Gethin Jones, Paris, France

My name is Gethin Jones, I’m a minister in the International Presbyterian Church and I’ve just moved to serve long-term as a missionary in Paris.

Which verses would you take to the desert island?

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” John 21:12a

It may seem a strange or funny verse to pick but the Lord helped me quite deeply through it a few years ago. I was visiting the USA for the first time and had found myself within a mile of where the bombs went off at the 2013 Boston Marathon, having been at the Finish Line about half an hour earlier. It was a rather stressful experience. The following morning, I wasn’t sure whether the friend I was staying with was up so I texted him this verse as we’d planned to go out for breakfast. I sent it partly in jest, but then I started to reflect. I realised these were words spoken to disciples who were themselves just getting over the trauma of having one they believed to be the Messiah die. They knew he was alive again, but recovery from that kind of shock can still take time. Of course, Jesus had things to tell them, issues to deal with, but first, he invited them to eat breakfast with him.

And there’s actually an important doctrine here. What is the key thing the risen Christ gives us? Justification? Sanctification? Adoption? He does give us all those things of course, but as means to an end — communion, deep friendship, with God. That’s what the Lord’s Supper is about. We believe in a God who loves, and wants to have breakfast with his people.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became life-giving Spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:42-9

This passage (v45 especially) has become precious to me as it represents a lot of how my understanding of the Bible grew during my studies at Westminster Theological Seminary. I came to appreciate the significance of Jesus’ resurrection in the context of the flow of the Bible. Reading Geerhardus Vos was a key help for me here. In this verse is a second Adam who passed the test which Adam failed. Here, at last, is a man who has passed on to the glorified state that God offered man from the beginning. Now there is a man in heaven with resurrection life coursing through him because he has been given the Holy Spirit in a special way — so special that Paul even says he has become life-giving Spirit. And he has given us the Spirit who was given to him. Actually, here’s another key truth about the Lord’s Supper. Just as by faith we receive spiritual life from a man in heaven, by faith we receive spiritual nourishment from bits of bread and wine. It all comes back to our enjoying deep friendship with God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1:3

This past year I had the privilege of serving as an Assistant Minister at IPC Ealing, and I had some fun side-projects like teaching Greek at London Seminary and the Cornhill Training Course. I got all my students memorising this verse in the Greek — it’s such a key verse for understanding what God has done for us. I had grown up with the idea that there are different degrees or stages of becoming a real Christian. And of course it can seem like a gradual process for some. But, for example, I remember someone teaching me that there’s a difference between being regenerated and being baptised in the Spirit. That’s a perfect recipe for ruining someone’s assurance, as the experiences or benefits have been separated from the person of Christ. Paul is clear here. We have every Spiritual blessing, and we have them by our being in Christ. How are we saved? Simply by being united to Christ — by being put in him. Regeneration and Spirit-baptism are just different ways of speaking of being united to Christ. The key is not different processes, it’s whether or not I’m in Christ. And I get into Christ simply by repenting from sin and entrusting myself to him.

Who would you like to find on the island for company?

I’d probably just want to take a friend but I’ve been told I have to pick someone dead. 
I’d probably choose one of the writers I’ve most enjoyed reading so the top candidates would be John Calvin, Herman Bavinck, Francis Turretin and Geerhardus Vos. Turretin would be a good laugh because he sometimes just says something totally random out of the blue. It’d probably be between Vos and Calvin though and Calvin would win just because I can speak French. Vos spoke English but I guess he would just want to speak Dutch when he got tired, and I don’t speak Dutch.

Which song would you take to the island?

Handel’s Messiah! It’s a work of genius and beauty — and a great way of sneaking some extra Scripture onto the Island. I’ve found music to be a great way of memorising Scripture as well as the Shorter Catechism. Handel’s Messiah is just straight Bible through and through. I recommend the recording done by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers — the way the soprano solo interprets “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” is especially stunning.

Toni Saad, Cardiff

Which verses would you take to the desert island?

Since Scripture is an organic unity, it is difficult to pick only a handful of desert island verses. Nevertheless, verses which I would return to on the island include some of Christ’s words to his disciples:

I will ask the Father to send you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you know will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. John 14:15-20

Not only will Christ return, but, in the meantime, he will send the Holy Spirit to indwell us. He shall be in us, just as Christ is in us and we are in him. This is the glorious reconciliation between man and God in Christ, and the union and communion which we have in Christ. By giving us the Holy Spirit to unite us to himself, Christ gives us himself, and we are made to share in the Triune God. These are verses which helped me understand that Christ is the gravitational centre of redemption, and that none of God’s benefits (justification, adoption, sanctification etc.) can be abstracted from our union with Christ. Our salvation is as concrete as Christ is, and so can our assurance be.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions … For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:5-13

This great summary of Christ’s work is also an exposition of its significance regarding the life to come and the life we live now. No longer are we slaves to sin, if we are in Christ, since we are under grace. Paul presents us with the lifelong challenge of killing sin, but it comes sandwiched between whole-grain gospel truth. This passage is justifiably optimistic about sanctification in Christ, and dispels the perverse passivity that I and other Christians sometimes deceive themselves with in the face of sin. I have learnt from these verses that being a sinner is no excuse for sinning if I am in Christ. And this lesson is the source of lasting joy.

Who would you like to find on the island for company?

There are many greats at whose feet I would gladly learn all day. Thomas Aquinas would be a highly intellectually-stimulating fellow castaway. The great Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck would be an excellent tutor of reformed theology. But my pick would be the Swiss reformed theologian Francis Turretin (1623-1687), author of Institutes of Elenctic Theology. Turretin’s theology is a distillation of Reformation doctrine blended with the very best of the Christian philosophical and scholastic tradition, which makes for a rich system of theology of lasting influence on the great theologians of yesteryear. To share an island with Turretin would be a marvellous opportunity to learn to see Christ and Scripture in all their kaleidoscopic glory and think about these with philosophical rigour. There is perhaps nothing better for a marooned soul to do.

Which song would you take to the island?

Perhaps Turretin would join in The Church’s One Foundation (SJ Stone, 1886) with me. This hymn beautifully summarises the story of Christ’s redemption. But it is also a humble confession of the Church’s troubled, sinful and divided state, a lament of faith to God. Singing it reminds me that not all is well for now in Christ’s Church, so there is no place for complacency or self-satisfaction. We cannot rest on our laurels. But, however bad the mess of the Church gets, Christ is picking up the pieces, building his church—and so there is no room for self-pity either. The Church is Christ’s, as I am, and our destinies are entrusted to his eternal wisdom.

The church’s one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is His new creation, by water and the Word;
from heav’n He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Elect from ev’ry nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
one holy Name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses, with ev’ry grace endued.

Tho’ with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord, to defend,
to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end;
tho’ there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale,
against the foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.

‘Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
she waits the consummation of peace for evermore;
till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.

Pete Conway, Fflint

Which verses would you take to the desert island?

But now, this is what the Lord says — he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:1-2

This verse isn’t mine really but rather reminds me of the reality of Christian life. My mother was a genuine and lovely lady; gentle and unassuming. She struggled with assurance and never had anything to boast about. In the eyes of the world, she was lovely and kind but a timid, quiet, even weak, little old lady. My Dad died of a sudden stroke and my mum’s heart was broken; she later developed cancer and had to go to hospital, the inevitable drew near. I wasn’t there at the time but her pastor was visiting the day before she died and he began to read this passage in Isaiah. When he stopped reading, she carried on to finish the passage. Where did that come from? These were the last moments of her life, when she was at her weakest and most vulnerable; yet she was at her strongest. Yes, she was passing through the waters but she absolutely did not fear, she knew she was His. She knew she had been redeemed and her confidence was in her Lord. The reality of her faith was so evident and it was amazing. So, when doubts rise, it’s such a helpful reminder that faith in Christ is not just pie in the sky when you die. It’s true, it’s real, there is nothing more real than people dying and there she was, as bold as anything.

He also made the stars. Genesis 1:16

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Psalm 147:4

We may be in the ‘day of small things’ but we don’t have a small God. Sadly, my view of God is much smaller than it should be. Even if I read big things about Him, it rarely moves me; so I would like to keep these verses close to hand as I often refer to them. I am able to relate better to things I can see, like when I look up on a clear night and see the stars, twinkling in the night’s sky. It’s estimated there are 300 billion stars in our galaxy, and 100 million galaxies. How much space is given in the bible to such a mind blowing feat of creation? A massive 5 words: He also made the stars!!!! Sounds like an add-on….Small God?…right!!!!

If you love me, keep my commands John 14:15

I wouldn’t normally choose this verse but it’s a verse that stays with me. Many years ago, it was bedtime for my girls and so off to bed they went. One of them just would not do as she was told, wouldn’t get into bed. Eventually, as my frustration levels were rising, she quietly turned to me and said, “Dad…I love you,” and as quick as a flash I said back to her sternly, “If you love me, why don’t you do as you are told!?” Immediately John 14:15 sprang to mind. And now, often when I find myself in positions when I am not behaving as I should, this verse comes back to me.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:3

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Acts 7:55

A few years after I became a Christian, I was on an EMW camp at Bala. It was an unforgettable week of ministry, very special. And I remember the chaplain giving this illustration which has stayed with me. He said, ‘You are at Cardiff Arms Park, (you see how old this is) watching Wales play. Phil Bennett has the ball and he’s running to the touch line. The crowd watching don’t just sit saying, “oh there he goes with the ball”. No, the crowd are on their feet, shouting and cheering, “Go on! Go on!” They are doing all they can to encourage him to get over the line.’

Here, in Hebrews, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, after giving Himself as a sacrifice for my sin. He sat down, indicating that He had completed His mission. My sin … past, present and future, all dealt with, paid for there on the cross and He sits, never having to repeat. It’s done, complete, as He said, “It is finished”. And so He is sat down at the right hand  of the Father. And yet what does Stephen see, as he is about to be killed? He sees Jesus, standing as if He has got to His feet to encourage, “Go on…Go on… keep going… you can do it!”

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” Exodus 33:18

I had been a Christian for nearly 20 years, when this verse, and others similar to it, came to life, as if I had never read it before. In my home church I had noticed that some Christians (usually older, and only a few of them) were different from other Christians and myself in the same congregation. It was difficult to put my finger on it, but they seemed to have a greater reality of God in their lives. Later, I came across this verse; Moses had seen God work in extraordinary ways, more than the average Christian. He had been on Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights with God, and yet what do we read in the very next chapter? Moses wants more! He doesn’t want to see any more miracles or displays of power, He wants God Himself. I could link this up with these older folk in church, more than wanting to see God do, they wanted to see God Himself. And this is possible, which takes me onto my next verse…

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:17

Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus, so to every Christian this prayer is a reality, we may KNOW HIM better, not know about Him but to KNOW HIM. How often do we pray for things, even legitimate things which we should and need to pray for? How often do we pray that we would just know God better? How often do we pray for this Spirit of revelation? I was a Christian for years and this just never crossed my mind, until then it was mainly about doing church and not about knowing God.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:11-12

There is so much in these verses, you could spend hours just contemplating the truth in here but, for me, it’s a great reminder of why God saved me. However great it is that I am saved, it’s not about me, it’s about Him. My default position often is: ‘it’s all about me’, how I need this reminder! I was chosen to be for the praise of His glory, not mine, it’s not me, it’s Him. John Piper said, ‘you don’t go to the Grand Canyon or Niagara falls and say, ‘wow how significant am I’’. And so we see God and how great He is and we can praise him for who He is! The great thing is, we get satisfaction in that. It’s not about me, it’s about Him!!!

Which song would you take to the island?

The first lines are a statement of John Newton’s but I always view it as a challenging question to myself. If I didn’t love sin and myself as much as I do, and I knew Jesus for who he is, more than I do, then how sweet the very name of Jesus would be; what impact would that have on my life!

Weak is the effort of my heart and cold my warmest thought. Yes! I really get that, but when I see Thee as Thou art, I’ll praise thee as I ought. That certainly will be true when we get to heaven but it also takes me back to Ephesians where we can pray for the Spirit of revelation, so we can know him better.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole
And calms the troubled breast;
'Tis manna to the hungry soul
And to the weary, rest.

Dear name! The Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding-place;
My never-failing Treasury filled
With boundless stores of grace.

Jesus, my Shepherd, Guardian, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I'll praise Thee as I ought.

Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath;
And may the music of Thy name
Refresh my soul in death.