Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Sun of Righteousess (Malachi 4:2) | Charles Spurgeon

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The Sun of Righteousess (Malachi 4:2) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to reform thinking. So imagine standing on the very
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edge of the Grand Canyon for the first time.
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Oh wow, yeah, that is quite a visual.
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Right. The wind is hitting your face
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and the sheer drop stretches down into these shadows you
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cannot even measure. The red rock just spans out for
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miles until it blurs into the horizon.
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It is completely overwhelming. It is, and you pull out your
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phone. You dial A friend who is sitting
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in a cubicle somewhere and you open your mouth to explain the
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scale of what you were looking at, and then your vocabulary
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just breaks. Words just entirely fail.
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They really do. You try to use adjectives like
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big or massive, but they sound ridiculous compared to the
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reality. You might snap a quick
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photograph and send it over, but you know the image falls
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entirely flat. Yeah, a photo doesn't capture
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the Vertigo. No, not at all.
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It doesn't capture the silence or the sheer scale.
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The undeniable reality of the thing entirely escapes our
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standard human descriptions. Which is a brilliant way to
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frame our topic for today. Thanks.
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Today we are looking at a historical text where a man hit
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that exact same wall, but he wasn't looking at a Canyon.
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He was trying to describe the sheer scale of the divine.
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Language hits a hard limit when we approach the infinite.
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We are left grasping for comparisons, trying to map an
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incomprehensible eternal reality onto our very limited everyday
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experiences. We use shadows to describe the
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sun. That is beautifully put, and the
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text we are unpacking today takes that literal idea to its
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absolute limit. In 1871, a man named Charles
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Haddon Spurgeon stood up in London and took on the seemingly
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impossible task of putting words to the majesty of the Christian
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gospel and the person of Jesus Christ.
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Really have to set the scene for a moment here, because this is
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not just a quiet essay written in a dusty library.
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No, not at all. This is a sermon titled The Son
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of Righteousness. Spurgeon is speaking at the
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Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, and if you look at the
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historical context of 1871 London, you're dealing with the
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absolute height of the industrial revolution.
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Right. The smog.
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The factories. Yeah, it was a city choked by
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coal smoke. The sky is frequently this
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bruised, smoggy Gray. The air smells like sulfur and
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unwashed bodies. It was a very gritty, very
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grounded reality for the people sitting in those pews and.
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In the middle of this massive, dark, churning industrial
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machine, Spurgeon stands up before an audience of thousands.
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Without a microphone, mind you. Which is still wild to think
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about. I know.
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Using only the sheer volume of his voice, he points them to the
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brightest, most undeniable object in our sky to explain the
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force of the gospel. He builds his entire argument on
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a specific text from the book of Malachi, chapter 4, verse 2,
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right alongside the brilliant imagery of Psalm 19.
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The result is a staggering piece of rhetoric.
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It really is. He recognized that finding the
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right words leaves us speechless, so he bypassed
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standard theological jargon and grabbed a physical object that
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every single person in that room, from the wealthiest
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industrialist to the poorest chimney sweep, understood on a
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visceral level. He created a detailed mechanical
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comparison between Christ and the Son, and unpacking
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Spurgeon's central metaphor is the mission of our deep dive.
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Today we're going to look at this specific framework and show
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how it clarifies history, how it illuminates Scripture, and how
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it directly affects your own personal faith when you wake up
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tomorrow morning. That is a big mission for one
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deep dive. OK, let's unpack this.
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We have to start where Spurgeon starts, which is looking up into
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the high heavens. He establishes his justification
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for this solar metaphor right out of the gate.
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He does, and his justification is based heavily on human
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limitation. He points out that if you
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possess all the wealth of the physical universe, you would
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give it away. Right.
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Like if you held galaxies of gold and entire planets made of
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diamond your hands. Absolutely.
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You would gladly give all of it to honor the Redeemer.
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But since we do not possess that kind of cosmic wealth, and since
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our descriptive words constantly fall short, we have to look for
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the absolute best available shadow of His glory.
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And the sun is the most glorious, influential and
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abiding object in our physical creation.
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Spot on. It dictates the seasons, it
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sustains all biology, and it commands the sky.
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Therefore, it is the best, albeit still faint, shadow of
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the Lord. He introduces this phrase from
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the Psalms describing a Tabernacle for the sun, and he
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applies it directly to Christ. Yes, the Tabernacle concept is
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huge here. He argues that Christ is not a
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phantom, he is not a dream, he is not a mythological figure,
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and he is not just some historical teacher who lived in
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the 1st century, died and faded into the pages of a textbook.
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That is a very common modern misconception.
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He was fighting even back then. Spurgeon argues that he's a
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massive living reality today, dwelling in the highest Evans
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canopy by the adoration of his Saints.
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The canopy imagery requires a bit of historical translation
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for us today, I think. Oh for sure, unpack that for us.
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Well, in the ancient world, kings did not just walk down the
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street to the market like regular citizens.
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When a monarch moved, they made pompous progresses through their
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dominions. Like massive parades.
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Yes, huge spectacles. They were surrounded by
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glittering soldiery, musicians and heralds, and most crucially,
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they had gorgeous ornate canopies borne aloft over them
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by their attendance. So the canopy was like a massive
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visual marker. That is it.
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The canopy signaled to everyone watching that the person
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underneath it was the absolute center of the pageant, the
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center of authority. Spurgeon uses this historical
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reality to say Christ is doing this right now across the
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universe. He is traversing the heavens in
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a majestic Tabernacle, scattering beams of light among.
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Them precisely. I struggle with this starting
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point though. Really.
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How so? Well, my instinct, and I think
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the instinct of most people who grew up in or around the
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Christian faith is to start the story at the cross.
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Or maybe we start in the Manger at Christmas.
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Sure, that makes sense. It feels much more relatable,
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much more human to start with a baby in the dirt or a suffering
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man on a piece of wood. Starting the narrative by
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looking up into the high heavens at a reigning monarch feels a
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bit disconnected from our daily ground level reality.
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I can see why it feels that way. So what does this all mean for
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the listener right now? Why does Spurgeon refuse to let
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us start on the ground? Why must we begin with a
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reigning Savior? What's fascinating here is that
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Spurgeon possesses a very sharp understanding of human
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psychology and the mechanics of faith.
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He knows that human beings need leverage.
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Leverage like an engine to keep going.
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Exactly that We need an engine, a living ruling.
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Christ provides the necessary leverage, what Spurgeon
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literally calls the fulcrum, for our faith.
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Oh, I see. If you start with a defeated
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figure, or if you start with a purely historical figure who is
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locked in the past, your faith has no present engine.
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It has no current heat. That makes total sense.
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If Christ is not raining today, in this very moment, with the
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keys of universal monarchy at his side, then the rest of the
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sun metaphor entirely collapses. Because the sun is not a
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historical fact. You do not wake up and read
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about how the sun used to shine back in the days of the Roman
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Empire. No, you don't.
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The sun is a present, active, aggressive reality hitting your
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skin right now. Yes, he is not a weary figure
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resting after a long, exhausting ordeal.
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He's actively reigning, anticipating the moment when all
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enemies become a footstool that shifts your entire mental
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perspective. You are not looking back over
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your shoulder at a fading memory.
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Right, you are looking straight up at a blinding present
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reality. A historical event from 2000
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years ago might give you a nice moral lesson, but it does not
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give you the active burning heat required to get through a
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tragedy today. You need a sun that is currently
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in the sky. That makes the stakes very high.
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Right from the opening terragraph you are dealing with
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an active force. You really are.
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But to understand how that sun got to its high position,
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Spurgeon moves chronologically. He takes us back to how this sun
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first appeared to humanity, looking at the beginning of its
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daily course. And he uses such vivid language
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for this part. The text describes the sun
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coming forth as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.
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This is a spectacular shift in the imagery.
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We move from a cosmic king in a Tabernacle to a bridegroom
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stepping out of a hidden room. He links this idea of the
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Bridegroom stepping out of a hidden chamber directly to the
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Incarnation. This is the moment Christ takes
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on human nature. And he frames this specifically
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as a marriage alliance, right? Yes, he does.
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We have to look at the political history of how wars were settled
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to grasp this. When two massive kingdoms were
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at war in the ancient world, the ultimate, excuse me, the final
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way to establish lasting peace between the warring parties was
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almost never a paper treaty. Because paper treaties get
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broken the second one side get strong enough.
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Absolutely. The permanent solution was a
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marriage alliance. The royal families intermarried.
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Because once the bloodlines are mixed, you cannot easily go to
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war without attacking your own family.
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That is the core logic. Heaven and Earth were divided.
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They were alienated, was in a state of rebellion against the
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divine. The Prince of Peace, to unite
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these two warring factions, actually married our human
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nature. He took human flesh upon
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himself, permanently binding the divine and the human together.
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But before the bridegroom can burst forth in glory and
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celebrate the union, he spends time in the chamber.
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This Chamber concept is fascinating.
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It represents the hidden, veiled portions of Christ's existence.
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Think about his earthly life. He was hidden in plain sight.
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Yeah, he spoke openly in the streets of Jerusalem, He walked
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the roads of Galilee, but he remained largely unrecognized by
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the world at large. The political and religious
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establishment did not discern their king.
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He was veiled in humanity. His Majesty was muffled.
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It makes me think of the mechanics of a seed.
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Oh, how so? Well, if you want a massive oak
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tree, you do not just throw an acorn on the sidewalk and yell
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at it to grow. You have to bury.
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It right, it goes into the ground.
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It has to sit in absolute suffocating dark before it
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breaks the soil. The darkness is a biological
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requirement for the life to begin.
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That is a great way to look at it.
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And Spurgeon takes this Chamber concept even further.
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The chamber is not just his quiet life working as a
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Carpenter in Nazareth. It represents his descent into
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extreme suffering and eventually the grave.
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The grave is the ultimate dark chamber.
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I see the logic, but practically the idea of a bridegroom going
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into a tomb seems entirely counterintuitive to a wedding.
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Why did the bridegroom have to go into the dark?
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Couldn't he just declare peace from the heavens?
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He had to go into the dark because his bride was in the
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dark. Oh wow.
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This touches on a core tenet of the theological tradition
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Spurgeon is preaching from, which views humanity as entirely
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fallen and subject to the penalty of a broken law.
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Right. The bridegroom had to bear the
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sicknesses and the massive shame of his church.
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Humanity was subject to death. We had fallen under a heavy,
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crushing yoke. So he couldn't just stand far
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off. No, to be a true bridegroom, to
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truly execute this marriage alliance, Jesus could not stand
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on the outside, look down from a pristine cloud, and shout
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instructions on how to be better people.
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That would just be a king giving orders.
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It wouldn't be a marriage. Precisely.
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He had to descend into the lowest parts of the earth.
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He had to take on the exact penalty his bride owed.
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He bowed his head to the stroke of death to complete that
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marriage union perfectly. He slept among the dead.
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The Dark Chamber of the tomb was a strict legal and spiritual
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requirement. It was the only way to secure
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the bride. But the tomb is not the end of
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the metaphor. A chamber is something you
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eventually walk out of. And Spurgeon has this incredibly
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vivid imagery of what happens next.
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He does. He describes the sun withdrawing
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the veil of night, pulling back massive curtains of purple and
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Vermilion, and flooding the earth with fluid gold.
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The dark chamber was just the necessary prelude to an absolute
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explosion of light. The coming out of the chamber
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happens in three very distinct historical phases, and tracing
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them shows the sheer momentum of this event.
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OK, let's trace them. What is the first phase?
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The first phase is Easter morning.
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The stone was rolled away, the angels descended, and the
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enigmas that it confused the disciples for three years were
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suddenly, instantly clarified. Because they had been so
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confused. Very confused.
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The disciples had been stumbling around in the dark, failing to
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understand his parables, failing to understand why he had to die.
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But when the high priest stepped out of the tomb in his robes of
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glory, the sun crested the horizon.
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The dark was over. For three days, those disciples
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honestly thought the sun had burned out.
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They thought the universe had gone cold.
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That must have been terrifying. Then we hit Phase 2, the
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ascension from the Mount of Olives.
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Spurgeon paints this majestic picture of angelic bands poised
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in mid air. Yes.
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Holding their collective breath, waiting to welcome the captain
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of the host back to his ancient patrimony, the sun ascends above
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the horizon to make his glories stream along the heavens.
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And then the third phase is where the heat actually hits the
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ground. Pentecost.
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Yes, the Spirit is poured out. At first.
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You have to realize the chamber was geographically very small.
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Palestine was the Chamber. Right.
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Jesus had looked wistfully toward places like Tyre and
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Side, but the light was contained within a very specific
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set of borders. But at Pentecost, that
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containment breaks. The light bursts through the
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clouds. It hits Parthians, Medes,
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Elamites, dwells in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, and eventually
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reaches what Spurgeon calls the Northern Isles.
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Referring to Britain itself. Here's where it gets really
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interesting to me. We usually talk about Pentecost
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in terms of the rushing wind and the tongues of fire.
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We treat it like a supernatural fireworks show.
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We do tend to focus on the spectacle.
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But connecting it to this specific solar metaphor entirely
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changes the mechanism of how you view it.
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Receiving and giving gifts at Pentecost equates to the sun's
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rays actually taking root inside the people they touch.
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It is not a passive event, no. The light isn't just something
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you stand outside and observe. It doesn't just warm your skin,
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it becomes active inside the observer.
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This answers the core question of why this matters at all.
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The light of the gospel is entirely self propagating.
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Explain that a bit more. Well, when the apostle Peter
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stood up to speak to the massive crowds in Jerusalem on the day
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of Pentecost, it was actually the bridegroom speaking through
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him. The sun's rays were hitting
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Peter, entering him and illuminating the crowd.
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You can visualize those disciples waiting in that silent
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upper room. The chamber is completely quiet.
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They are hiding. Just waiting.
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Then the sudden rushing wind and the immediate visible effect of
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that light hitting the dusty streets of Jerusalem. 3000 New
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believers are created in a single day.
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The heat creates life instantly. So if Pentecost proves that this
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light creates life the absolute second it hits the ground, we
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have to ask a mechanical question.
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Does it sustain that energy? That is a great question.
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A meteor creates a massive flash flight when it hits the
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atmosphere, but it burns out in seconds.
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Does the bridegroom's light burnout or does it endure?
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To answer that, Spurgeon shifts the imagery slightly, but he
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stays within the solar theme to describe the daily path across
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the sky. What does he compare it to?
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He notes that the Sun runs a race like a strongman, and the
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defining characteristic of this course is strict unity.
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Unity of direction. Yes, the sun does not wander
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around the sky trying out new directions.
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It does not pause to reconsider its trajectory.
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It has an unyielding, fixed path.
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Christ has never retraced his steps.
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He has never revised his doctrine and he has never
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changed his tactics. Spurgeon says the gospel has the
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dew of its youth. While false systems crumble or
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become paralyzed over time, the gospel stays fresh.
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He takes some massive swings at other systems here to prove his
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point. He talks about the idolatry of
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Hindustan being worm eaten through and through.
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And the machinations of Rome being paralyzed at the heart,
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knowing their time is short. We should probably unpack those
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specific references, because to a modern listener they might
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just sound like random historical insults.
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In the context of 1871, the British Empire is mapping and
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polonizing large portions of the globe.
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Right, the Empire is expanding. They are encountering ancient
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worldviews like the vast complex pantheons of India which
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Spurgeon refers to as Hindustan. From his perspective, these
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ancient systems are decaying. They do not have the life giving
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heat of the sun. Simultaneously, back in Europe,
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there is intense political and theological friction with the
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Roman Catholic Church. The machinations of Rome.
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Yeah. Spurgeon views these systems as
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either structurally decaying or politically desperate.
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He contrasts their perceived institutional panic with the
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gospel, which retains its calm morning vigor.
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He pairs that critique of ancient systems with a very
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sharp attention attack on the new intellectual movements of
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his day too. Oh, he mocks the human craving
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for constant philosophical novelty.
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He really does. The late 19th century was
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flooded with new ideas, higher criticism in the universities,
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new rationalist philosophies. People love to announce fresh
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discoveries and thought. But Spurgeon calls these new
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ideas broken images of heresies that our fathers dashed to
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pieces centuries ago. He compares these modern
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thinkers to buyers of old shoes. That is such a grounded working
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class analogy. It really is, he says.
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They buy old shoes, patch them up and sell them as brand new.
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Old shoes. And clouded, he calls them.
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Clouded meaning cobbled together.
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Right, patched up. People bring out these
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supposedly new brilliant philosophies and Spurgeon points
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at them and says no, we have seen those shoes before and they
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still have holes in them. If we bring that into the 21st
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century, it is what we see in the modern self help industry.
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Oh absolutely. How many times have we seen
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someone write a best selling book that just repackages
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ancient Stoicism, slaps a minimalist font on the cover,
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and sells it as a brand new lifestyle hack?
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We are constantly buying patched up shoes.
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The human mind is easily bored so it constantly seeks out the
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novel. But Spurgeon reveals a massive
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confidence in the fixed nature of truth.
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The course of the Sun does not need amending.
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You do not need to update the Sun software.
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It worked perfectly 1000 years ago and it works perfectly
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today. That is a very reassuring
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thought. I see the logic, but from a
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purely historical view, the church has seen massive shifts.
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It has been a bumpy ride, historically speaking, if you.
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Look at the last 2000 years of church history.
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It looks incredibly messy. We see splits, denominations
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fracturing into hundreds of pieces, massive moral scandals,
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and drastic changes in how churches operate and engage with
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culture. That is all true.
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How can Spurgeon stand in London and claim the course never
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alters when the ground level reality of the church looks like
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a chaotic maze of changing paths?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we have to draw a hard
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line between human institutions and the core gospel.
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OK, unpack that distinction. Spurgeon separates the
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institutions of men from the central truth of Christ's work.
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Human structures fluctuate wildly.
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Denominations rise, splinter and fall.
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Massive stone cathedrals crumble or get turned into tourist
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museums. I've walked through a few of
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those museums. Right, but the core work of
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Christ's saving sinners, substituting himself for the
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guilty, and glorifying God remains as fixed as the sun's
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trajectory. The sun does not stop moving
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just because of building on earth collapses.
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It is the difference between the meteor and the sun.
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Yes, a shooting star flashes brilliantly across the sky.
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It dazzles everyone looking up for about two seconds and then
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it hits the atmosphere, burns out and dies in the dark.
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That happens to so many human movements.
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Human institutions, political empires, or those patched up
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novel philosophies are like meteors.
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They're highly visible for a short time, but the morning sun
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provides a steady, continuous warming presence that never
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burns out. It just keeps running its race.
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And running that unyielding course requires immense
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strength, the text says. He rejoices as a strong man to
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run a race. Notice the physical posture.
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There, yeah, he does not pant or creep up to the starting line,
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sweating and exhausted before he even begins.
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He surveys the entire course of human history, knows he is
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entirely equal to the massive task and bounce forward.
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He overcomes everything in his path, dark clouds, Pagan
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persecution, papal edicts, and even what Spurgeon specifically
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calls the dense spiritual deadness of modern times.
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He dashes on with undiminished energy, and this brings up an
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emotional disposition that I think we often entirely miss
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when talking about the divine, which is joy, joyful strength.
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Spurgeon cites an analogy from an old Welsh preacher to explain
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this specific type of joy. It is a striking image.
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It is about a mother washing her baby's dirty face.
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The child has been playing in the dirt and it's covered in
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grime. The mother takes a rough cloth
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and begins to scrub the child, wanting its face to shine, but
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the baby absolutely hates the process.
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The baby cries, it struggles, it whines, it flails its arms
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around because from the baby's limited perspective, all it
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feels is the present discomfort of the rough cloth in the water.
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It just feels the friction. But the mother does not start
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crying with the baby. She keeps singing while she
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scrubs. She does not share the child's
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sorrow because she possesses something the child lacks.
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She knows the end result, yes. She knows she's producing a
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clean, shining face. The child only feels the
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immediate friction, the mother sees the guaranteed future.
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If I'm listening to this while driving to my job and I'm
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stressed about the economy, or I'm dealing with a chronic
21:50
illness in my family, hearing the crisis rejoicing like a
21:53
strongman might honestly feel a bit alienating.
21:56
I completely understand that reaction.
21:58
I feel the friction every single day.
22:00
I open my phone and the news is a chaotic mess of discomfort and
22:04
pain. How does his joy actually help
22:06
me in my current anxiety? It helps because it changes the
22:10
framing of your suffering. Human weakness brings sorrow,
22:13
but divine strength begets joy. So he is not just happy while we
22:19
are suffering. No, Christ is purifying his
22:22
church. He is washing the dirt off.
22:25
The friction you feel is not the chaotic spinning of the universe
22:28
out of control. It is the deliberate scrubbing
22:31
of a sovereign hand. He sings while he works because
22:35
he sees the end from the beginning.
22:36
Spot on. He is not wringing his hands,
22:39
anxious about the state of modern politics or the economy.
22:41
He knows the outcome is mathematically secure.
22:44
Spurgeon uses the image of the Earth swathed in morning mist to
22:47
drive this home. It is a very helpful mental
22:50
picture. To someone standing on the
22:52
ground and phillipped in a thick fog, the sun seems entirely
22:56
obscured. The world feels cold, grey and
22:59
depressing. You can't see past your own
23:01
hand. But from the sun's perspective,
23:03
looking down from the high heavens, it is shining
23:05
gloriously and unimpeded. The mist does not affect the
23:08
sun's heat or its joy in the slightest.
23:11
And because of this unstoppable strength, because of that
23:13
unimpeded heat, the effects of the sun reach absolutely
23:17
everywhere. That brings us to a crucial
23:19
mechanical phrase in the text. There is nothing hid from the
23:22
heat thereof. The heat of this sun penetrates
23:26
the deepest, darkest places on Earth.
23:28
Spurgeon mentions the deepest mines, where miners hundreds of
23:32
feet below the surface can still somehow feel the effects of the
23:35
solar cycle. And he applies it directly to
23:37
the lowest haunts of London's vice.
23:39
Keep in mind, 1871 London had vast slums, rampant poverty and
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absolute misery. Spurgeon is saying that the
23:47
darkest, most wretched corners of society are not exempt from
23:51
the heat of the Sun of Righteousness.
23:52
The heat operates in two distinct ways, right?
23:54
Yes, first it brings life. Spurgeon talks about the heat
23:58
eventually resurrecting dry bones from the grave, pulling
24:01
life out of sheer death. This ties back to the reformed
24:04
understanding of irresistible grace.
24:06
The light creates life where there was none.
24:09
But secondly, it brings severe accountability.
24:11
For those who reject the light. Yes, the heat still effects
24:14
them. It becomes a saver of death unto
24:17
death. No one gets to stand in a
24:18
neutral zone. You are either melted by the
24:21
heat or you were scorched by it, but you are not ignored by it.
24:24
The absolute sovereign reach of Christ means no one is exempt
24:29
from his influence. He rules in Providence over all
24:32
people, whether they acknowledge Him or not.
24:35
And this provides massive encouragement for a person to
24:37
take action in the world without fear.
24:39
If there is nothing hid from the heat, there is no physical or
24:44
cultural place you can go where Christ's authority is absent.
24:47
Spurgeon gives this incredibly aggressive encouragement to
24:51
everyday Christians based on that fact.
24:53
He tells them go there, for you are not intruders.
24:56
He tells them to walk right into the darkest settlements to face
25:00
the vilest blasphemer because they have a sovereign right to
25:03
be anywhere in their masters dominions.
25:05
This raises an important question about territory.
25:08
How do you mean? Well, if the earth is the Lord's
25:11
and the fullness thereof, then there is no territory on this
25:13
planet where a Christian is trespassing.
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You are never sneaking behind enemy lines into land that God
25:18
does not own. The enemy might squat on the
25:21
land, but he does not hold the deed.
25:23
Believers can face the harshest critics or walk into the most
25:27
intimidating cultural spaces because the Sun of Righteousness
25:31
already legally owns the ground they stand on.
25:34
Imagine a dark, freezing cave that has been shut off from the
25:37
world for centuries. It is damp, it is cold and
25:41
things have evolved to live in the pitch black.
25:44
Very creepy. Visual The moment the sun's heat
25:46
hits the entrance, the entire dynamic of The Cave changes.
25:50
The creatures inside might scramble away from the light.
25:52
They might absolutely hate the sun rising temperature.
25:55
But the sun does not stand at the entrance and ask permission
25:58
to shine into The Cave. It simply changes the physical
26:01
reality of the space by its mere presence.
26:03
Recognizing this universal authority, this absolute heat
26:07
that nothing can hide from, forces a massive shift in how we
26:10
arrange our theology and our daily lives.
26:13
You cannot just tip your hat to the sun and walk away.
26:15
You have to mechanically Orient everything around it.
26:18
Which brings us to a massive structural shift in how we view
26:21
the universe. Let's call it the Copernican
26:23
shift. Spurgeon insists that Christ
26:25
must be the central sun. You look at the history of
26:28
religion and you see people constantly trying to put other
26:31
things in the center. Spurgeon warns that you cannot
26:33
put man in the center. If you make the gospel entirely
26:36
about human potential, human will, or self actualization, it
26:40
leads to massive error. The mathematical system breaks.
26:44
He also warns against putting specific theological doctrines
26:47
in the center. He specifically names the
26:49
doctrine of of election. Let's define election here to
26:52
understand the weight of this warning.
26:54
In the Reformed theological traditions, Spurgeon belong to
26:58
election is the teaching that God sovereignly chooses to save
27:01
individuals based entirely on His own grace, not on any
27:06
foreseen merit in the Person. It is a waiting central doctrine
27:09
for his congregation. Yet he warns them.
27:11
If you put election in the center, you make A1 sided
27:14
system. He is telling an audience that
27:16
cherishes this specific doctrine that elevating any concept, even
27:21
a true one, above the living person of Jesus breaks the
27:24
entire system. He applies this warning to the
27:26
structure of the Church as well. Christ must be the center of the
27:30
church. No dynamic pastor, no historical
27:33
Bishop, no Pope, and no specific church government model can
27:38
occupy that middle space. He is the center of world
27:41
history, which explains the rise and fall of political empires
27:44
better than any sociological theory.
27:47
And most crucially, he must be the center of your own heart.
27:51
I want to talk about the astronomy here because the
27:53
history of how we understand the solar system perfectly maps onto
27:57
human psychology. Let's look into the history of
27:59
Ptolemaic astronomy. For centuries, following the
28:02
model of Claudius Ptolemy, astronomers tried to map the
28:04
stars. Assuming the Earth was the fixed
28:07
center of the universe, they operated on a geocentric model.
28:11
The problem was when they tracked the planets, the planets
28:13
did not move in perfect circles around the Earth.
28:15
Sometimes a planet like Mars would appear to slow down, stop
28:19
and move backward in the sky, what we call retrograde motion.
28:23
Because the math was a nightmare.
28:25
To make an Earth centered universe work, these ancient
28:28
astronomers had to invent all these bizarre looping orbits
28:31
called epicycles. Circle spinning within circles
28:34
just to explain why Mars was acting weird.
28:37
The entire system was incredibly fragile and logically confusing.
28:41
Nothing lined up naturally. But the moment Nicolas
28:44
Copernicus and others later proved A heliocentric model,
28:48
putting the sun in the exact middle, suddenly all the chaotic
28:52
math worked. The need for those bizarre
28:54
looping epicycles vanished. Everything made logical, elegant
28:58
sense because the heaviest, brightest object was providing
29:01
the gravity. And this perfectly mirrors what
29:04
happens in our lives. Humans naturally prefer tangible
29:07
systems. We can control be like to put
29:10
our careers, our political affiliations, or our specific
29:13
church rules in the center of our mental solar system.
29:16
But when you put your career in the center, your life becomes a
29:18
math nightmare. You have to invent psychological
29:21
epicycles to deal with the anxiety when your career stalls.
29:24
You have a massive theological breakdown when a church leader
29:27
falls because you have them in the center instead of Christ.
29:30
A solar system only functions when the massive object is in
29:33
the middle. If you replace the sun with a
29:35
smaller planet, the gravitational pull fails
29:37
entirely and everything spins out into the dark.
29:40
You understand history, scripture, and your own daily
29:43
anxieties properly only when you realize they must revolve around
29:48
Emmanuel, God with us. When Christ is in the middle,
29:52
the looping, confusing orbits of your life finally makes sense.
29:56
The gravity holds. So with the Sun rightly
29:58
positioned at the center of the universe, the center of our
30:01
theology, and the center of our hearts, there's really only one
30:04
practical thing left for a person to do.
30:06
Spurgeon tells us we must bask in the beams.
30:08
Basking sounds incredibly passive.
30:10
Sounds like laying on a beach towel while on vacation.
30:13
It does sound that way, but Spurgeon outlines highly
30:15
practical, vigorously active ways to do this.
30:18
First you must mock, really realize he lives.
30:21
Not as a historical figure on a timeline, but as a present
30:24
reality today. You must constantly recall that
30:27
fact against the barrage of daily distractions.
30:29
Second, you must lay your soul beneath his influence.
30:33
This involves an active daily swap.
30:35
You swap your guilt for his atonement.
30:38
You swap your weakness for his strength.
30:40
It is an active, deliberate transfer of burdens, Spudgin
30:43
says. All I am, he's taken to himself,
30:47
and all he has belongs to me. That is the mechanism of
30:50
substitution. That is not laziness.
30:53
That is a vigorous act of faith, taking your inadequacy and
30:56
throwing it straight into the furnace of His perfection. 3rd
31:00
Spurgeon says we must imbibe the joy of his strength.
31:03
We have to stop fretting over ritualists who peddle what he
31:05
calls the stale tallow of past ages.
31:08
That specific phrase, the stale tallow of past ages, contrasts
31:12
so sharply with the fresh heat of the sun.
31:15
Tallow is rendered animal fat. It was used to make cheap, foul
31:18
smelling camels for people who could not afford beeswax.
31:21
Spurgeon is saying why are you sitting in the dark worried
31:23
about people lighting cheap, smoky, foul smelling candles
31:26
when you have access to the noonday sun?
31:28
Laugh the enemies of God to scorn.
31:30
Defy the darkness because the victory is mathematically sure.
31:33
And 4th we are commanded to reflect his light.
31:36
This is where I push back a bit, or at least ask for clarity on
31:39
the mechanics of it. How does a regular person
31:42
realistically reflect this light in a world that feels incredibly
31:47
dark? It is a fair question.
31:49
You watch the news, you deal with illness, you see
31:51
institutional decay. Are we supposed to somehow
31:54
generate our own brightness? Are we supposed to manufacture a
31:58
fake smiling optimism to light up the room?
32:03
Because I do not have the energy for that.
32:05
Spurgeon uses the analogy of the planets to answer this, and it
32:08
provides A vital distinction. A planet generates absolutely
32:12
zero light of its own. Mars, Jupiter, Venus, they are
32:16
just massive dark rocks floating in space.
32:19
They do not manufacture an ounce of brightness.
32:21
They simply refuse to conceal the light they receive from the
32:24
sun. They bounce it back into the
32:25
dark. So reflecting light is not about
32:27
my own energy levels. It's not about my own forced
32:29
optimism. We're trying to act like
32:30
everything is fine when it isn't.
32:32
It is simply about positioning. Precisely, it is about where you
32:35
stand in relation to the source, and Spurgeon adds A crucial
32:39
detail. The fork that gives you the
32:41
light will travel alongside the light you reflect.
32:43
You are not just bouncing a visual beam to make things look
32:46
pretty, you are transmitting the actual heat and authority of the
32:50
sun to the people around you. I picture a dying candle trying
32:54
to keep itself lit in a windstorm versus a massive
32:56
mirror simply angling itself toward the noon sun.
33:00
The candle is exhausting its own limited resources, burning
33:03
itself down to a puddle of wax, terrified of every single
33:06
breeze. The mirror expends 0 energy.
33:09
It simply stands fixed facing the right direction and it
33:13
blinds anyone who looks at it. We are called to be the mirror,
33:16
not the candle. Basking in the beams means
33:19
angling your life so directly toward Christ that His light
33:22
bounces off your actions, your words, and your peace,
33:25
illuminating the people around you.
33:27
You do not manufacture the heat, you just stubbornly refuse to
33:30
hide it. OK, let's pull all of this
33:32
together, because the sheer scale of this metaphor is
33:35
massive. We've traced the sun from its
33:37
high Tabernacle in the heavens, establishing the fulcrum of a
33:41
reigning Christ right now. We watched the bridegroom
33:43
descend into the hidden dark Chamber of the grave to secure a
33:47
legal marriage alliance with the humanity that was stuck in the
33:49
dark. We saw that light burst forth on
33:52
Easter morning, expanding outward at Pentecost to hit the
33:55
furthest aisles and create life in the streets.
33:58
We observed the sun running an unstoppable race through
34:00
history, ignoring the patched up novelties of human philosophy
34:04
and outlasting the decay of human institutions.
34:07
We saw the joyful strength of a Savior who sings while he scrubs
34:10
his church clean, possessing a heat that penetrates the deepest
34:14
minds and the darkest corners of human society.
34:17
And finally, we saw how placing the Sun at the fixed
34:20
gravitational center of our lives, throwing out the
34:23
complicated epicycles of our own egos and our own rules, allows
34:27
us to actually bask in his beams.
34:30
We swap our weakness for his strength and act as mirrors in a
34:33
very Dark World. It leaves us with a final
34:35
thought to Mull over building directly on the physical
34:38
realities of the solar system. We talked about being a planet
34:41
designed to reflect the sun's light.
34:43
In astronomy, we know how an eclipse happens.
34:45
An eclipse occurs when one celestial body slides directly
34:48
in the way of another, completely blocking the light.
34:51
Take a hard look at your own orbit today.
34:54
Are there things in your life, fears, lesser priorities,
34:57
anxiety about the new cycle, or even well meaning theological
35:01
systems that have slid into the path?
35:03
Are you allowing temporary things to create an eclipse,
35:06
blocking the heat of the Sun of Righteousness from reaching the
35:08
exact areas of your life that need it the most?
35:11
That is the question to sit with.
35:13
What a mechanical, haunting question to leave on.
35:16
The light is constantly shining, we just have to make sure we
35:18
aren't standing behind a rock. Thank you so much for joining us
35:22
for this Dee dive on reformed thinking.
35:23
Keep looking U keep adjusting your orbit and we will catch you
35:26
next time.