A New Creation
This quarter I have been teaching through Colossians and Ephesians
in 14 sessions (1). In contrast with the verse by verse approach,
(which may keep a person from seeing the forest on account
of the trees), covering big sections of these powerful epistles
tends to help me see the grand plan of God. Though I have read
these letters of Paul dozens of times, this year several new insights
leapt of the page at me. May I share just two?
The Reconciliation of All Things
Colossians and Ephesians (2) were written about the same time,
to house-church Christians living in the same area of Western
Turkey. The Apostle was in prison in Rome and the date seems to
have been about 61 AD. Colossians contains one of the grandest
and clearest statements of the deity of Jesus Christ and His supreme
position in the universe. Chapter Two eloquently tells us about
the full freedom and liberty afforded to us under the New Covenant.
The overall theme of Colossians is our wholeness and completeness
in Christ and the full empowerment we have by His indwelling life,
"the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made
manifest to his saints. To us God chose to make known how great
among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim,
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we
may present every man mature in Christ."
There is a great theological statement in Chapter One about
the work of Christ on the cross. The death of Jesus almost 2000
years ago went largely unnoticed by the world, and so also did
his return from the dead three days later. Yet what Jesus did
on the cross is the central and pivotal point of all that God
has ever done to date in history. (3) His was a cosmic sacrifice,
a judicial and legal solution to human and angelic evil which
gave the Father the means and freedom to offer forgiveness to
all men everywhere. But there is more: All disputations among
the angels over their territory and rights and dominion and influence
were fully resolved and settled once and for all. (4)
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God,
the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether [angelic] thrones or dominions or principalities
or authorities --all things were created through him and for
him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning,
the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be
pre-eminent. For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to
dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things [ta
panta], whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the
blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)
To say that God has "reconciled all things to Himself"
in Christ does not support Universalism, which is the belief that
all men will eventually be saved. But Colossians 1:20 does seem
to indicate a cosmic reconciliation was included in the work of
the cross. The entire universe has been gravely damaged by human
and angelic evil--man historically became totally alienated and
cut off from God. In general our race sees God as the Hated Enemy.
Yet at the same time we are held captive by a great deceiver-destroyer
angel, the former "prime minister" of the cosmos. (5)
The various angels themselves are at war with one another and
a large fraction of these angels war against God.
In the third book of his Scifi trilogy, "That Hideous
Strength" C.S. Lewis depicts earth as the "dark planet"
ruled over by a "bent-angel." Earth is seen as in desperate
need of full-scale liberation. Christ's death on the cross and
His resurrection and Ascension resolved all these issues, local
and cosmic, and in reality we only need to wait for their guaranteed
outworking in history. We are, however, called to be active participants
in the liberation of Planet Earth.
"When he [Jesus]
ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts
to men." (In saying, "He ascended," what does
it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of
the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above
all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:8-10,
cp. Philippians 2:5-11)
The death of Jesus on the cross as a judicial solution for
our sins made it possible for God to extend forgiveness to all
men everywhere. Therefore, on the Day of Judgment the first question
Jesus may ask of the lost might well be, "Why were you unwilling
to be forgiven?" It is one thing for a condemned prisoner
to receive his just punishment for actual crimes and misdemeanors.
It is a more serious matter if Someone else pays the full penalty
for him, but still the prisoner refuses this gracious gift offered
by the divine Substitute, which offer includes the subsequent
full pardon for all his offenses, and a whole new (everlasting)
life as well.
That fact that human sin has ALL been dealt with on the cross
empowered the Apostle to beg all men to come to Jesus and be themselves
reconciled to God. In the last year the following passage about
this has become a favorite of mine:
For the love of Christ controls us, because
we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have
died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no
longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and
was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human
point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human
point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if any
one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away,
behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to
us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ,
God making his appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)
The Summing up of All Things in Christ in the Coming Age
Ephesians contains a grand statement of God's purposes in history
similar to the awesome announcement just described in Colossians
One. In both cases the initiative and responsibility for the execution
of these plans for mankind rests with God alone. This time, writing
to the Ephesians, Paul says,
He [God the
Father] destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious
grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Christ
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished
upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight
the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set
forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, [lit:
"for the administration of the fullness of times"--in
the age to come which follows the age we live in now, i.e., in
the Millennium] to unite all things [ta panta],
in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him,
according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according
to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have
been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
(Ephesians 1:5-12)
To me, though I am the very least of all
the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is
the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all
things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might
now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly
places." (Ephesians 3:8-10)
God is fixing everything that is broken, ruined, damaged and
fallen in the universe. His program is well underway, but it is
not taught in our schools and universities. It is not promoted
in Congress. News magazines and talk-shows are oblivious to God's
quiet program for the construction of a whole new creation-which
includes a whole new unity for our race across all racial, ethnic,
cultural, and historical boundaries. "In Christ," (the
Second or last Adam), God is building us Christians into the centerpiece
of an entirely new creation soon to be unveiled before the world
and the watching angelic hosts.
God is not presently directing His major efforts towards social
reform, better schools, relief of the poor, nor better government
(local or global). His program is proceeding one person at a time,
as Paul tells us above,
"if any one is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come."
By the way, if you are among those who still believe men are
basically good, please read the first three chapters of Paul's
letter to the Romans--this should help a lot to see things the
way God sees them--we all start out fairly blind and deceived
before we come to know Jesus the Lord. God also floods the world
on a daily basis with "common grace"--out of his love
for saint and sinner alike. In order to keep us from destroying
ourselves until His plan is finished, He actively restrains evil
all day long on every side. (6) This allows His church freedom
to evangelize the world and to grow up into Christ, as explained
in Chapter four of Ephesians.
But all of God's efforts and pleadings with mankind bring only
a small fraction of the world populace to the point where they
are willing to be reconciled to God. This means that "the
uniting of all things in Christ" must inevitably result in
the forceful removal of evil men, the excision of all the deeply
embedded evil in all of society, and the eviction of fallen angelic
legions from the cosmos. This God will do on a grand scale beginning
very shortly. Many of the Parables of Jesus vividly describe That
Day:
Jesus left the crowds and went into the
house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to
us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered,
"He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field
is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom;
the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed
them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the
reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned
with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of
man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom
all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the
furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then
the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like
a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every
kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted
the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at
the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the
evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire;
there men will weep and gnash their teeth." (Matthew 13:36-43,
47-50)
("For the Son of man came to seek
and to save the lost.") As the disciples heard these things,
Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem,
and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear
immediately. He said therefore, "A nobleman went into a
far country to receive a kingdom and then return. Calling ten
of his servants, he gave them ten pounds, and said to them, `Trade
with these till I come.' But his citizens hated him and sent
an embassy after him, saying, `We do not want this man to reign
over us.' When he returned, having received the kingdom, he commanded
these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called
to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading. The
first came before him, saying, `Lord, your pound has made ten
pounds more.' And he said to him, `Well done, good servant! Because
you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority
over ten cities.' And the second came, saying, `Lord, your pound
has made five pounds.' And he said to him, `And you are to be
over five cities.' Then another came, saying, `Lord, here is
your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin; for I was afraid
of you, because you are a severe man; you take up what you did
not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him,
`I will condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked servant!
You knew that I was a severe man, taking up what I did not lay
down and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put
my money into the bank, and at my coming I should have collected
it with interest?' And he said to those who stood by, `Take the
pound from him, and give it to him who has the ten pounds.' (And
they said to him, `Lord, he has ten pounds!') `I tell you, that
to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has
not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies
of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here
and slay them before me.'" (Luke 19:10-27)
All too easily in today's apathetic, compromised, luke-warm
church (7) we see Jesus only as our gentle, loving friend and
Savior, our Pal who helps us get what we want in life.
The real Jesus is very different man. Scripture speaks clearly
of the stored up "wrath of the Lamb" and the
holy anger of His Father which will soon come down upon our planet.
The Apostle John says,
"I looked, and behold, there was a
great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the
full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to
the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken
by a gale; the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up,
and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then
the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and
the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in
the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the
mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of
him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand
before it?'"(Revelation 6:12-17)
In vivid language, the prophet Zephaniah (c. 625 BC) wrote
of "That Day:"
"I will utterly sweep away everything
from the face of the earth," says the LORD. "I will
sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the
air and the fish of the sea. I will overthrow the wicked; I will
cut off mankind from the face of the earth," says the LORD.
The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the
sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, the mighty man cries
aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and
anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and
gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast
and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty
battlements. I will bring distress on men, so that they shall
walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD;
their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like
dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver
them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his
jealous wrath, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full, yea,
sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
(Zephaniah 1:2-3, 14-18)
It is highest imaginable privilege to be invited "into
Christ" --into God's intimate family--as a honored sons and
daughters in His royal household. We who follow Jesus have been
made part of His Body, the true Church, which He heads Himself.
We are the objects of His nurturing healing love--as a bridegroom
cares for his beloved bride. We are His living temple, which He
fully indwells when we meet together in community. Christ and
his church are a microcosm of the New Creation, the key to God's
program for fixing everything that is out of order in the cosmos.
This is why the Bible urges us Christians to rise to our high
calling and to cooperate fully with our Lord as He changes our
hearts, our priorities, and our lifestyles to prepare us to live
and rule with Jesus in a whole new universe. Joined intimately
with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church and the Commander-in-Chief
of the Armies of the Lord, we are called to do battle with our
Lord against the encroaching darkness. Our warfare is not passive
and defensive, it is offensive. As we pull down enemy-held strongholds
in society, we help pave the way for the return of the rightful
King to His home planet. (8)
God is going to invade this
earth in force. But what's the good of saying you're on his side
then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like
a dream and something else, something it never entered your head
to conceive comes crashing in. Something so beautiful to us and
so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left.
This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming
that it will strike either irresistible love, or irresistible
horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose
your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down, when
it's become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time
for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side
we really have chosen, whether we realize it or not. Now, today,
in this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is
holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever;
we must take it or leave it. (C. S. Lewis)
Notes:
1. For the very brave, the class tapes are available in RealAudio
or cassette form. See http://ldolphin.org/audio.html.
2. Quite possibly Ephesians is the "Epistle to Laodicea"
mentioned in Col. 4:16. It makes good sense to me. Paul taught
at Ephesus (c. 52-55 AD) for 3 years, 5 hours a day, 6 days a
week, in the rented hall of Tyrannus. His converts then evangelized
Asia Minor. The Apostle died about 66 AD after his second imprisonment
in Rome.
3. See "Six Hours of Eternity on the Cross," http://ldolphin.org/sixhours.html
4. Redemption and salvation are not, however, offered to the
angels, Hebrews 2:16-17.
5. "The Snake in the Garden," by James Montgomery
Boice, http://www.ldolphin.org/satan.html.
6. See "Common Grace", by James Montgomery Boice,
http://ldolphin.org/common.html
7. "The Church at the End of the Age," http://www.ldolphin.org/church.html
8. "There's a War On, Folks: the Church and the Tribulation,"
http://ldolphin.org/war-on.html,
and "Spiritual Warfare," http://www.ldolphin.org/spwarfare.html.
Hanukkah 2001: Scripture for the Remnant in Israel:
It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established
as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above
the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall
come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us
his ways and we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He [Messiah] shall judge between
many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall sit every
man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make
them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. For
all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will
walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. In that
day, says the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those
who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted; and
the lame I will make the remnant; and those who were cast off,
a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time forth and for evermore. And you, O tower of the
flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the
former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
(Micah 4:1-8).
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