A friend of mine made a comment the other night about Spurgeon's announcement that he intended to "smoke a cigar to the glory of God." That resonated with me, because I have been struggling for the last couple years to understand what Francis Schaeffer called "the lordship of Christ over the whole of life." And I think Spurgeon's comment helps.
I have advocated for "liberty in Christ" for many years. That really is biblical (Galatians 5:1, 13). We are called unto liberty, and we cannot allow that to be eroded in the tiniest way. We need to "stand fast." This is a hill to die on.
At the same time, it seems like "liberty in Christ" has led (as often as not) to the notion that there are parts of my life that God doesn't care about. So many times I've seen someone take liberty in Christ to mean that there are autonomous parts of my life. And eventually, that leads us into this "heavenly vs earthly" dichotomy. This is precisely the "upper storey" problem that Francis Schaeffer warned us about.
And notice, Scripture doesn't give us liberty and leave us there. Consider Romans 14:6, the one who eats eats "to the Lord," the one who does not eat "[it is] to [the] Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks." So it's not merely that I have freedom to eat or not to eat. Rather, whether I eat or don't eat, it's to the Lord, and thanking God through Him.
So liberty in Christ is necessary, but it's not sufficient. We must not compromise on our liberty in Christ, but we must not stop there either. Liberty in Christ isn't merely liberty, so to speak. It's not that we have license to own some parts of our lives to rule over ourselves as we see fit. It's not that there are neat compartments where we can autonomously choose to enjoy certain things without feeling guilty before God. That's liberty in some sense, but it comes short of the calling.
Rather, Colossians 3:17 calls us beyond liberty, to live to Christ in all things.
Francis Schaeffer explains,
The lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there are no platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and soul. God made the body as well as the soul and redemption is for the whole man (Art and the Bible, quoted in "10 Things You Need to Know about Francis Schaeffer", Christianity.com).
Like Spurgeon, I've been known to enjoy a cigar. I've understood that to be a liberty I have in Christ. But I don't know that I've ever enjoyed a cigar to the glory of God. Or, in the words of Colossians, in the name of the Lord Jesus. But that's precisely our calling.
So for the last couple years, I've been intentional about doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. And it didn't take very long to ask, "but what does that really mean?" How would I do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus? Well, the verse goes on to say, "giving thanks to God the Father through Him." So I've been intentional about practicing that.
Even feeding my chickens can be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, when I'm giving thanks to God the Father through Him. So I thank the Father that I have chickens, and that I have feed to give them. I thank Him that coyotes haven't gotten them, and that they give me eggs. And suddenly, feeding chickens becomes something very much part of New Creation: as a man in Christ Jesus, I am feeding chickens in His name.
But before you think, "wow! this is a spiritual giant," let me point out that I've been struggling with this more than two years, and I'll be first to say I haven't arrived yet.
5 comments:
Francis Schaeffer said: "God made the body as well as the soul and redemption is for the whole man"
Yes...BUT:
We are waiting for the redemption of the body.
The redemption of our body is accomplished in resurrection Romans 8:23
I couldn't agree more! We're waiting for the Son of God to come from heaven and change our bodies to be like His (Philippians 3:20–21). And that could be today or tomorrow or next week or in 1,000 years. We just don't know. But we're called to live in daily expectation.
As I see it, we've been called to turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10). But we have so much trouble doing both at the same time. We're good at waiting for the Son of God from heaven OR serving the living and true God. But we seem to have trouble doing both at the same time. The best we seem capable of is doing them by turns...
And I know I'm repeating myself here. It's remarkable to me that we're called to yield these not-yet-redeemed bodies to God to be instruments of righteousness. We're called to present these not-yet-redeemed bodies as living sacrifices. That astonishes me every time. The life of Jesus manifested in mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11) is God's work in us now. We won't get to experience that once mortality puts on immortality.
Jumping past Romans 6–8 to get to Romans 12 doesn't work: we have to understand our place as dead, buried, and risen with Christ before we can offer our bodies as living sacrifices. At the very same time, stopping at Romans 6–8 doesn't work either: we must go on to Romans 12.
What I have been finding remarkable about Colossians 3:17 (and thus the quotes by Spurgeon and Schaeffer) is that this life isn't supposed to be endured while we wait for the redemption. On the contrary, everything we do now is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through Him. That seems to guard us against worldliness on the one hand (because we're constantly aware of the Father and the Son), while guarding us from fanaticism on the other (because all those "mundane" things are sanctified by our doing them in the Lord's name while thanking the Father).
Sorry for the long reply, I've been thinking about this a lot.
you're thinking good thoughts, Mark.
Probably because growing in Christ is gradual so serving while waiting at the same time is gradual.
Some random thoughts:
Paul had no logical reason to expect that the Lord would come in his time. Yet he consistently counted himself amongst those who would be alive at the Lord’s coming -‘we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them’, ‘we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ’. He lived his life in expectation of the Lord’s return.
I have heard that turned into legal terms - ‘young brother, young sister, you wouldn’t want to be absent from the prayer meeting on the day the Lord returns, would you’? The man in Philippians 3 had a perfect spiritual balance sheet with a loss and gain column. In the past too often Christianity was presented as all loss without much gain. I fear in our day, it is being presented as all gain and no loss.
To reach a state of soul, where we can say ‘this one thing I do’ can only be achieved by seeing for ourselves the excellence of Christ Jesus our Lord.
With regard to the cigar, I have only smoked one in my lifetime. I was on a camping holiday by a lake and we were attacked by mosquitos. A fisherman told me to smoke a cigar as the only effective way of keeping them at bay. I think I preferred the mosquitos to the cigar! Mr Spurgeon was a humorous man. Lest any think that his view of Christian liberty was that we can do what we please, so long as we say it is for the glory of God, read this sermon for balance:
https://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs3415.pdf
Robert, your comment on "all gain and no loss" is helpful. Thank you!
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