NAssurance of Life (03/13/23-03/14/23)

Given as I have come to the topic of assurance of life, it might seem an odd choice to begin by traveling back to visit with Daniel.  In particular, I shall be turning my attention to the closing chapter of his prophecy, which begins by notice of ‘a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation’ (Dan 12:1).  Isn’t that reassuring?  But observe!  At that time everyone found written in the book will be rescued.  Michael, the archangel who is speaking to our prophet, speaks of them as ‘your people’.  But that is the broader category.  The fundamental determinant is as was said:  They are found written in the book.  But this clearly sets its application upon those yet alive when this great trial comes, for there are those beyond that group.  Many who sleep in the ground will awake, some to eternal life, others to eternal contempt.  Those who are wise, having insight, will shine.  Those who lead many to righteousness will have an eternal glory of their own (Dan 12:2-3).

That last must surely be heard as yet another call to get with it.  We have not received this marvelous gift of assured life simply to feel safe and secure as we weather the storms of earthly existence.  It’s not some ticket we carefully tuck away against the day of our great migration.  It’s for sharing.  It’s for living in light of this gift of Life.  It’s for shaping who we are and how we interact with those around us, whether brethren or neighbors.

Honestly, at this point the message gets a bit strange, if it weren’t sufficiently strange already.  Daniel is told to go ahead and write this down, but let no one read it ‘until the end of time’.  What?  Well, apparently he was disobedient, then, for we have the book, right?  Or the end of time refers to something else, perhaps the period of exile in Babylon.  Yet, wasn’t Ezekiel well aware of what was written?   Yeah, I don’t understand this.  Neither did Daniel.  He’s got questions, just as we do.  “I heard but could not understand.”  How long?  When is this coming?  What will come of it (Dan 12:4-13)?  But before I look at Michael’s answer, there is one other thing he said previously which perhaps we ought have a peek at.

“Many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase” (Dan 12:4b).  Now, I don’t want to wind up on a sidetrack within a sidetrack, but isn’t that a curious statement?  Go back and forth from whence to where?  Are we talking about folks going out from Babylon to Jerusalem and returning?  That doesn’t seem in keeping with the discussion, does it?  I mean, we’ve been talking death and life and resurrection here.  To suddenly drop into the mundane matters of caravan travel hardly seems germane.  It’s got to be something more, right?  Are we talking those who are wandering into heaven and returning?  Is this, then, a case for all those near-death experiences, or those who claim to have died and returned, having seen somewhat of heaven?   Well, it needn’t be that.  I mean, we have, as but one example, Paul’s claims of having been caught up to the third heaven.  We have a number of prophets who caught glimpses of these things and came back to tell God’s people of it.  We have, as well, Jesus, and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.  Perhaps that will satisfy the statement.  And knowledge has indeed increased.  This Jesus who came and dwelt among us, doing as He saw the Father do, speaking as the Father gave Him to speak, has brought new understanding, has He not?  Having just read through the Sermon on the Mount in pursuit of another exercise for church, that certainly brought new understanding, or at the very least, broadened the scope of the somewhat tired and constricted understanding of that Law which had already been given which pertained at the time.

But yes, the whole business is rather curious, and as is so often the case with prophecy, it’s just left to sit there.  Perhaps in retrospect, we shall see the point.  But it seems to me that Daniel was no better at keeping silent about what God had done or was doing than were those whom Jesus healed and insisted they tell nobody.  I mean, it’s kind of a silly thing to require, isn’t it?  A lame man walking is going to raise questions.  The child who was known to be dying, and in fact, already dead, being outside playing again is going to be noticed.  What is the parent to do?  Say they don’t know where this child reappeared from?  Shall the lame man lie about it?  Say, perhaps, that his life prior to this time was all a great sham?  That sounds like a great idea.  So, of course they spoke.  How could they keep silent?  “I tell you, if these keep silent, the very rocks would cry out!” (Lk 19:40).  Do you suppose He was any less aware of this reality when He told them to keep quiet?  Do you suppose maybe He knew that wasn’t happening?  No, I don’t have some grand illumination to add as to the why of it, or whether their disobedience was, in this case, a good thing or a bad thing.  I just have questions.

So, let’s get back to Michael and his minions, and hear what answer Daniel is given.  When?  It will be for a time, times, and have a time.  But there is, apparently, need to ‘shatter the power of the holy people’.  Okay.  Not sure I quite apprehend that, as well, although it sounds cause to be apprehensive.  They’re going to be shattered?  How is this rescue?   No wonder Daniel couldn’t understand.  What?  What’s going to come of that?  “Many will be purged, purified and refined.”  Okay.  But isn’t that two different things?  I mean purging is ridding, right?  It’s the result of purification and refining.  The dross is removed.  It seems like there should be an or there rather than an and.  But we have what we have.  “The wicked will act wickedly, for none of them will understand.  But those with insight will.”  So, we have this setup.  There will be a time when ‘the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up’, and that period will be 1290 days, yet there is apparently need to keep waiting even thereafter, and so attain to day 1335.  Now, all sorts of mental exercise have been expended trying to discern just exactly what a time meant, or times, or half a time.  So, what, Michael?  Three and a half years?  Something else?  Well, that works about right for the number of days noted.  But how long is a day in this instance?  A thousand years?  A year?  A day?  Some other variation?  I mean, if a day is a thousand years, then we’ve still got a mighty long wait ahead, don’t we?  If a year as a thousand years, even, we’re only about two thirds of the way there.  May as well settle in.  But don’t forget.  “You don’t know the time.”  Nor, I think, do we fully know the meaning, though knowledge increases.

We do have Jesus’ callback to this passage, specifically referencing that abomination of desolation of which he writes.  And that is the time to flee without pause.  That is the marker for the Great Tribulation, as we have seen.  That is indication that soon and very soon the Son will make His appearance.  But there’s still that pesky business of sun and moon gone dark to set the stage (Mt 24).

But here we are concerning ourselves with life and the assurance of life, and for that, I must needs turn our attention to the very last thing spoken to our friend Daniel.  “As for you, go your way to the end.  Then you will enter into rest, and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age” (Dan 12:13).  Just keep going.  Keep doing what you know to do.  Keep trusting God.  Your death is not the end, it’s entering into rest, and if you sleep, be sure that you will once again awaken.  You have not lost your reward by not seeing this day live and in your old body.  That’s not necessary.  Your old body will have long since decomposed to its elements, and those elements have no doubt been put to myriad other uses over the millennia.  It matters not.  You will rise again.  Your inheritance is secure, and you shall have it.  Even with all this that you have seen, even with all the falling away, all the great distress, and all that purging, your future remains secure.  Stand fast.

And with that, I would like to jump a long way forward, and take us to the scene at Martha and Mary’s house as they lament the death of their brother Lazarus (Jn 11).  Imagine the sorrow and distress these two sisters were feeling.  So far as we know, their father has long been gone from the scene, or so it would seem, at least.  He doesn’t enter into the record of their interaction with Jesus whatsoever.  But they were a well-off family so far as we can discern, living in Bethany.  And one must assume that Lazarus, whatever his trade, had been the primary means of their support, given the nature of that society in which they lived.  And now, he’s dead.  But they had held out hope.  They had sent word to Jesus while he was yet alive, but sick, and they knew Jesus.  They knew how close He was with their family.  Surely, He would do something to prevent this calamity.  But He did not.  He just let it happen.  Indeed, with John’s insight from having been there, we learn that He pretty much intentionally delayed going to Bethany, until He was quite certain Lazarus was dead.  Only then did He inform His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I go to wake him up” (Jn 11:11).  None too surprisingly, his disciples didn’t get it.  Oh, he’s asleep because of this sickness, well then, he will recover.  No rush.  Jesus had to be blunt.  No, child.  He is dead, and it is to great purpose.  Indeed, “I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there.  Maybe now you will be able to believe.  Let’s go.”

Bear in mind that everybody was quite aware of the animosity towards Jesus amongst the authorities of the temple.  Oh great.  Thomas sums up the mood.  By all means, let’s go.  Then we, can die along with him!  Sounds a great plan, there, Jesus.  And by the time they got there, Lazarus had been dead some four days already.  Three was enough.  The potential for false diagnosis had passed.  I’m not sure what would have happened had there been a mistake.  I mean, he’s wrapped in linens, and those linens saturated with various ointments until it wasn’t all that much different from a cocoon.  What, was he going to get up and knock?  On a rock?  Who would hear?  Who would even be there to hear?  They were all busy wailing back at the house.  But whatever his condition when he was interred, here was assurance.  He’s stone dead now.  And only then does Jesus come.  And Martha, for one, was not happy.  “You should have been here.  You could have prevented this.  What gives, Jesus?”  And yet, she’s not completely unaware in her grief.  “Even now I know that God will give You whatever you ask of Him” (Jn 11:22).

Well, there it is.  The bell-like tone of faith, and Jesus responds.  “Your brother shall rise again.”  And suddenly, that bell seems to be muted.  Yes, Jesus, I’ve heard your teaching.  I’ve been to synagogue.  I know, I know.  On the last day, of course he will rise again.  We all will.  That’s not much consolation right now, though.  That’s not going to get me through today.  But Jesus doesn’t rebuke her for not understanding, or for finding this promise of eternal life less than satisfying in the moment.  He does, however, increase knowledge.  “I am the resurrection.  I am the Life.  He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and those who live and believe in Me shall never die.”  But Jesus!  He’s there in the grave.  He’s been there too long for life to remain in him.  Did he not believe in You?  I know he did!  You could see all sorts of reasons why Martha, even with this, might be rather less than assured.  But He doesn’t really give her time for such thinking.  So soon as He has reminded her of this most glorious truth, He comes with the question:  “Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:21-26).

Well, do you?  Martha did.  That was enough.  She was back in her right mind, or at least returning to it.  “Yes Lord, I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”  Now, this phrasing, “I have believed,” might suggest to us that that was then, but this is now.  But that’s not the case.  She isn’t speaking of some past action that may or may not pertain now.  She has taken up the perfect tense.  I have believed, and that belief has resulted in present state belief.  Having believed, I yet believe.  Faith is like that.  She may not yet see what is coming, and indeed her later reaction when He commands that the tomb be opened suggest she didn’t.  But she’s gained perspective.  In light of eternity, this is of less interest.  The physical plant may have shut down, but life continues.

And the question asked of Martha comes down to us.  Do you believe this?  Do you really?  Because if you do, it must surely shape your response to matters of this life only.  If you believe this, then your eyes ought rightly to be on the stuff of eternity.  You ought, like Daniel, to go your way to the end, faithful to the faith that is in you.  You ought to know that to die is but to enter into your rest.  That’s really the worst the world can do to you, is speed you to your rest.  Now, I would be the first to confess that this doesn’t make death all that much more palatable, and certainly does little to comfort in the prospect of violent death, or death by prolonged illness and anguish.  But still, to know that’s not a wrap, there’s more to come:  This is devoutly to be desired, and our desire is in fact established on clear and certain hope.  “Yes, Lord, I have believed and that belief being by Your own gracious gift, it stands certain, as certain as the Rock, Christ Jesus.”

This should surely be our answer to the doubts of life.  And life certainly doles out plenty of cause for doubt, doesn’t it?  We live in an age where fear and trepidation seem to be on the menu daily.  We have entire industries that have nothing better to do, no better product to sell, than fear.  Politics has become a realm of terror.  Healthcare has become a cause for fear.  Banks?  Yeah.  Did you glance at the news this week?  Looks to be a wild ride.  Weather?  That, too, has been elevated to be an ever-present threat.  It doesn’t matter how clement the weather.  There’s a whole network of folks out there waiting to tell you just why this day’s weather is a sure sign of the end.  And it’s not just those Christian folk caught up with catching the scent of the Last Day.  It’s people who wouldn’t be caught dead being identified as a Christian, nor even a person of faith.  And yet, here they are in this death cult, worshiping the gods of weather, of wealth, of politics, or whatever other substitute they’ve stumbled into this week.

We are not of that sort.  We are not of those who shrink back.  We have been granted faith in the One God, He who saves.  He has called us by name.  He has drawn us to Himself.  He has taken us in hand, and He does not lose even one from among all who have been entrusted into His care.  Not a one.  Whom the Father sends Him, He draws to Him, “and I will raise him up on the last day, I Myself!  All whom Father gives me shall come to Me, and I most certainly won’t reject them.  After all, I have not come to do My will, but His, and this is His will:  That of all whom He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (Jn 6:37-40, Jn 6:44).  “Yes, Lord, I believe.”

We are on the subject of life, that new life which has come of our resurrection.  It is indeed spiritual, to be sure, but as we have seen, there is physical reality to it as well.  We have experienced spiritual rebirth already, if indeed we belong to Christ, but we recognize that there must be more, and we long for it.  We know, if nothing else, that our spiritual condition, though reborn, is far from being as it should.  We know that this present body, as well crafted as it is, too often drags us down, away from our Lord and our heavenly future.  And so, as Paul tells us, we groan in this tent, longing for that resurrected life that is to be ours at the revealing of the saints.  And we know of this coming attraction because God has sent previews.  Chief among these for the excitement it stirs would be the glimpses Isaiah gives of our future.  So I turn to his text to see something of this life worthy to be called life into which our Lord of life is calling us.

“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth!  The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind” (Isa 65:17).  That’s bold, isn’t it?  This new work, when once we’ve entered into it, shall be so marvelous, so wonderful, that all that we’ve left behind, all that went before won’t be so much as a memory.  Of course, one aspect of that is the laying aside of sorrows.  Paul writes of it.  “Momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at things seen, but at things not seen.  For what is seen is temporal, but what is not seen is eternal” (2Co 4:17-18).  John wrote of it, as he brought his own experience of the vision of this new heavens and new earth.  “God shall wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:17).  He repeats this towards the end, adding, “There shall be no more death, no more mourning, or crying, or pain.  The first things have passed away” (Rev 21:4-5), because He is making all things new.  Here is that new heavens and new earth coming to fruition.  But let me get back to Isaiah.

“Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create, for I create Jerusalem for rejoicing, and her people for gladness!”  And here, too, is notice of that which John observed:  No more tears, no more death, or at the very least fulness of days.  “There will be no more infant mortality, no old man who doesn’t live out his days.  The youth will die at one hundred, and anyone who doesn’t live so long will be thought accursed” (Isa 65:18-20).  Wait a minute!  Are we in fact looking to the same thing here?  I think so, but there remains this note of death, and that sounds a dissonant note in this vision.  It’s curious.  The picture is not of eternality, but merely longevity.  They shall wear out the work of their hands.  They shall labor but not in vain.  They shall bear children, but not in vain (Isa 65:21-23).  This sounds like a partial reversing of the curse, yes, but only partial.  The futility of which Solomon wrote seems to be alleviated, but death remains.  Temporal existence remains.  What am I to make of this?  Is Isaiah in fact seeing to that Last Day, but seeing it blurred by his own limitations?  Is he presenting this vision in a more limited scope such that it remains comprehensible to those who hear?  Was the idea of eternal existence simply too much for them in their current state?  I don’t know.  But as we come to the last portion of the text, and its transition into the final chapter, where we have already spent some time, I see things that have clearly not been fulfilled to date.

“It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.  While they are yet speaking, I will hear.  Wolf and lamb shall graze together.  The lion shall eat straw like the ox.  The serpent will satisfy himself on dust.  They shall do no evil in all My holy mountain” (Isa 65:24-25).  I believe we looked at that in turning to Isaiah 66.  But it is a bridging of the visions, it seems to me.  This is Zion the new.  This is the type revealed in antitype.  This is life without any evil, life experienced in the perfection of holiness, in that shalom peace of all things restored to their original, designed state.  This is the curse fully and finally removed, and Eden restored.  This is your promise, you who have heard the Lord’s call and come to Him.

And that brings me back to John once again, to that passage I looked at yesterday.  But I want to zero in on this one point of absolute assurance:  “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing” (Jn 6:39).  Jesus doesn’t lose sheep.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He defends His flock.  He goes after the one who strays.  He never fails.  For He always does the will of the Father, and the will of the Father, dear ones, is not subject to failure.  What he says goes.  Period.

This, too, is the will of the Father, given expression by the Son:  “That everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:40).  Eternal life!  This goes beyond what Isaiah was seeing, although it is assuredly of a piece with it.  There is blessing to be experienced in Christ in what remains of our earthly existence.  Perhaps it is that to which Isaiah was turning our attention.  In this life, we have a foretaste of these eternal benefits.  We certainly don’t have some assurance of a gentle garden path to traverse.  Far from it!  We have every assurance that in this life we shall have tribulation (Jn 16:33).  Persecution is par for the course, and indeed, we might well surmise that the absence of such trials is cause for concern.  We might.  But then I go back to Isaiah.  What he shows us is a period of true, though apparently earthly blessing.  And there’s nothing wrong with this, I don’t suppose, if we can experience the temporal blessings of eternal God and not lose sight of heaven.  It is ever a risk, and ever was.  Even from of old, Israel was warned of it.  And we have her story as an example, who live in these last days.  Yet still, we are too easily caught up in the present to remain properly concerned with eternity.

But let us hear our Lord once more.  “Of all that He has given Me, I lose nothing.”  That is quite possibly the greatest promise we receive in the gospel.  It is the assurance of real and lasting life, life that extends not just for a hundred years or so, but continues past the grave, into the resurrection at the Last Day, and onward for all eternity.  It is life so long and so blessed that whatever the trials we may weather in these brief years on this side of the grave, and however it may be that this physical body comes to its end, it won’t amount to a hill of beans.  It won’t even be remembered, when once we have joined our Lord to truly love Him and enjoy Him forever.  It’s a hard perspective to maintain, for we are at present still too much with the world.  We experience the physical realities around us with too much immediacy to remain so spiritually attuned.  And yet, by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Father who called us has instilled in us an awareness, a new heavenly GPS, if you will, guiding us at every turn that we may, in the end, come home to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.

Lord, how wondrous is this promise!  How I long for that day.  Oh, I must confess, for You know it anyway, that I find much to enjoy in this present life.  Yet, I know too its sorrows and disappointments.  In the end, it offers little else.  And yet, it is the work of Your hands, the expression of Your blessing towards us, and shall I spurn it entirely?  I think not.  You have not called me to be an ascetic.  You have given me a desire to create, and have given me at least some small talent for doing so in the realm of music, and perhaps in some of these words that come in studying Your word.  You have granted me to know a period of blessing such as You have promised Your children through the ages, and I only pray I am found worthy of Your trust in so doing.  Let it be that whatever the blessings I may know in this life, I remain hungry for heaven.  Let it be that however much I may have to hold in this life, I hold it but lightly, and gladly give of it into Your service.  I know I could far too easily come to value these things more than I ought, and I pray I may steer clear of that, for to lose sight of You amidst these temporary things would be horrible.  If I have drifted, come find me.  If my love for You has cooled, fan it to flame.  For I am yours.  You have called me.  This is beyond doubt.  And You shall not lose me, for You never lose.  Glory to Your name, and may I be found ready when You come.