New Thoughts: (08/17/15-08/19/15)
There are two primary threads I want to follow through this passage, and they are contained in the opening and closing verses respectively. Before I get to those, however, I do want to note a slight change of opinion with regard to my outline. I headed this section as “Care in Teaching”, and while I would continue to hold that this is a primary thrust, I have to expand the application somewhat to encompass the student as well. So, we could as readily label the section as “Care in Learning”. Perhaps we can accept the latter as being an expansion of the former, for in learning we are inevitably involved in teaching ourselves, whether we have another who serves as our instructor or we pursue a self-guided course of learning.
Now, picking up on the first major thread, I should note that it would hardly have been unreasonable to leave verse 11 connected to the preceding section. The thought is certainly connected. But, then, we could accept this whole passage as a continuation of the same thought. Indeed, we should. The last section left off with the warning for each of us to be careful of what we build on the foundation Paul laid in place. This section opens with the comment that no other foundation could possibly be laid at this point. Clearly, the issues of foundation and superstructure continue. However, moving into this section, there is a certain strengthening of significance in regard to that foundation. There can be no other. Jesus Christ is the foundation, and anything else is no longer foundation, but at best some spurious construct. At worst, it is the work of a sapper seeking to undermine the foundation. But, that is not where Paul is taking us in this passage. That has more to do with the issues in Galatia than those in Corinth.
Here, Paul’s concerns are not so much with malicious efforts to undermine the gospel as it is with a sort of carelessness in the handling of the gospel. The foundation is laid, and it’s not just Paul’s doing. It’s not really Paul’s doing at all, in spite of his phrasing in verse 10. “As a wise master builder I laid a foundation.” Yes, his labor has been involved, and he has even acted as an architect in this regard. But, the foundation remains Christ Jesus. He is the cornerstone against which even Paul’s work must be measured. What Paul is doing, then, is effectively taking himself out of the picture, and that is in keeping with the overall thrust of the first part of this letter. What is Paul? What is Apollos? We are nothing. Christ is all (1Co 3:5).
Now, here’s the thing that caught my attention. When we arrive at the matter of that foundation which is laid, as the NASB translates it, some translations offer this as ‘is being laid’. So, which is it? Is the foundation being laid now? Was it still in the process of being laid then? Or is Paul pointing to a finished labor? This would appear to hinge on the fact that he has written this term as a present participle. What exactly that implies seems to vary depending on whose syntactical notes you follow. Zhodiates indicates that this should be taken as continuous or repeated action happening contemporaneously with the action of the main verb. So, as a man lays a foundation, the foundation is being laid. I suppose that’s something of a tautology, isn’t it?
If I go back to the action of ‘no man’, it is can lay: Two verbs. The first is a Present Indicative which can also have this idea of continuous action, although it’s not required. It’s also in the Passive Voice, which seems odd, until one recognizes that the subject is not the man but the foundation. Meanwhile, ‘lay’ is an Aorist Infinitive in the Active Voice, and that should set foundation as the object of the infinitive rather than the subject. OK. I’m lost. What is perhaps more interesting is that the Aorist suggests more of a singular activity, typically in the past. If I accept that, then the ‘is laid’ is contemporaneous not with the time of writing, but with the time that man would have been laying a foundation were he able to do so. Let us say contemporaneous with the time of construction.
I am perhaps worrying this matter a bit too much, but the implications of the true foundation ‘being laid’, as opposed to already laid would seem to be utterly at odds with what Paul is saying, wouldn’t it? If there can be no other foundation, I would tend to argue there can be no further foundation, either. The foundation is complete. That would accord with the message we have elsewhere in the New Testament. The foundation has been laid down with great care to measure to the Cornerstone, which is Christ Jesus. The prophets have built one wall, and the apostles the other, and the whole is very carefully squared and trued to the One trustworthy reference. That seems very clearly to be the same basic thought that Paul is setting forth on this occasion, although the image is more thoroughly fleshed out in Ephesians. If I hold that the revelation of God’s plan and purpose is complete in Scripture, then I cannot allow that the foundation is still in process of being laid. I could accept that at the specific time of Paul’s writing that process was still ongoing. But, even there, I would have to maintain that so far as Paul’s part was concerned, the revelation was done and what remained was exposition. I’ll allow that John’s final addition of the Revelation was still to come. All of that, however, leaves the fundamental truth unchanged from our perspective. The foundation is complete. Scripture is settled. Whatever may come by way of the Holy Spirit at this stage cannot be accounted revelation in that specific, scriptural sense. It may well come by way of informing of certain events coming up, but not as adding new insight into God’s purpose. He’s already told us. I’m not sure if that distinction is going to be sufficiently clear to those who are, shall we say, more relaxed in their understanding of what revelation signifies, but the distinction is necessary.
Here’s an interesting thing, though, with that verb, ‘is laid’. It’s in the Middle Voice. That gives us the idea of the subject acting on itself, or in regard to itself. The foundation is, then, laying itself. The foundation being Christ Jesus, the concept makes a degree of sense, if not from a scientific standpoint. There is, though, a secondary sense of the Middle Voice that suggests a cooperative effort between two subjects. We might suppose that Paul has in mind his work as being done together with Christ, and that would certainly hold.
We might also suppose a cooperative effort between teacher and student, and that draws me back to my opening thought regarding the outline. Teacher and student are in a cooperative effort. If the student is unwilling to learn, the best efforts of the best teacher will not achieve anything. Likewise, if the teacher is particularly inept, the student is unlikely to learn much from him. If the teacher is laying down a faulty foundation, the student does well to ignore that teacher completely. Think of the damage done if the teacher imparting the fundamentals of mathematics insists that one plus one equals three. The students who are taught this flawed starting point, depending how long they remain exposed and uncorrected, will suffer greatly in their capacity to proceed to greater matters of math. Until that foundational error has been unlearned, nothing straight can be built.
Imagine, then, the dangers inherent in a flawed spiritual foundation. We don’t need to imagine. The reality is all around us. Church after church has allowed the foundation to crack, or even ripped it out in favor of some new layout. Inevitably, the congregation (if we can still call it that) which has been grown atop the faulty foundation goes further and further astray from the clear message of the Gospel, until we arrive at houses of purported faith who will believe most anything other than the Truth. Worship what you please. We don’t care what it is, so long as you’re reasonably earnest about it. We’ll sing psalms to God (whoever you imagine Him to be), together with paeans to Gaia. What’s the difference? It should be easy enough for us to recognize that the foundation is not merely cracked in this case. It’s gone missing entirely, and whatever it is that’s being built has no structural integrity whatsoever.
But, we must be vigilant in regard to our own condition. We must pay constant heed to what we are taught and what we allow ourselves to believe. Is it true to what God has revealed? Is it seeking to add or to subtract? Has subtle alteration been allowed to creep in, such that we are now only hearing what we want to hear, not what God wants to say? No man is immune to this! We are all of us inclined to shape the Scriptures to our preferences rather than shape our preferences to the Scriptures. It’s so much easier, so much more comfortable. It’s so much more deadly!
Yesterday, scanning some of the news, I read briefly of the ostensible theology of ISIS, which allows them to purport that the rape of infidels is not merely permissible, but even holy. It is blasphemous to even propose such a thing, and gives the lie to any possibility that they pursue holiness at all. But, be that as it may, it is only an extreme example of what we are inclined to do in our own right. No, I don’t propose that we would be likely to condone anything so clearly sinful and claim it is supported in the name of Christ. At least, I don’t want to. And yet, history demonstrates that even this is possible to fallen man, and it’s not constrained to the Middle Ages. We have factions, at least in Africa, who use the name of our Lord to authorize things that no human should allow. But, again: It’s only the extreme. The truth is that our own inclinations to use the name of Christ to back whatever popular notion is current is no less criminal. What car would Jesus drive? It’s a vacuous question. Jesus would support the gay agenda? Seems highly unlikely given His Father’s views. Jesus would be an environmentalist? Perhaps, but it seems overkill if it’s all going to burn up in the end anyway. Jesus would vote conservative? Or liberal? Maybe libertarian? I should find it equally likely that He would look upon all three with equal disgust. I rather suspect He’s more inclined to support a theocracy and leave the parties out of it.
My point remains simply this: We are responsible (Middle Voice) for the foundation. We cannot hope to lay a proper foundation other than that which is laid. We can, however, discover ourselves responsible for having allowed that foundation to fall into ruin. We can, in spite of ourselves, discover that we have been focusing on making additions, rather than building the walls according to spec.
That moves us into the body of the passage. The concern is with that construction happening atop the foundation. Let’s take it, then, that the matter of the foundation is settled. But, who is building? The first application would be to the teacher, as I have said. The teacher builds upon the foundation. He provides depth of insight, application, exposition. But, he is not to deviate from the lines of Truth laid down in that foundation. His material is the Bible, the prophetic and apostolic word made sure. His reference work is the Holy Spirit, bringing to mind all that Jesus taught, providing insight into the particular needs of the student and helping to ensure that the lesson suits the need. So, certainly there is the sense that Paul is cautioning those who teach to teach only what is of one accord with the Gospel once delivered to the saints.
I say this is a primary concern with Paul. But, he speaks of “any man’s work”. This seems to turn us back to the issue of personal responsibility. It is a picture of the process of sanctification. We are each building upon that foundation. We are each charged with erecting our portion of the wall of this temple of the Holy Spirit. Let me slip to one side here and note that those who would make the case that being themselves the temple of the Holy Spirit they have no need for the church fail to take note of what Christ is constructing. We are built together as a spiritual house. We are called to remain in fellowship one with another. We are gifted and equipped in such fashion as accentuates our need for mutual aid one from another. Forsake not the fellowship. But, here it’s the question of how you’re tending to your own part of the wall. How am I tending to mine?
That idea of mutual aid still holds. My wall is attached to yours in many ways. We learn from one another. We encourage one another. We check each other’s workmanship, not as busybodies, but as holding one another accountable and seeing to each other’s safety. What are you building with, friend? That’s not the stuff to use! Or, Wow! What you’ve created there is wonderful. Show me how to get the same result.
We are building together, and it is the temple of God we are building. I think of those grand cathedrals that were raised up in ancient times. These were labors of love for the Lord. They were, in some cases, the labor of generations. They were built upon sacrifices of toil and treasure, and they were built to the absolute best ability of available. They have stood through the ages because they were so well built. They inspire because they were built to inspire, to draw the attention heavenward. Granted, some take inspiration solely from the architectural skill, others from the artistry that adorns the interior, others still from the wealth evident in the detailing. But, the wisest take inspiration from the God to whom they were raised. They stand as stony reminders of what we are to be about in the flesh. Our spiritual progress, our sanctification, is a process akin to the raising of cathedrals unto God, and we are called to give our best to the process.
If we are shoddy and haphazard as concerns our spiritual health, we are accounted amongst those who build with plywood, hay and straw. Plywood has its place, to be sure. But, its place is not here. Hay and straw might serve for an emergency, overnight shelter of some sort. Thatch roofs can suffice for a dwelling that can’t do better. But, they are unfit for the King of kings. If that’s what our spiritual lives reflect, if that’s the degree of care we give to our efforts on behalf of the Lord of all Creation, what does it say of our estimate of His worth? It does not speak well, that’s for sure. It is, in its own way, as repulsive a testimony of God as those Islamists promoting the holiness of rape.
If, on the other hand, we are tending well to our sanctification; if we are careful of the teachers we give access to our ears, taking time to check what we are taught, seeking the Lord in prayer, demonstrating gratitude for His revealed word by giving it careful attention; by these things we build with gold, silver, and precious stones. If we are not merely absorbing the teaching of Truth, but actively, purposefully putting it into play in our daily lives, that gold is refined and worked with true craft. The precious stones are highly polished, faceted to capture the light and show to best advantage. We are to be careful workmen as concerns our own progress.
But, we cannot lose sight of the overarching concern for how we care for and nurture one another. That, too, demonstrates our workmanship and our care for Christ. Be careful of what you are building, then, whether in your own walk or in your influence upon how others are walking. Help your brother to build his best. Heed his advice as he helps you to do the same. Check one another constantly against the revealed word of God. Be vigilant and check often to see that what you construct remains true to the foundation, and is of that craftsmanship which does not so much commend the work to God as commend the God to whom the work is dedicated.
The day of the Lord will reveal the results. Being mindful of the wicked deceitfulness of the heart, this can’t help but be cause for concern. We are easily led into building with hay that we thought to be gold thread. Our eyes are not so good. What we took to be precious stone may well have been little more than sea glass. We are forever building only to discover that what we built with was no more substantial than gossamer. We see it all come to naught and we scratch our heads. But, what we were building was our own invention. We lost sight of the foundation. We replaced Scriptural guidance with plans and programs, and then wondered why things never seemed to get anywhere. Why is the church so powerless in our day? I think if we would look once more to the foundation, and test ourselves carefully against its lines, we would discover our answer. We’re building with paper where we should use steel. It cannot stand. God will not tolerate it standing.
It will be tested with fire. Fire bespeaks the holiness of God. We know that He cannot abide sin in His presence. One observation that was made in regard to this struck me in particular, for it wasn’t the way I’ve generally thought about that relationship between God and sin. He cannot abide it, but it’s not just that God turns His head in disgust. It’s not that He insists on one of His servants cleaning things up before He will grace the room with His presence. No. It’s really more the case that sin cannot abide in His presence. It must necessarily be consumed, destroyed utterly by the power of God’s holiness. His holiness is the All-consuming Fire. Where He has burned, only that which is pure and lovely and righteous and true can remain. This is why His abiding presence in the believer must result in the purification of the believer. Sanctification isn’t just a goal for us, some hoped for ideal that we strive towards. It is the necessary outcome of God’s presence.
There is another aspect to the imagery of fire that I think Paul might just have somewhere in mind as he writes this. We go back to Abihu and Nadab offering strange fire (Lev 10). What was this? Had they used the wrong fuel, mixed the wrong incense? I think this is where our thoughts first turn, particularly given the care with which the Law sets forth what the incense is composed from. The whole sacrificial system is so specific as to what gets used that this connection naturally forms in our thoughts. But, if we think about it a bit more, it should become clear that it wasn’t the composition that was at issue. After all, that offering was not some long premeditated action on the part of Abihu and Nadab. It was more spur of the moment. Even were it so premeditated, why go to the trouble of concocting some alternate formulation of incense when you have access to the proper mix? What would be the point? Further, if their intent was to impress or please the people, surely an incense that didn’t smell right as it burned would fail of the desired effect.
No, it was the timing of the offering that made the fire strange. As firmly as the Law set forth the ingredients, it also set forth the times and the purposes of the various sacrifices. The whole business of the ceremonial law in particular was to make it clear that God would not be worshiped any old way you pleased. He would be worshiped as He prescribed worship or He was not being worshiped at all. You see this same issue brought out by the prophets as they correct Israel’s wayward habits. You call that fasting? This is what fasting is about? You bring your offerings with that mindset? You’re not offering anything to God, you’re just trying to look good. And you don’t. You don’t look good at all. Like Cain before you, your lackadaisical approach to worship demonstrates your lack of love for God. You still don’t know who He is. You’re just worshiping your own opinions.
Fausset refers to it as self-willed worship. Even if there remained an intent to praise God, having done so in so wrong a fashion, following one’s own timetable, choosing one’s own application, taking the whole matter of what’s right and proper into one’s own hands rather than obeying the commands of a Sovereign: This can hardly be pleasing to Him. The moment our claims of serving God are in fact expressions of our own will and desire rather than acts of obedience to His will and desire, we have fallen into offering strange fire. We are pursuing a different gospel. We’re right there with the folks in Galatia, even if the specific symptoms look a bit different. “I am amazed that you have been so quick to desert Him who called you by the grace of Christ in preference for a different gospel” (Gal 1:6). We find it shocking. But, we also restrict our perspective to that matter of works righteousness. How could they have fallen for that stuff? Why did they listen to the Judaizers? What we fail to see is the sundry different gospels that are before our own eyes, the things both crass and subtle which seek to shift us off the foundation. We are so busy avoiding one poor choice of building material that we sometimes fail to notice that what we picked up instead was just as bad in its own way. We overcompensate. We feel the pendulum of our practice has swung too much to one side of true, and so we thrust it forcefully back along its arc, only to discover we are just a far off to the other side. We love our different gospels because they more nearly match our present state, and don’t challenge us so much. We find a comfortable gospel to settle into, and then satisfy ourselves with moldering and mildewing as we decay.
The fire of God consumes sin. It purifies the believers, and it does so by testing. It is the trials of life which serve to demonstrate the genuineness of our faith. Are you content within the flames, or are you only content when surrounded by material bounty? It’s easy to profess great love for God when everything’s going swimmingly. But, when the fig trees are failing, the vines wither in the heat, and the roof needs patching? Are you still content to trust Him? When the kids are all gone astray, work is onerous, and even the church service falls flat, do you still hold fast to the hem of His garment? Are you as content with nothing as you are with everything? Is your joy shown to be contingent on physical well-being, or is your joy found in Him? Do you find yourself insisting that He bless you according to your own sense of what’s good, or do you indeed trust that He is good and, since He only gives good gifts, what He has given you must be good, whatever your present opinion? The fire will examine your faith. The fire will prove the fruit of the Spirit in you. The fire will hurt. Don’t be so foolish as to think that crucible in which the Refiner’s fire is burning off the dross of sin is comfortably air conditioned. Don’t suppose that the pruning knife is somehow fitted with some anesthetizing agent such that you won’t feel a thing. The excision of sin will hurt. But, the result will be greater fruitfulness, abiding joy, confidence, and absolute knowledge of God’s love for you. It will have been worth it.
As to those strange fires that tempt us away from True, consider Paul’s continued word to Galatia. “It is not really another gospel. It’s just something people are saying in their own desire to distort the gospel of Christ. Don’t let it disturb you” (Gal 1:7). You may be those people. Repent! You may know those people. The hard call of the faithful is to help them to repent, if indeed they belong to Christ. But, I see in the example of the Apostles that there is a time for cutting off, for turning over to the devil. This is not done, I dare say, as final judgment. That power is not given us. It is done, always, in hope. It is done in hope of restoration, so those who have been so blinded will regain sight, so that those who have been deluded will hear the Spirit clearly and return. Our Shepherd is faithful. Our call is to be faithful to Him, even if it gets hard – particularly when it gets hard.
This gospel, which was delivered once for all, is the tool by which we examine ourselves and our works. As I have noted already, our works may be done in the sincere desire to praise God and yet be worthless products of our own making rather than things pleasing to Him. If we do not examine our own works, rest assured that they will be examined most thoroughly in the end. If we do not amend our ways now, we shall find ourselves burned clean then. It is not, as Fausset’s takes pains to note, a matter of purgatory. It is the final step, and Paul makes that sufficiently clear here.
If a man’s works are worthless, shoddy efforts, they will be burned up and that man shall indeed suffer loss. But, Paul insists, he himself will be saved, even though it be as it were through fire. That loss which Paul has in view is not some earthly retribution for failure to comply with God’s perfect way. It is associated with ‘the day’, which is clearly intended to indicate the day of the Lord, the day of His return and of the judgment of all mankind. In that day all the hidden ways of each man shall be revealed. It is not said directly, so far as I recall, whether that revealing will be done before all or between each man and Christ. Either way, I cannot imagine that one who has known the love of God in this life will stand stoically before the exposure of his myriad failings in that moment. How can there be a love of God without sorrow for sins? Bearing in mind that in that moment we arrive at the place of knowing Him as we have been known all along, we have come to a place where there are no secrets, it will be seen that the moment is one of cleansing sorrow as well as one of utmost relief.
Will it be public? I cannot say with certainty one way or the other. I am inclined to lean upon the merciful nature of our Lord and suppose that He would care for us in our shame by keeping it between us two. This is, after all, rather in keeping with His own instruction for discipline, is it not? Or, are we beyond that point, having borne our sins into heaven? This much I know, if it is done publicly, it is done thus for our good. We will know from our own experience that the confession of sin to our brother has value. It’s out in the open now, and it becomes easier to deal with, knowing that there are others who know. It may be possible to deal with a sin in private fashion, but it is the more challenging approach, for it leaves the door to temptation wide open. It also has something in it of the ever-present sin of pride. Why, after all, would we refuse to call upon the aid of our brother, if it is not for pride?
Whatever the case, in that moment, when we meet our Lord finally face to face, the truth will out. The truth will out, and in that process, the sinful shall be done away with once for all. Whatever may be revealed, whatever we shall discover we have done in error, whatever loss of self-image we may suffer in that moment, the gain remains far and away sufficient to cover the losses. Look at that promise we have. Though your works be burned up, though you were to find that in the end you had nothing to show for your years of faith on earth and your best efforts turned out to be misguided self-worship, yet you shall be saved. Your works were never going to get you in anyway. That’s by no means an excuse to give no thought to your efforts, but it is a great comfort as you stumble along with the partial sight and knowledge of this present life.
James can say, “I’ll show you my faith by my works”, and he is quite correct to note that the claimant to faith who has absolutely no works to demonstrate that faith has, in the end, a dead faith that has nothing to do with the Spirit, nothing to do with Life. Salvation remains by faith alone, but faith does not remain alone. Love of God cannot but bear fruit for God. The one in whom the Spirit abides cannot but manifest the fruits of the abiding Spirit. It’s not as though we arrive at perfection, but having come as we are, we can by no means remain as we are. The life of faith is a life of progress, of progressive sanctification. It is beset by errors, and littered with stumbling blocks that shall cause us to stall and even fall back from time to time. But, the trend line shows our direction, and our direction is ever heavenward. You shall be saved, even if it turns out to be as through fire.
What a faithful God we serve! We are, to be sure, responsible for the way in which our sanctification proceeds. Yet, it remains true that unless the Lord is in that process, our greatest efforts shall be in vain. If our efforts at sanctification are expended towards one issue while God’s attention is on another, we shall still find our labors frustrating and fruitless. The work goes on according to His plan or the work goes nowhere. But, while we do our utmost to avoid the pitfall of presumption, we pursue our sanctification with this assurance: God’s got our back. You shall be saved. Though you were to come to the end of your days with all your work burned away (were that a real likelihood), yet you would be granted entrance. Why? It was never your call in the first place. It was His choice.
Now, I find it unlikely in the extreme that God would choose one whose works would be entirely worthless. I find it unlikely in the extreme, impossible really, that where faith has been granted, there would be nothing to show for it. As I have said, where the Spirit abides, His fruits can’t help but grow. Where the love of God resides, can it really be supposed that no acts of love would follow? But, the Scriptures which so simply and clearly deliver the gospel, making clear to the simplest of us that we have hope in Christ, that He has died and risen again that we might live with Him forever, also contain such wisdom and knowledge as would take multiple lifetimes to master.
Our love for God may be entirely real yet our knowledge of Him poorly formed. We may find we have accidentally slipped strange fire onto the altar of our heart. We may discover that things we held true for years on end were actually false, that we had the Truth turned on its head all this time. Listen, the varied doctrines that define the many denominations that remain true churches of God in spite of their differences make it inevitable that somebody’s wrong on each point of disagreement. There’s every likelihood that we are all wrong about some of these points, and it’s all but certain that we are all of us wrong about some point or another. We shall all find ourselves in need of that final cleansing. We shall all find sufficient cause for embarrassment and shame in how we have misrepresented our Lord in life. But, we have this assurance! You will be saved. The error will be corrected in you, and you shall emerge from the cleansing fires of that moment as purest gold.
In this life, for this present day, I would say that for myself I do well to hold before me this reminder from Fausset’s article. “So the gospel that saves the humble seals death to the presumptuous.” There is no place for presumption in God’s economy. Assurance must not become presumption. Apparent success must not lead us to presumption. That, I think, was the mistake Moses made. He began to presume that whatever he did must be right, that what God had commanded him to do once, he could thereafter do without checking. After all, had not God made him the leader of this people? Surely, then, his leadership must be such that he could simply do what seemed right!
We see it again in the period of the judges. Every man did what seemed right to him. Nobody gave thought to God, to see what He declared was right. We are the people of God, the thinking goes, and therefore what we do is right of necessity. It’s the same presumption that came to taint the temple. Wherever God settled, it seemed the people took it as evidence that they could do no wrong, however wrong their actions. It’s not just Israel. It’s the history of man, the nature of the fallen. We see the least hint of heavenly approval and drop into presumption. I look at history, and I see that period when England thought itself the New Jerusalem. How could they go wrong? God had chosen them! I see America planted as a city on a hill, sure that this time, God had come to dwell forever in the land of the free. One needn’t look very far today to find sufficient cause to doubt that. It needs no prophets to proclaim that God is not pleased with America. How could He be? He hasn’t changed, but we have.
Yet, the assurance remains. You will be saved. Though it become necessary to crush the nations and destroy the works, yet you will be saved. I’ll just glance forward to the next verse in this passage to seal the lesson to our hearts. “Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Co 3:16). Temples of stone may crumble. Churches of wood may burn down. Nations, however much they may have achieved, have their times. They rise and they fall as the Lord determines. Nothing on this earth is permanent, not even mountains and seas, let alone anything so ephemeral as man and his cultural constructs. Nothing stands except this alone: The Word of the Lord shall stand. Not one least bit of punctuation shall fail of what He has said. And, it is this Word which has declared, “Yet, you will be saved.”
Can you imagine, as Christ looked upon the state of His people when first He stepped out in ministry was even then contemplating that statement! Just look at you! You have repeatedly gone after other gods. You have made a mockery and worse of the Scriptures entrusted to you. You have taken it upon yourself to hide God away for yourselves rather than taking Him to the nations as you were to have done. You have not only been worthless as tenders of His vineyards, you have destroyed all who would bring you to your senses, taken all that was His as if it were your own, and will even yet take it upon yourselves to kill the very God who made you a people. And yet, for those few who composed the remnant, those whom God had called, however tainted by the state of their nation and their world, He could look with compassion and say, “Yet, you will be saved.” As He hung dying on the cross, His body in agony and His heart utterly broken by experiencing that interminable breach in the fellowship of the Trinity, still He could look upon those for whom He had died, and say, “Yet, you will be saved.”
He looked out, I dare say, across all time. He saw you and I, our myriad failures, and the nearly infinite ways in which we have brought shame upon His work, His name and His gospel. He looked across the entire course of our days, saw the periods when we accounted Him as nothing, when we mocked Him. He saw the periods when we claimed to be His but acted like the worst of heathens. He saw every instance when we failed Him, every sin we ever have or ever will commit. He saw how we hurt our brothers, how we twisted His worship, how we ran after every distracting thing, every false wind of novelty in doctrine. He saw us constantly at our worst. And still, with His dying breath, He made it certain: “Yet, you will be saved.”
Oh! Blessed assurance! Jesus is mine. He is my assurance, my only assurance. My assurance is that He is my God, and far more important, I am His. Though I fail Him constantly, yet I am His. I am His because He has claimed me, and there is nothing man nor spirit can do to annul His claim. He alone has the power to annul it, and He it is who has granted this assurance: Yet, you will be saved.
Thank You, my Lord, my King, my Jesus! Thank You for Your faithfulness, Your steadfast love which is powerful even to purge me of my sins. Thank You that You have never changed and never will. Thank You that this salvation which You have procured is so great an article that even my most abject failures cannot cause its loss. Oh, God! Though I rejoice in the confidence of salvation, yet I would ask that You hold me faithful to Yourself. Lord, You have set me in places I still find no reason to think I should be. Even three years ago, as You well know, I would have laughed at the suggestion that I should have anything to do with leading a church such as this, and now? I know You know what You are doing, and in this I set all my confidence. But, I pray You would keep me faithful in leading Your people in this place. I pray that You would swiftly grow me into the task You have given me. May I lead as You would have me lead, shepherd as You would have me shepherd. May I care for these, Your sheep, even as You do. The task is great, and the temptation to pride is likewise great. But, You, my God, are greater. Grant me to walk with You humbly as You desire, and to thus manage to be an example to those amongst whom You have set me. Grant me to serve only accordingly as You direct, that whatever small work You have given me here may be found to have been done to Your glory.
