actually by providential
power (never forget that power in your own lives! -
you are not saved by chance but by Christ: Believe it, live it and be delivered
in Him).
AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH April 13, 2008
and D.V., April 20
A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST
AND BASE OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA
ON BIBLICAL LINES …
THE DARE-DEVIL AND THE DEATH OF DELINQUENCY
THE GLORY THAT SURPASSES - II Corinthians 3:10
Part II and Part III
PART II
FIRST, THE REVIEW OF the pith of Part I
Today, it is good to review a little where we have come in Part I, last Sunday. In pursuing the wonder of Christ's greater glory, pre-eminence in any comparison with mere man,. Either He was seen to surpass greatness with more, or to contrast human failure with His own triumph.
CHRIST AND MOSES at birth. We have seen firstly the pre-eminence at birth over even such a leader as Moses. Moses was a child of Israel, Christ the only begotten Son of God.
Both babes were under intended attack, Moses as Hebrew in genocidally inclined Egypt (boy babes to be killed, by State or imperial order), Christ as a person, by order of jealous, egotistically zealous King Herod, master of murder. Moses was rescued in the famous basket in the bullrushes episode, when God sent a princess to find him, seemingly by accident, but
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actually by providential
power (never forget that power in your own lives! - |
Moses lived to be commissioned to get Israel out of Egyptian oppression as slaves, into the very border of the promised land (he failed near the end, but in the next generation under Joshua, helper to Moses, they went in to that land). Christ continued incarnate God, to show forth the power and the compassion, the healing and the happiness in the Lord, and to show His love in becoming a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as He first bore with sinners, and then blasted the sin account into smithereens, by dying for man, as many as received Him, in credit once more by His work of cancellation AND accreditation (Ephesians 1:6, II Corinthians 5:17ff.).
Moses brought out Israelites from slavery in the flesh, Christ brought out myriads from slavery to sin, which whips even where no other masters are, from all nations, for all time, to eternal life.
CHRIST AND BALAAM AT WORK. We saw secondly Balaam's great effort to be obedient under temptation of money and power and prestige, only to fail utterly. We could compare this to Christ's vast, crying thrust to FACE death IN sin, that of others, with separation as He bore it from the eternity of conscious bliss for a time, crowned with triumph. In this case it was Christ's YES, even to death and Balaam's NO to death to desire.
Again, we compared Christ's victory over the devil in his great temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4), to Balaam. Christ silenced the evil, Baalam was seduced by it.
CHRIST AND PETER AT WORK
Next, thirdly, we have considered Christ at Peter's counselling, and Israel at Moses' challenge.
Peter's friendly counsel to Christ (contradicting the Lord on the central part of His mission, no less!), met startlingly vigorous rebuttal from the Lord, and Christ's instruction on spiritual necessity (which in our own small ways, we must all face). Israel met the exhortation of Moses and Joshua to ENTER the promised land according to commission, with fear and failure. Here the contrast is between two NOs. Christ said NO to deviation from obedience, and Israel said NO to entering into their rest by faith!
Let each therefore examine the heart. Is there a stumbling block, a slip which cannot be resisted, a trial which you will not face ? Face it, deal with it in the divine power and grace, letting neither sin nor slippage have dominion over you, by faith in Him (I John 5, Romans 6-7). Like a log jam, some one little or larger thing can seek to destroy your whole flow and compromise your life profoundly. Don't let anything do this!
Fourthly, and now below, we shall consider two YESes. These are:
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Christ at Gethsemane getting
an intense foretaste of the impending Cross, |
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Moses, aghast at Israel's
return to worship of nature gods, |
Both were willing to die for their charges, but Moses could not cover the sin of others by the sacrifice of himself, a limited mortal and sinner, and so was not accepted in this, though his love speaks, whereas Christ could and did cover the sin of all who receive Him by faith, the Lord's Christ and sole Saviour, an assembly over vast stretches of time, race and place.
To this case, we now come.
To this case, we now come,
as we resume from our review of Part I, to what follows.
B Gethsemane Grace
(cf. Matthew 26:36-46)
Would a flaw develop under maximal stress in the sanctity of the Saviour ? Having dealt with the devil from the beginning, and often in driving out devils, the former as in the above episode with Peter, Christ prevailed amid anguish, and performed in the eye of the storm, shattering diabolical hope that He would succumb.
Here the glory that surpasses is
this: that Christ at Gethsemane
did not submit to the thrust of pre-Cross sacrificial pain and prelude,
but fought to the end the battle of the soul,
submitting with full realisation of the awefulness
of actually having to bear the impact of sin,
most hateful and odious in itself (Hebrews 5:7),
infinitely worse than physical filth, so that in love He could rescue freely
those who received Him (Romans 3:23ff.).
In so acting, at Calvary, He paid for redemption,
the glory of His people for millenia since,
just as it was glory in the eyes of the prophets
who in detail predicted it, its actions and its meaning
(I Peter 1:10ff., II Peter 2:19ff.).
What is surpassed ? It is this.
Moses, as in Exodus 32:31, showed wonderful spirit
in asking God if need be, to blot him out of the book of life,
so long as He did not fail to forgive Israel. What a nurse!
God enlightened him: He would blot out those to whom this
belonged,
but He DID discipline and then pardon Israel (Exodus 33:13-23),
and at the time, showed something of His glory to Moses,
who hungered for this inspiration and revelation and was not denied.
What then ? As Moses secured help for Israel, that they might
have some cover,
Christ broke death and provided eternity, not mere temporary relief, to His
people, for whom death is an anomaly, defeat an extrusion of weakness and shame
a shadow of a cloud, one which in Christ has rained and washed (Titus 3:3-5).
Now we
have come to the fourth key to the
Kingdom of Heaven:
Man may point the way as a forerunner,
only God can build it as functional:
therefore set nothing on
man, and all on God,
though gravity engrave itself on your brow,
and sorrow mark you a friend;
for without truth, you are a hindrance,
and in it, you have access to the loveliness of your Creator.
Rest in the Redeemer, for that rest is most blessed.
C Masterful Meekness
(cf. Matthew 26:50-56)
Here we see Christ's meekness, facing what had to be done without bluster or force, and Peter's effort to try his own arm in battle to protect his Lord. This time it is a contrast with Moses that is in mind, when he used force in seeking to meet the need of the people, and so disqualified himself from leading them into the promised land, personally. This is a NO from Christ and a YES from Moses: the NO to misuse of force, and the YES to its wrong deployment!
Once again Peter is involved. This time it is in a flurry of what might in other circumstances be commendable courage, but here a potential disaster.
From this, Christ delivered him, restoring the sword-severed ear to the high priest's servant who with soldiers had come at night to manhandle Christ, with the expert aid of traitor Judas. Put up your sword! He demanded of Peter. How could the scriptures be fulfilled, that He must be so taken and all that was to follow that, if physical resistance were put in place of it!
Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ again
rejected any form of deliverance from His mission, willingly delivering
Himself, not from it, but for it
that many might be saved, millions reside in eternal life
and the grace of God with mercy, its friend,
cover the hearts with a beauty illimitable and a peace surpassing all
understanding.
Moses, on the other hand, when in the full sway of his gifts and
leadership,
following the bitter disappointment of Israel failing to enter the promised
land,
provoked by the seemingly endless complaints of the people (Numbers 20),
struck twice the rock which was the display point for the entry of divine power
to provide water, and said:
"Hear now you rebels, must we bring water
for you out from this rock!"
At once came the divine word: Moses had not sanctified the name
of the God
whose power did the job, beyond the symbolic striking of the rock,
so that Moses would not bring the people into the promised land:
in fact, it would be a generation later.
"Must we bring water ...!"
Alas
it is not Moses who brings the water,
but God, as it is not the priest who brings redemption by bread, but Christ by
flesh, suffering flesh ONLY, blood that flows ONLY (cf. Hebrews 9:22,25-26).
Nothing can cover Calvary, nor any equate to what brought pardon in any way,
for all others are sinners, their thoughts and deeds, their devices:
but Christ is sinless and Saviour Almighty, direct,
who in His own flesh has saved, and not by symbol or proxy,
but through blood, not by the temporal but by the eternal,
nor yet by the man-ordered
for of His life, He has power to give it, and He gave. .
Moses even struck the rock twice, whereas it is imperative to
realise
that Christ had to die ONCE (Hebrews 9-10), fully satisfying
the claims of death ONCE and for all with everlasting redemption.
Repetition is out, simplicity is in, and none should be seduced
from the simplicity in Christ (II Corinthians 11:3).
Christ used no force, showed no exasperation, but fulfilled with
masterful meekness,
all that was required of Him, till He cried at last,
"It is finished!" (John 19:30),
for the redemption was thus complete (Romans 5:1ff., 3:23ff., Hebrews 9-10),
and we who are His, are "complete in Him"
(Colossians 2:9-10, Ephesians 1:6).
Now we have found the fifth key for the life of the kingdom:
If
ignominy is your brother, shame your father,
then certainly seek the force course;
but if you love God, revere His grandeur of love,
and sever not sinners but sin.
The use of the sword in the
mission of salvation from God to this world
was abolished, its results quelled by creativity
and concern: the afflictions of the Cross are not optional.
Neither for Christ were they,
who despised mere power without purity,
nor are they for us, relying on His work,
resting in His directions, mocking at force as a counter
in the quietude of the soul, despising its shame,
facing the spiritual terms without mitigation.
PART III
IV THE GLORY
OF THE CROSS -
Mission
Completed
(Hebrews
9:12-28).
As to the Cross of Christ, that magnificence of
Deity, that beauty of
practical holiness, that paragon and primacy of pity,
that purchase of freedom by discipline,
in this we may well glory (Galatians 6:14). In Him, says Ephesians 1:6, we are complete, and His salvation is complete because HE has completed it once for all,
in a singularity as real as that of the Fall. ONCE down and now ONCE FOR ALL up in the eternal redemption which He has to give (Hebrews 9:12ff.).
Shakespeare at one point has Macbeth think of just one thing that might have made the difference, "then had I been complete" - but he was not complete. There neither is nor can be any completion except as being included in the purchase of the Cross, by faith, and so becoming one of the redeemed.
That
completion is the centre of the sufficiency of the free gift of saving grace
to those who secure saving knowledge of Christ.
NOT says Hebrews 9, that He should suffer often,
for then He would have had to suffer often since the world was founded
(as if a sort of amplified animal sacrifice repetitively engaged in).
It was a blood sacrifice, for without blood there is no remission,
and it was a painful and agonising sacrifice (Hebrews 9:25-26),
for suffering is integral with it; but once received, instead of wavers or
works.
It is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16),
for the Father made Him to be sin for us, the One who knew no sin,
that we might become in Him, the righteousness of God
(cf. Romans 5:17, Ephesians 2, Titus 2-3),
that triumphant gift (Romans 5:17, II Cor. 5:21)
which
beggars comparison,
belittles death's power and
brings eternity back to where it belongs,
in the heart of man, as many as receive Him, whose it is (cf. I John 1:1-4).
This is the YES, the “yea and amen” (II Corinthians 1:20-22) which is true for all the promises of God, and here is the epicentre for that explosion of grace, washing of mercy, acme of assurance and delight of justice, which in Christ becomes the very ground of mercy, as I John 1:7-8 so clearly exposes.
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Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ paid
once, not repetitively as in the schema of animal sacrifice, paid fully and not partially, as in this sacrificial type or that (cf. Leviticus 4ff.), and paid in the blood of God (Acts 20:28), which He secured in the incarnation, and shed for every man and woman and child indeed, who takes it as given, without addition or condition, qualification or alien context. |
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Moreover, Christ paid freely out of love, so that there is no
work in view but HIS (Romans 3:22ff., Ephesians 2, Isaiah 55) and eternally (Hebrews 9:12) with everlasting redemption. |
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Hence he or she who believes in Him has eternal life (John 5:24, 6:40,51ff, I John 5:11ff). |
It is so simple to enter, so sure to keep once given (John 10:27-28, I John 5:11ff., John 5:24). His blood replaces all the many cleansings both of priest and people in the Old Covenant for THIS priest is clean already, and needs no sprinkling with blood, for it is His own death which delivers and His own death which saves (Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 1:1-11).
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No more the blood on thumbs and big toes of priests, the
sprinkling of the surrounds of the altar, people or priest with blood, |
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no more the blood sprinkled on the high priest and his
sons (Exodus 29:21), |
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no more the sprinkling of Levites for purification
(Numbers 8, Exodus 24:5-8, 29:19-20), |
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no more the washing of hands and feet |
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or the sprinkling of blood on healed lepers (Leviticus 14:7). |
The forms and norms of sacrifice are transmuted at the Cross. There is nothing like it in heaven or on earth, for here is the answer to the question DOES God love us ? here is the reply to the query, HOW do we know ? here is the articulation in agony, the expression in delighted anguish (Psalm 40) of what the world cannot parallel, of the true God in His book, verified in outrageous completeness and continuity as nothing else is or can be over the millenia, unique beyond Everest, for nothing else is a foothill to it in glory, purity, power and presentation. It replenishes the tottering globe with reality, gives grace for bestiality and restoration from devilry. It swallows up all sacrifices in the Person who produced us, in Jesus Christ.
Only water baptism remains related to babes or babes in Christ (cf. Leviticus 1:5, 12:6. Colossians 2:11-12, Luke 2:22ff.), sprinkling the mode for baptism now - since this is a FORM of purification, as shown in John 3:25-26, and in Hebrews 9:10, where various ‘baptisms’ is the Greek term, and various sprinklings are accordingly listed 9:13,19-22. Now water is the substance for baptism, though not for sacrifice, since this is complete in Christ whose blood is shed once for all (Hebrews 9-10).
But baptism is symbol, whereas Christ is the substance (I Peter 3:21). On baptism, Peter is moved to stir grandly, to make the point vividly. Yes, baptism is crucial, he indicates, but THE BAPTISM of which this can be said if not something to do with water, but
"the answer of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."
(paralleling the emphasis of Paul as in I Corinthians 1:17 - he did not come to baptise but to preach the Gospel). That is the difference between symbol and salvation! (cf. Jeremiah 9:22).
What then is left ? the blood, the sacrifice, the satisfaction for sin brought by Christ and the continual command to use its power:
“let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh
and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God” – II Corinthians 7:1.
You cannot patronise God, put Him on a string like a dog, or push in a coin and expection action. You worship, surrender and seek His will most heartily, where it may be found in the Son of His love, and follow Him. Otherwise, superficial connection merely insults Him.
It is this, then, that is left, the faith that follows, the love that obeys and the heart that abides in Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the body of Christ follows as dawn from day, a testimony both to the coming resurrection of our bodies and the present dynamic of deliverance and life which flows to us as waters from the snowy heights of distant mountains. This, it is far better; it is from the glory that excels, the gift of life in Christ, whose life itself IS that glory.
Therefore proceed with eternal living till He comes!
We visit at this point the SIXTH KEY.
God has come;
truth has come in PERSON;
reality has visited;
reason is surpassed with actuality on line, but it is not denied;
wonder becomes a matter of witness, works an issue of watching, and it is all
HIS.
And WE are HIS, accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6), for whom He came,
those who do not ponder and wander, equivocate and blaspheme, feel drawn and
dip,
but being believers, without panache or fanfare, surrendering to His mercy,
receive the goodness of His redemption, the discipline of His word and
the delight of His company:
one Lord, one Book of the Lord, one Cross, one episode of the Cross, one Resurrection of the body of the Lord, one arena for victory with one Champion, the Trinity, the Father who so loved, the Son who so sacrificed and the Spirit who so seals.
The core is the Cross (Galatians 6:14), where the eternal love and glory shows itself as known from the first, and focussed to the last (Revelation 13:8, 2:8, 22:13, Isaiah 46:10). Let us then personally, in more than formal competence, in utter resolution and dependence, in weakness that makes strong (II Corinthians 12:10), in the simplicity of the faith, in the certainty of Christ, compromise neither with conscience attuned to His word, nor with command, uttered by His lips, nor personally, by simply letting Him down.
May God be praised in the
limitless loveliness of His own eternal life which He has freely given,
awaiting reception (I John 1:1-4).
There is ground for worship!
