Overcomers Eat of the Tree of Life (Revelation 2.7)

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world. Produced in ancient Sumer, the story is about a king who is incredibly powerful yet fears his own death. He goes in search of immortality and is told about a plant that can grant eternal life. He finds the plant, but then a snake steals it from him while he is asleep. Gilgamesh goes back to his city empty-handed but reconciled to the fact that he is mortal and believing that the only way he can achieve some kind of immortality is by building up his city as a monument to himself. 

In the opening chapters of the Bible we read about the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Man originally had access to immortality and would have lived forever there in Eden. But after the Serpent successfully tempts the man and woman to sin by eating from the forbidden Tree, access to the Tree of Life is blocked. The man and his wife are expelled from Paradise and the Tree of Life is lost. That is, until we read the very last chapters of the Bible. In the book of Revelation, the Tree of Life returns. 

The Tree of Life acts as bookends for the Biblical story. The mega-narrative of Scripture moves with remarkable unity from Creation to New Creation with the Tree of Life as the central image of man’s fall and redemption. This theme touches one of the major nerve-centers of Scripture. What was lost in Adam is regained in Christ and with an even greater glory. The Second Adam does the exact opposite of the First Adam, thereby undoing what the First Adam did and giving us access to Paradise once more.

The Tree of Life is the source of eternal life. The word “eternal” does not just mean a long, long time. It has nothing to do with time or with a quantity of something. Eternal is a quality not a quantity. And when we see this word used in Scripture we should always connect it to God Himself. God is really the only being who can claim eternality. God is the great “I Am” or the one who is self-existent. Everyone and everything else had a beginning and depends on another source outside of itself to exist. But God is dependent on no other source for His life. God just is. Everything else is because God is and because He has willed it to exist. Eternal life is Divine life. The Tree of Life is a picture of God sharing His own life with man. God’s original purpose was to give or share eternal life with mankind. That is why the Tree of Life was there in Eden. Eternal life does not come from a tree but from God. If we get eternal life from a tree it is only because God put life there. This teaches us that eternal life is not something that is in us already but must be taken in from outside ourselves. The same is true with sustaining the life of the body. What we need to live must be taken in, it is not within us. But God provides what we need to live. 

The ultimate issue for a dying race is how we can get access to eternal life. Is there a way back to the Tree of Life? This is something that mankind has been seeking since the writing of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Even with all of our technological, scientific, and medical achievements there is still no cure for death. The Gospel holds out the hope that the way to the Tree of Life has been opened. But there are a few crucial conditions:

We must be given access to the Tree of Life.

Access to the Tree of Life is granted by Jesus. 

Eternal life cannot be earned, it is given. It is Jesus Himself who gives access to the Tree of Life. Ephesus needed to know that detail, because their relationship to Jesus was shaky. They had lost their first love for Jesus Himself. If Jesus is the one who gives access to the Tree of Life, then the Church needs to make sure her relationship with Christ is strong. If Jesus can give access to this Tree of Life then He can also deny access. That is the implication. Not everyone will eat of the Tree of Life. Some will be excluded and cast out of Paradise forever. 

After the account of man’s fall in Eden, when the way to the Tree of Life is blocked, very little is said in the rest of the Old Testament about eternal life. The way back to the Tree of Life was not opened under the Law of Moses. It was not until Jesus came that eternal life is opened up to us and made available. Christ came into the world to destroy death and to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1.10). The only hope we have of overcoming death is through the member of the human race who Himself overcame death by His resurrection from the dead (1 Peter 1.3; Heb. 2.14-15). Just as death came through a man, eternal life came through a man (Rom. 5.12-21; 1 Cor. 15.21-22). And the only way we can have this eternal life is by being in spiritual union with Christ and being raised to life with Him (Rom. 6.1-4). Jesus Himself is the Tree of Life. He is the Bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world (John 6.33-35). Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11.25). If we have Jesus we have eternal life. If we don’t have Jesus, we do not have life (1 John 5.11-12). It is really that simple!

God made eternal life accessible to us in Jesus. For us to have access to this life the Son of God had to come into the world as a man. The incarnation was not done just for show. If humanity was to share in the life of God, then God had to share in our humanity. Jesus did not come to show us the way to the Tree of Life but to be the Tree of Life Himself. 

When Jesus said things like “I am the Bread of Life” or “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” He is doing nothing less than claiming to be God. Only God has eternal life and can be the source of life for us. By claiming to be that source Jesus is claiming to be Divine Himself, not merely someone who is a guide to the Divine. This is what separates Jesus from all other religious leaders or moral teachers. No other religious figure in history has made the claim to actually be the source of eternal life. 

Jesus is the exclusive source of eternal life. 

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through me” (John 14.6). It is not difficult to understand what Jesus was saying about Himself. The difficulty for many people is in the exclusivity of that claim. Jesus claimed to be the only way to God and the source of eternal life. This is something we must either believe or reject. There is no other option.

But it is not without good reason that Christians believe in Jesus as the only source of eternal life. Who else has done what Jesus did? Who else can say “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18)? Jesus has some impressive credentials that prove He is the source of eternal life. He is the only person to have ever risen from the dead under his own power. The man who can conquer death must indeed be the source of eternal life! It is a very wise thing to find the man who defeated death and just do what he says to do. The man who is offering us eternal life and access to the Tree of Life has risen from the dead Himself, ascended into heaven, and has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. This man with all authority will give us access to the Tree of Life. 

When Joseph was made the ruler of Egypt he stored up all the grain of Egypt during the years of plenty. When the years of famine came and the people ran out of grain they went to the Pharaoh who simply said “go to Joseph. What he says to you, do” (Gen. 41.55). This is what God is saying to a dying race today: “if you want to live, go to my Son and do what He tells you.” Now is the time to be reconciled to the man who can give you access to the Tree of Life. Eventually everyone will either be invited in or shut out forever from the presence of the One who is life. Our lives in this world are hanging between these two alternatives. In fact, the only real purpose for this life is to introduce us to eternity, which can either be filled with life or with death.

We can find the Tree of Life only in the New Creation.

The way to the Tree of Life was forever blocked in this world.

Why was the way to the Tree of Life blocked? What if man had been able to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in a fallen, alienated state? The results would have been horrible. It would have been hell on earth. So it was an act of Divine mercy to block access to the Tree of Life. God did not allow man to live forever in a fallen world. There are some states in which death is to be preferred to life. When someone is suffering intensely we actually long for death. There are some states a person can be in where they can enjoy no quality of life. They are biologically alive, but they cannot really live. They cannot enjoy life the way it was meant to be lived and their body becomes a kind of living death. This is true in some sense for the entire human race. When sin entered the world there was an alienation from God. We should always understand sin as a state and not just the individual transgressions that we commit. 

Man was not made to live in alienation from God. Our lives will never really be right without God. How can we really live apart from the One who created us to be with Him? And so death follows sin just as naturally as night follows day. 

From one perspective death was a Divine mercy. But from another perspective it was also a Divine judgment that amounted to a limitation being placed upon sinful mankind. We cannot even begin to imagine what sinners would do if they knew they could never die. The longer lifespans of the antediluvian world may have also contributed to the ever-increasing wickedness of the world leading up to the Flood. How wicked would men become if they had hundreds and hundreds of years to develop their wicked ways? Just as God has placed boundaries for the sea He has also placed boundaries on the lifespan of sinful man. Wicked men may seem to flourish for a time and they boast in their strength and accomplishments. Yet, their feet are placed in slippery places and death finds them at last. We should never envy the temporary prosperity of the wicked (See Psalm 73). All flesh is grass! God has made it so. The way to the Tree of Life is not open to sinful man. The entire order of creation has been subjected to futility by the Creator Himself, in view of making a New Creation. Until the New Creation is ready this old creation will remain in a state of frustration. And there is no amount of human ingenuity, science, or progress that will change God’s decree of death over the world. We must wait in hope for the world to come.

In the meantime pain, suffering, and death will be the norm for life under the sun. Pain is not the will of God for man but it is used by God to teach man about the consequences of alienation. God allows us to hurt, not because He wants us to hurt, but because He wants to see us seek out the reason for our hurt which will eventually lead us to seek God Himself. God intends to frustrate all of man’s efforts to save himself. If there is salvation we must come to God. Pain can drive us to the Lord and make us long for the salvation only He can provide. C.S. Lewis said that “we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Paul called our suffering in this present world birth-pains. The world is groaning as in childbirth. But that also gives us hope that a New Creation is about to be born (See Romans 8.18-25).

How foolish and futile it is to try to find satisfaction and happiness in a world like ours! Even if you were to get everything you ever wanted you would not be able to keep it because you would die. But we live in a world where there are thieves, stock-market crashes, tornadoes, disease, wars, traffic accidents, and political corruption. How does anyone really get everything they want in a world like that? It is a grave mistake to fall in love with the things of this world because these things are in a state of passing away. Love those things too much and your heart will be forever broken. The only people who will not be ultimately disappointed are those who love what is eternal (1 John 2.15-17).

The Tree of Life belongs to the New Creation.

The Tree of Life is not found here but is in the Paradise of God. That is the World to come (See Revelation 21-22). This means that the only people who will eat of the Tree of Life are those who make it into the New Creation. We know this is the case because the present heavens and earth are being reserved for the destruction of fire (2 Pet. 3.10). Everything must pass through the fires of God’s judgment. Some things will not make it through this ordeal. This includes people. A great separation is coming. The sheep will be separated from the goats. The wheat will be separated from the tares, which will be burned. Everything that is incompatible with the New Creation will be thrown onto that great, cosmic, trash-heap that is the Lake of Fire. That fire will never be quenched. There are some things and even people who belong to this present, evil world. A person who belongs to this world has developed a love, affection, and affinity with those things that are opposed to God and His will. These people will not only be excluded from the New Creation, because they would defile it, but even if they were allowed to enter it they would never be able to be happy there anyway! Why would you want to eat from the Tree of Life if the fruit of that tree is distasteful to you and you loathe every bite?

If we are going to eat from the Tree of Life which is in the Paradise of God we must become adapted to that environment. The Tree of Life is an acquired taste. There are certain things in nature that are made to live in a particular environment and cannot live in any other place. Some animals must live underwater. Some plants can grow in a dry and arid desert where other plants would only die. If we are going to make it into the New Creation we must become adapted to that environment. The adaptations take place in this world. This is why God’s people are aliens in this world. We have been made for another world. So be careful what kinds of affections, desires, and attachments you make in this world. Some of those attachments cannot carry over into the world to come. If you are not compatible with the New Creation you will not enter it. We must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.

We must be overcomers to eat of the Tree of Life.

What must we overcome?

Most people who read Revelation come away scared. That is probably not a mature, informed reaction to the overall message of Revelation, but it is not a bad place to start. There are some scary images in Revelation that should make us stop and take notice. 

The first really scary image is that of the Dragon. This is obviously Satan. Here is the great enemy of God and mankind unmasked and revealed as the powerful and dangerous adversary that he is. Satan is ultimately a frustrated and defeated enemy. But he is also a relentless enemy who does not give up easily. To help him wage his cosmic war against God and His people in the earth, Satan hires three employees: the Beast, another beast also known as the False Prophet, and the Prostitute, also called Babylon the Great. (The meaning of these images would require another message. It is enough to know they are the Devil’s employees!) 

These are the forces of darkness arrayed against God’s people in the world. These are the enemies that we must overcome IF we are to eat of the Tree of Life. It sounds like an impossible task. But we already know we are in a spiritual battle against the forces of darkness, for which we need spiritual armor and weaponry (See Eph. 6.10-18; 2 Cor. 10.4-5). Revelation is not telling us anything exactly new. But the enemies of God and His people are being unmasked in all of their hideous glory. 

We need to know the true nature of our enemies because they will never reveal the truth about themselves willingly. Satan and his workers work by deception and stealth. Things are not as they seem in this world. Satan is the god (ruler) of this worldly system and he blinds the eyes of people (2 Cor. 4.4). Most people don’t even know Satan is there until he has slithered into their lives. He doesn’t have to use brute force and obvious wickedness to do his work. Satan can tempt and ensnare with small pleasures that seem harmless and that take us down a broad and easy path to Hell. Satan is a master counterfeiter who offers cheap substitutes for real, spiritual life. He even has his own religions and false gods! Some of these wear the name “Christian.” Most of Satan’s lies make us think only of what we can have here and now. 

Instead of waiting on God and His good gifts, Satan wants us to take what we can for ourselves. His lies and temptations never really change but are just repackaged for each new generation. To get to the Tree of Life we must get past all of Satan’s deceptions. 

How do we overcome?

But how can we take on the Dragon and win? Satan has already demonstrated that he can successfully dupe even the very best members of the human race. But there is one man Satan was not able to defeat. Satan tried to tempt Him, but he just said “no.” So Satan tried to kill Him, but He rose from the dead. Jesus has already overcome. “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered” (Rev. 5.5)! And Christ’s victory is our victory. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Rev. 12.11). The central message of the book of Revelation is that Christ has won the victory and is now reigning in heaven. And if we are with Jesus we also will overcome.

Now if that is true, why is there still so much evil and opposition to God in the world? The existence of evil is a major stumbling block for many people. But the Scripture prophesied that the Christ would reign in the midst of His enemies (Psalm 110.1-2) until His enemies are made into His footstool. The book of Revelation promises that this will happen and then those who are with Christ will eat of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God. The Kingdom of God has come but it is still coming. When it comes in its fullness we will eat of the Tree of Life. It does not look like the Church is overcoming right now. Sometimes it looks like the world is overcoming the saints. Sometimes the world even kills the people of God. But the saints are going to reign with Christ. This thing is not over yet and Jesus will have the last word. 

This hope is what motivates us to stay in the race and keep fighting the good fight of faith. You do have to run and you do have to fight in order to overcome and be granted access to the Tree of Life. But if we run, we will win. And if we fight, we win! So run the race and fight the good fight! There is a prize and it is access to the Tree of Life. Do whatever it takes to make it into the New Creation where the Tree of Life is growing. 

“This is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith” (1 John 5.4-5). We overcome by faith in the One who has already overcome the world (John 16.33). Someday our victory will be complete. There is more to salvation than what we have experienced in this world. In the World to come there is the Tree of Life waiting for us! If eternal life is knowing God (John 17.3), then eating from the Tree of Life will be finally seeing His face, enjoying His presence and fellowship without restriction or interruption for eternity.

The Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15)

Part 1

The Fact of the Resurrection of Christ

1 Cor. 15.1-11

Faith must always be built on facts. We believe in something or trust someone’s word because that idea and the person himself is true, reliable, and accurate. No one wants to find out that what he so strongly believed in was a lie or a mistake. No one wants to be a fool, to be taken in, or conned. Not only is it embarrassing to be fooled, it can also be costly and potentially dangerous. Before you believe in something or in someone you must always get the facts.

A fact is something that actually happened. It is something that actually exists. A fact is that which conforms to the way things really are. Facts are unforgiving, unbending, uncompromising. We can ignore a fact, speak against it, or try to hide it, but it doesn’t change and it isn’t going to just go away. We build our lives on facts. If you are not willing or able to do that you could find yourself locked up in a prison cell or in a mental hospital. Ignore the facts and you could easily end up lying on a cold, metal tray with a tag hanging from your big toe.

But what about religion and religious faith? Do the facts apply there? Many people don’t think so. What it comes to religion or spirituality most people today think that facts have no relevance. Religion is a personal thing, people say. It is sort of like choosing a favorite flavor of ice cream or movie. There is no right or wrong answer. It is just a personal feeling and preference.

There were apparently some people in the Corinthian Church who thought they were free to pick and choose what they wanted to believe about the Gospel. That Church was started by the Apostle Paul. Paul had preached the resurrection of Christ to the Corinthians. Yet, there were some of them who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They refused to believe that a dead body could be reanimated. Once you are dead you are just dead. Therefore, Christ could not have been raised from the dead. Maybe this was because many of the Corinthians were Gentiles and the great philosophers in the Greek tradition mostly thought the body was a prison for the soul. Why would you even want to raise a body back to life? The thing was the immortality of the soul, not the resurrection of the body. No wonder the philosophers at Athens politely dismissed Paul when he mentioned the resurrection (See Acts 17). Unlike the Greek thinkers the Jews believed that God could raise the dead. And when Paul found out that there were a number of people in the Church at Corinth questioning the possibility of the resurrection, he had to address that in his letter.

When it comes to something like the resurrection we are not talking about an optional position, a matter of opinion, or a point of speculation. There are some things on which Christians can agree to disagree. The resurrection is not one of those things. That’s because if you throw out the resurrection of the dead you must throw out the entire Gospel and the whole of the Christian faith. If there is no resurrection then being a Christian is a big waste of time and energy. We might expect the unbelieving world to toss out the resurrection as a myth. But when there are people in the Church questioning the resurrection we are talking about a major spiritual disaster. You can’t be saved without believing the Gospel. And without the resurrection you have no Gospel.

It is quite natural for people to be skeptical. It is difficult for us to believe things that are outside of our personal experience or that seem to contradict the normal course of nature. How many of us have ever seen a dead body come back to life? Would you believe it if someone told you they had witnessed such an event? You would probably be skeptical and that is not without good reason. All skepticism is not bad. If you were not skeptical you would be easily taken in by just about anything. A healthy skepticism can help us to find the truth in a world of lies. On the other hand, we can’t be skeptical all the time about everything. There are some things we have to believe because these facts are true and we are fools if we don’t believe. At some point every skeptic has to become skeptical of his skepticism. If we don’t begin to doubt some of our doubts then we could never change our minds about anything and we would become hardened, cynical, and finally blind, being unwilling even to trust our own faculties of thought and reason. You can’t live by being a skeptic about everything. When facts are presented you must accept them.

Is the resurrection of Christ a fact? How do we know that Christ actually rose from the dead? Why should we believe this to be true? The Apostle Paul gives a few convincing reasons to believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

Christ Died and Was Buried

We must begin with the fact that Christ died and was buried. Obviously, you can’t have a resurrection without an actual death. Remember that a resurrection means that the dead body has become alive again. This is not some kind of living death, like a zombie from a horror movie, but the return of the living person, not as a ghost, but physically whole and well. The resurrection of Jesus was not the appearance of a ghost or the vague hope that Jesus’ spirit lives on somewhere.

The body of Jesus that died on the Cross and was placed in a tomb came to life again. That is Resurrection. It is a physical thing we are talking about. There are those people who are too spiritual to believe in a physical resurrection. To these people the raising of a physical body seems crude, base, and primitive. But it was God who created everything that is physical, including our bodies. And it is God who gave His Son a body and sent Him into the world. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the Cross. Jesus’ body then died and was placed in a tomb. This body was raised from the dead. It seems that Christ’s body was changed after He rose from the dead. He was in a glorified body that could ascend into Heaven. But Jesus still had a body. And the tomb of Jesus was empty. When Jesus comes again He will come in His glorified body.

Was Jesus really dead?

There could have been confusion concerning the details of Christ’s death and burial. All kinds of things could have happened that would have made it very difficult for us to believe the fact of the resurrection. The Gospel writers anticipate skepticism and questions concerning the events leading up to the resurrection and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they provide answers that help us to believe. If there had been any sloppiness in the record of these events there would be reason to be skeptical. If we have reason to doubt these events then all of the other miraculous events in Scripture are also questionable. How could we begin to trust the Scriptures if the facts are not clear? How could we have any hope of salvation or trust in God if these things are vague?

In spite of the clarity and detail of the Biblical record of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, there are still those enemies of the faith who have raised certain objections. One popular objection was that Jesus never really died in the first place. This is sometimes called the Swoon Theory of the Resurrection. Jesus simply swooned, or passed out, while on the Cross and they thought he was dead. But when he was placed in a cold tomb he revived and came out but the disciples mistakenly thought that he had risen from the dead. Islam also teaches that Jesus did not really die on the Cross but was taken directly into Heaven without having died or rose again. But what is the agenda of those who want to explain away the Resurrection? Obviously, if the Resurrection is true then we must deal with who Jesus is and we must submit to Him as Lord. This is what the World in its rebellion against God wants to avoid. To say that Jesus was just another prophet or a great moral teacher is perhaps acceptable to the world. But to say that Jesus is the Son of God is a great threat to human freedom and autonomy.

But the Gospel writers provide many details concerning how Christ died. These details are not provided just to show the blood and gore of his death, though His suffering certainly was great, but to prove that He really was dead. If He was not dead then there is no forgiveness of sins and there was no Resurrection. 

The Gospels tell us details like:

• He cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit (Matt. 27.50)
• Pilate believed that Jesus was dead and gave charge of the body to Joseph of Arimathea (Matt. 27.58)
• The Centurion in charge of the Crucifixion confirmed for Pilate that Jesus had died (Mark 15.44-45)
• Jesus cried out to God “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” and then breathed His last (Luke 23.46)
• Jesus said “It is finished,” and then gave up His spirit (John 19.30)
• The soldiers did not break his legs to make him die, like the two thieves. But they pierced his side causing blood and water to flow out of His body, which was proof of death (John 19.34).

All of these details clearly prove that Jesus actually died. If He did not die then these witnesses must have either been terrible liars or just fools. Those who crucified Jesus were there to make sure He was really dead. And those who bury a body usually make sure that the person is actually dead.

There are very good reasons to believe that Jesus died. If a person chooses not to believe this it cannot be because there are no facts. It is because the person is not willing to believe those facts. The heart is the home of faith (See Rom. 10.10) not the intellect. The source of unbelief is a wicked heart not an intellectual deficiency.

Why does the Burial of Jesus Matter?

After Jesus died on the Cross His body was taken down and buried in a tomb. Paul includes this fact as an aspect of the Gospel preaching. This detail should not be overlooked. Jesus was buried in a tomb. He was not burned, dismembered, lost, or thrown into a mass grave. If anything unusual or mysterious had happened to the body of Jesus then believing in the Resurrection would be difficult. The Jews buried their dead in anticipation of the Resurrection of the Dead at the end of Time. Great care was taken with the body of the dead, and this was also true of Jesus’ body. The Gospel writers record in great detail what was done with the body of Jesus. Nothing is left open to speculation. For example, if no one knew where the body was buried then it could not have been verified that His tomb was empty. But, fortunately, we know exactly what happened to the body of Jesus: 

·    Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, which Pilate gave to       Joseph (Matt. 27.57-58)
 
·    Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus in linen clothes, assisted by Nicodemus, using a special mixture of spices and ointments (John 19.39-40).
 
·    They put the body in Joseph’s own, new tomb which had a large stone across the entrance (Matt. 27.59-60).
 
·    The tomb had no other occupant other than the body of Jesus (Luke 23.53; John 19.41).
 
·    Two of the women disciples were there at the tomb when Jesus was buried there (Matt. 27.61).
 
·    These women knew the location of the tomb and were prepared to return and honor Jesus with more spices and ointments (Luke 23.55-56).
 
·    The Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have a detachment of soldiers placed to guard the tomb and keep the disciples from stealing the body and claiming a resurrection. They also sealed the tomb with the official stamp of the Roman government (Matt. 27.62-66).

The burial of Jesus was really in preparation for His resurrection, though the disciples did not know this at the time. How the disciples handled the body of Jesus shows their love and devotion for Him. They had more love and devotion toward a dead Jesus than many people today show toward a resurrected Jesus!

The record of these details about how Jesus died and was buried is so that we will believe (John 20.31). But if we reject God’s record about His Son we are calling God a liar (1 John 5.10).

The death and burial of Jesus was the last time He was seen until the Second Coming. Then every eye will see Him (Rev. 1.7). The World cannot “bury” Jesus and get rid of Him, although it has tried and is still trying today to make sure Jesus stays dead and buried.

Christ was raised in Fulfillment of Scripture

There is no text in the Old Testament that says the Messiah would rise from the dead. And yet, when the Gospel was first preached by the Apostles, the pointed out certain texts of Scripture that were fulfilled in the Resurrection. When the Gospel was preached for the first time on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter quoted from Psalm 16 as being fulfilled in the Resurrection (See Acts 2.25-28). And the Apostle Paul quoted from Psalms 2, 16, and Isaiah 55 as pointing to the Resurrection of Jesus. When the Apostles quoted from the Scripture this was from what we now call the Old Testament. This was God’s revelation to the people of Israel. When the Apostles preached Christ they were saying that He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. The entire Biblical revelation is summed up in Jesus. Someone has correctly stated that “the Old Testament is Christ concealed and the New Testament is Christ revealed.”

Interpreting the Scriptures

The Apostles and the other writers of the New Testament Scriptures all interpreted what was written in the Old Testament Scriptures in the light of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. It all points to Christ and is fulfilled in Christ. The Gospel is the key to the entire Bible. This means that Jesus illuminates the Scriptures and without Jesus we will miss the meaning of what God is saying. The very leaders who killed Jesus were themselves experts in Scripture yet hated Jesus and refused to believe in Him (John 5.39-40). Simply knowing the text of Scripture is not enough to bring a person into the Kingdom of God. The Bible is not to be read or understood apart from Gospel preaching, as if the Bible were something like an evangelistic tract that can be simply passed around to unbelievers. The Church is supposed to preach the Gospel to the World, which saves those who believe (1 Cor. 1.21).

The Bible is not about how to live a successful life in the world, how to find a spouse, raise children, save for retirement, or start a mega-church. The Bible is not really about us at all, it is about Jesus. Our lives only begin to matter when we become connected to what God is doing in Christ. The Apostles did not interpret the Bible scientifically. They interpreted it according to the light of the Gospel of Christ. And we should do the same if we really want to know the Scriptures. Unfortunately, many people interpret the Bible just like the Constitution. That is, they get out of it what they want to in order to implement their own agenda. Reading the Scriptures should be like focusing a camera. The subject-matter of the picture should be brought into sharp focus. I am afraid that a lot of preaching has no focus at all. Many Churches just end up talking about themselves. But we are not the message. We are here to bring focus to the message, which is Christ.

Everything comes into focus in Christ and the Gospel. The Gospel fulfills, or fills out, the meaning of Scripture. It is not enough to just study the Bible.We must know Christ and the Gospel. When we know the risen Lord everything else will become clear.

The Function of Scripture

The Scriptures have a specific function for the believer. We are not to read the Bible as some kind of rule-book, pattern, or principle. These approaches always end in legalism, self-righteousness, sectarianism, and bondage. Scripture is to bring us to Christ and the freedom of the Gospel. Scripture undergirds and confirms our faith in Christ. The way Scripture performs this work is by showing us the consistency or faithfulness of God and His purpose. It gives us hope and confidence when we see that God has always kept His promises (Rom. 15.4). The resurrection of Christ is perhaps the ultimate confirmation of the faithfulness of God and the veracity of His Word.

The Scriptures are always there underneath our feet, supporting us like a firm foundation. Our faith is based on the unchanging fact of God’s Word and not on our feelings or on our performance. “On Christ the solid Rock I stand! All other ground is sinking sand.” The Resurrection of Christ is a fact on which I can stand, even when everything else around me is falling to pieces. Whatever life brings our way we can always hold on to the fact that Christ has risen. Nothing can change that fact.

The Scriptures come alive to us because the risen Christ is walking with us along the way, just like He did for those disciples on the road to Emmaus (See Luke 24.25-27). He is our guide and teacher and He speaks to us through the Scriptures. He is Himself the message of Scripture (See Rev. 19.10).

Christ Appeared to Chosen Witnesses

The final fact to consider about the Resurrection is that Jesus appeared. There were people who actually witnessed Christ being alive and well after He was dead and buried. To be Christians we must believe the testimony of these witnesses or we must choose to believe that they were liars or perhaps just incredibly foolish. Now it might prove difficult to believe a single witness. But when you have witness after witness all giving the same testimony that is a powerful pile of evidence that no reasonable person could ignore! The people who actually saw the resurrected Christ were not prepared for what they witnessed. And some even doubted it. There is no attempt in the Gospels to make the disciples look better. All we have are the facts. 

Disciples became Witnesses

Jesus did not appear publicly in Jerusalem. He did not make an appearance in a meeting of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Jesus only appeared to certain, chosen witnesses. We would probably have had Jesus appear to His enemies just to shock them! We all probably know some people today who need the same kind of thing. But that is not how the Gospel would go out to the world. The Gospel is about faith, not brute force. There will come a time when every eye will see Him and every knee will be forced to bow. But now when the Gospel is preached God is offering peace.

There is a Biblical record of post-resurrection appearances… 

• To Mary Magdalene (John 20.11-12)
• To certain women as they returned to the tomb (Matt. 28.1-10)
• To Peter (Luke 24.34)
• To two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.13-15)
• To 10 Apostles (Thomas absent) (John 20.19-23)
• To 11 Apostles (Thomas present) (John 20.26-28)
• To several disciples by the Sea of Galilee (John 21.1-23)
• To the Apostles and 500 brethren on a mountain in Galilee (Matt 28.16-20)
• To James (1 Cor. 15.7)
• To the Apostles at Jerusalem immediately before the Ascension (Acts 1.3-9)
• To Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9.1-2)

(We can also add Christ’s appearance to John on the Isle of Patmos in the book of Revelation.)

These appearances of Jesus should be viewed as transitional in nature. The physical presence of Jesus would be gone because He was preparing to ascend into Heaven and reign at the Father’s right hand. The whole point of the Resurrection was not for Jesus to remain on the earth but to return to Heaven. This would mark the beginning of the Age of the Spirit and the Church’s witness to the World before the End of the Age and the Second Coming of Christ. But the lesson for disciples is that we have to learn to live by faith without the physical presence of Christ. Discipleship is about believing, not seeing (John 20. 29). Some people say “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But that is not faith.

God’s people have always had to live by faith, not by sight. Faith is absolutely necessary (Heb. 11.6). God has made faith necessary because it involves trust. You can’t have a relationship without trust. Faith involves becoming like children who are humble enough to depend on our heavenly Father and obey Him without pride or suspicion.

Perhaps the greatest piece of evidence for the Resurrection was the change in the disciples. How do you explain their boldness? How do you explain the change in Saul of Tarsus into the Apostle Paul? It is still true that the greatest proof of the Resurrection is the changed lives of believers themselves. We are proof of the power of the Resurrection!

The Witnesses were sent out into the World

The Resurrection marked the beginning of a New Age in salvation history. It was the beginning of the Age of the Spirit and the witness of the Church. The Gospel will be preached to all the nations and then the End will come. We are a part of this great Enterprise. The primary work of the Church in the world is to be a witness of the Resurrection. This requires the power and presence of the Holy Spirit if we are to be effective witnesses (See Acts 1.8). Every believer is a witness with a testimony of Christ. All you have to do is tell people what Christ has done for you in your life if you want to be a witness of the Resurrection.

Of course, this witness will not be popular with the World. Not everyone will believe our witness. Nearly all of the original witnesses became martyrs. The Church should always be prepared to suffer in this world because of its witness. But if the Resurrection is a fact, then not even death can really hurt us. We overcome the World by the word of our testimony (Rev. 12.11). So if we find that we are afraid of what is going on in the world today, we need to remember that Christ is risen.

If Christ is risen then we always have hope!

Hope for the Future: Romans 8.18-25 (Part 4)

The Role of the Spirit in our Future Glory

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

(Romans 8:23 ESV)

I have always loved bookstores because I love books. (That doesn’t mean that I would like to read or purchase all of the books in a bookstore!) A bookstore is a reflection of humanity. You can learn a lot about human nature from perusing a bookstore. The books that are written, published, and purchased tell us about the various desires, hopes, and dreams of people. I know that many of these desires are depraved. But you don’t have to expose yourself to all of the junk in order to learn something. Just look at the names of the sections.

For example, one of the biggest sections in a bookstore is devoted to Psychology, Self-help, and Self-improvement. This section is all about knowing yourself and improving your life in various ways. This section is important, not for what is there, but for why it is there. Why would people gladly spend their hard-earned money for the latest best-selling book on how to be a better person? Clearly there are millions of people who sense that they need to improve themselves and they are looking for help. Generally speaking, people feel bad about themselves, or at least incomplete in some way, and they are trying to find help to fix the problems in their lives. The fact that these books keep growing in number might also indicate that these feelings are not going away and that a final or complete solution to the problem has not been found.

There are many professed Christians who believe, much like the self-help authors from the bookstore aisle, that we can reform our lives. With perhaps a little help, a little knowledge, or a good technique, we can change and become better people. In fact, many Christians believe that the Bible itself is sort of like the ultimate self-help book. The Bible is believed to be a kind of moral reform textbook. All we have to do is read the commandments in the Bible and understand the moral requirements that God has revealed and by doing these things we will improve our character, our relationships, and our world. Many people feel this way about the Law of Moses, or the 10 commandments, as well as the teaching of Jesus. If we could just apply these teachings we would revolutionize the human race. Unfortunately, no one actually does what Moses, Jesus, or any other great religious or moral teacher has said we should do! Whatever it is the human race needs it must be something more than just moral instruction or a law.

It seems to me that if all we needed to do was apply the moral teachings of the Bible there would be huge sections of Scripture that would be completely unnecessary. We would not need the book of Romans, for instance. In fact, the book of Romans would be dead wrong! That’s because the Apostle Paul spends the first subsection of this epistle arguing that the entire human race is a sinful mess and that the Law of God has not been able to reform humanity (1.18-3.20). And if Paul had stopped writing Romans there the human race looks to be hopeless. Everyone is a guilty sinner before God. The Law of God does not change this situation, but actually serves to make sure that everyone is declared guilty! What is the solution? 

The solution is not the Law or a moral reformation. The solution has nothing to do with human effort at all. God Himself had to intervene and do something about the human condition. The human race does not just need reformation, it needs transformation. What did God do to make this radical transformation possible? 

The Gospel Promises the Indwelling Presence of the Spirit

In the next subsection of the book of Romans Paul expounds the gospel of justification by faith (3.21-4.25). The good news is that God has taken sin away through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. So anyone who places his faith in Christ can be forgiven of his sin and receive the gift of imputed righteousness. That is justification by faith.

Before anything can be done with humanity, or with an individual, something has to be done about the guilt of sin. Contrary to what many people think today, God cannot simply ignore sin and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Sin is like a great debt that someone has to pay. The problem was that we could not pay the debt ourselves. The person who is guilty cannot remove his guilt. The sentence of death was upon humanity. We were all under the righteous wrath or condemnation of a just and holy God. We could do nothing to remedy this situation. If salvation was to come it would have to be provided by God Himself. The Gospel declares that God has provided a way for guilty sinners to be made righteous before God.

Justification is just the Beginning

But Paul is not done. There is more to God’s solution for sin. There is more to the Gospel than justification. Justification is really just the first stage. Unfortunately, many Christians stop with justification and are satisfied that they understand the Gospel. The Protestant Reformation helped the Church to recover from centuries of false teaching and reintroduced this particular doctrine of justification by faith. Unfortunately the Reformation, and the Churches it produced, often failed to keep reading Romans! 

An incomplete Gospel cannot produce complete Christians. I fear that most Christians today have only heard the first part of the Gospel. They have only heard about the forgiveness of sins, and justification, but not the rest of the plan. This has produced believers who are both ignorant and also weak. Christians are told that they can be forgiven and then go to heaven when they die. But what about the time in between salvation and going to heaven? Does our time here on earth in the body mean anything in God’s plan of salvation or are we just waiting for death and then heaven? The Gospel actually promises more than just the forgiveness of sins. And there is more to being justified by faith than just escaping Hell and the wrath of God.

From one perspective being justified is the necessary preparation for the really important work of salvation. Our sins have to be taken away so that we can be ready for the next stage or phase in the plan of salvation. In Romans chapters 5-8 Paul turns to this next phase.

Regeneration through the Spirit

In the next subsection of Romans Paul unpacks the effects of justification (Rom. 5-8). Now that we are justified by faith we can begin to move into the next phase of God’s plan of salvation. What God is really doing in salvation is creating a whole new kind of person. Jesus is the model for this new race of men. Those who are in Christ, or joined to Him spiritually, are being made like Him. This change goes far beyond a moral reformation. This is a total transformation. It is so radical a change that it is like a death and a resurrection. Being justified by faith is really just the beginning of a whole new kind of life. We are not talking about adopting a new way of life. We are talking about becoming a new kind of person in Christ. This radical transformation happens when the Spirit of God does His work in the believer. It is a kind of spiritual surgery. It is like a new birth. 

The Gospel promises that when our sins are taken away and we are justified through faith in Christ we become new people through the presence of the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us. Through the presence and power of the Spirit we then begin to live a new kind of life that would not be possible if we were going at it alone. The Gospel is not simply about moral reformation but about total, spiritual regeneration through the life of the Spirit. 

Now let us be very clear here that the presence of the Holy Spirit will result in righteous living. But this new, sanctified kind of life is through the Spirit’s power and presence. It is made possible by the Spirit’s power working in the believer, who is living in submission to the Spirit’s guidance. That is something very different than moralism, or trying to live according to an ethical principle.

However, a person who is under the control of the Spirit will be obedient to God. In fact, the righteous requirements of the Law will be fulfilled in a person who is living under the control of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8.4). A person who is being controlled by the Spirit will not be under the dominion of sin. That is the great promise in this subsection of Romans. The believer in Christ who is controlled by the Spirit does not have to be dominated by sin. The believer still has to struggle with the Flesh and with temptation as long as he is in the body. 

But the believer can win that struggle through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers the believer to be sanctified, or separated from sin, and able to serve God while still in this mortal body. This mortal body is the source of the believer’s struggle. The principle of sin is still at work in our mortal bodies. But the Holy Spirit is also at work in us. And the Spirit is more powerful than the Flesh! This is a struggle we can win IF we submit ourselves to the Spirit and obey Him. However, there is still the possibility of continuing to be enslaved to the sinful nature, or the Flesh, if we do not walk according to the guidance of the Spirit. But it is normal for believers to walk in the Spirit or to be filled with the Spirit, just like the wind fills the sail and propels a boat through the water (see Eph. 5.18). It is abnormal for a believer to be under the control of the Flesh. That is a contradiction and a serious problem that must be immediately addressed! 

Glorification is the Goal

The reality is that the believer has been made new. However, his body and his environment has not been made new. Not yet. But it will be. And so Paul then turns to the future of the children of God. This is the focus of this series of messages (Rom. 8.18-25). 

The believer has a glorious future. We will not always have to live in an unredeemed body and an unredeemed world. The plan of salvation has a future aspect to it. This future salvation is the hope of glory. God is eventually going to give us new bodies which will no longer be subject to sin or death. We have been saved to inhabit these new, eternal bodies. Not only will we have new bodies but all of the rest of Creation will also be changed. The Creation was also subjected to death, or to the bondage of corruption, because of sin. So Creation will also be redeemed. The future glory of the saints is to be fully redeemed: a redeemed spirit, in a redeemed body, in a redeemed earth. That all adds up to glory! Glory means that something is revealed. Someday the true identity of the children of God will be revealed. That revelation of the work that God has already begun in us, through the Spirit, is what the apostle Paul calls “glory.”

If you were getting ready to move to a new country as an immigrant, there would probably be a lot of preparations you would make. You would want to be able to “fit in” to your new home. What if you could bring someone from that country to live with you and help you make those preparations? That person is familiar with your new country and could teach you its customs and language. And he or she might even know some people in your new country and could help you make some new friends ahead of time. This is exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing for us while we are in this world waiting to move into our new home in the world to come. Someone from heaven is living in us getting us ready for heaven. The Holy Spirit is our Helper from Jesus who was sent to get us ready for glory. 

From one perspective we are not saved yet. At least there is a part of us that is not saved yet. When we were baptized we are not instantly taken up to heaven and glorified. We are still in the world and in the body. During this time the Spirit has a work to do in us. 

The Father sent the Son. The Son then sent the Spirit to dwell in His people. The entire Godhead is involved in salvation! Unfortunately, many professed Christians are woefully ignorant of the work of the Spirit. Some are afraid of being called “Pentecostal” or “Charismatic.” I fear that for many Christians the Trinity consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible! But we need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us so that we can cooperate with Him and recognize His work. This is not merely the intellectual knowledge of a doctrine but is also a personal experience.

Every child of God is born of the Spirit (John 3.3-5). If the Holy Spirit is not at work in our lives then we do not belong to God. We should make sure that we see the evidence of the Spirit working in our lives. Without the Spirit we are dead and powerless, like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision (See Ezek. 37). 

The solution to the problem of sin is not only justification, but also the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This spiritual regeneration leads to a life of sanctification, which is in preparation for glorification. 

The Indwelling Spirit a Taste of Future Glory

For most people in the Church the idea of salvation is making sure you go to heaven when you die. Salvation is like a life-insurance policy. When you die you get out your salvation and punch your ticket for heaven! Getting saved, as it is called, involves a one-time act when a decision is made and some kind of formal ceremony is performed. Some believe this involves going forward during an invitation hymn in Church and saying the Sinner’s Prayer to ask Jesus into your heart, or perhaps being baptized. Whatever the initiation happens to be, the time you really need your salvation is when you die. In-between this initial experience of getting saved and then dying and going to heaven, there is really very little emphasis on salvation in the Church today and from the pulpit. The Christian life, as some call it, is usually not associated with salvation at all. 

But this is not a Biblical understanding of salvation. While there is an initial salvation experience where we are justified and united with Christ, being saved also involves the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The indwelling of the Spirit is what Paul calls the first-fruit of the final stage of salvation, which is glorification.

The First-fruit of Redemption

The first-fruit is the beginning of the harvest with the hope and anticipation of much more to come in the future. Likewise, the believer has received something in advance of the glory of the New Creation. The indwelling Spirit is the first-fruit of the New Creation. The Holy Spirit is a Divine person, a member of the Godhead. He is not a Force but a Person who shares in the Divine Nature along with the Father and the Son. 

So beware of teaching that excludes members of the Godhead. Some of these teachings acknowledge the Father, but not the Son or the Spirit. Other doctrines acknowledge the Son, but ignore the Father and the Spirit. And there are also groups that seem to emphasize only the Spirit to the exclusion of the Father and the Son. It is not our goal simply to maintain some dry, lifeless orthodoxy. Rather, it is our goal to have a full experience of God in our lives. How can we actually experience salvation without having some kind of intimate knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

The Spirit actually dwells in the mortal body of the believer and is joined to our spirits. He is the agent of the new birth or regeneration (See John 3.3-5). The Spirit is involved in our initial conversion and faith but He then comes to dwell in us when we are united with Christ. Jesus is the Sender of the Spirit (See John 15-17). We have to be in Christ to have the Spirit living in us. Nothing comes to us apart from Jesus. Jesus cleans us up so that He can then send the Spirit to dwell in us. The forgiveness of sins is really the means to an end, which is the indwelling presence of the Spirit, rather than an end in itself. When the Spirit moves in and takes up residence in us the real work can begin!

Jesus said the Spirit is like the wind (John 3.8). We cannot see the Spirit but we can see the work or the effects of the Spirit. To know that the Spirit is at work in your life or in others we must look for the evidence. There should be some sort of change in the life of a person who has the Spirit. Why do we need to know about the Spirit? So we can have assurance that we are children of God and recognize who the children of God are. Also so we can cooperate with Him and not frustrate His work. We must remember that the People of God are a work in progress. Even though the Holy Spirit is at work in us this does not imply that we have arrived at our final state of glorified perfection. We are not yet glorified. The people of God still have to deal with character flaws. Sanctification is a process. We must be patient with ourselves and each other.

The Holy Spirit’s presence and work in us is the first-fruit of future glory. This is Biblical imagery developed under the Law of Moses in the Old Testament Scriptures. When Israel came into Canaan the tribes brought back some of the fruit of the Land of Canaan (See Num. 13.23-24). The Holy Spirit is like that fruit from the true eternal home of the saints. Israel was commanded to celebrate the Feast of Weeks which was the celebration of the first-fruit (See Exodus 34.22). This was also Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. So the coming of the Spirit was prefigured in that feast. The first-fruit would always be associated with the coming of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also called a down-payment or a pledge of our future inheritance (See Eph. 1.13-14). It is like the earnest money on a new house or an engagement ring. The best stuff is still up ahead for the children of God! But it all started with receiving the indwelling Spirit. 

Being a Christian means learning to wait. It is something many of us are not very good at during our weaker moments! But we have to wait on the Lord to bring to pass all of His promises. We don’t have the whole thing yet and we are waiting on the Lord. The whole purpose of salvation is to get us into the World to Come, not to make us happy or successful here. God saved us from this world so we can inhabit the New Creation. But the believer is not instantly translated to heaven the moment he is saved. And the New Creation is not here yet in fullness. We are in a period of waiting and hoping. We have been made new, yet the old is still with us and all around us. This is a period of transition, preparing, and also tension for the believer. But while we are still in the mortal body and still in this world there is some preparation that must be done in us.

The Personal Experience of the Spirit

There is no such thing as an impersonal salvation. Salvation is not just a doctrine to be embraced intellectually. Salvation is a personal experience. It is the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit that personalizes salvation. We know we are saved because we have received the Spirit of God. Every Christian should look for the confirmation of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Seeing evidence of His presence and His work is what gives us assurance that we are the children of God. If there were no personal experience of salvation how would we ever have assurance that we are children of God? While the complete work of salvation will not be revealed until we are glorified in the New Creation, the work has already begun in us when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us.

How can we recognize the work of the Spirit in us? There is a common work and ministry of the Holy Spirit that all of God’s children experience. The Holy Spirit also gives us certain gifts to use in our ministry in the Body of Christ. We do not all have the same gifts of the Spirit, but we do all have the same experience of the Spirit which shows that we are God’s children. The Spirit is preparing the believer for the New Creation, which includes the redemption of all Creation as well as the redemption of our mortal bodies. Preparing us for this eternal glory is the main work of the Spirit in our lives. Making it into the New Creation is the first priority! So how do you know you are going to be a part of the World to Come? There should be evidence of the work of the Spirit in your life. The People of God are like a home that is under construction. When a home is being built there are certain parts that must be in place if the structure is to be sound and inhabitable. We are God’s building, even His Temple. If we are going to dwell forever with the Lord then we have to be ready for such a relationship. If we are not ready we will be excluded.

The experience of the Spirit creates holy desires. The Flesh generates sinful desires. These are desires for things that are not lawful or natural. But all desire is not evil. Some desires are God-given. Where there is a God-given desire there is always a God-given fulfillment for that desire. The indwelling Spirit produces certain godly desires in us and God means to fulfill these desires. It should be noted, however, that the ultimate satisfaction of the Saints will only be found in the World to come and never in this world. This is why we are groaning, along with the Creation. We are longing for this New Creation to come. If we find no satisfaction in this world it is simply because we were made for another world. The New Man belongs in the New Creation. The Spirit makes us long for our true Home.

Christianity does not teach the cessation of all desires. Instead of emptying ourselves of all desires we are to be filled with holy desires. These desires are produced by the Spirit. And where there is a God-given desire there is hope that these desires will be fulfilled. Holy desires are those desires that are turned toward God and that can be fulfilled by Him, in His time, and in His way. Any desire that is turned away from God and pursued for its own sake becomes bent and defiled. So we should always look to God to fulfill our desires, not to other people or to the things of this world. Looking to people or things to fulfill our desires is like building a bridge that cannot support the weight of the traffic upon it. Eventually it will collapse and be destroyed.

We should awaken and cultivate those holy desires that come from the Spirit and deny those desires that come from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Everyone is feeding their desires. Which desires are you feeding? What kinds of appetites are growing in you? Are these appetites that you can take with you and that will be fulfilled in the New Creation? Some desires are for things we cannot take with us into the World to come. These desires must be put to death. This means that the believer should never feel at home in this world, as if this world can offer fulfillment. It can’t! We are strangers and aliens here as we wait for the World to Come. Our affections should not become attached to what is passing away. Don’t love this present world (1 John 2.15-17). The Holy Spirit is preparing you for another World.

Remembering Jesus: A Communion Meditation

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:14-20)

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper He told His disciples to remember Him by sharing this meal. We are to remember His death. There is bread that represents His body. There is the fruit of the vine which represents His blood. Jesus instituted this meal just before He was to die, giving Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. But that would not be the end. Jesus would rise from the dead on the third day. At that time the disciples did not fully understand these things. But when the Church comes to this Table and remembers Christ we are looking back on His death and His resurrection. We are not just remembering a dead Jesus because Jesus is not dead. This is not the Table of a dead martyr or hero. Neither do we remember Jesus as we would remember a loved one or friend who has died. When we remember Jesus we are remembering a living person who is a constant presence with us.

How do we remember a living person and Presence?

Our remembrance of Jesus is joyful and hopeful.

The Lord’s Table is a serious occasion but not a sorrowful one. We are not here to mourn for Jesus but to remember Him. When we remember someone we love who has died we are sorrowful because we are separated from their presence. But this is not the case with the Lord Jesus. We are always in His presence. He is here with us at this Table, though we cannot see Him physically.

We must not only remember how Jesus died but why He died. He died so that we could be forgiven. And we are here to remember that we ARE forgiven. This is not a time to mourn for our sins but to remember our salvation and to be glad. Not only do we look back at His death but we also look forward to His coming again. There is hope at this table. We come around this Table until He comes again. Did He not promise that He would come again?

He is present with us now, but not physically. However, we look forward to being in His presence physically and for eternity. That is the hope of glory. If we do not have this joy and this hope at the Table then we are not remembering Jesus properly.

Our remembrance of Jesus is personal and experiential.

We do not remember Jesus as we might remember some historical figure. We might remember some great person and their deeds and gain much inspiration from those thoughts. But this is not how we remember Jesus. Remembering some historical figure may have an impact on my life in some way, but it may not. There are certain people I can easily forget and not be the worse for it. But this is not true of Jesus. Remembering Jesus is not an optional exercise. He is not someone I can forget and still be a fine person. We need Jesus like we need no one else. We forget Jesus at our peril. What Jesus did is more relevant for us than anything else that has ever been done upon the earth by any man.

So when we remember Jesus we are not just remembering certain facts in some cold, detached manner. We are remembering what He did for each one of us. This is personal. He is our Savior and Lord. So if you can remember Jesus without any personal feelings for Him, as if this is just some mechanical ritual, then you are not remembering Jesus. Could you think about a close friend, loved one, or your spouse in such a manner? When we think of those we love we have them in our hearts and not just in our minds. This is also how we are to remember Jesus.

For those who love Him Jesus is not just someone who lived and died 2,000 years ago. We are remembering our Lord, Savior, Friend, and Bridegroom. He is with us every day and not just at this Table. So He is no stranger to us because we walk with Him and talk with Him every moment of our lives. Our communion with the Lord is perhaps more poignant at this moment when we are around the Lord’s Table. But our communion with the Lord does not end when we leave this Table.

Our remembrance of Jesus is communal and beneficial.

At this Table we should always say “we” and not just “me.” Our fellowship with Christ is personal, but it is not only personal. My relationship with Christ includes His Body. It would not be inappropriate to remember Christ on our own, but that is really not the intention of this Table. This Table is meant to be for us together and not for us separately. We have perhaps placed too much emphasis on a personal, private relationship with Jesus and not enough on our relationship with the Body of Christ. You can’t belong to Jesus and not be a part of His Body. We are connected to one another.

We remember Him together and this remembrance is the secret of all Christian unity. If this Table does not make us one then we are not one and can never be. If there are divisions in the Church it makes this Table a hypocritical mockery. Not only are we connected to one another here in this place where we are meeting now, but we are connected to all believers everywhere, even those who are now in the presence of the Lord in heaven. We must never think that we are the only ones who are in communion with Jesus. There are many who eat at this Table, even those we do not know and will never meet in this world. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves and our little group that meets here in this place.

One of the greatest benefits of remembering Jesus is that we are not focusing on ourselves. Nothing is more beneficial than having more of Jesus in our thoughts and in our hearts and less of ourselves, our feelings, and our needs. This Table is a place to die to self and put Jesus at the center of our lives and our fellowship. Jesus is not just to be a PART of our lives and our Church, He is to BE our life. He IS our food and drink. He is absolutely essential to us, like our daily food is to the physical body. Remembering Him is our greatest benefit and highest good.

Hope for the Future Part 3: The Future of Creation (Romans 8:18-25)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:18-25 ESV)

One of the hottest topics today is the environment. The Media regularly reminds us that we are poisoning our environment and that if we do not change this behavior our planet will eventually be uninhabitable. Hollywood movies regularly portray an apocalyptic scenario where our abuse of the environment has caused some catastrophe. In the last generation the great fear was a nuclear apocalypse. The great fear for my generation is an environmental apocalypse.

While in a supermarket recently I saw a shopping bag that had written on the side “I’m saving the planet. What are you doing?” There are many people these days who are on just such a mission. This issue raises all kinds of political and religious feelings. This should not surprise us. Mankind has a close relationship with the earth. This is where we live and we like it, in spite of the fact that nature can also be cruel to us.

But we often marvel at the beauty of the natural world. It is so amazing that we are tempted to worship it. All idolatry can be traced back to the worship of some aspect of nature. The human race originally knew about the true God who created the world, yet they chose to reject God and worship the creation rather than the Creator (Rom. 1.19-25).

God has revealed something about Himself through the natural world. The main revelation of creation is the fact that there is a Creator. We should be able to conclude that someone or something made the world.

Atheism and the corresponding philosophy of Materialism denies that the world had a supernatural origin. The Materialist believes that matter is eternal and the things that exist have come about through natural processes, time, and chance.

The knowledge of God has been rejected, as it was in ancient times, and human wisdom, which in modern times is called science, has been made the preeminent source of knowledge. Science has become the tool of Atheists, who are really philosophical Materialists, to explain the universe apart from God.

But this is nothing new. The world has always rejected the Creator. Men will be held responsible for the knowledge about God that was made known to them, which they have willfully and stubbornly rejected.

The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God. Creation itself is adequate proof of the Creator. The ancient peoples were not atheists, they were polytheists. So the Bible is not arguing that there is a God. The Bible is arguing that Israel’s God is the true God who made everything.

Mankind was to be the Ruler of Creation

The days of creation lead up to the creation of man, who is made in the image of God Himself, and who was set to rule over everything else God made. The natural world does not exist for its own sake and is not independent of mankind. The idea that man will one day be extinct, like the dinosaurs, and the natural world will continue on without interruption is not a Biblical idea. There is no reason for the heavens and the earth apart from mankind.

The world was made to be the home of mankind, just as Heaven is the abode of God. God made the world and gave it to man for his home. The creation belongs to the Creator. But mankind is like God’s tenant. Even before there was a curse mankind was given the work of caring for the creation. Work is not a result of sin. Sin only frustrates our work and death robs us of enjoying its benefits.

God made the world for us to inhabit and care for, all under God’s sovereign watchfulness.

Man was made in the image of God. All kinds of theories about what this means have been proposed. But actually this concept is rather simple. Man is God’s likeness on earth. God is in heaven, but man is on the earth where he is to represent God, serve His interests, and do His will.

A good synonym for the word “image” would be “representative.”

You and I do not have the time and maybe not even the ability to govern the United States. For one thing, the government is in Washington D.C. and we are spread out all over the place. So we elect representatives to express our interests in Washington D.C. Those representatives are supposed to be the image of the people of this country and do what the people would do if we could be there ourselves. That is the theory of a representative form of government. It doesn’t usually work all that smoothly. Sometimes the representatives don’t behave as they ought to and they don’t end up representing the will of the people.

Does that scenario sound familiar? It should. That is the story of the fall of man. Man did not represent God’s will on earth but decided to do his own thing. That rebellion has caused a huge disruption in the order of things. The will of the Creator is not being represented on earth as it is in Heaven. Something has gone terribly wrong. The original purpose for creation has been violated and a rebellion was started. We have been living with the effects of this rebellion ever since.

Something went terribly wrong with man and with man’s environment. Things are not as they should be. Something has been lost. After they sinned, Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden. To be cast out, alienated, or exiled is a major theme in Scripture. To be exiled or alienated defines the human condition. We are all exiles. The entire human race has been alienated from something and we all sense that this is true. But many people do not know why this situation exists. If we are ignorant of the Biblical doctrine of the fall of man we will never know this great mystery of human life.

Mankind is Alienated from Creation

Human life is in a state of alienation. And there is an intense desire in us to overcome this alienation. But our attempts to get back to Eden always fail. Human history moves in a cycle of frustration. We sense that something is wrong with life. We know we are exiles and we try to find our way home. We think we are making progress. Progress is the great deception and idol of the Modern Age. We are constantly being promised that eventually we will get there and all the sorrows of the human race will be over.

Something always happens that shatters the illusion of our progress. Science was supposed to be our savior. We would use science to conquer nature and make it serve us. But science has unlocked a Pandora’s Box of Powers that horrify us and that we now struggle to control.

The human race is desperately trying to overcome this alienation from the Creation. Science is modern man’s attempt. The ancient peoples proposed their own solutions and explanations for life’s problems, many of which still linger in our minds today. All the great civilizations that rise and fall can be understood as mankind’s attempts to overcome alienation.

The Tower of Babel was the first great attempt of man to build a utopian society. But God stopped the building of Babel. God stopped it after admitting that if a united humanity put their heads and hands together there would be nothing they couldn’t accomplish. And God thought that was a bad thing! Why?

God has frustrated man’s attempts to overcome the alienation.

The alienation of man from creation was imposed by God Himself because of man’s sin. God is not going to lift this curse until He is ready to do so, all in His time and in His way. The curse is not going to be lifted because of human progress but because of Divine activity.

God will not allow a rebellious humanity to have its own way. This is still God’s world. He will not allow wickedness to flourish. He will not allow the plans of men to rule the world. God is sovereign over the affairs of men. The human race cannot just take over the world and do what it wants. And the One enthroned in the heavens laughs to scorn all of our puny attempts to set ourselves up as the rulers of the world (See Psalm 2). As the hymn-writer said: “this is my Father’s world.”

Until the plan of God is complete and Creation is redeemed the human race is going to have to bear the consequences of sin.

It was God Himself who pronounced a curse on the earth after Adam and his wife had sinned:

“…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19).

The Creation would not cooperate with the man. Frustration would be mankind’s destiny. Man would toil but his efforts would be frustrated by a cursed environment. It is not the work that is cursed. God had already given Adam work in Eden. Work is not a curse. But the work of man would be frustrated because the ground he works is cursed. This is not just a commentary on the difficulty of agriculture. It is a general statement about all of man’s toil upon the earth.

All of man’s endeavors are marked by frustration. We do not get out of life what we want. We do not get out of our work what we put into it. The harvest does not equal the labor. And what little we do get we cannot enjoy because eventually we die and leave it all behind for someone else.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a commentary on the Fall of Man. The singular quality of human life after the fall is “futility.” Life is like a dog chasing his tail. Solomon considered human life according to the wisdom God gave Him:

“What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:2-23).

The frustration is in working all of your life for something and then not being able to keep it. As Job said, “naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart.” We often say “you can’t take it with you.” No one ever sees a U-Haul truck following a hearse to the graveyard! And for every wealthy man who must leave his wealth to another, there are many more who die with nothing to leave behind at all! Millions of people in this world toil only to remain in poverty. In spite of what we are taught about the American Dream most people live, work, and die poor.

Creation will not submit to our wishes. It is actually killing us. We spend vast amounts of time and money in vain attempts to keep nature at bay. The world is against us from the day we are born. Nature always has the last word. Even if you are young, strong, and beautiful now there will come a time when your strength, health, youth, and beauty will be gone. And there is nothing you can do about it! We are not in control of nature. It is trying to kill us and it will always be successful! There is no science in the world that can save us from this curse. Only God can save us.

Creation will be Redeemed

God is not just saving souls. God is actually going to save Creation. Creation was cursed because of man’s sin. So Creation will also be redeemed. God’s plan of salvation is cosmic in scope. There is really no realm that has not been somehow affected by salvation through Christ. Part of this great salvation is the redemption of creation. Whatever is in the future for the children of God involves a renewed earth. We are talking about a physical environment where the saints of God will live forever.

The ultimate destination of the saved is the New Heavens and Earth. Believers who die before the Lord comes are with the Lord in some sense in heaven now. But that is not their final home. The glory of the saints will be seen in a new earth that will be released from all the effects of sin. God will lift the curse that He imposed on nature.

The language Paul employs to speak about this new world is that of redemption and liberation. Paul is emphasizing what is coming, not what is going. Obviously, when the new world comes the old world has to go. There are other New Testament writers who mention this as well. For example, the Apostle Peter writes about the destruction of this present heavens and earth in a fiery cataclysm:

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10). 

In the Revelation, John the Apostle actually sees the passing of this world and the birth of a new heavens and earth:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Revelation 21:1). 

There is a tendency for some Christians to focus on this fiery cataclysm. There is a part of us that is fascinated by how the world will end. Have you noticed all of the Hollywood movies about the end of the world? But there is no hope and no Gospel in that.

This world must end. But that is not the focus of the message of the Gospel. The focus of the Gospel is not what is going but what is coming. The old creation has to go in order for the new creation to come. Those is Christ have already been made a new creation in order to fit into the new creation that is coming (2 Cor. 5.17).

Glory means that something is revealed. When a new skyscraper is being built it is covered over with scaffolding. When the building is done then the scaffolding, which was always meant to be temporary, is taken down and the new building is revealed. So it will be with this present creation. When it is taken down the New Creation will be revealed. Everything that is temporal is going to be shaken so that what is eternal will be all that remains (Heb. 12.27-28).

This redeemed earth seems almost heretical for Christians who tend to over-spiritualize everything. Everything spiritual is good. Everything material or physical is bad. Doesn’t the Bible teach that? Actually, that is Greek philosophy not Biblical theology. God is perfectly comfortable with material things. He created the stuff that the world is made of! Matter is not inherently evil. The creation was not bad. Creation was good.

Salvation is not about being separated from everything material so we can just be spiritual. So when we all get to heaven are we going to be little spirits flitting from cloud to cloud for eternity? I think not. The hope of glory is not looking forward to living in a non-physical, spiritual, immaterial existence. The Christian is looking forward to having a new body in which to live in a new earth.

Fallen men cannot live in a perfect world. And redeemed men cannot live in a fallen world. This is what creates all of the struggle, tension, and suffering for the believer now. The believer has a redeemed spirit in an unredeemed body which is in an unredeemed world. But the New Creation and the Old Creation cannot coexist forever. What belongs to the old Order is temporal and is passing away.

Death is a constant reminder of the transient nature of this world. The world is falling apart, like a crumbling house. One day it will fall down completely. But when this world finally comes down this will be the time of glory for the children of God. The biggest difference between sinners and saints is in what will happen when this world passes away. Sinners will suffer endless grief and loss. Saints will receive what they have been waiting for!

What are believers waiting for? Full redemption! The redemption of our bodies and of the Creation. Full redemption actually means no more death. Our bodies and our world are both subject to corruption and to death. But believers are waiting to receive immortal, resurrection bodies that will no longer be subject to this bondage of corruption. We are not longing to be unclothed, to be without a body, but to be clothed (2 Cor. 5.1-5). These new bodies will not be subject to death and the saints will be glorified immortals just like our Lord (I Cor. 15.50-55).

The Anglican scholar and preacher N.T. Wright uses a helpful metaphor for this resurrection body that every believer will receive. Imagine going to the hospital to see a very sick friend or relative. Perhaps this person is so sick that he or she could die. When we see someone who is that sick we often say something like “he is just a shadow of his former self.” Well, believers are just shadows of their future selves! There is some glory in us that God put there when we were born again that is going to burst forth when these mortal bodies pass away and the Lord comes again.

Jesus is Himself the firstborn from the dead! His resurrection is a picture of the future of the redeemed human race. Just as Jesus overcame death all those who are in Him will do the same. In fact, because of the resurrection of Jesus, the entire human race is going to experience resurrection (See John 5.28-29). But for some this will not mean glory. It will mean the eternal misery of an unredeemed soul in an immortal body. The doctrine of the resurrection body is why we also believe in the eternal torments of Hell.

The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of the Gospel. Without the resurrection there is no hope for anything after this life. Why do we not just live for the moment and become hedonists? Because we believe there is something else worth waiting for. If there is no resurrection of the dead, that is, if Christ has not risen, then we might as well just enjoy ourselves as much as we can before we die. Christians are not against physical pleasure. We just acknowledge that these earthly things are temporal and we have the hope that there is something much better for God’s children.

In this world God’s children are known for how they suffer. We groan, along with the Creation, as a woman groans with labor pains. Any woman who has ever given birth knows that labor pains are not enjoyable at all. However, the result of labor pain is something that brings joy. Labor pains are not the pains of death. Labor pains are the anticipation of a new life. Believers are groaning in pain, but it is not the hopeless pains of death. We are in labor, along with the Creation, in anticipation of a glorious new creation.

The destiny of the saints is glorious. Christ did not die and rise again just so we could have something like an eternal holiday. The Saints are destined to rule and reign over the New Creation.

The Saints will reign over the World to Come just as Jesus exercised authority over this natural order. When Jesus was here in this world He performed a number of miracles that were signs of God’s Kingdom having come to earth. Christ’s walking on the water, healing diseases, and multiplying loaves and fish, all show that these elements of creation were subject to Him. But these miracles point to something else in the future. Someone has called the miracles of Jesus “previews of coming attractions.”

The writer of Hebrews hints at this future glory and connects it to the present glory of the resurrected and exalted Christ:

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor… (Hebrews 2:5-9).

And everyone who is in Christ will share in His glory, just as those in Adam have shared in Adam’s fall and the curse pronounced on this creation. But Jesus is the glorified progenitor of a new, glorified race of men. When those in Christ enter their glory, and are fully redeemed, including our bodies, then the creation itself will also be glorified along with the children of God.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, one of the main characters is Aragorn. When we first meet him he is called Strider, a Ranger from the North. He was something like a wandering warrior who lives out in the wild. But we learn that Aragorn is more than what he seems to be. Actually, he is a king who has been living in hiding and obscurity his entire life. Before he can ascend to the throne he has to suffer, live in exile, and fight for his life. Only when the great evil is defeated can Aragorn become king and fulfill his destiny.

King David was also a king who had to wait for his throne. Samuel the prophet anointed David king when Saul was still king over Israel. David had to wait for many years before Saul was killed in battle and David was actually recognized as Israel’s king. And before that time came David had to fight many battles and face hardships, including running and hiding from Saul. David was a king waiting for his throne.

This is exactly the situation for the children of God in this world.

The children of God have not yet been revealed in their glory. We have not yet begun to reign. But doesn’t the New Testament say that we are Kings and that we are already reigning with Christ? We are kings even now, but we are waiting to receive our authority and kingdom. There are some things that God’s children will only receive in the World to Come and should not expect to have now in this present, evil world.

We must learn to live in hope, or in anticipation, of the New Creation. This means we don’t place our hope for the future in anything connected to this present world. This world is passing away, including our own bodies, even as we go about our daily business. This world will always disappoint those who place their hope in it.

But those who hope in the Lord will never be disappointed. And someday the meek will actually inherit the Earth.