New Thoughts (05/13/12-05/17/12)
As a first comment on this passage, I should like to note that it provides us with a very clear example of the distinction between oida and ginosko as forms of knowing. The disciples, listening to what Jesus has been telling them, are caught off by this last statement of His, even though it is something He has been hinting at for some time now. What does He mean? What’s this business about going to the Father? What little while? And, after a bit of discussion amongst themselves, they reach the obvious conclusion: “We don’t know what He’s talking about.”
Here, the term in view is oida, the form of knowledge that comes from intuiting. We might think of it as the power of reason. We think through what has been reported to us by our senses and seek to make orderly sense of it all. In this case, though they have heard all that He has said, the significance of what He is indicating to them has eluded them. I would note that it is not necessary to suppose that their listening skills were not so good, or that they only heard portions of what Jesus was saying. It’s hardly impossible, of course. How often do we really remain fully engaged for the length of the sermon without drifting off to our own thoughts now and again? But, then, these are men who know Christ, who are keenly aware of His significance, even if they are not fully cognizant of all that entails. They are also in the midst of a very significant religious observation. I should think that many of these factors would serve to increase their attentiveness.
I recall from the preceding passage, that Jesus Himself had noted not their inattentiveness, but that they were rather overwhelmed. “I am going now, and yet none of you asks Me where I am going” (Jn 16:5). It wasn’t that they hadn’t heard Him. It was that the information He was setting before them was so overwhelmingly negative, at least on the face of it, that they could hardly react any more. It was a lot to take in, and there was more coming. Neither did they have notebooks with them, or some means of recording His speech for later review. Unlike the modern student, they had to get it now or forget it.
So, by way of contrast, when the disciples reach the conclusion that they simply don’t know, don’t get it, we then turn to Jesus, and we are told that He knew what they were discussing, and that they really wanted to ask Him what He meant. We read that, and are inclined to immediately spiritualize the verse. See? Jesus was fully God. He knew what they were thinking! Well, of course He did! He was sitting at table with them. They were chattering amongst themselves as He paused. Do we suppose He was deaf or something, that He would not obviously be aware of their confusion? There is nothing mystical here, no power from on high being displayed. Jesus knew, egnoo, by experience. All He had to do was listen to the questions they were asking each other, and the conclusion they had just reached.
He also knew His disciples rather well, having been with them some three years now. He knew each of their unique personalities, as we would our own family. It would be an odd thing to find it otherwise after so much time. So, He is not unfamiliar with their reticence around Him. That it would be particularly acute when they had just been spoken of as graduates, as those who know not only what Jesus is doing but why, that they would hardly wish to make their ignorance clear for all to see by saying, “We don’t know what You’re saying here, Teacher.” So, good teacher that He is, He volunteers the explanation.
The disciples, then, did not know because they could not mentally sift the data they had been receiving so as to arrive at a full understanding. Jesus knew what was perfectly clear to see, that they had not fully understood and wanted clarification. In the one case, reasoning. In the other, experience. In the one case, the attempt to arrive at conclusions drawn from the data. In the other, absolute knowledge of what is plain to all.
If I were to draw one quick lesson from this it is that we ought to be far more cautious about finding these magnificent displays of spiritual power as we read the Gospels. We are impressed by such things, true, and Jesus certainly had plenty of examples of such display to which we can look. But, there are many other cases that simply demonstrate Jesus the Man, and we do the Gospel a great disservice by seeking the God Jesus where the Man is in view.
There, if there be a mystery, is the mystery to be held firmly in mind. Jesus the God-man, though fully God was likewise, simultaneously fully man. This is something that has been set before my eyes in recent weeks as Table Talk has been going through the Heidelberg Catechism. I had not really considered it before, but it is rather important to maintain that for Jesus to be fully man, He must necessarily experience those limitations that are common to man. This is not to say that He needed to suffer all the effects of the Fall, for had He done so, He must necessarily have failed of His goal. No, but He must experience the limitations inherent in man such as he was before the Fall. Man, even Adam, did not have the fullness of the Godhead in him. He had fellowship, times of communion with God, but he was not God himself, nor in possession of the power of God. Likewise, as Jesus walked the earth in His incarnation, the Man did not have direct, immediate access to the fullness of God.
Yet, He was simultaneously fully God. Never did He relinquish the reality of His being, only the prerogatives. Never did He cease being eternal. Never did He cease being omniscient and all powerful. The mystery lies in that He was both. He was completely possessed of His godhood and simultaneously completely human in his lack of such possession. It is, rather like the Triune nature of that Godhead, seemingly impossible to describe sufficiently. Yet, it is Truth. Jesus, in this case, as with others, knew not because He was simultaneously accessing the heavenly database where the thoughts and intentions of every man are known. No. He knew because, in this instance, it was painfully obvious. In other cases, He knew because men are like that. He had no delusions as to the natural proclivities of fallen men, nor of the fickleness of fame in their eyes.
As Jesus proceeds to provide these men with the explanation they seek, there is more added to what has been said already. It is the explanation they seek. Let us be clear on that. But, the Teacher does not simply repeat Himself, or rephrase His point. Rather, He fleshes it out just a bit. This, too, may have left the disciples a bit confused, but perhaps not. “You will weep, but the world will rejoice.” There is a fundamental Truth being set forward here. It may not have been clear then, but it would become clear soon enough. And this, I have no doubt, was the intent. The seed of knowledge was planted, and it only remained for the course of events ahead to water that seed. Knowledge would assuredly grow, for the disciples were indeed a rich soil.
So, the message is delivered. The world and the church are at odds. They are ever at odds. We, in our own time, need to recognize this, internalize this, and have it ever before our eyes. What saddens the church will assuredly be celebrated in the world. What gives the church cause to rejoice will be derided and despised in the world. It is the nature of things. Light and dark do not mix. Righteousness and sin cannot have commerce one with another. As it applied to these eleven men, the evidence would be immediate and visceral. They would watch the Son of God put to death as if He were the worst of criminals. And they would know that He was indeed the embodiment of all goodness. The injustice! The sorrow! The terror, even, as they wondered what would become of them at the hands of those who had destroyed such a Man.
Oh, there would be weeping and mourning in the most literal sense. There would be anguish of soul. And, there would be an added dismay to note the way those same crowds who had celebrated the entrance of their True King were right there at the end cheering on His murderers. The same ones who acclaimed His coming now acclaimed His destruction. The world would celebrate, for it seemed the One who reined in their sinful proclivities was destroyed, and people could once for all be free. But, the truth is far from the perception. The King was not destroyed, only restored to His throne in full power. The freedom they thought they had purchased was not freedom at all, but enslavement for perpetuity. They would rejoice, but it is absolutely inevitable that their joy will become an eternal sorrow.
For us, the obverse holds. We have sorrow now. We look at what the world is promoting and it breaks our hearts. We see what our children must encounter, what many of our children will even succumb to in spite of our efforts, and it cannot but cause us to cry out. We see good men falling, churches failing, those who govern us growing more power-mad and corrupted. We see society promoting every sort of evil as if it were good, and choosing to ignore what little evil it hasn’t actively promoted. We see God despised, derided, and those who know Him written off as backward fools.
Let us understand, though, that in reality little has changed. The Apostles faced the same things. The early church faced the same things. The devil really doesn’t have that many tricks to play, nor does he need them. For humanity is ever ready to be fooled again, whatever our songs may say to the contrary.
But, there is a more fundamental point that we need to recognize, if we are to persevere. The world and the church must be at odds. There is only one way that ever ceases to be the case, and that is if the world and the church become the same thing. The problem is, that as often as not it appears that the church has been swallowed up by the world, that we have simply acquiesced, been absorbed, become so worldly ourselves as to be indistinguishable. I must stress that it appears to be so. But, the reality is ever and always that God has preserved a remnant. However debased the popular forms of Christianity have become, there are always those who will hold out, those who will cling to the Truth with hands unwilling to let go whatever may come of it. What held for Israel holds for us. God preserves. God retains and protects His own, those who are truly His elect.
If the bulk of the church has accepted homosexuality as inevitable, the True Church has not. If the bulk of the church has given up on addressing sexuality in any way shape or form, the True Church has not. If much of the church has decided that Jesus isn’t so much the only Way as He is one manifestation of how men come to recognize the way, the True Church has not.
Let me reverse the image just a bit. If the world and the church are not at odds, then the odds are that the church is failing in its duties. Review history. When has the church been at its worst? It is when, as men measure things, it has been most powerful. Consider the so-called Holy Roman Empire. While it had the backing of pope and clergy, it was hardly a thing to be construed as holy. Anything but! No, it was naked, raw power. It was politics played with miter and alb. The church was never less godly than when it found itself holding the reins of state. Why, the pope was empowered to dethrone kings! Surely, God ruled through his man in Rome! Yet, the truth was more that the man in Rome had utterly abandoned God and gone solo. The riches of the world, and the power (such as it is) that the world had to offer had enticed him away from the Way of Truth into the way of corruption. The Lie beckoned, and power-hungry men heeded the call.
The world will only cease to be at odds with the True Church when the battle is over, and Christ reigns not only Supreme (for He already reigns Supreme), but has returned in Judgment and in Vengeance upon all who would rebel against Him. Ho! How often do we even hear such a thing suggested anymore? God vengeful? No, no! That’s an Old Testament thing. He’s changed, now. God is love, man! Everybody gets forgiven in the end. Haven’t you heard? No. But, I’ve read. I’ve read that right up to the end, “Those on the earth will rejoice and make merry” (Rev 11:10). And what is it that gives them such pleasure? It is the death of those prophets who stood and spoke Truth against the beast, who fingered Antichrist, and would not abandon their post, come what may.
If ever we suppose ourselves to have won short of that mark which the Scriptures set forth, we are fooling ourselves. If ever we think the Church has entered an era of peace, when we can perhaps relax just a bit, we ought to know ourselves in greatest danger. For we are allowing the wool to be pulled over our eyes, are indeed tugging the wool down ourselves in our desire to be the winners. We are the winners. It’s just that the battlefield on which we win is on a scale far grander than our imaginations accept. We war not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers in high places (Eph 6:12). And be clear on this: We war. Yes, the victory lies in Jesus alone, but we are no passive bystanders in this battle.
You may have seen pictures from the Civil War era, where the local gentry would set out picnics on the hillside from whence to view the battles below. The grim realities of war were reduced to something akin to gladiatorial combat for these folks, or so they thought. Many a Christian falls into that same mindset, that the spiritual stuff is dealt with off in heaven somewhere, and we need be no more than spectators, watching Gladiator Jesus beat the tar out of His latest opponent. But, it’s not like that! We are not observers, but combatants. We are not reserved for those occasions where flesh must oppose flesh, where we are to bear the Truth of God into the marketplace of ideas, or insist that character counts in our political candidates. There’s nothing wrong with doing those things, and indeed we perhaps ought to do so more frequently.
But, the battle, though it belongs to the Lord, also belongs to us. We are in it. We have been in it since the day we were called. If we go into this blissfully unaware of just how serious Paul was in that message to the Ephesians, we are going to be spiritually bloodied when conflict comes our way. Our weapons are indeed powerful to the tearing down of strongholds (2Co 10:4), but they are not of the flesh. Rather, they are a matter of holding fast to the knowledge of God against every speculation raised by man. They are a matter of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2Co 10:5). Such behavior is never going to endear us to the world around us!
I go back to the mission of the Holy Spirit Who indwells us. He comes to convict the world of its error in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. Given that the world is inherently sinful and all the while convinced of its own righteousness; given that the world wishes to set itself in the judgment seat, and reject all attempts to put it under judgment, that is hardly a message that is going to be received with favor! “You are a sinner firmly on the path to hell and to eternal damnation” is not a message most will hear favorably. Indeed, so unfavorable is the reception that the Church, for the most part, is rather embarrassed by the idea of speaking it anymore. Oh! For a Jonathon Edwards in our day; one who understood the real situation and preached to the real situation in the real power of the real Risen Christ!
Next, Jesus turns to an image which has echoes throughout Scripture. Yet, His use of this image is somewhat distinct from its use by earlier prophets. I am thinking of that image of the pregnant woman giving birth. The thing I notice in scanning those earlier uses of the image, it’s the pain that is focused on, not the result. It is used primarily to indicate such distress as will reduce a man to tears of anguish, wails of painful torment. In its fashion, it would seem this is meant to demonstrate a reducing of manhood to the weakness of womanhood, as well. Only rarely is there mention of the outcome of all this travail, or how that might reflect God’s purpose. In that regard, Hosea 13:13 is particularly noteworthy: The pains of childbirth come upon him. He is not a wise son, for it is not time to delay when the womb is opened.
Consider that last part in light of the message Jesus is delivering now. “It is not time to delay when the womb is opened.” There is your significance as concerns God’s purposes. He says the time is now. When God speaks thus, it is a fool that would even try to ignore Him!
But, even though He is in this, there will be anguish. That term, thlipseoos, is particularly poignant in its significations. There is crushing pressure, a burden almost beyond bearing on the spirit. There is a squeezing affliction, a feeling of being crowded in on every side. This is used primarily to describe what the woman goes through in that moment of birthing – potentially a very lengthy moment! Pain almost beyond enduring, a seemingly endless agony, such pressure as will not be denied, but which threatens to rend the very soul. Yet, when it is passed, the joy that comes of that effort is so powerful as to utterly erase the memory of pain.
When the womb is opened, God’s hand is in it, even though the pain might lead us to question that fact. This is not merely the physical reality of the woman’s experience. Of course it isn’t! Jesus is addressing eleven men, and what have they to do with a woman’s travails? They have this to do with it: They are about to birth a church! They are about to birth a nation with no boundaries! They are about to undergo a sorrow that will make the agony a woman feels in childbirth seem like nothing. A burden? They will witness the death of God’s own Son! Pain? The savior, the Messiah, will seemingly be proven a false hope, and what hope is left thereafter? Agony? Think about what Peter faces in the days ahead, as he sees himself fulfill the words spoken this evening, as he sees his real condition, and feels the utter hopelessness in it. Might as well go home and go fishing. There’s nothing for me here, anymore. Even if He lives, how could He want somebody whose done as I have done?
But in the midst of that, lying forgotten, is the promise. “Therefore.” That word is sufficiently powerful that those translations which have lessened its force ought to be repenting of their choice. “Therefore.” It necessarily follows. The truth of what has been said requires that this which I say now is also true. It is the inescapable conclusion. The laws of nature and of God will not allow it to be otherwise. To my mind, the necessity of the connecting thought cannot be over stressed. I would dare to take it so far as to read that it is impossible that it should be otherwise. If the woman’s joy is the necessary outcome of her agony and travail; it is that much more necessary that your joy will follow upon your sorrow. She is birthing one man, and one man after the nature of mankind. You men are birthing a nation! You are birthing men after the nature of god-kind. The agony will be greater, but so, too, the joy, when once you realize what you are truly about.
This is what will come of that promised moment, “when I see you again.” Your heart will rejoice! You, too, will realize that you have witnessed life being brought into the world, and it shall not be one life, but Life Himself, victorious over death and ensuring an eternity of life awaits those who love Him, who are called by Him.
Now, I have already taken note of this birth imagery being used frequently by the prophets. There is one section in particular that deserves greater attention. The NET has suggested that this passage was on Jesus’ mind as He spoke here, and that the disciples quite possibly heard the reference in His words. I rather wonder if we don’t give them too much credit with that last supposition, but for Jesus to have the Old Testament in view as He speaks the New would hardly surprise. The passage in question is Isaiah 66. Most specifically, we are pointed towards verses 7-14, but it’s worthwhile I should think, to at least scan back to the beginning of the chapter, perhaps to read through to the end, if only to guard against reading things into the text that aren’t there.
So: We open with God declaring His sovereignty. “I am enthroned in heaven, and the earth is My footstool. And you would build Me a house? Where would I rest? I made all these things! They came into being through Me!” The relative insignificance of man was never so starkly displayed. Even the standard comparison of our day, measuring man against the vastness of the cosmos, falls short. For, here is the One who says, “I made the cosmos!” You think they’re grand? Those are just My toys, My artwork. Yet, He holds out hope. “My eyes are upon that one who is humble and contrite, who reveres My Word.” Such a one would not be so inclined to brag of the house he would make for God. He already has a firm grasp on the comparison that has just been set forth. Yet, such a one would still be pleased to make even such a token offering to the One Who has captured his heart.
Now, the text turns to the reprobate, and counts amongst them many who come to His own temple. This is the impact of verse 3. The one performing religious rites is no different than the one committing heinous crimes. Slay an ox on the altar or a man in the street. At heart, there is no difference in the perpetrator. Indeed, it may well be the same man on a different day. And, the answer from He Who sits on the throne is thus: “You have chosen your own ways; I will choose your punishment.” And, as ever seems to be the case, that punishment will have its share of irony. “I will bring on them that which they dread most.” Why? “Because I called and nobody answered. I spoke and nobody listened.”
Moving to verse 5: “So, listen, now! If there are those among you who still revere Me, listen!” And, here, we move into things that might just serve to parallel the case Jesus sets forth. Those who hate you and exclude you “for My name’s sake” have said, “Glorify God that we may see your joy.” What is up with that? The old Charismatic in me could see this as the more staid denominations deriding the ways of that movement. Go ahead and dance, you who think this is worship! Let us see you dance while we heap abuse on you. Do it! And note that opening clause. They hate you and think they serve Me in doing so.
Well, whatever may be said of the Charismatic movement versus the Reformed, or what have you, this certainly describes the treatment both promised to the Apostles and experienced by them. Forewarned is forearmed, but still, that had to be a most terrible experience for men of faith. Now, God does not leave it there, does He? Of course not! With the warning comes the promise. “They will be put to shame.” And He proceeds to describe His own voice in the temple, rendering judgment and recompense upon His enemies.
Then, we come to this odd and seemingly disjointed image. “Before she travailed, she bore. Before her pain came, she had already birthed a boy. Who ever heard of such a thing? Has this ever happened before? May as well suggest that a nation could be born in a day!” And that is precisely His point. “Behold! As soon as Zion travailed, she bore her sons.” Now, comes the promise, the hope: “Shall I bring to that point of birth and fail to deliver? I Who give delivery, would I really shut the womb in that moment?” The answer is an obvious no. Therefore, the denouement. “Rejoice, then, with Jerusalem. Be exceedingly glad, you who have been mourning over here. Nurse and be satisfied at her breasts, for I extend peace to her. Peace pours like a river overflowing. You shall be nursed, carried, bounced on the knee. I will comfort you as a mother comforts her child. You will see! You will be glad, for the hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants, but His indignation to His enemies. The Lord will come in fire and whirlwind to expend His anger with fury, rebuking with flames of fire. He will judge by fire and by sword, and many will be slain by Him.”
This is an extremely amplified commentary on what Jesus has said. They will rejoice as you weep, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. You will birth. The labor pains will end in the birth of a nation, a nation of priests unto our Lord, composed from every tribe and nation of the earth! For, all the nations of the earth are His, and if there be life found elsewhere in this universe, rest assured: They are His as well. Let me just echo that point from Isaiah 66:14. “You will see this and be glad of heart.” You will see this! For the Apostles, this same message held in a most visceral sense. You will witness these things. You will see the Son seemingly brought low, but you will also see Him rise up in ultimate victory, such victory as can never be overturned. Yes, and you will rejoice in that day, and the joy that you discover in His victorious return, as He takes up His place upon the throne of heaven is such as nothing in all of heaven or earth could possibly turn back to mourning.
That baby born to a mother, and the joy it brings: Is that joy ever destroyed? There may indeed be sorrows ahead as the child grows. There may be disappointments for the mother as her child makes poor choices. Yet, the joy of having him never departs. I admit that there are cases where this does not hold. The fallen nature of man wounds the relationship, sometimes mortally. But, the common experience of mankind holds with this statement, that the child is a joy to the one who bore him. Who is not familiar with a mother’s love, even if it’s more from stories than from experience? Who does not understand that this love is nearly as unconditional as God’s own? That love has a necessary companion in joy. Yes, and that love being unconditional, the joy also persists even in the face of disappointments, even in the midst of rebuke and discipline made necessary.
This is the nature of things as Jesus presents the immediate future to His disciples. And, do you know? He was right! How about that! Luke, as he ends his Gospel account, arrives at this statement. “They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually praising God in the temple” (Lk 24:52-53). Just as He said.
But, let us return to the current scene, the then present. Having more or less explained Himself, although probably not to the point of them fully grasping His meaning, Jesus proceeds to deliver a promise to His disciples. But, this is introduced in rather an odd way. “In that day you will ask Me no question.” At least, this is how the NASB presents the opening to verse 23. This is, however, potentially reading into the text a bit. The more literal approach would be to stick with , “you will ask Me nothing,” or perhaps, “you will ask nothing of Me.” And, then, the promise. “Ask the Father for anything, and He will give it to you in My name.” Again, I am following the NASB. And again, the ‘for anything’ part is more implied than explicit.
Hidden in the English of this verse lies a distinction of terms in the Greek. In the first instance, Jesus says erootessete, but in the second, and again in the subsequent verse, He says aiteeseete. Is He just being fancy, showing His vocabulary chops? Or is there something more to it? The evidence would seem to indicate that there’s a lot of debate on the subject. Zhodiates, looking at the first term, suggests that the Accusative case that applies to the verb’s object indicates that the asking is for, not about. It is a request, not an interrogation. This is interesting to me. I think, prior to this study, my sense of this statement has always been that as He is fully revealed, we will find no further explanations necessary. We will arrive at understanding. I tend to think this way as concerns our arrival in heaven. We shall no longer find explanations necessary, no longer wonder what the point was behind some of the things we have suffered, nor wonder about how He could bless the likes of us. All of that will fade to insignificance as we are perfected.
That’s as may be, but the implication is that it is not what Jesus is getting at on this occasion. But, both meanings are possible. It could be a question, a seeking of explanation, as easily as it could be a seeking some boon.
Turning to the second term, aiteo, the implication seems to be that it is more clearly a request for something, even a matter of begging, according to some. Zhodiates here stresses a distinction between our two terms, noting that erotao is indicative of a request between equals, where aiteo applies more to the inferior seeking from the superior. Thus, a beggar aiteo for alms, but Jesus erotao of the Father. But, hold on! Thayer notes this common view and says, “not so fast!” Rather, he offers (with some backing citations), the distinction is that aiteo is an asking for things given, and eratao for things done.
Well, how do these two disparate understandings play out in the passage at hand? If we follow the thinking of Zhodiates and friends, we arrive at this: You will not ask of Me as your equal in that day, but you will beg what you will of Your Father in My name. Hmm. I wonder, did these men really suppose themselves equal to Jesus at this stage? True, He had just called them friends, but really? I think not. How do you look to this one whom you have identified as being the Son of God, the Messiah, and still suppose yourself equal to Him?
But, what if we apply the distinction offered by Thayer? Now, we have, “You will not ask Me to give you anything, but if you ask the Father to do anything for you on My authorization, He will.” At the very least, this presents a more coherent statement than is suggested by the NASB. You will ask Me no questions, but ask the Father for stuff and He will give it? These are two completely orthogonal thoughts. If Jesus was saying that Father would explain, or the Holy Spirit would explain, it would connect. But, then, He’s already indicated that the Holy Spirit will explain. This is addressing a different matter altogether.
It would seem to me, then, that if we follow the path laid out by Thayer, we shall not be far wrong. You won’t ask Me for anything in that day. Perhaps, because you will have arrived, as Paul would later write, at that point of being truly content. “I am in need of nothing, for My God shall provide all my needs.” Marvelous words, those, but it’s a far different thing to truly believe them. You will have no needs that you feel driven to satisfy. But, you will see the need all around you. You will ask the Father to do all manner of things, but not on your behalf, no! You will ask, ‘in My name.’ You will ask because you know well that it is what I would want done. You will see the sorrowful outworking of sin in those around you, and you will be moved as I AM is moved, by compassion. You will ask, where I AM inclined to mercy, that Father manifest His mercy, bring forth His healing, but far more importantly, repentance and rebirth. And, He will do it!
Oh! How we must divest ourselves of any least impression that God has given us some inexhaustible bank account with no restrictions on our purchase! This is the sense that the NLT, amongst others, seeks to apply. Read this, and weep. “At that time you won't need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name.” No! That’s not the point. The word Jesus, or its more native Yeshua, or any other variation of translation you might choose, is not some token word by which to force God’s hand! Never! Far be it from the Supreme God, Whose knowledge of man is complete and absolute, to be so foolish as to entrust such power into our hands.
By contrast, consider what the Amplified Version offers here. “Most solemnly I tell you, that My Father will grant you whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM].” That is far more to the point. What you ask as His representatives, as sound representatives of His good government, this the Father is pleased to do, and assured to do. For, His Son is His perfect representation, and as we represent Him in good faith, what gift is there that Father would not provide? For, He does it not for us, but for His own Son. If only we can get our egos and our wants and our seemingly endless discontent out of the way, perhaps we will get this, and begin to do some good in the kingdom!
Ask what you will in My service, and know you shall have it from your Father. But, here the counsel of James becomes particularly significant. “You wonder why you don’t get what you ask for? It’s because you’re asking for the wrong motives. You seek only what will suit your good pleasure, you adulteresses! Don’t you get it yet? This worldly friendship of yours is hostility against God” (Jas 4:3-4). No! It should be painfully obvious that if we, for example, ask God to bless our bordello, He’s not even vaguely likely to do so. Yet, there are those who make just such claims. Oh, yes. He’s with us in this endeavor. No, He’s not, and how dare you try and associate His name with that which He abhors?
Sure, and we can recognize the problem there. We can recognize the issue when things counted as anathema in heaven are proclaimed as great goods from the pulpits of churches pretending they still bear His name and His imprimatur. Yep. It’s obvious to the casual observer that these are heathens and worse. But, in lesser things (as we measure them), particularly those things that we would just as soon continue to enjoy and practice, well, it’s harder to see why He wouldn’t bless us in spite of our willful sins.
I am drifting back into Amos again! Yes, because there was that point from last week’s lesson on Amos 2, that every willful sin is a conscious and determined effort to openly despise Him. That holds as true for the true believer as for the pretender. We don’t like to hear that, but it’s true. There is no willful sin that cannot be viewed as open revolt against the very one we uphold as our King, the very one we keep calling our Lord. How is He our Lord if we feel we can ignore His rule over us whenever we please? God help us!
Therein lies one point of application, and one well worth contemplation at length. But, as this is a study of the Gospel, and not of the Prophets, let me stick with that application which derives from the passage before me. This concerns the matter of joy, that particular quality of joy that comes of encountering the risen Christ. To my thinking, this is at least as great a gift as the promise of verses 23 and 24. You will have joy such as none can take away from you. If we would grasp the full extent of that non-severability clause, we might consider Paul’s doxology in Romans 8:35-39. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword?” Note well that Paul, having asked who, proceeds to expound a series of whats. He arrives at an answer. “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Then, he amplifies the point. “I am convinced that not even death or life, angels or principalities, past, present or future, no height or depth, not any created thing whatsoever (which pretty much covers everything but God Himself) is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And God, being God, is not one to revoke His own orders of adoption, now, is He?
When Paul speaks of victory over all those whats which resolve his who, we must surely understand that he is not claiming their absence from his life. Tribulation and distress? Paul had those in plenty. Persecution and peril? Yep. Town by town, they pursued him. Famine and sword? Just think to that shipwreck event on the way to Rome. But, this is the thing: None of those events that we would quite reasonably account as negatives or, to put it in our vernacular, real downers, got Paul down. Not for long, certainly. I know Pastor Ed pointed out the signs of depression in Paul’s introduction of Titus as he wrote to the church in Corinth (2Co 7:6 – God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus.) [Hmm. Never noticed how explicitly that was stated.] But, he didn’t stay there. The joy of Christ could not be subdued by circumstance.
Likewise, the stories of the other apostles, such as we have them, demonstrate an indomitable spirit, a joy unspeakable, and unstoppable. To a man, they faced trials such as we have never known, certainly not here in the West. We think it is persecution when they laugh at Christians on TV. These men faced far worse than laughter. I won’t say they didn’t care, for I’m sure they did. I’m sure any one of them would have been just as happy not to be put to death. Yet, the fact remains that they were just as happy to be in that very predicament, counting it high honor to suffer the same nature of shame as had the Christ. Indeed, if we accept the apocryphal tales about Peter, he would not even suffer himself to be granted such high honor, and insisted on being crucified upside down to maintain a lower standing than his Lord even in death.
I could move into those second-generation leaders, serving under some of the worst of the Roman persecutions, when being a Christian openly was not only inviting death by means most gruesome, but actually rather insisting on it. Yet, we read of those who almost gleefully went to their martyrdom, all but singing as they were taken to the stake or the arena to meet the end of their earthly days. Think of Paul, writing from his imprisonment. He was a torn man, to be sure, but only as to the choice of life continued here or life continued in eternity. Oh, there’s not question in his mind as to which is to be preferred. “To be with Christ is very much better.” But, there was work yet to be done. There were others to think about (Php 1:23). It is that marvelous proclamation, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Either way, I am His and He will see me through. What else matters?
Listen! Paul was not alone in this lofty sense of God’s care. It was the common experience of the Apostles. It should surely be the common experience of the believer in every age. We serve the God of Providence, and must comprehend by now that our every circumstance is in His hands. There is no coincidence in our lives, only Providence, God’s working out of His purposes in, through and for us, which in reality are His purposes in, through and for Himself. If we love Him and He loves us, and He is working all things according to His purposes, which are for us a hope and a future, and of necessity good, what possible cause can we have for sorrow? How can we be so subject to our circumstance when the worst that life can do to us is move us closer to our Lord and King?
This is supposed to be our perspective. Yet, I for one would have to confess that it is not. Oh, it’s easy for me to consider my wife’s situation and think that she ought to just rise above that. She believes in a victorious God, a victorious life. So, why’s she wallowing in self pity and depression over something so trivial as her health? But, let it be my turn, and I don’t want to hear any such talk! Why, my foot hurts, or my ribs or some such, and I’m ready for a bit of panic. I’ll keep it buried out of sight if I can, but it’s there. The breath gets short, the heart races. And I can’t blame it on the caffeine. I’m just worrying myself sick. Whatever for? Is this going to separate me from my Christ? No. Is this going to somehow nullify the promise of salvation that I have in Him? No.
Or, I could consider the way I allow finances to impact my attitude. I see these large looming expenses ahead and an income that really hasn’t changed. I see my cost of living increasing and my standard of living decreasing proportionally. And, I want to provide. I want my wife to have all the various forms of care she thinks might help, whether they really stand a chance of doing so or not. I want my daughter to be able to pursue her dreams, and right now that would seem to require financing. Where’s it going to come from. And eventually, sad to say, there comes that nagging voice that whines, “when to I get to have some of my earnings to spend on me?” Oh, dear! It’s all out of focus, isn’t it? And what happens? I relinquish that joy which is mine for the sake of stupid, niggling little circumstances. What? Do I really think I’m in charge? Do I suppose that all my anxiousness and concern over these things is going to change them in the least? Of course not!
Where I ought to be is in the place of basking in the light of my Lord. He provides. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him. Everything comes from Him. Connect the two and where am I? Everything that comes is good and perfect. Sound a bit too simple? Perhaps. But, it’s the Truth. If I have everything from His hand, then it is good, for He is good and gives good gifts to men. If everything is from His hand, my God Provider, then surely His provision for me is perfect! It is just exactly what I need. It is precisely what is best for me. That is not the same as being what I want or hunger after. No. Not by any measure. But, it is what is needful and good.
I must, we must, arrive at a stage of maturity in which circumstance does not lead us to relinquish that joy which nothing can take away. I ought to take note: Jesus did not say we couldn’t throw it away, only that nothing could take it away. I find some minimal safety in knowing that I am as excluded by that nothing as are circumstances. I can find greater safety in this: He Who is in me is greater than my circumstance. He has begun this work in me, and He is faithful to complete it. If I have yet to mature in this area, I can trust that He will see to it that I do.
God grant that it be a swift work! I want to be in that place that Paul and the others came to dwell in – knowing that You have me in the palm of Your hands at every moment, knowing that whatever befalls, I am secure in You. In life or in death, I am yours and You, my Lord, are mine. My God, my King, my Savior, my Life! All praise be to You now and forevermore!
