Revelation – Letter to a Friend (5)

 

 

I had a dear friend who was a landscape painter; he is now with the Lord. One of the blessings of having an artistic friend is watching the creative process, both in the moment as he brings a canvass to life and over years as you absorb the body of his work. We have two paintings and one print of his hanging in our home, and to see them is to see my friend, not just to see the individual work, but to see years of friendship and to see the individual work within his body of work.

 

A visitor to our home may appreciate a painting, but he cannot appreciate the body of work for he does not know the body of work. As much as a visitor may enter into a painting, he cannot possibly appreciate my friend’s body of work; for while the body of work expresses common threads and nuances, all of these are not necessarily contained in every individual painting, or if they are, they may not always be discernable.

 

One of the original paintings we have is quite special, in fact, it is especially special. It is a beach scene from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and it has five people in it. Two of the people are walking down the beach together. One person, a woman, is sitting in a sand chair close to the ocean. A man is sitting in a chair under an umbrella reading a book. A young woman is sitting in a chair under an umbrella not far from the man.

 

The couple walking down the beach are strangers to the artist.

 

The young woman is the artist’s daughter.

 

The woman in the sand chair is my wife Vickie.

 

I am the man reading the book.

 

Our friend and his family were vacationing with us and the painting is from a photo he took.

 

This would be a special painting if I told you no more about it, but there is more. You don’t know there is more, but there is more.

 

Our friend seldom included people in his paintings. Animals yes, people no.

 

His wife, however, is also an artist. They collaborated on this painting, our friend the husband painting the landscape and our friend the wife painting the people. They painted this for us as a Christmas gift. This painting has always been prominently displayed in our home and we love telling the story of our friends as people admire the beautiful scene.

 

Someone familiar with the husband’s body of work might view the painting and say, “That’s unusual, I’ve never seen people in his paintings.” Someone unfamiliar with our friend would not think the people unusual.

 

Darrell W. Johnson writes that the imagery of Revelation “sustains the new vision of reality” (page 22). “The images have to stay as they are, for it is the image that embodies the message” (page 23).

 

On page 23 Johnson has a quote from Eugene Boring which we would do well to ponder:

 

“They [Revelation’s images] are not mere illustrations of something that can be said more directly. A picture makes its own statement; it is its own text. It does not communicate what it has to say by being reduced to discursive, propositional language. Just as is the case in visiting an art gallery, while commentary and explanation may help one to ‘get the picture,’ language about the picture can never replace the message communicated in and through the picture itself…

 

“It would be a violation of Revelation’s mode of communication to attempt to summarize its message in a manner that would make the image itself unnecessary.” (Italics mine).

 

Now let me attempt to tie my story about our artist friend and the imagery of Revelation together.

 

“John sees what he sees and hears what he hears through his Old Testament-informed imagination. There are more than 500 quotations from and/or allusions to the Old Testament in his work. This fact alone tells me that if I want to read Revelation correctly, I, too, need to be steeped in the whole biblical story” (page 23, italics mine).

 

It is one thing to see one of my friend’s paintings, it is another thing to see the painting in the context of his body of work. With Revelation, it is more of a case that we can see very little in a scene, in an image, unless we see it in the tapestry of the Old Testament, unless we see the images of the Old Testament flowing into and through the imagery of Revelation. A single painting by my friend is not likely to be misinterpreted, each painting can stand alone. However, misunderstanding a single passage of Revelation is highly likely if two things are missing; a heart seeking the unveiling of Jesus Christ, and a heart, mind, and soul steeped in the Old Testament.

 

Another way to put this is, if we do not know the prophet Zechariah, if we do not know Exodus, if we do not know Ahab and Jezebel, if these images and stories are not coming through the pores of our skin, then we had better think again before we think we know much about Revelation. Furthermore, if our desire is not for Jesus Christ, to know Him, obey Him, and tell others of Him – no matter the cost! – then we had better think again before we are so very foolish as to think we can gain insight into Revelation.

 

Anyone teaching Revelation outside the context of radical obedience to Jesus Christ, which means nonnegotiable witness today, is someone to be avoided.

 

Does this mean that if we are low on the Biblical learning curve that Jesus will not reveal Himself to us through Revelation? I don’t think it means that, for the Holy Spirit takes of His and reveals it to us (John 16:12 – 15). However, it does mean that our vision is limited by our Biblical travels, our context. It also means that we are more susceptible to being diverted by teachers who sensationalize their “prophetic” teaching and who seek to entice us to discern the entrails of the news and current events rather than seek Jesus Christ.

 

We cannot, I think, touch and experience the texture of Revelation without living in the texture of the Old Testament. This does not happen overnight and any teacher or pastor who says otherwise is to be avoided – discipleship is a lifelong journey, there are no quick avenues to conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. To see Jesus in the text of Revelation is to be continually challenged to obedience to Him and witness for Him to others.

 

And here let me again quote Johnson on page 16 of his book:

 

“I am, therefore, gladly constrained to simply live in the particular texts of the Revelation until they open themselves up to me; or, as I should say, live in the text until the Jesus of the text breaks though to me.”

 

It seems to me that this humility, and this recognition of our need for Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is the prerequisite for not only "seeing” Revelation, but for reading and experiencing the entire Bible.

 

 

Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (36)

 

 

On page 249 Bonhoeffer points out that while there are many works “of the flesh,” there is only one “fruit of the Spirit” (5:19ff; Eph. 5:9).

 

“Works are dead, but fruit is alive and the bearer of seeds which themselves produce new fruit… [fruit is] something that has grown organically…The fruit of the Spirit is a gift of which God is the sole source. Those bearing this fruit are…unaware of it…The only thing they are aware of is the power of the one from whom they receive their life” (page 249).

 

“The saints themselves are unaware of the fruit of sanctification they bear. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing…if they decide to engage in self-contemplation, then they would have already torn themselves away from the root and their time of bearing fruit would have passed” (page 249).

 

On page 250 Bonhoeffer directs us to Galatians 5:22 – 24; 2:20; 1 Cor. 15:31, and 2 Cor. 4:16 with the following thoughts:

 

Galatians 5:22 – 24 speaks of both the sanctification of the individual and the holiness of the church-community; the source of both is community with Christ and in Christ and with one another in Christ.

 

The deeper our growth in sanctification, the more we recognize that we are dying according to the flesh, “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).

 

The fact that we still live in the flesh means that our entire lives must be “an act of faith in the Son of God who has begun His own life in them” (Gal. 2:20).

 

Christ is our “daily death and…daily life.”

 

The fruit of the Spirit cannot remain invisible to the world, indeed, it is such that from ancient times forward the world has said, “See how they love one another.” Here we might add John 13:34 – 35 to Bonhoeffer’s text.

 

On page 251, as Bonhoeffer considers that we are in fact saints in Christ, he writes, “These very same Christians, who embrace the truth that sin no longer rules over them, and that the believer no longer sins, will also confess that ‘if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’”

 

He quotes 1 John 1:8 – 2:1 in helping us to see the “already – not yet” of our life in Christ, of us being complete in Him (Col. 2:10) while at the same time living in the process of sanctification. Those who do not live in the tension of 1 John 1:8 – 2:1, who cannot “see” this dynamic of our life in Christ, often live on one of two ends of the spectrum. On one end they insist that our identity is that of sinners, on the other end they insist that we no longer need to speak of sin, beware of sin, teach against sin, or seek the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin.

 

I have known Jesus Christ, in some measure…it is a mystery to me…since 1966, and I will say that 1 John 1:9 is more precious to me today than ever before. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

We could ponder 1 John 1:8 – 2:1 every day for the rest of our lives and not exhaust its treasures.

 

Bonhoffer also makes the point that as Christ forgives us, so we ought to forgive one another “without ceasing” (Eph. 4:32; Matt. 18:21ff). Forgiveness is to be our way of life, both in the receiving and the giving.

 

“The community of saints is not the ‘ideal’ church-community of the sinless and perfect. It is not the church-community of those without blemish, which no longer provides room for the sinner to repent. Rather it is the church-community that shows itself worthy of the gospel of forgiveness of sins by truly proclaiming God’s forgiveness, which has nothing to do with forgiving oneself. It is the community of those who have truly experienced God’s costly grace, and who thereby live a life worthy of the gospel which they neither squander nor discard” (pages 251 – 252).

 

I would like to ask Bonhoeffer why he inserted “which has nothing to do with forgiving oneself.” Of course this is true, but I would like to know what he encountered that motivated him to make this point.

 

There is nothing in the Bible, not directly nor by extrapolation that supports the idea that we must forgive ourselves. In fact, the Scriptures are clear that only in Jesus can we find forgiveness. Yes, we find the forgiveness of Jesus Christ communicated to us through His Body, both at the Lord’s Table and in our daily lives, but there is no other source of forgiveness than the Lamb of God.

 

I was once part of a large audience who heard a well-known author and speaker preach on our need to forgive ourselves. At the end of the message the pastors were called to come up front to minister to those who desired prayer. As I stood facing the audience, I looked at the pastor who was standing beside me and said, “You know, this business of forgiving ourselves isn’t true.”

 

He said, “Yes, I know.”

 

When a man came up to us for prayer regarding things in his life for which he was seeking forgiveness, we explained to him that lasting forgiveness was only to be found in Jesus and received from Jesus. The man was relieved to hear this and we had a sweet time of ministry and prayer with him…all centered in Jesus Christ.

 

If we have “truly experienced God’s costly grace” then we can display that costly grace to others, both within and without the visible church-community. Saints are those who both receive and give God’s costly grace. Saints forgive one another without ceasing. Saints are those who have been sanctified and are being sanctified. This sanctification is both individual and communal, and there cannot truly be individual sanctification outside of the Body of Christ – O how we need one another!

 

Perhaps our congregations ought to always be asking, “How is Christ sanctifying us in this season of life?”

 

We ought not to lose sight of Galatians 5:16 – 24, while our focus is on the fruit of the Spirit, let us not be so foolish as to dismiss the deeds of the flesh – Jesus our Lord was tempted, we will be tempted, only the foolish dismiss the reality of temptation (1 Cor. 10:1 – 13). We are to run to Jesus in temptation, our Great and Merciful High Priest (Heb. 4:14 – 16; 7:25; 2:17 – 18).

 

Might it not be that much of our practice of “church” these days is in the form of accommodation to the world, the flesh, and the devil? That rather than calling the people of the world to know Jesus and to be conformed (as believers) to His image (Rom. 8:29), that we are conforming ourselves to the present age? That our salt is losing its flavor, that we are putting our light under a basket, and we are shutting off the light on the city on the hill (Matt. 5:13 – 15)?

 

These things can be subtle, especially when we have acclimated ourselves to them. Yes, they can also be blatant, but I think subtlety is our primary danger, the soothing siren song of the world, the music that takes us away from the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. I imagine that this temptation exists in every life, in every congregational setting – it will usually look attractive, it will usually make sense – and it will always move our hearts away from Jesus and His Cross.

 

Galatians 2:20; 6:14.

 

Is this our testimony?

 

Is it the testimony of our congregations?