I spent the last week or two of January with COVID-19. It was pretty rough, and the road back to normal has been longer than I anticipated. All told, I spent about ten days with a fever, and another week after that with absolutely no stamina. I told someone this morning that I went out to split some firewood, and when I came in thoroughly exhausted, I realized I had been gone something like 15 minutes. So my plans have been entirely disrupted. At the same time, I don't want to complain too much: I know several people who had a much worse time with it than I had.
So as a tentative step back into writing this blog, I want to share some simple thoughts on Christ as a means to an end. I was listening to a talk on Colossians 1:24ff this morning – a very good talk, by the way – and as I sat listening, I was struck by the thought that a great deal of what was said can be summed up, "Don't think of Christ as how we get to blessings, but learn to see Him as the blessing itself." Now, that isn't a great summary of the book of Colossians, but it is one of the major themes in that Epistle.
We might be able to think of several times where the Lord spoke of Himself as a means to an end. John 6:48–51 comes to mind. In that passage, it sounds like the blessing offered is eternal life, and the Lord has come to give us that life. But as we read on further in that book, we come across the remarkable statement, "And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). So yes, it's true that the Lord presents Himself as the only way to get eternal life; but it's just as true that as we go on, we come to see that eternal life is really knowing Him. And if we go on to read 1 John, we find that He is eternal life, He is the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us (1 John 1:1–3).
So it's true that the Lord is a means to an end: He is how we get the blessings God has for us. But it's just as true that as we come to see God's mind in blessing us, we realize He doesn't offer us some of this blessing and some of that blessing. No, He offers us His own Son, and all our blessings are in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30–31). There really isn't anything God has for us that isn't in Christ Himself.
It seems to me that it's a sign of spiritual maturity when we learn that Christ is not only the Blesser, but also the Blessing.
5 comments:
And we know that the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true, and we are in Him
that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God, and eternal life.
Little children, keep your selves from idols.
Amen.
(1 John 5:20-21)
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" Ephesians 1:3
Blessed by The Blesser
So glad you're back, Mark, and on the road back to normal.
John 1:29 ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which take the away the sin of the world’ - the Blessing
John 1: 36 ‘And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God - the Blesser
Rev 21:9 ‘Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lambs’s wife’ - the Blessing
Rev21: 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ - the Blesser
It seems that in John, particularly, we have the Jews portrayed as having taken all the blessings, and gloating over them in pride and independence of the Lord. The Son comes, and He tells them that they really having nothing, as He is the true substance of each and every blessing, and they must come to Him.
It seems a scenario in the distant past, but I have sometimes wondered whether the Holy Spirit spends so much space recording Christ’s interactions with pharisaical, “high” Judaism, to warn and correct the church that falls into exactly the same erroneous culture.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 2:8-9
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