New Thoughts (6/13/06-6/17/06)
The things that have caught my eye in studying this passage seem to follow along verse by verse more than they combine under this idea or that, so I’ll pursue them as they have presented themselves. The opening verse makes me think of those joking explanations that begin with, ‘There are two types of people’. In this case, there are two types of people; those who understand what they hear Him saying and those who hear nothing but empty words. It is the difference between logos and lalia, as I think about it. So many are listening to the Word but hearing only sounds. The message of the Gospel is, to them, a foreign language, audible but incomprehensible.
It is this divide in the nature of hearing which leads Jesus to clarify which group He is speaking of as He discusses those who are passing into life. It is that one who not only hears His word, but understands it, believes it and acts on it who has eternal life. Many will hear what He says of death and of life, and will get caught up in those terms, thinking only of the physical realities in which we live. Indeed, so much of man’s thinking is caught up in coming to grips with death. There is the unending question of what, if anything, is in store for that one whose body has died. Is there a continuation of the soul’s existence? If so, what bearing does this present life have on that continuation? Do you know that man’s understanding of justice and his recognition of the blatant injustices of this life lead him to the logical demand that there must be more? Justice demands that there must be some later judgment that will restore right order to the injustices of this life. Yet, at one and the same time, man rightly fears that what his conception of justice demands of the afterlife may actually exist. It is not so much death that we fear as that justice we inherently understand must come with death.
If we have any grasp of the injustices of this life, we cannot deny that we have not received as we deserved. In the pride of the moment, we tend to complain of this as if we deserved better. However, in our more honest moments we all know that we have not deserved nearly as good as we have received. In our more honest moments, we all understand the Psalmist’s question, “Who am I, that You should give me so much as a thought?” (Ps 8:4, Ps 144:3). Why should You care about such as me? And yet, the Psalmist says, You make us but slightly lower than Yourself, You crown us with glory and majesty (Ps 8:5)! However hard we deny it, something in us understands that there must be more to come. The denial comes in self-defense. Because we know we deserve an adverse judgment as much as the next man, we would rather prefer it if nothing came after the grave. Let oblivion come, that we may leave behind every consequence. Others will seek a model of infinite retry. If we blew it in this life, there will be another. It will be harsher, perhaps, but it will be an opportunity to do better. And, should we blow that one as well, there will be another still; however many it takes for us to become the people we know we ought to be.
Jesus comes with a different answer. “You are already dead, even you standing before Me today.” That is the shocking reality that we refuse to look at. We change our understanding of death to avoid seeing that Truth. We look upon death as nothing more than the cessation of physical function. The heart stops, the brain shuts down, the limbs cease from moving; there is death. This is how we can look upon the patient in a coma and decide that there is nothing there for us to preserve. It is because we have trained ourselves on the misconception that death is just a matter of flesh and blood. Jesus slaps aside that illusion. “You are dead!” You needn’t wait for the heart to fail, for old age to take its toll. It’s already done. The body is but a zombie, walking as though alive but utterly dead in reality.
His point is this: life and death are not, primarily, matters of the body. Rather, they are matters of the soul. The soul that has been blocked off from the Light of God is dead. It is hopeless. It has no chance of ever living, because God Who alone is self-existent and Who alone imparts life to His creation has been separated from the soul. He cannot and will not abide where sin abounds. So, the one who rejects Him rejects life, and continues in this zombie state of hopelessness; shambling along in a semblance of life, but dead in reality. To these hopeless souls, Jesus brings a message of hope: “Hear Me! Understand Me! Believe Me, and believe Him who sent Me!” Why? Because those who will lay hold of what He is saying have eternal life. That one who hears and believes is not longer dead to the life of God. Why is that? It is because the thing you hear and believe is the sole Atonement for sin which God has provided for His own. He has done what we could not. He has provided His Son, come to keep the Law in perfection, come to offer Himself up as the acceptable sacrifice for our sins. He has purposed that His Son’s own righteousness might be made ours even as the guilt of our sins was made His. Because of this great exchange, we need fear the judgment we know must come, for we do not come under His condemnation. Instead, we have passed out of that utter hopelessness that is separation from the God of Life, and have passed into Life.
What we have passed into is no more a matter of physical function than is the death we have left behind. Rest assured, should the Lord tarry, your body will be as dead in the grave as any that is there today. Yet, even should we die, we live. To their sorrow, there is a reality of that truth for the unrepentant as well as for the believer. But, for us who believe, it is a joyful reality. Though we die, yet we live. For we have passed into that fullness of life which can only be known in those who have devoted themselves to God. That is, after all, what it means to be holy: separated unto God, set aside for His use alone, devoted. It must be noted that what is devoted to God is a sacrifice. It is to this end that Paul calls us to our proper worship. “Present your bodies as living, holy sacrifices, acceptable to God. This is your proper spiritual worship” (Ro 12:1). Devoted. How else shall we respond to the One who has pulled us from the hopelessness of death and the assurance of an eternal torment, and placed us into His own family, into a life of being united in heart, soul and spirit with His own Life?
Coming to verse 25, I wonder how many were listening. There is a distinct, “This is it!” to that verse. The time is now. The dead hear and live. Now, there were doubtless a great number of folks in that crowd who immediately discounted this as the words of a madman. Who ever heard of a dead man rising from his grave, after all? Others, no wiser, but more superstitious, were likely eying the graves on the hillside, trying to ascertain any movement that would suggest that the moment He spoke of was happening. It remains, though, for those who hear to really lay hold of what He said. That He does not speak of physical death or life comes clear by the fact that He later indicates a day which has not yet come in which the graves will empty. The two days ought not to be confused one with another, for the one has come and the other has not.
This now moment of which Jesus speaks is the day in which the dead hear. The dead – those who have been walking in hopelessness, separated from God and knowing only that there is no way to bring about reconciliation, have heard in Jesus the voice of the Son of God. They have not only heard the sound, they have understood what He was saying, and all that His message implies. They were hearing the voice of Jesus, but they understood that His voice was the voice of God’s own Son. Understanding this, believing this, they believed in Him who sent Jesus on this mission to man and, because they believed, life – the real and genuine life which is in God alone and which He bestows upon men of His choosing – had come to them.
What a verse this is! That now moment was happening even as He spoke. Have no doubt of this. There were, in that crowd, those who not only recognized the claim He was making, but believed it to be true. Life was coming to the dead right there in the courts of the Temple. There had been enough of dead religion in that place, enough of a righteousness that was less than skin deep, all appearance and no reality. This is what the religion of Israel had become under the tutelage of the Pharisees, a ministry of death unto death. Now, amongst all those hopeless devotees who had had to satisfy themselves on the crumbs of atonement offered by ministers of unbelief, the Word of Life had spoken and they got it! They got it, and suddenly there was hope for them once more. In that moment, the crumbs were replaced with the Bread of Life.
Some time later, we will find Jesus turning to those who heard His claim and rejected it. These heard, but without real understanding. Oh, they understood that He was claiming to be a god, but they were too caught up in their own vaunted understanding to grasp that He was telling them He was the very God they claimed to serve. So, thinking to obey God’s command to serve no other, they figured on destroying Him. They heard the claim to godhead, but without understanding. They heard Messiah, but didn’t realize it. They heard words of life, but their eyes were closed to it so they continued to be walking dead. Jesus, looking upon those who insisted on failing to comprehend, who were so determined to misunderstand and misrepresent Him asks them why they can’t understand Him. However, He doesn’t wait for their answer, He explains it to them. “You don’t understand Me because you don’t really hear My word” (Jn 8:43).
The passage from which that verse is taken constitutes what is probably the strongest denunciation Jesus proclaims upon the hierarchy of religion in His time. He continues by declaring them children of the devil, pursuing the ways of their father. As children of the father of lies, of course they will not believe Truth. Then comes the clincher. “The children of God hear God’s words. It is because you are not children of God that you do not hear and understand” (Jn 8:44-47). Their reaction is classic. “We aren’t of the devil, you are!” It’s the brilliant retort of a six year old. “No, you are.” Why is this? Simply because there is no real defending oneself against the Truth.
I will readily confess that my Jesus can be hard to understand. In every conversation of His which I have studied I have found it requires effort to understand how His part of that conversation fits. His answers and His questions seem, on the surface, to be completely orthogonal to the flow of discussion. It is only with thought, and with the help of the Holy Spirit that the sense of His message can be found. Here, the case is really no different. Those who are not really listening to Him will hear nothing more than the claim of a necromancer. They will either discount Him for a fool or reject Him as a tool of the devil. But never will they accept the Truth that He is really proclaiming. Now is the time! The Son of God is made Son of Man that the spiritual death which is all man knows can be resurrected unto the fullness of life, the same life that is in the Godhead.
Modern man continues to play the game of the Pharisees. They put on an appearance of listening, yet their minds are not upon the subject of conversation. You can see it in efforts to tell people about God. They may, perhaps, be polite enough not to send you packing, but you know they are simply offering up mindless excuses for not listening to you. “Oh, yes, I’ve asked God to show Himself, but He didn’t.” This is not a man seeking God. This is a man who has heard the story before and figures this will shut you up. It may as well, for he is declaring that he has already put his fingers into his ears and refuses to hear you.
Likewise, there are plenty of folks around who will accuse God, and more particularly the Son of God, of being evil. We heard it from the mighty pundits of PBS when the hurricanes hit last year. They were so offended by the idea that a just God might justly punish an unjust nation that they declared Him unjust for having done so. Again, that great defense of the six-year old. “No, you are!” They don’t understand because they refuse to hear. It is a sad, sad thing that men would choose death when life is in the offing. It is a sad, sad thing when pride in our own wicked ways prevents us from acknowledging the God of Creation. And so, “Professing to be wise, they become fools” (Ro 1:22).
Wow! Consider that passage (Ro 1:22-27) in light of this. They exchanged God for the worship of creatures. Think how well that applies to a people more concerned with the life of a salamander than with the life of a child! Think about that in the context of a people more concerned with preserving a tree than a fellow human! So, God gives them over to their lusts, leaves them to dishonor their own bodies. Yes, and just look about at the pierced and tattooed youth of today. Look at the proliferation of ‘free and easy’ sex in our culture. You know, even the notorious Mr. Hawkings, it seems, has discovered that sex sells. I notice that as he postulates the necessity of moving on to other planets, he finds it somehow supportive of his theory to have an expansive cleavage poised above his head. Perhaps his ode to the fertility goddess? This is a people that has surely exchanged the Truth for a lie. They worship and serve the creature (just look about at the nature of the organizations they support) rather than the Creator. They will bow down in service to a threatened species of tick, but they will refuse to acknowledge God in heaven. They will gladly destroy themselves to save one bird, but they will not lift a finger to save a neighbor.
For this reason, God gives them over to their passions. Women loving women and men romancing men, burning with desire for one another, and committing acts of indecency one with another. How plainly would you have Him say it? They have received in themselves the due penalty of this crime. And yet, we have ‘preachers’ with the nerve to declare that God wants such as these in the pulpit of His church! They, too, are amongst those who do not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God, therefore, accepts their decision, and opts not to acknowledge them either. They are left to their depravities, filled with unrighteousness, and utterly devoid of wisdom. They know the Law of God, and they know the penalty of death; yet they heartily pursue their own way and encourage others to join them on the road to destruction. They don’t understand because they refuse to truly hear. They have met the source of Life, but they have rejected Him, just as their fathers before them.
Just last night, as I was coming home from a meeting at church, I was given a nudge from my God, forcing me to recognize that some of that same mindset is in me. There are things I may do which I would not cease from doing just because they might upset or inconvenience my fellow man; yet, tell me that the same actions cause injury to a bird and I am ready to repent!
Lord, forgive me for allowing this viewpoint to take hold in me. I remain thankful for the great variety of life You have created, and particularly for those birds which sing me to wakefulness each morning in these warmer months. But, God! Keep me from valuing them above their worth. You have taught that the least of men is worth more than many birds combined, yet I have considered it otherwise, haven’t I? Holy Father, infuse in me that Spirit which is the teacher of Your ways, that I may value as You value, that I may have a proper care for my fellow man, even as I care for Your creatures. Thank You, too, for not leaving me unaware of this. Let this be a day of change for the better, Lord, as You continue to work upon me, as You continue to restore me more fully in Your own image.
I turn my attention, now, to verse 26. This is one case where I find I prefer one of the more modern, less literal translations. When I read that the Father has life in Himself [NASB], I must think about it a bit to see that Jesus is speaking about the essence of life. After all, I have life in myself, too. If there were no life in me, I must be dead, must I not? I could say the same of the wood thrush I hear outside this morning. He, too, is full of life, and cannot help but sing about it. However, this is not the point of the message. If it were, the message would be pointless. If Jesus is simply saying, “My Father is alive and so am I,” then the He is merely spouting empty words. Certainly there is nothing in that to explain His previous declaration of the hour which has come.
There is more to it than that, and in this case, I find that the Today’s English Version does well at making it plain. “Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life.” That is the point Jesus is making by saying He has life ‘in Himself’. It is the very essence of life, the source and root of life. Like the Father, He has required no outside force to impart life to Him. Indeed, I think we must be careful, in reading this passage, to avoid the error of thinking that the claim Jesus makes somehow makes Him a created being like us. If He meant that He had in Himself the essence of life because God has put it there, then He does not have that life ‘in Himself’. He has it because of an outside force, and is therefore not just as the Father. It must be clear from the whole of His statement that we cannot take that ‘gave’ or ‘made’ in this sense.
As the Son of God, Jesus has life in Himself. It is not because God gave it, made it so, or even because God allowed it to be so. It is because the Son of God is God. He is, even as the Father, the sole source of life. He is, even as the Father, the only self-existent One. The import of this, which leads us more fully into considering His next statement, is that it was found in God’s purpose to allow that essential, self-existent life to continue to be embodied in His Son as His Son was made flesh, as the Son of God stepped down to be the Son of Man. Paul writes of Jesus that in being made in our likeness, Jesus emptied Himself of the equality with God that was His (Php 2:6-7). That emptying was, however, not absolute and entire. While He willingly set aside great portions of His eternal right, while He set aside His real Authority and much of His power as the Author and Creator of all life, yet He retained that essence of life in Himself by God’s design. That is the message He is declaring here, much as He would later declare it more plainly. “No one has taken my life from Me. When I lay it down, it shall be by My own initiative. I have that authority in Myself, as also the authority to take up My life again. Thus has the Father commanded Me” (Jn 10:18). Whatever He may have set aside for the duration of His earthly life, Life was not included.
With that I move to the next verse and the next claim: “I am the Judge.” I would note, here, that Jesus has combined some imagery that was bound to put His hearers in mind of the words of the prophets. He has been speaking of that day which has come (and will shortly speak of that one which has yet to come). Now, He is speaking of the Judge who executes God’s judgment. In how many places amongst the words of the prophets do we hear of that coming day when God shall stand as Judge? “Who can stand before His indignation?” writes Nahum (Nah 1:6). “Who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?” asks Malachi (Mal 3:2). “In that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth,” declares Isaiah (Isa 24:21). Again, Jesus is pressing His claim. “I AM that One.” These are things that would not be lost on the ears of those who were listening, however casually they may have been following His words.
What is particularly interesting, though, is the reason He gives for having been given such authority. It is because He is Son of Man. Now, the question comes up as to whether it is because He is a son of man, or because He is the Son of Man. I suppose a case might be made for either reading. If, however, we take it as a son, it is only because He is simultaneously the Son of God. God could hardly delegate authority to Himself, after all. It is already His, whether in the person of the Son, or of the Father or of the Holy Spirit. However, as the Son of God emptied Himself to become a son of man, born of a woman, He was made to be a fit representative of that race to which God had originally given dominion. He established the precedent in Adam, declaring that one to be head over all of creation. He had delegated His rightful authority over the work of His hands into the hands of His finest work. But, that one gave his birthright away, even as Esau later did, and for about as much. So, yes, Jesus must necessarily be a son of man to have received delegated authority.
Yet, in a greater sense, it was because He was the Son of Man that authority could be delegated to Him in particular. The qualification of being a son in the flesh was not enough. What Adam had given away as the federal head of the race could not simply be taken back by any random descendant. The throne, once given into the hands of another, cannot simply be taken back at will. No, the kingdom must be won back. In that sense, it required the Son of Man, that One who alone in all of creation to this point upheld the Law of the Creator. He came in the flesh to suffer all the same weaknesses and temptations that we face, but to face that suffering victoriously. He came to uphold what our father Adam failed to uphold, and doing so, He reclaimed the kingdom for mankind. His victory in the desert and His victory on the cross established His claim to that throne which Adam gave away.
Let it be understood, then, that it was necessary for Him to be a son of man before He could qualify as a legal recipient of delegated authority, but it required Him to be particularly the perfect representative Son of Man to make that delegation of authority meaningful. To have given authority into the hands of another who would simply give it away again would have accomplished nothing. This One, however, took up that authority that was given to Him and held it. He holds it still, and He ever shall. This continues to be true even in the light of His great gift to the Church. “All authority has been given to Me,” Jesus told His disciples, “not only here on earth, but in heaven as well” (Mt 28:18). Do you hear the echo of Isaiah in that? He is Judge not only of the kings of the earth, but likewise of the host of heaven! He continues, not by saying, ‘and I give My authority to you,’ but by issuing the command of Authority: “Since I am in charge, God mad make disciples of all the nations, and baptize them in the authority of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit [which is, after all, one authority]. Teach them to obey what I have commanded you, and know that I am always with you.” (Mt 28:19-20).
He doesn’t send us out with mere excitement. He doesn’t say, “go and excite the nations.” He doesn’t say, “go and entertain the nations.” He says to teach them to obey His command. Oh, but we cannot hope to teach them what we have not learned ourselves! I am returned to the question from my last study, “Do you believe this?” When Jesus declares that He has all authority both on earth and in heaven, do I really believe this? If I answer, ‘yes,’ then surely I must ask why it is that I do not obey. If I answer, ‘no,’ then I must wonder why I continue to study this Bible, why I continue to visit His house every Sunday, why I give Him any thought at all.
Wow, God! This is not a place I was expecting to go at all, but it needs attending to, doesn’t it? You, Who taught so clearly that if I love You I will obey Your command are asking me this. You are asking me if I really believe that You are Lord, that You are Authority. I can only answer, ‘yes’. It would be nonsense to say otherwise. Yet, when You ask me why, in that case, I fail to obey, I am without answer. What excuse can there be? What defense could I possibly offer that would have any meaning? I can only acknowledge Your Authority and my disregard for that Authority, and lay myself upon Your mercy. Would that I could promise to do better today with any sense of truthfulness, but I know it is beyond me even to promise that much. Oh, Lord! And, yes, I do count You my Lord and King. Lord! Forgive my failure to pursue all You command of me. Forgive my unpreparedness to move at the moment of Your command. More than anything, though, my God, train me up that it is no longer so with me. Train me up, Lord, to that commitment to Your service that is Your right of me. If there be any zeal in me whatsoever, let it be poured out in obedience to You. If there is none, then, Holy Spirit come, and burn within that zeal for Your Name may flare up once again.
Jesus has received authority because He is Son of Man. Yet, He is simultaneously Son of God, for which we ought to be eternally grateful. The article in Fausset’s text points out that the first of these titles is a reminder of man’s frailty. Then, he adds a point well worth consideration. To whatever degree we may be blessed to experience visions, know revelations, grasp the deep things of the Word – in sum, however far we may advance in this kingdom – that frailty remains a reality in us of which we ought always to be keenly aware.
In teaching last night, I was back on the subject of honor; and on that thought that what we honor, what we value, we also tend to feel is in some sense fragile or frail. Can it be that God wants us mindful of our frailty so that we might value our own lives properly? I know this: God values our lives highly. Over and over again He tells us of the great value He places on our existence and well-being. So greatly does He value you and I that He was willing to see His own Son suffer death in a most horrific fashion so that we could be rescued and made to really live. That is, after all, what Jesus began by saying: Believe Him, and pass out of your present death into life – real life. If God values us so, is it not clear that He honors us in much the same way as He seeks for us to honor Him?
His Son, the mighty and eternal Son of God, came down to us as a son of man, one beset by every human frailty we know in ourselves, so that we might recognize our own frailty and begin to value our condition more fully. Yet, even as He fulfilled the necessary role of Son of Man, coming down to stand as our federal head, as Adam before Him, He remained the eternal Son of God. He is the God-man, at once fully human with all our frailties and fully God with all the power and knowledge. As that article states, we cannot begin to grasp the whole truth of His Person until we grasp this Truth – that He is the rightful possessor of both of these titles.
If He is a son of man, He is most assuredly also the Son of Man. The first is a condition, one we all share with Him. The second is a title, an official position which has only ever been held by one other. The Son of Man is, as I have written, the federal head, the official representative of the entire race of mankind. It is no different, in this sense, than the Representative we send to the Capital on our behalf. He is our Representative because he represents us. His purpose is to present our concerns, stand for our interests, to set aside his own thoughts and desires in pursuit of the good of those he represents. He may do his job well or poorly, but that is what the job entails.
Jesus, like Adam, stands as our Representative. This is not an office we elected Him to, but an office to which He was appointed by God. In this respect, His office is vastly different than those we send to represent us in the halls of government. There is another critical difference: As He represents us, His success or failure is imputed to us. That may be true to some degree of our political representatives, at least in the eyes of outsiders to the system, but not in any meaningful way. When Adam, as our representative, failed to obey God, his failure was made our failure. When he gave away the authority to rule this domain, he gave it away on behalf of us all in a fashion which precluded our taking it back. When Jesus, as our representative, succeeded in obeying God to the full, His success was made our success. He came as a man that He might ‘reinstate man in his original glory, never to be disposed of it’ again. This is again quoting Fausset’s article. That same article goes on to declare that He has established His title to the kingdom, and in His title, He has established our own title. Furthermore, “as a man He shall judge and reign.”
Having won the throne, He holds that throne in perpetuity, even as the Father promised to David. What must be recognized as well is that He holds that throne as a man. He has not ceased from being a man in His return to heaven. Rather, He has fulfilled what man was created to be. He is the first-born of real humanity. I will not be alone in saying that as He came in the office of Federal head, He established a new race among men. Some see it in the sons of God who married the daughters of man prior to the flood. There were two parallel courses of development amongst mankind, those who sought the city which God was building, and those who sought to supplant Him with a city of their own. These are not new thoughts, but have been part of the Church’s understanding for centuries. With the advent of the Christ, that division of the original race was made complete. They have become two races, each with their federal head. The one continues under the failed headship of Adam, the other has been adopted under the victorious headship of the Christ.
All authority has been given to Jesus because He is the Son of Man. We can be eternally thankful for this because He is the Son of God. In Him we have passed from the death of our failed race into the life of the kingdom, life worthy of being called life. In Him we have hope and a promise fulfilled. All praise be to His Name!
Having made this declaration, Jesus then says, “Don’t be so surprised!” [NLT] It really ought not surprise us that the reason He gives for having received authority is that He is son of man. After all, that authority was delegated to man in the garden. The only reason that it was such a surprise to hear this is because over the millennia of fallen existence, man had grown so used to being under subjection to sin and sin’s father that the very idea of having any authority had become alien. Indeed, looking around Jerusalem at the time, seeing the examples of religious and political authority and how such authority was abused, it would doubtless seem strange to entrust even greater authority to such a race. The same might easily be said today, of course. More and more we come to distrust the authority that governs us as inherently corrupt and in pursuit of interests orthogonal to those of the governed. More and more we see religious authorities leading their churches into apostasy, heresy and worse. We were raised in an age when ‘question authority’ was a fundamental tenet, and the world around us has given us ever more reason to hold to that tenet.
Yet, Jesus says, “Don’t be so surprised that God has delegated His authority [again] to man.” It is, after all, what man was created for. It should not surprise us, especially those of us who seek Him out in the Word, to know that this is what He was up to. It should thrill us that One has come Who was worthy of being entrusted with that authority. It should comfort us to know that the authority which rightfully belongs to mankind has been restored into the hands of mankind, but into the hands of a Man who will neither abuse nor relinquish that authority. It is the first step on the road to shalom, the first act of restoring things to their proper order.
Jesus follows that comment by pointing to another day, a day which has not yet come. It is almost as though He is saying, “You find this surprising? This is nothing! Wait until you see what comes next!” Yet, the thing He points them toward should be no more surprising than the restoration of authority. It should not surprise these men who deemed themselves the great scholars of Torah. After all, the day Jesus points toward is the same day that the prophets had written about centuries earlier. Jesus is not really declaring anything new here. He is simply reminding them of what has already been said.
To the Sadducees in particular this must have been a rather unwelcome reminder. After all, if the Pharisees are the fathers of modern Judaism, we might look at the Sadducees as the fathers of post-Christian western religion. These were the ones who said there would be no resurrection, that the grave was the end of the road. For them, this life was all there is. One could, perhaps, find some motivation to do his best with it, but really, there was no great risk in failing to do so. The ceremonies and rites of religion were, for them, a means to power and perhaps an entertainment, but really God had little significance in the whole thing any more. Well, look around! How many churches really care what God says any more? How many churches have decided that what fits their lifestyle is what God wants, and if the Scriptures say otherwise, well the Scriptures must be wrong? How many churches continue to be about worshiping and serving the God who IS? Thanks be to God there are still those that do! Thanks be to God that He is determined to preserve a remnant, even in our day, who will truly seek Him as He truly is. But, it is a remnant.
To the post-Christian, Jesus comes with this message: Resurrection is a reality! Eternity awaits, ready or not. Eternity is not just the blessing stored up for those who believed and acted in belief, either. Eternity is also the curse stored up for those who reject the Son. “Honor the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way” (Ps 2:12). ‘Lest you perish in the way that you are currently traveling,’ is perhaps the way we should understand this; ‘Lest you remain unchanged, and die in your sins.’ Honor the Son, recognize His value and treat Him as He ought to be treated. Serve Him Who is your Lord, whether you would have it so or not. Rejoice in Him Who has it in His power to give you life though you walk in death to this day.
Understand the nature of that day to which the Judge is pointing. All who are in the tombs shall hear Him and come out. I hear a lot about the politeness of God, how He never forces Himself on anybody. Well, whether or not that applies today, it clearly doesn’t apply on that day! All will hear, and all will come out. There will be no hiding away. There will be no ignoring the voice of the Lord. If He has been ignored until now, it is only because He has allowed it to be so. Is it politeness that leads God to allow you to continue in your sins? I think not. It is far more the case that Paul makes out for us. You have insisted on your path, in spite of the evidence. You have seen what is good and chosen the opposite. You have willfully rejected the God of Life, and therefore, in His just disposition, He has chosen to reject you. Has He done evil in this? Not at all! He has merely granted you your choice. Isn’t He polite? No, not really. He is Just. Besides, there is a day coming when the Judge shall deliver justice in full.
Your beliefs, or lack of belief, may allow you to go to your grave comfortably convinced that you’ve pretty much gotten away with whatever your life was like. You may go to your grave comfortable, but the bigger question is how comfortable you’re going to be when you come back out. In the Day of Resurrection, will you arise to an eternity of life or an eternity of judgment’s just punishment?
This is the question put before each one of us. Choose this day whom you will serve (Jos 24:15). Heaven itself is witness against you. You have had life and death set before you, the blessing and the cursing have both been explained in terms you can understand. You have been given the opportunity to choose life, to love the LORD and obey Him, for He is your life (Dt 30:19). That day is coming when the Judge will call you forth to see which you have chosen, life or death, blessing or cursing. It will not be a question of what you choose on that day, but what you chose on this day. It will be the verdict that your existence has passed on you. It will be the verdict of what you have sown to yourself. Have you sown life, or have you sown death? You have seen His evidence, whether you accept it or not. You have seen His evidence and you must make your choice. Know that in the end He shall see your evidence and fulfill that choice.
This is not just a question for the undecided, nor for the decidedly unbelieving. It is just as powerfully a question for us. We claim to be His, we call upon Him as our Lord, but what verdict will our deeds pass upon our lives? What have we sown to our eternity? This is the great crisis of faith, I think. It is our common dilemma that we believe Him to be Lord, yet we know ourselves to be disobedient.
Lord, this is the great, overarching message of this study I sense. I call You my Lord, where is my obedience? I claim to choose life, but what do my actions speak? I see a call to excellence, to walking in a manner worthy of You, but what do I see in my walk? It is that “and obey” that is so difficult, my God! It is that “and obey” that drives me to my knees in repentance, for I know I have yet to come close to it. Once again, I hear from You that big question: Do I believe this? Do I really believe there is an eternity coming? Do I really believe that I am ready for it? Certainly not in myself, Father. Oh, but praise be to Your Name! You have given me life in Your Son! Yes, I know there is an eternity ahead, and yes, I am confident as to how I shall be spending it. But, that confidence is not in me, Lord, only in You.
Jesus, I cry out in repentance this morning for this disobedience that I find in me. I cry out in repentance for the frustration that I displayed yesterday when I ought to have manifest Your grace. I cry out in repentance for not walking in a manner fitting for Yourself. I cry out in desperation, my God, for I do not see in myself any end to the need to repent of these things. It is not in me, Lord, to turn, so I cry out, also that You would so work within me that the turning comes about. I am so utterly dependent upon Your own will and strength, Lord, to complete this work in me, that I come near to despair. Yet, I know You are faithful and True.
Thank You, therefore, for Life, my God and King. Thank You for dragging me out of the death that was mine and placing me on the road to home. Oh! Though I cry to think what my deeds have sown to that day, yet I rejoice to know that You have already wiped away those tears. Though I see so many failures in my every day, yet I know that You see also the victories that You have wrought. Though I see so far I have to go yet I see as well how far You have already brought me, and I cannot but sing Your praises to the heavens! Complete that work, my Lord. Be my Lord in Truth. Bring that obedience from me that is Your rightful due. I know I have changed greatly from what I once was, but do not suffer me to remain unchanged as I draw closer to home.
