The Misery of Quarantine -- Tim Phillips

 

As I sit down to write the words for this blog article, I am currently under day 10 of a self-imposed quarantine for exposure to COVID-19. After our family found out last week, we isolated ourselves from contact with others. It has meant several inconveniences, such as cancelled meetings, doctor appointments, and no trips to the local gym. It even meant that last Sunday's worship service had to be virtual after it was discovered that there may have been another potential exposure within the congregation. Thus far, there have been no symptoms and no news of sickness, and we are on track to have Sunday's service be in-person once again.

This time of quarantine has not been fun. In fact, it's been pretty miserable. For all the talk months ago about lockdowns and quarantines being "the new normal," they are anything but normal. And quarantines serve as a powerful metaphor to describe an unhealthy relationship with God.

Take our natural status before God. As sons and daughters of Adam, our natural federal head, we are born sinners before God. We have inherited Adam's guilt and a sin nature whereby we are natural born enemies of God (see Romans 5:12ff). We are born dead in trespasses and sins and are by natural children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). To Gentiles believers in the city of Ephesus, Paul writes, "remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). That is what it is like to be in the ultimate quarantine and isolation situation. It is to be cut off, not from the world, but from God. It is to be on the outside looking in, with no hope of such a lockdown situation ever ending, at least through our own efforts and means. If we think COVID-19 is relentless and to be feared, what should we think about the wages of our sin? Here is a condition we all have, which no mask or handwashing can make go away, for which there is no manmade vaccine, and which will keep us permanently isolated from the eternal presence of God (but not from His wrath). And yet most of this world takes COVID-19 far more seriously than the consequences of sin.

What is the only hope we have in this world? It is God Himself. It comes from God alone. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)" (Ephesians 2:4-5). Our only hope for this eternal quarantine is the love, mercy, and grace of God. And this love, mercy, and grace is found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ. "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). The only way we can be freed from the misery and hopeless of our separation with God is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He must be all our refuge and all our righteousness.

When I was a junior in college, just beginning to have my eyes opened to the truth of the gospel, I remember one of the campus Christian organizations, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, had t-shirts printed with the words of 1 John 5:11-12 on them: "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." If we have the Son, we have this promised life; if we do have the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we remain separate from God, and we will face something far worse than quarantines and lockdowns, for we will face His eternal judgment.

Of course, this is the old, old story that we have heard so many times before, put into a modern context. Or is it? Are we hearing that old, old story of the gospel weekly in our churches? Sadly, the answer is probably "no" in far too many. I have heard far too many sermons (and sadly, sometimes in our own ARP denomination), where there is little mention of Jesus Christ (except perhaps as a moral example), and no call for sinners to turn from sin and turn to Christ. Whatever happened to the free offer of the gospel in our churches? If we are not willing, as ministers of the gospel, to preach Christ and Him crucified, then it should not surprise us that so many people continue to live in a spiritual state of quarantine from God.

What about those of us who do know the Lord Jesus Christ and the beautiful promises of the gospel? Sadly, I fear that too many professing Christians are continuing to live in a different kind of quarantined state in 2020. Because of lockdowns, overreach of government officials, and fears over COVID-19, many have been sorely negligent in their church attendance over the past several months. In some cases, especially with older members, there are genuine health concerns, and we need to be sensitive to this. But there are plenty of others who are perfectly healthy but who have gotten far too comfortable with staying home on the Lord's Day. The "new normal" has become normal for them. In an effort to be physically healthy, they have become spiritually unhealthy. They are forsaking the fellowship of the saints for reasons that are often not justifiable. Out of convenience or habit or preference or fear, they are doing greater harm to their spiritual well-being by a self-imposed quarantine away from God.

Is this true of you, dear reader? Having once sat at the table, are you now on the outside looking in? We were, at one time, like a homeless man on Thanksgiving day, who finds a beautiful house and peers through the dining room window. There he sees a fabulous meal spread before him, but he is isolated and cut off from it. The good news is that in Jesus Christ, because of His atoning work and His glorious resurrection, we now have a spot at the table. Why would we neglect such a great privilege? Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is found in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:35-39) -- not even COVID-19. "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household" (Ephesians 2:19). Let us stop acting like we are quarantine victims, and act like we Christians who cherish the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything else in this world.