Touching Jesus - Conclusion

 

        I was recollecting when you came in…this is my big day…and my aunt’s big day…I was recollecting on that dust filled road 31 years ago…on our walk from Chorazin back to Capernaum…with broken hearts…despair…hopelessness.

            We had spent all we had…every penny…and had precious little inventory with which to make more money…

It was a long walk that day…we stopped a few miles out of Chorazin to have lunch …we had taken a bit of bread and cheese from home…and after eating we resumed our journey with an unspoken sense of hopelessness…my aunt and me…walking side by side…not saying too much…but in our hearts wondering “what do we do  now?”

            As we approached Capernaum about four in the afternoon, we saw a great crowd moving along the crossroads at mile marker one north.  The crowd was moving southward and it seemed to have a center, a center of attention if you will.  There was quite a commotion, children, teenagers, older folks, younger folks, it seemed like the entire town was out on an unruly mob-like parade….that their attention was focused on something or someone that they were trying to keep up with or touch…we weren’t really sure what was going on.

            The mob was moving away from us, moving away from the town, and that was good…because that meant that we wouldn’t have to endure their stares and looks of disdain as we headed back to our home.  The words “unclean, unclean, don’t touch them” seemed to be perpetually in their hearts and minds.  So let them go, I thought, let them go, let them go away from us on whatever circus adventure they’re on today, let them go.

            Just as I was thinking these thoughts children ran past us…children who didn’t know enough to know that we were unclean…as they stopped to greet us my aunt Ruth asked, “Children, precious young ones, why all the commotion, what is everyone doing?”

            “Oh,” they replied, “don’t you know?  Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way.  Everyone is trying to get a look at Him and touch Him.”

            Aunt Ruth and I looked at each other.  Jesus.  We had heard of Him, conflicting accounts of Him.  Some praised Him while others condemned Him.  The religious leaders seemed to hate him…but others…well…it was said that He touched people…it was said that He touched certain types of people…it was said that He touched the unclean…that He touched lepers…that He touched the dead…it was said that He touched women…could it be that perhaps…could it be that perhaps?????

            Aunt Ruth took the lead…a quick lead…a determined lead…and we headed toward the moving mob…closer and closer we got…if they recognized us they would push us away…they might even stone us to keep us from coming close…for we were unclean and we’d make them unclean…closer and closer we got…fear and hope both welling-up in our hearts…hearts pounding like kettle drums…

            No one was noticing us…their attention was all focused inward…inside the crowd, inside the mob…moving along that hot, dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago, a cacophony of noise filling the air…people pushing and jostling each other…we reached the edge of the crowd…and my little aunt Ruth began to push inward…inward beneath the men, inward past women and children…I was a few feet behind her…losing her now and then…then finding her again…and finally, finally…we saw Him…people were pushing against Him…this way and that pushing against Him as He walked…

            Ruth later shared with me that she only had one thought in her mind, “If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.”

            And before I knew it…there she was…aunt Ruth…almost to Him…almost to Jesus…people crowding around Jesus…and she reached out and thrust her hand between two large men…right between their legs…and she…she…touched the hem of His garment…

            “Nathan,” she told me later, “it was like the warmth of a thousand suns cascading through my body…and I knew…Nathan I knew…that I was healed…I was whole…I was clean.”

            Jesus stopped…the crowd stopped.  Jesus turned around…His eyes scanning the crowd…and He spoke…a question, “Who touched me?”

            Some, whom I later learned were His disciples answered, “Master, how can you ask such a question?  “Who touched me?”  Master, why would you ask such a question?  Why everyone is touching you.  What kind of a question is that?”

            “No,” Jesus said.  Someone has truly touched me, for I know that healing has passed from me to…to.”  His eyes fell upon Aunt Ruth…and she was drawn to Him…she fell upon her knees and – in a Niagara of tears - poured out the misery and helplessness of twelve long years.  The Master said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

            Oh the joy we knew that day, that day 31 years ago as we laughed and embraced and returned home that afternoon with hearts filled with hope, love, joy and a sense of destiny. 

            Did I mention that today is our big day?  Oh, but of course, you’re probably wondering about all those people, all those people who were around Jesus, all those synagogue church-going people who were bustling around Jesus, pushing Him this way and that, touching His hands, His hair, His arms, His side, His clothes…and then there was my little aunt Ruth…my unclean little aunt Ruth…who only touched the hem of His garment…what was the difference?

            How is it that people can go to synagogue all their lives and never really touch Him?  How is it that people can “say and do all the right religious things” and yet never really touch Him?  How is it that people can join this church or that church and yet never really touch Him?  How is it?  How can it be?  How is it that the scribes and Pharisees knew the Scriptures forwards and backwards and yet most of them never came to know Him?  How is it that people can learn Bible verses and yet never know the One whom these verses speak of?

            How can this be?  All those people touching Jesus…yet really only one person touching Jesus…my aunt Ruth.

            Did I mention this is my big day?  It’s also my aunt Ruth’s big day.  Did I mention this?

            It’s about time now.  I’ve got an appointment in a few minutes, an appointment much like the appointment on that grimy dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago.  You see my aunt and I continued to follow Jesus, to know Him and to love Him…and 4 years ago we moved here, to Rome, to help establish a fellowship of believers of both Jews and Gentiles.  And today is our big day…

            Aunt Ruth and I were arrested 3 weeks ago by Nero’s soldiers for being followers of Jesus Christ and we’ve been sentenced to die today…our big day…an even bigger day than that day 31 years ago…for today is our graduation day…today we’ll go to be with Him forever.

            O don’t be sorry for us, no please don’t.  After all, we are all going to die…and death is a part of life…the question of course is…when that day does come…will you have touched Him…and will He have touched you…?

           

           

                       

 

Touching Jesus - Part One

Background: Mark 5:21 - 34. 

THE SETTING – A PRISON CELL IN ROME, 64 A.D.

 

            Oh…hi…good morning.  Didn’t see you there…kinda daydreaming.  Not really daydreaming per se, more like recollecting…remembering. 

            What are you in here for?  Quite the group of you.  Have you already been to trial or are you awaiting an appearance before the Roman magistrate?

            Oh…sorry…I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Nathan ben Eleazar…a Jew from Capernaum in Galilee.  Today’s my big day…and I was just recollecting about another big day…that day 31 years ago…long before Nero was emperor…31 years ago…on that crowd-laden dusty road between Capernaum and Chorazin.

            I was with my Aunt Ruth that day, my poor aunt Ruth…at least I thought of her as my poor aunt Ruth before that day…but not after.

            Ruth is my mother’s sister…as a matter of fact she’s in a cell just down this corridor…but that’s another matter…of course this is her big day too…this is a big day for both of us…but back to that dust-filled choking road…

            My Mom died when I was three years old of something I think you call influenza.  Shortly after that my father was killed by robbers as he was transporting bundles of linen and wool from Jerusalem down to Jericho.  That left me an orphan at almost 4 years old.  I have vague memories of my parents, shadows if you will…aunt Ruth has done her best to keep the memories alive…and in fact to give me many more as she tells me about my parents and their young lives before their untimely deaths.

            Aunt Ruth took me into her home and raised me like her own son.  Did I mention that Ruth is a widow?  Her husband also died young in a shipping accident…leaving her a childless widow. So she was a widow without children and I was a child without parents…and she took me in…and loved me and raised me.

            Then, when I was 16 years old, Aunt Ruth got sick.  At first I didn’t notice much about the sickness.  Her skin began to pale, her energy decline…at the end of each workday – aunt Ruth made her living by dyeing linen and wool for weavers and tailors – she was exhausted.  She began going to bed earlier than usual…her smile wasn’t as quick to show as in the past…I knew something was wrong but didn’t know what…

            When I began to question her about her health she’d put me off by saying, “Oh, it’s nothing.  It will be better soon.”  But it didn’t…it didn’t get better.  In fact it got a good deal worse.  There were days when she couldn’t work all day…and an occasional day when she had to stay home.

            I kept after her to see a physician, but again she’d put me off by saying, “Oh, it will get better.”

            Now we weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we weren’t poor…at least in the beginning of her sickness.  In fact our life was somewhat comfortable.  The business of dyeing linen and wool isn’t a bad living as long as you meet your quotas with the tailors and weavers.  I had learned the trade from aunt Ruth and we were doing pretty well financially.

            One afternoon as I was sitting with the young men of the town sipping wine…it was our afternoon break from work…little Joseph ben Levi ran up to me yelling, “Ruth has fallen ill, Ruth has fallen ill, come quickly!!!”

            Aunt Ruth had fainted, passed out, in our little dye shop, hit her head on one of the dye soaking bins and was unconscious and bleeding from her head.  We got her home, put her to bed, and called a physician.

            After examining her, the physician left her sleeping area in our little home and came into the living room, he told me that Ruth was awake and that her head wound was only superficial…but then he told me that she was weak from loss of blood…loss of blood not from the head wound, but loss of blood due to something he called “a condition peculiar to the female sex,” and that he could do nothing to help her.

            Our lives changed that day…

            My heart was broken and filled with fear for my aunt Ruth.  I had lost my father and mother and now there was the threat of losing my precious aunt.  I embarked on a mission to find a physician who could cure her illness.

            The weeks, months and years that followed are somewhat of a blur…a collage of work, physicians, dwindling money, anxiety, fear, more work, more physicians, less and less money, hopelessness, despair.

            Ruth worked some days…seldom all day…struggling with me to keep our bills paid and our business running…but I insisted on spending whatever need be on a cure.  And so I contacted physician after physician in our area…and they…they virtually all came…and examined Ruth…and took our money…and said…they all said…that Aunt Ruth had, “a condition peculiar to the female sex,” and that there was nothing they could do.

            Year after year went by…and I saw my brave aunt’s health continue to deteriorate.  She was stubborn and determined, and loving and tender…but sheer willpower could only help her get from day-to-day, it could not heal her.

            Early in the twelfth year of her affliction I determined to make one last attempt to fine someone who could cure her.  Our business was struggling, for at this point Ruth could hardly work 3 or 4 hours a day, and while I was working and doing the best I could…our money was going to doctors and I couldn’t afford to pay someone to assist me in the business…I was falling behind in our contracts and was losing customers.

            At any rate…I had heard of the wonderful physicians there were in Egypt…and I heard that one of their esteemed physicians had come to Chorazin to set up practice.  I thought that surely this was our opportunity…perhaps our last opportunity…for a cure.  I knew it would be expensive, it might take all we had…but we had to try…we just had to try.

            Oh, I know what you’re thinking…you’re wondering how we, as Jews, could possibly go to an unclean Egyptian doctor.  Well, it’s not as if the doctor was the only one who was unclean…for please remember…that because my aunt Ruth had this perpetual bleeding due to “a condition peculiar to the female sex”…that my aunt Ruth was unclean as well…and that since I lived with my aunt, and touched her in my care for her…that I was also unclean.

            Yes, for twelve years she…that is we…even since that day when she fainted in our workshop and that first physician had diagnosed her…ever since then…we had been unclean…she because of her condition and me because of my association with her.

            We could not go into other peoples’ homes, they could not come into ours, we could not touch others…we could not even go to the synagogue on the Sabbath…we were unclean…my aunt Ruth and I, Nathan ben Eleazar…were unclean.  I could touch her and she could touch me…but no one else would touch us.  Twelve years without being touched by other people…twelve long isolated years.

            And so, in the twelfth year of her sickness, of her being in “a condition peculiar to the female sex”…in that year…we took the last money we had…down to our last penny…and went to Chorazin to see the Egyptian doctor. 

When I had made an initial trip to first consult with him he gave me hope, he indicated that he had cured many female conditions, that he had prescriptions for cures of all kinds and that surely he could help my aunt Ruth…and so we took our last bit of money, money that we had been hoarding…and we went.

            While Ruth was in the examining room I prayed to the God of my fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in my heart I called out to Him for mercy, mercy on my aunt Ruth…and I tried to believe, I tried to believe that He would finally heal my poor poor aunt.

            And then the door opened and my aunt Ruth and the Egyptian doctor came out…and I head these words from the doctor, “Your aunt has a condition peculiar to the female sex and I do not have a cure for it.”

            Putting my arm around my aunt I led her out of the office for the long walk home.  No money, a failing business, little food in the pantry, broken hearts…and no hope.

to be continued...

            

A Divine Mystery

 

 

“I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them” (John 17:9 – 10).

 

“All things that the Father has are Mine” (16:15).

 

As we saw when contemplating John 16:12 – 15, all that the Father has, Jesus has, and all that Jesus has, we have. There is a unity of possession in the Trinity, a unity of Nature, a unity of Person. God is indivisible. This, of course, is a mystery. In the Incarnation, we see a unity of God and Man in the Person of Jesus Christ, yet another Divine mystery. In the Body of Christ there is a further unity, it is the unity of the Head and the Body, of the Bridegroom and His Bride, once again, a mystery into which we can only see so far; we can experience more than we can see and understand, but this is nearly always the case (if not always) in our life in Christ and with one another in Him.

 

There is a sense in which, while the Father gave us to Jesus, that we already belonged to Jesus, because all that the Father has, Jesus has; and all that Jesus has, the Father has. Perhaps this is akin to a husband and wife who have a beautiful flower garden. The flowers belong to both wife and husband; they both have full possession of the land and the flowers. Can you see the husband in the flower garden, carefully choosing and picking flowers for his wife? Can you then see the husband giving the bouquet of carefully picked and arranged flowers to his beloved? Can we hear the wife say, “Thank you dear husband for giving me these beautiful flowers. Thank you for your love and thoughtfulness”?

 

The flowers always belonged to both husband and wife. Yet, in a true sense the husband also gave the flowers to his beloved spouse and she accepted them.

 

When we acknowledge that all that the Father has, the Son also has; and that all that the Son has, the Father also has (and that this unity is also true of the Holy Spirit), it can strengthen our vision of the Holy One and enable us to more clearly “see” the invisible, having deepening faith in Him. It will also hopefully give us an assurance of our salvation in our Rock, Jesus Christ. After all, if we have belonged to the Father, and if the Father has given us to the Son, there is nothing, there is no one, there is no thing, that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:31 – 39).

 

Yesterday in Paris, thieves broke into the Louvre in the daytime and stole some of France’s precious crown jewels. The theft took about four minutes. Do we really suppose that the Father would allow an enemy to steal His treasures? To break into His heavenly domain, His Temple, into His Family Home, and steal those who are precious to Him, those who have been purchased by the life blood of His Son?

 

Do we think that the Son does not protect those whom the Father has given to Him in holy trust (John 17:11 – 12)? Do we dare to think that the Bridegroom allows His Bride to be violated? O dear friends, while we may not understand all that goes on around us, while we may not have much understanding and vision amid the present chaos, let us never doubt our God, let us never cease to behold and receive His love for us in Christ, let us never give place to the enemy for a moment – for frankly all of life, all of our lives, comes down to this – the Nature and Character of God. Can we, do we, trust Him?

 

When Jesus says, “I have been glorified in them,” we are taken back to a previous meditation in which we asked, “How can this be?” This can be because we belong to God. This can be because of the love and work of Jesus Christ. This can be because what Jesus begins His completes. This can be because we belong to Jesus Christ, we are no longer our own, we have been bought with a price.

 

O the blessed assurance to know that the Father has given us to Jesus, to know that we belong to Jesus and that we are no longer our own – we have been bought by the blood of the Lamb and sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

How Can This Be?

 

 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me” (John 17:6 – 8).

 

Is this true?

 

What evidence is there that this is true?

 

Shortly the men Jesus is speaking of will abandon Him. Before the night is over one of these men will deny Jesus three times. These men will soon lock the door of the Upper Room, the very room where Jesus has been revealing the Father to them; they will lock the door in fear and they will cower in fear. In three days these men will disbelieve the testimony of Mary Magdelene, that Jesus has risen from the dead.

 

If we were observers, and knew no more than what transpired between the Upper Room and Easter morning, what would we think of Jesus’ description of the men whom the Father gave Him?

 

Let us note that Jesus is not praying in the future tense but is stating the condition of the men in that moment. “They have kept Your word.” They have received the words of Jesus, which are the words of the Father. These men have believed that Jesus came from the Father. These men have received the manifestation of the Father’s name which Jesus has given to them.

 

Considering the forthcoming actions of these men in abandoning and denying Jesus, how can Jesus say these affirming things about them? How can this be?

 

I’m reminded of Luke 22:31 – 32:

 

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has obtained permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

 

Then we have John 16:32:

 

“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

 

Jesus sees the forthcoming actions of the men, but Jesus has also prayed for Peter, and no doubt for the rest, just as Jesus prays for us (Heb. 7:25).

 

Jesus does not see as we see, but we ought to learn to see as Jesus sees. We ought to be learning to not look at the visible but at the invisible, we ought to be learning to not see people according to the outward, but rather the inward (2 Cor. 4:18; 5:16).

 

Jesus sees us in our completeness and perfection in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 2:10; Heb. 10:10, 14).

 

A friend of mine recently wrote about “a narrative of failure” as opposed to a narrative of redemption, reconciliation, and fellowship. We are called, as priests of the Most High God, to proclaim the Narrative of Reconciliation and Redemption in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We can only do this if we see as Jesus sees, if we see the End from the Beginning in Him – always in Him.

 

This means that our reconciliation and fellowship with the Trinity is an assured reality, even though we may act otherwise, just as the apostles acted.

 

This is the same dynamic that we see with Paul and the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:1 – 9, in which Paul addresses the people as sanctified, thanking God for the grace given to them, thanking God that in everything they are enriched in Him, that they are not lacking in any gift. Then Paul writes that Jesus Christ, “Will confirm you to the end, blameless.”

 

Just as John 17:6 – 8 makes no sense if we read it “in the moment,” so 1 Corinthians 1:1 – 9 makes no sense if read in “in the moment.” That is, if we continue reading 1 Corinthians, we see how messed up the people were. They were tolerating and practicing immorality, they were riven with division, there was confusion in their gatherings – these people were the opposite of Paul’s description of them in his introduction.

 

Furthermore, if we continue into 2 Corinthians, we see that they were also being seduced by false teachers who were leading them away from the pure simplicity and devotion which they had in Jesus Christ.

 

How could Paul be so affirming? Would not such affirmation give the Corinthians a false sense of security?

 

Paul saw them in Christ, he saw Christ’s prefect and complete work in them, he saw Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega of their salvation. Paul was assured that what Jesus had begun, that Jesus would complete (Phil. 1:6).

 

To be sure there are stark warnings in Corinthians, discipline is to be received and implemented – but they are given, and are to be received, within the Person of Jesus Christ and His perfect work, His complete work, His assured work of salvation.

 

This is one on of many reasons why it is imperative that we use Biblical language and images when speaking to one another, when preaching and teaching. The Bible is clear that those in Christ are saints and not sinners any longer, why do we not believe and teach this? Why do we allow what we see on the outside to determine our language, when God the Father sees us in His Son?

It is ironic to me that I have friends who criticize Pentecostals and charismatics for relying too much on experience, when they themselves rely on experience by insisting that we are still sinners because of our actions, rather than teaching what the Bible teaches, that we are saints in Jesus Christ, perfect and complete in Him, always in Him. We only grow into Christ as we behold Christ, not as we look at our own navels.

 

We would have no hope if Jesus Christ did not see us, speak to us, and have koinonia with us, based on His perfect love, grace, mercy, and work of salvation. This is how we ought to be with one another, it is how we need to be when we look into the mirror – we need to learn to see ourselves and others in Jesus Christ.

 

Let me please share a story from my life to illustrate this. I am anything but proud of this story, but because it may help someone, I’ll share it. Occasionally I have shared this, but not often, it is just too painful, and I am ashamed of it. Yet, as I hope you will see, I am deeply thankful.

 

I once went to work for a firm as COO in which was a woman, I’ll call her “Susan,” who had known me for many years and who was excited to be working for me. The firm was not doing well financially or organizationally, and the pressure was immense. As I look back, I did some things well, and some things not very well at all. This is my nature, I can always see things I could have done better, see things I did that were just stupid, and then, sadly, see things I did that were plain wrong.

 

After I had been with the firm between two and three years I terminated Susan’s employment. This was wrong, I should not have done this.

 

I could share some things that led to this decision, I could share about pressures, I could write about our business relationship, but I don’t want to mitigate the fact that I was wrong. I was morally and ethically wrong. If I did not see this at the time, I most certainly should have seen it.

 

A few years later I needed a job and I needed it badly. Vickie and I had been abandoned by the church we served and had it not been for friends we may well have been homeless. It was a terrible time for us. After many months of trying to find employment, virtually any kind of employment, I found a job in community association management, the kind of work I had done decades earlier. While I was deeply thankful for the job, it wasn’t a good fit.

 

After about a year a position opened at an apartment management company that I thought was a possibility. My age was against me, I was sixty years old. Two people within the company became advocates for me, one was Gloria who had known me for years, the other was Susan. Yes, you read that right, Susan.

 

I was hired and spent the last few years of my business career in a wonderful environment, with a great boss, terrific colleagues, and a group of team members who worked for me that I dearly loved and still very much love.

 

I once asked Susan why she went to the president of the company and advocated for me after I had terminated her with our previous company.

 

She replied, “I knew that the Bob Withers who fired me was not the real Bob Withers.”

 

 Susan saw beyond the moment when I fired her, as shocking as that was for her. Somehow, by God’s grace, she looked beyond my actions and into my soul and saw something worth forgiving and extending grace and mercy to. Susan saw me when I couldn’t see myself.

 

Jesus can say the things He says in John 17:6 – 8 because He sees us beyond the moment, beyond our actions, beyond our fears and uncertainties, even beyond our denial and abandonment of Him. Jesus, our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and End, sees us in Him as perfect and complete.

 

O that we would learn to live in this assurance, and that we would learn to extend this assurance to others.

 

Esther, Where Are You?

 

 

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.  (A. W. Tozer identified the tragedy of Christians not actually knowing Jesus in The Pursuit of God almost 80 years ago.)

 

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. (Is it possible to have renewal outside old wineskins?)

 

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).

A New Way

 

 

Now we come to John Chapter 17. “But wait!” you say, “we haven’t moved all the way through John 16 yet.”

 

Yes, that is true, and we will indeed enter John 17 through John 16, but as we move into John 16:25 – 33 we will be in the vestibule of John 17, the prelude to the Holy of Holies with its new time, its new language, its new seeing, and its new thinking. This is the thinking and language and seeing and time of the Sons of the Kingdom, it flows from the Trinity, from eternity past to eternity present to eternity future.

 

For sure, new ways take time to learn, they take practice, they require exercise and use in order to grow and experience proficiency.

 

As you read John 16:25 – 33 what questions do you have? What things do not make sense? Our Father uses our questions to reveal Himself, to draw us deeper into His Presence – questions are good; God is God and we are not, as we bow before Him we can learn.

 

When Jesus says that “an hour is coming” in which He will no longer speak to the disciples in figurative language, we might think it will be a while before this happens. Yet, in verse 29 the disciples say, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.” It seems as if that coming “hour” happened quickly.

 

In verse 27 Jesus says that the disciples “have believed that I came forth from the Father.” Yet, in verse 30 the disciples say, “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” In other words, Jesus says that the disciples believe He came from the Father before the disciples confess this belief.

 

But then we have verses 31 – 32 in which Jesus challenges their confession by telling the disciples that they will all desert Him, leaving Him alone. Yet again, in verse 33 Jesus affirms their ultimate victory and peace in Him, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.”

 

Jesus affirms their belief in Him, the disciples confess that belief, then Jesus challenges their belief, then Jesus affirms their belief and confirms their victory in Him. Throughout the Upper Room we have seen the enigmatic dance of the Holy Spirit, we have seen Jesus drawing His friends deeper and deeper into the Temple of God, into the Holy City.

 

O dear friends, it is only as the Wisdom of God reveals Himself and His Father that we will hear the language of God, see the ways of God, think the thoughts of God, and know intimacy with God (Pro. 8; 1 Cor. 2).

 

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well – pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt. 11:25 – 27; see also 1 Cor. 1:17 – 31).

 

“For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39).

 

God’s time is not our time, His language is not our language, His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.

 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

 

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us upward into the time and words and ways of God, rather than foolishly attempt to pull His revelation downward into the gravity of earth, and let us not forget Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Jesus also says to His disciples, ““It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

 

Throughout the Upper Room Jesus says things about the disciples which, in light of their impending desertion of Him, do not seem to be true. Jesus speaks of both their abandonment of Him and their fidelity to Him. He speaks of their faithlessness and also of their faithfulness. He talks of their momentary fear, and of their unfolding peace, joy, and overcoming. Jesus calls them to His very own life, love, joy, peace, obedience, fruit, and calling. This language, this way of seeing things, this thinking, and this sense of time plunges ever deeper in the Holy of Holies of John 17, and is gloriously affirmed on Easter when Jesus says, “Go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17).

 

We do not see as Jesus sees, but in Him we can learn to see as He sees. This is an element of the invitation of the Upper Room into the koinonia of the Trinity.

 

Paul writes that, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).

 

Then Paul moves us from the way we look at things to the way we see people. “From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16). This is a lesson the disciples will begin to learn on Easter Sunday; Mary Magdelene will learn it, the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus will learn it, the disciples fishing will learn it.

 

He follows this statement with, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Can we hear the Father declaring this? “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

 

This, my friends, is why we are called to look at Jesus and not ourselves. This is why we are called to hear and believe Jesus and not listen to ourselves nor believe what we think about ourselves. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has wrapped us up in His arms and carries us deep into Himself and we shall always be His and He shall always be ours.

 

Jesus says, “Don’t trust in what you think about yourself, trust in what I think about you. Don’t seek your identity in yourself, acknowledge your identity within Me. Abide in Me and allow Me to abide in you – rest in My arms, in My love, in My peace, in My joy – you and I have eternity ahead of us!”

 

Perhaps more than anything, the Upper Room is a glorious revelation of the love of God for us. In the Upper Room we hear a voice calling, “Come up here” (Rev. 4:1).

 

Let’s go!

 

 

Our Last Battle (18)

Only Jesus 

I am going to conclude our reflections on Our Last Battle with a quote from Chapter Twelve and a quote from Chapter Thirteen from The Last Battle. After that, I may have an epilogue, one more reflection, in which I summarize what I see in Our Last Battle and why I wrote this series. 

The concluding chapters of The Last Battle, which I’m not going to cover, are some of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever read. I’m not going to cover them because they occur in the real and eternal Narnia and that is beyond the scope of this series. However, just as Revelation chapters 21 and 22, they form the glorious beginning of our glorious never-ending destiny in Jesus Christ. As I have often said, if I had to choose only one book to bring with me to the proverbial desert island (in addition to the Bible), it would be the one volume edition of the Chronicles of Narnia. (If you prefer an audio dramatized version, which I think is exceptional, the Focus on the Family, Radio Theatre series is outstanding. I consider the movies a failure.)

Aslan holds the Narniad together, just as Jesus holds the Bible together. The Narniad reveals Aslan, the Bible reveals Jesus. In the Narniad we are always looking for Aslan, in the Bible, hopefully we are learning to always look for Jesus. 

In Chapter Twelve of the Last Battle, as Jill considers the Stable door and the death she thinks it leads to, Jewel the unicorn says to her, “Nay, fair friend. It may be for us the door to Aslan’s country and we shall sup at his table tonight.” 

In Jesus Christ, all of death’s doors lead to Him and His Table of Communion. 

In Revelation 12:11 we read that we overcome Tash and his minions because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony – our testimony being that of the Lamb, and that our overcoming in Jesus Christ encompasses self-denial, even unto death. As Paul writes, “Death works in us but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12). 

We can live this Way because Jesus Christ has “abolished death” (2 Timothy 1:10) and brought “life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” In the Gospel we see the present reality of life and immortality, a reality that consumes death and the fear of death, a reality that envelopes us in the Light and Life of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus, our Elder Brother, came to set “free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:15). He rendered the enemy “powerless” who once had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). O dear friends, if we only realized the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, that in Him we can cry out “Abba! Father!” and live in freedom as the daughters and sons of the Living God (Romans 8:12 – 25). 

Our quote from Chapter Thirteen occurs within the real Narnia:

“Then he fixed his eyes upon Tirian, and Tirian came near, trembling, and flung himself at the Lion’s feet, and the Lion kissed him and said, ‘Well done, last of the Kings of Narnia who stood firm at the darkest hour.’” 

This is all that I desire for myself, for you, for others, for those close to me, my family, my neighbors; that we would stand firm in Jesus during the dark hour in which we live.

What makes this an especially dark hour, perhaps the darkest hour, is that we have substituted dead lion skins for Jesus, we have forms of Christianity masquerading as Jesus. Some of these forms may have had the testimony of Jesus at one time, just as the Seven Churches of Revelation once did, but now they have substituted other ways of life and thinking for Jesus, while still claiming to be the church.

There are those who think that being “liberal” or “conservative” or having a certain worldview or coming from a certain religious tradition or following a syncretistic American – Christian nationalistic agenda is akin to the Gospel and Person of Jesus Christ, but this simply isn’t true. Jesus Christ is a Person, He is God, and we are to worship and follow Him – not an ideology, not a worldview, not a religious tradition, not a system of thought, not a form of worship – we are to be in a love relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is to be our passion, our desire, our Friend, our Bridegroom, and we are to love and worship and serve Him with all that we have and all that we are.

An irony for me is that when I was a young Christian I was taught that there is a difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Him – of living in a relationship with Him. I still believe this, and I have shared this truth with many over the years. I have seen others come to know Jesus Christ as they came to see the truth of this statement – we can know about Jesus or we can actually know Jesus.  

The irony is that much of the element of the professing church that taught me this truth has now abandoned this truth. We have been taken captive by sociology and philosophy and marketing and economics and politics – and even those who profess a high view of Scripture now insist that we employ naturalistic methods to interpret the Bible. (I have been making this a point of emphasis because if our starting point is wrong then our trajectory will be off, our ending will be off. What we plant in the ground is what will come from the earth. The seed we plant determines the fruit we will eat.)

If Jesus isn’t everything then Jesus isn’t anything. This is my message. This is the call of Jesus we see in Mark 8:34 – 38. 

God help us return to Jesus…perhaps for the first time. 

Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (16)

 

 

“…and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2b).

 

Before we transition into John 15:3, I want us to ponder what I’ll term “deep sin”, for I consider that the conviction of “deep sin” is an element of our Father’s pruning. I realize that many dear folks reading this will be unfamiliar with the difference between “sins” and “sin” within the context of the Bible – especially Romans. While we tend to focus on the things we do, whether righteous or unrighteous, whether good or bad, the Scriptures focus on who we are – in Christ or in Adam, saint or sinner, a righteous  person in Christ or still an unrighteous person outside of Christ, a person justified and complete in Christ or a person not justified and outside of Christ, a New Creation in Christ or still a person dead in trespasses and sins.

 

The Cross of Christ, the Atonement, not only deals with forgiveness for the things we have done, but it also brings us to the end of ourselves and raises us up in newness of life in Jesus Christ. Hence we see justification, the forgiveness of sins, in Romans up to 5:11, and then from 5:12 – 8:39 we see that we have been given a new identity in Jesus Christ through the Cross – we have died with Him and we have been raised with Him; and our relationships with sin, our old selves, and the Law, have been severed by our death with Jesus Christ.

 

Yes, of course the things we do matter, let us not be stupid about that – but who we are matters more because the things we do flow out of who we are, or who we think we are – only God knows our hearts. Before we know Christ, we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. Yes, of course conviction by the Word and the Holy Spirit regarding individual sins matters, let’s not be stupid about that either – but conviction about who we are outside of Christ matters more, because our nature and identity is always the heart of the issue.

 

Our actions can distract us, whether those actions are good or bad, what matters is whether we are being conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son; that image resides deep within us and works itself out from the inner recesses of our being. This is one of many reasons why Jesus says that without Him we can do nothing, we can bear no real lasting fruit – whose Life is living in us and flowing through us? This is always the question.

 

When I say that our actions can distract us, what I mean is that a professing Christian who only focuses on the things he does, his actions, and never confronts the issue of his core nature – inside and outside of Christ – never gets to the heart of the matter, and in this sense he remains a child. And let me say, that as painful as conviction of our sins may be, that they bear no comparison to the conviction of the deep sin of who we are outside of Jesus Christ – for the nature that produces sins, the core of the tree of death, is hideous and we can only “see” it in the measure that our Father allows us as He gives us grace and assurance.

 

Put another way, of course Jesus died because of the things we did, because of our sins – His blood covers and cleanses us, His blood is, in some mysterious fashion beyond our comprehension, the perfect and complete satisfaction and offering for our sins. But Jesus also died because of who we were – because of our deathly sinful and self-centered nature – for the sins we did were the result of the people we were, and unless our old nature was put to death and we were raised to newness of life in Christ, we would remain eternally dead (Ephesians 2:1 – 10; see also Galatians 2:20 and 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21).

 

To have our sins forgiven without a change of identity, a change of life, without being given new life within the Vine, would hardly be good news, it would not be a Gospel – for we would still have no hope of eternal life, no hope of union with the Trinity, no hope of the restoration of the image of God that was defaced in the Garden. (Justification is primarily forensic, sanctification is both forensic and organic; in sanctification Christ’s righteousness is both Imputed and imparted in our union with Him.)

 

To understand justification is to understand that we are set free from guilt and condemnation to live in unbridled koinonia with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and with one another in the Body of Christ. The veil of the Temple has been rent and we are to freely live in the Holy of Holies.

 

What then of what I term “deep sin”?

 

We’ll have to pick this back up, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.

 

 

Jesus Our Righteousness (4)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

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

 

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.”

 

How might Revelation 12:10 -11 relate to John 14:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21?

 

If the ruler of this world could find nothing in Jesus, then the ruler of this world can find nothing in us, for we are in Jesus Christ; the sinless Lamb of God was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

 

We overcome the accusations of the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The Lamb has purchased and cleansed us with His blood (Rev. 5:9; 1 Pt. 1:19; Eph. 1:7). His blood also cleanses our conscience (Heb. 9:14; 10:19 – 25) so that we can live in holy intimacy with God and with one another.

 

When we read John 14:30, we first see Jesus and then we see ourselves in Jesus, for our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). If the Lamb has indeed purchased us, then we belong to Him, we are His property, He is our Sovereign, our Lord. We can trust our Master to speak for us, to defend us – He is well able to protect and keep those whom He has purchased. We look to the blood of the Lamb as our assurance that we are purchased, cleansed, forgiven, and justified.

 

What is “the word of their testimony”? What is our testimony? It is, first and foremost, the Gospel of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is our testimony – we talk about Jesus, not so much about ourselves…and any talking we do about ourselves ought to be rooted in Jesus and pointing to Jesus – only one person can occupy center stage, and that must ever and always be Jesus Christ.

 

The perfect work of Jesus Christ is so remarkable that it even cleanses our consciences! (Heb. 9:14; 10:22).

 

What a tragedy that so much of the professing church now substitutes man-centered therapy for the miraculous Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

What would marriages look like if husbands and wives saw themselves in Jesus Christ, and saw each other in Jesus Christ? What would families look like? What would churches look like? What would church leadership look like? What would we look like, as God’s People, if we stopped accusing ourselves and one another (including in our teaching) and instead saw ourselves as cleansed, forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28 – 30)?

 

We can believe what the enemy says about us, we can believe what others say about us, we can believe what we think about ourselves, or we can believe what God says about us in Jesus Christ. Why O why will we not believe Jesus Christ? Why will we not believe His glorious liberating Good News?

 

Why would we rather serve as slaves, shackled in galley ships, pulling the oars of condemnation and accusation and the Law – rather than live as free women and men in Jesus Christ?

 

We overcome the enemy, in all of his insidious forms, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony of, and in, the Lamb. What is true of Jesus in John 14:30 is also true of us in Jesus Christ.

 

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1.

 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship as sons [and daughters] by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Rom. 8:15 – 16.

 

Jesus Our Righteousness (3)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

There is yet another element in why John 14:30 is critical to the son and the daughter of the Living God, it is that what is true of Jesus is true of us, the ruler of this world has nothing in us because of Jesus Christ, always because of Jesus Christ.

 

When Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” he means exactly what he says.

 

Perhaps there is no more emphatic and conclusive statement in the entire Bible than 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (I also can’t help but think of Jesus declaring, “It is finished.”)

 

Do we get the picture? The sinless One became sin, so that the sinful ones might become sinless. Jesus took us upon Himself, He took us into Himself, He became as we were on the Cross; so that we might take Him upon ourselves, into ourselves, that we might become in Him as He is.

 

Jesus became sin. May we ponder this for a moment. I wrote in a previous post about mystery, that the word mystery in the New Testament usually means something hidden that is now revealed, however, I also pointed out that we can still use mystery in its classic sense, meaning something that remains hidden.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 is a mystery in both senses. The Gospel mystery hidden for ages is revealed on the Cross, a Perfect Sacrifice has been made for the sins of the world, but the Cross has many facets to it, another one is that we were crucified, buried, and raised with Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1 – 11; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:14). This is also a critical element of the Gospel, and if we are not preaching it then we are not preaching and teaching the Gospel, at best we are teaching half a Gospel, if we can call it that.

 

But there are more facets to the Cross and Resurrection, one of which is that the Father made Jesus Christ “who knew no sin…to be sin.” Can we see that this is about more than Jesus taking our sins upon Himself? In the depths of the mystery of God Jesus took not just our sins upon Himself, He became sin. As a result, when we believe in Jesus Christ we become new creatures, new beings, in Him (2 Cor. 5:17) and we “become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

 

This is a mystery in both senses of the word; we see more than we once saw, yet more remains a mystery, for God is God and we are not God. Frankly, to attempt to explain this verse is foolish, yet, not to accept God’s Word is also foolish – we cannot explain and comprehend the fulness of 2 Cor. 5:21, but we can certainly experience it every day of our lives in Jesus Christ. We cannot explain this verse, but we can speak of how it can manifest itself in our lives.

 

I realize there are folks who have heartburn over my insistence that the Bible teaches us that, in Christ, we are saints. This is the primary designation of Christians in the Bible – whether that fits our experience and theology or not, if we have a high view of Scripture then what is the problem of using Scriptural language in speaking of one another?

 

But you see, at the heart of my insistence that we stop believing the accusations of the enemy (for that is what we are doing) is the glory of the Gospel and the Atonement, it is the perfect and complete work of Jesus Christ, it is the glory of 2 Corinthians 5:21. This is not about us, it is all about Jesus Christ.

 

When the ruler of this world comes to us, he can find nothing in us, nothing to accuse us of before the Father, for we are in Jesus. However, this does not stop the devil from accusing us directly, it does not stop him lying to us – the question is, “Will we believe what the ruler of this world says about us, or will we believe what God says about us in Jesus Christ?” Another question is, “Will we believe what we think, including what we think about ourselves, or will be believe what God thinks about us?”

 

Let’s consider Revelation 12:10 – 11:

 

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.”

 

How might Revelation 12:10 -11 relate to John 14:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21?

 

We’ll explore this question, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.

 

Jesus, Our Righteousness (2)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

We concluded our previous reflection by asking, “Why is the righteousness of Jesus Christ critical to us?” The answer, simply put, is that our entire existence is dependent upon the character of God and the efficacy of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection rests upon His sinlessness, His righteousness. The character of God, the essence of God, speaks to us of perfect righteousness, holiness, love, justice, and so much more. God is God and we are not and we are more dependent upon God than a newborn baby is upon his or her mother – whether we will acknowledge it or not.

 

Jesus expressed the essence of our existence when He said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b).

 

Paul expressed another element of the essence of our existence when, parading a litany of Old Testament texts, he drives home the point that we “are all under sin” and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (see Romans 3:9 – 31).

 

We are all born sinners, yet because of Jesus Christ we need not live as sinners, we need not live in guilt and condemnation – for when we confess our sins and repent of them and believe and trust in Jesus Christ, placing our lives in His hands and acknowledging Him as our Lord and Savior, He will forgive our sins and give us eternal life – which is the very life of God – we will pass from death to life. (See Ephesians 2:1 – 10; Mark 8:34 – 38; John 3:1 – 16; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Romans 5:1 – 11).

 

But now let’s return to what Jesus says in John 14:30, “…for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me..." What does this have to do with us?

 

The first element, as we saw in our previous reflection and as we touched upon above, is that Jesus Christ was (and of course is) perfectly holy and sinless – He is the pure and spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This means that His sacrifice for us, for you and for me, is prefect and complete – when we trust in Jesus Christ and enter into His life, and His life enters into us – our sins are completely and totally and perfectly forgiven, and we are justified before God.

 

The world justification in the Bible means that when God looks at us He not only sees us, in Christ, as having never sinned, but He also sees us as having always been holy, as having always kept His holy Law and commandments – God sees us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ.

 

When we begin to see this and live in its reality we come to experience freedom in Jesus Christ; freedom from fear, freedom from the fear of death, freedom to live, to love, to give to others, to stop thinking about ourselves all the time, freedom to rejoice in things that really matter, in things that will exist beyond the grace.

 

And may I gently say, that all of the above elements are essential elements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Gospel of Jesus is not only about what we are saved from (sin and death), it is also about why we are saved and what we are saved to – and that is to become and live as the sons and daughters of the living God, living without condemnation and sin consciousness in our Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoying life in the Spirit of God every moment of every day as we are transformed into the image of the Firstborn Son and, as His People, display His likeness to the world and the universe.

 

Biblical salvation is holistic, it is comprehensive, it is about so much more than our sins being forgiven – and it is a tragedy that many of us (most of us?) never move beyond that idea – we are called to live as the saints of God, not as sinners…when will we ever “get” this? This is like playing baseball with only first base, first base is all we are ever allowed to reach, every Sunday we focus on first base…never realizing that there is second base and third base and that we can actually learn to round the bases and get to home plate – but it is a new home plate, not the home plate that we left, but the Home Plate that God our Father has prepared for us for this life and beyond. This Home Plate is living in the fulness of Jesus Christ.

 

As Saint Athanasius said of the Incarnation, “He became as we were, so that we might become as He is.”

 

Well, I find that I have not yet arrived at where I want to go with John 14:30, so we’ll pick this up again in our next reflection…the Lord willing.