Scott Volmer, Author at Kuyperian Commentary

On February 8, 2019 By Scott Volmer In Politics 3

New Year, New Mercy

Yes, you read that title correctly. I’m late to the game and I’m writing about New Years when I could be writing about Valentine’s Day. Some may see that as a missed opportunity, or bad marketing, but I like to think outside the box, so here we are.

With the New Year comes a new opportunity for introspection. We can look back on this period of time, one year, a helpful metric, and think on how far we’ve progressed or regressed, how we’ve grown closer to the Lord or been drawn away from Him, and we can make plans to help us improve in the coming months. Now it’s February, so you’ve had a whole month to think about it, no excuses.

And the internet is full of articles that are meant to help you take advantage of this next year to become a better you, from both Christian and non-Christian sources. Many of these articles can be beneficial, it’s good to workout and exercise, eat clean, or practice spiritual disciplines (like reading Scripture, having time for quiet prayer, serving in the church, etc..), but most of these types of articles ignore our deepest need and the greatest catalyst for change. You do not need to work harder to be a better Christian this year, you do not need to labor for God’s love or grace. The potential for personal growth comes not from within, but from without.

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On January 31, 2019 By Scott Volmer In Theology, Worship Like

The Sacramental God

Saint Augustine famously wrote that the sacraments are visible signs of invisible graces. ^a This definition helps us understand the two sacraments of the Protestant church, surely, but with a little bit of imagination, one can read through the whole of the Scriptures and see sacraments, or at least sacramental imagery, on every page.

For example, in Genesis 1, God set the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night. Every day when the sun rises, men rise with it and when the sun sets, men sleep. Throughout Scripture, sleep is representative of death ( Job 14:10-12, Ps. 13:3, Mark 5:39, etc.), so it seems that the cycle of night and day which governs our lives points to the greater reality of death and resurrection. When we go to sleep, we die. When the sun rises, we are born again. In this way, when Christ rose, He signified the rising of a new creation as Colossians 1:15 teaches us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” As the rising sun governs our day, the risen Son governs all of our lives.

Genesis 2 tell the creation story of what I believe to be perhaps the most meaningful, though that’s not to say the most important, sacramental image of all: mankind. Like water, bread, and wine, the elements that make up Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Adam was created out of a basic element. Dust. God did not choose the most radiant of his newly formed creation, the sun, to be His image bearer on earth. Nor did He choose animals that will later be used to symbolically describe the Lord, such as the lion or lamb. Instead, God chose to transform the most basic element of His creation into His own representative, fashioning the dust into a being made in His own likeness. It was into the dust of the ground that God breathed His Spirit into. God presented man as His visible representative on earth, just as later Christ presented bread and wine as representations of His body and blood.

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