The matter of “what happens?” when we find out we are being led to a place we did not expect, nor even much care for (understatement) is not without consideration.
Much was made in the previous section in regards to what we receive as the inspired writings, in this case of Paul, and whether they came to him “out of thin air” so to speak (though indeed spiritual) or were made real to him in true experience…and therefore true. It may be moot, God knows, whether a man is used to communicate something he doesn’t really understand or know by experience, but nevertheless, once a matter is relayed as being (even if only as a possibility) that possibility has entered the realm of being and is up for consideration.
And this particular matter under consideration, mentioned by Paul, is this:
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.
That’s a strange place isn’t it? Do you think Paul understood that of which he wrote? Might it even have come to him in form of true experience? It seems so contradictory or paradoxical at first (and maybe even hundredth) glance. But here is something now presented, and presented as that possibility in “if”. It is now in the realm of being.
What could seem less the “reward” for doing (as what most any “christian” might confess) a good thing…that is seeking after Christ for justification…than to find one’s self displayed to one’s self as a sinner? Talk about finding what one didn’t intend to, or set out to know…or want to…find out! This seems so amiss, so out of what appears as to how things should appear (by our own reasoning) that something must certainly be quite wrong. It is very much a case of the soul saying “I was engaged in a good thing (or so I believe) that only shows how wrong I am!” This simply cannot be! And Paul understands our propensity toward a blaming, our assigning fault for a matter we consider in all the should not be’s we encounter. “Someone or thing is responsible”, and mostly, since things are ascribed all moral neutrality it is a someone we seek to find culpable.
Thanks be to God the spirit had Paul write “God forbid”!
And yes, Paul does not draw back when talking about possibility here. Even as he seeks to nip it in the bud with that “God forbid”, for he understands (is it real to him in experience?) the soul’s propensity to assign blame. “I am seeking after/following after Christ for justification (or could be) and all I see being displayed is myself as sinner! Is it Christ then, Himself, that is ministering sin…to me?”
Oh, yes it may sound absurd when so phrased “Is it Christ then, Himself, that is ministering sin to me?” But to those who would immediately resort to a so called spiritual “pearl clutch”…drawing back in outrage, or high dudgeon, that any might ever consider such a possibility of existing or even being mentioned…well…it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it? For, forasmuch as Paul adds God forbid, he has already acknowledged the possibility of a questioning. And perhaps our reaction of high dudgeon…even indignation at the possibility, (or God forbid thinking so!) only shows we do not yet understand. Or even the what of “what is happening”.
In short, sin is being show for what it is.
Unless we proceed with this understanding, that Christ alone makes things/matters clear in His true light…we are ignorant, or worse, presumptuous of how things are. This goes to all matters, material and spiritual, but of all that is most of necessity to us is the understanding of spiritual matters. We truly do not know the nature of sin. Oh, yes, we may say (even as devils do of God) “I know there is such a thing” but as to its true nature we remain in the dark. Just as the devils know there is one God, but as to any apprehension of His goodness of nature, there is none. And here I must tread lightly for there is a subtlety to be made plain, and no longer obscured. And God forbid I present myself as having plumbed the depths or seen the heights and breadth of all of God’s love. I am as ignorant in all as any I might “point out”…for though I be convinced it is (the love of God) I must also surrender to that place of “I know it is, but no, I do not therefore know all about it”.
But, like things once tasted that delight in a more than unexpected manner, so is the love of God. Yet, it is even rather crass and surely falling far too short to compare the love of God to anything. How He suffers me!
But if we have tasted that the Lord is good (in all kindness and patience toward us) then these matters of finding out what we once surely felt not to, are set in place. And if we are among those blessed in, and by this everlasting love, this once uncomfortable place becomes a source of great joy. We are at once advancing in spiritual matters with understanding; that is to the nature of sin, how it may take advantage by a mechanism but also, and far more importantly we are tasting the love of our Lord for a sinner chosen to know Him. To begin to understand the heinousness of it, even producing all discomfort and often repugnance, is to no less gain the sensing of our Lord’s descent to have us. Needless to say to the some who are my elders in the faith, have grasped and clung to the cross despite such great opposition and know, with that experiential knowing of spiritual matters, that our feelings (especially about how we appear to ourselves) are being, and must be dealt with at the root. For it is no great thing to understand how much has previously been devoted in energies, attentions, at the neglect of Christ…to pursue feeling “better”; and that, particularly about ourselves. May God help us here and with these matters that we come to understand what it means to join Him outside the camp:
For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
Ours is not a communion of casual backslapping or flatteries rendered to one another that feign a show of unity inside the camp. Our union with and in the Lord…who endured far more than we yet know to have us is all and only paramount; and from there is our communion sealed, even with one another. For of the many things that may be attributed to the work of the cross is the abolishing of those differences and once distinctions we sought for ourselves in both cherishing and maintenance to secure our own identity. As the Lord has brought us into Himself to be one with Himself, He has no less accomplished that for us…the beneficiaries.
For we are no less made one with one another.
A thorough looking into the Christ of God cannot but reveal what He has done in His own body with us and for us. And be blessed exceedingly in this fellowship we have with Him, and one another.
It is no other way.
There is…no other way.
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