers.
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So even paradise involves anticipation.
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Heaven is essentially waiting for Earth to finish the race.
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Yeah, the older siblings are waiting for the younger ones to
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finally walk out of the exam hall so the whole family can sit
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at the dinner table together. That is such a beautiful
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summary. The triumph of the family is not
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fully realized until every single sibling is out of the
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exam hall and safely home. But here's the concept that I
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find most staggering, despite this drastic night and day
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difference in the current lived experience between the siblings
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sweating in the exam room and those resting at home.
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Their actual status and security in the eyes of the father are
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absolutely identical. Yes, this brings us to the core
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of Rile's theological comfort, the shared security of the
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striving and the resting. Rile asserts that both parts of
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the family are alike, safe and secure.
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Christ cares just as much for the militant members getting
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battered on earth as He does for the triumphant ones resting in
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heaven. He makes this absolute claim
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that not one single member will be missing at the last day.
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The theological weight of that claim is immense because the
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earthly believer often feels incredibly insecure.
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Ryle attributes this insecurity to the dimness of their faith
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and the burden of the flesh. We look at our own constant
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failures, our doubts, our anxieties, and we logically
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assume our position in the family is in jeopardy.
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But Ryle points out that our safety does not rely on our
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daily performance, it relies on an everlasting covenant.
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Let us unpack that phrase everlasting covenant, because it
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sounds like a legal contract. It is a theological term
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referring to the agreement made between the Father and the Son
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before time began to redeem a specific people.
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Meaning your salvation was secured by a divine pact, not by
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your own fragile willpower. To illustrate this, Ryle uses a
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really intense metaphor. He says, you might as well try
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to pluck the stars out of heaven, as pluck 1 feeble St.
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out of Christ's hand. It is a vivid image of divine
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preservation. The stars are fixed in the sky
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by divine decree. No human hand, no matter how
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strong, can reach up and pull a star from its orbit.
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In the exact same way, the feeblest, weakest, most
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exhausted believer on Earth is held by a grip that cannot be
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broken by hell, by circumstances, or even by their
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own failures. Ryle actually quotes a Christian
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poet who captures this dynamic perfectly.
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He says more happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in
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heaven. I have to pause here, though,
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because if you are listening to this, you might be feeling a
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massive disconnect. I want to push back on behalf of
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the listener. Sure, go ahead.
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If the struggling, doubting person on earth is objectively
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just as secure as the person who's already safely in heaven,
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why do earthly Christians spend so much time agonizing over
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their standing? That is the reality for so many.
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Why do we wake up at 3:00 in the morning terrified that we are
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failing? How does Ryle address the
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massive, agonizing gap between absolute objective security and
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our incredibly shaky subjective feelings?
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Well, this is a classic centuries old pastoral issue.
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Ryle addresses it by carefully separating the feelings of
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safety from the fact of safety. Because our feelings are highly
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volatile. Highly they are affected by our
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physical health, our sleep, our daily circumstances, our recent
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failures and the constant attacks of the enemy.
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The burden of the flesh acts like a thick fog that makes our
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faith dim. So we constantly feel insecure,
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we feel like we are slipping. But the objective fact of our
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safety is anchored entirely in the capability of the head of
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the family, Jesus Christ. So the security of the younger
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sibling in the exam hall is not based on how well they are
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holding their pencil, it is based on the older brother
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standing at the door refusing to let them fail.
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Spot on. The psychological relief this
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offers is immense. Think about the alternative.
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If you're standing in this family, depended on your ability
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to maintain perfect faith or perfect conduct every single
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day, you would live in a state of perpetual crippling terror.
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But because you are kept by the strength of God, you can fully
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acknowledge your own weakness, your doubts and your failures
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without despairing of your actual standing.
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You are safe even on the days when you cannot see it or feel
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it. That is a staggering comfort.
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It takes the crushing burden of preservation off my shoulders
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and places it entirely on Christ.
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And because the security of the family is absolute, the final
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destination is also absolute. We mentioned earlier how earthly
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families face grim and uncertain futures.
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The uncertainty of human prospects is a heavy, paralyzing
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thought for many people. It really is.
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We simply do not know what will happen to our kids 20 years from
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now. Ryle talks about prodigal
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children who leave home and never return.
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He talks about bitter, lifelong quarrels over a few pounds.
22:05
You know, people who played in the same nursery, who shared
22:08
secrets as children, completely alienated from one another as
22:11
adults over inheritance money. He also brings up disease,
22:15
laying low the loveliest, brightest members of a family
22:18
circle. If we possessed foreknowledge of
22:21
those future sorrows, it would ruin any earthly family
22:24
gathering. Right.
22:25
If you could see the tragedies coming to the people sitting
22:27
around your Thanksgiving table over the next decade, the room
22:30
will be filled with gloom. But in stark contrast to that
22:33
earthly dread, God's family has prospects that are good and only
22:38
good. The future is completely legally
22:41
guaranteed. Ryle outlines 5 specific
22:44
guarantees for the future of this family.
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These are not vague, optimistic wishes.
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They're concrete certainties based on the character of God.
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Let us walk through those five guarantees.
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The first one is safe arrival. Safe arrival means every single
22:56
member will successfully get home.
22:59
Earthly believers may be tossed with tempests, battered by
23:02
doubts, and bowed down with physical and emotional
23:04
afflictions right now, but not one will perish.
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Ryle uses the imagery of a shepherd.
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The weakest lamb will not be left behind to die in the
23:13
wilderness. When the final muster roll is
23:15
called at the last day, no one will be missing.
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The second guarantee is glorious bodies.
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We will be delivered from aching frames and mortal weaknesses.
23:24
Right now. Our physical bodies often hinder
23:26
our spirits. We want to serve God, we want to
23:29
pray. But we get tired, we get sick,
23:32
we face chronic pain. In the future state, believers
23:35
will receive resurrected bodies like their risen Lord, a body
23:39
built to serve without weariness.
23:42
A body designed to attend upon God without distraction or
23:45
decay. I try to imagine how much
23:47
comfort that specific point brought to people in Victorian
23:50
England, where disease, cholera and infant mortality were so
23:54
visibly rampant. And I think about how much
23:56
comfort it still brings to anyone listening right now who
23:59
is dealing with chronic illness or watching a parent's body
24:01
fail. It is a promise of physical
24:04
restoration. The third guarantee is the Great
24:06
Gathering. This is a.
24:07
Massive family reunion that completely conquers and ignores
24:11
time and space. Think about the geography we
24:13
discussed earlier. Ryle says it makes absolutely no
24:16
difference where someone lived or where they died.
24:18
Abraham, who dwelled in ancient tents, will meet someone who
24:21
traveled by modern railway. The bones scattered in an
24:24
Australian desert will join those resting in an English
24:27
churchyard. They will all gather from the
24:29
north-south, east and West into one happy assembly to part no
24:33
more. It is the ultimate conquering of
24:35
distance. The 4th guarantee is perfect
24:38
unity. This represents the end of 6000
24:41
years of strife, bickering and jangling among humans.
24:45
Right now, earthly believers disagree on many things.
24:49
Forms of worship, Church, government, specific theological
24:53
points. But in the future state, our
24:55
partial knowledge and dim vision will end.
24:58
All misunderstandings will be buried forever, Ryle says.
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Aphram will not vex Judah, and churchmen will not quarrel with
25:04
dissenters. There will be complete harmony
25:06
in mind and judgment. We really need to give some
25:09
historical context to that phrase.
25:10
Churchmen will not quarrel with dissenters.
25:12
Yeah, that was a huge deal in his day.
25:14
In Ryles day you had the established Church of England,
25:17
the Churchmen and you had the non conformists or dissenters
25:20
like the Baptists and Methodists.
25:22
The division was bitter, they argued, over politics, theology
25:27
and society. They would often refuse to be
25:29
buried in the same cemeteries. Looking at human history,
25:32
looking at millennia of religious infighting, the
25:35
promise of perfect unity seems like the most miraculous claim
25:39
of all. It is like looking at a massive,
25:41
complicated knot of thick cables that has been tightening and
25:45
tangling for thousands of years, and God simply snaps it
25:49
perfectly straight in an instant.
25:50
It is a stunning prospect. Ryle understands that the
25:53
friction we experience even among true believers today is a
25:57
direct result of our limited understanding and our remaining
25:59
sin. When the fog of the flesh is
26:01
removed, the unity will be absolute.
26:04
And the 5th and final guarantee eternal provision.
26:07
Every single member will be eternally provided for.
26:10
When the affairs of this world are finally wound up, there will
26:13
be an everlasting portion for all.
26:15
And Ryle uses a very specific, fascinating phrase here.
26:19
He says every vessel, from the smallest to the greatest will be
26:23
filled to the brim with glory. The concept of capacity there is
26:26
brilliant. The smallest vessel and the
26:29
greatest vessel. It implies that people might
26:32
actually have different capacities for glory or joy in
26:35
the next life, but everyone is filled to their specific brim.
26:39
That is a highly nuanced theological point.
26:41
Imagine you have a tiny thimble and a massive wooden barrel, and
26:44
you plunge them both to the bottom of the ocean.
26:46
They're both completely full. Yes, the thimble cannot hold
26:50
nearly as much water as the barrel, but the thimble lacks
26:53
nothing. It is entirely saturated.
26:55
Which suggests a total absence of envy in the future state.
26:59
No one feels shortchanged because everyone is 100%
27:03
satisfied according to their own measure.
27:05
The thimble is not looking over at the barrel with jealousy,
27:07
thinking I wish I had more because the thimble is
27:10
overflowing. There is no room for comparison
27:12
when you are entirely satisfied. The human tendency to compare
27:16
and covet is completely eradicated.
27:19
What they receive, they will never lose.
27:22
It is an inheritance that does not fade away.
27:24
So we have unpacked the universal bond of the earthly
27:26
family, the mechanics of membership in the spiritual
27:29
family, the geography that currently divides us, the
27:32
absolute security we share, and the unshakable future waiting
27:36
for us. But Ryle was a highly practical
27:38
pastor. He never left his readers with
27:40
just academic theory, knowing these staggering prospect's
27:44
demands A practical response from you, the listener, right
27:47
now. He closes the essay by looking
27:50
the reader straight in the eye with a direct challenge.
27:53
He strips away all the comforting religious labels and
27:55
asks plainly, Do you yet belong to the family of God?
27:58
He makes it highly personal. Very personal.
28:00
He says there is no answer to say you are a baptized
28:02
Protestant or a faithful church attender.
28:05
That is insufficient. He urges the reader to seek
28:07
Christ, to believe on him, and to obtain this free pardon
28:11
today. He invites those outside the
28:13
family to open their eyes to the eternal value of their souls, to
28:17
recognize the danger of their natural condition, and to join
28:20
the happiest, most secure family in the world.
28:24
And for those who are already in the family, those who have
28:26
experienced that new birth, Ryle gives some very specific
28:29
directives on how to live worthy of the name.
28:32
He says, first of all, be thankful when the old earthly
28:36
family firesides eventually go cold and the loving faces leave
28:40
us. We have a far better gathering
28:42
yet to come. That reality should produced
28:45
immense daily gratitude. He also tells believers to abhor
28:49
all quarrels. If we are destined for perfect,
28:52
unbroken unity in the future, we should strive for it now.
28:55
We should behave as if the honor of the entire family depends on
28:58
our personal conduct. Making the master's name
29:00
beautiful to outsiders, living in such a way that people
29:03
looking at how we handle suffering, how we handle each
29:06
other, might say, we will go with you.
29:08
That is the ultimate testimony of the earthly family of God.
29:11
Our conduct while we are sweating in the exam hall should
29:14
make others want to know the Father who is waiting for us at
29:16
home. This has been such a rigorous,
29:18
clarifying look at Ryall's thoughts, and as we wrap up, I
29:22
want to leave you, the listener, with a final thought to ponder.
29:26
We talked at the beginning about the gaps and the vacant places
29:29
at our earthly firesides. The sorrow that inevitably comes
29:32
as time passes and leases run out.
29:34
Think about that sorrow. What if the grief we experience
29:38
at the inevitable breaking of our earthly family circles is
29:41
not a design flaw of the universe?
29:44
What if it is not an accident or a mistake?
29:46
What if the intense pain of the empty chair at your holiday
29:50
table is precisely the intentional mechanism God uses
29:54
to force you to look up? To force you to seek out the
29:56
only family table in existence where an empty chair will never
29:59
ever exist. It is a compelling, highly
30:02
practical thought. The ache of earthly loss is
30:04
designed to drive us toward eternal permanence.
30:06
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
30:08
Thank you for listening.