In hoping to some conclusion it is sensed that standing the title(s) on their heads might better serve an end. For it is really not what “does not work”…but of whom and what does. That particular faith delivered by One to the saints…that “works by love”. Even the faith “of the Son of God”. This linking is not our own and is, as all things, even in that linking, the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Faith that works by love. Yes, there is a plain linking.
What is “of love?” What is “of faith?” We might see the folly of this being presented as two questions. Yet do we not often find ourselves as though in some tension between the what that seems two? Please make no mistake to our common engagement in seeking understanding. The writer only seems to occupy one place while the reader another, but we are all, in common, being written upon…even written out by God as epistles to be read and known of men. And make no mistake also, that writing holds its own warnings, resolved only in and by God, lest any writer think himself above any reader.
Therefore, and for this time, this writer would be a liar to deny his own tensions often found in what appears the two questions of “what is of love?”, and “what is of faith?” even if they may be folly to divide. Another writer wrote:
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
I surely don’t know if one can over torture the word used there for “seemeth”…(δοκεῖ in the Greek, also often translated as relative for “think” as in thinking of a matter) for when we are being ministered chastening (also a word used for discipline) there seems a grievousness to it that, in that moment, appears nothing of joy; and even may present love as questionable.
When experiencing rebuke I must confess the first thought is not “I am being loved!”, but rather an experience of some paining. And therefore my self finds itself in need of further referencing. But to this end Jesus Christ does not grow weary. He is in all a help (the only true help) that is able to deliver from the questionable (unsure in themselves) to the establishing of the saints. Therefore we may learn of His great kindness to not only speak, but remind by the Spirit:
As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent.
And O!, but this can become even more curious until we be settled in the love of God that is toward us in all things! Is it comfort? Surely! Yet doesn’t it speak of a seeming different matter…also? And I use “seeming” (I hope) soberly.
In our being moved to (see) and “know Him as He is” we are persuaded to a path…even that path of knowing Him. This is not our own work, but even the peculiarly wrought working of seed implanted by Him…to “ask, seek, knock”. In this, our being “mapped out” to know and understand…even the love of God through Jesus the Christ, we are being told the experience of knowing this love is found in rebuke and chastening. And for then, with very good reason we are also told:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
In one sense (if one can receive it) we are those appointed to bear much rebuke and chastening…(which often does not “feel like love”) in order that we know we are being truly…loved. And even more oddly if we admit to a pressing to continue, we are also (in another sense) those asking for “even more” of this! No wonder we are told to not lose heart, to not grow weary…and admit even, that if we were not “instructed so”…what would we do of ourselves…but draw back?
Thanks be to God for those who, also enduring such were not too timid to remind, nor averse to speaking of matters no man could choose of himself and for himself, for they were given to see the consequences of the Lord’s discipline and chastening(s) upon them. And through Christ alone (and alone through Christ’s spirit and to Christ’s glory) made able to encourage us. They knew something of the Lord’s cup. And the power of His resurrection.
What a place of secret and such secure hiding! That God in wisdom would (in and through Christ) hide such comfort and encouragement in a place no man would believe, or could even look…except by gift. Even the gift of command. And there begin to be taught of what the world cannot receive…how that Jesus Christ, in and by the Spirit of God could bear such contradiction of sinners against Himself and prevail. How much more comfort to those who believe! For we are not “bearing for sin’s sake” (Christ alone has made full expiation) but instead bearing for the sake of God’s manifest display in vindication of Christ’s righteousness. This love of God for the son of His love is made ours to taste and know, even to our very sustaining, through the ministry of Jesus Christ…who ever liveth to make intercession for us!
The constraints of this love, even and especially past the place of our knowing our own failure(s) and failing…is abundantly ours.
Listen again, as need be, to what this apostle (Paul) spoke in his finding:
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Does it not address the uncovering of a curious following? How that through pursuit of Christ to know as our justification we may find ourselves even more in lack, more in need, more “missing the mark” than we formerly even considered of ourselves; and that unless we be disabused of the notion we might consider Jesus Christ the minister of sin! The apostle says plainly…God forbid!
No. We are discovering our being lost was greater than we could have imagined, our being dead to righteousness deeper than we could have once borne in our knowing (what man does not embrace to “the end” that he still had/has some bit of his own righteousness to offer?) and that the trials of our faith (who would claim having never stumbled?) and in which we dare not deny our own occasions of stumbling, are appointed to bring a seeing (and appreciation) of the One in whom no stumbling is found. And who is not a minister of sin.
Listen, we know this sounds paradoxical. To some even, untenable. And I am not persuaded it is an unreasonable question to ponder if one is led to it: “Why would a/the loving God who has given “His all” through Christ allow a man to discover all despairing of himself in knowing himself as sinner…even (and especially?) when he is seeking to be justified by Christ?” One might…even if pressed to it in extremis be so bold as to ask “My God, where then is the reward?” If all my seeking only the more shows the direness of my necessity, where is comfort? I certainly don’t “feel” more righteous…at all! On the contrary…
It would not be reasonable here to belabor how easily we are deceived by feelings. Suffice it to say we are following the Lord who was not deterred by all the feelings a man would experience, and the deeper ones yet He experienced in His death of the cross. We have already touched upon, even if briefly, what was accomplished there; not merely the death of a man (for all men die) but God’s work of judging the whole of an old creation so that the testimony in the resurrection would be sure and a sure sufficiency to us of His bringing in the new creation. Again, suffice to say our discoveries of how much (and how great a work) took place there cannot but leave us in awe.
We return to the Lord’s testimony of His Father and His Father’s work:
This is the work of God that you believe upon Him whom He has sent.
And what our Lord endured in His faithfulness to that testimony being made sure to us, is all of most profound consequence; in, and for, all things. He wavered not.
If we then, being partakers with Him (are we partakers with Him?) must understand we too will be in touch with many feelings. And of such experience of a profundity of them, and in them, that we come to understand the Spirit’s comfort and necessity to us, to keep us from being completely overwhelmed by them. Yes we will touch the deeper recesses of what it means to despair of self and be unashamed, even if (or is it when? If it must be) at some points we plainly are brought to see our own failings.
How many saints have rejoiced in this exercise, learning these words of comfort and encouragement: (and I here use Young’s Literal Translation in hopes to avoid ambiguity, along with the KJV)
Stedfast [is] the word: For if we died together — we also shall live together; if we do endure together — we shall also reign together; if we deny [him], he also shall deny us; if we are not stedfast, he remaineth stedfast; to deny himself he is not able. (YLT)
It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. (KJV)
If any hold (“Who hasn’t?” I would ask) some confidence yet in their own steadfastness, this is said with some confidence; there are lessons ahead. The steadfastness that saves us is not our own, but His as gift to us. And even (hopefully) of seeing His.
The “seeing Him as He is” is both promise and impetus to us. And if in that there must be some seeing of ourselves so as to be disabused of any notion He is subject to usurpation, no one having been brought through this has any regrets. His throne is unassailable and unshakable. And so the comforts and conviction ministered from that throne are also, and no less. This must be established to us, and in us, lest we remain babes, or children, tossed about to and fro. And thankfully, the Lord does not grow weary.
There is a mystery here. And there is a conviction, a persuasion…even a sure lesson of many lessons that are given to us for navigation to its clarity. The Lord would have us no more ignorant of the deeper workings of man than He is, and was, when this testimony was given regarding Him:
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. (KJV)
“…for he knew what was in man.”
Jesus knows of duplicity and fickleness as the only pure and undefiled knower/observer/seer can, even as through Him by whom all things that are made, are made. And though surely we are set free to confess all our weaknesses and infirmities (both to Him, and even one another) lets us not be as children thinking we are making something of news to Him. Though it may be news to us in discovery of how frail we really are, (and He does not grow weary of our confessions of discovery) what is news to us is only so because He is working to help us see. And this, not for shame’s sake, but for growth. Paul came to understand this in the deeper revelation of God’s sufficiency of grace toward him:
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
What a revelation!
“for my (God’s) strength is made perfect in weakness”!
Who could, or would seek to bear the knowing of all their own weakness(es), but for the grace of God made abundant there? Even so much so that they (we) might even come to “glory in them”? We, who formerly were given to only displaying “our strengths”? But we are no longer in a (or the) jungle as brute beasts, we have been given a Kingdom. By, and with a King our only sure defense. And we are coming to know Him as only valiant, only mighty over all for the vindication of His name…even in His people.
Admittedly some may not yet appreciate such warrior talk. But, He will not deny Himself. The Lord is a warrior. A conqueror. A vanquisher of all rebellion and even what may remain of rebellious or contrary thinking in us. His name is mighty in its work in us…and no less, thorough us. No man who has been conquered by the Lord either doubts such has happened, or is happening, and that without regrets. And there remains some persuasion this is what Paul (at least in part) addresses here:
Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Had Jesus fulfilled a promise in Paul?
“I will show you whom you should fear…”?
Was Paul shown that someone by the Christ of God of whom the ancients had written:
Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Is 8:13)
Those are strong words…even to such as dread. Had Paul discovered something…even something of a “linking” in the God whom he loved (do any doubt?) and that this ministry of reconciliation to Him through Christ was not without the knowing of (at least) some…terror? Yes, in some ways…a mystery. But only resolved through, and in, Christ. We dare not have any inclination to yet believe these waters can be navigated but by another on our behalf. Even to the bringing of us to safe relief. To draw near to what (who) is otherwise terror alone to us. We begin to see our need of understanding Christ’s work of love, done in the fear of the Lord, and gifted us. Deep calls to deep.
Just as “warrior talk” should not be foreign to us, neither should be this matter of the fear of the Lord, nor even the terror of the Lord. May we understand, or come to…even all of us (this writer surely not exempted) the particular matter of singularity, or if better understood, consistency. Of being consistent, all integrated to one thing, and then becoming men of integrity. Jesus speaks of singleness of eye and encourages to it; both for our benefit and the knowing of glory. Even that it be rightly ascribed to God alone. After all, should we not be learning the benefit(s) of rightness (or the rightness of God we call righteousness) if we have some sensing of the resurrection and God’s placement of Jesus the Christ to His right hand?
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
In this matter of fear and terror it must no less be settled, and no less understood if God’s grace allows. The simplest of examples, when found, are usually of best sufficiency.
Man is often found in many desires and from which many plans develop, even the matters we lay out for doing. Intents and desires often run deeper than we know in spurring motive. It is for our instruction to our own ignorance there (in the depths) that we are told of the word of God (are we settled yet as to whom this is?) here:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Singleness of eye (and therefore heart) to a consistency of integrity must be accomplished for us. Therefore even all the underneath, the hidden places (to us) of our depths from which motive rises (our doings) would be lost to us if not discerned for us.
As said, and scripture testifies,
“There are many devices (plans) in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Now to the silliest, and I hope, simplest of examples.
Think perhaps of the strongest (even obvious) of desires a man might know.
If it is not too crass…even a man on his wedding night. The marriage chamber is all laid out, the delight of his eyes and all longing of his heart is there before him and ready for his embrace. Suddenly comes from the next room the roaring of a lion. And he knows a lion’s roar. Suddenly all plans are “out the window”…suddenly all plans of desire’s fulfillment must make way (and are at the very least, surely suspended) till the necessity of safety is secured.
Do we see how terror and fear easily overrides, even to the narrowest (and narrowing) of focus, and particularly in excess of great desire(s)? Nothing can continue of plans, all is suspended, at least until the matter of that lion‘s showing up is resolved.
It is a silly example. But I do not doubt you have ample of your own. Of matters and plans going “out the window” when the unforeseen intervenes. The man severely cuts his hand (or worse) during his planned day of chopping wood, or making a tree house for his children. There are simply far too many examples to list, that should be plain. We have all had them, no doubt. But the matter of lesson in them remains the same, a “thing” can happen that easily overrides original plans born of desire and motive “to do”. Totally upsetting to us who had previously thought our doings were coming to some other conclusion. And how all focus then shifts! Yes, fear can override and is so manifestly plain in its power. Dare we think God does not know how he has made man?
No doubt this road is unpleasant at the first to consider. And, also no doubt, the resolution must go past any trite recitations. “Fear is of the Devil!” and therefore someone (perhaps even this writer) stands easily accused of promoting fear! How many times did Jesus say (and also many scriptures) “Fear not”? How many times?Yes, something must be resolved.
I am persuaded it is not untenable. And God knows I have some hope of greater conclusion (if God allow) in next entry.
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