I gotta have my orange juice.

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! (Luke 12:49-50, NKJV)

I rarely think about the fact that Jesus was baptized twice: first, as his priestly ordination, and second, absorbing the deluge that was meant for us and for the entire old world. We are baptized into the benefit of this; we are those who escape the flood and the Red Sea.

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:39-42, NKJV)

That generation was spared by the work of Jesus for forty years.

Genesis 2 reminds us that there is a category of “not good” that is distinct from “evil.” Jordan points out three great themes in Scripture: that of redemption, that of holy war, but also that of maturation. Often we are faced with the challenge of having to wrestle with an amalgam of not–good and evil. The sharpening and winnowing process God is undertaking now will slowly separate these out. At this point I’m still working for a multinational corporation but I don’t think that can continue indefinitely.

Matthew Henry the Christian nationalist on Matthew 28:

. . . Christianity should be twisted in with national constitutions, . . . the kingdoms of the world should become Christ’s kingdoms, and their kings the church’s nursing-fathers. What is the principal intention of this commission; to disciple all nations. Matheµteusate–“Admit them disciples; do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations;” not, “Go to the nations, and denounce the judgments of God against them, as Jonah against Nineveh, and as the other Old-Testament prophets” (though they had reason enough to expect it for their wickedness), but “go, and disciple them.” Christ the Mediator is setting up a kingdom in the world, bring the nations to be his subjects; setting up a school, bring the nations to be his scholars; raising an army for the carrying on of the war against the powers of darkness, enlist the nations of the earth under his banner. The work which the apostles had to do, was, to set up the Christian religion in all places, and it was honourable work; the achievements of the mighty heroes of the world were nothing to it. They conquered the nations for themselves, and made them miserable; the apostles conquered them for Christ, and made them happy.

I’ve criticized the many evangelical songs that tell of a personal conversion story, since their narrative doesn’t really match the experience of our children compared to how the Psalms speak. But Paul in Ephesians does give us a model for speaking this way, only he does it using the language of historia salutis rather than ordo salutis:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13, NKJV)

Remember that you were once lost!

Wise men know this without becoming bitter. (Doug Wilson, Joy at the End of the Tether, speaking of political corruption)