New Thoughts (07/09/08-07/25/08)
I fear I must write rather briefly today, for time is short. The thing most impressing itself on my thoughts this morning is a certain sense of awe in approaching the passage before me. It being the first real confession of Jesus as the Christ is enough reason in itself to know a certain elevated care in treating on the subject. Having that additional weight of the renaming of Simon, with all the controversy it has raised over the years, and with all the excesses its promises seem to lead men into simply adds to the sensed need for the Holy Spirit’s wisdom as never before in my perusal of the gospels.
Well, my God, I can begin with a note of thanks that You have so arranged the schedules of others that my daily articles from Table Talk are, as of this morning, turning their attention to the titles of my Jesus. How perfectly You have arranged this to coincide with my own considerations of this great confession! Yet, my Lord, I ask that You would give me eyes to see what You wish to show me, ears to hear what You wish to say to me. Let not any preconception of mine block my understanding of what You have to declare. Let not the obdurate, stubborn nature of my heart block You from leading me into obeying that which You speak in this time.
I think, if I am not much mistaken at this point, that I shall be pursuing three major topics in coming days. These shall follow in the order that I have encountered them in Matthew’s account. So, the first thing I feel I must pursue is the whole matter of Who Jesus Is, in His naming of Himself, the perceptions of the populace at large, and in the confession revealed to Peter. Second, I will be considering the nature of that Rock which Jesus has declared to be so powerful. Finally, I must touch upon the nature and extent of that authority which Jesus delegates in this text.
Who He Is (07/10/08-07/12/08)
We have, primarily, two titles applied to Jesus in this passage. First, there is that favorite title by which Jesus chose to refer to Himself: Son of Man. Then, there is that title Peter confesses by revealed knowledge: Son of God. These two titles, it strikes me, ought, in our present state of understanding, always to be proclaimed together. It is this uniting of Man and God, found only in the Christ, that has enabled us to stand in redemption in the first place. Either one in isolation could not suffice. It is only as we find in Jesus the Son of both Man and God that we find the One Who can save us. That said, I will spend a bit of time looking at each of these titles, particularly as Table Talk was so kind as to provide me with some references relating to that more earthy title this morning.
To begin with, I should consider the term ‘son.’ I have doubtless touched on this in previous studies. I know I have had occasion to ponder the distinction between teknon and huios before. I know, because the terms come back to mind without need of reference at this point, as well as the distinguishing feature that separates them. The son, as we have it here, the Huios, is so much more than a genetics issue. The son is a son precisely because he is in close relationship to that of which he is a son. It may be a person, a place, an object or even an idea. Whatever it is that one is declared the son of, it is the relationship, the closeness and devotion, that is being proclaimed.
When Judas was declared the son of perdition (Jn 17:12), it is this same sense of close relationship and devotion that is being expressed. His character was shaped by perdition, his predilections turned towards perdition. So, too, when Zaccheus is declared a son of Abraham (Lk 19:9). Whether Zaccheus was Jew or Gentile, it would have made no difference in terms of this sonship. It was not a matter of ancestry, as the people had supposed. It was a matter of character. It was a matter of faith, for it is faith that defined Abraham, and it is faith that identifies his children, wherever they are found and to whomever they have been born.
So, when we read of Jesus as the Son of Man, one thing that ought to be born in mind for us is that He is declaring a close relationship with us, a deep affinity for mankind. There is more to it than just this one point, but this is a point worth dwelling on. As we consider the Son of God, as we come to grips with what was done to this man who is in Himself God, we need to bear in mind His own declaration of close relationship with us. As we recognize this King of kings, this Lord of lords, and consider how far above our own ways and understanding are His, it is with deepest gratitude that we ought to remember that He as declared Himself the Son of Man, part of the family, steeped in all it means to be a creature of this flesh. He has, as the writers tell us, experienced the whole array of human emotions, human weaknesses, human temptations, and yet come through it all sinless. He has become uniquely qualified, uniquely in all human history past and future, to be a true High Priest. He has been fitted with perfection to serve as the sole atonement for all the sins that mark our life.
On top of this, though, there is a definite claim being made by Jesus when He speaks of Himself by this term. We ought to be clear, at this point, that He is most definitely identifying Himself in using this title. I recall looking at this confession in another section, and I recall thinking that maybe His disciples heard that initial question as probing the people’s general understanding of what Messiah would be about. I remember thinking that the second question might have borne a different stressing of the words in light of that: “But, who do you say that I am?” However, looking at the parallels to the passage, it seems sufficiently clear that they understood both questions to be applied to His person. The proper sense of that second question is, then, “But, who do you say that I am?”
Likewise, that first question is not about what people think about Messiah in general, it is about how they are assessing what Jesus has been doing. What we hear in answer is what Herod heard in answer to this same basic question. In his case, it was “Who is this Jesus?” In this case, it is, “Who do people say I am?” Now, I must also say that this is a pretty bizarre question to be asking, on the face of it! “Who do people say I am?”? What other answer should He expect, than, “Jesus son of Joseph”? Or maybe, “Mary’s boy, Jesus”. It seems clear enough that He did indeed, as Matthew records, include this reference to Himself as the Son of Man.
Whether He clearly identified Himself as He asked this cannot, I suppose, be said with any great certainty. That the disciples heard it that way (at least after Peter’s confession), is clear from the way this event is passed on to our ears. Both Mark (and through him, one supposes, Peter) and Luke leave the title out, and reduce the question to that more improbable question, “Who do they say I am?” At a bare minimum, it must be absolutely clear that He is asking something deeper than first appears. This is a moment of teaching, not casual conversation, and his disciples will have been quite clear on that point. As Luke notes, he had been deep in prayer up to this point. Nobody that had been with Him any length of time would be expecting that He would come out of such prayer and enter into some light and pointless conversation. He is teaching at this point, and His disciples, His students know that.
I think they know, also, that this claim to the title Son of Man has meaning above and beyond that of declaring affinity with mankind. This is a people steeped in Scripture. When they hear a reference to what lies in Torah, the whole record of that reference is near at hand in their thinking. It is rather like those ‘remember that day when…’ conversations we might have with a friend of longstanding, or at a reunion. So much is drawn up from memory by the simple mention of that event. It may be little more than a few notes of an old song, or a particular scent on the wind that draws that whole set of memories into our consciousness once more. So it is with this title, “Son of Man”. The mere mention of it, and so much significance is immediately present.
It would begin with those earliest uses, when men like David, who really had a heart after God, and who recognized their true condition, however elevated amongst their fellows. Who is man, that worm, or the son of man, most worthless of creatures, that You should even consider him, oh God? This sentiment is lost on us, by and large, I fear. Maybe we think it is just an Old Testament, pre-grace attitude no longer fitting for God’s people. Maybe we have just become to familiar with our Father, and that familiarity has bred a certain degree of contempt in us, or at least complacence. But, I don’t get the sense that we really recognize our incredible poorness, the full extent of just how thoroughly unfit we are to be associated with the One Who has saved us. Yet, He has taken upon Himself to become just like us, just as humble, just as weak and threatened, just as thoroughly humiliated before the face of a Righteous God. Indeed, far more so, for He took upon Himself the sins of us all. He, Who was and is Perfection, Who faced our failures and overcame every last one of them, took all our failure, all our imperfection, all our disgusting, filthy ways, upon Himself to bear the punishment of it all on our behalf.
Son of Man? Truly, He is the Father of Man! When the apostle speaks of Him as the Second Adam, that is the sense of it. He is our Father, the federal, eternal head of our clan, if indeed we are children of Abraham, children of the living God. But, for this, He also of necessity holds that second title, “Son of God.” I am not ready, yet, to turn to that second title, though. Let me continue to contemplate this first, humanizing yet exalting title.
If that title didn’t mean so much more than humiliation, no man would connect it with the names that follow as the disciples reply to him. Jeremiah? Perhaps in his time, yet in memory he was no longer humiliated, but held in great esteem. Elijah? No. This was the man’s man, the prophet’s prophet, the one who never died, and whose return was proclaimed. Even Enoch hadn’t achieved so well! John? Another in that same breed. Had he not fearlessly confronted that awful Herod to his face for being such an offense to all righteousness? This was not humiliating in the eyes of the faithful, but courageous in the extreme. Indeed, if there is one thing that runs as a common thread among the associations the people are making, it is courage – particularly the courage to speak God’s word fearlessly, no matter what powers or people might believe to the contrary.
On one point, at least, the people seem to have been unanimous in their opining: He was a prophet, one of the greats. His use of the title would have brought this to mind, for the term was closely associated with the prophetic office. Whatever God may have meant by calling Ezekiel, ‘son of man,’ the association had stuck. It seems to me that in speaking to Ezekiel thus, He was helping ensure that Ezekiel would not become puffed up by his office. It is as though God were reminding him with each new message that the message was given to him in spite of who he was. It was not about Ezekiel, it was about God. In spite of the man’s humbled, human state, God chose to use him. Every time Ezekiel heard that title, he ought to have been recalled to this realization.
Every time one of our modern day claimants to the office of prophet considers the office he claims, he ought to return to this very same realization. It is no cause for pride to be held up as a prophet of God, to be chosen as a prophet of God. Your estate is just as humble as ever it was. Your sinfulness, your utter unworthiness to so much as be in God’s presence has not in any way receded. It’s not about you. It’s about God who chooses to use you anyway, son of man. We must note, of course, that once the choice is made, God does tend to work a change upon the chosen. We see it in the calling of Isaiah. At the time of his calling, he was as sinful and unworthy as any man on earth. It seems he didn’t fully appreciate that truth until that moment when God called him. Only then did his utter depravity strike him as it ought. And, in that moment of terrible realization, God caused the coal of purification to be touched to his lips. As such, though he remained a man of flesh and its failures, his words at least rang true, for they were no longer his words, but the words God required to have spoken.
Returning to Jesus, though, it must be held in mind that while that title was so closely associated with the office of the prophet, it had taken on a far greater significance, thanks to the prophet Daniel. In truth, what Daniel added to the picture only built on what had been promised since the days of Moses. Consider the scene: the people have begun to develop some sense of who God really is, and just how unfit they are for His presence. They rightly fear to ever come as close to Him again as they have, for they know that were His righteousness to be manifested in full, it must destroy them utterly. God was pleased by this evidence of comprehension on their part, and set in order the whole machinery of Levitical service to provide for their condition (Dt 18:1-16).
Wow! How that echoes the original issue in Eden! Adam and Eve, having come to knowledge of good and evil by their choice of disobedience were instantly aware that they had fallen, that they had done something worthy of dire punishment. It was for this cause that they hid away from God when next He walked in the Garden. God was not in any way unaware of what had transpired. Their hiding was in vain. But, the point I wish to draw forth here is that God’s provision is not so much for the fall of man as for man’s awareness of his fall. All that was required to guard against that fall was to bar mankind from access to the tree of life. The angel at the gate to Eden sufficed for that problem. But, the whole process of redemption, the whole machinery of history which led to the Christ that is before us in this passage, was set in motion not because of sin, but because man was aware of his sin. Because they realized what they had done, because they were moved to shame and remorse by their foolish choice and because they also knew themselves powerless to change the outcome, God moved on their behalf.
So it is here with Israel in the desert. For a time, at least, the nation has become aware of themselves. The mask has been torn off by their nearness to the fiery, tumultuous presence of God on that mountain, and they are not inclined to draw so near again. They have come to recognize their true estate. Being sons of Abraham hasn’t been enough, as they supposed. Being counted amongst the chosen nation of God hasn’t been enough. This God, about Whose very existence they had had their doubts, has shown Himself not only very real, but very Righteous and very Powerful. They have begun to understand, perhaps, what it means to be this weak, rather despicable son of man.
God is pleased, if not with their despicable condition then with their recognition of His own purity. So, He issues the promise that echoes throughout history from that point: “I will raise up a prophet from amongst their countrymen. Like you, Moses, I will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak. And when He speaks, if there are those who will not listen, I will personally require the proper punishment from that man” (Dt 18:18-19).
Notice how this promise correlates to the way Ezekiel was spoken to. “Son of man, go to Israel and speak My words to them” (Eze 3:4). But, hear what follows in this passage. “I am not sending you to a people who cannot understand your language, but to your own people, the house of Israel. I am sending you to those who should understand you, who should listen to you, but Israel will prove unwilling to hear you, for they have already shown themselves unwilling to hear Me” (Eze 3:5-7).
They have refused to hear their own God. They have refused to hear the spokesmen God has chosen, the sons of man who were sent as He had promised. The prophets have spoken and the people refused to listen, and God, as promised, has required the due punishment from His own chosen nation. Now, comes the Son of Man, the fulfillment of the Mosaic promise; not just another prophet, but the Prophet. This is not just one who speaks the word God gives Him, He is the Word of God.
A side note here: As much as I appreciate the bulk of Reformed theology, I find that from this reality of the Christ they build an untenable argument against any further prophetic revelation. They point to this reality, that the Christ, being the very Living Word of God is the ultimate Prophet, and they claim that there cannot be another from this point onward. They look to the opening of Hebrews and, from the argument of “in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb 1:2), determine that He has apparently stopped speaking once again at that point. And yet, the very book of the Revelation which closes out the canon of Scripture is a revelation that comes later than the Christ. The record of the apostles reveals that the prophetic office was, in some nature at least, alive and well in the nascent church. Even later generations of that early church recognized that the need for the prophetic office had not subsided, and therefore, the time for the gifts to be retired had not yet come. Augustine himself makes the point, not that he is incapable of error.
What I wish to point out is simply this: the arrival and existence of the Ultimate Prophet, the Living Word, does not in any way preclude the existence of lesser prophets. It does not preclude the potential that God still today chooses those from amongst the sons of man whom He charges particularly with proclaiming His word to a stubborn world. Indeed, I have heard it said that the preacher, in every moment that he proclaims the word of God to the church body, is operating in a prophetic sense, if not in that office. That is well worth keeping in mind, but I am not convinced that it declares the whole of the truth, when it comes to the office of prophet in our day and age.
At the same time, I am quite sure that many modern day claimants to that title are as false as those that plagued Israel in Jeremiah’s time. Were every prophet a true prophet of God, there would be no need for the prophetic test which God instituted right there alongside the promise His Son fulfilled. If the prophet’s words fail, he is no prophet of Mine, and you need not have any fear or respect for him on that account (Dt 18:21-22). Indeed, such a poor and false prophet ought to fear for himself, for the command of God is that such a liar, having claimed God’s benediction where He had not given it, shall die for his presumption (Dt 18:20). I have to note here that it is not that Israel is commanded to carry out the sentence. Justice is not left in the hands of anything so untrustworthy in this case. No. God simply declares the fact: That false prophet shall die. You shall not fear him.
The prophets whose books we retain had a healthy fear and respect for this truth. It is for this cause that every last one of them begins by providing some bona fides for the office he claims. See? Here are the things I have already spoken of, and you are well aware that they have indeed come to pass. Now, having established that, let me speak what God desires to tell you now.
Today’s prophets have a bad habit of doing no more than listing their dreams and visions, regardless of whether anything has come of them or not. And, we are so poor of judgment as to accept this criteria as sufficient. It is not enough to have a long list of dreams and visions. It is not enough that you have been bold enough to proclaim your predictions with a ‘thus says the Lord’. Until and unless God has provided the evidence that your claims require your claims are worthless.
I have heard so many things declared with the preface, “I prophesy this,” that the phrase is proven empty and meaningless. Nobody’s tracking it. There is no prior record to lend credence to further claims. You shall not fear him. Indeed, one could argue you should flee his presence lest you be caught up in the fallout of his due punishment.
So, let us strike a balance! While the abuse of the office is no sign that the office is invalid, yet, we must simultaneously be aware and alert to the fact that the mere claim of the office is no proof. We are not to despise the prophet. But, this does not require us to be naïve. This does not permit us to be the innocent dupe of every claimant to the position. Until the prophet has proven credentials, that directive not to despise him does not apply. Even then, the directive stands only so long as that prophet’s credentials remain valid. If his further claims of knowledge and words from God prove to be untrue, he is no spokesman of God’s. You shall not fear him.
The Son of Man, being the Ultimate Prophet, has proven Himself. He has established His credentials before His people. This is why He very swiftly moves to the point of saying, “No more!” The fact is established, and your demands for further signs are nothing but evidence of your own stubborn deafness to what God has already said quite clearly. The Living Word of God is in permanent office. Prophet, Priest and King, He is seated in permanent reign, even as the promise of God had long held He would. Yet, as King, He still delegates His authority by degree to lesser beings. Yet, as Priest, He still delegates to every child of God to be priests in their own right. Why, then, should it surprise us that as Prophet, He still delegates to certain men at certain times to serve in prophetic office for the good of His people?
Now, if the title “Son of Man” emphasizes the humanity of the kingdom of God, “Son of God” must surely emphasize the perfection. For, if that former title associates Jesus with the prophets that preceded Him, it also fully associates Him with humanity at large. He is closely associated with man, being one Himself. He has a deep and eternally abiding affinity for mankind, His most precious creation. Yet, He is also uniquely the Son of God, truly begotten by the Father, and sole claimant to that status. Even Adam cannot make that claim. He was not begotten, but created; created, as it were, from nothing.
Here, then, is the Son of God, one governed by the Spirit of God. And in Him, to be governed by the Spirit of God is to be self-governed, for the Lord our God, He is One. Father, Son and Spirit, He is One. Though in their three persons, the Trinity may operate in different ways, serve in different roles, fulfill distinct offices relative to one another, yet in essence and substance they are not only as one, they are One. When God says, “let us do,” Father, Son and Spirit act as One, each one taking up His own part, but unified behind that decision, and acting in concert to make it so. So it was in Creation, so it has been throughout redemptive history, and so it shall continue to be in perpetuity. Glory be to God in the highest! Amen and amen!
What Shall We Say, Then? (07/13/08-07/14/08)
I cannot say that I have fully explored these two names of my God and King, this Son of God and Son of Man, but even so, I would turn my attention to the import of these titles. For, there is more yet to that confession Peter makes. You, Jesus, Son of Man, are the Christ, the Messiah, the very Son of the living God. Now, to me, that adjective Peter adds in describing God is so very powerful, and it sets God apart absolutely from every other. All the other religions that surrounded the people of God in that day had their idols, their statues small and large by which they depicted what they worshiped and which, in time, became the thing they worshiped. After all, there was no greater reality behind those statues. There had never been the least evidence offered that the thing imagined in the statue actually existed, actually heard. By contrast, there stands the God of Israel, the God of all Creation. He alone has shown Himself alive and active. He alone has come and dwelt in the midst of His people. He alone has made His presence manifest in such fashion.
I acknowledge that the Greek mythologies and likewise the Roman are replete with tales of the gods come down to visit man. I would note that it is almost never to man’s benefit. The tales are offered more as illustration of the capriciousness of the gods than anything else. By contrast, God comes down to save His people. He isn’t seeking some entertainment, doesn’t simply crave for the physical enjoyments denied Him in His state as Spirit. No, He comes and dwells with His people, a visible, tangible presence in their midst not just for a moment, but for decades. He intervenes most clearly, most effectively and most repeatedly on their behalf, leaving no doubt that He is very much alive and needs no idol to represent Him to His people. Indeed, He shall not tolerate such a thing, lest His people become like the heathens, worshiping their dead stones instead of the Living God.
This is what marks Him out as the real deal. This is exactly why Peter, and many the prophet who came before, refer to God as the Living God, because this is the thing that marks Him out as utterly unique amongst the objects of man’s worship. The LORD is the True God, the Living God, the everlasting King, writes Jeremiah (Jer 10:10). He alone is lord of heaven and earth, and over both His reign is absolute and complete. Though we suffer the prince of the powers of the air for this span of history, yet even his power is only given rein to do as God permits. He may test the faithful, but he may not crush them. He may act for his own evil, rebellious purposes, but he can only act as God commands, and God’s purpose is ever and always the strengthening and perfecting of His children. The trainer may be mean spirited, and his methods harsh, but the Father is always overseeing the training sessions and will not suffer His children to be injured by the training, only strengthened in the arts of spiritual war.
The Living God is the Eternal King, as Jeremiah notes. Now, this should have served to explain something to Israel. Everybody was quite aware of the promise God had made to David. They had, perhaps, thought that in Solomon the fulfillment had come, but this proved wrong. So, they had come to grips with this Messiah who would someday come. Over the years, this must have become a very forlorn hope. King after king proved not only disappointing but downright destructive to the nation. And still, no Messiah. Still no sign of the hope that was promised. Now came Jeremiah, telling what remained of Israel that if they would survive as a people, they must submit to Babylonian captivity. Where, then, was this Messiah God had promised?
Well, Jeremiah has just now explained something to them which they seem to have missed, at least at the time. The Living God is the everlasting King. This was His intention from the start. Israel was to be a nation unlike any other, with no man seated upon her throne, for the Lord God was to be her King. But, they would have a king. They would look like those around them so that they could better fit in. So, God had delegated His authority to mere men, in spite of the obvious shortcomings of such an endeavor, and Israel had suffered the consequences ever since. Well, they had been warned. But, the promise remained. There would come a king, nay, a King, and His dominion would be forever. His throne would not fail. When once He took up His rightful rule, there would never be any to take it from Him. He is eternally King.
John had come with a warning to the people. This King you have been waiting for is on His way now. He is at the borders and you are so poorly prepared for His arrival that you must surely lose your place in His kingdom should He come upon you as you are. Elijah had delivered the promised warning to the nation. The Lord, the True God, the living God, the everlasting King comes. The earth quakes at His wrath. No nation can endure His indignation (Jer 10:10), and look at yourselves! You have not prepared His way. You have not arrayed yourselves as loyal citizens of the heavenly kingdom, but have played the harlot with these foreign gods even as your forefathers did.
Now, we come to Jesus, the King Himself, though traveling, as it were, incognito. And, what has He said? Elijah’s already come, folks. The kingdom is no longer just near, it’s here. The King is in your midst. The time for preparation is over. The rightful ruler has taken His throne, and the kingdom that never ends is begun today.
No nation can endure His indignation. These are words that should ring in our ears like an air raid siren. Having been drawn back to Daniel 9 this morning, the point is only that much more clear. If God, being Righteous, would not suffer Israel to continue in its sins, His own chosen nation, the very place upon which He had set His name, what cause do we have to expect better? I read the prayer Daniel offered up as he considered that the seventy years of punishment were coming to a close, and all I can think is how much we need to recognize our own situation as much the same. “Open shame belongs to us, our leaders and our elders, because we have sinned against You, God. To You, o Lord, belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against You” (Dan 9:8-9). No nation can endure His indignation! What hubris in us that we fail to tremble at the consideration of this!
Who among our leaders would dare to say that they have prepared themselves for the King of kings? Who among them could honestly say they even think of Him as their Lord? How many, having taken power into their hands, have become determined to answer to no man? No! They have realized the dream of every citizen of the city of man: self-rule, self-determination; and they will not give up on that. For, if they are not self-determined, then they are surely condemned – rebels all against the One True and Eternal God.
If we turn to the church that calls itself by His name, is it any better? How many remain in the pulpits and in the advisory counsels of the church who actually have any least concern for the Truth of God? He has become little more than a convenient illustration for their favorite moral posturing, so far as they think upon Him at all. He is one idol amongst many. Oh, they’ll give Him a place of prominence, so long as He continues to attract the richer constituents. Must keep the holy coffers flowing, after all. But, Truth? Who needs it? An unchanging moral standard? Who can believe it? No. If the big contributors have their foibles, these must be tolerated. If society has determined that what used to be a cause for deepest shame is now as common and acceptable as breathing, then surely, we must go along with them. What’s God got to do with it?
Frankly, if we will consider our own lives with eyes opened to the Truth, we will discover that we are not any much better. For myself, I must confess it. Oh, I can pat myself on the back for being faithful to study. I can credit myself with listening every now and then, hearing the occasional direction from on high and even occasionally heeding that direction. But, a life prepared for my King? Hardly! No. I remain a man in need of a Savior, a man who must lay himself on the mercy of a heavenly court, knowing full well that I have continually and stubbornly fallen far, far short of what God requires.
You know, even as I type these thoughts, there is that part of me that wants to rise up and justify myself. There is that part that wants to preen about being better than some others. There is that dusty old Pharisee that stands in his pride saying, “at least I’m not like that one.” But, the truth is I am like that one. I, too, have that hunger for a self rule that could only destroy me. It matters not. The idea of being answerable to no man and no god is such an enticing conception. It is the deepest, most abiding lust of the flesh, for in that one thing, and only that one thing, lies the necessary permit to do all else without fear of retribution. Yet, no nation, not even an nation of one, can endure His indignation.
Here He has come to us, this Lord of heaven and earth, this everlasting King whose demesnes encompass all that is or ever shall be, and we sing to Him, “I give you my all.” But, we don’t. We give Him as much as we feel we must, always, it seems, holding back that parcel to call our own. But, it isn’t our own. It is His. We are His. We are His not through any choice of our own, but by birth. Just as I am an American because I was born in America, I am a citizen of the heavenly kingdom because I was born into that kingdom. No, not in the manner of flesh, but rather after the Spirit. As much as men love to think themselves to have chosen this citizenship, to have emigrated to His kingdom out of some sort of personal wisdom, it just isn’t the case. If we are citizens at all, we are citizens by birth, and for no other cause.
He is Lord of heaven and earth. In the end, there can be no escaping His rule. There can be joy in His rule, knowing His righteousness, knowing His love. But, hear again what Daniel has said. “To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness.” Now, that is true on multiple levels. They are so much of His essence that we ought better to say that God is Compassion and Forgiveness. We have, after all, His own declaration of Himself to back us on that claim. But, here, the point is more that it is His call. “I will have mercy upon whom I choose. I will show compassion to whom I will to show it.” That is the power and the authority of God! But, if we acknowledge this, we must also acknowledge its corollary. Where He is determined that compassion and mercy shall not be shown, there is no hope of mercy. His decision is final. There is no court of appeal.
Truly, my God, if You were to mark my iniquities, how could I hope to stand? Oh! Praise be to You that there is indeed forgiveness with You. Indeed, it is my birthright, having been born into Your kingdom. Yet, it is not the tolerant, licentious forgiveness that I so often treat it as being. No! You are not so poor a Father as to let Your children run to ruin. You discipline. You discipline severely, when there is need. Lord, I confess, I have been kicking of late. I have been embittered by the severity of these recent months. How the flesh cries for an end to it! Yet, the flesh is unwilling to make the changes that would permit of an end. Is this not the way it is? Oh, Son of David, have mercy! Change this heart. Change this mind. Overrule the weak and foolish, most deadly administration I have set up in Your stead.
You have made Your home in me. Of this I am certain beyond any shadow of doubt. That I am utterly unworthy of the honor is also established in me beyond any shadow of doubt. But, Lord, You alone are able to make this humble abode fit for Yourself. I can only pray that I would be no hindrance to Your work, that I would find myself empowered to set aside my silly thrones willingly and joyfully, that the King of Glory may come in.
You, my God, are truly Lord of heaven and earth, and this can often strike me as a most terrible thing. Not terrible in any sense of it being wrong, nor even unfair. But, terrible in that it must necessarily threaten my own existence until I can come to that place of full and earnest submission to Your reign. My way, oh God, has not been straight. My words have not always been true. My pride, which we have discussed for so many years, has not been swallowed up in submission. Humility, it seems, remains far from me. But, You, Oh Lord, mighty God of heaven and earth, Lord of all Creation, I cry out to You, to be truly, completely, Lord of heaven and heart.
That phrase, Lord of heaven and heart, came as it were by accident. Sometimes, the spell-checker in this word processor can actually be put to good use, apparently! No, it did not correct the phrase I was typing, at least not so as to be accurate to my intent. But, if you will allow it, that inert series of ones and zeroes was so organized and adjusted by the unopposable power of God that it brought forth this much more apt phrase, at least for my contemplation.
Lord of heaven and heart. That’s really what’s called for. He can reign over all the earth, and indeed He does, and shall to greater degree when comes the fullness of time. But, that alone will save not a soul. The Revelation of the final order is clear in this. The mere fact of His rule is not enough. Hearts can be just as hard under a legitimate ruler as under illegitimate. One need look no further than the most recent years of our history. For nearly a decade now, there have been those who insist that the president who has guided this nation was not legitimate, that another should have sat in that office. It is a fiction and a fallacy, but hearts hardened to the course he has set remain convinced of it. He may be their leader, but they shall only follow if absolutely no choice remains.
So it shall be at the King’s return. It’s not like the nations will have a choice about submitting to His rule. Resistance, as we are so fond of saying, is futile. Yet, resistance there shall be. Sadly, the truth will turn out to be that in spite of His undeniable presence, in spite of the righteousness of His eternal reign, there will be more who despise and abhor His reign than who rejoice to see Him upon His throne. Ruling the earth is not enough.
Until He is Lord of the heart, until His reign there is fully established and untroubled by any counter claims, heaven remains a prison and not a home. Until He is Lord of the heart, hope is forlorn, empty and vain.
I hear it said so often, usually by those who wish to insist they’ve had a hand in their own rescue, that God is a gentleman, never forcing Himself into lives that don’t wish to have Him. I say stuff and nonsense! Were He as gentlemanly as all that, we would be utterly lost. To a man, we would reject Him, for He cannot rule except we are deposed from our petty little thrones, and this we will not suffer gladly. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, Jesus said, and violent men take it by force (Mt 11:12). I dare say the opposite is just as true. The coming of the kingdom into the life of a man is a violent thing. It may not be violent in the way we are used to considering violence. There are no gunshots, no knife wounds, not even threats and angry words to make this violence evident to us.
The reason we see no evidence of this violent coming of the kingdom is because the violence has never been directed at us, but rather, at those who have held our conscience captive. The violence of heaven, coming to take us by force, has found it necessary to beat the powers and principalities of dark places into submission as He directed His angelic forces to come to our aid. It is even as Gabriel explained to Daniel. At the beginning, a command was issued, and the angel was sent, but there was opposition. Those who had for so long enjoyed lording it over us were not pleased to lose their slaves. But, the King of heaven and heart would not be denied. Whatever may have stood to oppose His will had to fall. Whatever strongholds the enemies of God might have erected to imprison us, He showed Himself mighty to tear down. He came with violence, but not to destroy, rather to rescue us!
I marked this section by the heading, “What shall we say?” The eternal, living God, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, the Christ, our rightful Prophet, Priest and King, has come in force to rescue us from our long bondage. What shall we say, except, “Yes, Lord.” What other response could we possibly utter, except, “as You will.” How can we do anything but labor beside Him now that He is here? And, He is here! Make no mistake about it. The kingdom is not coming. It is here. The King is not on His way. He is here! Yes, there remains much evil afoot in the world. It may seem to us that it is darker now than ever before. Yet, I have little doubt that this is not the case. It’s dark enough, to be sure, but for more than two thousand years, now, the kingdom of heaven has been spreading its influence across this humble planet. It has, by our estimation, suffered setbacks, and even come near to being extinguished. But, that is because we measure by our own scales and our own capacities. The simple fact is that the kingdom of heaven is in the hands of the King of heaven, and He is not one to fail.
Thy kingdom is come. It remains but to establish that Thy will is done here on the earth as it ever has been in heaven. Lord, find obedience in this servant. Indeed, where it cannot be found, cause it to spring into existence, for You alone are able. Blessed be Your holy Name. Come reign in this heart. Come, and set Your throne over my being. I offer these words as earnestly as I may. Though my thoughts know doubts, know my limits, yet I speak honestly of my truest desire. Come reign in me. Amen.
With the King, the Kingdom (07/15/08-07/18/08)
This confession which Peter makes, “You are the Christ of God”, carries so much freight, and it is imperative that we recognize that. He is saying that Jesus is the rightful king of all nations, as well as the Prophet who was promised, as well as the ultimate High Priest. In Him and in Him alone God vests the authority to join the three offices to which He had delegated His power. Peter, whatever we may think of his educational level, understood that. It required God to instill the revelation knowledge that this Jesus was that One all Scripture pointed to, but he already knew the implications of what that knowledge revealed.
Remember, that he was in the number of those who had gone out to hear John the Baptist. Why do you suppose that was? Was it some need for mental self-flagellation? Was it the drumbeat call for repentance that attracted him? I don’t think so. It was the hope of Messiah, the longing for God to declare the times complete. He was not that far different than the prophets who served at the close of the Babylonian exile. Like them, he recognized that the time that God had called for was near. He may not have had the book of the number of the years to tell him that this was the time, but he had the Spirit of the Living God. I dare say, this day in Caesaria Philippi was not the first time God had spoken directly to Peter’s spirit. Like every other one of the apostles, at a minimum, his spirit had heard that initial call that attracted his attention to the One God had sent. So, too, every other person we have seen coming to Jesus, starting with Anna and Simeon there at the temple for His dedication.
Peter knew what it meant that this was not just a messiah, but the Messiah. In Him, the three offices of Jewish authority were combined, fulfilled, and permanently occupied by the eternal claimant to that great throne. In Him, the order God had established for Israel from the start was restored. I wonder if this is yet recognized in full. God’s original order for Israel had been to stand uniquely astride civilization as the one nation ruled by God. No intermediary was to be there. Oh, He would certainly have His servants in place, and these had best be given the respect due their Master. But, there would be no man upon Israel’s throne, no king to be tempted by the power vested in him. God would reign directly. He would be seated as the only King over Israel, and as His presence was there in their midst, the need for a priesthood and for a prophetic office would be non-existent. What need for a priest to bear the people’s petitions to the King when He is right there? What need for a prophet to proclaim His words to the people, when He was present to speak directly? No! Messiah was not a new thing for Israel, but a reformation, a return to the way it was supposed to be all along. What had been tolerated for a time was not the established order, but an accommodation of human weakness until the fullness of time.
Now, that time had come, and Peter was blessed to have the magnificent distinction of being first to declare it, even though it was to such a small audience. The offices of holy authority were no longer delegated, but now vested in the One Rightful King, the Son of God. The eternal throne of David was now occupied by the only One fit to take that seat, the only One capable of satisfying the prophetic declaration of an eternal kingdom.
What ought to amaze us is that even to this day, we by and large fail to grasp the implications of what was revealed to Peter. Yet, it’s there, not only in his confession, but in a number of other things that Jesus taught. Elijah has already come (Mt 17:12), the Son of Man came (Mt 11:19). Notice that both the Forerunner and the One he was sent to announce have arrived. They are both declared in the past tense. It’s already happened. Well, shouldn’t we recognize that when the King has come, so has the kingdom? John, it is true, declared the kingdom was approaching. It was necessary, therefore, to prepare the way of the King that He might enter His kingdom to the reception He was worthy of; that He might come to a people properly outfitted to receive Him. Jesus, though, declared a kingdom at hand.
I’m looking at Thayer’s Lexicon, discussing this term near, eengiken [1448]. The text notes that this term was used of the priests entering into the temple as they performed their duties in God’s house. It is also the term used to describe God drawing near to the one upon whom He has determined to bestow His grace. That is not a matter coming soon to a neighborhood near you. That is here and now, close enough to touch. That is present tense, happening as we speak.
Listen! If the King is already come, so is His kingdom. Oh, we no more see that kingdom fully manifest then we see Himself fully manifest. Yet, we know He is here. We know He is here because we have been touched by His grace, we have been given ears to hear Him and eyes to recognize His hand upon us. This could not be, except that His kingdom is likewise here and we declared citizens dwelling within its borders. Though we remain in this world through which we sojourn, we are simultaneously in His kingdom.
Oh my! I am returned once again to Caleb’s story. The promise that was given to him, way back when he had returned from that first spying out of the land, was that God was giving him every place that his foot had stepped. By the very nature of the kingdom, this applies to every last one of us who has been adopted into the family of God. But, as Caleb understood, it’s not about carving out a homeland for ourselves. It’s not about us at all. It’s about establishing the kingdom, expanding the boundaries, bearing the Christ of God, the King, Prophet and Priest into every corner of this sad world, that its joy may come in the morning.
Does this mean we ought to join that movement that goes marching about the streets quietly proclaiming the land taken for our God? I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s any proclamation necessary. It is so by our mere presence. More properly, it is so because where we are present, the King is present and where the King is, so is His kingdom. It cannot be otherwise.
Lord God, I thank You for this understanding, and if (may it never be!) it is not a thing You have shown me, but a deception meant to keep me from doing as I ought, then I pray bring correction and bring it swiftly. Yet, I find this so very much in accord with Your being, and so instant in forming as thought in my mind, that I know nothing of anxiousness at the consideration. It has never been about me, nor about any other man. It has never been about the servant, but about the God he serves. It has never been about properties and territories, for what need have we for earthly kingdoms, however large or however small, when we are already given heaven as our inheritance! Oh, praise be to You, Lord of heaven, Lord of earth, Lord of my heart!
And, Father, before I stop for this morning, I need to thank You as well for sending into my path this kindred spirit I find in my brother. Yes, and I join my prayers with his own, this morning and pray that You would sovereignly choose, my God, to bring this local body to that juncture of holy power and sound doctrine, that we would indeed experience a revival of concern for Your Truth. My Lord! You know that as long as I have been spending these morning times with You it has been on my heart that it is that combined understanding that Your children need, that they have lost. You know how long this desire for a reformed charismatic movement, or a charismatic reformed movement has been in my thoughts. Yes, and now I find I am not alone. Oh! Thank You, Father! Thank You!
I feel, in such a minor way, like Elijah learning that he was not the last one left standing after all. My God, temper our enthusiasms with sound doctrine. Forge our gifts with an earnest theology. Weld together – no not just in this local body but in Your Church at large – the abiding concern for Your Truth and the knowledge of You that has ever been the bedrock and the acknowledgement of Your gracious, good and perfect gifts for the good purpose of ministering that Truth in power. Make us, my King, a body armored in the steel of that union of head and heart, a people sharpened to serve in Your army, in every way fitted to the spiritual battles by which the proper reign of Your kingdom is more fully established.
Words are failing me, God, but the conceptions are there. Yes, in this world You reveal that those metals which are alloyed are stronger. You reveal more directly that the cord made of several strands worked together is stronger than the sum of those several strands. Is it not so in this matter of faith and practice as well? Is it not so with a faith that is truly a matter of all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength? Oh, my God! That we might realize the fulfillment of that in our own lives! That we might take notice that like that cord of three strands, the faith that weaves together all that is represented under the three heads of heart, mind and soul is the faith that can withstand anything sent against it. There is a faith stronger than the sum of its parts. There is a reason, my Lord, that You call for such a devotion to Your ways. It is more than just the thoroughness of submission to Your rule, it is the incredible solidity of faith to be found in such a weave, such an alloy.
Temper us, oh Mighty Savior, in just such a fashion, that we might be that much more aptly fit to the work of Your hands. Glory be to God in the highest! Amen and amen!
I need to turn my attention to Elijah, at this point, he who was the foreshadowing of the events covered by the gospels in many ways. He is, as it were the linkage between what had been revealed to Israel in times past and what was happening in their midst now. When I turned my attention to this prophet in preparing for this study, one thing that really struck me is that closing line of Malachi which provides the linkage and identifies Elijah with it. There, in the closing verses of the Old Testament, we hear a promise both joyful and terrifying. God promises that He will be sending Elijah before the coming of the day of the Lord. And still, as great as that day of the Lord is to the faithful, it cannot be spoken of without noting also how terrible that day will be for those outside of God’s kingdom. Why, though, is Elijah sent? He is sent to accomplish a restoration, a reformation if you will. The hearts of the fathers will have become so estranged from their children, and likewise the children from their fathers, that the whole is an abomination in the sight of God. He must move to correct this failure in His people before He comes, else His curse must surely strike them even as He brings His judgment to bear on the nations around them (Mal 4:5-6).
There is so much to unfold in that message! The immediate impact it had on me when I read it was the consideration that this was the last thing Israel had heard from her God. Hundreds of years had passed in which this message could echo and resonate in their ears. You need restoration, and its beyond you. It’s going to take something truly drastic, truly shocking, to bring you to the point that you will repent of your wickedness. It’s going to take a true man of God, returned to earth from heaven to which he has been translated these many thousands of years. You’re that stubborn.
How do you deal with a God who leaves you on these terms. No. It’s improper to say that He left them, for He never leaves, never forsakes. But, there is that sense of having turned away. For how many hundreds of years, Israel has heard no further word from their God. For most of those hundreds of years they have suffered setback after setback. Their country has been repeatedly overrun by the warring nations around them. They have found themselves subjected to one heathen ruler after another, always in a struggle to preserve some vestige of their beliefs and their pride. They have, for their obstinate insistence on their ancient ways, become a proverbial sore on the thoughts of every nation that has subjected them. Even into the Roman occupation current as we pursue the Gospel narrative, their stubborn insistence on special privileges, special prerogatives is a constant throb in the concerns of the emperor. Special tax breaks, lest the demands of civil government interfere with the collecting of the temple tax. Special liberties so that attendance at the required ritual feasts will not be hindered. And, amazingly, these breaks are fairly consistently given them, even under the cruelest of overlords. Yes, there have been those who have run roughshod over their sensibilities, even antagonized. But, by and large, their freedom to pursue their religion has been exceptional.
But, it has come their way in silence. God, Who spoke to Israel so constantly and clearly for so long, no longer finds anything to say to His people. My! And when I consider how painful even the briefest dry spells are to me! When I consider how horribly neglected I can feel because I haven’t known one of those great moments of contact with my God for a month or so. And, I know I’m not alone in this. I know brothers who are in their own dry periods, and the response is pretty unanimous. What gives, God? I see You at work in the lives of everybody around me. I see this one getting blessed, that one on fire. What’s wrong with me? When is it my turn? It’s universal. We read of those whose prayers felt as though they had encountered a sky of brass. God! Why don’t You hear me anymore? How long? When will I be answered from on high?
It should not really come as any wonder to us that we find ourselves feeling this way. We, who have come to know the Lord of Life and how our very lives literally depend on His constant attentions, are most painfully aware of any least diminishing of those attentions. We sing, “this is the air I breathe, Your very Word spoken to me.” The truth is, that this is far more accurate a depiction of our condition than we generally consider. In Him we live. In Him we move. In Him we have our being (Ac 17:28). The corollary is equally apt. Apart from Him we die. Apart from Him we are returned to the dust. Apart from Him we cease to exist. Should He fail to feed us, we would starve. Should He cease thinking of us, even for a moment, our existence would be at an end.
Does this make us mere figments of God’s imagination? I suppose that in some sense it does. But, we are figments with a life of our own, with a degree of self-determination unknown to mere figments of imagination. We are far more than an illusion. And yet, as much more as we are, it remains a fundamental truth that should He cease to think upon us, we would cease.
Now, Israel, by the time John hit the scene, had been suffering this sense of holy neglect for centuries. All they had was the dusty hope of the ancient prophecies and promises. There had been little enough cause of late for them to hope. And yet, hope they did. At least some of them. Some, such as the Pharisees, had tried to reestablish a sense of piety, a concern for holiness among their brethren, but even noble efforts such as those had fallen into corruption and lifelessness. The forms were still observed, but the objective had been lost. The world was creeping into their practices however much they insisted otherwise.
And, their best hope lay in that forlorn promise given through Malachi. One will come. Elijah will return. The power of God will once more visit the land. Indeed, it must, for you will never bring yourselves to repentance and redemption without it. If ever anything should have cut through the pridefulness of the people of God, that must surely have been the word to do the cutting! You, who have so prided yourselves on being the chosen ones, the select, the sole possessors of the Truth of God, are powerless to obtain His blessings. You are in at least equal danger, if not greater, of annihilation when His Justice is meted out as all those you thought were lesser beings. And yet, the message was lost on their deafened ears.
This segues rather neatly into another thought that had come to me this morning, as regards this final prophecy. That restoration, that reformation was necessary, God declares, because otherwise, He would surely find it needful to curse that land and nation He had chosen right along with all the rest. This is something we do well to understand fully. God’s love does not, cannot, exclude His justice. How could He declare it just to punish the surrounding nations for the sins, for their neglect of His revelation in creation, and leave the ones He had caused to be better informed unpunished? If repentance is the key to forgiveness, and His people have refused to repent, what cause have they to expect the forgiveness? They have set themselves firmly on the terrible side of His promised day. This is the danger that arises from preaching all love, all the time, and neglecting the warnings, the wrath. This is why, whenever real revival has been seen in the history of the Church, as opposed to the carnivals that are passed off as revivals, the message has not been about the blessings and the easy life of the Christian, but about the mortal danger of the sinner.
Forgiveness means nothing to somebody that knows nothing for which he needs to be forgiven. No man will properly appreciate being rescued from a certain death that he never noticed was threatening him. That is the reality of the situation, and it is a reality we need to return to addressing from the pulpit. Until a man truly recognizes and feels the deadly threat of the terrible day of the Lord, he is in no position to seek the change that is necessary to fit himself for the glorious day of the Lord.
Another thought that occurred to me regarding this message of restoring hearts, and this is necessarily more a question than an answer. I find myself wondering as to the degree of disaffection between father and child that God was addressing here. It occurs to me that this is more than a mere loss of affection. It’s more than forgetting to call or send cards on the occasions that seem to demand them. It’s more, even, than writing the child out of one’s will, or the issues of corban that Jesus addressed, although all of these might be symptoms of the same moral disease.
It suggests to me the depth of depravity that had led Israel to join in the idolatrous practices of those who sacrificed to Moloch. Now, we know that the telling feature of that sacrifice was that parents were offering up their own children as the required sacrifice to that demonic, evil idol. Why did they do this? At root, for the same reason that offerings were given to any of the pagan gods: in pursuit of a personal blessing. It was thought that by offering the life of their child, they were bringing blessings upon themselves. In more basic terms, they placed their own welfare and convenience above that of the life they had brought into the world. This practice has often and accurately enough been equated with the spreading acceptance of abortion in our own day, an acceptance that, shockingly enough, even finds its way into churches that claim to honor the Lord of Life. It would seem we must argue that such acceptance puts the lie to that claim, but still it persists. The history of Israel repeats itself in the life of the Church.
However, as the Mosaic commandments presented the most clearly despicable extreme of the thing prohibited as a head under which all the lesser forms were equally condemned, so it is here. The taking of your own child’s life must certainly be the most heinous extreme of that disaffection of the heart that God says must be corrected. But, we must understand that those less lethal forms of the same sin are equally condemned. This is where the condemnation of corban comes in. It is evidence of the child valuing his own welfare above that of his parents. Indeed, this all falls under that commandment to honor your parents, at least from the child’s side of the equation. But, it also makes clear that the commanded honor is a two-way thing. It applies equally to the parent, that he is to honor his child. This is far different than the sort of nonsense that passes for good parenting today. It’s not about making your child feel good about himself no matter how poorly he is developing. It’s about nurturing the life that is your child. It’s about good stewardship of that gift of life which God has entrusted to you. It’s about investing in that child, one of the talents that God has put under your charge in expectation of garnering a great return.
In this effort, we are every bit as needy as the Israelites that Malachi was addressing. Our hearts are as ever theirs were. Our propensity for considering self over all else is just as well developed. Our willingness to voluntarily recognize our abject failure and turn to God in true and meaningful repentance is just as lacking. And so, we, too, need His agent to come restore us, to come reform us into our intended image, lest we find ourselves necessarily marked out as goats rather than sheep when the time comes for His final sentencing.
How greatly we need to lay hold of the fact that the kingdom is no longer just near, no longer on the horizon and coming soon. It is here! If this preparation was needful for the King who was to come, how much more do we need to see to our preparedness when He is present and in our midst? How shaken we ought to be, to consider how woefully unprepared we remain, in spite of every benefit we enjoy when it comes to knowing and loving the God Who Saves us! Is it any wonder that Paul instructs his charges to work out their salvation in fear and trembling (Php 2:12)? No! All that effort wont save you. If that was the foundation for your salvation, you could just give up now, because you’re never going to make it and you know it! But, as we understand just how great a rescue has been accomplished on our behalf, and as we recognize just how great is our propensity to walk right back into that from which we were pulled free, and as we come to grips with the magnitude of wrath that is Holiness offended; how we ought to be shaken! How we ought to be moved to our utmost effort, even as we recognize the futility of it. How we ought to exert every last ounce of our strength towards preparing ourselves for the King Who is even now with us and even in us!
I return to that verse from Jeremiah again. At His wrath the earth quakes, and no nation can endure His indignation (Jer 10:10). The kingdom is here. The God of Holiness is here. Can we imagine that He is not indignant at the conditions He finds? Can we imagine that He is not offended by the conditions He finds in His own house? In His own children? Can we imagine He, above all others, has cause to declare Himself estranged from these vile children? Can He be expected to believe that we, His children, have hearts that are not estranged from Him? Where’s the evidence? What sign do we give, to show that we honor our Father? What care do we show for the presence of the Holy One? Everything, it seems, about our worship manifests that we are far more interested in our own blessings and our own enjoyments than about our Father’s needs or desires. Oh! How greatly we need to see an even greater fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy! How desperately we need to experience Elijah’s restoration in our own lives, in our own time!
Considering Elijah, although his mention here is in passing, it is well to dwell at least briefly on why he is mentioned at all. There is the rather banal surface answer, that he is mentioned because his was a name the disciples had heard used in reference to Jesus. But, this ought to turn one’s curiosity to the question of why they spoke of Jesus as Elijah. More importantly, it should turn our attention to the question of why God had specifically singled out Elijah as the one who would come to deal with this necessary preparation of our hearts.
We know, of course, that all Scripture is inspired by God, and therefore profitable for our training (2Ti 3:16-17). Inasmuch as it covers the history of God’s creation, we ought also to understand that the history it covers is also, as it were, inspired by God, and most definitely profitable for our training. In that light, the history of Elijah has something to say both to the reason his return is promised – for it remains so, in spite of John fulfilling the prophecy (Mt 17:11-12 Elijah is coming to restore all things, but he has also already come, though they did not recognize him.) It also speaks to the matter of why he was associated with Jesus.
In fact, if we add Jeremiah to the mix, I think the picture may become even more clear to us. But, let me start with Elijah. Elijah is probably the most spectacular of the post-Moses prophets of Israel, if we are to measure by the signs and wonders associated with the prophet. Yet, I must accent this: He wasn’t in it for signs and wonders. I don’t know as he would have particularly cared if there was ever a sign or wonder in the course of his ministry. Because, he wasn’t about the signs and wonders. He was about the God of heaven and about the exclusive claims that God had upon the worship of His people. As such, he was deeply disturbed by Israel’s propensity for chasing after other gods, for trying to get along with the surrounding cultures.
I love what the ISBE has to say in summing up this man. “It was his mission to destroy at whatever cost the heathen worship which else would have destroyed Israel itself, with consequences whose evil we cannot estimate.” Would that we had men of such high devotion in the body of the Church today! After all, we are deep in the same mire of false faith taught by false teachers to a terrifyingly gullible people. What Elijah was confronting in his day is what we would call religious tolerance in our day. It may not seem such a serious thing to us given the sorts of religions we have around us. With obvious exceptions, the sort of religion that demands sacrifices of any sort, let alone of human life, are pretty much non-existent. The majority of world religions that we come across seem pretty innocuous, if one discounts the exclusive nature of God’s claims. There are certain moral themes that seem to be common across most of the things that draw men’s attention to something outside themselves. It is only natural that it should be so, for we are, after all, created in His image. However much we have distorted that image by our sinfulness, traces will remain. A lie so clearly at odds with all that defines human nature and divine nature could not hold any attraction for any but the most depraved. There must remain enough of the truth to allow us to overlook the falsity.
It seems more benign to us, because we do not see bloodshed associated with it. Again, I allow for the obvious exception. And I note that in the case of that exception, in spite of the attempts of multiculturalism’s advocates, the better part of man rises up in abhorrence and opposition. The reality of the matter is that all of these false religions that surround us are just as certainly deadly in nature. They may not lead their adherents into violent conflict with those who reject their beliefs, but they most certainly lead their adherents into something more dangerous by far, at least to themselves. For every false religion must, in the end, lead its adherents into the judgment of God. Every last one of these false religions, by so shielding the eyes of men from the terrible day of the Lord, and by promoting a rebellion, however passive, to the Lordship of Christ, seeks to assure that the day of the Lord is, for their followers a day of terrible judgment, not a day of great rejoicing.
Is it any wonder that we, who in spite of our love for God are shown so complacent to the disastrous lives of so many around us, are found to be in need of an Elijah? My! We should be longing for it every bit as much as the nation of Israel did as Jesus walked in their midst. Our need for a restoration, a reformation, a re-making of our form such that it fits its original intent once again, is incredible. We don’t sense it. We are dumb enough sheep to think we’re doing alright. Hey, we’re saved, and by and large, that’s good enough for us. If our neighbor isn’t, well, that’s his business. We have allowed our culture to condition us to such behavior, to our shame. We consider it civilized. The God Who Is, the God Who proclaims that His name is Compassion and Mercy, however, sees it in a much less flattering light. It is evidence of nothing more than that we still fall short of at least half of the Law, for we do not love our neighbor by leaving him to his condemnation.
Elijah understood that this sort of tolerance was not only bad for those who were tolerated, but it was bound to become a disaster for the people of God. He knew this largely because God had long since warned His people of what would come of it. If you don’t drive Canaan completely from your lands, it is the inevitable result of your fallen nature that rather than converting them to your faith, they will draw you away into their idolatries. And so it had been proven to be. No surprise there. God, Who knows the end from the beginning had already spoken of it. Was there really any doubt about the outcome when they ignored His warnings? But, Elijah, being filled by the Spirit of the Most High God, was not satisfied to let that situation stand. He was not satisfied to avoid the disaster personally. It was not enough for him to know that he would get to heaven, while all his countrymen paved their way to hell.
Don’t you hear that same Holy Spirit speaking when Paul turns to his countrymen! How they heaped abuse on him whenever he tried to wake them up! How they threatened him bodily, doing irreversible damage to his physical health. And yet, the cry of his heart is that God would wake them up, and turn them from their empty ritual to a real, saving faith in the God Who offered to truly be their Father, and Who provided His Own Son to atone for their sins, along with the sins of all mankind.
Now, I had mentioned that bringing Jeremiah into our thinking here would help clarify the picture. Let me try just that. Again, I would like to note the summary the ISBE gives us of this man. “He loved his people as nobody else, and yet was always compelled to prophesy evil for it, and seemed to be the enemy of his nation.”
It occurs to me (perhaps not surprisingly) that the Spirit seen in Jeremiah is the same Spirit that has been at work in every real revival that we have record of. I think I must expand on this just a bit. We have this view of revival as an exciting show where lots of signs and wonders are happening. People are getting healed, people are being blessed with all manner of material goods, and we somehow fall into thinking that’s it! God’s moving! Look! So far as I can recall, there was not so much as one sign, one miracle, to mark Jeremiah out as God’s man. His message wasn’t pleasing to the ears. He wasn’t talking prosperity. He was talking slavery! Most critically, he was talking Truth. He was not going to give the people what they wanted. He would give them what they needed. Agape in a nutshell! And nothing sloppy about it at all.
If I look to the Great Awakening, as the American revival was called, the same thing applies. The good news wasn’t that you were going to go on through the rest of your life problem free. The good news wasn’t a new job, a limb restored, or even a sudden access to greater knowledge and wisdom. The evidence of revival wasn’t in people laughing uncontrollably, or falling out in the aisles, although these things happened on occasion. Indeed, these things were in many ways detracting from the real matter at hand, to the point that those who understood what God was doing had to apologize, in the rhetorical sense, for what was happening. They had to let it be known that this wasn’t the point, it was an occasional side effect. The point was, as Jonathan Edwards so eloquently proclaimed, that we are all “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” What? Where’s the Love, man? How can He be angry? God is Love! Says so right here. Yes, but God is a Jealous God, and All Consuming Fire. And what nation can stand in the face of His indignation? Never mind the nation. What man?
You are in mortal danger by the hands of a Power so great that opposition to His will and desire is unimaginable in any meaningful way. If you think you have opposed His will with any success, you are but fooling yourself. You are but adding to your sins because He has so determined that your sins might be made complete. That’s the thing that a real revival drives home first and foremost. That is the necessary precursor to recognizing the marvel of Christ. That is the thing that drives a man to faith, if God so wills it.
Look at these revivals. Look at Nehemiah’s revival. He did not go about marketing himself as God’s latest big thing. No! The people came to him. They knew something was wrong. They knew they needed something. Because God is Compassion and Mercy, He gave them to understand that the answer they needed was to be found in Nehemiah’s words. So, they came to him. If there was a miracle to declare this man a true spokesman of God, it was only that the people listened. All day long they listened. And then they obeyed. Miracle indeed!
Likewise Jonathan Edwards. He did not seek to be anything more than the pastor of his church, and he sought to be so to the best of his ability. He did not preach the sorts of messages that would keep a man in his pulpit. He preached the sorts of messages that would keep his charges in the kingdom. What happened? Townspeople started coming into his church of their own accord, at least as concerned any human effort. The Spirit of God moved upon the most unrepentant sinners in such a fashion that they came to hear this man. They came that he might, by that same Spirit of God, make clear to them just how great and unavoidable was the danger to their lives, to their souls. Then, and only then, when the noose was clearly felt around their necks, as it were, did he give them news of the possible reprieve. Then and only then were they in any condition to hear about this One Who was willing to stand as surety for their liberty. Nay! More than that, Who would, by His good offices, see that this sinner’s case was thoroughly erased from the court records! That is what brought revival.
Jeremiah is of this mold. He wasn’t interested in position. He wasn’t interested in reputation and influence. He was interested in the eternal condition of those to whom God had sent him. He was concerned with giving them the real story, the real explanation of what was transpiring in their nation. He was a true watchman on the spiritual wall, and he was faithful to shout out his warning. If those he warned would not listen, it would not be due to any failure on his part. He would confront those who confused the message, the false watchmen, the spies of the enemy. He would suffer whatever indignity he must to see to it that word of the danger was given. But, always with hope. Is this not ever the way of the prophet? Is this not ever the way of God’s message?
First, the extent of the danger must be made clear, but then, the hope. That is the message of Truth. For, man, being a fallen and sinful son of the devil by nature, is ever in great danger of annihilation at the hands of a pure and holy God. He sits under the darkness of judgment all unawares. He may be convinced that his crimes have gone undetected. He may be convinced that the Judge will wink at his wicked ways and let him off. But, the reality is that he is a dead man walking, and the day of his sentencing is cast in stone. Only when that realization has broken through the stupefying haze of sin, only when the full extent of his wretchedness is clear to him at last, can he find cause in himself to put faith in that one ray of hope that God holds out to him.
Here, then, is a matter common to both Elijah and Jeremiah. In both cases, as well as we may think of them, they remain but men. They are something in our estimation not because they are something special, but because they have been chosen by God. They were each chosen for a work, and they each participated fully in that work. Yet, it remains the basic fact that it is God who accomplished the work. When we speak of the great things that Elijah did, or Elisha or Jeremiah or John the Baptist, or even the apostles; we should always have God in sight as the one Who truly does these great things. In so much as we honor the memory of the man, we dishonor him. How so? Elijah would never have thought to take the honor upon himself. His whole purpose was to turn the attention of man back upon his Maker, where it belonged. Peter, Paul, any of the apostles, were they treated as we tend to treat them in our thoughts, would have rejected it outright, reminded us that they were but men such as ourselves, and reminded us most urgently that only God was deserving of such praises and worship.
Now, indeed, we can look back at the record of Elijah’s tenure as prophet and say that he accomplished great things. The faith that he manifested, particularly in confronting Baal worship head on, is truly inspiring, as it was intended to be. Seeing his example, his steadfastness, serves to spur us on to maintaining our own faith. However, we must not lose sight of who maintained Elijah’s faith and Who likewise maintains our own. If we look at these men who labored so for God’s kingdom and forget that it is God Who is at work in them, then we are stirred to a vain attempt to mimic their ways in our own power. We are turned away from the recognition of our own powerlessness and our utter dependence upon an all powerful God to do anything of worth. These men, though, were never thus distracted, at least not for long. They knew, no matter how much had been accomplished by their ministry, that they were as nothing if God did not do the work of that ministry.
I had a thought, when first looking at Jeremiah, and considering how, as the article in ISBE pointed out, he was stuck delivering a most unwelcome message to the people of promise. I thought about how radically different this was from the record of Balaam. Balaam, I would note, was the first to use the term ‘son of man’, at least so far as the Biblical record goes. That is what had him on my mind. There he was, being paid to pronounce a curse upon Israel, and he finds that in spite of his willingness to please, he cannot do so. He has been identified as a prophet of God, and indeed, what he speaks in this case is God’s message, like it or not. His client is not pleased to hear a blessing pronounced when he has paid for a curse, and Balaam finds it needful to explain that God is not like man, nor like a son of man. He does not lie, and He does not repent. When once He has spoken, it is as good as done, for He will do it. “When He has blessed, I cannot revoke it” (Nu 23:19-20).
So many directions to turn on that thought! Completing the initial thought, here we have on one case a reluctant prophet who speaks good to God’s people in spite of his preference. There, in Jeremiah, we have a far more faithful, though still reluctant prophet who is given nothing but bad news to prophesy to that same people in spite of his preference. One proves faithful to God’s word in spite of himself, discovering that even when he would gladly do so, he cannot speak against what God has already spoken. The other is faithful to speak though the words break his heart. One has his intentions wholly against the people of God and yet has nothing but blessings to say to them. The other has his heart fully upon the preservation of the people of God, but out of that devotion can only speak warnings and destruction to them.
Looking, though, at that last clause that Balaam spoke, “When He has blessed, I cannot revoke it”, that should give us cause to take heart, even when the true and earnest word from the Lord seems bleak. Even when the message is as grim as that which Jeremiah was given to proclaim, the fact of God’s blessing remains. Yes, and not only can no man revoke it, no demon in hell nor even the chief of all devils can revoke it. Indeed, as God is not of a nature to repent of His promise, nor to break it in any fashion, even He, it could be said, cannot revoke His own word.
That is assurance and then some! In the darkest night of our trials; in the most grim and painful hours of our discipline, we have that to cling to: God has blessed, and it cannot be revoked! We dare not take that as license to neglect His ways, no. We dare not allow that stupidity to come upon us that would lead us to take His faithfulness as license for our faithlessness. It could never be! One who could so easily set aside the incredible grace of God has surely never really tasted that grace. Indeed, he may have claimed God’s blessing upon himself, but it is an apparent lie if he can set it aside so thoughtlessly. For, where God truly blesses, He does not repent of it.
I want to return, as well, though very briefly to the mark of God’s true co-workers. As I noted already, to a man they are insistent that they are worthy of no praise. Indeed, beware of those (and there are so very many) who seek accolades while claiming to serve God. Beware of those who promote their ministry! It is a mark of falsity. It is a warning sign. The men whom God chooses rarely need to advertise. God’s presence advertises itself. That is not to say that any man who sends out notices of where he is going to be preaching is necessarily a false preacher. Not at all. Even Paul was inclined to let people know he was coming. But, it was not to promote Paul. It was to let them know of his concern for them, and to give them sufficient notice as to avoid any embarrassment on their part.
If I look once again at the Great Awakening, I must acknowledge that some of the evangelists of that period, some very earnest, and very real evangelists, being a sort of traveling ministry, did indeed give notice of their travels, and cause broadsides and handbills to be distributed in advance that those who wished to hear about God might have opportunity. Did they boast, though, of themselves, or of what God was doing that they were blessed to be part of? Well, I haven’t seen the handbills, but I’ve read their messages. I think I can safely say that their promotions, such as they existed, were of God’s activity, not man’s eloquence.
Consider a preacher like Spurgeon. Even as his ministry grew in prominence and impact, it seems to me he was not inclined to take any credit upon himself. As wonderful has his sermons are, and he was doubtless able to appreciate their quality as well as anyone, when he was asked what brought such success to his efforts, it was not his sermons he credited. It was the result of prayer, prayer not of his own, but of his parishioners, who willingly forewent the benefit of his preaching that they might benefit those in greater need. They would be there in the cellars every time he preached, praying that God would empower the sermon to be effective unto the salvation of souls. There was no remote feed by which they could listen in while they prayed. There was no opportunity to align their prayers with the word he was preaching. There was only an earnest supplication to the God without Whom all effort becomes empty and vain.
In our day, it seems we are plagued with personalities, with men who are treated as being larger than life. Indeed, we are plagued with men who seek to present themselves as larger than life, and yet, would have us believe that they are God’s servants. I don’t see how we can have a brand-name servant. I don’t see how we can accept that the man who promotes himself so constantly is really promoting God. No, he is doing little more than treating God as an endorser of his own product. Indeed, all he has to offer is his own product. Far be it from us to accept such an inferior offering when we are offered God Himself!
Far be it from us to raise up any man as being something. I don’t care if it’s a preacher or a worship leader or a missionary or what he is. Get him down off that pedestal! That’s no place for a servant of God! Let us join ourselves with those who confess, “I am but a man such as yourself.” Let us avoid those who would seek to lay claim to exalted titles and the right to be treated with excessive deference.
Honor where honor is due, to be sure! A keen respect for the true man of God is always proper, for the laborer is worthy of his wage. But, the sort of veneration and rock-star treatment that tends to be accorded to so many today, is way off base. To what end do we have worship leaders from somebody’s local body doing world tours? To what end do we have arenas filled with people come to see not God, but a man who claims to be serving God. Well, if he’s serving God, what’s he doing here, soaking up the spotlight? If he’s serving God, why is he advertising himself? And for us: if we are seeking God, why are we chasing man?
The man of God is nothing except for the fact that he is chosen by God, and that God chooses to work through him. If there is respect due the man, it is because God is there in him. If there is cause for awe, though, that cause remains with God, and so, our awe ought to be reserved for God as well. I think I have probably said enough on that subject for now.
Revelation and Inspiration (07/19/08-07/23/08)
At this point, I shall begin turning my attention on that portion of this event which only Matthew relates: the response which Jesus gives to Peter’s confession. There is a great deal of material in that response that deserves our attention. Indeed, what word of Scripture does not? But, let me begin as Jesus begins, with the blessing spoken over Peter. “Simon, you are blessed! Why? Because what you have just said did not come about by man whatsoever, but by My Father in heaven revealing it to you.”
First point we ought to note: When Jesus says that flesh and blood did not reveal this Messianic truth to Peter, we can take two equally valid meanings from that. The first is that what he was saying wasn’t something he was merely parroting from things taught to him by friends, rabbis or parents. In other words, no outward testimony of some other had been the factor that convinced him of this great truth. The second is that what had dawned upon his understanding was more – far more – than merely the result of him putting two and two together. The thoughts he expressed in that confession were not his own in that sense, but thoughts given him directly by God the Father. It was not an expression of his wisdom and insight, but of Wisdom Himself.
I can say without the least bit of doubt, the least bit of hesitation, that God still works in this fashion today. Having been brought to faith largely by just such a direct infusion of thoughts far removed from my own penchants and beliefs at that time, I know it to be so on a most intimate level. I have experienced that same direct infusion of insight on many an occasion since. In some rare instances, it has come as a flash warning of events coming just over the horizon – not great events as men measure things, but accidents that I was able to avoid because of that forewarning. More often, it comes about in these times of study, those sudden bursts of inspiration, when a passage opens up to me in a new way, in a sense not previously noticed or considered.
Now, while I will gladly hold that God still works in this fashion today – indeed, I must hold it to be true, for I cannot deny it – yet, I would accept that He does not necessarily do so in the same degree. What do I mean by this? Well, it comes down to the fine distinction between revelation and inspiration. This may seem a splitting of theological hairs, but it is, I think a necessary one. It is necessary precisely because it is such a point of contention between different limbs of the body of Christ today.
Those who concern themselves with the distinction note that in the matter of inspiration, the Spirit of the living God is quite necessarily involved. Indeed, it is His involvement that ensures the accuracy of the message. Yet, inspiration does not somehow over-rule or shut down the mental processes of the one so inspired. This concept is applied particularly to the authors of the Scriptures, who – as can clearly be seen in comparing the Gospels, for instance – retain their unique perspectives and styles. Yet, the accuracy of their accounts, the Truth content of their accounts, is ensured by the One Who puts them in mind of those events they record. Consider that they were writing several years, perhaps decades, after the events they have written for us. Consider how well you can recall the specifics of a conversation even a month old! Inspiration was most needful, if we were to have record of this Messiah Peter has just recognized.
Revelation is likewise a matter of direct path delivery to the intellect. It is, in this way, distinct from such manifestations as present us with physical data to process. A particular distinction is made, however, as regards, “special revelation”. These are matters not revealed to all, but given by God to those He chooses; matters of knowledge unto salvation. These have most often found their recipients amongst the apostles and the prophets, and to some degree in other of the teaching offices. I would note, though, that in those latter cases, it is more generally a dispensing of what has been revealed, as opposed to adding to the body of revealed knowledge.
Where things really heat up, though, is in matters of immediate revelation. In other words, cases of theophany, vision, or other such means used by God to provide direct revelation of matters new and previously unheard unto man. Most would draw a firm line at the close of Scripture, declaring that at this point, such means have come to an end. God no longer provides such an immediate revelation to any man because the revelation of God is now complete. Such a position would maintain that God does still reveal truth in such an immediate sense, through the Holy Spirit. However, they would also maintain that the Holy Spirit, in delivering such immediately revealed truths, works through the Scripture.
And yet, we see Jesus, in this passage, saying, “Simon, the Father revealed this to you, not flesh and blood, not hours of contemplation, not reason.” At what level was this revelation, or was it at all? This is the thing we need to come to grips with. For the reformed believer, hearing the oft-repeated claims of ‘revelation knowledge,’ indeed the demand for such, cringes. What he hears is a man setting himself up to supersede Scripture, and this he must not tolerate or accept. Meanwhile, the charismatic, caring little for the niceties of theology, feels he would die without such ‘revelation knowledge’, and is even pretty certain that Scripture has warned him of this very thing.
Now, by and large, the issue is really a matter of poor communication. I do not think that every claimant to revelation knowledge is seeking to overturn or even add to the revelation of Scripture. I don’t doubt that there are those who do just that, but they are justly condemned. They are false, and a distraction by which the enemy of God seeks to pull away the faithful. The great majority, though, or at the very least, those who are true shepherds in the kingdom of God, are really doing nothing worse than using a more exciting phraseology to describe the inspiration of the Holy Spirit which none would find objectionable.
Can there be any man of God who has spent any great time in the study of His Word who has not found himself subject to these sudden flashes of insight? Is there such a man as has spent time in prayerful study and not found himself flooded with new information as he steps into the shower? Is there anything in such moments of inspiration that runs counter to the critical, special revelation contained in Scripture? I think not! If there is, then that man has not been subject to holy inspiration, but to vain imaginations.
I will grant you that many have been led off into the spiritual weeds by just such vain imaginations. Many a denomination has been founded on just such stuff and nonsense. Yet, the reality of God’s direct impartation of understanding to man remains. It is simply that man’s propensity for claiming such impartations, whether they be called revelatory knowledge or more properly called holy inspiration, is far greater than God’s inclination for delivering such impartations. The claim does not make it so! Nor does the receiving of such inspiration, in and of itself, make the recipient anything special. It does not mark him out as a prophet, nor as an apostle, nor any other specific office holder in God’s economy. It marks him out as a child of God, and that is surely more than enough!
One thing that should be made clear in this word to Peter. What marked him out as blessed was not that he had been used in such fashion. Neither was Peter’s blessed state a matter of knowing a life of ease and material wealth. Peter’s life would continue to be hard hereafter, perhaps even harder than it had been before. His fishing business, if it continued on at all, had to be trusted to other men to run. The mission he would be taking on left no time for such things. Further, if there was any funding coming from that quarter, it was being plowed back into that same ministry. I would have to suppose that by the time we hear about Ananias and Sapphira whatever was left of the family business had been sold off.
No, the real source of blessing is declared right there in what Jesus says. Simon, you are blessed because My Father in heaven revealed this to you. You are blessed because your heart and mind are open and receptive to the kingdom. That is the only blessing that matters, being open to the kingdom, being able to hear what the King of heaven is saying and accept it.
So, when the pastor requests that we always answer, ‘how are you?’ with, ‘blessed!’, there’s something to be said for it. Yes, we are forever blessed because God has opened our ears. We are eternally blessed, whatever conditions we may find ourselves in, because we are citizens of heaven, and our hearts are longing for home. We are irrevocably blessed because God holds our adoption papers. He has declared us legal heirs to His own heritage, and this is so certain and sealed that we need never fear a change of heart in Him, for He ensures that there will be no change of heart in us. The door He has opened for me, no man can shut. Not even me.
I would be remiss if I left the subject on such a statement. For it is the sorry state of man that he forever hears such reason for confidence and makes of it a license to remain in sin. This is certainly nothing new. Israel was dealing with this issue constantly. They knew they were the chosen people. They bore the mark of circumcision. They figured they were in, and that was that. In the meantime, there was life to be dealt with, and they quickly divorced eternal concerns from their present day lives. Eternity was secured. Now, they would do what they must to deal with the present.
Nor was this unique to the Jews. Paul dealt with the same exact issues amongst the Gentiles. He would explain to them that God was all and in all. He would lay out the case for salvation by faith alone in Christ alone with great precision. It was not possible that one could hear his well argued approach to the subject and reach any other conclusion. Ah! But what did they do with that conclusion? They took it one step too far: decided that here was license to sin with impunity. Indeed! If God’s grace abounds to the sinner, why, we’ll give Him a greater stage upon which to manifest His grace! How does Paul react? He boldly and plainly declares that such as believe and act in this way are justly condemned. I dare say Paul has more than the opinions of man in mind when he says this. He has a far more just Judge in view, and his point is precisely that God, Who is utterly Just in all He does, has judged their case, and found them wanting. In spite of their claims of faith, the response they give to faith is clear evidence that their claims are empty. They are still under judgment in the sight of heaven’s Judge, and His judgment, given their insistent, persistent propensity for sinning, is quite surely just. After all, it is not to his fellow slave that the slave must answer, but to his Master.
There can be no question that the same problem continues to plague the Church in our own day. We are all familiar with terms like ‘social Christian’ and ‘carnal Christian’. It should be plain in the very terms that these cannot be describing a Christian. They can only be used to label those practices that are pursued by false claimants to the title of Christian. A social Christian, one who treats the church as a social club, who views his attendance as a necessary badge to maintain his status and standing in the community, is no Christian at all. He may celebrate the Lord’s Supper, he may even deign to be baptized, but for him it is all a bit of play acting, a required rite of passage to uphold his position.
It gets worse, by far. There are plenty who see the church as little more than a safe pickup bar. It may be non-alcoholic, but where better to find an eligible partner? Indeed, for the more wolfish, where better to find an innocent, gullible victim?
But, let me look upon these poor souls with slightly more benefit of doubt. Many of the more innocent, if they can be spoken of as innocent, may have been raised on the belief that their one-time dedication was enough. Many of them, having their certificate of christening, dedication or baptism, depending on which branch they were born into, figure that eternity’s all set for them. They’re written down, tickets bought and paid for, and now they can just get on with doing what they like. Maybe they’ll remember to show up once a week at Father’s house. Maybe only on those really special occasions. Maybe not at all. They are convinced that it doesn’t matter, so why get worked up over it?
It’s not just the so-called mainstream denominations that suffer this plague, either. How many, in our more evangelical, conversion-happy churches have been led into a recital of the sinner’s prayer, or come down front to give their life to Jesus, or otherwise been herded into an emotional moment of response, and been led to believe that this all by itself changes everything? How many, having done such a thing, have figured it was enough, just like they were told, and gone back to life as they always lived it. Eternity’s all set, so the present’s no longer a concern. I’ve got my get out of jail free card. So, why not sin it up while there’s still time?
For such as these, while we must still hold that their own condemnation is just, I would have to think much harder about whether the salvation of those who misled them so was likewise just, or even merciful. I suspect that we may come to discover that not only was the salvation of that pseudo-convert a vain imagination, so was that of the one who gave them such false hope. It is almost as if such conversions are a poor echo of Peter’s words to that man at the temple. “Real salvation I have not, but such as I have, I give to you.”
Does this sort of deception, however much the deceiver may subscribe to it himself, fall under the woe of Jesus? “It is inevitable that there will be stumbling blocks, but woe to him through whom they come! Better that he were thrown into the sea with a millstone about his neck to make the work fast than that he should be the cause of stumbling to one of these little ones. Be on guard, folks! If your brother sins, don’t wink at it! Rebuke him. You are, indeed, your brother’s keeper. If he repents, by all means forgive him. Even if he sins against you repeatedly; if he comes back to you with words of repentance, take him at face value, and forgive him” (Lk 17:1-4).
Let me break that in two parts. Point one: There will be failures for those who labor on behalf of Jesus. There will be those plantings which seem to be springing up, but wither away with the first hot day. We are not, in this sense, responsible for the failure to grow. Unless, of course, we have knowingly fouled the soil. Unless, by our inaction, we have just nodded and winked at the weeds growing up around that new planting. Unless we have failed to fulfill our mission as watchmen upon the wall, ready, willing and of an instant prepared to shout warning when our brother endangers himself.
Don’t wink at it! Do you understand that Jesus has connected these two matters. The one who winks at his brothers sins has become a stumbling block to his brother’s faith. We think we do the man a favor, keeping him from condemning himself and giving up. But, the reality is we give him an excuse to do nothing about his condition. By our winking, we convince him more thoroughly that God winks, too. We are, after all, His representatives, right? Woe to us, that we should do such a thing! Woe to us that we should set our brother up for a greater fall! It’s not alright. God isn’t amused, or turning His back, or pretending not to see what you are doing. Nor dare I.
There remains, though, the second half: If he comes in repentance, forgive. You are in no position to measure the sincerity of his words, anyway, so accept them as earnest. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve heard it before. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Sounds wise, but not when it comes to matters of eternity. It’s not about fooling you. It’s about forgiving him. After all, how many times have you played exactly this same game you suspect him of? And on God Himself! Were it not so, you would not suspect it of your brother. Now, hear the very Truth of God: “We all stumble in many ways. One who did not stumble in the very things he professes would be the perfect man” (Jas 3:2). Of course, there remains through all of earthly history but one Perfect Man: the Christ of God, the Son of Man and Son of God, Who willingly became the sole Atonement for our constant sins.
It is precisely because in Him, God finds reason to forgive us, that we have hope. It is also precisely because God has proven Himself repeatedly faithful to forgive us that Jesus lays upon us the charge to go and do likewise. You have stumbled often enough yourself, so forgive that one who has done not better. You have been as false in your repentance as ever a man was, so forgive that one whose repentance seems to pass like the wind.
But, let me return to that issue of false hope of salvation, that momentary conversion that we rapidly parley up to a license to sin. It is not the convert that needs to repent of his actions, here. He is but a child in these matters. He is but responding to what has been presented to him as true hope. It is we, who make such a false presentation of the kingdom who are in need of repentance. It is we, who cheer the conversion and duly mark it down in our holy ledgers, but neglect the real work of the Commandment: Go and make disciples. Nothing there about going out and getting your quota. Nothing there about collecting names like this was some sort of treasure hunt. Make disciples. That moment of conversion is not enough. They need to be taught, grounded in the whole Truth of the Gospel. They need to understand the full character of God, not just the soft side. They need to really grasp, I mean really grasp, the terrible danger their sins have left them in. They need to really grasp what God has done for them, through the Atonement made by His Son, and why it was necessary that God must die that we might live. If they are going to know the very true, very certain assurance of salvation, then they will need to be dissuaded of the cheep imitation of that assurance which as much as condemns those who accept it.
Turning back to this matter of revealed knowledge: it should be noticed that the revelation such knowledge brings is almost never complete, if it ever is. Consider Peter, the case at hand. It has been revealed to him that this Jesus he has been with for a year or two now is the fulfillment of the promise. He is the Messiah. Indeed, his understanding has been taken so far as to recognize that He is truly the Son of the living God. This is marvelous! On the other hand, one might note that John the Baptist, from the evidence, understood as much while still in the womb. We might also note, as Paul comments later, that demons and devils recognized as much. Indeed, there have been numerous occasions where Jesus has moved to silence their acknowledgement of these very points. Granted, Peter’s is the first vocal confession of this powerful Truth which can also claim to honoring this Messiah. This is why it is not the revelation itself that declares Peter blessed. It is that his heart was attuned to heaven from which the revelation has come.
Yet, the events quickly show that Peter had not suddenly been filled with a fullness of understanding. He recognized Messiah before him, but he still carried all his misconceptions about what Messiah meant. He was still wholly unprepared for the Suffering Servant. He was still looking for the Warrior King. He is, after all, a man of his culture, and his views are distorted by cultural misinformation. Here is my word of warning for today, my lesson to be taken to heart. For, we are all of us, myself most certainly included, subject to the distortions of our own cultural misinformation.
We are so saturated with the worldviews that currently dominate our cultural landscape that we generally don’t even notice those worldviews any longer. They are not interesting. They are just the patterns of our own thinking. Of course, that has by and large been the intent of the systems in which we were raised. Public education, far from being focused on raising up a citizenry that is literate and intelligent, has been more concerned with raising up a mindset, a way of thinking, a conformity to the norms which its controlling interests deem beneficial and productive. It is a product, at this point, of Marxist influences, who have taken to heart the maxim that the way to change society is through the children. Forget this generation. They are hopelessly beyond the reach of change, and they will die off soon enough anyway. Target the next generation. Target them while they are yet young and impressionable and they will absorb your ideals and your specified viewpoints without knowing what has happened to them. Then, having grown with those viewpoints so fully inculcated, and having grown up amongst peers who demonstrate that the way to flourish is to think as taught, the views that have been thus instilled will be all but impossible to dislodge.
That was the communist way. That is the way that pretty much every agent of social change has adopted in our day, and our government is a primary subscriber to the philosophy, though they would not yet dare to say so plainly. Sadly, that has also become part of the Church mindset, and no wonder! The church is now populated by the products of that very system. The worldview that we were set to combat as children of another kingdom has become our own worldview and we didn’t even notice!
Just look about the modern church, and see! Here a new age concept given Christian wrappings, there a capitalist business model presented as church polity. We are slowly removing every distinctive of the Church in the name of making the Church relevant. What we really succeed at doing by such efforts is making the Church totally irrelevant, because it is no longer anything more than one more display of the common worldview. It no longer competes well with things like the Buddhist temple down the street, or even the local social worker, because it really has nothing to offer that looks any different, let alone better. This is the danger of the temptation to have the Church become all things to all people. This is the danger of the Church that targets itself at those who don’t like Church. We’re different from those other, stodgy old places. We’re now. We’re hip. We’re following every last trend in this cultural kaleidoscope, and dusting it with a light, tasty frosting of faith. But, I fear we do protest too much. We are no longer different, because we have insisted on being just the same.
So, the Church is reduced to a social club. So, we have the plague of the social Christian, for whom the Church is not much different than the local bar, if we discount the absence of alcohol. It is no different then the YMCA, which long since lost any significance to the third word of its name. Nobody there cares if you’re a Christian. Nobody there cares if you have any morals whatsoever. Nobody there cares. Oh, they’ll tend to your physical needs and distractions, I’m sure. And they may even feed you some ethical pap to satisfy the gaping hole that is your empty soul. But to be a Christian is to be concerned with something more than this world and this life. It is to have a mind set on eternity every bit as much as the present, and for that, the Y has no offering.
So, anyway, we come to Christ with these worldviews distorting the way we see things, the way we hear things, the way we respond to things. By and large, those distortions are invisible to us, because they are, for all intents and purposes, the only way we have ever seen, heard and responded. We have no other measure to compare to. So, in spite of this revealed knowledge, in spite of the power of inspiration that allows us to suddenly discover what He was getting at, our mental habits will quickly set to work trying to fit this new information into the old way of thinking. It becomes enormously unlikely that we will consider that maybe it’s the old way of thinking that needs to shift to fit the revelation. And that is where the power of God is truly needed.
This is quite possibly the most insidious attack of all upon the church. That atheist that denounces the church and its God is obvious and, for the believer at least, not even really in need of being refuted. Proponents of competing religions are much the same. We know who they are and we know what they are not, and therefore, in matters of our own faith, they have no real bearing. When we start dealing with the various denominations of our own Christian faith – and let us, for the purposes of this argument, discount from that collection those which are clearly false claimants to the Christian label – the problem becomes more problematic. Many, if not all, denominations are by now far removed in practice and belief from the foundational beliefs upon which they were built. Most believers today neither know nor particularly care about the distinctives that caused these denominations to come about. Nor are they all that interested in what the official beliefs of their own denomination are. They might have some concern about the preacher’s perspective on this doctrine or that, but even that is pretty doubtful. The big question for many is the fit. How does the style of this particular congregation fit my tastes? Can I get along with this congregation? Do I have peers here, or am I going to find myself the odd man out?
That’s pretty bleak, and it’s no doubt overstating the case somewhat. I know that many are more concerned with the apparent spiritual health of the congregation. Are they actively practicing the things the Gospel teaches? Are they reaching out to the lost? Are they bearing fruit? Yet even here, we are setting ourselves in the seat of judgment. In other words, we are left assessing spiritual matters with little to go on other than physical senses. This is not to say that such assessments are utterly valueless. It is only to say that we must be aware that such attempts to assess matters are necessarily colored by our own understanding, and limited by our own corruptions by worldview. If we think we are without such corruptions, that we are free of any worldview outside of the Gospel of Christ, I would have to think it almost beyond doubt that we are fooling ourselves. We are in as great a danger as that believer who believes he has come to the point of never sinning. Such a thing, according to the very testimony of God, is so far beyond our capability as to be unthinkable. It remains the goal and the measure, yet it is so lofty a goal that it shall ever and always be a goal we strive for, not a finish line we can cross and then relax.
This matter of worldview is a different sort of thing. It is a part of the atmosphere by which we are surrounded day in and day out. It fills the airwaves and the print media. It comes at us from the conversations we have with coworkers, shopkeepers and casual acquaintances. We have been hearing it from the earliest days of our youth, but it has never been explained to us that this is what we are hearing. It has been the cultural norm, and as the cultural norm slips quietly lower, it goes unnoticed, because it is still the norm. The norm has shifted, but it remains the measure against which the ‘abnormal’ is discovered. So, when it becomes the norm in society to cohabit out of wedlock, to bear children outside of wedlock, to seek one’s own benefit against all comers, to take for oneself by hook or by crook, and so on; it becomes ‘abnormal’ to keep oneself out of that mess. It becomes abnormal not to have developed a taste for drugs and alcohol.
Just consider what has happened to the public consciousness when it comes to smoking. In my younger days, it was the cool thing, the acceptable thing. Why, it was as much an emblem of coming of age as was driving a car. After all, it was the smart class, the elitists and academics that were seen to be smoking. It was the stars of the day. It was a thing that became associated with success, with having arrived, with a certain distinguished carriage. Today? It is counted amongst the sins that must be forsaken in many a church. It is marked out as being most definitively uncool, and it is no longer just a matter of the public advertising campaign. It is in the mindset of the next generation in large part. Sure, you can find pockets around the nation where this has not taken hold, particularly where livelihoods depend on tobacco.
But, the general consensus in regards to smoking is absolutely revolutionized from that perspective that was held even thirty years ago. So, too, habits of drinking. Why, even twenty years ago, I can recall driving along beer in hand (no I was not a practicing Christian at the time) with no fear of being ticketed because it was perfectly legal in the state at the time. Now? It’s being seen for the danger it is. There are signs that we may be raising the generation that has lost all taste for such things. It remains to be seen, but it seems that the norm in this matter has been shifted enough that the idea is possible.
What has happened? The very same thing that has happened where trends have led in the other direction. The very same thing that has happened which has led to the acceptance of abortion by so many, even amongst those who count themselves as Christians! The very same thing that has happened which has caused divorce to be so much an accepted fact of life when once it was such a rarity. The very same thing that leads us to expect our high schools to provide nurseries to care for the children’s children. It has been a long, mostly surreptitious and disguised, advertising campaign. And it has worked.
It hasn’t always been the sorts of advertising that look like advertising to us, else we would likely have tuned them out in large part. It’s been advertising disguised as education. It’s been advertising disguised as entertainments. It’s been the subtext of movies, of television shows, of books and magazines. It has infiltrated our thinking because it has been so prevalent, and frankly, we weren’t thinking about it. We just absorbed it.
This is what happens to us. This is what we bring into the Church of God, and the practices of worship. The problem is that we have been just as lax there as we have in our leisure pursuits. The problem is that we have come into the house of God and noticed that it was different than what we were used to. Oh, and we noticed – shock of shocks – that what we found in the house of God was something of a minority position. It no longer looked like the norm. So, what have we done? Have we sought to dig in, to set our standards and remind society around us of what has been lost? No! We’ve sought to become relevant to the lost by looking and acting more and more like them! What are we thinking?
What are we doing when we model the altars of the heavenly kingdom after the idolatrous altar of capitalism. Look! Capitalism is not evil, whatever the so-called progressives may preach. Idols are evil. We ought to be doing what we can to ensure that our own practices in a capitalistic society are modeled on the economy of heaven, not trying to run heaven’s local branch office as though it were some multinational corporation! There is no office of the CEO in the church. While we are called to be wise stewards over those things entrusted to the work of the kingdom, we are not supposed to make our ministry decisions based on the bottom line. We are not supposed to be about profit and loss statements. If we have allowed the church to get caught up in a numbers game, we are no longer a church. Plain and simple. We are a country club, or a pyramid scheme, or maybe a game show, but we are no longer a church.
How have we let this happen? Worldview. This is the effect of not feeding the mind on the Gospel. This is what happens when we allow our worldview to shape our understanding of the Gospel rather than allowing the Gospel to shape our understanding of the world. This is how we arrived at the Social Gospel of the seventies, at the Liberation theology that is apparently popular in some corners of the minority community. This is how we arrive at churches focused on teaching their parishioners how to have great sex, and churches that decide God was only kidding when He condemned homosexuality – repeatedly and rather violently. This is how we find ourselves looking at mega-churches whose only real claim to anything is that they are very large, and making money at it. What has that to do with the kingdom of God? This is how we find ourselves with our own ‘Christian’ airwaves filled with unfiltered, anybody with the bucks to broadcast, garbage. We plaster the ‘god’ label on it, and everybody jumps on board. Who cares if what’s being said is true to Scripture? Who’s listening anyway? We just want to watch the charismatic follies. And that’s all we come away with: folly. Then, we drag it back into our churches and allow the folly to spread, so we can feel like we’re part of the norm again.
God keeps calling us to raise up a standard and instead, we keep lowering the standard so we can feel normal.
Let me return to the text. Peter confesses the Messiah, and this is good. No, this is more than good. This is incredible. That he has recognized this, Jesus says, is no evidence of his own cognitive powers. It is evidence that his heart is open to the kingdom of heaven and to its God. “You are blessed, Simon. God has been talking to you and you have heard Him.” Remember Samuel’s early days? He was hearing God but he didn’t know it. Remember those centuries of silence in Israel? Nobody, it seems was hearing God anymore. Hearts were no longer open to His communications, however committed people may have been to living a righteous life as they understood righteousness to be.
And yet, Peter, heart open to heaven, is still seeing an idol. The Messiah he has in mind as he makes this confession is not the Messiah who Is. It is a Messiah shaped by his upbringing, by the expectations that had been taught to him as a child and that he had fostered as an adult. To a nation that had been under the heels of one marauding army after another for so long, the Messiah that was longed for was the Warrior King. Who had need for a Suffering Servant? How was that going to change anything? So, Peter confesses the great Truth: You, Sir, are Messiah, the Son of God. But, at the same time, he is missing the Truth of Who Messiah is. His mind is on this matter of kings and kingdoms. His mind, and for that matter the thinking of the disciples in general, is focused on the new royalty and how they might fare in it, being privileged to get in on the ground floor as it were. Hey! They’ve got friends in high places now. What advantage might they find in this?
It would take Jesus a fair amount of teaching yet to correct that misconception. Indeed, it would take His death and Resurrection to really set them straight. And, for all that effort, off we have gone on the same idolatrous search for a different Messiah than the One Who has saved us. What else is this single-minded focus on healing? How many have heard one brother or another suggest that disease is but evidence of unbelief? How many have tried to convince you that your lack of faith was somehow stronger than the power of God, and might prevent Him from accomplishing His will? How many, all the while praising Jesus and speaking of their love for the Lord, have really made prosperity, material wealth, their god?
Ask folks why they tithe, if they tithe at all. I think you might find yourself surprised by the number who are almost wholly focused on that hundredfold return. Ask how many of them have given their tithe, but with a Christmas wish-list attached. I’m giving you this, God, so that You will give me that. Who are you, o man, to barter so with the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth? What cheek! It’s that worldview-shaped faith showing up again. It’s the Church of looking out for number one, the Church of what have You done for me lately. Idols all!
Here’s the sad fact: We remain torn between two masters. I remain torn between two masters. On the one hand, I know a true desire to serve the God Who went out of His way to mark me out as His own. On the other, there is money. There is acquiring of things. Oh, there are legitimate needs and concerns in there. Absolutely! There are the countless financial pressures that come of being head of the household. But, from moment to moment, who am I serving, really? Am I serving God or my account balances? Am I trusting God or my paycheck? Is Jehovah Jireh my Provider, or am I?
Now, I know the proper answers to give to any one of those questions. But, just at the moment, I’m not interested in the proper answers. I’m interested in the honest appraisal. It’s good to remind oneself of the proper answers, to be sure. But, we can get into this habit of thinking that knowing the answers is as good as living them. We can fool ourselves into believing that since we know the Truth, we can’t possibly be practicing the Lie. But, that’s the biggest Lie of all! It’s a self-deception designed to lead us into complacency, lest we notice that we’ve been led into temptation.
If I am to begin looking honestly and earnestly at what has plagued my spiritual wellbeing of late, this stuff is near the root. My trust has been misplaced, and my consciousness stupefied. I’ve been focusing all my senses and all my efforts in the wrong direction, placing my trust on the most untrustworthy of things, and then wondering why I don’t feel secure. I’ve been trying to solve all the problems, answer all the questions, get everything right for everybody all the time. Sorry. I’m but a man such as yourselves. I cannot simultaneously tend to this one’s emotional baggage and that one’s contradictory simultaneous emotional needs. I cannot simultaneously uphold this one’s legitimate, if presently abused, authority and that one’s reasonable complaint at mistreatment. I am, it seems, constantly faced with competing claims, decisions that, for all my capacity, are as far beyond me as Solomon’s wisdom. And yet, I try to stand on my own and do it.
It is utter foolishness, yet it is the pride of a man to do it anyway. Against all odds, I shall make my stand. I shall succeed at the impossible or die trying. Yes, and I shall offend whomever I offend. If those who love me are put off by what I must do, well, that’s their problem. Pride demands that I succeed at all cost. God help me.
God help me to cast down these idols. God, help me to recall my dependence. Help me to live my dependence upon You. I know it. I am fully aware of the theological necessity of it. I am fully cognizant of the truth of it. Yet, to live it. It seems so far from me. It is so far from me. But, You are near and You are able. You are present both to will and to work towards Your good pleasure in me. Yes, and I know that my living sense of what it is to be wholly and unequivocally Yours and wholly and unequivocally in need of You to do anything is surely Your good pleasure. Oh, God! Apart from You, I can do nothing. Yet, with You, because of You, I can do all things. Teach me, my Lord, to not only know the difference but live the difference.
No Place for the Famous (07/24/08)
Coming to Matthew 16:18, we are arrived at one of the major points that separate the Protestants from the Roman Catholics. What are we to make of this. Jesus looks at Simon and explains the change of name. You are a rock, Peter. We might think back to the old Prudential Insurance ads, and think of Peter has being a piece of the Rock. That would not be a bad analogy for what is being said. But, Jesus continues to say that on this Rock, Rock in a larger sense, even more firm, He intends to build an edifice strong enough to break down the gates of hell.
Now, I am quite purposefully skipping over the mention of ‘My church’ in paraphrasing that passage. But, let me consider it for just a moment, for it is here that the contention arises. For, because of the mention of the church and because of the ambiguity of punctuation and because of things lost in translation, we have the Roman church, so proud of having once had Peter as its bishop, discovering a claim for its own primacy. Hey! If Peter’s the foundation and we’re the church he founded, why, then, it clearly falls to us to take charge now he’s gone. But, really, this was nothing but pride on the part of that church. Any good Protestant would tell you as much. I suspect any good Eastern Orthodox would tell you as much, too.
So, with Peter’s name so closely associated with this declaration of power, what reason do we have not to suppose it is Peter that Jesus has in mind? I know, there are arguments over the shades of meaning between Petros and Petra. Fair enough. There are also the arguments pointing gout that petra, being declared in the feminine, cannot be thought to associate back to Simon, who is most decidedly not feminine. Wow, my mind is really jumping from point to point this morning, but let me try to stay focused on this one before moving to the next.
The simplest answer to the question, as I see it, is that Peter, while solid, is by no means solid enough to base a movement on. Nor is there room in the glory of God for His glory to be shared with any man. It strikes me that this is a large part of why the Scriptures always display flawed heroes to us. The greatest of the great among men, as God measures them, are broken vessels, damaged goods, failures in some sense in spite of all they accomplish. Why do You show us this God? Why do You choose such anti-heroes for Your works?
He chooses them because He would make certain that we don’t mislead ourselves into pursuing the hero, worshipping the leader, rather than pursuing God and worshiping Him. He will not share His glory with another (Isa 42:8). Indeed, this is why we consistently find God taking matters into His own hands, ensuring that we make no mistake: He acts. His own zeal accomplishes. And, lest we think we have somehow enticed Him, created an atmosphere for Him, or conjured Him into doing us a favor, let us be very, very clear on this one: It is for His own sake that He acts. Yes, and He will act, because He shall not suffer His name to be profaned. Note that! It is not because you have somehow earned His favor. It is for His Name’s sake. Note that He will not suffer you to get the credit for what He has done. He will not give His glory to another (Isa 48:11). That surely includes Peter every bit as much as it included Moses, and David, and Elijah and every other man of God’s choosing.
Peter knew this. It took him awhile, granted, but he knew this. He knew, among other things, just how little he had understood the revelation at this point. We follow on after the confession and we find Jesus explaining the necessity of the upcoming crucifixion. What is the great Peter’s reaction? No, Lord! Let not the will of God be done, if this is it! The foundation of the Church insisting that he knows better than the God of the Church? I think not!
That said, Peter’s understanding grew with time, just as any other believer. We find him at another time, faced with a challenging word from the Word. As something of an aside, I note that I have placed the event I speak of at a marginally earlier date than this confession. It is pretty clearly associated with the feeding of the five thousand, and there I have put it. Yet, it seems, as John recounts it, to come later than this present bit, to suppose the knowledge that we generally suppose Peter is speaking for the first time on this occasion. On that occasion, with Jesus asking if His best students were also ready to give up when faced with the challenge of this latest lesson of His, Peter speaks for those disciples once again. “Who else could we possibly go to, Lord? You are the only one Who can teach us of eternal life. And, were that not enough, we also have come to believe that You are the Holy One of God. No! It’s more than just a belief on our part. We know this of a certainty” (Jn 6:68-69).
Now, we can grant that Peter did not specifically refer to Jesus as Messiah at that point. However, it seems to me that the understanding is there already. The revelation has already been given to his mind, as well as to the others. They have doubtless been discussing the matter amongst themselves when time allows, wondering if others are thinking the same thing. That is, after all, how we arrive at a point where we know with certainty. That is how we assure ourselves that we’re not just chasing after our own imaginations.
Really, there is nothing about this moment of confession that requires us to suppose that Peter received the insight just as Jesus asked the question, any more than it requires us to suppose that Jesus had never called Simon by the name Peter prior to this occasion. No indeed! In fact, if we shall accept the Gospels as true, we must recognize that he had that name from the outset. “You are Simon, but you shall be known as Cephas” (Jn 1:42). Lest we think that is yet a third name for the man, John explains that this is the same term as Peter, just in the Aramaic rather than the Greek.
Given this extra point of reference, it seems we ought to look to the Hebrew to better refine our understanding of what Jesus meant. Cephas, taking us back to keph [OT:3710]: and thence to kaphaph [OT:3721]: to curve, to bow down. Thus, in keph the conception is a rock that has been hollowed out a bit by use, given a curve. Other uses of that word in the Old Testament give us to understand that there is a sense of refuge to the term. From Job 30:6, we can gather that the keph refers to the fissured nature of a rock-faced cliff, that which affords one some place to dwell in those rocky places, offering shelter of some base form. Jeremiah 4:29 makes this idea of shelter even more clear. The rocks provide the defenders with a place to hide when horse and bow have overrun the city.
So, yes, Jesus is describing something strong here, something that offers shelter in the time of trial. But, I want to take notice of that underlying root. In spite of the strength that is inherent in rock, it is a humbled rock, a rock bowed down, no place for pride. How we need to lay hold of that conception! The rock which God will use is humble in nature. Its very strength and usefulness lies in the fact that it is so humble, so hollowed out. This sort of rock has made a place in itself for others, and isn’t that the picture of the Christian leader, the man of God? All that is prideful has been scraped out so that the compassion of Christ can have place in such a one.
This draws me back to my present point. There’s no room for fame seekers in the true Church of God. I have heard it said that there are no positions in the Church. That may overstate the case, for there is order, and where there is order, there are positions. But, these positions are not such as we might understand them to be judging by the model that normal human institutions present to us. The leader, Jesus tells His disciples, will lead by serving. There is no such thing as a Christian leader who ‘lords it over his fellows’. That’s just pride. That’s a rock that isn’t properly hollowed out yet, a stone to stumble over, not to lean on.
Indeed, a man of God, if he senses the least degree of hero-worship being directed towards himself, will do everything he can to make certain that those doing the directing are corrected, and reserve their worship for the One – the only One – Who is worthy of that worship! Really, if even angels are so careful to reject anything that smacks of worship, what is man to think he can accept it? For all that, why is there a whole industry wrapped up in convincing us to make more of the angels than we ought? But, that’s another thought for another day.
The apostles worked amidst a culture acclimatized to seeing the gods walking among men. So, witnessing the power that was manifest amongst these apostles, their natural inclination was to equate them with the Titans of mythology. These were not mere mortals addressing them, but gods in the flesh! Surely, they must worship or suffer the consequences. After all, the gods they knew were capricious beings, and given to jealous passions. Mere mortals had best tread carefully in their presence. But, the apostolic reaction is modeled directly on the angelic. “What are you people doing? We are but men, no different from you. It’s not about us. We are nothing special. That which you find saw awesome is found in the Gospel we preach, the Gospel of the living God, the Creator of everything you find, whether in the heavens, on the earth, beneath the earth, or in the seas. Indeed, we have come teaching, in order that you would turn away from worshiping vain objects, whether stones or men or anything other than the One True God” (Ac 14:15).
The message is not about the man but about the God who saved the man and sent the man. The message is about the God who seeks to save you in like fashion. The good news is not that somebody else has been given power. The good news is that the God, the living God, the God Who IS, is determined to save man. The good news is that He’s not just looking to save the man speaking to you, but He’s looking to save you. The good news is that in spite of who I am, He did what I would not and could not. The good news is that in spite of who you are, He is able to do the same for you. The good news is that the faith He requires is a faith He gives, that He has determined to do by His own power, what every man among us must finally admit was beyond our own power to do. The message, then, is about the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the Atonement, the Chosen One, the Son of God, the Lord of all, the King of kings, the Suffering Servant.
The messenger is nothing. Indeed, the messenger, though given the most powerful message to deliver cannot deliver the message in his own power. It matters not how eloquent of speech that messenger be, nor how simple. It matters not how perfectly fit he may be for the audience he has been given, and it certainly doesn’t matter how his message has been tuned up to make it relevant to that audience. He is a messenger not a marketer. He is not here to make a sales pitch. He’s here to speak as the Lord gives him words. And, it is this last bit that matters. The Lord gives him words, else his words are worthless. The greatest of preachers given the greatest of messages, cannot accomplish anything of any worth until and unless the Father in heaven reveals the intent of his message direct to the hearts of those he preaches to.
Blessed are you, Simon, because God has revealed this to you. The revelation is not the blessing. The fact that God has sovereignly determined in His will that you should be amongst those who are given to understand: that is the blessing. The pastor given charge over the local flock is not blessed to be put in charge. Far from it, I suspect! He is given what must be, in many cases, a thoroughly thankless job. He is charged with teaching and training the unteachable. He is charged with delivering the truth to such a mixed bag of hearts and minds that he must often despair of accomplishing anything. And, of course, if he stands in his own strength, he does not accomplish anything. But, where God prepares a heart! Where God decides, ‘this one shall hear from heaven today,’ then the humblest, most poorly equipped (as man measures things) of preachers cannot fail of making an impact. Why? Because it is not the man, it’s the message.
There is no place for fame in the Church except in the Triune Godhead whose house the Church is. If the fame is aimed anywhere else, then it is no longer a church, but merely a cult of personality. If it’s all about who founded this or who leads that, then it is nothing. It is powerless. Oh, it may prove profitable in terms of cash flow. It may flourish for a time, if we measure it by numbers attending. But, it is nothing. It is appearance without substance. It is no longer the Church of Christ, but merely the cult of some peter or another.
Well, then, if it is not Peter that Jesus is pointing out in this passage (and I think we can safely conclude from all we know of God and man that it most certainly is not), then who or what is Jesus speaking of. Where is this strength to withstand the gates of hell? I know that the general view amongst Protestant believers is that it is the revealed nature of the knowledge to which Jesus is pointing. That view gains even stronger support when we reach the circles of the Pentecostals and Charismatics. After all, we’re all about revelation knowledge here! So, sure! It’s bound to be the foundation. There’s so much power to be had there, and doesn’t God Himself proclaim that it is for lack of knowledge that His people perish? Obviously, He’s referring to just this sort of revelation knowledge, for His people weren’t stupid or ignorant. Why, they were accomplished businessmen and artisans! No, it’s the revelation knowledge! That’s the foundation and that’s what we must seek out! That’s what we, dare we say it, worship! The power! The power! Oh, yes, and God.
But, I cannot help but think that Jesus is actually pointing forward in this declaration, not backward. He is not summing up His point with a therefore. He is adding to what He has said. You, Peter are a rock, a humble, useful rock. And, it is a rock foundation that is needed in this battle. Indeed, I provide that foundation. But, it strikes me that the rock, the Petra, to which Jesus alludes is nothing so ethereal as the sort of knowledge one attains to. I am more and more convinced that He is referring directly to the Church itself. Upon this rock I will build: My Church.
Honestly, I cannot say one way or another whether the text as we have it in Matthew will support such an understanding. I know that the Greek in which the text is written knows nothing of punctuation or even of capitalization. One must discover the structure by other means, and those means are beyond my talents. Yet, history would tend to bear out such an understanding. It has been no man of God, certainly, that has kept the Church going against all odds. It is not, at least not directly or evidently, some constant stream of revelatory knowledge that has done so. The record of the Christian faith is not, really, a long list of those who discovered some new, previously unknown comprehension of what heaven is.
Quite the opposite. The record of heretical movements, of those which sprang out of the Church but were never truly part of that Church: that’s where one finds far more men of ‘revelation’. We really ought to take the cautionary tale that is right before our eyes in that record. After all, it is but proof of God’s own warning: Those who allow themselves to be led by nothing more than dreams and visions will inevitably find themselves led right off the cliff. Those who follow such leaders can only be blind followers of blinded guides, and they shall join in the fall of such poor leadership.
No, the thing that has withstood all the attacks of fallen humanity, the thing that has withstood even the failures of its own leadership, is the Church itself. It has remained because of its Head and for no other reason. The Church is the foundation because the Church is not, in the end, in the hands of any man, but in the hands of the Creator. Its history is full of failures – men’s failures. But, its history is equally full with miraculous recoveries from such failures of man. That is, in the end, what reformation is about. It’s about healing the visible church of such failures. When men have occluded the true vision of the Church, God sovereignly appoints a time and a place for true vision to be restored. It’s not a revelation. It’s a healing, a restoration, a return to what has been from the beginning.
It’s not about placing a new star at the helm. It’s more often about removing the self-proclaimed star from his perch and restoring the Bright Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness to that place that only He can truly fill. It is in times when the Church recognizes His headship in full reality that the Church finds itself powerful. It is in those times when the Church chases after the visions and conceptions of men that it becomes weak. However, in spite of the foibles of fallible man, because God has established the Church and because He has called His chosen ones into the Church He establishes, because HE IS the Son of God and the Church is His, the Church shall prevail. Whatever man or devil may do, the Church shall prevail. Nothing surpasses the true Church in strength, because the true Church has its strength in the Son of the living God, the Almighty. No lesser rock will do. No lesser rock can make such a claim to withstand.
Listen. We find the gods of the surrounding culture described as rocks. Surely, these rocks are stronger than any rock that might represent a mortal man, even a false god is more powerful than man. But, there is no rock like our Rock! And it is that Rock alone, the Christ Jesus, Who is able to withstand the gates of hell. Indeed, He has already conquered that darkened realm, taken the keys from its vile overlord, and led His own out. Thus were the captives set free. Let no man be so foolish as to think he is something when the Living King is there to be compared with! Let no man think any other – be it man, machine, animal or spirit, is anything at all when the Living King is here. He may, in this time, remain invisible so far as eyes of flesh are concerned. But, He has left Himself a testimony, the testimony of the Church that He alone leads. Notice, in completing this topic, how that Church is known from the outset. It is the Church of the living God – His alone. No Church of Paul or Church of Peter or Church of Apollos, but the Church of the living God. This is the Church which stands in the world as the pillar and support of the Truth (1Ti 3:15). This is the house that God built, and against it, no power shall ever succeed.
To Whom the Authority? (07/25/08)
Well, if Peter is not the rock, is it reasonable to think he is the recipient of the keys Jesus speaks of in Matthew 16:19? More to the point, to whom are those keys given? Are they something entrusted to the apostles only, or to the church at large? How should they be understood? I know a great many hold the view that this is a general authority given to every believer. I also know, or am convinced that I do, that many misunderstand the nature of the authority that is given here.
That misunderstanding is in itself understandable, because the translations we are most familiar with seem to fail us when it comes to this verse. Perhaps we should start there. Now, I have to recognize once again that I am no Greek scholar that I might look at the text in its original form and give some sort of definitive reading on the matter. However, when I come across translations such as this: “the things you don't allow on earth will be the things that God does not allow, and the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows” from the NCV, or this: “whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven” from the Amplified, it is certainly a cue to look more closely.
When I do so, I find myself inclined to follow the understanding of those who wrote the Amplified version. With each pairing of actions, the former term is presented as an active aorist subjunctive. It is our doing. The ‘you’ acts. It is a simple, one time action, and, being in the subjunctive mood, there is a certain ambiguity or uncertainty as to the outcome. Thus, it must ever be when man wields the authority of heaven! We imperfect beings cannot expect to represent heaven perfectly. The Perfect Author of heaven’s law must retain to Himself a right of overruling our imperfect decisions, else His Justice would be impossible to uphold.
Contrast this to the second term of each pair, that action which is assigned to heaven. Here, we have moved to a passive perfect. The ‘you’ who acted with uncertainty here receives the certain and accomplished act of heaven. That act of heaven is but the present result of a prior event, the outworking of a concluded whole. It is but the continuing result of a past action. It has been done.
With all of this in mind, it ought to be clear to us that whoever it is who holds this authority, it is not the authority to direct things in heaven. Nor is it even the authority to direct things on earth. It is not the power to proclaim that this is how things must be. Indeed, we might even go so far as to say that it is not authority at all which is being given here, but accuracy. I could almost take it that far, but not quite. There is an authority given here, a delegated authority. Because it is delegated, it comes with a great responsibility. That, I think, is what Jesus is really getting at in this declaration.
You are being given the keys of the kingdom. Take care how you use them. They are keys to great power, but that power must be used wisely, else Father will take the keys away again. How different is this, really, than dealing with handing your car into the care of your child? Oh, I grant the scale and the significance do not even compare. My point is that having given them the keys to that car, you are not giving them license to do with it what they will. You have certain expectations that they will refrain from using it as a weapon, that they will be responsible with the privilege you have granted, that they will return that car to you in as good an order as they received it. As such, you might be inclined to note certain provisions that govern their use of your car. You might settle for simple admonishments like, “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” or, if it seems more appropriate, “don’t do anything I would”.
What Jesus is doing here is laying out the limits of that authority He has just handed down. You have the keys. However. This is not free license to make up whatever rules you please. You do not have the authority to declare sin acceptable, for instance. You do not have authority to condemn righteousness. What you declare lawful must be what God declares lawful. What you declare sinful must remain within the bounds of what God has declared sinful.
See, when we read this the way the NASB has it, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” it sounds like we hold the reins. We’re in charge here. We have a power that God guarantees. Indeed, so great is our power that whatever we choose to claim, He promises to back it up and make it so. Who are we kidding? Do we really suppose that God is senile that He would entrust us with something that dangerous? Of course it mustn’t be understood in this fashion! And yet, it is our inclination to take it that way.
We will point to this verse and claim it as God’s promise to us. See? He says He will do in heaven whatever we declare here. If we bind something here, He’ll bind it on the spiritual plane. If we declare something free and acceptable here, He’ll do what’s necessary to make it happen. He’s our genie! He’s our familiar spirit! Oh, no. We’d never think of Him in those terms, but that’s the way we treat Him when we come to this passage. It’s license to kill, really, or it would be, if that was really what He had said here.
But, it isn’t. It clearly isn’t. The proof is so entirely obvious that we must either delude ourselves in order to claim otherwise. The simplest evidence ought to show us that either we have misapprehended the intent of these words, or that we simply weren’t the ones handed the authority. And, if it’s a matter of who has the authority, we must further confess that we’ve never met a single man who showed signs of having that authority.
Face it! If one godly man in all of history had truly held the authority to bend the power of heaven to his own will, don’t you suppose we’d see some signs of it? Do you really suppose that, if any man held such power, we’d still see cancer and other debilitating and incurable diseases plaguing mankind? At the very least, don’t you suppose that such issues would be kept clear of those in the Church? Don’t you suppose that a man of God, given such authority, would quickly demand that God bind up all sin in the world, loose His righteousness in full upon mankind, and get it over with? Try it now. Did it work?
Of course not! It’s not a license to make your will the control. It’s not an incantation that we can invoke and claim that it must be that God now comes into agreement with us. It’s exactly the opposite that is to be understood. Unless and until we are come into agreement with God, those keys are going to be useless. The moment we seek to proclaim anything that runs counter to His will and His determination, we have abdicated all claim to His authority.
Another aspect we ought to recognize from this is that whatever we are able to accomplish for the kingdom, whatever legitimate use we make of this authority, it is not our power that has done anything. It is the power of what is already done and accomplished in heaven. Remember, what you bind and what you loose are uncertain things so far as it remains your action. It is only when your declarations reflect the accomplished fact of the heavenly order that they have any power or authority.
Think about this: when Jesus taught, the people recognized that He taught with a power and authority they did not find in their rabbis. Why do you suppose that was? It was precisely because Jesus taught nothing except what He heard from the Father, nothing except what He knew to be the established order of heaven. The rabbis, the Pharisees; they claimed a knowledge of this order, but the things they declared unlawful had little to do with anything God had declared. The things they permitted, as Jesus would point out on occasion, were not only beyond any declaration of God, they were in direct contradiction of God’s Law. There was not authority in their teaching, only burdens not worth the bearing.
Take this authority alongside what we hear Jesus authorize in His resurrection: “Whom you forgive of their sins, their sins are forgiven. Whom you leave to their sins, to their sins they are left” (Jn 20:23). A quick look seems to show the same relationship of the actions here. Yours are one time actions with an uncertainty of outcome. His are already accomplished, and you but see the outworking of what He has already finished. Here, again, the man of God has no power or authority in himself by which he can cause the forgiveness of another’s sins. Indeed, in himself, he is no judge of any man’s condition. He knows not of the prerequisite repentance is truly there or truly lacking. If he judges the matter with nothing but his own perceptions, then God would be a fool to stand by his judgment. It is only as the man of God judges the matter in the wisdom of God, only as he proclaims the decisions of heaven’s court, that his judgment has any power.
So, let us understand that for those of us who dwell in the kingdom, whose hearts are set on home as we sojourn in this strange land, the situation is really no different for us than it was for Pilate. You have no authority unless it is given you from above (Jn 19:11). Yes, and your authority ends where your obedience to that higher power ends. You have the authority to accurately represent your Lord and King. You do not have the authority to tell Him how to run the kingdom. He really is not in need of your counsel.
Only now, with this clearly in our minds, are we in a fit condition to consider who has been granted this authority, and to what degree. Well, the ‘you’ to whom He makes this statement is a singular ‘you’ not a plural. Of course, His conversation at this point is rather focused on Peter. But, just as Peter’s confession was not his alone, but really the confession of all the disciples present, so, I think we might recognize that this authority is given not to Peter alone, but to all those disciples present.
We might also recognize that it is in the nature of authority, even delegated authority, that those given the authority may likewise delegate what has been entrusted to them. Every caveat and covenant that was binding upon them must necessarily pass down to those they choose to delegate their authority to, as well as any other they might add. But, at a minimum, the rules of their own authority are binding upon all below them. It is the nature of delegation and authority.
Now, as pastors, teachers and deacons were assigned in the church, it must have been clear to the apostles that these were being set in positions where they would require this same authority and accuracy. The pastor, the teacher, particularly, must be empowered to preach and teach only what is authorized in heaven, else he is no longer a shepherd but a wolf. So, there must be a passing of this authority and this safeguard to those the apostles would give charge over the local body. It is to this end that even today the church tends to ordain by a laying on of hands. It is a symbolic passing of these keys and these binding covenants of office. The one cannot be passed without the other.
Take it one step further, and connect it to that great commission which guides the Church in all ages. Now, go and make disciples (Mt 28:19). Baptize them. Teach them all that I commanded. This requires those same keys, the same authority. We cannot teach except we are given the authority to teach with accuracy and power. We cannot make disciples unless we have the authority to discipline. To fulfill the commission, then, we must necessarily share in the authority of the office of representative of God’s kingdom. Our authority may come to us through several tiers of delegation, but that authority remains. It remains under the same terms as it was delegated, however many times. Only so long as what is taught is all that I commanded and, I dare say, only what He commanded, is there any authority to the teaching.
That’s where Paul was coming from when he rebuked the Galatians who were accepting all manner of additions to the authorized Law of heavenly citizenship. “I don’t care if it’s borne to you by angels. If the things being preached to you contradict the Gospel that was delivered to you, the Gospel that delivered you, let that false preacher be accursed” (Gal 1:8-9). Lest you miss it, Paul repeats himself. Let that one be accursed. He is lying. He is powerless. He is a false representative with no claims to the title. And he is misleading you, you who are authorized, you who are legitimate representatives. Don’t let it happen! Don’t forsake your office and your authority by accepting these invalid addenda. Don’t you dare start teaching the same garbage they’re spouting. Stick to the legitimate, powerful Gospel of Jesus the risen Christ, the Savior, and all that He taught and commanded. For here alone is the power of heaven come to save fallen man.
Who has the authority? You do. I do. But, in the end, only God does, and any capacity we find in ourselves to serve His kingdom comes solely from Himself.
Thank You once again, my Lord, my King, that You are willing to allow us our part in Your purpose. May You find us faithful to play the part You assign us and may Your will be fully accomplished here in this earth even as it is and always has been in heaven. Amen and amen.
