I have a scar at the base of my right index finger. As scars go, it's not much - - a delicate silvery sliver from a wound close to forty years old, the result of a playground injury. This scar is a permanent part of my earthly flesh - - a constant reminder of a screw jutting from a swing set. When I was cut, I saw blood, but was unaware as a child, that beneath the surface of my skin microscopic cells with various specialties were at work beginning the healing process in an ordered, intricate operation. If we are paying attention, there are exhibitions of God's genius everywhere, perhaps most remarkably inside our own bodies. The healing of a wound, to me, is a tiny picture of a bigger picture. God spoke the world and all its creatures into existence, but then allowed His processes to take over - - the sowing of seeds, water cycles, life cycles, birth, growth. Colossians reminds us that Christ created all things and that He sustains them as well. The way a wound heals displays His sustenance of life. When God's creatures are wounded, He does not speak their wounds healed - - although that is not an impossibility for Him, but allows the system that He put in place to follow its planned course.
Think about it for a moment. When my flesh was pierced by that little screw, the response of my body was instantaneous. My cells rushed to work, some to stop the bleeding, others to destroy any bacterial invaders. Over a period of a few days to about 3 weeks, other specialized cells took charge, forming new flesh and new blood vessels. The edges of the wound pulled together and skin cells traveled across the newly joined surface. Finally, a fibrous tissue called collagen went to work to form my scar - - the same substance that makes up the majority of my skin, but in the case of my wound, coming together in a less structured manner in order to make needed repair quickly.
1 Timothy 2:5 says, "There is only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - - the man Christ Jesus." (NLT) Some may find it unromantic or less spiritual to think of Jesus as flesh. But, that is in fact what the Bible teaches. He is forever both God and man. In the twentieth chapter of John's gospel, Jesus shows his wounds to the disciples and the women; then again to Thomas. The Word does not use the term scar. These wounds were only three days old, after all. According to God's design, they were still in the process of repair. To me, this is the most romantic and spiritual thing of all. That Christ would take on a flesh just like the one He gave me. A flesh that must feel pain and must heal and must produce permanent scars. That is how God-made flesh operates and Christ became like us so we could become like Him.
Thomas wasn't present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples. When he showed them his crucifixion wounds, the Bible says they were filled with joy because they were seeing the Lord. When Thomas placed his fingers on Jesus' body, Christ's wounds were still tender and sore; the cells still working to fill in the wound with new tissue and blood vessels. But, for the disciples, Thomas included, it was this wounded, red, sore flesh that caused them to declare that Christ was God and Lord. Those deadly wounds on a living man were the evidence of Christ's deity. Christ's flesh and bone, does not make him less God. He is all in all - - everything. The fact that He could determine to be man and sinlessly walk a man's walk, sinlessly endure a man's pain, and sinlessly bear all men's sin should take away any doubt of His deity. He chose to live in flesh and participate in the physical processes that He created in us. He chose to live as a baby, a boy, a man - -nourishing his physical life by his own creation. He chose this because He chose a people and desires to live with them forever.
Hebrews 4 teaches that Jesus entered into Heaven as a man who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He now bears the scars to prove it. As scars go, His are much - - a permanent part of His flesh from deep, traumatic, terminal wounds that are thousands of years old; a constant reminder of nails pounded through human skin, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves into rough, wooden beams by hands He'd formed of skin, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves - - human hands He determined to love with an everlasting love. A scar cannot really be removed. Modern medicine can reduce or revise them but they are always a part of our earthly body. I don't know if my little scar will remain on my resurrected body, but I know the scars of my Savior will always be - - everlasting scars to display a love that cannot be removed, revised, or reduced. I know when I see them and touch them I will say, undeniably, "My Lord and my God!"
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
In The Beginning: Heaven on Earth
In the beginning, God spoke the world into existence ex nihilo - - out of nothing. The second chapter of Genesis says this same all-powerful God then planted a garden, formed a man, and breathed life into the man's body. He could have spoken the man alive and the garden into existence, but instead, sowed seed and made "every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, " to "spring up." (Gen. 2:7-9). Then with dust from the earth, he gave shape to man. God's breath filled lifeless lungs with life-giving spirit and so man is forever nephesh - - life, vital breath, soul. Man was not made from nothing; his physical body was formed from the stuff of earth and animated by the breath of Heaven - - an amalgamation too grand to comprehend.
In the beginning, God lived on Earth. He worked with his soil, and he walked with his image-bearers. The English Standard Version of the Scripture states Genesis 1:7 and 8 this way: "And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day." There is debate as to the nature of this "expanse." I won't pretend to know, or even have an opinion as to what is was. Was it solid or liquid? A sort of giant terrarium? A bio-dome? Not a clue. But, I know from Scripture that it was here and it was Heaven. I love that the ESV capitalizes Heaven. That uppercase 'H' causes the gears of my brain to whir. A proper noun - - a real place like Canada or Ohio. When God created Earth, He created Heaven as well, and they were one place.
In the beginning, heaven and earth, man and God coalesced. Everything existed in a God-made oneness. A close friend of mine said, "God is always coming down to us." What an accurate and glorious truth! Ephesians 1:10 tells us, "And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ - - everything in Heaven and on Earth." (NLT) Colossians 1 says Jesus is the great reconciler, knitting all things, whether on Earth or in Heaven, to God. Man's rebellion caused God to shut the door to the garden he had planted - - no more access to the Tree of Life. The first man and woman were expelled from paradise and entered into the trials of life on a planet corrupted by sin. This corruption was all-inclusive. Pain became front and center in childbirth and in our efforts to obtain nourishment. Pain is now a prerequisite for life. Spiritual and emotional frustration, pride, contempt - - so many poisons entered into our relationships. There would be no more surviving by reaching out and reaping what the Lord God had sown. Man would eat only by the sweat that comes from laboring against thorns and thistles. And the body formed from dust would return to dust. The fusion of Heaven and Earth was torn. Mankind and his planet-home now stood on the edge of an uncrossable chasm.
In the beginning, God planted a garden. The Bible gives no indication that this garden ceased to exist. God's people wanted to get back; to walk again with God on Earth; to be the caregivers of His creation. The Way back was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament. Prophets shouted, wept, and pleaded then grew silent - - four-hundred-years-worth of silent. Then Heaven's voice became incarnate. The Voice spoke to Zechariah at the birth of his son, John the Baptist, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David . . . " (Lk. 1:68-69) The Voice spoke to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - - the Son of God." (Lk. 1:35) The Voice spoke to the Shepherds, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Lk. 2:10,11)
In the beginning, God spoke Earth and Heaven as one. In the Word to Zechariah, Mary, and the Shepherds there is evidence, once again, of this convergence. The Lord God would be the God of a people. God would visit earth to perform a heavenly feat - - the redemption and salvation of human beings. God would come through a human bloodline and would, indeed, be a human. A girl would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and God would once more plant a garden, a Tree of Life on Earth, sowing his seed in a human womb. A child would be born possessing all the bodily needs and functions of any other child, but this one would be called "holy - - the Son of God." Angels came to the earthiest of earthlings - - shepherds, to proclaim that the anointed one of God would be born in the city of an earthly king.
In the beginning, God came down to us and proclaimed for centuries that He would make a way home for us. Christ, the Way, came telling people that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. In his flesh, Heaven had again come near, approached, drawn close to mankind and to Earth. This wasn't an invasion or an intrusion. Jesus didn't just step into Earth's time and space; he traveled the birth canal, nursed at a mother's breast, worked at carpentry alongside a father. His flesh was stabbed and bled and when he released his nephesh, his heart stopped; his lungs no longer took in air. Jesus became like us and, when he rose from death, he became like we will be.
In the new beginning, at Christ's return, God will again come to Earth. John describes what he saw in Revelation 21:2-3, "And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, 'Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.'" This city will not be made from nothing - - it will be made of the children of God, and at its center will be the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ. Together, the people of God and the Savior of mankind will stand on real feet and legs on a real Earth. God will re-unite Heaven and Earth and will live on his new planet with the people he has redeemed.
In the beginning, God lived on Earth. He worked with his soil, and he walked with his image-bearers. The English Standard Version of the Scripture states Genesis 1:7 and 8 this way: "And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day." There is debate as to the nature of this "expanse." I won't pretend to know, or even have an opinion as to what is was. Was it solid or liquid? A sort of giant terrarium? A bio-dome? Not a clue. But, I know from Scripture that it was here and it was Heaven. I love that the ESV capitalizes Heaven. That uppercase 'H' causes the gears of my brain to whir. A proper noun - - a real place like Canada or Ohio. When God created Earth, He created Heaven as well, and they were one place.
In the beginning, heaven and earth, man and God coalesced. Everything existed in a God-made oneness. A close friend of mine said, "God is always coming down to us." What an accurate and glorious truth! Ephesians 1:10 tells us, "And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ - - everything in Heaven and on Earth." (NLT) Colossians 1 says Jesus is the great reconciler, knitting all things, whether on Earth or in Heaven, to God. Man's rebellion caused God to shut the door to the garden he had planted - - no more access to the Tree of Life. The first man and woman were expelled from paradise and entered into the trials of life on a planet corrupted by sin. This corruption was all-inclusive. Pain became front and center in childbirth and in our efforts to obtain nourishment. Pain is now a prerequisite for life. Spiritual and emotional frustration, pride, contempt - - so many poisons entered into our relationships. There would be no more surviving by reaching out and reaping what the Lord God had sown. Man would eat only by the sweat that comes from laboring against thorns and thistles. And the body formed from dust would return to dust. The fusion of Heaven and Earth was torn. Mankind and his planet-home now stood on the edge of an uncrossable chasm.
In the beginning, God planted a garden. The Bible gives no indication that this garden ceased to exist. God's people wanted to get back; to walk again with God on Earth; to be the caregivers of His creation. The Way back was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament. Prophets shouted, wept, and pleaded then grew silent - - four-hundred-years-worth of silent. Then Heaven's voice became incarnate. The Voice spoke to Zechariah at the birth of his son, John the Baptist, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David . . . " (Lk. 1:68-69) The Voice spoke to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - - the Son of God." (Lk. 1:35) The Voice spoke to the Shepherds, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Lk. 2:10,11)
In the beginning, God spoke Earth and Heaven as one. In the Word to Zechariah, Mary, and the Shepherds there is evidence, once again, of this convergence. The Lord God would be the God of a people. God would visit earth to perform a heavenly feat - - the redemption and salvation of human beings. God would come through a human bloodline and would, indeed, be a human. A girl would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and God would once more plant a garden, a Tree of Life on Earth, sowing his seed in a human womb. A child would be born possessing all the bodily needs and functions of any other child, but this one would be called "holy - - the Son of God." Angels came to the earthiest of earthlings - - shepherds, to proclaim that the anointed one of God would be born in the city of an earthly king.
In the beginning, God came down to us and proclaimed for centuries that He would make a way home for us. Christ, the Way, came telling people that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. In his flesh, Heaven had again come near, approached, drawn close to mankind and to Earth. This wasn't an invasion or an intrusion. Jesus didn't just step into Earth's time and space; he traveled the birth canal, nursed at a mother's breast, worked at carpentry alongside a father. His flesh was stabbed and bled and when he released his nephesh, his heart stopped; his lungs no longer took in air. Jesus became like us and, when he rose from death, he became like we will be.
In the new beginning, at Christ's return, God will again come to Earth. John describes what he saw in Revelation 21:2-3, "And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, 'Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.'" This city will not be made from nothing - - it will be made of the children of God, and at its center will be the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ. Together, the people of God and the Savior of mankind will stand on real feet and legs on a real Earth. God will re-unite Heaven and Earth and will live on his new planet with the people he has redeemed.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Groaning Is Temporary; Singing Forever
Autumn leaves do not fall from the tree - - they are pushed. The tree has to cast off anything that would rob the new life to come of nourishment and water. And so, by force, the tree is laid bare. Frigid temperatures will come. Gray branches will be entombed in ice and some of them will be broken. The fallen leaves will decay to feed the earth and foster new growth.
The path to resurrection is not easy. It is not a delicate wafting on a gentle breeze toward a soft, earthy bed. In the beginning, Adam and Eve appear to have come to life without pain, but all of life since their rebellion has been preceded by pain - - sweat, blood, and struggle. And a resurrected life is preceded, of course, by physical death.
I began this thought with trees because I see in Scripture an intriguing parallel between the believer's journey toward new life and that of the earth's. I see the Gospel in every corner of creation. 2 Peter 3:10 says that "the earth and the works done on it will be exposed," or "laid bare." In Isaiah 48:10, God is talking to His people and says, "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction." Change comes to the earth by means of great violence. Floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes - - all of these things expose, lay bare and make way for new growth. For us it is affliction, pain, struggle, trials - - these things expose the sin in our hearts and lay them bare before God so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ; so we can be transformed into new creatures. Grief, sorrow, fear - - all of these things assault our minds and emotions. A spiritual, emotional trial can cause physical pain or illness because we are a joining of spirit and body. Randy Alcorn, in his book entitled, Heaven, points out that a human being has never lived who wasn't both spirit and body. In Psalm 63, David says that his soul thirsts for God; his flesh faints for Him. We relate to our Creator by both means. When my mother passed from this earth, I hadn't considered Heaven much, and so I thought I had lost her. I experienced a flood - - a fire, a violent grief that pressed on me and roiled inside. I suffered physical pain and mental anguish. But I know now, those things were birth pains moving me, by force, toward real life. I know that God had a beautiful purpose in my groaning. Romans 8:22,23 "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."
I don't mean to make light of human affliction. As believers our walk toward the day of our resurrection is a time of pruning, and casting off and pruning hurts. Casting off, cutting away, cannot happen without pain. The apostle Paul knew about suffering. He spent many years "kicking against the goads." Living a life outside the will and blessings of our Father-Creator is agony. I'm sure, like most of us, he didn't realize what he was missing at the time but he soon found out. He was blinded, stopped dead in his tracks by the light of Christ. He was imprisoned, tortured, and hunted down like an animal. He spent most of his ministry in prison, sometimes physically ill, sometimes hurt and betrayed by those he loved and trusted. He also endured the knowledge that his brothers and sisters in Christ were being persecuted and murdered for their faith. And yet, in 2 Corinthians 4:17 he makes this amazing statement: "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
His circumstances, to me, seem unbearable. He acknowledges them to be afflictions but says they are "light" and "momentary." They are "light" and "momentary," not in comparison to someone else's afflictions or to some worse afflictions that he conjur in his mind - - but compared to an "eternal weight of glory." In fact, he says that this current affliction is "preparing for us an eternal weight of glory." Not that it is preparing us for that glory but the other way around, as if every trying circumstance is a sort-of glory-brick, building the Kingdom of Heaven. Every time we, as God's people, endure a trial by His grace, strength, and wisdom, His will is being done on earth and the Kingdom of Glory expands.
So back to the tree. Christ, our tree of life, cast off his glory to come down to earth. He was broken and He bled and then He died. He cried in agony - - in human pain. He was and is a physical man. He had a nervous system, a circulatory system and, as a result, suffered the effects of a slow loss of blood and felt the piercing of his flesh. He endured the shame that should have been mine. Now He is making me ready for Heaven - - for a yoke that is light and an easy burden - - an eternal weight of glory. So I am happy as He casts off my deadness to make way for new growth. I don't wallow in shame, but I swim in grace as He lays bare my sin and prunes the chains that enslaved me to it. I know my brokenness is only temporary - - a way for Him to put me back together as I was meant to be. Tombs of ice will melt in the light of the Son. Groaning is temporary, but "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever." (Ps. 89)
The path to resurrection is not easy. It is not a delicate wafting on a gentle breeze toward a soft, earthy bed. In the beginning, Adam and Eve appear to have come to life without pain, but all of life since their rebellion has been preceded by pain - - sweat, blood, and struggle. And a resurrected life is preceded, of course, by physical death.
I began this thought with trees because I see in Scripture an intriguing parallel between the believer's journey toward new life and that of the earth's. I see the Gospel in every corner of creation. 2 Peter 3:10 says that "the earth and the works done on it will be exposed," or "laid bare." In Isaiah 48:10, God is talking to His people and says, "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction." Change comes to the earth by means of great violence. Floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes - - all of these things expose, lay bare and make way for new growth. For us it is affliction, pain, struggle, trials - - these things expose the sin in our hearts and lay them bare before God so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ; so we can be transformed into new creatures. Grief, sorrow, fear - - all of these things assault our minds and emotions. A spiritual, emotional trial can cause physical pain or illness because we are a joining of spirit and body. Randy Alcorn, in his book entitled, Heaven, points out that a human being has never lived who wasn't both spirit and body. In Psalm 63, David says that his soul thirsts for God; his flesh faints for Him. We relate to our Creator by both means. When my mother passed from this earth, I hadn't considered Heaven much, and so I thought I had lost her. I experienced a flood - - a fire, a violent grief that pressed on me and roiled inside. I suffered physical pain and mental anguish. But I know now, those things were birth pains moving me, by force, toward real life. I know that God had a beautiful purpose in my groaning. Romans 8:22,23 "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."
I don't mean to make light of human affliction. As believers our walk toward the day of our resurrection is a time of pruning, and casting off and pruning hurts. Casting off, cutting away, cannot happen without pain. The apostle Paul knew about suffering. He spent many years "kicking against the goads." Living a life outside the will and blessings of our Father-Creator is agony. I'm sure, like most of us, he didn't realize what he was missing at the time but he soon found out. He was blinded, stopped dead in his tracks by the light of Christ. He was imprisoned, tortured, and hunted down like an animal. He spent most of his ministry in prison, sometimes physically ill, sometimes hurt and betrayed by those he loved and trusted. He also endured the knowledge that his brothers and sisters in Christ were being persecuted and murdered for their faith. And yet, in 2 Corinthians 4:17 he makes this amazing statement: "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
His circumstances, to me, seem unbearable. He acknowledges them to be afflictions but says they are "light" and "momentary." They are "light" and "momentary," not in comparison to someone else's afflictions or to some worse afflictions that he conjur in his mind - - but compared to an "eternal weight of glory." In fact, he says that this current affliction is "preparing for us an eternal weight of glory." Not that it is preparing us for that glory but the other way around, as if every trying circumstance is a sort-of glory-brick, building the Kingdom of Heaven. Every time we, as God's people, endure a trial by His grace, strength, and wisdom, His will is being done on earth and the Kingdom of Glory expands.
So back to the tree. Christ, our tree of life, cast off his glory to come down to earth. He was broken and He bled and then He died. He cried in agony - - in human pain. He was and is a physical man. He had a nervous system, a circulatory system and, as a result, suffered the effects of a slow loss of blood and felt the piercing of his flesh. He endured the shame that should have been mine. Now He is making me ready for Heaven - - for a yoke that is light and an easy burden - - an eternal weight of glory. So I am happy as He casts off my deadness to make way for new growth. I don't wallow in shame, but I swim in grace as He lays bare my sin and prunes the chains that enslaved me to it. I know my brokenness is only temporary - - a way for Him to put me back together as I was meant to be. Tombs of ice will melt in the light of the Son. Groaning is temporary, but "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever." (Ps. 89)
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