World Order, World at War

As part of my devotion in the morning I am reading things from the ever-growing piles of that which I desire to read. Within those stacks are a variety of subject matters: that which is beneficial to spiritual growth, material to keep me relevant, and works that help me know the enemy, whether in my own heart or some twist on the truth proclaimed in the world. This morning some of my supplementary reading came from last month’s Tabletalk. In the Seek Ye First section, R.C. Sproul Jr. writes on “Knowing the Enemy.” R.C. Jr. identifies “at least three wars going on at the same time.”

1. The war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

2. The struggle of the spiritual man with the natural man.

3. The battle within natural man between the remnants of the image of God and the brokenness of the fall.

It is to this last battle that I wish to allude with R.C. Jr.’s own words:

The unregenerate man, because he yet carries the image of God in him, desires peace, order, joy, purpose and integrity. But because he is a sinner, a rebel, a pretender to the throne of God, he desires in turn that there be no God to whom he must one day answer.

It is a fool’s quest to seek both of these ends, for they are mutually exclusive. There can be no peace if there is no law, and there can be no law without a lawgiver. There can be no order if there is none to give the world order. There can be no joy, if there is no ultimate good who transcends us. There can be no purpose if all our lives are lived under the sun. We cannot be whole, unless or until we are remade into the image of God. God is our peace, our joy, our purpose, our integrity. Lose one and you must lose the other.

He goes on further to remind us, that it is most important that,

We not confuse those enemies of the kingdom who yet have a better handle on the image of God, with our real friends. It is critical to the grand battle that we remember that upstanding, “moral,” citizens of the world are in fact citizens of the kingdom of darkness.

For the full text of R.C. Jr.’s article contact Ligonier Ministries for a copy of the September 2007 Tabletalk. Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. is founder of Highlands Study Center in Mendota, Virginia.