Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 30:1 (Spring 2009)
Article: From The Editor
Author: Robert W. Yarbrough

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TRINJ 30:1 (Spring 2009) p. 1

From The Editor

Robert W. Yarbrough

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8 TNIV). For Christians these are reassuring words given current economic uncertainties and in some quarters crisis. But what tangible benefit, if any, results from the Son of God’s stability? Every article in this issue points to at least one.

Steven Roy sets forth the benefit of God’s unwavering resolve to see justice done. Jesus’ mandate to make disciples of the nations is not exhausted when gospel witness leads to personal salvation through faith, even if this is ground zero of God’s redemptive presence in the world. God cares for the whole of his creation. Multiple threads throughout the Bible attest to this. There are few easy answers for how Christians in any given locale can optimize God’s burning interest in societal needs. And the solution to “social” problems—accurate diagnosis of which is itself elusive—can never be a rollback in the church’s daily fare of seeking the Lord in personal and congregational life and activities. The church is the Bride of Christ! But Christ is Lord over more than the church. Roy’s study reminds us of the immensity, urgency, and fruitfulness of viewing the whole world, not just church and “spiritual” life, in relation to the broad sweep of God’s redemptive work.

Another benefit of Christ’s unwavering reality is God’s clear voice of guidance. We have the Bible, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps 119:105). Dennis Jowers provides fresh articulation of reasons for our confidence in the NT portion of God’s written word. There is a circularity in how NT writings and canon mutually justify each other. But the circle is not vicious. It is logically and theologically coherent and indeed compelling. Hand-in-glove with Jowers’ arguments is Jordan May’s case for the antiquity of the NT’s foundation: the four Gospels as witness to Christ. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. A.D. 180) did not invent, establish, or somehow “fix” those Gospels as a lodestar in the patristic church. He rather reflects a much older and inherited set of convictions and practices that are best explained by affirming those Gospels’ primal and unrivaled status. In times of uncertainty, whether Irenaeus’ or ours, there can

TRINJ 30:1 (Spring 2009) p. 2

be confidence that the four Gospels in our Bibles do indeed tell us what Jesus said and did. Yes, we must rightly apprehend and then live out his lordship as these documents attest to it. But God “has not left himself without testimony” (Acts 14:17) that is direct and sure. Our fleeting lives and fortunes in th...

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