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God's Yes
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
“The end of His work is that we are with Him above.” So explains Karl Barth, (Dogmatics in Outline. 125). We are here, but in a very real sense we stand with Jesus Christ, in-other-words, we stand with Christ above. The first step of this process is a simple move of the heart, one whereby we lay down our own defiance, the raised-fist that we present to the world, and admit to being a prodigal son or daughter. To say that Jesus is Lord without laying down my own self-government will never work.
Christ is identified with the sacrificial lamb thirty-five times in the New Testament. Twenty-eight of those are in the Book of Revelations. Jesus is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah once (Rev. 5:5). The enemy is characterized as a lion three times in the New Testament. It seems that the current most popular representation of Christ is that of a Lion. I am guilty of that myself, having a large mural of the Lion of the tribe of Judah on my living room wall. I am considering that I need to add a lamb to the wall.
>My concern is that this might indicate a skip of step one, laying down the raised fist that we present to the world. This occurred to me as I was listening to a selection of artists that will be present at the upcoming Audiofeed Festival. I will be in Illinois next week. One stage will present several metal bands, of the sort that I would link to white nationalists, not Christians. You know the sort with the demonic sounding vocals. Jesus lay down his life for the world. We are called to begin where Jesus calls us. Then, having taken that step, Josh Garrels, (my personal favorite Christian poet and song-writer), gives us step two:
Come on home, home to me
And I will hold you in my arms
And joyful be
There will always, always be
A place for you at my table
Return to me (Josh Garrels, At the Table).
Like a lamb, we must come to the communion table. Our yes to God unlocks God's yes to us. God's yes to us comes through Jesus Christ. Older movies of the gospels tended to portray Jesus as this stary-eyed person who almost seemed to float from place to place. It was hard to imagine him as a carpenter. In fact, it was easy to imagine him as the Jesus of Gnostic gospels, someone who was a spirit being, and only appearing to be a flesh and blood human being. More recent films have treated Jesus as very human. I loved the music for Jesus Christ Superstar until I saw the London production, which nauseated me. But the most problematic is his portrayal in The Last Temptation of Christ. Written by an Orthodox monk, this book and film portray Jesus as slipping the crucifixion and disappearing to France with Mary Magdalene, setting us up for the backstory of The Da Vinci Code. Theologian N.T. Wright, in his book Surprised by Hope, responds:
“Take away the stories of Jesus's birth, and lose only two chapters of Matthew and two of Luke. Take away the resurrection, and you lose the entire New Testament and most of the second-century fathers as well.” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 43).
Matthew 28:16-20 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is the Great Commission. Go and tell everybody… The resurrected Jesus is a mysterious Jesus. One who appears and disappears at will. The seriously disturbed group of disciples, some of whom, here in Matthew's account, are still struggling to believe it is really him. The resurrected Jesus is here to settle and assure them. And then he gives them their marching orders. Spread far and wide, make disciples and teach them how to live, as you have been taught to live. He tells them to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that in this instance, Jesus says that he has authority, but he does not mentioned any special authority given to the disciples. Now we do know that they had received authority in a previous instance when they had been sent out throughout the countryside (Matthew 10:1), namely the authority to cast out unclean spirits and to heal, but there is more to come. During the last supper, Jesus had already told the disciples that he had to go away and why:
John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
And prior to that occasion, Jesus had informed a much larger crowd after God announced it from heaven:
John 12:28-32 “…Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
The resurrected Jesus has to leave again to complete his work.
Ephesians 4:8-10 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Theologian N.T. Wright reminds us that the resurrection is not the end of the story. The resurrection represents a powerful new beginning that cannot be ignored without serious damage to the Christian message. However, even more monumental than the resurrection, is the ascension. To the disciples this must have seemed like being abandoned by their Lord once again. But for Jesus to be truly with all of his disciples, whenever and where ever, and that means us as well, he had to ascend to the Father. Wright again:
“The ascension thus speaks of the Jesus who remains truly human and hence in an important sense absent from us while in another equally important sense present with us in a new way.” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 114.).
Very few of us have seen Jesus. We know where he is, he is at the right hand of the Father. Here is Peter speaking during the first Pentecost:
Acts 2:33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
The right hand is the place of delegated power and authority. Joseph at Pharaohs right hand, or Mordecai at the right hand of King Ahasuerus, Jesus is at the right hand of God Himself. Jesus wears the signet ring of authority. By the Holy Spirit, the authority of Jesus is here and everywhere that his name is called upon.
By the power invested in Jesus, we are empowered to carry out the work of his kingdom, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ here on earth. As Peter points out, this is a power that we can see and hear. The work of the Holy Ghost is very real. Paul follows his mention of the ascension with its result:
Ephesians 4:11-14 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Jesus is not far off, he is near. We have been sent the Holy Spirit, to give us access to the throne room of heaven. It means that the way we think, the way we feel and the way we act is changing dramatically. The gift of the Spirit is transformative. The Spirit's presence is especially dramatic when we are gifted with healing, with deliverance, or with other miracles. But… it is more than that.
John 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
The Kingdom of God is about fruit. Our fruit is for God's glory, letting the world know that we are Christians, we are disciples of Jesus. And what is the fruit? Is it the work of the Holy Spirit, miracles and such? No, those are gifts of the Spirit. The most important gift of the Holy Spirit is the transformation of who you are, so that you become fruitful for the kingdom.
Romans 6:20-22 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Fruit is Dianne and God's Grace Ministry; it is Kathy's Angels; it is hospitals and orphanages; it is peace treaties, it is civilization as we know it. Fruit is every simple act of kindness, even if it is as simple as biting our tongue when we wish to unleash something unfruitful. For all of our failures, the modern West is steeped in Christian thought, Christian hope, and Christian desire. It all begins when we step out of our skin and into Jesus. We affect those around us, regardless of their religion, or lack of religion.
Paul makes this concept plain over and over again, and for those still a bit dense on the topic, he states is in simple terms:
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
In Christ, we are above the law because the behavior that the law is meant to curtail is not a part of our being. (Paul outlines those as well, starting in Galatians 5:19). When we belong to Jesus, it should be obvious to the world. If it is not, and sometimes it is not, then we need to return to Jesus. And for that, we have an important resource: the body of Christ. We do not stand before the throne of glory alone, but as a part of a worldwide body stretching across time and space. We have brothers and sisters of amazing spiritual giftedness. I want to look at this through the Nicean Creed, one of the most important confessions of the worldwide church, be it Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Coptic, Church of the East or some derivative thereof.
We Believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen. (The Nicean Creed, 1975 Ecumenical)
The Nicean Creed starts, “We believe”, not “I believe”. To be a part of the body of Christ is to stand together with all Christians; those in the room and those on the other side of the planet; those with whom we agree theologically, and those whom we have serious differences; those who are in good standing, and those who have been tarnished by the world. We are together as believers in God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And we are together in believing that God has spoken through the prophets, as provided to us in scripture. And we are together in believing in “one holy catholic and apostolic Church”.
Don't let the words “catholic and apostolic” confuse you. Catholic in the creed is the Greek word meaning “through the whole”, i.e. universal or all-inclusive, a word employed by the Roman Catholic church, but not confined to them (despite their pretense to it). It simply refers to all of us who believe. Apostolic refers to those of us who received our teaching from the apostles, which for us, means through those scriptures which they left with us, and through the long succession of those who have attached themselves to the Church by their spiritual guidance, our spiritual mentors in Christ.
Each time we raise the communion bread, we are acknowledging that we are not individual believers, even when circumstances isolate us physically; we are part of a body of believers across the globe and across time. We are the body of Christ. That means that every time the media gleefully exposes the grievous failures of some person or portion of the Church, it is not a blow to those guys, it is a blow to us, the body of Christ. It is in our interest, not to excuse or hide the error, but to see that it is healed. In the end, the Spirit of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost must be the spirit of the Church, as individuals and as a body.
Ephesians 4:1-6 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism. In scripture there are two baptisms. The first is the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance. If you recall, when Jesus first sends out the disciples: “they went out and proclaimed that people should repent” (Mark 6:12). Jesus had laid the model: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ (Mat. 4:17). The second baptism, the one referred to in the creed, is the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of cleansing, purification and empowerment. Both are essential steps in the creation of a Christian.
Acts 19:3-6 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
Baptism is a symbolic act of being buried alive, that. with Jesus, we might be raised in the newness of life, the life of Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism is our step into the life of Jesus, an opening of ourselves to the revitalizing invasion of our lives by Jesus Christ. I want to close with a quote from letter written by Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the occasion of a baptism which he longed to be present for. He was and had been confined to a Nazi prison cell. He was hung in prison, less than a year later, on April 9, 1945.
21 May, 1944
I have just written the date of this letter as my share in the baptism and the preparations for it. At the same moment the siren went, and now I am sitting in the sick-bay and hoping that today at any rate you will have no air raid… If in the middle of an air raid God sends out the gospel call to his kingdom in baptism, it will be quite clear what that kingdom is and what it means. It is a kingdom stronger than war and danger, a kingdom of power and authority, signifying eternal terror and judgment to some, and eternal joy and righteousness to others, not a kingdom of the heart, but one as wide as the earth, not transitory but eternal, a kingdom that makes a way for itself and summons men to itself to prepare its way, a kingdom for which it is worth while to risk our lives. (Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 151-152).