Marcus Aurelius, the pagan, knew only a resignation. That is no more than being a creature because you must be a creature. Carl Gustav Jung knew a giving in, a mere submission to the things that roll over us from the collective unconsciousness of our race, or from that which is without. But this is mere resignation, whereas the scriptural teaching is not mere resignation. I am a creature, it is true, but I have a calling to be the creature glorified. I must be the creature, but I do not have to be the creature like the clod in the field, the cabbage which is rotting in the field as the snows melt. I am called to be a creature by choice, on the basis of Christ's finished work, by faith: the creature glorified.
Now I am ready for the war. Now there can be spirituality of a biblical sort. Now there can be a Christian life. Rejected, slain, raised: now we are ready to be used. But not only ready to be used in this present space-time world, but ready to enjoy it, as the creature: ready to enjoy it in the light of its createdness by God and my own finiteness; ready to enjoy it, yet seeing it as it is since the fall. Justification is once for all. At one moment my guilt is declared gone forever. But this is not once for all. This is a moment-by-moment thing-a momentby-moment being dead to all else and alive to God; a momentby-moment stepping back by faith into the present world as though we had been raised from the dead. Here is the real positive, after the proper negative.
In the Spirit's Power 4
In this chapter we turn our attention again to the Mount of Transfiguration, and think not only of Christ's resurrection, but of the Christian's resurrection. Of course, the liberal theologians would tell us that the notion of a physical resurrection is a late idea, but I don't think this will stand at all. The physical resurrection appears very early in God's revelation of hope to man.
"So man lieth down, and riseth not: until" (there is a very definite note of the until-ness here) "the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep. 0 that thou wouldest hide me in sheol," (and it is definitely sheol) "that thou wouldest keep me in secret, until" (here we come to that intriguing word until again), "thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait," (and then this intriguing word again) "until my change shall come" (Job 14:12-14). The thrust here is all until: until my release comes.
It seems to me that Job 14 is absolute: that Job, somewhere around 2000 B.C. or earlier, understood the reality of a physical resurrection. I think the 19th chapter teaches the same thing but in the Hebrew it is not as clear as in chapter 14.
In Hebrews 11:17-19 it says that Abraham (at 2000 B.C.) understood the truth of the resurrection: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead."
So Abraham, who lived in the same general time as Job, did understand the fact of resurrection. Therefore, it is not surprising to find it in the book of Job. So there is no reason to think, as the liberals would have us think, that every time we find an emphasis on resurrection, it must be put late in biblical history.
In Daniel, which of course is not anywhere near so early, there is also an emphasis on physical resurrection: not of Christ, but of man. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). There is here an emphasis of double resurrection, the lost as well as the saved: "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (12:3). These things are surely related. But the most exciting, I guess, is the 13th verse, where Daniel himself is told by God, "But go thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days." What we are told here is that at the end of the days, Daniel himself will share in the events which he has just seen in prophecy. So the physical resurrection of the believer is clearly taught in Scripture early in biblical history.
When we come to 1 Corinthians 15, in the New Testament, there is no debate that this is exactly what Paul is teaching. He is hanging everything on this:
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not" (15:12-15).
The argument is very simple. If the Christian dead are not raised up, then Christ was not raised up; and if Christ is not raised up, everything falls to the ground: "But if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (15:13-26).
Now as we turn to the Mount of Transfiguration, it would seem to me that we have a clear preview of this. One would not wish to be dogmatic, but it would seem that we have represented, or at least illustrated-depending on how strongly one feels about it that which will happen on Resurrection Day. We have here Moses, who represents the Old Testament dead; and we have the apostles, who represent the New Testament dead. But we also have Elijah, who, of course, is one of the two men of the Old Testament who are spoken of as "the translated ones." And the Pauline Epistles make it very plain that at the coming of Jesus Christ for his people, there will be translated ones. "Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).
So here we have translation as well as resurrection. This is an historic situation; it is not in the never-never land of mere religious psychology or religious philosophy. At some moment -and there will be believers on the earth until the last moment -Christ will come and the dead will be raised. But the Christians who will be living then will be changed in the twinkling of an eye: in space and in time. Interestingly, verse 58 sets the resurrection and then the translation together in relation to our present life, calling for a response in the present situation. On the basis of these things, be in the present life steadfast, and so on.
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians we have exactly the same thing: the same note of translation as well as resurrection.
"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: the we" (the Christians of that time) "which are alive" (in that historic moment) "and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." And then, interestingly enough, Paul makes this a reason for a call at this present moment: "Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
However, this brings us to another question: It is very fine that I am going to be raised from the dead, but what happens between the Christian's death and his resurrection? Am I going to be out of contact with history? Am I going to be out of contact with sequence? Is the Christian, between his death and his resurrection, nowhere? Does he just disappear into a void?
The answer is "No," and the Scripture is very plain. In Luke 23:43, for example, where Jesus is speaking to the dying thief on the cross, he promises him that "today," that day, in that area of sequence, before sundown (because this would be the end of the Jewish day) before the end of sundown, "you shall be with me in paradise." Instead of being nowhere, in a philosophic "other," he will be with Christ in paradise.
Paul says the same thing, it seems to me, with great finality, in 2 Corinthians 5:4-8: "For we who are in this tent" (that is, we who are in this body, who are alive) "do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight): We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
The Bible presents only two states for the Christian: to be here in the flesh; or, having died, to be with the Lord. It is exactly the same thing as Jesus presents on the cross. The Christian is not presented, at the time of death, as being out of contact with sequence, as being nowhere, any more than Jesus is out of contact with sequence or is nowhere between his resurrection and his second coming.
There are a great number of dead who crowd into our thinking, of course, at this point. This is not just a theological question; it is a very practical one. We think of the masses of the Old Testament believing dead and the masses of the New Testament believing dead. We think of our loved ones who are involved in this. Where are they? And we have ourselves, too, to think about. We may die before Jesus comes back, though each of us should have the hope that he will be here when Jesus comes back. And if we die, where will we be an hour after death and until Jesus comes?
The world's view, of course, immediately places the afterlife as either a nothing or as being in a shrouded area: a place of sheets and formlessness, something that comes in under the door, through the keyhole as a grey mist. The new liberal theology would take the after-life and either deny it, or make it such an uncertain quality that it has no meaning to us. But this is not true of the Bible. Standing on the Mount of Transfiguration, we see Elijah, who was translated, yet has a body. There is no reason to think it is otherwise. He is holding a conversation with Moses and Christ. But here is Moses as well-Moses who died and was buried. And yet he can share in the conversation and he can be seen. He can be recognized and there can be communication.
We have the same sort of situation with Samuel and Saul. There is no reason to think of this as being anything other than Samuel's spirit, and yet there is communication, there is recognition.
But even stronger than that is Jesus' own word when he had been raised from the dead. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the disciples thought he was a spirit. They were not naturalists, but supernaturalists. They would not really have been surprised at having seen a spirit. What they were not prepared for was the physical resurrection. So Jesus says to them very sharply, really-in love, but sharply: "A spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have" (Luke 24:39). And then, in contrast, the statement that follows this in Luke: "Give me something to eat." His saying was: Give me something to eat, and I will show you that I am not just a spirit. It was not, How can you be so stupid as to think you could see me if I were a spirit? How could you be so stupid as to think that you could converse with me if I were a spirit? He did not say this. He immediately opened the door to the fact that it was not to be regarded as surprising that they could see him. They were not stupid in thinking they could converse with him if he was only a spirit. The proof was not in seeing him, nor in conversation with him. The proof concerning the physical resurrection was the eating of food before them.
So Moses, who was dead, stood on the Mount. And we are faced with a continuing stream of redeemed, conscious individuals who have died. We have no reason to feel they are anything but recognizable. We have no reason to think of them as lonely spirits, shut off from communication with Christ, with each other. The call to the Christian, as he looks forward to possible death, is not to be afraid, but to realize that, at the moment of death, if he has accepted Christ as Savior, he can pass into that moment, "today," whatever our today is. We do not need to be afraid to die. No doubt the central thing given is that the Christian dead are with Christ. There is no reason to think that they are out of communication with Christ as soon as they die. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord: not merely conscious, but with the Lord.
Now, however, I would want to emphasize something more, in the sense of giving it additional force. From the scriptural viewpoint this is not given just as a psychological hope. The dead are really there in this conscious and real state with Christ. They are there. This is a part of the total universe. It is as much a part of the total universe as you are as you are sitting reading this. Not in a philosophic "other" again, but in reality, they are really there. Time is important. The thief was not there till he got there.
Sequence is meaningful. Sequence is meaningful to the thief on the cross, as time moves on to that glad moment when the clock strikes, and he comes back with Jesus Christ. Time moves on. To the thief on the cross, though he does not have his body yet, there is a sequence.
However, the point I would establish at this stage in our study of spirituality is the fact that there are two equal lines of reality presented to us in the universe. We are in the seen world and there are also the Christians who have died, who are with Christ now. It is not a primitive view, a kind of three-story concept of the universe. This is the biblical view of truth: there are two streams, two strands, a space-time reality-one in the seen, and one in the unseen.
With these two lines before us, two equal lines of reality, I would return to the conclusion of our previous chapter. When God tells us to live as though we had died, gone to heaven, seen the truth there, and come back to this world, he is not asking us merely to act on some psychological motivation, but on what really is. That is the second line, the second strand, of reality, that of the unseen, in which we personally will share between the moment of death and our return with resurrected bodies to the seen world at the second coming. Thus I am to live now by faith, rooted in the things which have been, such as Christ's death and resurrection; what is, such as the second stream of reality in the unseen now; and what will be, such as my coming bodily resurrection and return with Christ. And this is not sheer passivity, as we have seen. God will deal with me in the circle in which he made me; that is, in his image-as a man, not as a stick or a stone. There are unbiblical forms of "spirituality" which put their emphasis almost entirely upon some sort of "resignation." The Bible rejects this. You are not just a beast in the field. It is not just a case of accepting, there is to be an activeness in our passivity. We have to be c
reatures because that is what we are-creatures. But in Christ we are presented with an opportunity, a calling, to be a creature by choice, to be creatures glorified. Through an active passivity, we are creatures, not of necessity but by choice, here in this present space-time, historic world. When I come to this point, no matter how many times I preach or teach it, it still takes my breath away.
Yet to be practical I must ask, How is it possible to live so? What is the answer to the how? How are we going to live this way, if we are to think of this not merely as some sort of abstract "religious" experience, a combination of mood and moment, a vague, contentless, meaningless existential experience? If I am not to think of it in this way, I must face the question of the how. What do I begin to do? Do I begin to whip myself in order to get it accomplished? Do I begin to seek some sort of ecstasy or exotic experience? The answer to all these is "No." Happily, this is not given to us merely as some kind of twentieth century religious idea. It is an intensely practical one.
"But we that are in this tent do groan" (you recognize this as the passage we have already studied) "being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, and that mortality might be swallowed up in life. Now he that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 5:4, 5).
In other words, God draws two factors of reality together here: the factor of our being with Christ when we die, and the factor that at the present time, with equal certainty, if we have accepted Christ as Savior, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is intriguing that God brings these two factors together. He does not expect us to think of them separately. When I die, it is certain that I will be with the Lord. The Christian dead, including my loved ones, are there with him now. But at the same time, at the present moment, I have the Holy Spirit.
True Spirituality Page 6
