Friday, December 2, 2011

Galatians - CRISIS in the Church's first days


Sometimes we conduct a series of sermons on some book of the Bible, like for instance a Gospel or Epistle, and we very slowly work our way through the book. If I remember correctly, we spent a whole year—or two?—studying Romans on Sunday mornings.

I have nothing against such an approach, but I'm also a proponent of variety! And this is one of the reasons why I plan to deliver three sermons on three epistles: Galatians, Romans and Hebrews. But the more substantial reason is that these three epistles, taken together, pass on the story of a certain crisis in the early Church, a crisis I suspect most of us don't know about. But it's important for us to know about it, because knowledge about this historical crisis will definitely help us, in the first place, to better read Holy Scripture with understanding and, consequently, to apply the meaning of these events in our lives.

The basic method of interpretation I apply here can be called "mirror reading". When I look into a mirror, I see what the mirror reflects. Likewise, when I read a letter, I see what situation the letter reflects. For example, if I find a letter on the ground, pick it up, and take a peek to see what it says, maybe I read:
Dear John,
No, no, a thousand times no. I love another. Forget me.
Maria
Although I don't know Maria or John, I already know a lot about them, and about the situation that this letter reflects. It tells me that, probably, John asked Maria to marry him, and not just once. It tells me he loves her. It tells me that, quite likely, she had some feelings towards him as well, or he'd probably not have been so persistent. But in the end she decided she loved another more (maybe he was rich).

Such a method of interpretation can be called "mirror reading", or simply "reading between the lines"! And this method is an important part of interpretation. In fact, it's common sense!

I have a whole course that I teach on Galatians at the seminary. But we don't have time here and now to conduct the whole course. So rejoice! There won't be any tests or papers. Today I'm going to share with you the most essential and key conclusions of my course, and I hope they will be illuminating to you. Maybe even shocking.

First, I want to tell you the generally-accepted interpretation of Galatians. It goes like this: After the apostle Paul preached the news of Jesus Christ to the Galatians and they became Christians, there came false teachers preaching Judaism, preaching the Law. They wanted the Galatians to depend on rules and laws rather than grace and faith. Therefore, Paul wrote this epistle to persuade them that grace is enough, that "by grace we are saved, not by works", and law mustn't be added to grace.

Though there are legitimate elements in this interpretation, it is all the same insufficient, and slightly distorted.

And now, on the basis of the Epistle to the Galatians, here is the story of a terrible crisis that took place in the earliest Church of Jesus Christ:

After Paul and his co-workers brought the good news of Christ to the inhabitants of Galatia and established churches there, there came other Christian missionaries from Jerusalem—Hebrew-Christians, too, like Paul—and told the Galatians that Paul had preached an illegitimate gospel to them. Moreover, they claimed that they were authorized and sent by the very Mother Church, Jerusalem. The true Gospel, according to them, went like this: "Inasmuch as Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of the holy Law, and besides that took away our judgment for our non-fulfillment of it, now the door is open for all to become the children of Abraham, true Jews, receiving the Law and becoming members of the Jewish nation." There's their "gospel".

Notice, for them it wasn't a question of adding laws and rules to grace—no, for them the question was: who is a true son and daughter of Abraham and member of the chosen people? For these Jerusalem missionaries, the Galatians believers had not yet joined the number of Abraham's children and chosen nation. To them, the objective of the Messiah's coming was that finally all the families of the earth could observe the whole Law as the Way of Life.

The generally-accepted interpretation of Galatians says that these false missionaries wanted to add law to grace, to supplement grace with law—grace wasn't "enough", but grace-plus-law would be enough.  But no, in point of fact, they were saying quite the opposite: they wanted to add Jesus Christ to the Law! To "fill out" their Judaism with "Christianity". To them, the Law had always been "enough", only inaccessible because of our human imperfection. But now, thanks to Messiah, the Law is accessible to all. You catch the difference? In their theology, the Law ends up superior to Christ.

Therefore, the epistle to the Galatians isn't an argument between law and grace; it isn't an argument between faith and works—not at all! It's an argument between two gospels, between two missions, between the mission of Paul and the mission of these preachers from Jerusalem. And the essence of the argument goes: how can we become genuine children of Abraham and heirs of God's eternal promise according to His holy covenant? Paul's answer is simple: "Dear (but foolish!) Galatians, you already have become!"; the answer of the Jerusalem preachers is: "No, not yet, not until you enter the Jewish nation."

Now, we're going to take a look at the whole epistle, to pinpoint Paul's arguments for his position, for his Gospel.

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul wants to say that he was the one sent by the mother church and that she authorized his gospel, but don't believe him!" But Paul stuns everybody when he responds "non-programmatically", saying (Read Gal. 1:1-2; 11-13; 15-17). Paul isn't about to play their game: "who did the Jerusalem Church give the green light to and who didn't she give the green light to…." No, he openly announces: God revealed Christ to me and authorized me to reveal Him to you. My gospel isn't from man.

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul came to Jerusalem and promised there that he'd preach our gospel, but he immediately broke his promise." We read about this conference in Acts 15:4-5 (read); there's the faction in the Jerusalem church; this was definitively a political crisis.

And what does the apostle Paul say about this? (Read Gal. 2:1-2). A word about the last assertion: Paul is not saying here that he met in private with the apostles in order to make sure he hadn't been preaching the gospel in vain.  Nothing of the sort. Nowhere in the entire New Testament does Paul ever suggest that he had doubts about his gospel, that he suspected his preaching might be a waste of time. And why would he suddenly do so here, in this epistle of all places? No. He means that he insisted on a private meeting with the apostles to make sure first that they were going to stand with him and his gospel in the open conference, in front of everybody. Otherwise his having come to Jerusalem at all would have been a complete waste of time (idiomatically, "running in vain"). In that case, Paul was ready to say, "So long! I'm outta here. I'm not wasting my time with this" and go back to the work God appointed him to. But Paul never even contemplated the idea of abandoning the Gospel revealed to him by God Himself.

And as we know, the apostles responded to him by… (read 2:9-10).

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Your precious Paul offended, insulted, Peter himself, and all because Peter—by the way, a Jew!—was observing the Law! How dare he!" Probably the Galatians anticipated a response from Paul like, "No! Never! I would never in my life do something so awful!" But again Paul is an unorthodox disputant. What does he write? (Read 2:11) "Yes, I opposed him—he was wrong! Until the faction from Jerusalem showed up, Peter was happily hanging out with the Gentile brothers in Christ, but as soon as they showed up, he shunned them. That was wrong, and I told brother Peter so."

What do you think? Was it painful to Paul to do that? Of course. Did his reputation among the churches suffer because of it? Of course. Did the false teachers take advantage of it to spread slander about him? Of course. This was a real crisis in the early Church; it was a theological crisis, a political crisis, a spiritual crisis, a soul-searing crisis.

In the third chapter, the apostle adduces the essence of his argument (3:2-3); in other words, "Dear Galatians! You already received the Spirit!!" This one concrete fact concludes the whole thing. God wouldn't have given His Spirit to those who weren't His children. But he did it, when all you had done was believe in Christ. End of argument. There's nothing left to figure out. Paul was within in his rights to end the letter right here—if he could be sure the Galatians would get it. But with a broken heart he says, "Oh, foolish Galatians" and teaches on. He reminds them that God's law never justified anybody, that the promise was given by God when there was no law, that the Law was given to lead us to Christ (while those other preachers were saying the opposite—listen to this, because it's a horror: Christ was given to lead us to the Law!), and Paul again reminds them in chapter four (read 4:4-7); "You already received the Spirit, the Spirit of the very Son; that means you are sons, His children." Then Paul, in heartbreaking terms begs the Galatians: (read 4:12-16).

Then Paul compares these two gospels, that is, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the so-called gospel of this faction. The comparison goes from 4:21 to the end of the chapter. We don't have time to examine this in detail. I just want to say that here, where Paul talks allegorically about Sarah and Hagar, about two covenants—the covenant of flesh and the covenant of promise—about two Jerusalems… he is not comparing God's Law and grace; he is not comparing the Old Covenant and New Covenant; he is not comparing Judaism and Christianity. He is comparing his mission, his calling, his gospel and its fruits, with the mission, the gospel and its fruits, of those Jerusalem missionaries. The "present Jerusalem" he talks about here isn't the Law—it is, in fact, the church in Jerusalem! At least, it's the faction from Jerusalem that wants to give birth anew to slaves. Let me say that again: the faction from Jerusalem, claiming the authority of the Jerusalem church, wants once again to give birth to slaves. But we, Paul says, thanks to Christ, belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, we inherit the heavenly promise that resounded once to our father-by-faith Abraham, and like him we have received the promise by faith, thanks to the Son who fulfilled all and unfolded the promised new creation.

That’s why, precisely in light of everything he just said, the apostle exhorts (read 5:1), and also (5:6).

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul summoned you just to believe! But what about how you should live? How are you supposed to know the way of righteousness?"

But Paul answers: (5:16) and again (5:19… etc.). Paul doesn't list all the possible sins here; he's giving them a 'for-instance.' And again (5:22… etc.), Paul doesn't exhaust the list here; again, it's a 'for instance'; he's saying, "All this should be obvious to you; why would you need the Law to know this?".  

You see why these words are written here, at the end of this epistle? If they were written in a different epistle, they'd still mean something, but not what they mean here. This isn't just "the practical section", like we usually say, as if Paul wrapped up the "theological part" and now he says, "Oh, by the way, here's a general list of rules for your life", or as if he totally decided to change the subject (!). Nothing of the sort. If we want to understand chapters 5 and 6 of Galatians right, we have to understand that this whole epistle is one, single theological argument, and the last two chapters are the essential part, where the apostle calls on the Galatians to finally manifest this life that will prove their election and inclusion in God's nation by grace. And that's how the Galatians will finally shut the mouths of the Jerusalem missionaries—they'll be left with absolutely nothing more to say.

By the way, the real climax of the whole epistle is 6:7-8 (read). In other words: Choose! Either the way of the Spirit, Whom you received as per my gospel, or the way of the flesh, as per their 'gospel'—because their pseudo-gospel is in point of fact the way of the flesh, not the way of God's promise, election and new creation.

This is absolutely the climax of the argument. And Paul is ready to sign his name. He seems exhausted. He says ("That's it…", read 6:17) and also (6:14), but he adds one last "punch" for his opponents (read 6:16); it's perfectly obvious in the light of the whole argument he's just made that this "Israel of God" is none other than all believers who've received the true gospel whatever their ethnic origin may be—they are all now "God's Israel". This closing "punch" indubitably drove the Jerusalem faction wild with fury. It's a total negation of their whole pseudo-gospel.

And with love the apostle concludes his epistle, (read 6:18).

Oh, if only that were the end of the crisis. But next time we will see how the continuing crisis compelled Paul to write a letter to… the Romans.



  


Monday, August 15, 2011

Communion Meditation II


EX 24:8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The covenant –a covenant of blood. Blood speaks to us about life, it reminds us that we depend on God alone for our life. Blood speaks to us also about death, that death is the penalty for our sin. Blood speaks to us about sacrifice, because sacrifice is God’s means of forgiveness.

But here is a question: what possible connection could there be between the blood of animals and heaven? On the one hand we have something which is very material, very earthly, very limited: the blood of animals, which was spilled in an earthly ritual, and sprinkled on the people. On the other hand, we have a spiritual crisis of cosmic proportions: the alienation of man from God. What possible connection can there be between the two?  Before trying to answer this question, let’s read what happened next:

EX 24:9-19 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

After the covenant was announced, and the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the people, God called Moses and elders up to the mountain. And there they saw God. How can this be? The Bible says no one can see God.

I believe that nobody can truly see God in all His infinity; God is beyond the comprehension of any of His created beings. There’s only one who truly knows God in all His infinity--it’s the Son who came from God. But here the Bible tells us that Moses and the elders saw the God of Israel. So, they must have seen God in some measure, as God allowed Himself to be seen. What is interesting, though, is that the Scripture here doesn’t explain what God Himself looked like; instead of that, there is an amazing description of something under the feet of God, something like a pavement of sapphire, and clear as the sky. What that was, we don’t know, but clearly it was something not of this world. I can’t interpret it for you, except to suggest that it tells us that God is not part of this world; He is the Creator, He is not part of the Creation. And again this forces me to ask: how could earthly sacrifices be  effective in closing the spiritual rift between man and such a God as this? But before we answer that, let’s read the end of this account:

11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Here is the mercy of God. No man can see God and live. But these men saw God and lived. Again, as we said, no man can see God, no man can comprehend Him in all His infinite nature. But God somehow allowed these men to see Him, to see a true representation of Him, let’s say a  “side” of Him, and even to eat and drink in His presence. He did not raise His hand against them: this speaks to us of the mercy of God, it reminds us that the true desire of God is to freely fellowship with man, without any hindrance, without any alienation.

This is a  wonderful picture. But of course, Moses and the elders came down from the mountain. They lived the remainder of their lives, they died and were buried. And what then? That glorious moment on the mountaintop was only a moment. But what about eternity? There were only about 70 men up there on the mountain. For them it was wonderful. But what about all the rest of the people who ever lived in human history? What hope do they have to fellowship with God, to eat and drink in His presence? Who can truly bring heaven and earth, God and man, together?

Yes, it was a wonderful vision, but it leaves us with these questions: What possible connection can there be between earthly sacrifices and the eternal God? How can the alienation between God and man be solved once and for all?

Let’s look into the New Testament, at one place where the writer deals with this problem, the problem of the terrible distance between the earthly and the heavenly:

HEB 8:1-2 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

Jesus Christ is our High Priest; He is not like the other high priests – why? Because he doesn’t have to offer a new sacrifice every day for his own sins and the sins of the people. He has no sins himself, and His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice accomplished once for all. His sacrifice is actually that one true sacrifice that all creation was waiting for. All the other sacrifices were only representations, they were like photographs which cannot be the actual thing itself. But ultimately, just as there is only one true God, there could only be one true sacrifice, there could only be one true means of reconciliation between man and God.

Jesus became that one true sacrifice, offering up His own blood in the sanctuary of the one true God. He doesn’t serve as high priest in an earthly  temple, which is only a representation; he serves in the true sanctuary of God. What is that sanctuary? Where is it? How can we possibly say? I am sure only of this: the true heavenly sanctuary is the place of closest fellowship with God. Perhaps it is God Himself.  Jesus  doesn’t bring the blood of animals to God. He offers his own blood as the price of our salvation.

And so we ask: how could an earthly sacrifice could solve an eternal, spiritual problem? How could physical blood seal the spiritual rift between man and God? In Christ the answer is miraculously revealed to us: It’s because He who died on the cross was the One from Heaven. In the cross we see heaven dying so earth might live. The blood of Christ was the blood of the incarnate God. His death was the sacrifice of God for the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, God Himself exhausted the pain of our sin, and released us from our debts. If you really stop to think about it, there was no other possible way. That was the only way God could have forgiven our sins: He suffered the consequences of our sins Himself.

This is the amazing revelation of Jesus Christ – what no one could have imagined; that in Christ, God Himself was reconciling the world to Himself. This is how an earthly sacrifice could reconcile man and God.

I think that’s what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is trying to tell us. He says that the earthly sanctuary is only a representation. The priests and the animal sacrifices are only a picture. But Christ is the actuality. A weak analogy would be to compare when we were little children and we played house, pretending to be the papa and mama, and real marriage. Real marriage is the thing itself; there is no more picture. You cannot even compare children playing house to real married life.

It is like this with our Lord Jesus Christ: His life is our true salvation; His death is our true forgiveness; His blood is the true price fully paid.

And the deeper we unite our hearts with this truth, the better we understand reality itself.

Jesus said, “I have come to bear witness of the truth.” Jesus knew about all reality. When he gathered his disciples for the Last Supper in the upper room, He knew perfectly what was about to happen, and why, and what it would cost Him to carry it out. 

MT 26:26-30 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples,  saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Remember Moses and the elders up the mountain top, sitting in the presence of God Himself, and eating and drinking. Here again, God has called his servants to sit with him, to eat and drink. And as Moses sprinkled the people, with the blood, sealing God’s holy covenant with them, in the same way, Jesus presents the blood of the covenant to his disciples.

But there are differences. Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of animals. It was external, and temporary. But  Jesus says, “Drink.” He also says, “Eat. This is my body, this is my blood.” With these few simple words,  Jesus reveals the true depth of the sacrifice He will make. He will give himself up totally for our life. He will make Himself our true spiritual food and drink forever and ever. “I am the Bread of Life”, Jesus says. But the bread must be broken before you can eat it. Jesus was ready to be broken. He longed for the fulfillment of the Father’s plan; He looked ahead to the ultimate joy of His Father’s kingdom, when people from east and west, north and south would come and sit down at His table and fellowship with Him forever-- not only 70 elders on a mountaintop or twelve disciples in an upper room.

When we look at Jesus with His disciples around the table, we see a picture of God’s kingdom, the kingdom which is coming. Jesus gave Himself up to the cross and death, so that you and I could join Him at His fellowship table forever.

In the book of Revelation, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of this unimaginable glory, in chapter four when John was taken to heaven and he saw the throne of God. Someone was sitting on the throne; the one sitting there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian; a rainbow the color of emerald encircled the throne. And around the throne were 24 other thrones, with an elder sitting on each of them, all dressed in white and wearing golden crowns. Lightning and thunder came from the throne and seven lamps burned in front of the throne, and there was something like a sea of glass in front of the throne, as clear as crystal. Again we see elders sitting in the presence of God. Do you think that when God called Moses and the elders up to the mountain, that by this God let them understand a little bit what heaven was really like? I think so. And when Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper, was that also a picture of God fellowshipping with His people? I think so.

But there was only way to realize this reality.

(Read Revelation 5:1-14)

Today we are called to the table of the Lord, to share His body and blood, to recognize the price of our salvation in the death of  Jesus Christ, and to confess Him as our true Savior and coming King. The Lord Himself is with us when we obediently observe this ordinance. God is with His people, and He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. This table is a representation of reality, of deep spiritual reality that exceeds our comprehension, and yet God invites us to take part and understand. When we participate in this supper, we taste in a small way the future exultation when people will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Friday, June 17, 2011

Christ's Ascension

This sermon approaches the event of Christ's ascension a bit indirectly. As I assumed the other preachers would start with Acts 1, I decided to take a different route.

It's easy to guess that, when a sermon is on the ascension of the Lord, the Bible text will be Acts 1. Therefore, I decided to take a look at other places that either indirectly or directly talk about the ascension of Jesus Christ. The first of these is Matthew 28:16-20 (read).

The ascension isn't mentioned here, but this is the last "act" of the Gospel of Matthew—the most important, significant words of Jesus Christ just before he ascends to the Father in Heaven. This is the commandment to the Church from the One who was eager to return to where he had come into the world from. Here Jesus isn't talking anymore about what villages to go to together with the disciples, he isn't teaching them in parables, he isn't healing anybody, he's not rising early in the morning to go out and pray alone, with his disciples rushing around anxiously to find out where he has disappeared to. Those days have passed! This is the risen Lord, the Conqueror of death, the Eternal Word/Logos, whose gaze is fixed on reunion with the One Whose redeeming will he has perfectly carried out. A sense of anticipation permeates everything Jesus says here. These are more than "parting words"; these are words spoken from a whole different viewpoint already. Even though Jesus is still on the earth while he speaks, the words sound just like what we could expect to hear from the ascended Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. The Great Commission says, in brief, that the light of the risen, ascended Son of God illuminates life's whole purpose here in this world. The Great Commission is not only an assignment to us on earth; it is Christ's own "job description" in Heaven through us.

 I'd like to direct your attention to a mysterious element in this event – (read v. 17: "…but some doubted").

This perplexes us for two reasons. First, why did they doubt? Or actually, what were they doubting? And secondly, why does Matthew mention it at all? And so abruptly, just dropping it as soon as he mentions it? "Some doubted" – no elaboration. It's a bit like someone explaining principles of algebra to you and suddenly announcing, "You know, I just adore pickles", then going right on with the algebra.

It's a bit like that here. We call these final words in Matthew "The Great Commission" because Jesus, having appeared to the disciples, commands them to preach the good news everywhere in the world. And as a rule we practically never even pay attention to that odd little "glitch" in the text about how some doubted. But it must be there for a reason!

Here's a useful secret for Bible interpretation. When you bump into a phrase, or statement, or verse that doesn't seem to… "correlate", seems odd and out-of-place, sometimes the thing is that you shouldn't be trying to understand the difficult spot in the light of its context; instead, try understanding the context in light of the difficult spot! Quite possibly, as a result you'll find that the difficult spot throws the whole context into a new light and becomes clear at the same time itself, too. If we try that approach here in Matthew, what do we discover?

The eleven disciples have come to the mountain. They've seen Jesus, very likely from a distance at first. Some of them immediately start "worshipping", as the text says. What does that mean? Possibly they started shouting, "It's Jesus! It's the Lord! He is risen! Praise God!" But others doubted. What does that mean? Maybe they weren't so sure who they were seeing in the distance. I can imagine them saying, "Wait a minute. Not so fast. What are you saying? Who is that? Is that really him?"

And in response to this, what does Jesus do? Verse 18: He approached them. He came up to them. He came close to them. Did you ever wonder why it says that? Maybe it's precisely because he was far away from them at first, when some started worshipping while others... didn't. But I don't think that when Jesus did this—that is, when he walked right up to them—I don't think any of them were doubting any more. 

Jesus not only came up to them—to all of them, to the worshippers and the doubters—in order to dispel any doubt, but he also pronounced words of assurance. The "Great Commission" isn't only a "commission"; it's a word of assurance precisely to those who were doubting. Jesus assures them all: "All authority has been given to me". That is, "You don't need to doubt. It's me, who the glory and power have been given to forever. It's me, who died and destroyed the kingdom of death with my invincible life—I am alive forever. Be confident, because it's me—I will always be with you to do the Father's will through you."

When we read the Great Commission in the light of that one, odd, troubling phrase in verse 17, suddenly we sense the deep mercy of Christ, the grace of Christ, in what he tells the disciples. The doubt makes more sense of the Great Commission. Jesus doesn't condemn the disciples who, after all, came to meet him on the mountain according to his instructions! They didn't come here, after all, in order to doubt! They came to see and believe. Some didn’t want to be reckless, they were hesitant to jump to a conclusion, to believe that the person up there on the mountain was the One who died on the cross. But Jesus, the risen Lord of life, approaches them all, assures them all, promises always to be with them all, and hands them all the highest calling, to proclaim His news to the whole world. This is the calling of Heaven itself; there is no higher honor. And, yes, Jesus handed this honor even to the ones who had doubted, who maybe said, "Hold on, not so fast; let's make sure that's him." And, having given this honor to the disciples, Jesus returned to the Father.

Now let's look at another place in Scripture that doesn't pop immediately to mind in connection with the Ascension. It's Matthew 3:14-17 (read).

I preached on this passage before and suggested that in Jesus' baptism you can see the whole history of redemption. Take a look – there's Jesus, identifying with the people, taking part in the same "Baptism of Repentance" as they did, just like later he will carry their sins to the cross, and there he is going down in the water, just like later he'll be buried in the earth, and now he is rising from the water, just as later he will emerge from tomb alive. And then the heavens open, just like later they will open to receive him in the ascension and then the Holy Spirit descends upon him, just like the Spirit will descend later on the Body of Christ, His Holy Church, and then the voice of the Father in Heaven exalts Jesus, just like later God the Father will exalt the Lamb, His Only-Begotten, before all eyes in the eternal kingdom. This is a stunning enactment that prophesies everything our Creator and God intends to carry out with this very Jesus who, one fine day, quietly walked up to John to be baptized. It's no surprise, therefore, that Jesus said to John, "We have to do all this in order to fulfill all righteousness."

Every element of his baptism serves to fulfill the perfect righteousness which is God's salvation. God's salvation is God's righteousness carried out to the very end. In salvation God's righteousness itself is totally realized. We usually think that Jesus is talking about human righteousness here, when he says that "all righteousness" must be fulfilled—the perfect righteousness God demanded of Man but only Jesus could fulfill. But I think that when Jesus says, "all righteousness", he really means all righteousness; that includes the righteousness of God that was manifested to the uttermost limit in the accomplishment of redemption.

And how does this relate to the ascension? Here's how. Just like all of God's acts, the ascension of Christ also fulfills God's righteousness, just like Jesus baptism prophesied. The whole story fulfills "all righteousness." It is right and good and... needed for salvation that Jesus ascended to the Father. It was right, and good, and loving and merciful that Jesus came up to the disciples to say, "Look, it's Me. I truly have all the power and authority, I truly will be with you always." It was perfectly right, and good, and needed, and righteous, for Jesus to return to where we can't see him, at the Father's right hand, where he intercedes for us ceaselessly, and from where he mysteriously, miraculously remains with us here at the same time, together with the Father and Holy Spirit: "Whoever loves me will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." And this also was right, good, needed, and righteousness—the righteousness of God that would never have been fulfilled if Jesus had not returned to the Father.

In conclusion, let's look at one direct account of Jesus ascension, in Mark 16:19-20. (read)

In the Gospel of John, Christ told his disciples, "It's good for you that I'm going away, because if I don't go away, I cannot return to you to be with you." Here in Mark the meaning of this is clear: Jesus, now received into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, is working with us, confirming his work in us, establishing our work in himself, magnifying the fruit of our service for him, yes and its eternal meaning and glory in the Father's sight. By leaving to return to the Father, Christ made our life a part of heaven. The apostle Paul says, "He has blessed us in the heavenlies." And again, "He has hidden our life with himself in heaven." We are in him, and in him we have a heavenly inheritance. We have a heavenly inheritance precisely because God's Son, Christ, chose to approach us, to come close, when we were far away and doubting. He chose to walk right up and meet us in our doubts, our weaknesses and faults. He came closer. He picked up our guilt and shame and carried it in himself to the cross in sacrifice. Yes, and raised our souls in himself in resurrection. Yes, and brought us with himself right to the throne of God, and hid our life with himself there, in anticipation of the day when we shall appear with him in glory.

And that is how the only Savior fulfilled all righteousness. As for us, we mustn't doubt but trust, follow, and aim for the works that the ascended Lord will fulfill through us to his glory.

Before he ascended, he approached his disciples in love, right where they were. Who does he want us to approach in his love, that a soul might be saved?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

First Sermon Back in Ukraine 2011: "Let Us Make Man in Our Image..."

This is the first sermon I preached in Ukraine after returning in January 2011 from my Aug-Dec 2010 furlough in the States. The sermon can be considered a highly condensed "take" on the series of sermons I did several years ago, "A Holy Place, A Holy Purpose", which is also posted on this blog. The advantage of this one is, of course, that it gets the gist across in one convenient bite-sized piece.
A particular stylistic touch in this sermon does not, sadly, translate from Russian to English. The very last word of the sermon in Russian is "sotvorim", which means "we will make", from John 14:23 which, in the exact Russian word order, reads like this: "Who loves me, that one will observe word My, and Father My will love him, and We will come to him and {an} abode with him… SOTVORIM." It works beautifully for "sotvorim" to be the final, dramatic conclusion in Russian, because the same word, with its implications, plays a key role almost from the sermon's beginning. Unfortunately, this element of sermonic suspense and climax is lost with the English word-order, with "we will make" rather swallowed up in the middle of the sentence. Besides which, it doesn't even echo "Let us make (man in our image)" in English the way it does in Russian, where it's one and exactly the same word in both places: SOTVORIM. So, having made this something-of-an-excuse, I hope that there is still plenty of worth in the sermon, even without the fine linguistic nuances.

(There is also a slight wordplay at the very end, in Russian, that disappears in English. When the text says, "thanks to His grace", in Russian it sounds like "blah-gah-dah-RYA  Yivo  blah-gah-DAH-tee", the word for "thanks (to)" coming from the same root as the word "grace.")

By the way, "let us make" is one word in the original Hebrew, too, if I remember correctly.


(Read John 5:39-47)


On the basis of this passage I want to take a look at the first chapters of Genesis, the narrative about the creation of the world, of man, about the Fall, and try to specify there, even if a little, the testimony about Jesus Christ, about who he is, what he's like, what the eternal mystery of God's being and love is, and about how one and the same Person radiates through both the narrative in Genesis and the words of Christ in the Gospel of John.


Before opening Genesis, highlight the following key words from John in your mind:
Scripture
Life
Testify
Glory
Love
Father
Believe

And now we open the first page of Holy Scripture, where it says, "In the beginning." And this is a testimony, testimony to the inscrutable uniqueness, the singularity of God. In the beginning of everything, when nothing else was yet, God chose to commit the act of creation. This was God's choice, God's affair, God's intention and aim. Without our advice, without our participation, commentary, observations—yes, even without our existence before the sixth day! Only God is acting here.

And yet, in this testimony about the unique, singular, sovereign deed of God, we bump into unexpected words in verse 26: "Let-us-make [sotvorim] man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."


In this plural "Us" can be heard testimony about Jesus Christ, who said, "I have come in the name of my Father", who spoke about the glory that is exclusively God's, who once prayed, "Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the creation of the world."


"Scripture testifies of me", Jesus told the people, and precisely so the Scripture here, in the words "Let us make", hints at the eternal love that was in God and which God was before the creation of the world: "Let us make". You can't mention the plurality of Persons existing in the one eternal God without speaking of love, because love, which God is, consists precisely of the eternal interrelation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


It's a remarkable fact—and I consider it not only a fact but also an essential part of the sense and significance of this revelation—it's remarkable that the first time in Scripture where God says "Us", when Scripture first testifies of a plurality in the one God, it's right where God is pronouncing his intention to create man. Think about that. The very concept of "We" first materializes in Scripture in connection with the creation of man. Only here does God say "We"—not when He said, "Let there be light" on the first day, not on the second day, or the third or fourth day, not on any day but the sixth, when He says, "We will make…."


Why? Because only man will be made in the image of God, and the essence of that image is relationship in love. Scripture says that God said, "We will make Man", and then it tells us that He created them, man and woman, and gave Man the right to rule over creation in subjection to no one other than God alone. Being a created reflection of God's nature, Man was endowed with the capacity to choose, to be responsible, to think, to strive, to imagine the future, to develop as a person, grow in love, be in relationship with Man and God, and to peer into the mysteries of his Creator. "We will make man in our image."


Only the eternal God could pronounce the word "We, and He exclusively endowed with this capacity the Man created in His image. He endowed Man with the capacity to love.


But Jesus says with grief in his heart (John 5:42), "But I know you. You do not have the love of God in you." Imagine this. The very Person who once, in the shining glory of God, spoke the word "We", says here in the Person of the Incarnate Son of God, "There is no love in you."


No love? But then what about the image and likeness of that eternal love which God IS? What's left of that image and likeness where… there's no love?


But the eternal Son, whose whole life's meaning—the whole meaning of Life itself which subsists in him—this eternal Son lives for the Father's glory, the glory of the Father with whom he says "We." His whole life's meaning is love. Love is glory with God His Father. And this same Son says in grief, "How can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but the glory that comes from the only God—you don't seek?"


Human glory—yes, there is such a thing—human glory consists in the fact that the One God endowed Man with the image and likeness of the eternal living Creator. To seek a different glory is to strive towards death.


It's no accident, therefore, that when Man fell in sin, he did it looking for another glory. (Genesis 3:6) "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and was pleasing to the eyes, and desirable because it gave knowledge…"


(Genesis 3:5) "You will be like God, knowing good and evil." Man wanted that knowledge. Man, the only creature in the whole world created in God's image, wanted to become "like God", as if he wasn't already "like God"! He was! In his capacity to love, to communicate, to exert himself for the good and glorious, Man was already "like God", since God invested His image and likeness into him exactly for that. That was God's gift, to man alone.


But the devil fooled Man, deceived him into seeking a different, somehow "better" glory—the glory of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the glory of the knowledge of God Himself.


And having known evil, Man became evil. That's what the Deceiver hid from Man when he said, "You will know good and evil." Man couldn't know evil without experiencing it in himself. Receiving the words of the Deceiver, our first parents instilled into their entire race the inclination to receive deceptive, seductive words. So Jesus says to those who were rejecting him (John 5:43), "I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me, but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him."


The One who eternally says "We" in love with the Father, came to us in the name of the Father, but they didn't accept him. But if a deceiver comes, they’ll accept him. Imagine what grief that is to the One Who once said, "We will make Man in our image and in our likeness."


The second time in Scripture when God speaks of Himself using "We", is after God has declared the punishments to Adam, Eve and the snake. (Genesis 3:22): "And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever.'"


It's no accident that when, yet again, the eternal God speaks in the plural, about "Us", the word is pronounced in an event directly tied to the very nature of God and man's likeness to Him. There was a grain of truth in what the snake said to Eve; tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Man really did find out what evil means, similar to how God knows. But the difference is that God, understanding what evil is, doesn't experience it but remains holy. But unholy Man, having become sinful, mustn't live forever in that kind of condition. That would be an utter distortion of the marvelous original idea of all creation. It would be not only an offense to God but grief to all humanity and creation itself.


Therefore, God—yes, the very same God who is love and who created Man in love—this same God says, once more in the plural "We", that Man mustn't live forever in such a state, in the disfigurement of sin.


By punishing and exiling Man, God saved Man from an eternity of sin, an eternity of life in sin. For when God said, "Let us make man", in His love He intended better for His children – unimaginably better. So even punishing and driving Adam and Eve from the Garden, God is being a Savior.


In the fifth chapter of John, Jesus asserts: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (vv.39-40)


Compare: in Genesis we read how God forbade Man to touch the tree of life. And that was mercy on God's part. But here in the Gospel we read how the same God, "having taken the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man," doesn't forbid at all. On the contrary, He practically begs the people, with love, to come, take, receive perfect life from Him, life bought at the price of His own life in our place. But they don't want to. They don't believe.


"If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" (Jn. 5:46-47)


But God , who says "We" within Himself in eternal love, so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have real eternal life in freedom from sin and the joy of pure fellowship with his holy Maker. God, who once revealed His love in the creation of Man, and revealed it again by excluding Man from the tree of Life, displayed the whole essence of His saving love in the sacrifice of the Son, in the sacrifice of the One with Whom He said, "Let us make man in our image", the One who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being", the One who thirsted for the glorifying of His Father by the sacrifice of His own life for the redemption of Man. So loved us God. So intent was the Maker to carry out everything to return us to His fellowship and knowledge, to the knowledge and fellowship of the eternal, holy God—so we would be "like God, knowing…" love and holiness.


Jesus Christ offers this new fellowship, thanks to His grace, when he tells his disciples these words (Jn. 14:23): "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and [we will] make our abode with him." (and our abiding place with him we will make.)


(IN RUSSIAN, THE ECHOS OF BOTH THE "WE" AND "WILL MAKE" FROM GENESIS MAKE A PERFECT POETIC AND DRAMATIC ENDING TO THE SERMON, AS THEY ARE THE FINAL WORDS IN THE SENTENCE.)