As I witness the
sellout of the Gospel to political, social, economic, and national interests
and idols, and as I wonder where men and women of courage are to be found among
those who claim to be servants of Christ (though does anyone claim such a title
anymore?), I wonder if there still might be an Esther or two “for such a time
as this" (Esther 4:13 - 14).
If there are
such women and men, there is but one promise for them, and that is the Cross.
Rest assured, it is not likely either the “right” or the “left” will spare
them, for the otherworldliness of the Cross and Christ cannot be tolerated, no
opposition can be allowed to remain.
The Son of Man
had no place to lay His Head 2,000 years ago, and He has no place to lay His
Head or His Body today. There is no political, economic, political, social,
philosophical, or national place where the Body of Christ can rest; we will
find rest only in Him, only in Jesus, only in our Good Shepherd.
Esther was able,
with the help of Mordecai, to overcome her initial reluctance to risk her life
for her people. She could choose to be the instrument of God’s deliverance, but
“if not” Mordecai promised her that God would raise up someone else. I am not
sure about our own time; I am not certain of two things.
The first thing
I am not certain about is that there will be any temporal “deliverance,” in
whatever form that might take. This then means that it may be that there are no
“deliverers” in the normal sense of the word.
We are seeing a
great falling away from the Person of Jesus Christ, from belonging to Him, from
the Biblical Gospel and call to His Kingdom, to the prostitution of the
professing church in the name of Christianity, of so-called Christian
worldviews which are Nehustan; they may have had worthy beginnings, but they
have been formed into idols.
Many of those
who still profess a Kingdom perspective, seem to think that if they play
whack-a-mole long enough that the fog will eventually lift, the sun will shine,
and we can go back to the way things used to be (though why we would ever want
to go back to that which paved the way for our present insanity is beyond me).
When I write
“whack-a-mole” I mean a preoccupation with religious (including Evangelical)
and gnostic playthings which allows us to avoid speaking a clarion Word to the
Church of Jesus Christ and society.
I wonder if
these folks (those who know better) realize that as long as they avoid calling for complete and total
faithfulness to Jesus Christ, as long as they avoid Mark 8:34 – 38 and 1
Corinthians 1:17 – 31, that they really don’t know what they have in their
congregations, institutions, denominations, and movements. Or perhaps they do
know and don’t want to confront the reality.
If the fabric of
a congregation can be rent by calling for total fidelity to Jesus Christ, if it
can be torn asunder by calling for the Bride to leave behind the movements of
this world and be in a monogamous relationship with her Bridegroom (2 Cor. 11:1
– 3), if calling on professing Christians to leave behind garments of “red” and
“blue” for the pure white garment of Christ’s righteousness and to be a City
set on a Hill – if such preaching is sure to create upheaval – then what do we
really have? We have dishonesty built on fear and intimidation; we do not have
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
On the one hand
we have preachers who have left the Gospel of Christ and the only call that
they really have, the call to present the Church as a pure Bride in a pure
marriage to her one Husband. On the other hand, we have the people at the foot
of Sinai insisting on golden calves to worship.
Is deliverance
in such an atmosphere possible?
I don’t think
so. I may be wrong, I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so. I don’t think we
would stand for returning to Jesus Christ. I don’t think we’d stand for pastors
and teachers and other leaders insisting on us returning to Jesus. I think
that, having mounted the beast, we now must ride the beast until the beast
devours us.
As Revelation
demonstrates, there are times when the only way to victory, to irenic and
ironic victory, is via martyrdom. To be sure witness, martyrdom, takes many
forms, but none of these forms are pleasant.
This means that
any Esthers among us must walk alongside Daniel’s three friends, and that their
credo must be, must always be, “But if not” (Daniel 3:18). It means that
deliverance likely lies on the other side of this life, in that City where
Christ and the Father and the saints await us. It means that the faithful “consider
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt” or Wall
Street, or Hollywood, or Capitol Hill, or than anything this world offers.
It means that we
confess that we are strangers and pilgrims and that we are seeking a country of
our own (Hebrews 11:13 – 16). Such a testimony is in opposition to political,
economic, and social movements – for it recognizes the kingdoms of this world
and their systems for what they are, opposed to Jesus Christ (Psalm 2; Daniel 2;
1 John 2:15 – 17; Revelation chapters 17 – 18).
We seek good for
all mankind, but we do not deceive ourselves as to the systems of this wicked
world.
The overcomers
of Revelation overcome by the blood of Lamb, by their testimony (of Jesus), and
by not loving their lives, even unto death (Rev. 12:11). Run from any
preacher, any pastor, any teacher, any professor, any fool who would tell you
otherwise! Run, run, run from those who would spare you the Cross of Christ,
and run to Jesus, embracing Him and His Cross (Matthew 16:21 – 23). O dear
friends, if we are not learning to die with Jesus, then we are not learning to
live with Him (2 Cor. 4:12; Gal. 2:20; 6:14).
If a man or
woman meets God, it is not likely that person will ever be the same. Since
Jesus is God, how is that we are still of this world, when we claim to be
Christians? How is it that we dress ourselves in “red” and “blue” and seek to
destroy one another? O dear friends, there are only two reasons why professing
Christians act this way, the way of the enemy (James 3:13 – 18); it is either
that we have never really met Jesus Christ and surrendered our lives to Him –
living under His lordship, as His possessions, or it is that we have left our
first love (Rev. 2:4).
To be faithful
to Jesus Christ means that we must “go outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13). This is the religious camp (both on the “right” and the “left”), it is the
political camp, the nationalist camp; it is the camp of the world – it means
that we identify with Jesus and preach Jesus and Jesus alone…and to be sure,
that will incur the enmity of the world around us, in all of its forms…and yes,
we will likely find ourselves put out of the synagogue (John 9:22, 34).
And yet, and
yet, there will be those who see Him through the darkness and vitriol and
hatred and cacophony…and on that Day those men and women and children will say,
“Thank you. Thank you for showing me a better way, the Way of Jesus, the Way of
the Cross. Thank you for showing me Jesus.”
One thing we can
say with surety concerning potential Esthers, those who seek to spare their
lives need not apply.
“As for me and
my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
What about you?
“Therefore,
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay
aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God” (Hebrews 12:1 – 2).
While my
intention is to call us back to Jesus, and only to Jesus; if I have offended
you, then I have made my point. Let us return to Jesus, He awaits us, He will
restore us so that we can restore others. The Cross is always offensive, so that we might come to the end of ourselves and find Jesus.
“For I am
jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so
that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as
the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from
the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3).
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