Jonah 2:9 - Required for Reformation

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of statements to the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany, hoping to start a discussion that would reform the Roman Catholic Church. He saw many false doctrines and corrupt practices, and he called for a return to the truth of Scripture alone and trust in Christ alone. Instead, Luther was cast out, and the Protestant Reformation was born. That day – October 31, 1517 – marked the Reformation’s official beginning.

But this morning I want to take you to another day: April 16, 1530. It was the Saturday before Easter, almost thirteen years later. Luther’s ministry partner Philipp Melanchthon was preparing to defend the Protestant beliefs at an assembly by presenting the Augsburg Confession.

For safety reasons, Luther couldn’t attend, so he stayed at Coburg Castle, and when he arrived, he preached a sermon to his fellow Reformers. It was a message centered on Christ, reflecting the spirit of the Reformation by presenting the gospel of Christ from the whole counsel of God.

By that time, the Reformers had endured many years of hardship for Christ. And Luther spoke to them about the inevitability of suffering in the Christian life. He gave assurance that it was not accidental, but necessary. He said: “Each one must bear a part of the holy cross; nor can it be otherwise. [In Colossians 2], Paul…says, “In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” It is as if he were saying: His whole Christendom is not fully completed; we too must follow after, in order that none of the suffering of Christ may be lacking or lost, but all brought together into one. Therefore every Christian must be aware that suffering will not fail to come. It should be, however, and must be the kind of suffering that is worthy of the name and honestly grips and hurts, such as some great danger of property, honor, body, and life. Such suffering as we really feel, which weighs us down; otherwise, if it did not hurt us badly, it would not be suffering.”

Their suffering was necessary to change the Church – and to change them. Conflict and pain which bring sorrow, but they are also part of how God brings change in us as He makes us more like Jesus Christ. God uses distress to reform us, though we don’t naturally see it that way.

It’s troubling, distracting, disappointing, tiring – but it’s one of the tools God uses. You may not see it as something useful for your reformation, but God does. Both the OT and NT testify to this.

The great distress Christ endured on the cross was required to change our standing with God and to reform our lives and future. Jesus understood the role of trials in the accomplishment of God’s plan, and He endured true tribulation so that we could experience true reformation. His distress revealed perfect righteousness; ours reveals the need for grace.

But distress is only an instrument for change – the agent for change is God’s grace. Of course, God changes us through many good things too, but through our distress, God shows us what Jonah calls our “vain idols.” Where grace is at work, trials expose our false hopes, drive us to Christ, and refine our faith like the refinement of gold in intense heat. And by His grace, we can renounce those false hopes, and a cry will rise from our hearts like Jonah’s cry from within the great fish.

Notice the outline printed there for you. As we learn to see distress as something required for reformation, grace will form a desire to praise God with thanks, strengthen a commitment to praise God continually, and manifest a conviction to praise God as sovereign. These were among the results of the Protestant Reformation. These are among the results when the truth of God changes a human heart. So look with me at the first part of verse 9.

Jonah says, “But I with the voice of thanksgiving.” In verse 8, he said that those who cling to false hope leave true Hope. When we depend on vain idols, we leave grace. In the belly of the fish, Jonah finally began to reckon with the idolatry of his heart.

Back in verse [2], he said, “I called out to Yahweh, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of the grave I cried, and you heard my voice.” Yahweh had saved him from drowning and withheld final judgment for his sin. So, Jonah was shown grace in distress – and a change occurred. You might say he started to “get grace.” Grace began to “click” for him.

We’ll see later in the book that the idolatry isn’t completely rooted out of his heart, but he’s dealing with it and he’s learning about God’s grace. Of course, God had always been gracious, and Jonah knew this in his head, but it seems to have never reached his heart in this way. Jonah’s time of trouble was God’s time of teaching.

Tribulation, suffering – whatever you want to call it – has a way of doing that. Hopefully, when we endure trouble, we begin to take a good, hard look at ourselves. Will you look within as you suffer, or will you only try to numb the pain?

Verse 2 says Jonah cried out with a “voice, but here, he cries out with a different voice. It’s the same man – sound coming from the same mouth – but a different sound now. It’s the sound of thankfulness. Jonah wasn’t thankful for grace as he ran from God, but now he is. What came first from within Jonah was a cry of fear in trouble, but grace brings out a cry of joy in gratitude.

You see, grace works through distress to form a desire to praise God with thanks. A person who has been truly affected by God’s grace realizes what could have been, should have been, and would have been if God were not gracious and merciful.

Jesus later taught something along these lines. It was the principle that a person who realizes that they have been forgiven much by God will love God very much, whereas a person who doesn’t see themselves as having been forgiven much by God won’t really love God that much. This is very much about how we see ourselves.

Do you see yourself as being in desperate need of grace? Does it affect you? Not just that you know you’re a sinner – but do you despise your sin? However, rather than despairing over it, are you thankful for God’s comfort and relief? Where grace is transforming the heart, there will be a desire to give thanks to God.

Now look at the next part. “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.” Jonah is saying this attitude change won’t be short-lived. This is not a one-time deal. Picture someone who seems to have a moment of clarity during a time of trouble, and they promise that they’re going to change their awful ways. But it turns out to be only an emotional experience.

What Jonah says here reveals that he knows people can be that way. Perhaps as a prophet, he had seen the Israelites do that before. But Jonah is vowing that he won’t be that way. He’s making a pledge. You might say he’s recommitting his life to God. Some might say he’s rededicating. Incidentally, there’s no need for him to receive the covenant sign again. That’s not what God wants. God desires love and obedience from Jonah.

He wants Jonah to offer true worship – not because God is lonely or needy, but because worship is the reason for which Jonah was created. Heartfelt worship founded on truth was what Jonah needed. Jonah was made to bring glory to God. So are we. Grace is changing his heart, so he wants to worship and praise God from now on.

You see, Grace also works through distress to strengthen a commitment to praise God continually.

It’s important to note that Jonah said he would sacrifice. This was part of their worship in the OT era of God’s covenant of grace. But how do we apply that principle? Well, Christ has made one final sacrifice for sins. So it makes sense why the writer of Hebrews tells us to look to Christ. We don’t sacrifice Christ. He no longer sacrifices Himself. There is no more sacrifice to make.

Instead, Paul says in Romans 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. [2] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Paul is describing reformation. It’s the change God accomplishes in His people. May God perform this great work in your heart. Believe in Christ today!

Now look with me at this final part. “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” I’ve mentioned before that the word “LORD” in all capital letters tells us that here, in the Hebrew manuscripts, the tetragrammaton was written. These are the Hebrew letters Yod, He, Vav, He. We transliterate this “YHWH,” and with the vowels added later by Jewish scribes, pronounce it “Yahweh.” And this has an essential bearing on the meaning of this sentence.

In Exodus 3, when God revealed His divine, covenant name to Moses, “Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” [14] God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” I AM equals “YHWH” – Yahweh.

The name “I AM” presents God to us as self-existent, self-sufficient, and unchangeable. He depends on no one for His being or power. He simply “is.” He’s not becoming something; His existence isn’t contingent on anything.

Also, His existence and will are the foundation of all reality. All of this necessarily communicates sovereignty. If all else depends on Him, then nothing can exist or act apart from His will.

His name also implies how He reigns over all He has made: with total and unchangeable power, with all knowledge and wisdom, with absolute holiness and goodness, and in full accordance with the truth. Yahweh’s dominion is all-encompassing.

Jonah knew this before, but with his thinking clouded by sin born of idolatry in his heart, He had tried to get away from God! It was foolish, irrational, and unfounded. God inhabits His whole creation – though to be clear, pantheism is a false teaching. The universe and God are not identical. They are distinct.  God is everywhere, but everywhere is not God. His power pervades creation, but His essence remains distinct from it.

How do these attributes of God relate to what Jonah says here? Well, Jonah was saved both physically and spiritually. His life was spared from death and his soul was spared from further rebellion. He was delivered – and it was absolutely no thanks to himself. Jonah contributed nothing to the situation but his sin.

The circumstances brought to the surface the dark parts in his soul. But the distress that resulted wasn’t in vain. It had meaning and purpose. Through it, his heart was transformed into a heart that gave all glory to God. Grace works through distress to manifest a conviction to praise God as sovereign.

Now Jonah was convinced of God’s absolute supremacy and dominion. He knows that Yahweh is the Lord of his salvation. He had knowingly run from and rejected God, but God had been gracious to him. Therefore, thanks be to God, continual thanks be to God, and all thanks be to God – for physical and spiritual deliverance – that is Jonah’s belief. And that belief is manifested or displayed in Jonah’s life by what he says here,
and by what he does next.

So, distress is guaranteed, but where God shows mercy, grace is guaranteed as well.
And while the amount of your trouble may be huge to you, it is nevertheless limited. However, the amount of God’s grace to His people is without limit.

In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul recalled how he pleaded with God to take away a source of his distress. And Paul writes, [9] “But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul then says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God provides all that is required for our reformation, because above all, He has provided the grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Turn from it to cling to Jesus today. Follow Him, and God will do a great work of reformation in your heart and life by the power of His grace.

Let’s bow together in prayer.