The Holy of Holies (5)

 

 

“You loved Me, before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

 

“The glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).

 

There are those who speculate, then there are those who live. No one who ever has been touched by Jesus can explain how or why it happened, not really. We may have insight into our relationship with Him, we may have been given some insight of Him, but we cannot comprehend Him comprehensively. The deeper we know Him, the greater we are enveloped by His majesty and the less we know of some things and the more we know of other things. We lose sight that we may gain sight, and we gain sight so that we may lose sight – for the one sight we seek, the one vision we hunger for, is Jesus Christ the Lamb that we may follow Him wherever He goes.

 

To know Him and to be with Him where He is, brings us to the eternals, to the “heavenly places” of which Paul writes in Ephesians. It brings us to the Beginning (Christ) and to the End (Christ). In the heavenlies, in the eternals, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ and have been chosen before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3 – 4).  We can either respond, “Yeah but…” and chase our tails like puppies with speculation upon speculation, flaying with natural reason, questioning how these things can be; or we can embrace the koinonia of the Trinity and the assurance that God loves us and move on with life in Him.

 

Many (most?) of the things we think we need to know, we do not really need to know, life is a question of knowing Jesus, always knowing Jesus, for in Him are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Why is it that we will eat of every tree of the garden except the Tree of Life? Why are we so infatuated with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

 

Well, here is the thing, when we eat of the Tree of Life we find ourselves in the eternals, participating in the life of Christ Jesus, experiencing the love which the Father had for Him before the foundation of the world, seeing the glory which the Father bestowed on the Son before the ages began. Here is why we might say that the grandest phrase in all the Bible is “in Christ.” For to be “in Christ” is to have everything, and to not be in Christ is to have nothing.

 

That which the world thinks is nothing is everything, and that which the world thinks is everything is nothing (1 Cor. 1:17 – 31; 2:14; 1 John 2:15 - 17). Remember this the next time you watch the news or listen to political and social pundits – no matter what “color” they wear. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has many colors, including blue and red and purple – they all have poisonous dye in them.

 

When we read John 17:5 and 24 what do we experience? Do we read or do we hear? Do we see letters and words and sentences, or do we see Jesus? Is the passage simply words on paper or on an electronic reader, or is the passage a place of communion with the Trinity? Is the passage confined to the room or place in which we read? A living room, kitchen, bedroom, a deck, or an office? Or is Jesus coming to us and are we coming to Jesus in and through the passage?

 

Are we touching that which was before the ages and before the foundation of the world? Are we entering into the heavenlies and are the heavenlies entering into us?

 

O dear friends, the gravitational pull of earth, of the natural man, of politics and economics and nationalism and entertainment and pleasure and man’s religious tradition are all formidable; yet our Lord Jesus tells us that God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). We are taught that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14). It should be clear to us that we are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:30) and that we live by faith rather than by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).

 

Are we living as the adults in the room of popular Christianity? Or are we still children “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14)?

 

Unless we have some experience, some measure of experiential knowledge, of the Holy of Holies, of Christ before the ages, I am not certain we can escape and live above the toxicity of the world’s atmosphere, of its hatred, selfishness, cruelty, and blindness; I am not certain we can escape the seduction of man’s religion, including man’s caricature of Christianity, a Christianity without the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. Is it possible that the more crosses we display, the less like Christ Jesus we become?

 

A few years ago I did a series on this blog in which we explored Geerhardus Vos’s sermon, preached at Princeton Chapel, Heavenly Mindedness, based on Hebrews 11:9- 10. One of the things that struck me as I was working through Vos’s message was the communion of saints. Vos saw that the Patriarchs were experiencing this communion, Vos himself was experiencing it, and Vos was inviting his hearers to experience it. That is, Vos wasn’t simply reading words on a page as he preached Hebrews 11, and he wasn’t asking his listeners to simply exegete the text with him, he was living Hebrews 11, he was inviting others to live in Hebrews 11 with Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Jesus and with one another. Hebrews 11 was a transcendent experience for Geerhardus Vos, as it ought to be with us, as the Upper Room of the Gospel ought to be.

 

As Bonhoeffer writes in The Cost of Discipleship, God has established a holy realm on earth and it is called Christ and the Body of Christ – the Holy of Holies is within His People, within His Son. As with the Stable in Lewis’s The Last Battle, the inside is far greater than the outside, it is immeasurable. We live in the Holy of Holies and the Holy of Holies lives within us…therefore, why do we have anything to do with the unclean?

 

Somewhere Francis Schaffer wrote about us having two rooms, and I think this can be a helpful image. We tend to live on the first floor; the second floor, the upper level, is something we may hear about, we may theorize about, but it is essentially off limits. We don’t think it practical to explore it. Perhaps we have a quick visit once in a while, but it is better to leave it alone and remain on the first floor, after all, we don’t want folks to talk…do we?

 

Yet, when we come to Ephesians, Paul begins on the second floor, in the heavenlies and before the foundation of the world in Chapter One. He begins in the Upper Room and then, in Chapter Four, he answers the question, “The Upper Room is great, but how do we live on the first floor with one another and with the world?”

 

In the Gospel of John the answer to this question of how we should live is answered again and again, we live in the Upper Room, and out from the Upper Room we live in the world as Christ, for He lives in us and we live in Him; He is the Vine and we are the branches, He is our source of life….our only source of life. Our fellowship and friendship with Him is unbroken, for the Word is being made flesh and is living in us and among us, and we are being perfected into one in Him.

 

What does your participation in this mystery look like today?

 

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (33)

 

“How, out of sinful human beings, does God create a community of saints that is totally separated from sin? How can God be defended against the accusation of being unrighteousness, if God enters into a relationship with sinners?” (page 237).

 

Bonhoeffer tells us that we can be separated from sin only through our death. There must be a “killing of the sinner” (page 237). This may shock us. If we react by thinking, “I’ve never heard that!” we need only to look to Romans chapters 1 – 8 to see that Bonhoeffer’s message, his Gospel, is the Gospel of the Bible. Embedded within the Gospel is the truth and glorious news that “the sinner must die” to be free from sin.

 

If we ask, “How can this be?” we will be echoing Bonhoeffer, for this is also his question midway through page 237, “How can this come about?”

 

He tells us this comes about by God becoming human, weaving this in with the theme of “God’s self-justification” and of God being “justified before God” (page 237), working with this theme into page 241 where he will then weave sanctification into the tapestry and work with justification and sanctification together.

 

Since Bonhoeffer refers to Romans 3:21ff in this section, let’s read the entire passage. I have used bold print to demonstrate the emphasis on God’s righteousness and self-justification.

 

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished; 26 for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

What questions do you have as you read this passage?

 

What challenges do you see to understanding it?

 

Now for sure the passage needs to be read in its context, that is it ought to be read in the context of Romans 1:1 through 5:11. We ought not to think that we can capture the passage on our first or second or tenth reading, but we can ask our Father that the passage might capture us, our hearts and our minds. I’ve been reading this passage for sixty years and it still has mystery and awe and wonder, I still bow before it…more now than ever before.

 

Bonhoeffer writes, “The death of Jesus Christ is the place where God has supplied the gracious proof of God’s own righteousness, the only place from that moment on where God’s righteousness dwells. Whoever could participate in this death would thereby also participate in God’s righteousness” (pages 237-238).

 

“What happened to him happened to all of us. He took part in our life and in our dying, and thus we came to take part in his life and his dying” (page 238).

 

Bonhoeffer wants to be clear that the Gospel insists that “God alone” is “the one who is righteous” (page 239). The Cross is both a place of judgment and of reconciliation, and it is God’s righteousness which brings about the reconciliation (Romans 3:25 – 26; 2 Cor. 5:19ff). We are to “find yourselves included in Jesus Christ’s death” (page 239).

 

Bonhoeffer refers to the following Scriptures on pages 239 – 240: 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:9; Isa. 54:7; 1 Cor. 1:30; Isa. 7:14; Jer. 33:16; Heb. 6:5ff; 10:26ff; Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Rom. 6:11. Once again we see Bonhoeffer’s thinking deeply grounded in the Bible. He concludes this survey of Scripture with these words:

 

“Everything has already taken place, not only on the cross of Jesus, but also as far as you are concerned. You have been separated from sin, you have died, you are justified. God has thus completed God’s work. Through righteousness, God has established God’s realm of holiness on earth. This realm of holiness is named Christ or the body of Christ.

 

“God has a community which has been justified, and thus freed from sin. It is the community of the disciples of Jesus, the communion of saints. They have been accepted into God’s holy realm, indeed they are God’s holy realm” (pages 240 – 241, italics mine).

 

I have not attempted to follow Bonhoeffer in the details of his presentation on pages 237 into 241, it is too tightly written and interconnected with various Scriptures to be able to do this in a blog. Indeed, one could possibly write a small book in response to Bonhoeffer’s teaching, especially since he assumes that the reader has a background in the Bible and the terms he is using, such a justification, sanctification, the righteousness of God, the self-justification of God.

 

The idea that God justifies Himself is a case in point, how often do we think of this idea? Do we not live in a world, including a religious world, in which we tend to think that forgiveness of sins can be arbitrary? That if God wants to forgive that He can forgive? Do we really, deep down inside, consider just why Jesus died for our sins? Why couldn’t God have just said, “I forgive you. I forgive all of you. Let’s just start all over”?

 

Do we think that the character of God really matters? O sure, we want Him to be love and mercy, but beyond that does the idea of holiness or justice or righteousness really matter to us? Would it matter to us if God were not holy? Does the Nature of the Divine matter, truly matter to us?

 

When Moses encountered God at the Burning Bush, God said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

 

When God called His People unto Him after delivering them from Egypt, during the construction of the Tabernacle, in giving laws and ordinances for worship, for relationship with Him and neighbors, the overriding message was “You must be holy, for I am holy.” The Message of Leviticus is “Holiness,” the holiness of God and the holiness of His People.

 

The overriding Message of great Messianic Prophet Isaiah is holiness. Just as Israel’s call in the Wilderness was “holiness,” so was Isaiah’s. “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:3). Perhaps nowhere in Isaiah do we see the holiness of God as in chapters 52 and 53, when the LORD justifies Himself and us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

 

The concluding book and prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, carries the Message of God’s holiness and a warning not to continue profaning it, and a promise to those who honor it and live according to His Nature, His holiness.

 

Peter cries out to Jesus, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). Later Peter will emphasize the holiness of God when he quotes from Leviticus, “You shall be holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

 

The consummation of our pilgrimage, of the Biblical narrative, of our homecoming, occurs in the “Holy City” (Rev. 21:2), a City that “nothing unclean” can enter (Rev. 21:27).

 

The chapter we are considering is titled The Saints, but we cannot know the meaning of the term saints unless we are rooted in the righteousness, self-justification, and holiness of God; for all justification, sanctification, and sainthood must be rooted in the holiness of God – the holiness expressed in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – there is no holiness for us outside of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

 

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).