Month: July 2020

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Looking Back and Looking Ahead

This is my eleventh post. I want to take a quick look back on the first ten, to make sure that I’m staying on course with the purpose of this blog.

The long journey to transformation, with its daunting demands, begins at the trailhead. We have cast in our lot with Christ. We have experienced the free gift of redemption by His grace. We recognize, however, that negotiating the transformation trail will require giving up old ways and patterns of thought to enter into a new reality: bearing the genuine image of the Son of God. We start out toward this tremendous opportunity because we know Him—at least something of Him—and we find ourselves drawn to Him.

The initial posts had to do with prayer, with seeing Christ in everyday events, and with scripture. We start out with these essentials. They will help us “hike our own hike,” following the unique path through life that Jesus has laid out for us. The last couple of posts touched on Jesus as our security. This fundamental understanding will keep us from losing heart when the going is difficult. Much more could be said on these subjects, and I have begun to share some valuable resources that all of us can draw upon. I need to look to other believers who are more experienced, more spiritually mature. Although it may seem to me that I sometimes have to walk alone, I cannot experience the fullness of transformation all by myself.

Likewise, transformation is not primarily about me or for me. Maybe you knew this already, but this concept came to me only recently. So then—why transformation? So that God can have the purpose for which He created. So that we can take our place in that purpose, as partners with Him in achieving that end. 

Now the question naturally comes up—what is my part in this? Jesus was asked about this by a crowd, when he admonished them to “labor for the food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27): what is this labor?—”what must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The immediate reply of Jesus: Believe! “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). Believe in a Christ who will never leave or forsake us. Believe in a Christ who will not compromise. Who brings the dead to life, and calls into existence things that are not. Who is passionate about accomplishing His Father’s purpose. Believe in Christ rather than promises. Keep turning to Him, beholding Him, pressing in to Him. Yielding and surrendering and decreasing in the magnitude of my powers, so that His power can be on display. Persistent believing redirects our attention from “our work” to the work of the Lord. 

This kind of belief leads to active participation instead of passive waiting. Patient endurance without anxiety. Full commitment rather than divided loyalties. In saying this I admit to going well beyond the limits of my own experience. Furthermore I am told (and I believe it is true) that the work can progress only so far in an individual who is living as an individual. Its completion requires community life, in the company of other believers who are on the same journey of transformation. Certainly those of us who want full transformation look forward to this part of the journey.

And what is the work that God has assigned to Himself? The work of conforming us to the image of the Son, producing in us the characteristics of Christ. This reminds me of a couple of things. One is an observation about Daniel’s friends made by Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon, in connection with the divine intervention that delivered them from the fiery furnace: they “set aside the king’s command” (Daniel 3:28). The other concerns Jesus himself who, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). On behalf of his faithful ones, who mark their determination by setting aside the commands of “king self,” Jesus makes His own determination: once again he sets his face, this time to see his work of transformation accomplished in them.

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Security: The Unshakable Foundation

I found something to share from a book by T. Austin-Sparks, The Spiritual Senses. He opens chapter 16 with a list of several passages in the apostolic letters of the New Testament. Immediately afterward he writes:

This selection of passages is quite sufficient to show that the dominating objective of the Lord for His people is full growth, the full measure of Christ. Every apostolic letter has that object in view, and every one of these apostolic letters deals with some factor related to full growth. If that is true, then surely it is incumbent upon us as the Lord’s people to have His goal before us, and to be found in the same spirit as was the apostle who said, “…that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus”. The force of that statement may not have come to our hearts. The apostle has there said in very clear and precise language that when the Lord Jesus laid hold of him, it was for something more than that he should just become a saved man. It was in relation to a goal with which there was bound up a prize, and unto that there was to be an attaining. He said that everything for him was regarded as of value only in so far as it would help him to reach that goal, and nothing was of value at all which in no way contributed to that end. So should the Lord’s people be, at all times, on full stretch for the purpose for which they have been apprehended. Everywhere in the Word of God His thought for His people is set forth as being that they should come to a full measure, to full growth, to the measure of Christ.

“Full growth,” “full measure,” and “the measure of Christ” are all ways of saying transformation. If our transformation is a goal that dominates the thoughts of our Lord, should it not also dominate our thoughts? I have to remind myself of this repeatedly. The apostle Paul wrote about this transformation—and he lived it! “He said that everything for him was regarded as of value only in so far as it would help him to reach that goal, and nothing was of value at all which in no way contributed to that end.” Such willingness to live free from every distraction is amazing! Those who are being transformed lead astonishing lives. 

This chapter in the book by Austin-Sparks continues with a look at the letter to the Romans. Here are a few brief excerpts:

We know what the theme of the letter to the Romans is, the object for which the apostle wrote it. We know that its great outstanding truth is that of righteousness by faith, or, as it is sometimes called, justification by faith…. Christ in resurrection provides the ground of our justification and our righteousness. In death He has dealt with all unrighteousness, and therefore with all that alienated and separated from God and meant condemnation, judgment and death…. Sin has been met and dealt with and all its consequences, right to the end, and in resurrection God’s way is open, and there is righteousness where there was unrighteousness, communion where there was alienation, fellowship where there was distance…. the relationship with God is established in Christ risen, and is established unshakably.

The striking thing is that our unshakable foundation in no way depends on us: our efforts, abilities or resources. As Austin-Sparks puts it,

There is a ground that is settled and fixed, unshakable in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That ground is the expression of the love of God in Christ Jesus for me; not my love for Him, not anything that I have done or can do, not anything that is in me or that I can produce, but it is all what He is, what He has done, what He has given, and what He has established in His own Person at the right hand of God.

We have complete security and certainty in the Father and the Son. This is the basis on which our transformation rests. Our long journey of transformation will have many features that are unique to each one of us, but Christ is our common starting point.

I’m looking back to the parable of the two sons and I see that both had a sure place in the father’s house. Every day, in love, the father had his eye on the road that would lead his younger son back home—that road is a picture of Christ, Who is the Way. He gave his prodigal son the best robe—a picture of the righteousness of Christ that envelopes us, so that when the Father looks upon us He sees Jesus. The ring is a sign of unity and communion that extends from the Son of God to include us, His sisters and brothers. The shoes that the father placed on the prodigal son’s feet symbolize a new lifestyle. It is the life of the new creation in Christ that walks in fellowship with God. To reiterate, “in resurrection God’s way is open, and there is righteousness where there was unrighteousness, communion where there was alienation, fellowship where there was distance.”

Afterward the father, in love, stepped away from the celebration of the younger son’s return to beg his older son to join them. He even told that son, “All that is mine is yours!” Neither son had lost his inheritance, because the riches of Christ are immeasurable (Ephesians 2:7) and unfathomable (Ephesians 3:8). The father never lost his love for either of them. Our Heavenly Father never loses his love for us, either, because our relationship with him is not based on anything we have done or failed to do. It is established forever, unshakably, in the risen Christ.

Just a comment on T. Austin-Sparks: This brother in Christ lived from 1888-1971. I haven’t been acquainted with his writings for long, but everything I have had a chance to examine thoroughly has been a real encouragement and revelation of Christ. He spoke and wrote prolifically. He requested that, if his works were to be distributed after his passing, they should be made freely available. This has become a reality! A large collection is available online, free of charge, at the following address:

http://www.austin-sparks.net/

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A Tale of Two Sons

Jesus told a parable of a prodigal son and his brother. You can find it in Luke 11:15-32. It is not a stretch to equate the father in the parable to our Heavenly Father—as far as I am aware, every other time Jesus used the term “father” it was in connection with God the Father, and I doubt that this instance is an exception. The father in this familiar parable had two sons. Incredibly, although he was still very much alive, he consented to divide the inheritance between them. Both of them went off, the older one to his field nearby and the younger to a far county. The older son labored at agriculture—the family business, so to speak. The younger one wasted his resources, falling into extreme poverty. 

We can look at these sons as representatives of two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had been chosen as God’s firstborn among all of the nations. They were descended from the patriarchs. They had God’s law. And, while they retained vestiges of a relationship with Him, they had gone their own way. 

The Gentiles were from all the other nations. They lived separate from God. “But now,” the apostle Paul writes, since the Father raised Jesus from the dead, things have changed:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:13-18. 

Right at the outset of our transformation journey, God has established all of us believers on an equal footing. In Jesus’s time on earth, there were clear-cut distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, freemen and slaves, males and females, wealthy and poor. In modern times we have added others such as race. In the cross all of these were abolished. God recognizes only one race, one people group, in His Son.

And why has He done this? We seek transformation in Jesus Christ but we’re not the only ones who have an interest in our progress. I used to think that God’s transforming work was all about me, and for me. You may think that it is about you and for you. But it is really about, and for, Him. Paul continues, 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  Ephesians 2:19-22. 

God’s goal is for all of us to be joined together as a home for Himself. For us, home is a place of security, comfort and intimacy. In the parable both sons—regardless of their pursuit of their own agendas—had a sure place in the father’s house, where they would always be welcome. God is at work, pursuing us, gathering us, uniting us into that “one new man” with whom He can dwell in security, comfort and intimacy (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). We get transformation in all of its aspects. Amen. Transformation, at least in its initial stages, is a preparation for living in Christian community. Everyone is coming into conformity to the image of His Son. Ultimately, the Father gets a holy temple, a place where He can dwell in the company of His own household.