Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Life of the Resurrection


Eternal life is the life of the age to come. Yesterday we saw that the age to come is the age of the kingdom of God, and eternal life is the life of the kingdom. But there is also another way to speak about the age to come, something else that is an important part of it: The age to come is the age of the resurrection of the righteous. This was the Jewish expectation. It is spoken of in Daniel 12:2, of the time when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life [zoen aionion in the Septuagint], some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

When Lazarus died, Jesus said to his sister Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” She was expressing the Jewish hope about the age to come. Taking up that point of expectation, Jesus responded with a startling revelation about Himself: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:23-26).

Jesus Himself is the resurrection life of the age to come, and all who believe in Him shall live. But this life does not begin sometime in the future — it begins now. Jesus said,
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:24-25)
“The hour is coming and now is,” He said, when those who hear His voice will live. This is resurrection life at work even in this present time. Even so, there is also another resurrection coming, the resurrection of the body. Jesus went on to say,
Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)
We can hear the echo of Daniel 12:2, that some will wake to everlasting life and others to everlasting contempt. However, that hour, the hour for the resurrection of the body from the grave, is coming but is not yet here. Even so, resurrection life, the life of the age to come, is already at work in us. Paul said, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

In his letter to the believers at Ephesus, Paul prayed that they might know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:19-20). Paul went on to say that God has “made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6). This is not future promise but present reality. It is resurrection life now, the age to come breaking into this present age. In Ephesians 3, Paul wrote that God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” The “power that works in us” in Ephesians 3:20 is the same power mentioned in Ephesians 1:19, the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Indeed, this resurrection life that we have now (and the coming resurrection of the body) is the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Himself. He is called the “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). Because He lives, we live, partaking of His life. Paul spoke of the “mystery” of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). This is the reality Paul himself confessed, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith I the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This is eternal life, the life of the resurrection. It is the life of the risen Jesus and belongs to all those who belong to Him. It begins now and lasts forever.

Friday, June 29, 2012

The Life of the Age to Come

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. (John 6:47)
Jesus says that those who believe in Him have everlasting, or eternal, life. Eternal life is not just about quantity of life, it’s about the quality of that life. That is, eternal life is not just life that lasts a really, really long time (eternity, in fact). It is the life of the age to come. That is it’s quality — it is not the life that comes from the present age (which is passing away) but the life of the coming one.

The Greek has it as zoen aionion. Zoe speaks of life. Aionion comes from aion, which speaks of an age (like eon). Eternal life is the life that is of the age. Which age? The age to come, which is the age of God’s kingdom, the Messianic age, the age of the resurrection.

In the Gospels, the life of the age to come is associated with the kingdom of God. For example, in Mark 9, Jesus speaks of entering life (verses 43 and 45). In the same section and under the same paradigm, He speaks of entering the kingdom of God (verse 47). In context, it is clear that both phrases refer to the same thing.

In Mark 10, we have the story of the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (v. 17). Jesus dealt with the young man, telling him, “Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (v. 21). The young man went away in sorrow, because he had many possessions and was unwilling to give them up. Jesus then said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” (v. 23). He said the same basic thing again in verse 24 and once more in verse 25. All three times, He spoke of it as the “kingdom of God. The rich young man asked about eternal life; Jesus answered his question, but in terms of the kingdom of God.

The disciples were stunned by this, and Peter started in, “See, we have left all and followed You” (v. 28). Jesus cut him short and said,
Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.
Eternal life — just what the rich young man came seeking. It is the life of the age to come, the life of the kingdom of God.

In John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). And again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). Being born again speaks of a new life, indeed, of a new quality of life. It has to do with the kingdom of God, and with the Spirit of God. When we come down to verse 15, Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” (a Messianic reference) and of how He must be “lifted up” (a reference to the cross), “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then in verse 16, we have that famous passage: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (“Eternal life” and “everlasting life” are the same words in the Greek.) Again we see that eternal life is the life of the kingdom of God.

Though it is the life of the age to come, it is the present possession of all who belong to King Jesus the Messiah. Notice that in John 6:47, Jesus says that whoever believes in Him has (present tense) eternal life. It has already begun because the kingdom of God has come into the world. Jesus announced it at the beginning of His ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus is Himself the king — that is the significance of the His, Messiah (literally, “Anointed One”). It means that Jesus is the one God has anointed to be king over His kingdom.

The kingdom of God has come into the world and has been growing ever since. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12, NIV). The apostle John wrote, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

We live between the times — the time of God’s kingdom coming into the world (through Jesus the Messiah) and the time it will be revealed in all its fullness (when King Jesus comes again). We enter into that kingdom by the new birth, being “born again” by the Spirit of God, through faith in King Jesus. This is eternal life, the life of God’s kingdom age, the age to come which has already begun for us in King Jesus.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Activating Your Faith


You can tell a lot about a person’s faith by listening to their words, especially when they are under pressure. A lot of Christians, when difficult situations arise or they experience some sort of need or lack, will start speaking out of worry or fear instead of out of faith. For example, they will worry and complain about the high cost of gas or rising food prices. They speak out their fear instead of saying about it what the Word of God says: My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said, “Do not worry, saying ...” (and we usually do worry by speaking it out) “but seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31-33). Instead of giving voice to our worries, fears and doubts, we should give voice to our faith — to what the Word has to say.

So, for example, when I see gas prices go up (thankfully, they are coming down some, at least for now), instead of letting worry have a word, I say, “My God shall supply all my need, all the gas I need and all the money I need to pay for it.” “God takes care of me in every way.” “I seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things are added unto me.” Sometimes my faith gets so stirred up I start hooting and hollering about how good God is to me. What happened? Instead of speaking in agreement with worry, I was speaking in agreement with the promises of God and His Word.

That’s what I call “activating” your faith — putting it into gear, speaking it out, and by it, putting pressure on whatever is out of alignment with the Word of God and His promises.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Center of the Gospel


The center of the gospel is not my personal salvation. The center is Jesus. Mark begins his account of the gospel this way: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Notice that it does not say, “The gospel of Jesus the Savior,” but “The gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. It is the Greek form for the Hebrew “Messiah,” which means “Anointed.” So, the gospel relates back to the promises God made in the Old Testament about Messiah. Those promises pertained to God’s “Anointed,” that is, the one God anointed as King. So the center of the gospel is Jesus as God’s Anointed King.

A king implies a kingdom, which is also what God promised OT Israel — God would come and set things right in Israel and would rule over all the nations of the world. In Mark 1:14, Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The content of that preaching is found in verse 15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.”

That is the primary thrust of the gospel — the announcement that God’s kingdom has come into the world, and that Jesus is God’s Anointed King. Now, within that is what we might call the “plan of salvation” (and which is often mistaken for the whole of the gospel). The question of personal salvation is, “How do I participate in God’s new kingdom that has come into the world?”

To answer that, look at John 3. Of course, John 3:16 is one of the most famous verses about personal salvation. But let’s take a look at the context to see how personal salvation fits in. In John 3:3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And again in John 3:5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Notice that Jesus speaks of salvation in terms of the kingdom of God — how one sees it, how one enters into it — how one becomes a part of it. The primary thrust of the gospel is about the coming of the kingdom of God, through the coming of Jesus, God’s anointed King. But within that is the matter of personal salvation, how we enter into God’s kingdom.

Now look at John 3:16 in view of verses 3 through 5 and following. The word for “everlasting” or “eternal” is the Greek word aionios, from the word aion, which means “age” or “eon.” It is a reference to the “age to come.” In the Jewish context of Jesus and Nicodemus, this would be understood as the Messianic age, the age of God’s kingdom, which would set everything right in the world and would never end. “Eternal life,” then, is the life of God’s kingdom age.

God’s kingdom age has already broken into the world and, although we still await the fullness of it, we can become part of it now. Through faith in Jesus, God’s anointed King, we can receive now the life of the age to come, the life of God’s eternal kingdom reign.

So, the good news of the gospel is not primarily the announcement that Jesus is Savior, and that we can all know that we are going to heaven when we die. That is a result of the gospel. Primarily, the gospel is the announcement of the good news that the kingdom of God has come into the world, that Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, is both God and King. The good news for us personally is that we participate in God’s kingdom and the life of the coming age (which has already broken into the world) through faith in God’s Anointed King, Jesus.