New Thoughts: (04/12/24-04/15/24)
Real Knowledge Lived Out (04/12/24-04/13/24)
The chief commandment, as Jesus gave in answer to the question, is to
love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind (Mt
22:37-40). This, along with real and compassionate love for
your fellow man are the sum of the Law and the Prophets. Yet, somehow
we manage to persist in this idea that faith is apart from knowledge.
Certainly, those who have not faith in Christ write off that idea of
faith as blind and baseless. You believe because you want to believe,
want it to be true, but it’s just wishful thinking. Now, I would have
to say to such as these, look around you! Look at this whole pursuit
of self-actuation, of believing you are whatever it is you feel like
you are. You’re white but you want to be thought of as black? Just
claim it! You’re male but you wish to insist that one and all account
you a female? Just get loud, and believe strongly enough, and it must
be so! You wish to be thought competent at a task you’ve never been
trained to perform? Just exude confidence. Fake it ‘til you make
it. Isn’t that the clarion cry of modern life? And isn’t that blind
faith?
But faith in Christ is not a blind faith. It’s not merely accepting
what you were told as a child, or being sufficiently indoctrinated so
as to have formed a worldview that, were it put to the test, must
eventually prove an empty, vacuous thing. Indeed, the very derivation
of the word pistos, faith, speaks of being
convinced by the evidence. It’s the very opposite of blind. It is
the result of being fully informed. Modern culture has taken to that
description from ‘The Matrix’ of being
red-pilled, pulled from these dreams and delusions to see things as
they really are. In political circles, you might hear of the
communist mugged by reality. All those nice, utopian ideals,
depending as they do on a human nature that simply does not exist in
real life, tend to fall apart, even become abject evils, when put into
any sort of real practice.
So, let us observe Paul’s prayer here. It is a prayer exactly in
line with that chief commandment of the Law. And it leads, as the
Spirit gives direction to Paul’s words, to application, to purpose.
Quite naturally, the first object of his prayer for them is for love
to abound. Here, we are in contact with that particular love which is
solely associated with Christian faith, the agape
love which knits us together as one. This love is unique first
in that it comes from God Himself. And as we consider the acts of His
love towards us, we gain a sense of what this sort of love is all
about.
It is the most well-known piece of Scripture, I expect, at least from
the New Testament. “For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn
3:16). To be sure, you will find plenty who will attack this
as evidence of a perverse nature in God, that He would kill His own
Son. But the fact remains that this was the utmost act of love. The
fact also remains that Jesus, the Son of God, pursued this end of His
own free will – not without significant agony of soul, but neither
coerced. As Paul writes later in this letter, “He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross” (Php 2:8). The
author of Hebrews puts it this way. “For
the joy set before Him [he] endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). So, one thing would be that we
cannot properly appreciate the purpose of His death
apart from perceiving the reality of His
resurrection, and the glory of His ascension. This was no pointless
infliction of pain by Father upon Son. This was the grand purpose of
Creation from before the outset, a purpose agreed upon and covenanted
amongst the Persons of the Trinity from the beginning. It was always
the plan. It is ever the plan.
So, we have love of this same sort, being of the same source, poured
into our hearts by God. What sort of love is it? I have long
appreciated the perspective Zhodiates gives on this. It is that sort
of love which is willing to do what is needed for that one who is
loved even if that one who is loved wants nothing of the sort, indeed,
even if acting upon that love might well lead to rejection by the one
so loved. It is at once compassionate and selfless. It wants the
best for this object of love, even if that best must be in parting.
Look again at the Cross. As is pointed out by others, Zhodiates being
one of them, when Christ undertook to take upon Himself the full
penalty of the sins of the world, the world in general wanted nothing
to do with it. We weren’t asking for rescue. By and large, we
weren’t even convinced there was anything from which rescue was
particularly needed. “For all have sinned and
gone astray” (Ro 3:23). “There
is none who seeks for God. They have all turned aside to futility”
(Ro 3:11-12). And while we were yet
sinners, opposed to God to the degree we even gave Him a thought, He
demonstrated His love for us in that Christ died for us (Ro
5:8).
This is love of that agape sort in action. This is the love of God
displayed, and it is this love which Paul prays would abound in us.
Honestly, abound doesn’t do it justice. It’s a super-abundance that
is prayed for, such an abounding as must overflow, and overflowing, to
pour out from us towards those we know as brothers, and likewise
towards those we account but neighbors, barely even acquaintances.
And this is exactly the nature of God’s love as we see it expressed
daily. Jesus pointed this out as He called upon His hearers to be
such as prove to be sons of the Father. “He
causes His sun to rise on evil and good, and sends rain on the
righteous and unrighteous” (Mt 5:45).
His love is not a response to those who have already loved Him, but
rather, the self-initiated expression of Who He Is. As John would
later observe, “We love, because He first loved
us” (1Jn 4:19).
Well, considering that I came here primarily with an eye to
considering knowledge, I have spent a good deal of time on the subject
of love. Lord willing, I shall take up the next few terms in this
prayer for the church tomorrow.
Now, this gets interesting, in light of having read the end of Ephesians 3 last night. There, Paul
encourages us to “know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19).
There, he speaks of ginosko, perception
and understanding. And it’s interesting that we are called to
understand that which surpasses understanding in this agape
love of Christ. But it seems to me that we overplay Paul’s
point and try and make Christianity all about love and nothing of
reason, and that’s unreasonable.
Back here in Philippians, it is not ginosko
that is in view, but epignosis.
This is far and away the least common term for knowledge that we come
across in the NT. Eido, with its dual
meanings of knowing and seeing, is everywhere found, and ginosko
also finds wide usage. But epignosis has
but twenty occurrences, almost entirely contained in Paul’s writings,
apart from one case in Hebrews, and four in 2
Peter. We have it in Romans 1:28,
where it pertains to the failure of sinners to retain a real knowledge
of God, or as the NASB translates it, their not seeing fit to acknowledge
God any longer. It’s there again, as Paul explains
that the Law brought us to knowledge of sin (Ro
3:2). And going back to Ephesians, we have
Paul’s encouragement to press on to the unity of faith, ‘and
of the knowledge of the Son of God’ (Eph
4:13). All this to say that no, Paul is not suggesting we
set aside knowledge in preference to love. Neither, I would say, are
we encouraged to pursue fellowship with God as something in opposition
to pursuing real knowledge of Him. I tend to see this in the
propensity to try and set religion and relationship at odds with one
another, as if one cannot have both. One should have
both, just as real knowledge of God cannot come apart from
relationship with Him, nor can it be held without that love in which
He has poured out knowledge to us.
But I have gotten, perhaps, a step or two ahead of myself. Let’s
define, just a bit, this knowledge of epignosis.
Zhodiates gives the sense of clear and exact knowledge, and adds this
key factor: it is a knowledge thoroughly participated in. In other
words, it’s moved beyond theory into practice. It’s not just
collecting facts in a notebook. It’s internalized. Thayer speaks of
this knowledge as true knowledge, in particular, such knowledge as
regards Christ’s nature, dignity, and grace. Let me switch back to
Zhodiates. He observes that knowledge of this sort has a powerful
influence on our religious life, and is such as deeply influences the
person. Again, it’s relational in this regard. It’s gone beyond
merely knowing, having awareness of, or even that matter of
acknowledging. Plenty of people may prove willing to acknowledge God
to the degree that they will admit the possibility, or even the
necessity of some higher power. They may even accede to the point
that the God revealed in the Bible is in fact this higher power. And
yet, they will not shift from old ways in light of this admission.
We recently encountered Simon the magician in our readings for men’s
group. Simon saw what the apostles were doing, saw the impact they
were having, and was moved at some level. He even claimed faith and
was baptized. And yet, when Peter and John came up and began laying
hands on folks, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit, he revealed
his condition. Still the magician, he thought to obtain for himself
this magical power, offering to pay. And when rebuked by Peter for
such corrupt feelings in regard to God’s gift, it seems he fell short
of repentance, and still played it as if dealing with a more powerful
magician (Ac 8:13-24). I confess that as
we were reading this, I inclined to read his response in a more
positive light, but since then have read of his connection with the
Gnostics whose twistings of Christian doctrine so plagued the early
church.
Why do I bring him up? Because here we have an example of knowledge
that is received, even acknowledged, and yet, not truly participated
in. Here is knowledge failing to penetrate, failing to have its due
influence on the person. He knew what he had experienced, and perhaps
grasped somewhat of what he had heard. But it seems it call came to
him filtered through expectations and desires of his own, and so, even
with this knowledge imparted, he had not come to a “true
knowledge of Christ’s nature, dignity, and grace.” Had he
done so, I don’t suppose it could have occurred to him to offer money
for that which comes of grace.
Okay. Back to our text. Here is a prayer for love abounding in
knowledge – real knowledge, knowledge such as so
influences the person as to produce real change. That, I think, gets
me to the core of this term. It is life-changing knowledge. It is
clear and exact. It is full and precise. And it is, as such,
penetrative. It has been internalized, made part of who we are. It
has informed our worldview, become our worldview, and now, it is so
much a part of who we are that we cannot but see all of life through
the lens of this real, accurate, and tested knowledge of God in
Christ. Knowing that He has created all that is must surely shift how
we perceive what is around us. Knowing He has made even our meanest
neighbor must surely color how we respond to said neighbor. Knowing
that He, as our Creator, has full right over us must surely encourage
in us an appropriate response of obedience. And knowing He is Holy,
Love, True, Justice, and all those other superlatives of His essence
must create in us, who love Him, a hunger to be of like essence
ourselves, and alongside this, a frustration and even disgust for
those aspects of our being which continue to fall so very far short of
this desired goal.
But Paul continues to pile up terms for us. To this life-changing,
clear and exact knowledge of God through His self-revelation, he now
adds aisthesei, discernment,
understanding. We might suggest ethical application of that
knowledge. Zhodiates offers us a distinction here. Epignosis,
he notes, speaks to penetrating knowledge. Aisthesei
gets us to experiential, lived knowledge. I might call it applied
knowledge. Or, we might associate it with wisdom. As I have often
observed in these studies, it’s one thing to know the facts and
formulas. It’s quite another to perceive their application to a given
problem. That, I suppose, is why so much of our math training
consists in word problems. It trains us to see how the formulas and
rules we are learning in regard to mathematics pertain to real life
situations. They may be contrived, as we see them in homework
assignments, and of course, they are. But get beyond the contrivance,
and you begin to see that indeed, they are matters of knowledge that
will have use to you in daily life. If all goes well, they will be so
ingrained that you may not even be aware of thinking about them, or
applying them. This, I think, gives us a good model of the goal here
in the combined force of epignosis and aisthesei. To know and know deeply, fully
integrating that knowledge into the very fiber of one’s being, almost
has to result in this experiential knowledge and
application to such ethical matters as we may face on any given day.
It ought not to require any great deal of agonizing
introspection to discern the correct course. It should be coming to
be second nature to us. And what is that second nature? It is this
over-abounding, overflowing outpouring of that love of God which He
has shed abroad in our hearts.
This all comes as one deal, you notice. Love abounding all the more
in real knowledge, and in all discernment. And still he’s
not done piling up ideas for us. What comes of such discernment? We
make distinction. We gain judgment. After all, what is discernment
but judgment? Real discernment must surely lead us to be such as ‘approve the things that are excellent’, to
follow the NASB’s rendering. Do you see the flow of this? In verse
9, we have this build up: I pray that your love of God may
overflow in love to man in the full and accurate, fully experienced
knowledge of God known and applied. This is the love of God fully
known and applied. And how does this present? We come to verse
10. The result is that you will ‘approve
the things that are excellent’. Here, I actually found the
rendering of the Apologetics Study Bible offers a bit of perspective
on the intent. “So that you can determine what
really matters.”
This is something beyond applause for a fine performance, or oohing
and aahing over some natural wonder. I am in that period where I can
open my window during these morning times and hear the peepers out
back in full chorus. And, if time is right, I will soon hear the
added notes of various birds awaking to the day. It’s a wonderful
sound, and something I truly look forward to this time of year,
longing for the nights to be warm enough to allow that sound to pour
into the bedroom overnight. I can look upon landscapes in wonder,
enjoy the sight of various plants and animals, mountains and oceans,
and so on, and appreciate the splendor of them. But I can do so
without a thought for God. Something in us has been trained to
separate the two. This is real life, that is spiritual life. And
this is a terrible thing! No! They are one. How greatly we need to
become more holistic, much though I find that term overused anymore,
in our faith. We are not called to compartmentalize, but to
harmonize. We need, more than ever, to have this knowledge and
discernment for which Paul prays, that we, in our terribly modern, oh,
so scientific and technological present, might discern what really
matters, and having discerned, might carry with us that which his
excellent, that which differs from the mundane, that which, to jump to
the next term, will stand examination in the full light of day.
We have this idea, don’t we? It’s something of an aphorism, that
sunlight is the best disinfectant. Expose the corruption. Insist on
reality. Let folks speak their minds that we might hear their real
selves, and then, let truth be likewise laid bare for all to see. Let
everything be made evident, and discernment will surely lead to the
approving of what is excellent, what is best. But here, we are pushed
to the superlative as concerns our own character, our own faith and
belief; that these would be sincere, and, to take a clarified piece of
Tyndale’s translation, “such as should hurt no
man’s conscience.”
This is our goal. This is God’s goal for us. And it is for this
reason that we have this as Paul’s prayer for the church. We are
intended to be, to make ourselves fully apprised of all that God has
revealed of Himself. This is the encouragement of, “Study
to show yourself approved, accurately handling the word of God”
(2Ti 2:15). But observe well, it is what
God has revealed of Himself, not what we have speculated as concerns
those things He chose not to reveal. It is God’s knowledge given us,
and it is His prerogative to withhold such as He sees fit to
withhold. He is wise beyond our capacity for wisdom, after all, and
His ways, for all that He has revealed Himself to us, remain far and
away above and beyond our own. He knows what He wishes us to know,
and He has made this known in His Son, in these things the Holy Spirit
has caused to be written for our benefit, who live at the end of the
age. Don’t push it. Don’t exceed what is written. Abound in what is
written. Abide in what is written. Live in the truth, and live out
the Truth.
What comes of such a determined goal? We are refashioned under the
guiding hand of the Holy Spirit of God, so as to be fully equipped to
live in the full light of this knowledge He has revealed, overflowing
with God’s own love, poured into us in order to pour out of us, and
informed by that love, enwrapped by that love, walking in such wisdom
as truly perceives what is excellent, what really matters, and holding
fast to that, holding fast to God.
This is real knowledge. It is more real than anything we have known
previously. For it is knowledge of God. It is knowledge that has its
source in Him, and it is knowledge that makes Him known to us. It
does not come apart from relationship. After all, the more we have
revealed of the God Who Is, and the more we come to grasp the enormity
of His love for us, the more we are drawn to know Him more, to love
Him more, to spend more time with Him. For He truly is wonderful.
Who, looking clear-eyed upon loveliness, will choose instead to pursue
ugly? I acknowledge that it is quite evident that a large portion of
the populace around us has chosen ugly. But I would maintain it is
because their eyes have been clouded to loveliness. Perhaps they have
seen it and been convinced by the devil that it is unattainable for
them, and so, in spite and resentment, they determine to be as ugly as
they can be. But such hopelessness cannot satisfy, can it? And into
this ugliness, the love of God still pours forth, and the grace of our
Lord says yes, you actually can be beautiful, you truly can possess
loveliness. It need not be this way. Open your eyes to the love of
God. And I would pray, that He would so open your eyes that you may
see Him, come to know Him, and come to love Him. May it be so. Amen.
Real Connection (04/14/24)
As we come to verse 11, relation is added to
reason. We have been looking, after all, at matters of knowledge and
discernment. But now Paul, having indicated the purpose in this
knowledge, that we might be tested and found blameless at Christ’s
triumphant return, turns us around to look backwards just a bit. If
indeed we have come to be so filled by the love of God and are growing
in our fully incorporated knowledge of our Lord and God, there is a
reason for this. It is because we have already been
filled not only with the forensic status of righteous standing in the
court of God, but also with the fruit of said righteousness.
That’s a lot to contemplate already. For one, this idea of a fruit
of righteousness is not terribly familiar. Fruit of the Spirit we
understand, and we have Paul’s helpful list of descriptors for that
fruit. Perhaps we could equate the one with the other. But a quick
search for that phrase indicates only three occasions where it is
found. The first comes from the prophet Amos, in the midst of him
decrying the state of godliness in the people of Israel. He writes, “You have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of
righteousness into wormwood” (Am 6:12b).
Now, I have to say the immediate comparison is not terribly helpful,
as wormwood is already a bit of an enigma. But, as is the fashion in
Hebraic writing, we have the parallel thought given us, of justice
turned to poison. So, we might begin by associating justice with this
fruit of righteousness, which seems pretty reasonable, really. One
who is righteous will do justly. It’s in keeping with Micah’s well
known instruction. “He has told you, O man, what
is good. What does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love
kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Mic
6:8). Righteousness and doing justice walk hand in hand.
The other place we find this phrase is in Hebrews
12:11, with its observation that, “All
discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
Yet, to those trained by it, it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness.” So, now we find that peace has attachment to
righteousness as well. Indeed, James makes the observation that “the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace
by those who make peace” (Jas 3:18).
This is connected to mention of heavenly wisdom, which is “first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, full of good
fruits, and devoid of hypocrisy” (Jas
3:17). Here is perhaps where we are going. “Lovingkindness
and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed
each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks
down from heaven” (Ps 85:10-11).
So, can we bear all of this back into verse 11 here?
You have been filled with this fruit of righteousness, joined with
truth. You have come to love kindness as you walk with God. For the
Philippians, that would certainly seem to have been the case, as
witnessed by their freehanded support of Paul both in his ministry to
others, and now, in this predicament of imprisonment. And we may
presume that they were just in their behavior, else we would no doubt
be hearing notes of rebuke in this epistle to bring them back in
line. What is, to me, most vivid in this, though, is the association
with peace and peacemakers. Go back to that great sermon of our Lord,
introduced, at least in Matthew, by the Beatitudes.
Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness. Their hunger will be
satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, who shall in turn receive
mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons
of God (Mt 5:6-9).
Let’s turn that around just a bit. The sons of God shall be
peacemakers. Having received of God’s mercy, and having been filled
with His righteousness, they are merciful to others, such as plant
these merciful seeds of righteousness. And where God waters, those
seeds grow. Righteousness bears fruit. Peace abounds. What is this
peace? It’s not just, everything’s mellow, man. There’s absence of
strife, certainly, but primarily – and most importantly – absence of
strife with God. We are no longer at war with Him. We are no longer
under threat from Him. We have entered into His love, said love
having been poured into us to overflowing. We’re right back to the
start of this prayer.
But look at the cause and effect here. Love abounds because the
fruit of righteousness has been packed into you. There is a rich
supply of which we are, in many ways, merely the conduit. And Paul
points us to the source here. This righteous fruit comes through
Jesus Christ. The TEV is helpful at this point. “Your
lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus
Christ can produce.” I have but one issue with that, which
is that it sets us back in a future-facing position. But what we have
here is a perfect participle. The perfect tense, of course, points to
a present result of past action. In other words, the action is
complete, but the ramifications continue. It is a concluded action
with continued result. In other words, “You have
been filled,” rather than, “You
will be filled.” Add the nature of a participle, and what we
are presented with here is a state of being. This is who you are, how
you are. It’s already been done, and because it has been done, you
are, as sons of God saved by grace, already filled
with this fruitful righteousness.
And then, too, we must fully grasp the reality that this can only
come about through Christ Jesus. Here, the TEV is spot on. Only He
can produce such fruit in you. You certainly can’t produce it on your
own. You certainly could not have come to be in such a state of
righteousness, love, and knowledge by your own power. Faith is
reasonable, but the reason and our understanding of it are still such
as can only come as God reveals to us the truth of what He has been
saying. We all know, I suspect, how readily we can read Scripture and
gain nothing from the experience. Many of us likely read the Bible,
or at least portions of it, long before coming to faith, and found it
to be little more than a literary challenge of sorts. It didn’t have
discernable impact on our beliefs or behaviors. But then comes that
point when God reveals Himself, when in His love, He pours faith into
our hearts, the Holy Spirit has come, and lo! Our eyes are opened to
His truth. Our ears, our minds, finally begin to perceive the reality
of His being, and the implications of these words we have been
reading. And like the Ethiopian eunuch, having learned who Isaiah was
talking about, we want in. What prevents us being baptized? Where do
I sign? What must I do to be saved? But no, it’s already moved
beyond that question. It’s more, what ought I do, now that I am
saved? For salvation has already come, it’s just that now we finally
realize.
So, then, we have this fruit of righteousness which, to the chagrin
of the Pharisees, proved unobtainable through obedience to the Law,
because we were and are utterly incapable of maintaining that
obedience. It only comes through faith. It is ever
the gift of God’s love, this righteousness. There is a
reason that God covenanted in Himself to bring events to that critical
moment with Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, which is to say, God
Himself, taking to the cross to bear the full penalty for the sins of
all humanity. The wages of sin is death, as Paul bluntly reminds us (Ro 6:23), but the free gift of
God is eternal lief in Christ Jesus our Lord! This is amazing! God
Himself took upon Himself His own punishment of our sins. Why? So
that He could justly justify those He has called His own (Ro
3:26). Why are they justified? Well, fundamentally because
God has chosen to make it so. He has said it, and so it is. But we
have also this reason appended, that they have faith in Jesus. And
why do they have faith in Jesus? Because God has chosen to make it
so. He has sent forth the Holy Spirit to refashion our stony hearts,
to open the airwaves, that we might recognize and receive this
marvelous gift. And gift it is, given us by God, quite entirely apart
from any works of our doing, leaving no believer any position to boast
(Eph 2:8-9).
Let me swing over to the Darby translation here, as they present us
with this verse. “Being complete as regards the
fruit of righteousness, which [is] by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory
and praise.” There is purpose to our righteousness, as well
as source, and they both direct us back to God. We have these little
prepositions in our passage, dia and eis. The first points us to our Lord Jesus
Christ as the author of this righteous fruit, the efficient cause of
our righteousness. Hear his words elsewhere. “God
made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co
5:21). There is the source of your righteousness. It’s not
in your corrective action. It’s in Him. You have been made
righteous. You have become righteous in
the righteousness of God. It’s not your righteousness. It’s His.
But it’s been made yours by His gift of it to you, by His providing
Himself the course by which He might do so without impugning His own
righteousness.
And this righteousness which He has authored in us has purpose, it
has a goal. It is eis Theos. It is in
order that God’s glory may be made evident in and through us. It is
in order that our lives may be to the praise of God. Now, we might
take a first step towards this in suggesting that all of this has made
us such as take opportunity to glorify God and praise Him with our own
voices. But I think this intends to go much farther than merely
presenting us as joyous members of His body. No, we have a grander
purpose: To be such as instigate or encourage those around us to
praise God and give Him the glory. We shouldn’t need to make bold
announcement of our being His workmanship. It's cute, and all, to
have that old song, “Look what the Lord has done!”
But honestly, we are called to live such lives as causes those around
us, upon witnessing the change in us (they, who knew us beforehand),
and seeing the good fruits of righteousness in our present propensity
for being at peace with all men, so far as it lies with us to do so,
that they themselves point us out and say, “Look
what the Lord has done!”
We are called to live such that even those who spitefully use us, and
revile us for our faith in the present day will, when Christ returns,
find it necessary to confess that indeed, we were His all along, and
their abuses visited upon us were entirely unjust. But behold the
connection we have here. That which we would be in glorifying God can
only be brought about in us through Christ Jesus. So, here we are.
We are called to live in close connection with Christ. Back to Micah 6:8. Walk humbly with your Lord. We
cannot, having received this outpouring of God’s love, resulting in
faith, proceed from that point to simply walk away. We may well
wander, for w remain sheep. But walk away? Never! It is, quite
simply, impossible. I’ve come to those verses often enough. “No
one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father has given them to
Me. He is greater than all, and no one is able to
snatch them out of His hand” (Jn 10:28-29).
God does not lose sheep. Period. End of story. But we sheep can and
do vary in connectedness. We vary with each other, as we are at
different stages of development. We vary with ourselves, day by day,
depending how greatly we are attending to this relationship.
And this is, I guess, my point here. Real knowledge encourages us to
real relationship. Turned the other way round, real knowledge
requires this real relationship. Of course, I could as readily insist
that real relationship requires real knowledge. You can’t truly love
a God you don’t truly know. What you have is an infatuation with your
imagined conception of Who He Is. God would have you in love with the
reality of Who He Is, the totality of Who He Is. He, after all, has
loved you in spite of your totality. Face it. There are parts of our
character that are entirely unlovable. For some of us, those parts
are pretty huge. And yet, God loves us, pours out His
love upon us, chooses us in spite of our
significant defects. And we, if we are wise, respond to love in
love. We respond to His sometimes painful discipline by maturing,
growing in likeness to this One Who has loved us. We see what He is
writing in our lives, and we rejoice to know this is our story. We
rejoice in the grand finale, when He returns and we are found
completed works in Him. And we rejoice the more knowing that this
isn’t the end of the story, but only the prequel.
So, hear again the instruction of our Lord. “Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, but
must abide in the vine, so you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in
Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Who abides in Me, and I
in him, bears much fruit. But apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). It’s a call to real connection, a
steadfast, purposeful connectedness to our life-giving Lord and
Savior. Casual acquaintance won’t do. A passing reference to the
Vine won’t serve. It’s a call to abide. Incorporate. Come into
close union with your Lord, and welcome Him. Make Him your center.
Make it your mission to come to know Him more and more each day. He
is there. He is making Himself known. He has revealed Himself in
full, living color. These things He has revealed of Himself are
written down for your benefit, that you may avail yourself of His
Truth without recourse to unreliable appeals to flashy dreams and
visions. Such may come, but here is the bedrock of faith. Here is
faith firmly established on reason, reason fully informed by love, and
love flowing out in that peace which is found as the fruit of
righteousness.
Real Life (04/15/24)
There is a last aspect of this passage I wish to consider, and that
is the notice given to the day of Christ. Having just traveled
through the two epistles to Thessalonica, this day has often been in
view in recent studies. Here, it is almost a side note, a marker in
time. But I should have to concur with the ISBE in its assessment of
this day, that it is ‘the only day worth counting
in all the history of the world’. Now, I would have to add a
caveat in that it is one of two such days, the other being the death
and resurrection of our Lord, apart from which this latter day could
not transpire. That is to say, had He not come already, taking upon
Himself the life of humanity with all its trials and limitations,
lived out a life of perfect obedience to the Law as federal head of a
new humanity reborn in the Spirit, and died for the sins of those who
would become this new humanity, there could be no return from heaven
in future to claim His own, to establish His kingdom in fulness, and
to see us made part of that fulness.
There was much of dread in the ancient perspective on this day of
Christ. The Old Testament, as is noted in that ISBE article, did not
generally present the day of the Lord (which is our Lord, Jesus
Christ) as a day of excitement and joy, but rather a day of deep
darkness and dread. But then, the Old Testament was generally turning
attention to this day in consideration of those whose sins had mounted
to the sky, assuring for themselves that this day would be to them a
day of holy punishment, the day of God’s vengeance. I have to say
that for many today, even in the church, this remains the case. The
fascination with end times prophecies, and with those events John
explores in the Revelation have led to a general
perception that the Church itself must undergo and weather the
terrible times of the Tribulation. Perhaps so, but I still find it
questionable. Or, at the very least, we ought to recognize that the
Church has been going through those times since Christ first ascended
to heaven. The blood of the martyrs, after all, has often enough
marked the ground where the Church has most vigorously grown, and
there’s no particular reason to suppose that has changed in our case.
We are not by any means immunized against suffering. We’re simply
unused to it. We have, perhaps, been found insufficiently mature in
our faith to face such things, and as such, spared the trial of them,
at least for the present. But if I look back across church history, I
don’t see this as a thing to be celebrated, but rather, a cause of
concern. Suffering, as we shall see later in this letter, is a gift.
It is something of an honor done us by God, a recognition that indeed
our faith has grown and our confidence in Christ matured such that we
can face that suffering as Stephen faced his death, in all godliness
and dignity.
All of this to say that this day of Christ, though it assuredly means
vengeance of eternal punishment to those who have rejected our Lord,
is not a day of dread for those who believe. It is the day of final
victory. It is the once for all, eternal defeat of sin, the final
downfall of Satan, the accuser of the brethren. It consummates the
kingdom, as John also informs us, purging all sorrow, all pain, all
memory of sin and our tendency to submit to sin from our lives. It is
a day, for the majority of those who will constitute the kingdom
populace, when bodies long since returned to dust shall be made new,
souls reunited with flesh, and that flesh of a new and sinless sort,
cleansed of the effects of sin, and refit for eternity. For those few
yet alive when He comes, this same process shall transpire, as Paul
makes clear in 1Corinthians 15. The dead
shall rise first, but we shall all be changed. We must be. “For
this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must
put on immortality” (1Co 15:52-53).
Honestly, were eternity to be experienced with this body, I’m not
sure I would sign on for it. The aches and pains of age alone would
discourage the idea. Fading senses, slowing abilities, scars from
past events, and over-heightened response to the stimuli of lust and
longing do not seem the sort of things one wishes to carry with them
forever and a day. Now, it may very well be that some of the marks of
former wear may remain. We do see, for example, that Jesus bore the
marks of His crucifixion even after His resurrection, and even to the
end, is visibly evident in heaven as the Lamb Who was slain. But
whether this is a standard by which to set our expectations in our own
regard, or whether our future bodies are significantly remodeled
remains to be seen. Jesus did observe that in the resurrection, we
are not as we were. We no longer, for example, continue in marriage,
suggesting that the male/female distinction has been done away in
these new bodies, which would certainly address issues of lust and its
tendencies. But we really don’t know. We are given to understand
that those who have gone to their rest in the grave, those saints who
rest in the presence of our Lord awaiting this day are recognizably
who they are. Moses and Elijah, for example, were clearly
recognizable when they met Jesus on the mountaintop. We could go
farther back, and consider Samuel’s post-death encounter with Saul.
There was no question in Saul’s mind as to who he was addressing.
All of this to say, though, that for us who believe, this day of
Christ is no cause for dread. If indeed we have been gifted the gift
of saving grace, all cause for dread of our God should long since have
been washed away. That is, after all, rather the point. Our enmity
with God has been brought to an end. We are no longer enemies, but
rather, sons and daughters of His own household! He has adopted us as
His own. And can you readily suppose that as His own children, He
will see us undergo those same terrors as await the ones who have
signed on with Satan? I think not! We may undergo disciplinary
actions in this life, but they have been for our eternal good. And
this day, this return of our Lord in the fulness of His majesty and
power, is the ushering in of our eternal good. Indeed, it is, at
least measured from this point, the only say worthy of our attention.
As far as the future goes, this is our future. This is our welcome
home. This is the day in which we enter into the fulness of our
inheritance in the Lord. What dread can there be in that, for those
who have believed on and loved our Lord Jesus Christ?
I would also bring to bear, as touching on this subject, the example
of Aaron in that day when his sons, having offered strange fire before
the Lord, doing such things as occurred to their own imagination,
rather than serving in obedience to the office entrusted to them by
God. They died, Moses tells us, ‘when they offered
strange fire before the Lord’ (Nu 26:61).
What was the issue? They had done something not commanded them (Lev 10:1-7), and fire came out from the
presence of the LORD and consumed them. There was no justice delayed
here! But my focus is on Aaron. A father’s grief, after all, is
inevitable, and even the worst crimes on the part of his child would
hardly suffice to displace grief at their death. But Moses had
instruction from the Lord for Aaron. “It is what
the LORD spoke. He said, ‘I will be treated as holy by those who
come near Me.’”, and Aaron, hearing this, kept silent as his
relatives came for the bodies, carrying them outside the camp to be
disposed of. And the instruction continued, both for Aaron, and his
remaining sons. “Do not uncover your heads nor
tear your clothes, lest you die, and lest God therefore become
wrathful against all the congregation. Others shall mourn your
kinsmen, the whole of Israel shall do so, but you? Don’t even leave
the tent of meeting, for the LORD’s anointing oil is upon you.”
What is happening in this scene? There is some suggestion that we
are still back at the initial consecration of Aaron and his sons to be
priests before our Lord. This comes of that note of the anointing oil
still being upon them. But whether during that first commissioning or
later, this remains the case: They stood as God’s representatives to
the people. They stood, particularly Aaron, with that gold medallion
upon his turban, declared as ‘Holy unto the Lord’.
This was an act of God’s holiness. This was a preservation of His
glory (not that His glory was threatened by the acts of Nadab and
Abihu), but He would be duly honored by His servants, the priests.
That was the whole point of this event. God will not be mocked, and
their doing as they pleased in the course of serving Him was mockery.
He had declared just how the incense for His altar was to be composed,
and they had come burning whatever happened to suit their fancy.
Perhaps it was the right composition at the wrong time. The details
of what made that fire strange are left unexplored. The details
aren’t the point. Obedience is the point. Honoring God as God is the
point. It was for them, and it remains so for us.
For those of us involved in the organization and presentation of
worship on the Lord’s day, this should come as stern warning. Again,
not as cause for fear, for our enmity with God is done away. But if
our purpose is to honor God and proclaim His holiness and His goodness
before the congregation, then our methods and our manner ought to
proclaim our own submission to His will and His instruction. It is
not a time to assert individuality. It is not a time to just make a
joyful noise, and give not thought to His desire, so long as we’re
enjoying it. It is a time to serve Him as He would be served, else it
is an exercise not merely in futility, but truly, playing with fire.
Back to this day of Christ. Here is the day in which our Lord and
King returns. Here is the day in which He sees the purposes of God
made complete. Sin and death are done away. All those who have
continued in opposing Him, seeking to usurp His throne and seeking to
destroy or disturb His own people, shall be cast into eternal
darkness, eternal death, apart from God and without hope forever.
There is no appeals process. There is no possibility of pardon. The
time for repenting has passed and there is only the certainty of
punishment, such punishment as sin has truly deserved. And these are
those whose sins have reached their full measure. Here is God, the
All-consuming Fire. Why was that bush in the desert not consumed by
the fire of His presence? Because His presence had rendered the
ground holy, so holy that Moses must not even defile it with the soles
of his sandals, but must come barefoot before his Maker. There is the
exception, such as there is one: The all-consuming fire of God
purifies. It does not consume what is holy, else He Himself must be
consumed. But it burns away every impurity. There’s a reason we are
given the image of a crucible. What happens in the crucible? The
precious ore of gold or silver is heated to such extremes of heat that
every impurity in that ore must be burned away. What remains after
that all-consuming fire is pure.
For us, who shall come forth as silver, the cleansing fire of God’s
all-consuming presence has burnt away every last trace of iniquity.
Already, the record of our sins in the courts of heaven have been
erased, blotted out such that there can be no charges brought. The
case has been closed, the debt paid, and as such, the records of the
case have not only been sealed, but deleted. There is no record of
past sins our accuser can make reference to. All that remains is the
new man, brought forth through the fire, reborn and made whole,
perfected and blameless, as Paul describes the case here. We shall be
found sincere – so thoroughly purified and perfected that standing
there in the full light of day, in the full light of the full
revealing of God’s glory, no stain, no shadow remains to mar the
image, no shortcoming spoils the workmanship. For that workmanship
has been by God’s own, perfect hands. And He has created a
masterpiece. Indeed, He has filled His kingdom with masterpieces,
masterful reworkings of humanity after the original design, a
perfection so marvelous that even angels, we are told, shall marvel at
what is then revealed in the sons and daughters of our King.
This is the day of Christ for those who believe. It is the day when
the new shall be brought forth. It is the day when the New Jerusalem
shall come down out of heaven and take its place in a new creation, a
creation cleansed of sin and of sin’s fallout, a creation, a city in
which nothing of evil can so much as set foot, for its sun is the Lord
Himself. The guard upon its borders is the Lord Himself. Here we
shall rest for eternity in the joy of His companionship and in the
fellowship of all those who, like ourselves, have loved Him and had
this fellowship of real, relational, experienced knowledge of Him and
of His love.
Thank You, my Lord, that this is so, that this is my hope and my
future. By rights, I should spend the next hour or two in thanks
for Your magnanimity towards me. But honestly, words fail. The
wonder is too great. And I am held in Your peace. May it be so
through the day, through the week. May this be a new beginning this
morning, as You deal with that anxiousness, that frustration, that
short-fused temper of which You reminded me last night. Let the
peaceful fruit of righteousness abound in me as it should. But I
know that if this is to be the case, it can only be by Your hand.
May I prove a willing coworker in that labor of Your love. Amen.