Sunday, April 21, 2013

A "Painful Paradox" and the Defeat of Death

I recently came across this quote from Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death:
A person spends years coming into his own, developing his talent, his unique gifts... becoming mature, seasoned— finally a unique creature in nature, standing with some dignity... it takes sixty years of incredible suffering and effort to make such an individual, and then he is good only for dying. This painful paradox is not lost on the person himself— least of all himself." (268-269, The Denial of Death, 1973)
The quote is reminiscent of something that you might read in Ecclesiastes. Indeed, Solomon writes:
Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:15-17)
It's hard work to master a skill, and once you do, death is all the nearer. If you live life for the advancement of self— if you live life merely to develop your talents so that you can stand with dignity, then what's the point? What are your accomplishments worth when you're dead? For the unbeliever, little answer can be given. It is indeed a "painful paradox". And that's the way it should be. What else could be the outcome of a life lived for something or someone other than the eternal Creator?

Becker's "painful paradox" only exists in the lives of those who try to pretend that God doesn't exist. With such a worldview, there is no hope. Death is final. For a person with such a mindset, a long life of suffering that leads to some sort of dignity is pointless. What hope is there that can be found? All that can be hoped in is the defeat of death.

We should be eager to listen to what Solomon has to say, for though he sees this paradox, he does not leave us in hopelessness. Solomon writes, "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them'" (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

As Christians we put our hope in the eternal kingdom of God that is to come, in which death will be eliminated. The hope in the defeat of death is a good hope, but our secular culture today twists this hope; they put their hope in the defeat of death in this world. That is not the Christian hope. The Christian does not hope in a continuation of life in this sin-filled world. Instead, the Christian recognizes that this world is not home. There is a new Heaven and new Earth yet to come, and whatever "dignity" the Christian may accumulate in this life will be nothing compared to the joy of standing in the presence of Christ forever.

The Christian hope in the defeat of death is not founded upon medical advances or human ingenuity. Instead, it is a hope that we place in our Creator. We trust in the God who made all things, who "knows our frame" and "remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). We trust our mourning will one day turn to comfort (Matthew 5:4). We trust that "the last enemy to be destroyed is death". The day is coming when death will be "swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54). It is for this reason that you, if you are a Christian, will be able to look back at the end of your life and agree with Paul's conclusion that "in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Related Posts
0 comments

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Quote of the Day #228 - Charles Spurgeon

A quote from Charles Spurgeon:
If I had the power to do it, how would I seek to refresh in your souls a sense of this fact that you are “bought with a price”? There in the midnight hour, amidst the olives of Gethsemane, kneels Immanuel, the Son of God! He groans! He pleads in prayer! He wrestles—see the beady drops stand on His brow! Drops of sweat, but not of such sweat as pours from men when they earn the bread of life, but the sweat of Him who is procuring life itself for us!

It is blood, it is crimson blood—great globs of it are falling to the ground. O Soul, your Savior speaks to you from Gethsemane at this hour, and He says—“Here I bought you with a price.” Come, stand and view Him in the agony of the olive garden, and understand at what a cost He procured your deliverance! Track Him in all His path of shame and sorrow till you see Him on the Pavement. Mark how they bind His hands and fasten Him to the whipping-post. Look, they bring the scourges and the cruel Roman whips. They tear His flesh. The plowers make deep furrows on His blessed body, and the blood gushes forth in streams—while rivulets from His temples, where the crown of thorns has pierced them—join to swell the purple stream.

From beneath the scourges He speaks to you with accents soft and low, and He says, “My child, it is here I bought you with a price.” But see Him on the Cross itself when the consummation of all has come—His hands and feet are fountains of blood—His soul is full of anguish even to heartbreak. And there, before the soldier pierces with a spear His side, bowing down He whispers to you and to me, “It was here I bought you with a price.” O by Gethsemane, by Gabbatha, by Golgotha—by every sacred name collected with the passion of our Lord! By sponge and vinegar, and nail and spear, and everything that helped the pang and increased the anguish of His death—I plead with you, my Brothers and Sisters—to remember that you were “bought with a price,” and “are not your own!”
~Charles Spurgeon (Bought With A Price 1004)

Related Posts:
0 comments

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Quote of the Day #227 - F. W. Krummacher

A quote from F. W. Krummacher:
Heaven must fall, the order of the divine government be annihilated, and Christianity be forever destroyed, if the Holy Scriptures compel us to regard the cup which Jesus drank, as essentially the same as that of which Job, Jeremiah, Paul, and many others partook. Jesus’ cup contained something far more dreadful.
~F. W. Krummacher (The Suffering Saviour, Chapter 13)

This quote was taken from Samuel Jackson's translation of F. W. Krummacher's book The Suffering Saviour: Meditations On The Last Days Of Christ.

Related Posts:
0 comments

Saturday, March 30, 2013

What We Have Heard, Seen, and Touched - 1 John 1:1-4 Bible Commentary

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. (1 John 1:1-4)
The world was dark, filled with shadows. Though fire could be summoned, it still required fuel to burn, one that had to be bought or gathered. Though the sun, free to all, would certainly rise, darkness was just as sure to follow.

Night and the darkness it brings is a universal human experience. Night is when the thief comes. It's when the normal sounds of day become suspicious. Mysterious and unknown, darkness is a veil, beyond which the eye cannot see.

In the introduction to his gospel, John writes of Jesus that He is the "true light, which gives light to everyone" (John 1:9). It is this light that John saw. He didn't merely see Christ illumined by the sun's rays, but he saw Christ fully illumined. In a spectacular display that we cannot fully grasp with our understanding, John saw Christ in his glory on the mount of transfiguration.

Sight is just one sense. John also writes that he heard Christ. Not only that, but John says that he touched Christ with his hands. This is something more intimate. There is light, and there is darkness; but there is something even deeper to the human experience. There is the cold shunning, and there is the warm embrace. John had reclined upon the bosom of Christ in that final hour before Golgotha (John 13:23). He had not merely heard the Saviour, nor merely seen Him, but he had come into direct contact with God Himself, condescending in human flesh.

It is the message of this Christ, whom John, fully aware of in every human sense, proclaims in his letter. The One who was with the Father Himself— who is the word of Life— it is the message of that King whom John seeks to set before us. And why does John do so? "So that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).

John came into contact with Christ, and though we cannot travel back in time to see our Saviour in His incarnation, we can experience what John experienced through his writings. We too can hear the words of our Saviour. We too can look upon our Saviour. And though we may not be able to touch our Saviour with our hands, we can come into contact with Him in a way John never experienced during Jesus' earthly ministry— through the Spirit who has been given to us.

Related Posts:
0 comments

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Quote of the Day #226 - Richard Sibbes

A quote from Richard Sibbes:
God is glorified in making us happy, and we enjoying happiness, must glorify God... A heavenly soul is never satisfied, until it be as near God as is attainable. And the nearer a creature comes to God, the more it is emptied of itself, and all self-aims. Our happiness is more in him, than in ourselves. We seek ourselves most when we deny ourselves most. And the more we labour to advance God, the more we advance our condition in him.
~Richard Sibbes (The Soul's Conflict and Victory Over Itself By Faith, Chapter XXVI)

Related Posts:
0 comments

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Quote of the Day #225 - Charles Spurgeon

A quote from Charles Spurgeon:
I am never to look to myself for wisdom, and to fancy that I am the creator of truth or the revealer of it—but ever to go to Him—my Lord, my Teacher, my All—and to believe that the highest culture, the best results of the highest education are to be found by sitting at His feet. And the best results of the deepest meditation, too, are to be gained in lying down in the green pastures beside the still waters, where He, as the Good Shepherd, leads me.
~Charles Spurgeon (The Fourfold Treasure 991)

Related Posts:
1 comments

Saturday, March 09, 2013

Jesus: Repent, For the Kingdom of Heaven Is At Hand - Matthew 4:17 Bible Commentary

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)
The first word recorded for us in Matthew from the lips of our Saviour is a command: Repent! From this single command, we have enough information to— once and for all— dispense of the idea that Jesus is a tolerant man who merely meets you where you're at and doesn't demand that you live a holy life.

This command for repentance was nothing new. The prophets of old had always called for it. In fact, Jesus' first words in Matthew, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," are identical to John the Baptist's first recorded words, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2).

Anything repeated twice should certainly draw our attention. This message of repentance is central to the Gospel. Any preacher who removes the command to repent from sin in his proclamation of God's kingdom cannot be called a Christian preacher at all; such a preacher has neglected to mention the first words out of both John the Baptist's and our Savior's mouths!

But what are we to make of that phrase: "the kingdom of heaven"? Is this kingdom already here, or is it yet to come?

Throughout his gospel, Matthew often refers to the "kingdom of heaven". The phrase is unique to Matthew. Mark and Luke instead use the phrase "kingdom of God". The two phrases are identical in meaning (for instance, compare Mark 1:15 to Matthew 4:17).

When Jesus was on earth, He proclaimed that "the kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17:21). He also said that "if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28). Paul writes that God has delivered Christians "from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13). We see, then, that God's kingdom is, in one sense, already here— and Christians are its citizens.

Yet other passages make it clear that God's kingdom is something we have not yet entered. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven..." (Matthew 7:21). Our entrance into the "eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:11) is something that will happen in the future.

From this, we conclude that the kingdom of heaven has already come, but it is not yet here in its fullness. Not until the end of the age, once Satan has been conquered, will the kingdom of heaven be seen in its fullness. For now, we must be content to ask the same question that the disciples asked shortly before Jesus' ascension, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).

We can be assured that one day, the kingdom will be here in its fullness. We will see it, and we will live in it. For now, we look forward in expectation of that day when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet and proclaim, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).

Related Posts:
0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)