Nick Roark's Blog

“God distinguishes Himself from all false “gods” because He alone is the Creator. False gods, which are only “so-called gods” (1 Cor. 8:5), are all created in a twofold sense.

On the one hand, these so-called gods are mere idols, and “an idol has no real existence” (1 Cor. 8:4). Idols are mere artifacts made by human craftsmen.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the LORD made the heavens. (Ps. 96:5)

An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains. (Isa. 40:19)

On the other hand, idols represent something real and sinister, for these so-called gods are really demons. “What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” (1 Cor. 10:20; cf. Ps. 106:37). Therefore, idolatry involves the worship of what are “no gods” (Deut. 32:17) but mere creatures (Rom. 1:25).

Creation out of nothing highlights what is implicit in Scripture’s polemic against idolatry: There is the one Creator and there are many creatures, but there is nothing in between. Creation out of nothing therefore confronts us with the relentless distinction between God and creation.

We must register this truth in all its force by speaking of the infinite, qualitative distinction between the Creator and the creature.

God differs infinitely. Normal distinctions draw boundaries around things to show how they are not identical, but the distinction between God and creation is not like this. God is not limited by anything, even by the distinction between Creator and creature.

God is not identical to creation, but neither is he cordoned off from it. He is at once transcendent and immanent, removed from all things and present to their innermost being. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

God also differs qualitatively. Quantitative differences are measured in terms of bigger and smaller or more and less, but God’s distinction from creation is not measurable in this way.

This means that the world adds nothing to God, that “God plus the world” is not something bigger and better than “God Himself.” God measures the world, but not vice versa (Isa. 40:12–17).

God would be no less good or glorious without creation than he is with it, because God cannot be part of something else. Furthermore, His qualitative distinction from all things means that God is not even one “kind” of being alongside other kinds.

There is no general classification scheme embracing both God and creatures, as two instances of something more general, that would explain them both.

God is only like Himself. (Isa. 40:25; 46:5)”

–Tyler R. Wittman, Creation: An Introduction, ed. Graham A. Cole and Oren R. Martin, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 70-71.

QUESTION 2: How many things are necessary for you to know, that in this comfort you may live and die blessedly? Three things: First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery. Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.

“The third thing that one must know ‘that in this comfort you may live and die blessedly‘ is ‘how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.’

For the Reformed churches, the Christian life is a grateful, fruitful life lived in union with Christ, out of gratitude for the grace of God to sinners in Christ. We live the Christian life in hard times and good times in an objective state of blessedness.

Thankfulness is a major theme for the apostle Paul. As part of his law-preaching prosecution of human sinfulness in Romans 1:21, Paul uses the expressions ‘glorify God’ (ἐδόξασαν) and ‘give thanks’ (ηὐχαρίστησαν) as synonyms. To give thanks is to glorify God. In this case he uses them as part of the first use of the law. It is a fundamental human obligation, as image-bearers, to acknowledge God as our Creator and to glorify him as such.

As fallen people, in whom the image has been defaced, we refuse to acknowledge God. In Romans 6:16, Paul says that we are necessarily slaves either to God or to sin. If we sin, we are slaves to sin and death. Verse 17: ‘But thanks [χάρις] be to God, you who were slaves of sin have become have obedient from the heart.’ The noun for “thanks” here is the same noun used for “grace.”

In other words, there is an integral relation between thanks and grace. Only those who have received the grace, that is, undeserved favor, of God are those who are thankful. When Paul says, ‘thanks be to God,’ he is reflecting a basic Christian impulse. We might describe his doctrine of the Christian life as a doctrine of thanks:

‘Thanks [χάρις] be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25). Even though we continue to struggle with sin, “there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8:1). ‘Thanks [χάρις] be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor 15:57). ‘Thanks [χάρις] be to God who, in Christ, always leads us in triumphal procession’ (2 Cor 2:14). ‘Thanks [χάρις] be to God for his inexpressible gift!’ (2 Cor 9:15).

For Paul, thankfulness is not a light matter. It is a powerful motive for the Christian life. It is a recognition of what God in Christ has done for us, what the Spirit is doing within us, and who we are now in Christ. ‘How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ We cannot. With Christ helping us, we will not.”

–R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2025), 33–34.

“He loves us because He loves us.

The root of all divine love to us lieth only in the bosom of God.”

–Thomas Brooks, “A Matchless Portion,” in The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 2: 40. Brooks is preaching from Lamentations 3:24.

“Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and the dusk falls early and the friendly evenings lengthen under the heel of Orion, it has seemed good to our people to join together in praising the Creator and Preserver, who has brought us by a way that we did not know to the end of another year.”

–Wilbur L. Cross, “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1936,” in Proclamations of His Excellency Wilbur L. Cross Governor of the State of Connecticut (Hartford: Lockwood and Brainerd Co., 1937), 16.

1. Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?

A. That I am not my own,[1] but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death,[2] to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.[3] He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.[5] He also preserves me in such a way[6] that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;[7] indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.[8] Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life[9] and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.[10]

[1] I Cor. 6:19, 20 [2] Rom. 14:7-9. [3] I Cor. 3:23; Tit. 2:14. [4] I Pet. 1:18, 19; I John 1:7; 2:2. [5] John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14, 15; I John 3:8. [6] John 6:39, 40; 10:27-30; II Thess. 3:3; I Pet. 1:5. [7] Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18. [8] Rom. 8:28. [9] Rom. 8:15, 16; II Cor. 1:21, 22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13, 14. [10] Rom. 8:14.

“All who trust in Christ know with head, heart, and whole soul that as we live this life and leave it, we do so in the arms of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.”

–R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2025), 21.

“One sight of God will satisfy a saint more than all the glory of heaven will do.

God is the glory of heaven. Heaven alone is not sufficient to content a gracious soul, but God alone is sufficient to content and satisfy a gracious soul.

God only is that satisfying good, that is able to fill, quiet, content, and satisfy an immortal soul. Certainly, if there be enough in God to satisfy the spirits of just men made perfect, whose capacities are far greater than ours (Heb. 12:23–25).

And if there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, whose capacities are far above theirs; if there be enough in God to satisfy Jesus Christ, whose capacity is unconceivable and unexpressible; yea, if there be enough in God to satisfy Himself, then certainly there must needs be in God enough to satisfy the souls of His people.

If all fulness, and all goodness and infiniteness will satisfy the soul, then God will. There is nothing beyond God imaginable, nor nothing beyond God desirable, nor nothing beyond God delectable; and therefore the soul that enjoys Him, cannot but be satisfied with Him.

God is a portion beyond all imagination, all expectation, all apprehension, and all comparison; and therefore he that hath Him cannot but sit down and say, I have enough (Gen. 33:11: Ps. 63:5, 6):

‘My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches.’

Marrow and fatness cannot so satisfy the appetite, as God can satisfy a gracious soul; yea, one smile from God, one glance of his countenance, one good word from heaven, one report of love and grace, will infinitely more satisfy an immortal soul, than all the fat, and all the marrow, and all the dainties and delicates of this world can satisfy the appetite of any mortal man.

Jer. 31:14: ‘My people shall be satisfied with goodness, saith the Lord; and ‘my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus,’ (Philip. 4:19), saith Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles.

God will fill up all, He will make up all, he will supply all the wants and necessities of his people. That water that can fill the sea, can much more fill a cup; and that sun which can fill the world with light, can much more fill my house with light.

So that God that fills heaven and earth with his glory, can much more fill my soul with his glory.

To show what a satisfying portion God is, He is set forth by all those things that may satisfy the heart of man, as by bread, water, wine, milk, honours, riches, raiment, houses, lands, friends, father, mother, sister, brother, health, wealth, light, and life.

And if these things will not satisfy, what will?

It is enough, says old Jacob, that Joseph is alive, (Gen. 45:28); so says a gracious soul, It is enough that God is my portion.

A pardon cannot more satisfy a condemned man, nor bread an hungry man, nor drink a thirsty man, nor clothes a naked man, nor health a sick man, than God doth satisfy a gracious man.”

–Thomas Brooks, “A Matchless Portion,” in The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1866/1980), 2: 32-33. Brooks is preaching from Lamentations 3:24.

“And soon they found themselves all walking together—and a great, bright procession it was—up toward mountains higher than you could see in this world even if they were there to be seen. But there was no snow on those mountains: there were forests and green slopes and sweet orchards and flashing waterfalls, one above the other, going up forever.

And the land they were walking on grew narrower all the time, with a deep valley on each side: and across that valley the land which was the real England grew nearer and nearer. The light ahead was growing stronger.

Lucy saw that a great series of many-colored cliffs led up in front of them like a giant’s staircase. And then she forgot everything else, because Aslan himself was coming, leaping down from cliff to cliff like a living cataract of power and beauty.

And the very first person whom Aslan called to him was Puzzle the Donkey. You never saw a donkey look feebler and sillier than Puzzle did as he walked up to Aslan, and he looked, beside Aslan, as small as a kitten looks beside a St. Bernard.

The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle at which his long ears went down, but then he said something else at which the ears perked up again. The humans couldn’t hear what he had said either time.

Then Aslan turned to them and said: “You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.”

Lucy said, “We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often.”

“No fear of that,” said Aslan. “Have you not guessed?”

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.

And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.

But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

–C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle: The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7 (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 766-767.

“We now turn to specific themes about the world to come. The first is God’s love toward his people. Jonathan Edwards said, “Heaven is a world of love.”

God’s love will heal and comfort His people. Their healing springs from God’s Son dying as the substitute under the penalty for their sins (Isa. 53:5), but the complete healing of believers awaits the perfect consolation of the age to come. At the resurrection of the dead and the beginning of “a new heaven and a new earth, … God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:1, 4).

Christ will become our holy companion. The Lord Jesus promises, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3). He prays, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (17:24). Paul concludes his teaching on the resurrection and rapture of the church by saying, “So shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

In Christ, we will have God. Augustine said,

God Himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall there be its reward; for, as there is nothing greater or better, He has promised Himself. What else was meant by His word through the prophet, “I will be your God, and ye shall be my people,” than, I shall be their satisfaction, I shall be all that men honorably desire—life, and health, and nourishment, and plenty, and glory, and honor, and peace, and all good things?

The day of Christ’s return will be His wedding day to His people (Rev. 19:7–8; 21:2, 9). The prophet Isaiah declares, “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isa. 62:5). And Zephaniah says, “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). Bernard of Clairvaux said,

[God will] intoxicate his dearest ones with the torrent of his delight. … Here is fullness without disgust, insatiable curiosity which is not restless, an eternal and endless desire which knows no lack, and lastly, that sober intoxication which does not come from drinking too much, which is no reeking of wine, but a burning for God.

Are you preparing for the marriage of the Lamb? Make sure that you are betrothed to Christ.

Do you trust Him alone for salvation from sin (Matt. 1:21)?

By grace, do you love Christ more than this world and your life in it (Matt. 10:37–39; 13:44)?

If so, then meditate often on God’s eternal love for you. And respond to God’s love with many works of love. Prepare for the great wedding day by living wholeheartedly in devotion to Him.

Fill your time, by His grace, with good works that you will be privileged to present to Him on that day for his pleasure.

As you wait for His return, let your love for God overflow in daily praise (Ps. 136:1). This will be your preparation for the eternal worship in the new heaven and the new earth.”

–Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 903-905.

“Victory over sin and Satan was one of the great purposes for which Christ came: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Christ suffered and died as the Priest to offer himself as a sacrifice for sins. At the same time, Christ was also conquering and winning victory as the King. How is it that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered”? The answer appears in “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:5–6 ESV).

By picturing salvation as penal substitution, the Passover lamb was a type of Christ’s sacrificial work as our only High Priest. The same type also foreshadowed his victory as King. The Lord said, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (Ex. 12:12). By the Passover plague, God broke the enslaving power of false gods over his people. By Christ, the Passover lamb, God broke the power of sin and Satan over his people.

Peter says, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:18–19 ESV). The blood of Christ was the price of victory (Rev. 5:5, 9; 12:11). Christians are no longer to live in sin because they were “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). Our deliverance “from the power of darkness” is inseparable from our “redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14; cf. Eph. 1:7).

Why was Christ’s satisfaction to justice needed to rescue his elect from the Devil? Satan has no right to lead people in rebellion against God. But God justly gave sinners over to the power of sin when they rejected him (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). The penalty of Adam’s sin and our sins is death (5:12; 6:23). Spiritual death includes hostility against God, so that people are unwilling and unable to submit to his law (8:6–8).

Christ saved his people from the power of evil by paying their debt to God’s justice. Paul says that God has “forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13–15). Thus, Christ’s victory as King comes from his sacrifice as Priest.

John Eadie said, “Redemption is a work at once of price and power, of expiation and conquest. On the cross was the purchase made; on the cross was the victory gained. The blood that wipes out the sentence was there shed, and the death which was the death-blow of Satan’s kingdom was there endured.”

Christ overcame the Devil by obedience to God. In the fires of suffering, Christ forged a new humanity that obeys the will of God. He pressed his human nature into the deepest submission to God. At Gethsemane, he prayed, “Abba, Father … not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Christ reigned as King on the cross (John 19:19–21). True kingship begins with ruling oneself (Prov. 16:32). Paul says, “For in that he died, he died unto sin once” (Rom. 6:10). John Murray said, “It is because Christ triumphed over the power of sin in his death that those united to him in his death die to the power of sin (vv. 2, 11).” Christ now imparts by his Spirit the human holiness he perfected in his own human nature. By the Spirit, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), the mindset of self-denial (Phil. 2:5, 8).

Christ won a perfect victory by his obedience. By his perseverance unto death on the cross, he became “the author and finisher of our faith” and attained glory at God’s right hand (Heb. 12:2). In other words, Christ won the victory by perfecting his own human faith and obedience through trials.

The incarnate Son “learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). He experienced obedience by patiently submitting himself to God’s will, though it was extremely hard. By this experience, Christ was “made perfect” (v. 9) as the cause of eternal salvation to his people. That does not mean any sin needed to be removed from him (there was none). Rather, he was “made perfect” by the building of godly maturity and proven character.

God found it fitting, “in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). The Greek word translated as “captain” means founder or leader of a people. Christ leads a new family (“many sons”) into the “glory” of “the world to come.” He did so by suffering, dying, and being “crowned with glory and honour” to take up dominion over creation (vv. 5–10).

In Christ, we are truly free because he won the victory over all that would oppress us. This victory is the basis of Christian courage. We need not fear. No power of earth or hell can conquer us since Christ died for our sins. The Lamb has overcome!””

–Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 440-442.

March 18, 1767

“I can truly say, that I bear you upon my heart and in my prayers. I have rejoiced to see the beginning of a good and gracious work in you; and I have confidence in the Lord Jesus, that He will carry it on and complete it; and that you will be amongst the number of those who shall sing redeeming love to eternity.

Therefore fear none of the things appointed for you to suffer by the way; but gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end. Be not impatient, but wait humbly upon the Lord.

You have one hard lesson to learn, that is, the evil of your own heart: you know something of it, but it is needful that you should know more; for the more we know of ourselves, the more we shall prize and love Jesus and His salvation.

I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience will humble you, but not discourage you: humble you it should, and I believe it does.

Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you?

But let not all you feel discourage you; for if our Physician is almighty, our disease cannot be desperate; and if he casts none out that come to him, why should you fear?

Our sins are many, but his mercies are more.

Our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater.

We are weak, but He is power.

Most of our complaints are owing to unbelief, and the remainder of a legal spirit; and these evils are not removed in a day.

Wait on the Lord, and he will enable you to see more and more of the power and grace of our High Priest.

The more you know Him, the better you will trust Him: the more you trust Him, the better you will love Him; the more you love Him, the better you will serve Him.

This is God’s way: you are not called to buy, but to beg; not to be strong in yourself, but in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

He is teaching you these things, and I trust He will teach you to the end.

Remember, the growth of a believer is not like a mushroom, but like an oak, which increases slowly indeed but surely. Many suns, showers, and frosts, pass upon it before it comes to perfection; and in winter, when it seems dead, it is gathering strength at the root.

Be humble, watchful, and diligent in the means, and endeavour to look through all, and fix your eye upon Jesus, and all shall be well.

I commend you to the care of the good Shepherd, and remain, for His sake,

Yours,

John Newton”

–John Newton, “Cardiphonia” in The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 2: 140-141.