Seeing

I've taken some flak in Bible readings for this, but I think it's worth making a small point that could be helpful. We'll start in Exodus 14:27–31, and observe – as we have several times already – that Israel was saved when they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore. This passage gives us a clear idea what salvation is: it's not merely escaping slavery in Egypt, it's not even escaping the judgment on Egypt, it's seeing the enemy defeated and lifeless on the shore.

So there is a subjective sense to salvation: it's not just that the Egyptian army was dead and lifeless on the shore, it's that Israel saw them there. The Egyptians lying dead on the shore is a fact: it's objectively true. But salvation isn't only objective truth, it's also subjective acceptance of that truth.

And we all know this on some level: the Gospel is laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:1–8, four propositions about the Lord Jesus: His death, His burial, His resurrection, His appearing to witnesses. That's the Gospel. But it doesn't do me any good unless I believe it (note 1 Corinthians 15:1–2 opens with this claim). We could point to numerous other verses: John 3:16, Romans 4:5, Ephesians 2:8–9. These all tell us that we come into the good of the Gospel by believing God.

I would argue that all spiritual progress, from justification by faith alone in Christ alone to the highest spiritual height, is a result of accepting what God has said. God says that Christ has died for my sins, but I only really come into the good of that when I accept that it's true.

Romans 6:1–14 is a good example of this. There's a real problem (Romans 6:1–2), there is a solution resting on God's declaration (Romans 6:3–7), and we come into the good of it as we accept (count on) it being true (Romans 6:11) and then there are practical exhortations flowing from that (Romans 6:12–14).

And I recognize I'm repeating myself here, but it's worth repeating: we can't skip those steps. I've read a whole lot of commentary on Romans 6. I've listened to a whole lot of sermons on Romans 6. But so much of it turns into drivel, and it's because most of it tries to skip to a favorite verse. It doesn't work that way! We can't skip the explanation of God's view of things in vv. 3–7 and try to get to the "reckoning" part in v. 11. We can't skip straight to the "practical" part in vv. 12ff. No, we need to work through it. We need to hear God's view of things, really immerse ourselves in it, and then align our mindset with that (which is all "reckoning" is) before we can live it out.

Now, we can point out that really, we have died with Christ whether we reckon it to be true or not. That's really the teaching of vv. 3–7.  But someone who feels trapped in sin is looking for something more: skipping from vv. 3–7 to vv. 12ff isn't going to help that person. That person needs v. 11.

And here's where I've gotten into trouble in Bible readings: it's not enough to go from "this is what God sees" to "this is how you should live" without the pause of "reckoning." Not only in Romans 6, but in every single passage. We need that pause of "reckoning" in Colossians 3:1–5, in Philippians 3:9–11, in Ephesians 4:1ff. We need it in all those passages. Because "here's what God sees" doesn't help us in practical terms until we see it too.

That's the lesson from Exodus 14:27–31,  a big part of salvation is seeing what God sees. It takes a change of mind, an accepting that what God says is true, even if we think we know better. We need to "see" the truth that's presented to us before it does us any good.

And so when we come to Philippians 3:9ff, we see being "in Christ" as an aspirational thing ("that I may be found in Him"). It's not that I'm not a man in Christ, but it's that we don't get the practical good of that unless our thinking is aligned with God's. No, I cannot make myself a man in Christ. Yes, God sees me as a man in Christ regardless. But if I want to come into the practical benefits of being a man in Christ, I have to be aligned with what God sees. And in Philippians 3:9ff, being a man in Christ means having no righteousness of my own. Until I accept that I have no righteousness of my own, I may be a man in Christ as far as God is concerned, but I'm struggling against it.

So sometimes I speak about our position in Christ in aspirational terms. That's not because I don't believe it's true, but because I'm trying to emphasize that we won't get the good of it until we come to believe, accept, and "see" that what God says is true. It's when I stop struggling against it that I come into the good of it.