D.A. Carson on What Matters Most: Faith or Christ

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Monday, February 01, 2016

D.A. Carson speaking at Bethlehem 2016 Conference for Pastors and Church Leaders in Minneapolis, Minnesota. | Screenshot

Theologian D.A. Carson, president of The Gospel Coalition, explored the ground of all human assurances before God, tackling the question in a message about which matters more, the intensity of faith or its object.

Speaking at the Bethlehem 2016 Conference for Pastors and Church Leaders in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Carson asked listeners to picture two Jews by the names of Smith and Brown.

"The day before the first Passover, having a little discussion in the Land of Goshen, Smith says to Brown, 'Boy, you're a little nervous about what's gonna happen tonight?'" Carson, a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, said in the message titled, "How Long, O Lord? Steadying Our Soul in the Midst of the Storm."

"'Brown says, 'Well, God told us what to do through His servant Moses. You don't have to be nervous,'" Carson continued. Brown then asks Smith if he hadn't slaughtered the lamb, put the blood on the doorposts, suggesting that that's all he needed to do before eating the Passover meal.

"Of course, I've done that; I'm not stupid, but still, pretty scary when you think of all the things that have happened around here recently, you know," Smith responds, referring to incidents recorded in the Bible like river turning into blood. "Pretty awful. And now, there's a threat of the first born being killed, you know," Smith adds. "It's alright for you, you've got three sons, I've only got one … and the angel of death is passing through tonight, you know. … I'll be glad when this night is over.'

Brown responds by saying, "Bring it on. I trust the promises of God."

"That night, the angel of death swept through the land," Carson continued, and then asked the listeners, "Which one lost his son?" After a long pause, he said, "Neither."

"Because death doesn't pass over them on the ground of the intensity or the clarity of the faith exercised, but on the ground of the blood of the lamb," Carson explained. "That's what silences the accuser."

We don't need to offer any excuses, that we tried hard, Carson added. It is enough that Jesus died, that He for me, he said. "That's the ground for all human assurance before God."

We are so fickle when it comes to the intensity of our faith, but the ground of overcoming the evil one is the object of our faith, "the ground of the blood the Lamb," he concluded.