GospelDrivenLife

Complete Savior: Resurrection and Joy 2

Joy is of the very essence of God.  And knowing God in Christ bears the fruit of joy.  The resurrection brings joy which cannot be taken from us.

That, at least, is what I have concluded after 3 months of meditating on Scripture related to joy.

But what does that joy look like and what hinders that joy?

First, the essence of that joy is an abiding sense of well being -- well-being that is the fruit of redemption -- a well-being of knowing my life and eternity now rests in the care of Omnipotent and All-wise Love.  To live every day trusting to this God is the foundation of joy.

Second, that's because joy is killed by my heart's endless suspicions of God.  When life is not as I prefer, I hold God's character up to question.  Perhaps he is not wise, does not love, is not working all things for his glory and my good?  And I have trusted him???? How could I have done that??? That kind of heart thinking kills joy.

Third, that's because joy is killed by abiding in circumstances rather than in God and Christ.  I can measure my hearts resting place by looking at my joy or joylessness.  I find that joy is absent when I am focused on my circumstances -- whether good or bad.

Fourth, joy is killed when I spend lots of time studying my motives and my sin and very little time studying my Savior.  I study my heart because I believe deeply that I must be very serious about my life -- if I am not serious about my life and my heart and my motives -- then what will happen?  All this taking of myself seriously is nothing but deadly self absorption, even when covered with a veneer of Christ.  The Christian life is a gaze at Christ, not a long meditation on my navel. 

None of this minimizes sound doctrine or the call to holiness  but I find that sometimes my interest in sound doctrine if really more about my desire to get it right than my desire to see God in truth.  When I am endlessly busy being "careful" (a word that can reveal self-preoccupation more than Godward faith) -- and constantly analyzing and thinking and parsing the details of doctrine -- and not looking in the face of God -- then I have missed the point.

And, I have found that a look at Christ and joy in him is a far better antidote to sin and temptation than endless self analysis.  When temptation comes which offers to me alternate joy, I find myself saying. "Why would I trade clean joy and the face of God for the passing and dirty joys of sin?"  Far from discouraging holiness -- the focus on joy in Christ is a means of grace unto holiness.

FInally, I have found that joy is eternal.  C S Lewis, The Great Divorce, is a prolonged meditation on joy.  Yes, there may be some theological errors in it -- but I have read the book 3 times in the last few months and believe that Lewis speaks of joy more colorfully than most. He systematically shows how self-seriousness in all its forms is a resistance movement to the joy God offers in Christ. 

Here is a summary:  Sin is my refusing the joy that is in Christ.  Depression and misery are my poutings before God and my attempts to blackmail the cosmos -- refusing to come out and play unless the rules of the game are changed to make me happy in the way I want to be happy.  But again and again, Lewis shows that misery will not win, that joy will not be diluted in heaven, and that God will not be blackmailed by the selfish complaints of rebels.  Read it yourself.

To know the true God is to know the One who is infinitely joyful.

Complete Savior: Resurrection and Joy 1

Today I completed 3 months of meditations on the joy which is offered in Christ.  It is the longest pursuit of one theme I have ever known.  God led me into this plan -- using a book on joy, a call of the Spirit in my heart to consider the joy of the Lord, and a personal desperation for joy.

Last Sunday I preached on the resurrection and hope, which you can listen to HERE. It seemed to be an appropriate capstone to my reflections.

Here is some of what I have found.

I must admit I had always considered joy to be somewhat optional in the Christian life.  Or, at best, occasional.  After all, there is sin to war with, a Gospel to proclaim, people have problems and need care -- how can we have joy?

Jesus said that in the resurrection we would experience joy, and no one would take away our joy.  Jesus also said he his purpose of speaking certain things to the disciples was that his joy would be in them and their joy would be full.  What does that mean?

Strange, I had missed those verses over the years.  I had also missed the hundreds of references to joy throughout Scripture.

I think what Jesus meant was this: in our redemption sin is removed and we are brought into fellowship with the Living God.  We are made one in Christ.  We have union with Christ.  And fellowship with God and union with Christ is to be in relationship with a being of infinite joy. 

Think of that -- when I am brought into fellowship with God by the blood of Christ and the power of the Spirit, I am brought into a face to face relationship with Infinite Joy. 

There is joy in God as Triune. Before the creation, The Father and Son and Holy Spirit were engaged in mutual love and delight.  They beheld in each other perfect beauty -- they engaged in a rapturous delight in their perfect glories -- and theirs was a circle of white hot glory and delight and joy.

There is joy in God in all his works and all his purposes.  Creation was an overflow of glory and joy.  History is a perfect outworking of the divine plan which will most glorify God.  God never has a bad day -- is never frustrated.

There is joy in God in redemption -- for it is the purpose of God in Trinity to take a bride to God the Son, who shall be exalted into the circle of the Godhead -- where she shall everlastingly behold the beauty and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Redeemed sinners glorified as co-heirs with Christ!  Wow.

And I, by the blood of Christ, have been brought into a living union with God in Christ.  Joy is at the core of knowing him. The psalmist calls him, "my exceeding joy."

So, when Jesus says, these things I say to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full -- he is not talking about optional joy, or joy that comes and goes depending on circumstances. 

So, question one -- is that your expectation?  Or is joy optional? 

Complete Savior: Jesus Applied 2

Application is taking something specific about Christ and trusting it in a very specific situation.  Lose your job?  Look to his faithful love for rest.  Anger get the best of you?  again and again?  Look to the propitiatory blood to remove all wrath -- look to the power of the resurrection to transform your heart.  Alienated from others?  His blood has slain the enmity. I think that gives you the idea.

Now I get to press an issue.

We apply Christ in those intersections which he designs for us -- places and people and circumstances where he desires to reveal himself to us. We do it with others. We do not do this alone. 

We meet Christ in the intersections of life with other believers in a particular church.  Christ meets us through his people -- through a particular group of people -- who know me and whom I know well.  The truth taught is applied as we speak the truth in love to each other -- the head of the church builds up the church through the working of every part.  That means relationship -- close relationship.

I am so convinced of this from Scripture that I would say that you could have Christ alone for a thousand years -- and that would not take the place of a local gathering of believers.  That's a paraphrase, almost a quote, from Tedd Tripp.  You do not need more classes, more reading, more studying -- what we need is a functioning local church.  You cannot get this from your own devotional time, though it is important.

Now what do I mean by functioning?  Sinless?  total unity?  just godly and humble believers?  Not at all -- a local church is a group of redeemed sinners -- with remaining sin in them.  And Christ in them.

They are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and gifted to serve each other.  They are called to lots of "one anothers." But they are just earthen vessels -- clay pots -- and the greatness of the power is of God, not them.  One way we have started to define a small group -- a circle of clay pots talking about the treasure of Christ.  Christ is seen in them -- in each other -- and that is glorious.  But their flaws and weaknesses serve to magnify Christ too.

If you are not pressing into the lives of a few others in your church -- you are missing Christ.  You can't float around between churches -- you can't join the invisible church -- and still meet all of Christ.  You are part of his plan -- those imperfect believers in your church are part of his plan.  As we press our lives together, and share life with each other in all its good and bad moments, Christ meets us -- and we help each other see him and trust him and treasure him.

Complete Savior: Jesus Applied 1

The Christian life is receiving Christ and then walking in him.  It is being rooted and built up in him.  That, at least, is what Paul says on Colossians 2:6-7.  And he says it so well.

The question is -- how do we become rooted in him?  built up in him? established in the faith?  For a long time I thought the answer was "in the classroom" -- learn more and more, study harder and harder.  That being the case, one would expect the most remarkable demonstrations of maturity on Christ among the most highly educated -- and in the faculty of Christian institutions. Yet, that is not the case. 

This is not dissing learning -- it is simply the facts.  Learning is good -- but it does not, by itself, make you grow in Christ.

I no longer think the answer is "in the classroom" -- I think the answer is in the application of Christ to my life in the context of a local church.  

First, there are unsearchable riches in Chris.  But those riches are not a blob -- they have specificity.  There are multiple facets to his life, his death, and his resurrection -- and beyond that in his exaltation, present session in heaven, return -- which have specific application to specific details of my life. 

Second, I am to take the specific thing that is true of Christ and apply it to my specific situation -- apply it to the intersection in life where I find myself. I do not chant "Jesus" repeatedly -- I do not even take something that is true and misapply it.  What I mean by that is best illustrated in how Jesus served his disciples.  In the midst of a storm, on the sea, he did not say to them, "Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened" and he did not offer himself to them as the source of living water.  That is to take what is true and miss wise application.  No, he asserted his power and dominion and called them to faith.

All that Jesus is and has done has specific application.  Mark Driscoll's book, Death by Love, is one of the best I have ever read on applying specific elements of the atonement to the details of people's lives. Propitiation is truth to be applied to the person weighed down with condemnation.  Triumph over Satan applies to the person with dark obsessive thoughts.  Etc.

It is in the application, by faith, that we become rooted in him.  It is an application that leads first to trust -- not to action. Out of trust comes fruit.

But what about the church?  how does that play out?

Jesus View of the Cross

I do not know when I have been so affected by the nature of Christ's death as I was a few days ago.  I decided to take some time and look at the cross through the eyes of Jesus -- and there was really only one place where there was immensely clear -- in the garden of Gethsemane.

Our lord, who knew no fear of man, who predicted his betrayal and death, who set did only what was pleasing to the Father comes to the shadow of the cross and actually shrinks back, begs for an alternative, and is filled with such agony that he seems to be near death.

What could he, who knew no fear of man, no dread at the hatred of his enemies, what could he have anticipated that was so horrific that he wished for another path to tread? 

The answer is the "cup"-- which in biblical imagery, is the cup of the wine of the wrath of God.  He, the sinless one, would taste of our sins when they were put to his account -- and in that moment would also taste the determined and fixed opposition of God to our sin. The Father who loved him before the worlds were made would bring judgment to bear on the Son -- and the Son would absorb it.  The Father would forsake the Son -- a mystery to us -- and the Son would experience the blackness and disintegration of hell.

He had not fear of man's judgment -- but the thought of the displeasure of the Father, with whom he shared everlasting joy and glory -- that thought made his sweat great drops of blood.

And yet he obeyed -- he obeyed for love of his people -- to seek and to save the lost.  To see the cross as Jesus saw it is to be struck by the vileness of sin that would make such a sacrifice necessary -- and to be overwhelmed with a love that passes knowledge.

Complete Savior: Jesus is Man

The incarnation is essential to the mission of Jesus. It has been argued for centuries that only a sacrifice of infinite value could satisfy the justice of God against sin.  And only the sacrifice of a human sinless substitute would be right.  Thus, God took on a true human nature, became the second Adam, and God-man. 

Classical theology descries the humiliation of the Christ, beginning in the incarnation and descending to his death on the cross. 

He who was God became man.  The infinite learned to talk.  The eternal was conceived and born.  The all sufficient was hungry and needed rest.  

Here is mystery.

All this was "for us and for our sins" -- that he might offer his body as a sacrifice for sinners. 

Here is the humility of God,  When the eternal and holy One came into the intersection with the proud and sinful creature, he humbled himself for us -- was subject to the law for us, endured our vileness and hostility to rescue us from our sins.  He did not consider it beneath him to live and eat and sleep in our company -- though we considered association with him beneath us.  He did not assert his rights -- but yielded his rights so we might be set right with God.

When I am united to him, his living example of humility empowers me and shapes me -- and I am drawn to his example, not as a moral obligation, but as a love slave.  He has clothed me with humility that I might become humble before him.

To know him is to know compassion, kindness, love, gentleness and the One who alone was truly gentle and humble of heart.

Complete Savior: Jesus is God part 2

One of the stumbling blocks of gospel-centrality is that it appears to come with no demands.  People ask -- "If it is all about Jesus and his work, then you will lead people into moral indifference, won't you?"  Never mind that this is exactly the question Paul asks in Romans 6!  It means we are getting the freeness of grace.  Paul does later say we are debtors to put sin to death (Romans 8:12-13).  There is obligation, but it seems it is not moral obligation. 

Let me toss out an idea that has come from my study of Christ.

That "no demands" possibility has troubled me too.  After all, doesn't Jesus make demands -- to take up our cross, to leave all, to renounce our lives?  Yes, he does.  But I have been helped recently, in this series, to realize that Jesus does not make demands of us to DO something, he calls us to TREASURE someone.  That someone is HIM.

Jesus was remarkably self-referential.  He spoke of his authority (I say unto you).  He made claims of glory (I am the resurrection and the life). He asserted some remarkable authority -- to forgive sin.  He made some outrageously global statements -- he is the light of the WORLD (even Martin Luther said this would have been far less offensive if he had said he was the light of this country!).

He is the Gospel.  When we preach Christ we are calling people to respond to Him, not to an idea.  This is a "demand" but it is not a moral demand.  It is a call for worship. 

The problem is that I tend to preach an idea -- like grace -- and miss preaching a person.  The Gospel is a person, a glorious person, God the Son made man for us and our salvation.  He stands and claims to be the Savior and God of all -- calls us to come to him, to respond to him.  That coming brings salvation -- but it is coming to a radiant sun -- one does not approach him casually.  He offers free forgiveness through his work to all who trust.  To trust is to respond to HIM -- to come into living union with the glorious God-man.  That brings change.

That Jesus is God the Son means he calls us to forsake all other gods for Him.  The call to take up our cross is a call to come after Him.  Coming after Him, treasuring him, loving him simply looks like forsaking ourselves, hating all other loves and treasures.  He is not making demands, he is simply describing what it looks like to acknowledge and trust him and treasure him.

There is a world of difference between moral orders and calls to faith and treasuring of a person.

Complete Savior: Jesus is God

Classical studies of Christ begin with his person.  While the early church believed Jesus is God, it took a few centuries to refine that truth against any number of detractors.

Our Savior is God.  That is critical. He was one with the Father and the Spirit before the foundation of the world.  In the Triune God there love and glory and joy from everlasting to everlasting.  Father, Son, and Spirit beheld each other's glory as One God in three persons and delighted in the perfect beauty and magnificence of each other.  Our that eternal white hot relationship of delight and joy the Son of God came to save us.  He was God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten not made.

1. It speaks of the desires of God in salvation. I find this stunning -- that this God was so full of glory that he spilled over in creation -- that this God was so full of glory and love that he set his heart to form a bride for the Son, and to introduce the bride into the circle of worship. Wow.  Co-heirs with Christ, clothed in his glory - forever.

2. To this end, God the Son came into a world of sin and sinners, to redeem the bride. We shall be at his side in everlasting glory?

3. The power of sin and the condemnation due to sin was so pervasive and so strong that it took God the Son to bring salvation.  An angel would not do.

4. Our Savior is God.  This means that at no point in my life in Christ do I ever face an enemy or obstacle that is beyond his resources.  He is infinitely sufficient.

This calls for faith -- confidence in his plentiful sufficiency in every circumstance.  Unemployment? Marital strife? conflict with others in the church? Battling sin? he is able, more than able.