New Thoughts (9/13/03-9/21/03)
Before I begin to write on this passage, Father, I just want to pray. I want to pray that today, in the workplace, in the day to day, I would be free of pride. Lord, this issue of pride is such a battle! How many ways it seems to make its appearances, how many disguises it comes in! And here I am in a profession which almost demands such pride of its workers, yet You would not have this be my way. As I've been considering and organizing thoughts on this passage, the image of the mirror which Calvin brought up is really stuck in my mind. God, in Your wisdom, You have created us to be mirrors, yet we are mirrors with two sides. You have given us a choice as to what we shall reflect, whether Your glory, as we were designed to do, or our own condition, shameful as it is. It is my fervent desire, Lord, that today, the mirror that is me would reflect only the glory that is You. If I am successful in my job, it is You. If this house has sold, it is none of my own doing, but wholly Your plan and purpose fulfilled.
Oh, I shall indeed rejoice to see Your goodness in my life. Let me not be so foolish as to take to myself the cause for that rejoicing. Let me not in any way steal the glory that is Yours and Yours alone. Holy One, this is one of those passages of Your Word which so thrills my soul with each reading. Who, with eyes open, could look upon the message of these words and not be thrilled by them? It's not about us, in the end! It's all been You. It's been the deep river of Your love for us, Your philanthropy in action, and nothing less. Compared to that, my God, anything I might have done can only be something less, something downright insignificant. You have poured out salvation upon me. You have poured out Yourself upon me. You have come to me in the very marriage covenant which You established between man and woman so long ago. You have bound me to Your house, made me Your consort, Your betrothed, and Your heir. Shall I not look forward to our wedding day with great and joyous anticipation! Shall I not feel the thrill in my spine when I consider that day? Oh! May You find me beautiful when I stand with You! Oh! May You have made me beautiful, with the daily washing of Your Spirit within me! May I reflect that coming beauty today, Lord, that the glory of my Husband to be may be known to all.
So, for the last few mornings, I've been reviewing all the material I've gathered together on this passage, culling out the things that I want to comment on, and putting these bits in order in preparation for what starts this morning - the actual writing. Well, last night, as I was heading to bed, my thoughts turned to this morning's first topic, and a new realization came to me. It may not be anything that nobody's thought of before, indeed, I rather hope it isn't. However, it struck me as a new thought often will, really captivating my imagination, and demanding to be remembered. My wife was kind enough to retrieve pen and paper for me so I could jot down a quick synopsis of the thought. I needn't have worried. As I've been studying this morning's Table Talk, I've been most wonderfully reminded of the same thing, although they don't come out and state the same conclusions.
What I was going to consider first, this morning, was the thought that Calvin brought up, that we mirror both past and future in ourselves, both our former lawlessness and our future sanctification. In thinking about this truth, I began to wonder whether this dual mirror that is man was designed that way originally, or made double-sided by the Fall. It would have been hard to tell prior to the Fall, for there was nothing of that past lawlessness to reflect, and without a reflection how will one see the mirror?
Now holding onto that thought, my spirit returned to those great assurances of Scripture, the issues which cause passages like the one before us to stir up such excitement. Salvation has come to us not because we did such good things - just look in the mirror, and you have to accept that fact. Salvation didn't come because God knew the choice we'd make when we had heard His offer (although, as omniscient God, He surely does know that). Salvation didn't come because God understood that someday, we would finally manage to make it through a whole 24 hours without sinning. Quite the opposite, really. What God understood is that we didn't stand a chance without His assistance, that we would never, ever, be able to come to righteousness without help. This is exciting news: God saw how far we were from His image, and rather than condemning the experiment, He determined to do what was necessary to perfect us. Rather than destroying man and starting over, He brought our sanctification Himself, polishing the mirror that reflects His image.
Added to this, and forever adding to the joyful thrill that always seems to come when I write of it, is the oft-stated promise of Scripture that this work God has done in me was planned, laid out, put in place across the millennia before I was even born! Indeed, we are told that He had this whole issue of salvation - my salvation, your salvation, our children's salvation - in motion before Creation was even started. Can we even imagine! Can we even grasp the greatness of a love that has stretched across thousands of years, just waiting for the opportunity to come save us!
It is at this point that Table Talk begins to speak to the subject at hand. In writing on Genesis 3, where God is pronouncing His curses upon those involved in the Fall, the author writes, "That it [this account of the Fall] occurs in the book of Genesis, shortly after the Creation account and during the lives of Adam and Eve, shows that God's plan of redemption was in place even at the time of the fall of man." This is good news indeed, yet I began to suspect, as I thought upon these things last night, that this is not yet the greatest of news. Again, I will note that Scripture repeatedly assures us that this salvation in which we stand, this calling in which we walk, was declared in the heavens before there was a Creation, let alone before the Fall.
Consider the implications of this. If God had already planned out all the intricacies that our salvation would necessitate - all that needed to occur for the coming of His Son, all that needed to occur for our own birth into our particular time and place, all the circumstances which would occur to form our character, all the Providences which would be required for us to hear that call echoing from before Creation - If God had all that planned out before He ever started, then He clearly knew there would be a reason for that planning. He knew that we would fall before He ever created us!
Did God, then, create something bad, given the failures that would [apparently] inevitably come to man? It is not possible! He who is goodness incarnate could not create that which is bad. Consider His own judgment on the matter. With each act of Creation, He declared His verdict: "It is good." With the creation of man, the verdict He put forth was: "It is very good!"
Did His works suffer imperfection, then, that they should fail as they did? Again, it is not possible for the Perfect One to have created imperfectly. His word goes forth and accomplishes that for which it was sent. It does not return to Him void, nor does it fail to do all that He purposes to do. Man was created as designed in God's purposes. We have this idea that Satan brought corruption on man, that Satan somehow spoiled the work God had begun. Wait a minute! Satan is also God's workmanship, for God is Creator of all things, and all things, all creatures are created. What He has created in perfection, can another of His creations truly corrupt to such degree that they will never be the same? I don't honestly think so.
The conclusion I have reached in these thoughts is this: The Fall of man was as much a part of God's plan for creation as was Redemption. In fact, the Fall was part of the Redemption plan. It had to be. Without it, there was no call for a Redeemer. Without it, man was never hopeless, never needed help, was sufficient to keep himself holy without God's help. Without the Fall, what reason had God for considering my lost state, and putting into motion everything needful for saving me?
Allow me to say that this is all part of that great work of grace. God did not create evilly in making us as He did - mirrors of both His glory and our own inglorious condition. God did not treat us unkindly by allowing in our design the certainty that we would fail to fully reflect His glory, as that far side of our mirror reflected something far different. He did us no injustice, nor could He. He is Justice. We must understand this! Listen!
The problem is that we keep thinking creation is about us! It's not! It never was. Creation is about God. It is God revealing Himself, displaying His glory to all with eyes to see. It's as much about the angels, and other heavenly beings as it is about mere mortals. The Fall came not because Satan had somehow spoiled God's plan - in fact, he played his role in the plan to perfection in spite of himself. The Fall came not because of some fatal character flaw in Adam - in fact, he also played his role to perfection. The Fall came because without it, the full extent of God's glory, the full wonder of His essential nature could not be displayed. Without the Fall, there would have been no cause for the magnificent display of His mercy which is us. What mercy is there in treating well those who have done no wrong? What display of character is in that? "Even the Gentiles do as much!"
But how gloriously His perfections are displayed in His treatment of us! Though we were indeed sinners, fully deserving the whole punishment of the Law, yet He, without distorting His own Justice, arranged for the legal clearing of our names in the records of His court. Though we were declared enemies of all He stood for, yet He displayed His perfect love for us, He displayed His incredible, indescribable mercy upon us, redeeming us from the slavery into which we had so gladly placed ourselves, giving us eyes to see and minds to understand once for all the Truth of the situation! Again, Creation was never about our perfect obedience, it was about God's manifesting of His glory and perfection in His mercy shown to us in our fallen, most imperfect state.
Now, lest this wander off into the realm of heresy, let me make clear that this in no way negates the seriousness of our sins. In no way are we then freed of responsibility for our actions. Though it be our created nature that we cannot but fail of the goal of holiness which was set for us, yet that failure is properly laid to our account. Though Satan at his worst can still only do that which God permits, yet in having done so, he worsens his own guilt, for it is his desire to do evil, to corrupt and destroy the work of God. That he cannot manage to do so does not make him innocent. By the same token, that we do as we do because we cannot do otherwise does not change the motivation of our hearts. Our hearts ran continually to evil, even when we were 'doing good.' Our best efforts at righteousness, few though they may have been, were corrupted and filthy because the heart behind them was never right.
Even now, with our Redeemer come, our freedom purchased, and our future guaranteed, we know the weakness of our flesh. Even now, we know that we remain two-sided mirrors. Though we surely reflect our Lord and King more effectively now, the other side of the mirror still shows us our own nature. We are, as Luther put it, "simul justus et pecatur" - at the same time saint and sinner. "He saved us," Paul writes. That part is done and over with, an unchangeable fact of our own brief history, an unavoidable conclusion of purposes God put in motion eons ago. But the renewing, that's another thing altogether! Were that also a once for all event, what reason is there for the Holy Spirit to remain with us? No, we need that constant renewing. Though we are washed clean, the feet still need that rinsing to remove the grime of our journey from us. Though we were made such as we were, such that we needed regeneration, now that we have been regenerated, we are all the more responsible to live as those whom God has chosen to display His glory in, to walk worthy of the calling which has called us out of our darkness and into His light!
Another common lesson of the modern church is shattered in these verses. So often, we are told to forget about our past. After all, God has cast our past sins into the sea of forgetfulness, and purposefully remembers them no more. Why should we dwell on them? While we would do nobody any good if we so dwell upon our past sins that we become guilt-ridden psychotics, incapable of anything but sorrowing over our miserable state, we will do all the good in the world if we remember what we once were while we are dealing with those who still are. Paul never forgot. Indeed, he seemed to forever be making his own past clear to those he was preaching to. "Look," he said, "this is how incredibly far from the mark I was. This is how utterly despicable I was in God's sight. Yet, He was willing and able to save me, to change me, to so totally transform me that I am here before you today preaching the very same Jesus whose preachers I once sought to kill!" If He did it for me, He can do it for you! That's a far more effective message than declaring to them how good we are now, and then pounding on them for their own condition. Paul had compassion for the lost. He had it precisely because he never lost sight of just how lost he had been. He could always see both sides of the mirror that was his life, both the past that was retreating in the rear-view, and the glorious present which was his assured future.
Matthew Henry shows this dual condition in a slightly different contrast. "It is the misery of sinners that they hate one another, as it is the duty and happiness of saints to love one another," he writes. I can't speak for you, but I can surely speak for myself, and say with honesty that I still feel both sides of this coin. I am not yet so perfect in holiness that all I know is love. I think there have been those in Christian life who have, if not arrived there, then at least come very close to it. I think John was probably such a one. Yet, even he had his moments. Even he was prepared to call down the fires of heaven on those who just didn't get it. Even his mirror had two sides, and both of them worked.
Indeed, it is a misery to know nothing but hatred. There is something in the wording of v3 that seems to cloud this a little. Perhaps it is just the decline of the English language, but I know when I read through that verse, I don't get the sense of our being despicable in the eyes of others. To me, 'hateful' has the same significance as 'hating others,' but that's simply incorrect understanding on my part. It's a two way street of hatred. In spite of the fact that we're all pursuing our pleasures, chasing our lusts, yet we really get on each other's nerves. We see somebody having more fun than ourselves, and it really gets our goat. We simply don't know how to be happy for somebody else. Not only that, but our own self-centered ways are equally aggravating to those around us. I suppose this is proof that conscience remains, even in the worst of sinners, for though we may not recognize our own depravity in the mirror of self, we see it quite clearly in everybody else. It is the sin that besets us which most bothers us when observed in others. That is the sting of conscience, the mind being forced to recognize its own condition, and it doesn't like it one bit when such reminders come.
In spite of our regeneration, we retain much of this state. Though we have come to understand love for each other, though we have tasted of the rich goodness of philanthropy and philadelphia, by God's own example, we have not yet found the perfection of it in ourselves. We yet vaccilate between love and hatred. We remain capable of either. "We were once like them." Not just a little like them, just like them. Having just passed the anniversary of the bombing of the World Trade Towers, I wonder if we are able to look at those who did such horrible things and understand that 'we were once just like them.' I wonder if we yet realize that the same potential for evil dwells in us as dwelt in them. Were it not for God's hand upon us, we would be as likely as not to have done the same or worse. The potential is still there. If there is any good in me, it is God. If there is any righteousness in me, it is God. If there is anything in me worth glorifying, anything worthy of praise, anything worth thinking upon, it is God. I will give Him praise that He has at least, then, polished that side of the mirror better than I have polished the other side. I will rejoice as the images of past fade in dusty reflection while the glory of my Lord is allowed to grow clearer.
In this part of the letter, Paul is showing us our past and our present. Our future will be touched upon in the following verse. The description of our former life is a sad commentary on the perennial state of man. These are hardly the words one would choose for an inscription upon their life. "Here lies Jeff, He was a fool, a rebel, deceived in mind and enslaved in lusts. He hated everybody, and everybody hated him." Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? And yet, this is who I was, it's who you were. Lord willing, it's not who we are now. But at the time, I know I was pretty happy with myself, content to think I was on a good path to the sort of future I wanted. Deceived indeed! It's just as the unknown author whom Clarke quotes says, "There are none so blind as those who will not see." The evidence was there. Our sorry state wasn't hidden from view. Everybody around us knew, probably tried to tell us. But we didn't want to see, we weren't willing to hear, lest we should turn from our ways and be healed.
The simple truth of the matter is that our nature is one of rebellion. We are not willing to be submitted to any form of authority. We'll submit, but only because we see no alternative. We'll obey, just so long as it remains clear that disobedience isn't a viable option. It's our nature! Just look at your child, or for that matter, look at your own childhood. It isn't long after we've learned to speak that we learn to question. "Why?" Why should I do what you're asking? Why shouldn't I do as I please? The typical parent will doubtless reply with "Because I said so." I've been told, off and on, that this is not a viable response, that they won't accept that reason for long. But, it should suffice! Were there anything in our nature that properly understood authority, that would be enough. We would do the speed limit for the simple reason that it is the law of the land. We would wear seatbelts simply because that, too, is the law of the land.
Calvin moves the point a step further: "We can do nothing but sin till we have been renewed by God." This issue we have with authority is some of the strongest evidence that this is true. If so much is required to bring us into compliance with earthly law, how shall we be convinced to obey some unseen Authority? His threatenings may suffice to keep us in line so long as we sense Him in our vicinity, but with long absence, our nature will inevitably lead us to ignore His commands once again. We can see it in the history of Israel, as God has so kindly laid it out before us in Scripture. Ever and again they would forget their God, doing whatever they felt like doing until calamity came once more. Then, oh how they would seek Him out! Oh! The promises of fealty they would declare! And, indeed, God would come. He came not because He was fooled by yet another round of the empty promises of man. He came because these were His people, helpless to change themselves, yet dear to His heart nonetheless - cherished amongst all His creation. His love alone moved Him to help, but the time was not yet. The renewal that would empower man to truly turn away from his sinful ways must await a later date.
Of all the sinful ways of man, how pride exalts itself above all others! That pride lies at the root of every sin seems entirely probable. Pride remains a stain upon the testimony of many a believer in this present period. Being the root, it is, perhaps, the most difficult of matters to eradicate. Like the forsythia that grow outside my house, you can cut sin down to the very ground, burn the clippings, and even pave over the stumps, but you will find in short order that the root will have put forth new growth. Pride is like that. It will even find ways to sprout in the midst of our cutting away at sin. We will conquer sin in some corner of our life, and lo! We proudly declare to the world what we have done. How it slips from our mouths! We have opportunity to be a vessel in God's hands, used to bring another out of the kingdom of darkness, and lo! We loudly rejoice over what we have done! We preach well, teach well, worship well, [at least in our humble opinion], and how gladly we declare what a wonderful job we have done!
This was the issue in the church on Crete, and it remains an issue in the church at large to this day. Paul forces these proudly self-deceived ones to look into the mirror of their own lives, and see where they came from. "How little reason," says the Jaimeson, Fausset & Brown commentary, "the Cretan Christians had to be proud of themselves." How little reason we have! Indeed, there is no basis for pridefulness in us. This is the sinfulness of pride. It's a shameless assigning to ourselves the glory that is due God alone. If there is good in me, it's certainly nothing I've managed to do. It's God's merciful labor upon this damaged mirror.
As if it were not bad enough, what pride does to our view of God and self, it is truly terrible in what it does to our view of others. "Pride is always cruel and disdainful of others," says Calvin. How true! Pride will often well up as cynicism, showing itself as a low opinion of those around us. Pride will happily deride another's reputation to bring favor upon its own. It is, perhaps, an unconscious recognition of the truth about ourselves, that pride so often will not point directly at our own achievements, but will instead try to downplay the achievements of all other comers. Since pride cannot rise above the crowd on merit, it seeks to 'level the playing field' downward. But the truth remains: all our pridefulness, be it before conversion or after, is utterly baseless. There is none good but God.
Now let's transition into the present. God's kindness has appeared. Our eyes have been opened. Messiah has come, God with us, with salvation in His hands. God's love, His philanthropy, His Logos, appeared to man and saved him from all those things he was helpless to depart from. Again, the thought expressed in the JFB Commentary is apropos. The 'we' of 'we have done' stands absolutely opposed to the 'He' of 'His mercy.' Why has salvation come to man? Why has it come to this particular man, and not another? Human nature wishes to find the cause in human nature. Human nature wishes to point at the exemplary life this particular man has led and declare that he was worthy to receive salvation. How many of us, when approached with the need for a Savior, began our defense with words to the effect of, "but I'm a good man!"
Pride! Never so blind as when refusing to see! Even in the midst of the church, this tendency to make it all about man crops up. Even in churches which loudly declare that salvation is by grace alone, yet there will be testimonies of 'how I found Jesus.' Even there, perhaps in the very same breath, one will hear the message that we must choose. It's all grace, and not according to the works of man, but this one work you must do, else His grace will not prevail. I don't think it's a conscious message, an intentional message, but it is the message that is delivered. In contrast, Paul makes it utterly clear. This is what you were. Not only were you like this, but you were wholly unwilling to change, and thoroughly incapable of changing even had you been willing. But God, in His mercy, brought regeneration upon you.
I don't know about anybody else, I cannot speak for another's experience, but I know I did not ask for this. I wasn't petitioning God to come change me, to come save me. I was still in that stage of "I'm a good man" denial. But He came anyway. He brought that change that I didn't even recognize my need for. I didn't find Jesus. He found me! I didn't listen patiently to His offer and then decide that, OK, I'd sign up for His plan. No! Regeneration came, and I was left looking back in astonishment on the accomplished fact of salvation. In the blink of an eye, change had come. Not such a complete change that there isn't to this day plenty of work for the Holy Spirit to do in my life, but complete in that the reality of my situation was immediately altered, complete in that my perception of self, my perception of God, and my perception of the world about my was irreversibly altered. He left me know choice to acknowledge that I had not elected to pursue Him, He had elected me. He had elected to have mercy on me. Why me, and not another? I cannot answer, except to say it was nothing about me that called Him to me. It was His sovereign purpose to display His mercy in this poor vessel. There is no other cause to which I can point.
What, then, of works? We've established that nothing I was doing prior to God's sovereign move upon me was of any worth. Nothing in that past was such as would attract His attention, except perhaps for punishment. Yet, salvation has come to such as me. God has chosen to display His goodness in my poor hide. It must have been with realizations along these same lines that Calvin wrote about this verse something that turned established Catholic teaching on its head. "Election by free grace is the foundation of good works," he wrote. This was the absolute opposite of what the official Church was teaching, indeed, what it still teaches. There can be no works of merit for us, because our every attempt to earn such merit is marred by the very motivation that drives us to try. Good works cannot result from a motivation of gain, nor from a motivation of working off our guilt. Both of these motivations deny God's role in our affairs; the first denying that He will take care of us according to His promise, the second denying the whole purpose and effect of Christ's death! How can works that make God a liar, and belittle the greatest display of His goodness towards man be good works?
What I see in Calvin's words points to the sole motivation that can make any work of ours have worth in the sight of our holy Father God. My works are founded upon the election I have as His gift. My works can now be good because of the good work He has already done in me. It's a motivation of thankfulness that makes those works acceptable in His sight.
We sing of giving thanks to God, whether for His goodness, for His care, for His Son; the things for which our thanks are His due is endless. Yet, the greatest thanks we can give Him is to be His coworkers in the purpose He has saved us for. Good works are but an expression of our thankfulness to Him whose own good work has saved us. Singing songs is one thing, becoming a living song expressing the thanks for His goodness by displaying His goodness as best we can is quite another. He has given us a foundation upon which to build. He has brought the Holy Spirit along side us to strengthen us for the building, to show us how best to build, and to be our building inspector, ensuring that we build the best possible structure of thanks upon that foundation.
Father God, this is, I think, the second time in this study that You have brought a fresh understanding to me. I've known for a long time that my works could not save. You made that clear from the outset, didn't You! I've known, it seems almost as long, that love must motivate the work that would be good in Your sight, even understood that it was an 'attitude of gratitude' as my Pastor likes to say. Yet, I never quite grasped that these good works were our thank offering to You.
You have saved the likes of me that in my salvation Your goodness would be manifest to others. What greater manifestation than to live out the thankfulness that is mine for all You have done in me? What greater joy can I give You than to do for others what You have done for me?
God, I want this life You have given me to truly be a thank offering to You. You have given me this precious gift of life, life worthy of being called life. You have blessed me with the peace which only You can give, a peace resting upon the unbreakable promises You Yourself have made. You have taken this lumpy clay and fashioned it into something beautiful in Your sight. You have polished the mirror of my soul that it might reflect Your ways more faithfully, though I know that there remain any number of imperfections and dust motes that distort that reflection. I know, also that You will finish the work You began, that a time will come when all distortions are gone from the reflection of You that is me, because this is Your desire for me.
How often have I sung that song, "this is my desire, to honor You." Yet, this morning, I hear You singing a similar song in my heart. "Child, I give you your heart, I renew your soul, I give you self-control, every step that you take, every moment you're awake; now make your way to me." As much as I desire to honor You, Lord, it is Your desire to make me honorable. You have saved, You have begun this regimen of daily renewal. You have given me a heart that knows thankfulness for all that it is today.
Holy Spirit, strengthen me to live out my thankfulness as I ought. Teach me how to build my works in thankfulness, to offer my efforts back to Him who gave all for me.
Father, Son, and Spirit are all shown active in the work of salvation here. All three are involved, have always been involved, and evermore will be involved in this great work. See them in their respective labors: God our Savior, the Father, showed His kindness and love to us (v4). The Son, Christ our Savior, through His work, made way for the Spirit to come to man. His work was to do the will of the Father. The Father's will was that all should be saved. Oddly, we do not find reference to the Holy Spirit our Savior. He alone of the persons of Holy Trinity never bears this title in Scripture. Why is that? Perhaps it is because His part in the work comes after the saving act. His is a work of preparing and perfecting.
Matthew Henry put it this way, in looking at the triune work of salvation: "The Father begins, the Son manages, and the Holy Spirit works and perfects all." I'm not sure I'd see it in quite the same way. If there is a beginning, I think that beginning is found in the Trinity together. "Let us make man in our image" (Ge 1:26). The plan of salvation was already set in motion when God shared this thought with Himself. As we have noted, our calling was already purposed and determined before that time, the need for our salvation already known, and the means and methods to that salvation already mapped out in intricate detail. From that perspective, I would say it's more that the Father purposes and plans. His is the willing, His is the desire to display His own love and glory in these lowly creatures of flesh. His is the grand design which will transform such fleshly creatures into vessels of honor, His honor.
In His plan and purpose, the Father has determined that His own Son shall be the means, the fountainhead of this great work He has proposed. At the appointed time, the Son came to begin that work in earnest. He came, and in His life did only such things as He had seen the Father doing, taught only such things as the Father made known to Him. Through His obedience to the will and command of the Father, the Son joined mercy and justice in the Godhead. It was His work which made it possible for God to forgive mankind while upholding His own righteousness. Justice was not set aside, the courts did not turn a blind eye upon our record, that we might go free. No. The decision was rendered in full cognizance of our past, in full recognition of the guilt which was upon us. It was the Son paying to the courts of God the penalty due for our guilt which made our release acceptable, and not only acceptable, but also a thoroughly just act on God's part.
As the Son died upon the cross outside the gates of Jerusalem, our salvation was accomplished in manifest fashion, the evidence of salvation was placed before our eyes to see and know. In truth, it was a certain and accomplished fact long before that point, as David understood, as all the faithful of the Old Testament understood. Hear the testimony of Scripture. I'll place them here as they are put in the NASB, lest my paraphrasing be thought to change the meaning. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul writes "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Alright, we have a lot of pronouns in that verse, yet I think we can be reasonably clear on Who is represented by each of these. He, the Father, chose us in Him, the Son, (and here's the key thought) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him, the Father.
How can we look at that great truth and still think it was something we did, that we chose Him, that we found Him, or that we in any way attracted Him? All possibility of that is removed in that key thought. It was all done and determined before there was even a world for us to walk upon. This is the truth of our salvation. God, who alone dwells outside the walls of time, had purposed our salvation even before creation was begun. The Fall was known to Him as He purposed creation! Again, we need to set aside any thought that He was somehow taken by surprise by the Fall. It was as much a part of His purpose and plan as any other event in the story of Redemption. In fact, it was already an accomplished fact from His perspective, just as the salvation that has come to us was already an accomplished fact. Outside of the tyranny of time stands the One who sees the end from the beginning, for the whole connecting chain of events stands together in one eternal moment before Him.
This is the certainty of salvation! It's not what we have done, not what we will do. It's all in the foundational fact of God's purpose. Consider one more verse. "We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." Again, we have opportunity to get lost a bit in this verse, but I think we can agree on what is said. The thanks goes to God. We could see this as indication of the Father, or perhaps the whole of the Trinity. Either way, the only proper recipient of our thanks will be given His place. More clear, perhaps, is the identification of who makes the choice. First and foremost it is abundantly clear in this verse that it wasn't us. God has chosen, God the Father has declared His purpose. Slightly less clear is the timing of that choice. From the beginning - does this indicate no more than that the Thessalonican church was one of the earliest to be established by Paul, or does it indicate more? I think, given Paul's theology, and especially given the previous verse from Ephesians, we can safely refer this back to that same original decree of salvation which God put in motion even before He began forming this world.
This, then, we know: God's will and purpose is salvation. His word has gone forth upon this subject, and His word does not go forth without accomplishing all that it says. His Word has gone forth, in the flesh, to see to the accomplishing of this greatest declaration of His glorious will for mankind. God made manifest has done all that was needful for the full purpose of God in making man to be made abundantly clear for all to see. "It is finished." That is the heavenly view of the work. That is the declaration of Him who sees the end from the beginning, who looks upon us not as work in progress but as finished goods. He saw that finished work on the day He made man, and declared that it was very good. In that statement, He already saw the whole history of man unfolded, the Fall accomplished, the Flood made necessary, the crimes against heaven that you and I have perpetrated. But He also saw the magnificence of His own incredible plan unfolding through it all, saw all the intricacies of timing and placement flowering in that eternal moment in which He dwells. He saw His own glory being reflected in those who were being made new, and He knew that indeed, it was very good. The bride would be ready, the wedding feast would be glorious.
This much, then, we know is done. We know this, and yet we also know that it is not done from where we sit. It doesn't take a whole lot of introspection to recognize that there remains an awful lot of work to be done on us before we can really think ourselves vessels of honor, before we can believe ourselves prepared for that wedding day which we know is coming. We know we have been saved, and yet sometimes we feel so lost still. We know we are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and yet we often feel like nothing much is different. In those times, it is important for us to hold in mind that what God has begun, He will most certainly complete. From that perspective, though we don't see the finished result in ourselves, we can know that it remains truly finished. It's a done deal. He has done it, though we yet await the working out of His doing in us, it is already done.
From our perspective, then, we see regeneration as an accomplished fact, an historical reality in our own experience. Renewal, however, remains an ongoing process. "If I have washed you, then you are already clean," Jesus said. "All that is necessary, then, is that I rinse your feet." Thus is the plan of salvation modeled before us. The main work is accomplished both in heaven and on earth. What remains is daily maintenance. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into the picture, the great labor of the third Person of the Trinity in the plan of salvation.
Before I turn my attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, though, I want to look briefly at the symbol of our regeneration - baptism. Commentators differ on just what Paul intended to be understood behind his reference to the washing of regeneration - whether the act of baptism or the implements of baptism, just as they differ on whether or not regeneration and renewal are to be understood as two views of the same event or two separate events. It seems clear to me that the two events are separate. As I said, regeneration is an accomplished fact, whereas renewal is a continuing process in the life of the Christian. So, what is to be identified in the washing of regeneration? There have been a few arguments offered explaining why this must refer to the event and not the implements, mostly founded on linguistic issues. It seems to me a more solid reason could be found, for the implements of baptism, other than the water itself, were hardly locked down in ritual in Paul's time. They're not entirely locked down now, except as it may apply to a particular denomination. So, to me at least, it seems clear that it is indeed the act that is to be seen behind Paul's words, if, indeed, baptism is to be seen at all.
Paul's understanding of baptism is made clear in his letter to Rome. There, he reminds his readers that they were baptized into the very death of Christ. It is symbolic of the death of the man of flesh, seen in the submersing of the body under the waves. Recall, also, that water, in Jewish thought, was often symbolic of fearful things, of unavoidable death. The sea, and the storms that rage upon it, were seen as deadly powers of God and nature, threatening to the life of man. To be buried under those waters, then, however briefly, was clearly symbolic of death. But it was not death irreversible, it was death followed by rebirth. Just as Christ rose from the dead, we rise from the watery grave of baptism. Just as Christ came into a new life, a life filled to the full with the glory of God, so we are reborn into a new life, a life whose purpose, restored to its original completeness, is to fully reflect that same glory. Thus, regeneration and the baptism which was the outward acknowledgement of regeneration were firmly joined in the thought of the early church.
The church placed great value on that outward acknowledgement. It was not an optional act to be performed only by those who wished to declare a particularly great dedication to the Way, it was, I believe, a mandatory declaration, a rite of passage, as it were, without which it was not possible to be part of the church. Yet, the issues Paul addresses in Corinth show how quickly the importance of the symbol began to eclipse the importance of the reality. There arose envious debates over who the members of the church had been baptized by, as though the administrator of the sacrament somehow made a difference in its effectiveness or worth! Paul worked to put an end to such nonsense. It's not about the symbol. It's not about man at all, not you who are being baptized, nor he who performs the act of baptism over you. It's not even about how that act is done, whether by submersion or by sprinkling. It's about He whose death you symbolically partake in. It's about what He has already done in your life. It's about the very real death of the flesh and rebirth into the life of the Spirit. This is all that matters, and this is already accomplished fact before ever the baptism takes place. If it is not accomplished fact, then baptism is meaningless. The waters of baptism in and of themselves do nothing but make us damp.
The sign of baptism can only be true where the thing signified is present and true. That said, the sign is by no means a worthless act on our part. It is a public declaration of our faith. In that way, it is perhaps our first real chance to display that we are not ashamed of the Gospel, that we are proud of Him who was so humiliated on our behalf. It is also a public declaration of obedience. Jesus Christ established baptism as an integral part of discipleship. Go, make disciples [by] baptizing them in the name of Father, Son, and Spirit. This was not simply providing the formula to be spoken over the one baptized. It was not establishing that we must say these words like an incantation of some sort. The name is also a symbol, a symbol of the power belonging to Him who bears the name. It represents to us all that is wrapped up in the Godhead; the power of His offices as Lord, King, Advocate, Master, Savior, and every other title that is His. It represents to us all that is His essence; goodness, righteousness, mercy, justice, truth, and every other aspect of His divine nature.
In declaring for Christianity, we have declared Him Lord, the rightful ruler over all we are, say, and do. In baptism, we show that these words are more than a hollow repetition, as we obey His command to be baptized. In baptism, we also declare our willingness to share in His portion. We have received God's promise that we are co-heirs with Christ. There are few who would refuse to partake in the riches of His glory, to share in the power and honor; but it goes further than that. We are also declaring ourselves willing to share in the hard parts, in the humiliation and suffering that seem inevitably to come to those who will stand as God's representatives on earth. If they treat the master so, can the servants of the master expect any different?
This same declaration of willingness we hear echoed in the marriage ceremony when husband and wife declare their intent to remain wed for better or for worse, in riches and in poorness, in health and in illness, inseparable so far as it lies in human power to remain one. It is fitting that this echo should exist, for baptism is a seal upon the covenant we have with Christ. The great fulfillment of this covenant is to be a wedding feast, and how shall there be a wedding feast if there is no wedding? And how shall there be a wedding without a bride? That's what we've sealed ourselves to! We are betrothed, promised in marriage to the very Son of God! We are betrothed to Him by the most solemn terms of covenant. That covenant binds us inseparably to our Lord and Savior. Again, the covenant between man and woman declares that insomuch as it lies with us to preserve the union we shall. There is only one clause given by which the marriage shall end - death. We have made this same covenant of union with our Christ, and the same singular clause is given to end that union. But we have already died! The one act that could separate us has already passed behind us, and Him to whom we are betrothed has abolished death, that it may come to us no more. Indeed, it is as Paul shouts out in Romans, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ro 8:38-39). This is the power of His name, that He has never lost a one who was entrusted to Him, never lost a one who was betrothed to Him! We are sealed to Him by most solemn covenant, and, as is pronounced over the husband and wife, so let it be with us! Let no man sever what God has joined.
We have joined in covenant, and are assured by unbreakable bonds that all the benefits of that covenant will accrue to us. We are equally well joined to the duties and requirements which that same covenant entails. "If we do not wish to annihilate holy baptism," Calvin writes, "we must prove its efficacy by 'newness of life.'" If the sign is true, it cannot but show itself so in the fruits of the symbolized. If we are betrothed to the Holy One, surely we must comport ourselves in fitting fashion! Until the day of our wedding - a day, in Jewish custom, whose exact arrival was unknowable to the bride, awaiting as it did, the completion of the groom's preparations - we must surely be occupied with making ourselves ready. Throughout that time, we must be on our best behavior, seeking to make certain that no action of ours will bring shame to our espoused. His honor is in our hands, for the world knows that we are promised to Him. This is what we declared in baptism! We are His, and can give ourselves to no other.
If we have indeed been regenerated, sealed to this bridal relationship, then renewal must follow. Our Groom has promised the Holy Spirit to come to us in His absence. He watches over us as best man, making certain that the bride is prepared and undefiled on her wedding day. Where the Spirit is, the fruits of the Spirit must grow. Look back at the things Paul reminds his readers of. You, he writes, were once foolish rebels, slaves to sinful passions, living in absolute opposition to all that is good and holy. No more! You have died to these things, declared it to be so! You have given yourself to Christ, and are bound to be chaste, that you arrive at your wedding day a pure and spotless bride. All these things that once characterized you are fruits of unbelief. No more! The bridegroom has sent His Best Man to guard you and to guide you, that you may display instead the fruits of heaven - love, joy, peace… Where once hatred was your expression and your expectation, love is now to be your expression and your expectation. Give of your love even to the unlovely, and reject not the love that is given you.
That last seems an unnecessary admonition, doesn't it? And yet, how often we reject the love that is shown us. Perhaps it is because that love doesn't quite look like what we wanted. Love of the Godly denomination is not a satisfying of our desires, it is a fulfilling of our need. It is shown in a willingness to do for us what ought to be done even when we are not happy to see it done. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, this is understood, and the acts of divine Love on our behalf are accepted with love, even when they hurt.
Oh, my Jesus, what a love story You have written! What joy to know that the ties of holy covenant bind us together so irrevocably! Yet, my joy is bittersweet, Beloved, for I know that I am not yet wholly ready for You. So much of the flesh remains. So much preparation must still be done if I am to be a fitting bride. That You remain patient with me remains a most wonderful mystery, that You should want me in the first place, knowing who I was, who I am, is beyond belief. Yet, You give me cause to believe it! Oh, for the day when all is prepared, when all that mars my beauty has been washed away, when all my course ways have been refined, and I can at last be presented to You!
Holy Spirit, I turn to You, You who have come at the behest of my Beloved. Watch over me, lest I stray. More than this, work upon me as You must. Though it may hurt this fragile flesh, work upon me as love demands. Cut away the weeds of unbelief, and let the fruits of Your holy presence blossom in my life. Let Your glory fill this bride, shine me to perfect reflection of the wonderful majesty of my Beloved.
By the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the Spirit - can anybody really look at this and not see the Triune God in unified action? The mystery of divine Trinity I'll not seek to penetrate here, simply point out the clarity with which that aspect of the Godhead is declared in this passage. I want to turn to the Holy Spirit's part in the process now. In turning to Him, I think we turn to yet another great mystery of God. I see it in a pair of comments made by separate writers. Barnes, in considering the rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit, notes that it takes such 'copious measure' of the Spirit to convert a man from his wickedness. Looking back over the ways of our past, we can see that indeed, this must be so. It's hard enough to break a habit, and here, the task is to break a whole lifetime's worth of habits. It's no light work we give the Spirit.
At the same time, the words of Calvin ring equally true. "The smallest drop of the Spirit (so to speak) resembles an ever-flowing fountain, which never dries up." If once we sense His touch on us, if once we feel His presence, such a change is upon us! It's not unlike that period between proposal and marriage. The promise has been given in that one brief moment, and in spite of its brevity it will suffice to thrill us and to completely alter all our activities until the wedding is come.
God, we know, gives grace to each according to His measure. I believe the "H" is actually lower case in most, if not all, translations. Thus, the verse addresses the clear differences we see between one believer and another, as far as their progress in the Kingdom, and their apparent usefulness to the Gospel. It is made to be another chisel to chip away at spiritual pride. But, in leaving the measure to us, does it not suggest some form of merit once more? If it is given to us according to our worth, how is it still grace? Understand, I recognize that the one who does the measuring can probably be well identified in the original Greek, but I will still suggest a certain added significance if we allow the measuring to remain with God. It is a further declaration of the role of grace, then. Grace is given by His measure, not by our worth. It is given in full measure, packed down and overflowing, because that's the way He does things.
So, come back to the Holy Spirit once more. It requires a flood of the Spirit to accomplish the needed change in us, yet the deluge may be found in the least drop of Him. However slight the stream of the Spirit may be at the outset of His working in us, He remains an ever-flowing font. What God has begun, He will in no way leave unfinished! That is the promise of the Spirit remaining, He who is Himself the surety of the promise of eternal life. Where He has begun His work, we can be assured that He will see it done, and done well. Oh, we can certainly hamper that work by our foolishness. We may be doing our utmost to plug up the well-spring of the Spirit within us, but the power of that fountain is so great, that the best cap we may fashion will eventually give way to the flow.
Consider the canyons. The obdurate hardness of the rock can force the course of the river's flow for a time, but the river retains the advantage. Given sufficient time, it will wear away the hard rock by its soft persistence, the rock will give way to the will of the water, and in that giving way, will be made more beautiful by its submission. Can you see yourself in that image? What a wonderful thought this is! We are indeed hardened at His coming, faces like flint turned against the things He wishes to do in us. Doubtless, even these many years after conversion, many hard spots still remain. The water of the Spirit has made some headway within us, but it has not fully settled in its desired course.
Well, rocks are generally not all that lovely. They're bumpy, monotonous objects until somebody or something works on them. But who doesn't thrill to see the canyons which the river has dug through the rock? Such incredible beauty appears in the rock as the river does its work, and it's a beauty the rock could not obtain by any other means.
This is the work the Spirit is doing in us! Once more I am brought to recognize that the way I was created is no oversight on the part of God. The road I have come through to reach this point was not a complete waste of the gifts I was given at birth. While my obstinacy was assuredly displeasing to Him, yet the river of the Spirit would not have created such a beautiful work had there been no resistance. I'm not certain how well I'm expressing this idea, but hopefully the image will suffice to convey what I mean.
Oh, Holy Spirit, thank You once more! Yet again, You open up a new vista before me, give me a fresh view of myself through Your eyes. Thank You that You are making me beautiful! I pray that You will find such softness in me as will make Your labor easier as You wear away all that is not lovely in me. I ask, also, that if I have wandered astray in my thinking on this subject You would be so kind as to put me back on the course of Truth. I sense that Your Truth is indeed in these ideas, yet I also sense that it would take only the slightest nudge to push them into serious error. Guard me, Lord, and guard any who might read these words of mine, from finding in them a license to remain unchanged. It would be easy, my Lord, to make such a mistake. The flesh would like nothing more than to hear that God doesn't require any modifications, but this is so untrue.
That You, my God, are able to make such ugliness beautiful speaks volumes of Your great goodness. That You are able to make such ugliness beautiful does not give me an excuse to remain ugly. Indeed, seeing what You can do with such poor material should leave me all the more anxious to feel Your work upon me. There is a thrill upon me at what You are showing me right now, and a yearning to be such as You are seeking for me to be - pure, holy, and undefiled; living godly amidst the ungodliness of this life. Strengthen what needs strengthening in me, and wash away the rest, sweet River!
Grace upon Grace! The Gospel has come, making God manifest, making Salvation available to us! Messengers have been sent before us to declare the good news, and our ears have been healed that we might hear this news with understanding and gladness. Conversion has been wrought upon us, our souls regenerated by His grace. Rebirth in the Spirit has been given us in the power of the Christ who is behind baptism's symbols. And still, He has not stopped pouring out His grace upon us! He has added to that great wealth of His gifts to us the outpoured Holy Spirit! And it is grace upon grace. It seems that every gift He gives us contains within it every previous gift, as well as the new. Thus, with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, we have not only that most wonderful gift, but also within that gift, all the gifts of conversion, regeneration, and rebirth that preceded His coming. What, then, shall it be like when the fullness of His promise has come? If that which we have received already leaves us so breathless, can we even begin to imagine how far beyond our ability to imagine that final outflow shall be?
I want to finish out this study with a thought from Matthew Henry. The passage speaks to us of the great outflow of the Holy Spirit upon us. What came of that outflow in the early church is a matter of record Simple men accomplished miraculous things. Where the Spirit was poured out, lives were changed, radically changed. Where the Spirit was pouring out, lives were healed. Where the Spirit was pouring out, people were willing to die for the name of Christ, rather than deny Him who had died for them.
That same Spirit is pouring out still. God does not change. If indeed this is true, why, then, do we accept the state of the church today? If the Spirit is still pouring out, where are the simple men doing great things? Where are the lives being healed? Where are the people who will die for His name's sake? They still exist. We read of them still, although the news media tends to keep it pretty quiet. On far continents, in countries we will probably never visit, there are people dying for His name every day. The Spirit has not changed. If we will accept the reports, the healings so evident in the early church also continue on today. But, again, it seems to be happening somewhere else, somewhere out in the hinterlands where it can be written off to the simplicity of the native population, where it can be put down to superstition. The Spirit has not changed. Simple men still accomplish wonders when they grasp this truth. The Spirit has not changed, and He is still being poured out upon the rocky soil of man.
So why not here? Why does the church seem so pathetically weak in America today? I come back to the picture of the canyon. The Spirit is being poured out upon the rock that is the world. He is finding soft spots in which He can flow, washing away the silt, eroding softer soil that submits to His direction. The Spirit is still being poured out, just as fully and powerfully as in that first day of Pentecost. What does it say of us, then, if the Spirit is being thus poured out and we remain dry? To borrow a line from a past teacher: "How's your heart?"
