Not living; dying

I am not living in this world, I am dying here

(J. N. Darby, "The Path and Character of the Christian")

Eternal Life

It has been observed that John's Gospel doesn't really present Christ as dying for sins. In John's Gospel, Christ comes to give life to the world. This is different (not contradictory, different) from Paul's Gospel in Romans, where Christ has died so that we can be justified. Paul talks about justification, John talks about new birth.

John 5 presents the Son as the Son of Man who will judge all men and as the Son of God who raises the dead. He is the one who gives life to the dead. John 6 takes this farther and discusses how exactly He is going to give them life. In John 5, the Son of God will call the dead out of their graves; but in John 6 the Son of Man is the One who offers His flesh as food and His blood as drink: the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life.

We understand "eternal life" is not physical life: it's not that our bodies will never die. We understand that because the Lord Jesus specifically says so, "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:54, JND). The one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, but he still needs to be raised up at the last day. So having eternal life doesn't mean his body won't die. It does mean he will be raised up. Notice this is the truth taught in Romans 8, "if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness" (Romans 8:10, JND). So our bodies are still subject to death, even though we may have eternal life. Of course that will change when He comes to get us: He'll change our bodies to be like His (Philippians 3:21). But until then, we live in mortal bodies.

But the Lord Jesus offers eternal life to dying (and dead) sinners. We are born dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1--3), but He came to give us life. John 6 gives us further insight into how He accomplishes this: He will give us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. This is an offensive statement, and it offended the people who were listening to Him. And we understand from the passage that He wasn't meaning a literal eating of His flesh and blood. The Lord Jesus told the people, "the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life" (v. 63, JND). It was a spiritual, not physical truth He was relaying to them.

In fact, the passage begins with an important statement, "Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom *he* has sent" (v. 29, JND). It's not literal eating and drinking that the Lord Jesus is discussing. It's not even sacramental observance. He specifically says the only work God has for us is to believe. The entire discussion begins on this ground: that the work God has for us to do is to believe.

But it is a striking image nonetheless, and it's an image we'd rather not dwell on. But it conveys a very important truth: it was not merely that He in His deity would call the dead from the grave, but that He would give them life at great personal cost. It would cost Him His flesh and His blood to give us life. This is not the Son of God commanding, this is the Son of Man dying. And it puts a responsibility on His hearers. In John 5, the Son quickens whom He will (v. 21). There's no part for us to play in this, the Son quickens the ones He wants to quicken. But here in John 6, there is a responsibility on the recipients: if you want eternal life, you need to eat. So John 5 is all about God's sovereignty, but John 6 brings in human responsibility.

There's another truth that comes out in this chapter: eternal life needs to be fed. We get eternal life by eating His flesh and drinking His blood (v. 53), and this is a one-time eating. But there's another eating, an ongoing feeding in vv. 54--56. It's one thing to get eternal life, it's another to sustain it. I don't mean to say we lose our eternal life if we don't feed it--- if we can lose it, it's not eternal. I mean to say that it's possible for us to have eternal life, but to let it wither and fade. We can have eternal life and not really live it: have it, but be content to keep it on the shelf (so to speak), never really experiencing it.

Notice this truth, too, is brought out in Romans 8: "if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13, JND). All believers have eternal life as a present possession (cf. 1 John 5:11-13), but it's possible to have it so weakly that it doesn't affect us. The challenge of Romans 8 is, walk it out. Live it. Don't live after the flesh so that your life is a waste! Walk in the Spirit, so that our eternal life is obvious. Live now like it's eternity already.

Let's remember that the whole basis of John 6 is in v. 29. The work of God is believing. So it's a continual believing on Christ that feeds us. It's contemplating and meditating on Him that feeds the eternal life we have.

The Lord Jesus specifically talks about Himself as the "bread of life" (vv. 48--51) and contrasts Himself with the manna the "fathers" ate in the wilderness. That, He said, only gave them temporary life. He, on the other hand, gives eternal life. So we can consider the manna in the Pentatuech as a type of Christ. And we notice that the "fathers" only ate manna in the wilderness. Once they came to Canaan, the manna stopped (Exodus 16:35, Joshua 5:12). This suggests that Christ as our manna is only available while we are in the wilderness. Once our time here is done, we won't be able to feed on Him in this way. I'm not saying we won't feed on Him throughout eternity: He is our life (Colossians 3:1--4) and we'll never not need Him. But there is a sense where we have a limited opportunity to feed on Him in this way. The day will come when we'll be out of the wilderness, and the manna will stop.

Now, the manna stopped after the people had eaten the "old corn of the land" (Joshua 5:12). If we consider Christ as manna, we realize it is Him here to give His flesh to be eaten and His blood to be drunk. But now He's not here in humiliation: He's ascended back to Heaven, and He can't die again (Romans 6:9). And this is what He specifically says at the end of our passage in John 6:

But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmur concerning this, said to them, Does this offend you? If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before? It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life. (John 6:61--63, JND)

But there is a sense where we are to feed on Christ, not as the Man who died for us, but as the Man now at God's right hand. Consider 2 Corinthians 3:18,

But *we* all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, JND)

I'll suggest that this is the "old corn of the land." We can't feed on manna forever, eventually we make it out the wilderness and the manna stops. But when the children of Israel came into the land, the manna stopped after they ate the old corn of the land. In other words, they were feeding on both.

There are analogies to the Christian life in the story of the Israelites in the wilderness, there are analogies to the Christian life in the land too. We should really be living the truth of both. So we feed on Christ as the True Manna, but we feed on Him as the Old Corn of the Land too. The one is Christ in humiliation, the other is Christ in glory.

John 6 teaches us we need to feed on Christ as the Bread from Heaven to have eternal life. 2 Corinthians 3 teaches us we need to gaze on Christ to be like Him. I don't think they are the same thing, but the principle is the same. If we want to live now in the power of eternal life, we need to have hearts and eyes full of Him.

The Father and the Son

John 5 is to me one of the highest and most mysterious passages in Scripture. It takes us back into eternity before there was anything except God, and it takes us to the last day when Christ will judge all men. It pulls back the curtain a bit and gives us a rare and touching glimpse into the Godhead so we can see a bit of the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son.

The chapter opens with the Lord Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath, a man who'd been bed-ridden for 38 years. The Pharisees accuse Him of working on the Sabbath (which He had, in fact, done). The response of the Lord Jesus to the accusation of the Pharisees opens into an astonishing treatise on relationships in the Godhead.

The Lord Jesus' answer to the charge of working on the Sabbath is actually fairly subtle, and I have to admit I didn't really understand it until fairly recently. The argument basically boils down to this: the Son can't do anything on His own, He only does what He sees the Father do (v. 19). And the Father works on the Sabbath (v. 17), so the Son must work on the Sabbath. It's what the Father has taught Him to do.

I find it interesting that the Scripture doesn't tell us that Christ didn't really break the Sabbath. That's not the point. The Son had been told to do something by the Father, and that meant He wasn't going to keep the Sabbath. Interestingly, there is an Old Testament precedent for this in Joshua. It was a few years ago that an older brother pointed out that Joshua and the people were told to encircle Jericho once every day for six days, and seven times on the seventh. No matter how you figure it, those people broke the Sabbath. But they did it because God told them to. Similarly, Christ broke the Sabbath because He was obeying the Father.

But He goes beyond explaining His actions in vv. 19--30. He starts with an explanation of the relationship between the Father and the Son: "the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does" (v. 20). There is an interesting image here: the Father is bringing the Son into the family business. The Son doesn't do what He wants, He does what He sees His Father do. The Father deliberately shows the Son what it is He's doing.

Notice the titles Christ uses for Himself here: He mainly refers to Himself in John 5 as "the Son", but in v. 25 He's the "Son of God" and in v. 27 He's the "Son of man." Each of these titles holds a distinctive meaning. When the Lord Jesus refers to Himself in relationship with the Father, He calls Himself "Son." When He talks about raising the dead, He's "Son of God"; and when He talks about eternal judgment, He's "Son of man". In fact, it's because He's Son of man that all judgment is given to Him (v. 27).

(We should be very careful when we discuss Christ, because none of us can really understand Him: "no one knows the Son but the Father" (Matthew 11:27, JND). But I think it's worth emphasizing that when the Scripture talks about eternal relationships in the Godhead, it uses the title "Son", not "Son of God". Certainly Christ is the eternal Son of the eternal Father, but the title that conveys that isn't "Son of God," it's "Son". I say that carefully, because I've heard a lot of people insist that Christ is the "eternal Son of God". I don't think that's what Scripture teaches: He's the "eternal Son"; the title "Son of God" is different. This certainly isn't a hill I'm willing to die on--- I appreciate they're only trying to highlight Eternal Sonship--- but I think a careful reading of Scripture indicates the eternal title is "Son", rather than "Son of God". cf. Hebrews 1 & 2.)

There are several passages in Scripture that specifically outline God's purpose. For example, in John 4 the Father is seeking worshipers. Exodus 29 tells us Jehovah saved the children of Israel "out of the land of Egypt, to dwell in their midst: I am Jehovah their God" (Exodus 29:46, JND). Here in John 5 we have another purpose of God verse, v. 23. It is the Father's goal that all men should honour the Son just like they honour the Father. This verse has been very important to me over the last 15 or 20 years. It's like God's grand plan is really just for all men to honour His Son.

Now, the Lord Jesus gives us three specific similarities between the Son and the Father:

1. He raises the dead (v. 21)
2. He is the judge of all men (v. 22)
3. He has life in Himself (v. 26)

Raising the dead is God's exclusive right. It's not simply that only God has the right to raise the dead, but only God has the power to do so. We can't raise the dead, no matter how much we'd like to. Sure, we might witness a "medical miracle" where someone who's as good as dead recovers. Or we might even see someone "clinically dead" recover after a brief time. But the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead four days later. He'd been wrapped and buried: he wasn't in a coma, he was dead. But death is no barrier to the Son of God, He raises the dead. And He quickens "whom He will" (v. 21). It's not that He's under any obligation: He raises whomever He wants to raise. No one else gets a say in the matter.

Now, He applies this to two cases. The first is what we might call a spiritual resurrection in v. 25. The Scripture often refers to man's fallen state as a spiritual death. Christ's solution to that is to raise and quicken us. Notice Ephesians and Colossians follow this same thread, but Romans takes the opposite view. In Romans it's the lost who are alive (Romans 1--3), and the saved are dead (Romans 6).

The second application is two physical resurrections in vv. 29 & 30. One is a resurrection to life, the other a resurrection to judgment. You can't be in both groups: if you're in the resurrection to judgment, you're not in the resurrection to life. Notice this is what He insists on in v. 24. If we hear His word and believe on Him who sent Him, we have life and don't come into judgment. It's not just that we're judged and acquitted, but we're never even summoned.

This brings up an important point: judgment is always related to our physical bodies. When the dead are judged, they're raised first. And how are they judged? They're judged for what they did in their bodies.

There is no escaping the judgment of God. If you die first, He'll raise you from the dead to judge you. There's no statute of limitations, there's no way to avoid the bailiff. The only escape is to believe and pass from death into life: Christ has already been judged for those who believe. He has taken their punishment, so there's no judgment left for them.

I should think to the Pharisees at the time, certainly the next claim would be been shocking. They would have known that Abraham called God "the Judge of all the earth" (Genesis 18:25, JND), and here Christ is claiming that He is the exclusive Judge (v. 22). The Father has given all judgment to the Son. The Father won't judge anyone, the Son will judge everyone. Now certainly the Lord Jesus is God. I'm not denying that. But within the Godhead it's the Son who will judge.

I find it interesting that He is Judge because He is Son of man. This is closely echoed by Paul on Mars Hill: it's by this Man God will judge the world (Acts 17:31). Paul goes further than John 5 and tells us God has announced this publicly through the Resurrection. The message of the Resurrection, Paul says, is that God has publicly named His Judge by raising Him from the dead. But again, it's the "Man Christ Jesus" that will be Judge. Christ won't judge all men as God (although He is God), but as Man. He will judge as One who knows exactly what it's like to be a Man in a fallen world.

William Kelly says God created this world for Christ to have dominion over it:

Man is called to rule, to have dominion. God was looking on to His Son, the Son of man. For Him the habitable earth is destined. God has not made it in vain. (William Kelly, Hebrews, Chapter 2)

God created the world and gave it to man to have dominion over it. But it wasn't really Adam God intended to rule; it was the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. It is as Man that He will take dominion, and it is as Man that He will judge.

The last similarity Christ reveals is "as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself" (v. 26, JND). I find this one of the most mysterious and difficult verses in Scripture. Here's a time when the Son pulls back the curtain and lets us see into the light unapproachable where God dwells, and we can't really understand what we see there.

I have no idea what it means that the Father has "given to the Son also to have life in himself." No clue.

But little as I understand it, this verse forms the basis of Christianity in a sense. Colossians 3 says, "When the Christ is manifested who [is] our life, then shall *ye* also be manifested with him in glory" (Colossians 3:4, JND). It's not just that Christ has life in Himself, but that He shares it with us. And it's not that He gives us a little piece of it and sends us on our way: but He Himself actually is our Life. John says it a little differently: "God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son" (1 John 5:11, JND).

God has no blessing for me that's not in Christ, and He has no intention of ever taking it out of Christ to give it to me. God doesn't give me blessings per se. He gives me Christ, and in Him are all the blessings God has.

Christianity is not just that Christ has died for me. That's important, but it's not really Christianity. That's not much more than Abraham, Moses, and the prophets expected. The really amazing thing about Christianity is that the Son of God has died for us and has given us an eternal claim on Him. Christianity is not so much justification: it's the ongoing, eternal, and uninterrupted relationship we have with the Son of God. He's died for us, He also lives for us. And He is personally our Life.

We're going to spend eternity getting a better idea who Christ is. And when we get to the end of eternity (you know what I mean), we won't be done. Of course, the real goal is not to wait until we're there to get to know Him. I'm not sure I'll ever understand this chapter: I'm just a creature after all. But it's in looking at Christ that we become like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18). So maybe the point isn't understanding, but just in looking and enjoying.

Short Talk (Reprise)

A friend emailed me a comment on my last post, "Short Talk". I wanted to post it here.

Regarding your first point, God has spoken…

I have recently had these ponderings concerning what I would tell a believer about approaching the Word:

I would urge in the strongest terms that the Word be allowed to simply say what it actually says -- nothing more, nothing less.

This occurs in practice less often than we might imagine.

Consider the implications -- if what the Word actually says is actually true…

Consider the implications -- if it is actually believed that what the Word actually says is actually true…

What the Word actually says is actually true…

Isaiah 55

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Not much to add here. I have to ask my self, do I read the Word as though what it says is actually true?

Short Talk

I'm to give a short talk to "young people" this weekend. I'm surprised they'd ask me for a "short talk," as they all know I just never shut up. But I've been thinking about a short talk, and it's led to some interesting thoughts.

I've been thinking about what three things I'd like to tell "young people" if I've only got a few minutes. Perhaps it's just self-centeredness, but I've found three things I need to remind myself repeatedly... like several times a day. So in no particular order, here are the three points I think I'm going to bring up in this "short talk":

God has spoken We believe the Bible is the Word of God: God wrote a Book of what He wanted to say through inspired men. They wrote down His actual words. Given how much time I spend listening to everyone else's words, it shames me how little I spend listening (or reading) God's.

One danger I've brought up again and again is that of putting our understanding of God's words in place of His words. Over and over again, I've realized that someone (I or someone else) has subtly and quite unintentionally misquoted Scripture. It's not that we set out to corrupt God's words, it's that we confuse our understanding of what He said with what He actually said. The best remedy for this is to immerse ourselves in His words. So all the commentaries on my bookshelf may be excellent books, but they're not God's words. The hymns in the hymnbook may be helpful, but they're not God's words. We need to put His words first, our understanding of them second.

Christ has risen Christianity essentially reduces to belief in the Resurrection. Almost everything we believe is a result of it; and the Scripture repeatedly takes us back there for doctrine, practice, and encouragement. Steve Brown said something along the lines of, "If a dead man really got up and walked, that changes everything." He's right. We believe a dead man got up and walked around, and that is the central and defining point of our faith.

There are two results of this truth that I need to be reminded of every day: first I am to walk in newness of life, second He is coming back to raise me like He was raised. So some day my body will be changed into incorruptible immortality, but in the meantime I am to live in the power of His resurrection.

Finally, God will judge the world through Christ The world isn't a permanent fixture: it is on a collision course with God in judgment. The day is coming when every man, woman, and child will stand before Christ in judgment. I need to remind myself about this several times a day. The world feels like a permanent place, but it's not. God created the heavens and earth with a purpose: there's a point to all this. Reminding myself of the Goal helps to keep me on track.

There are many other things that would be worthwhile giving a "short talk" about, but these three seem to hang together for me. They're things I remind myself every day, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs it daily.

Ashes

I've mentioned ashes before. A friend of mine pointed out several years ago, ashes are evidence of a completed sacrifice. So the ashes in the Tabernacle are on the east side of the altar, proof of a completed (and accepted) sacrifice before the one who approaches gets to the altar.

In connection with that, Numbers 19 details the offering of the Red Heifer. A red heifer was to be sacrificed (vv. 3 & 4) and completely burned (v. 5), then the ashes were to be taken outside the camp (v. 9). A man or woman who was defiled with a dead body was to apply the ashes of the red heifer with water (v. 9, 13) to remove the defilement (vv. 11--13).

The law of the Red Heifer was an interesting law, as it was a sacrifice made before the sin was committed. Watchman Nee talks about that in his excellent Not I, but Christ.

A whole load of books has been written on the Red Heifer. I'm not at all trying to explicate that passage here. But I want to draw attention to two points.

First, it is the ashes of the Red Heifer that cleanse. It's not that the unclean man (or woman) needed to see the blood of the heifer. He (or she) needed to the ashes. This suggests there is a unique and cleansing value to the certainty of the completed sacrifice.

It is our natural tendency to want a new sacrifice whenever we sin. But the testimony of Scripture is, there is no more sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:10, 26). Christ has died once for all, and He cannot die for us again. This doesn't suggest we are without hope, needing another sacrifice; on the contrary, it is God's assertion that no other sacrifice is needed (Hebrews 9:14, 10:14, 18).

Be there is a value to our remembering and recognizing how completely that one sacrifice (never to be repeated) still cleanses us. The worshippers have a conscience once purged (Hebrews 10:2), but as we walk through the wicked world, we are defiled by it. And more to the point, as we live in these yet-unredeemed bodies (Romans 8:23), we find ourselves defiled by the sins the of the flesh. And so the Red Heifer reminds us that there is a cleansing effect as we remember that Christ has by one offering perfected forever the sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). And it reminds us that when we are defiled by the world around us and the flesh within us, it is the once-for-all completed sacrifice that is our peace with God.

Second, we recognize that the ashes of the Red Heifer are applied with water. Water in Scripture reminds us of the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26). Perhaps the Red Heifer might remind us that the ashes--- the proof of an already-completed sacrifice--- are really only brought to our conscience by the Word of God.

This is an important point. J. N. Darby said

faith puts into immediate connection with God; a connection founded on His own testimony, which is received by the operation of divine power in the soul; and hence also has its practical existence in real confidence of God Himself ("Superstition is not Faith")

That is, faith is believing God because He is God. One brother I know likes to say, "God said it, that settles it, I better believe it." We don't claim that God has forgiven all our sins because it makes sense, we say it because that's what God said.

The certainty that our sins are covered must come from the Word of God. If it doesn't, it isn't certainty any more.

One problem we get into is, we try and act as appraisers of Christ on God's behalf. So we think to ourselves, "Surely Christ's death has atoned for that sin!" But when we set ourselves up as judge of what Christ has done, we take a position we have no right to. God has already passed judgment on Christ, and He's declared Himself completely satisfied. How dare I, how dare you, give our opinion on the matter? When I find I have defiled myself with the world around me and the flesh inside, it's not my place to assess whether God has forgiven me that sin. It is my place to believe what God has said and that's all.

So the Red Heifer reminds us that the completed sacrifice was enough to remove our defilement. It reminds us too that it's the Word of God that makes that good to our conscience.

I made a comment last week in meeting about praising in the place of the ashes. Really that's a comment a close friend made once, and I just passed it on. When Solomon dedicated his temple, the singers sang "on the east end of the altar" (2 Chronicles 5:12). It's on the east side of the altar where the priest was to put the ashes of the offerings (Leviticus 1:16). So the singers were in the place of the ashes. It's because we stand on the ashes (as it were) that we can praise. Ashes prove the sacrifice is done: God's wrath has burned, and there's none left. So we stand where the sacrifice is over, we stand on the proof there's no more sacrifice for sins, and we praise there.

This is worth remembering.

STEM eBooks!

I was poking around on the STEM Publishing website and I made a great discovery: they're putting out eBooks now!

This is fantastic news. I hate reading "online". I like my wife's Kindle, and I can tolerate the Kindle app on my Mac, but webpages are just hard to read. I prefer paper. But with STEM putting out eBooks, we can have the best of both worlds: convenience of electronic media, with a significantly improved reading experience.

STEM has been a classy site since the get-go. They've got some really, really good stuff available there for free. And as much as I prefer to read paper, I frequently use STEM as a convenient way to search for something I vaguely remember from a book, or a quick citation on this blog. I'm really, really happy to see eBooks on that site. Thanks a bunch, Les and all!

eBooks are here: http://stempublishing.com/ebooks/.

I'm off to read Trotter's Plain Papers on Prophetic and Other Subjects.