Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Spirits of just Men Made Perfect


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Sandwiched between the Judge of All and the Mediator of the new covenant (more on Him in a subsequent post), are the spirits of just men made perfect.

This is fitting in so many ways, and with lyrical precision, the writer of Hebrews places the departed saints awaiting the culmination of all things right where they are the safest and most secure, sheltered between the Judge who has declared them innocent ("just") and the One whose sacrifice made their reprieve possible.

Who are these saints? And how they been made perfect ("complete")? These are every man, woman, and child who has died in faith, believing that Christ is Lord and Savior, and who are abiding in Heaven until the return of the King. They have been forgiven and thus made sinless and righteous (perfect). Their access to God is unencumbered by the old nature, or fleshly life, or the cares of this world. 

They are more alive than ever before and eagerly await the Resurrection when their spiritual forms will once again be clothed in physical bodies, this time glorified, ageless, impervious, and immortal.

What you must guard against here is the cynicism born of life in this often miserable world that says such an outcome is "too good to be true". We know very little of good or truth in this age - only that which has been provided for us by God through His Word and through His Son.

Our conceptions of Heaven are limited and besmirched. The modern church is defective and anemic in so many ways, not the least of which is its general neglect of Heaven.

It is presented as either a vaporous realm of clouds and harps, or an unknowable amorphous arena of pure spirit - neither of which has any resemblance to the truth of this place as revealed in Scripture. 

Undermining Heaven is effective propaganda in the long war against God, but the author of Hebrews has no such erroneous filters. He understands the magnificence of the vibrant, fully-dimensioned life that is the dwelling place of the saints after death.

Think of it as a vast, immeasurable, life and light-filled universe adjacent to our own puny, fallen one, currently invisible to us, but poised to overtake and infinitely renew our own.

The laws which govern this unimaginably good place are as immutable as the laws which govern existence here, but are of an essentially different character. Nothing in this universe, in its un-glorified form, can exist in that one. It must be transformed on a level that transcends the mere molecular, though it includes it, and encompasses the very real but (to us) incorporeal sphere of the moral and spiritual.

To survive for even a nanosecond in Heaven, we must be remade, utterly, completely, irrevocably - so much so that the first step has been described as being "born again" in the Spirit.

Nicodemus, the Teacher of Israel so long ago, was gifted with this truth and reacted as do many thinking beings by asking the simple but profound question of how can a man be reborn? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb?

Jesus gave Him answer, the essence of which explains how the spirits of just men are made perfect. The transformation from sinner to saint, from dead in trespasses and sins to exquisitely, immortally alive, is accomplished through the one named energy of salvation: faith.

But it is not merely faith, nor is it faith in faith, but it is faith in a singular and utterly unique and worthy Person - Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.

This conversion of unbelief (our default condition) to transformative belief, is that which will guarantee our final renovation into beings that can survive this heavenly realm. Without it, we are too fragile, too cumbersome, too weighed down with iniquity to continue our existence in any proximity to the Giver of Life and Love. 

Without it we are fit for only one place once the remaking of our universe is complete - a place as far removed from God as is possible. A place in the outermost darkness, completely immolated in the fierce coldness of ultimate isolation. We call this place Hell.

Hell is Heaven's antithesis in every conceivable way. As we may have difficulty believing in the soaring goodness of heaven, so too we may be unable to fully grasp the crushing, illimitable despair of Hell.

Both are true, regardless of our feelings or intellectual smugness. Both are presented to us by a merciful and living God who loved us so magnificently that He sent His Son to provide a way for us to be conformed into His image, that we may live forever in fellowship with the Source of all that is good.

Otherwise, we will exists as far from Him as can be… forever in torment.

This present earth in this present time is our opportunity to become something unimaginably better - not through our own puny efforts, but through faith in what God has done to redeem us.

We have until we die, or Christ returns.

If we have not appropriated His sacrifice on our behalf by then, our fate will be sealed.

If we have, then we will join the numberless multitude in Heaven and be joyously counted among those who have been made perfect and complete through the blood of the Lamb.

Friday, November 23, 2012

God the Judge of All


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Believers are exhorted to come to Mount Zion, to the city of the Living God, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and now to God the judge of all.

Notice the invitations and the dichotomy between their precursors before Christ. Mount Sinai, the precursor to Mount Zion, was a place of darkness and tempest and death under the Law. To come to it, to even touch it, was to receive summary execution, and to live according to the Law was an impossibility meant to teach our unequivocal need for a Savior.

In contrast, Mount Zion is a place of eternal life in the heavenly Jerusalem where grace, not Law is operative - the grace that comes through faith in Christ's death and Resurrection as Lord and Savior.

Now, we are boldly invited to come to God who is judge of all. This is an invitation fraught with danger and the certainty of punishment, if - and this is the key point - the invitee is guilty. But our guilt has been washed away by Christ's sacrifice. We have been justified - declared innocent - by His death, and the punishment we deserve has been placed on Him in our place. 

Coming to the Judge, then, under these conditions, and among other things, serves to confirm, not our punishment, but our reprieve. When we stand before God, our sins have been imputed to Christ, and paid for on His Cross. In their place, His righteousness has been imputed to us, and we stand guiltless and free before God.

This is an invitation that makes sense only for the believer, for God IS the judge of all, and without Christ, we are all guilty before Him, and will receive eternal punishment.

The world hates such thoughts, and hates God and the true people of God because judgment is to be avoided at all costs, and it is the fear of judgment that motivates every aspect of human behavior without Christ.

This hatred takes many forms, from legalism to fanaticism to hedonism to materialism to naturalism. 

The legalist is so afraid of judgment that he or she lives according to a stringent checklist of do's and don'ts, which must be adhered to at all costs, and which forms the basis of judgment for everyone else not so shackled.

The fanatic religionist desperately attempts to annihilate all other influences and people that are perceived to be displeasing to a divine, graceless tyrant whose every dictate and tenent of doctrine must be absolutely obeyed, while those who refuse to follow suit must be destroyed.

The hedonist rejects all external morality and follows the deadly course of self-gratification, despising all things and people perceived as obstacles to his own pleasure.

The materialist worships not a sovereign Deity but the forces of intellect and so-called science, believing that judgment is an unscientific myth blindly held by lesser intellects.

And the naturalist worships the creature rather than the Creator, able to see the value of the made, without reference or acknowledgement of the Maker, and holding in contempt all who are not likewise enlightened.

Underlying all these antiGod philosophies and lifestyles is a gut wrenching terror of judgment feeding a hatred of all that even hints at such an end.

Divine judgment must be denied or avoided at all costs and the hatred of it makes perfect sense for everyone who WILL NOT accept the forgiveness of guilt offered in Christ.

Vehement rebellion occurs because every human being KNOWS he or she is guilty before God and, in pride and terror, must go to whatever lengths necessary to continue living under the inevitable sentence of eternal death without being paralyzed with fear.

But the writer of Hebrews is extolling in brilliant and concise fashion, a better way, a new and living way, available through Christ and His loving redemptive work.

The contrast between the way of Christ and the way of the world could not be more stark.

It is the "bottom line". Without Jesus Christ all is lost by default. With Him, nothing good is ever lost.

Without Christ, life is worse than futile - it is the gateway into everlasting torment. Thus, He Himself declares it would be better never to have been conceived.

With Christ, no matter what happens in this life, we, as children of God, inherit everything that is Christ's by virtue of our relationship with God the Father through Him.

But first we must recognize our helplessness and hopelessness. We must surrender our broken and perverse will to His, coming in faith to the Cross, knowing it is the only remedy, the only way of reprieve.

For many that is a surrender that is considered far too costly.

Ironically, it is only through such surrender that victory over sin and death is achieved.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Registered in Heaven


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Peace can be hard to come by in this life. Not just external peace, that kind where nobody is actively at war with you or engaged in overt hostilities, but internal peace, as well; that peace that enables you to sleep at night without anxiety or fretfulness.

By understanding where Christ has led us by His sacrifice and our faith in Him, the writer of Hebrews is adding layer upon layer of reasons for peace, especially that internal sort. 

We are no longer under the curse of the law, He has led us past Mount Sinai and its integral darkness and tempest and death penalty, we are destined for an eternal dwelling place - the heavenly Jerusalem - the likes of which we can barely imagine, and we are guaranteed fellowship with angels - magnificent and powerful supernatural beings who stand before God and minister to us, His children and the heirs of salvation.

Beyond that, we are part of the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and have, by faith, an irrevocable membership. Whether or not this general assembly refers to the Old Testament faithful who died believing in God's promises, or is something else, it is clear that this group, along with the church of the firstborn - clearly specifying New Testament believers - are registered in heaven.

Think of it as an exclusive reservation, or legal roster, or an indelible census of heaven's inhabitants. However you picture it, it is a list from which, once on it, your name cannot be removed.

By professing Christ as your savior and acknowledging in your deepest heart your dependence on Him to save you from the penalty of sin, you obtain this inviolable citizenship. You can never be deported or disenfranchised. Your true home is someplace you have not yet been, but for which you were born or, more precisely, reborn. And unlike any earthly home, it can never be destroyed or violated or repossessed.

As a lifelong earth dweller, you may find it next to impossible to place your hope and trust in a place and Person you have not seen, but that is exactly what faith asks us to do. No, more than that - it commands us to do. And it is the longing of every human heart.

That is why being anxious is a sin (guilty as charged), as is worrying (guilty) and fretting (guilty). All these are expressions of lack of faith, and, in essence, are lodging complaints against God and His uniquely perfect will for each one of us.

I find living worry-free an exhausting challenge in my own life. To avoid the anxiety, I typically end up taking things in my own hands, not because of a leading from the Lord, but because I just want "it" over with as quickly as possible. This, too, is sin, and an almost certain recipe for exacerbating whatever the situation may be.

There is a fine line (from my faulty perspective) between "waiting on the Lord" and irresponsible inaction. The ONLY solution is to be in such close fellowship with Him, always, that His voice is heard over and above the tumult of our own sinful hearts, and the so-called wisdom of the world.

In turn, this is ONLY possible by determinedly spending time in His word and in prayer, both of which are not obligations, but privileges bestowed upon us by His grace and mercy.

Another stumbling block I find easy to trip over is subsequently condemning myself for my obvious and egregious lack of faith. This is spectacularly unhelpful in that it can initiate a downward spiral: anxiety = condemnation = more anxiety = more condemnation, and so on - a perfect trap guaranteed to prolong the agony.

The good news in this, and in every trial we face, is that the Lord is gracious and knows that while our spirit is willing, our flesh is weak. Jesus, of course, says it best:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV).

We must understand, He implores us to understand, that these are not just words, but divine promises. Our registration in the heavenly realm has been purchased by Christ Himself on the Cross. It was neither easy nor cheap. It cost God dearly, as he considers each of us a pearl beyond price.

It is easy to believe in the sunshine, and a life of ease is an untested life, built upon an untested faith. I suspect that many of us know of those who have fallen away because their profession of belief was based, not on a broken spirit and a contrite heart, but on an unspoken deal-making mentality. 

When they felt that God had not kept up His part of the bargain, because of hardship or loss or dissatisfaction, they turned away from the only true hope available to a hopeless mankind. That is tragic, indeed.

If you are worried or fretful or anxious, hide Paul's loving exhortation to the Philippians in your heart:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6, 7, NKJV).