My first last class was with Dr. Aubrey Malphurs and covered pastoral leadership. It was a very relevant class with more practical information than most. Five minutes before our class ended, he said this: "Men, I would like to pray for you as we finish up this class." Now praying during class is not unusual at DTS - we open most of our classes with a word of prayer. It was his next sentence that took me back. "Would you take a knee?" I have never bowed in prayer at DTS - honestly, I rarely bow in prayer ever, anywhere. But Dr. Malphurs hit the floor and we all followed his mystically spiritual lead. And he prayed for us - for our summer, for the future ministry God is calling us to. He prayed and our posture helped focused my heart, mind, and spirit in a powerful way.
But I still had more classes to go.
The last last class of the day was a Bible Exposition class covering Hebrews - Revelation with Dr. Toussaint. You have to understand that Dr. Toussaint just turned 81 in April and he has been teaching at DTS since the early 60s. He loves the Lord in a deep, abiding, passionate manner and he knows his Bible. I was really excited for the last day of his class because we were covering the end of Revelation - the end of the whole Bible. Sadly, we were running behind in the class and I wasn't sure we were going to make it.
But by God's grace we did. We read Rev 22.21 out loud as a class: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all." Then Dr. Toussaint said, "That's it. That is the end of the New Testament - that is the end of the Bible." All of us stared back in silence, absorbing the end of God's book. Then this (tous)saint said, "now turn to Malachi 4." I was leaning so far forward with expectation I almost broke the table. I was so excited to see what was next - and I knew that Malachi 4 is the last chapter of the Old Testament. The last verse of Malachi 4 reads, "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." Dr. T told us that Jewish scribes often repeated the first part of the verse again at the end because they did not want their sacred book to end with a promise of God's judgment. Now compare the endings of the Old and New testaments: one promises judgment while another offers grace. Grace because we can never do anything to escape the judgment of holy, perfect God. Grace because God is love and He desperately wants to be with us. Grace because of who the Triune God really is. Grace. Grace. Grace.
And it is in that grace that we encounter the only One who can turn the hearts of fathers to children and redeem and restore what is broken. It is in that grace that we encounter praying professors seeking God's will for our lives. It is in that grace that we have a Book so perfect and complete that tells the great story in which we are now a part. It is in that grace that we find a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth healing the sick and raising the dead as He exegetes God (John 1.18). It is in that grace that we find the only One who can redeem us from the divine wrath our depravity deserves and demands. It is the grace that led Jesus to the cross and leads us to new life now and forever.
And so now we join John's prayer at the end of Revelation: "Come, Lord Jesus."
And may "the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all."
