With this new perspective of the Kingdom of God, let us look at the negative aspects of the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20.
In the first commandment is set forth a call to say a strong negative towards wanting to be in the place of God. This is the key to the whole thing: wanting to be in the center of the universe. We are, by choice, to die to this.
The rest of the commandments show the same thing, as we have them set out in Exodus chapter 20. We are, by choice, to die to the time God has kept for himself, his special day. We are to say a strong negative towards grasping any authority that is not properly our own. We are, by choice, to say "no" to personally taking human life. We are to reject the concept of taking any sexual things which are not rightfully ours. And we are to say "no" to marring by false accusation reputations that are not ours.
The last commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," shows that these negatives are not related just to outward behavior, but to inward attitudes. Here is our death, in reality. But when is that death to be died? Certainly not after such a long delay that our physical bodies have lost their desire and zest for things. We are to say "no," by choice-to die to self-at the point when we are in the midst of a living, moving life which could want the things and find enjoyment in them. This "death" is not to be pushed out or pushed back, nor is it to be related only to the moment of physical death. We can indeed say that we shall be perfect when Jesus comes, when he raises us from the dead, but that is not the point at issue here. Here, in the midst of life, where there is battle and strife, there is to be a strong negative, by choice, and by the grace of God. It is not, for example, a matter of waiting until we no longer have strong sexual desires, but rather that in the midst of the moving of life, surrounded by a world that grabs everything in rebellion first against God and then against its fellow men, we are to understand what Jesus means when he talks about denying ourselves and renouncing ourselves in regard to that which is not rightfully ours.
There will be some pain here. Indeed, there are splinters in the Christian's cross as we are surrounded in this present life by an atmosphere alien to the Kingdom of God. But this is the way of the cross: "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised up the third day" (Luke 9:22). We can see how the order of events has meaning for us as Christians after justification: rejected, slain, raised. Here the reference is to rejection specifically by the religious leaders of his day-men who had taken the world's way instead of God's. But at heart it is rejection by the world itself, and this rejection must precede any possibility of knowing anything about the risen life.
We see further that this rejection is not a once-for-all thing. Christ called his followers to take up the cross daily. True, we accept Christ as Savior once for all; we are justified and our guilt is gone forever. But after that there is this daily, moment-by-moment-aspect. The existentialist is right when he pats his emphasis on the reality of the moment-by-moment situation. He is wrong in many things, but he is right here.
In Luke 14:27 Jesus says a similar thing: "And whosoever cloth not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." He is not saying that a man cannot be saved without this, but that you are not Christ's disciple, in the sense of following him, if this is not your way of life: rejected and slaindaily! And he puts the command not in an abstract but in an intensely practical setting, in verse 26 relating it to his followers' fathers, mothers, wives, children, brothers, sisters, and their own lives. He sets it among the realities of daily life. This is where we must die.
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish" (Luke 14:28-30). This is a unit with what has gone before, a unit tied together by Jesus himself. "Count the cost," he says. And surely, in our preaching to lost man, we must emphasize the fact that part of being a Christian is the element of bearing one's cross daily. We are in an alien world built upon man's rebellion against God, and in this life the Christian himself is not yet totally free from elements of this rebellion within himself.
As I have said, Romans chapter 6 begins with many strong negatives, and though we may want to rush on to the second half of verse 4 ("As Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we may walk in newness of life"), actually we are in peril if we ignore the element of "dying." "Buried with him in baptism," "dead to sin," "baptized into his death": the way into the freedom of the second part of verse 4 is through these, not around them. The order is absolute: rejected, slain, raised. It is the same in verse 6 of the same chapter. We must walk through the first half ("Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him") before we can get on to the second half: "That the body of sin might be made powerless, that henceforth we should not serve sin." I think I perceive that most Christians even read the first half of these verses faster, in order to get to the second "happy" part of the verses, but this is a mistake. We love to skip along, but one does not get on the other side of a door without going through it, and we do not get to the joyous second part of these verses without passing through the first part.
This is, first of all, true absolutely and once for all at justification, but then it is true moment by moment in practice in the Christian life. Let us not be confused here. The moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior we were justified and our guilt was gone once for all. That is absolute. But if we want to know anything of reality in the Christian life, anything of true spirituality, we must" take up our cross daily." The principle of saying "no" to self lies at the heart of my attitude toward the world as it maintains its alien stand in rebellion against the Creator. If I use my intellectual capacities to make myself respectable to the world, as it is in revolution against the one who created it, then I have failed. It is equally true if I use my ignorance for the same purpose. I am to face the cross of Christ in every part of life and with my whole man. The cross of Christ is to be a reality to me not only once for all at my conversion, but all through my life as a Christian. True spirituality does not stop at the negative, but without the negative-in comprehension and practice-we are not ready to go on.
Through Death
to Resurrection 3
If this book were being set to music, this would be the moment for trumpets. We have been considering the importance of giving due weight to the negatives of the Christian life, "rejected, slain." But now we turn to the positive without which the other two can never represent a true, balanced spirituality: "raised." "Therefore we were buried with him in baptism unto death, in order that, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we may walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). After the death to self, after the rejection of self, there is and there continues to be a resurrection.
The transfiguration of Christ expresses all this vividly. It was a pre-figuration of Christ's resurrection, a time of glory. "As he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and dazzling" (Luke 9:29), or, as Matthew records it, "His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."
Now let me emphasize: these things happened in history. This is important, especially today, when religious things are constantly being pushed away into a nonhistoric realm of an "other." But here in the account of the transfiguration, we have an emphasis on time and space. Luke, for example, records that "on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met them" (9:37). Christ and the disciples at a certain point in time went up the mountain, and at another point came down. As they went up the hillside, they did not move into a nonspatial p
hilosophical or religious "other." They were still connected in space with the foot of the mountain, and down there in the plain the normal activities of life were going on.
The same thing is true in the realm of time. Had they been wearing watches, the watches would not have stopped as they ascended the mountain and restarted as they came down again. Time was still going on, and when they came down time had passed-it was the "next day." History is made up of time and space: it is its web and woof. And here on the Mount of Transfiguration true history took place, rooted in normal space and normal time. The glorification of Jesus was not in the world of the philosophical "other" or "upper-story," but in the hard realities of space and time, and the transfiguration demonstrates the hard reality of the words Jesus himself spoke as they came down from the hill: "The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day." There it is: rejected, slain, raised in history.
When we come to the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion we find the same emphasis. He asked the disciples whom he met on the Emmaus road, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26). He asked the question on a certain day in the calendar, at a certain hour of the day, on a certain road on the map, rooting the event in space-time history. And he did this with all of his resurrection appearances. He "stood in the midst of them," in their normal everyday life. In their fear they tried to push him off into another realm "They were frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit"-but Jesus would not allow this. "Behold my hands and my feet, handle me and see that it is I myself, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). And then he took a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb, and "did eat before them," and he showed them his wounds, the marks of his death.
It was the same body, raised and glorified; not in some far off place, but there in space, time, and history.
In John 20 there is the same kind of an emphasis; it is not just an incidental repetition, but the center of the whole thing.
"And the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you" (John 20:19).
Christ's body is changed, he can suddenly come through the locked doors; but that does not make any difference in that of which we are speaking. While it is true that he can come through the locked door, it is still the same body.
"But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. He said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again" (that is, a full week) "his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God" (John 20:24-28).
Let us notice that it is the same body. The locked doors do not shut him out; he can appear in the midst, but that makes no difference. It is a body that can be touched and handled. In John 21:9 the emphasis is upon the eating: "As soon then as they were come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread."
Here we have the body of Jesus Christ in an external spacetime world. The reality of the resurrection is not something to push off into a strange dimension. It is meaningful in our normal dimension.
"To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible [space-time] proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).
For forty days-not just a wisp, as it were-but for forty days, infallible proof was given.
Neither let us draw back from the great act of the ascension: "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9). This is the thing which, above every other, modern man cannot accept. The neoorthodox theologian may speak of a physical resurrection at times, but he will never speak of a physical ascension. When you come to material like John Robinson's book Honest to God, this is the place where the battle is pitched. And it is the proper place to pitch it, because here is a resurrected body that can eat, that can go up into heaven, and disappear into the cloud. We must remember at this point that Christ has been appearing and disappearing for forty days. The supernatural is not in one direction, as it were; he is here-he was here, rather-and then appeared again. Now something else is given to us that is real; again there is an emphasis on history, that the resurrected body of Jesus Christ did ascend into the clouds. It was at an hour of the day, on a day of the calendar. There was a moment when his feet left the Mount of Olives. Let us not draw back from this point. People who think that they can draw back from the physical ascension of Jesus, and still maintain Christianity, cannot be consistent in the rest of their position.
However, the space-timeness does not end there. Later in the book of Acts (9:3-9) we have Christ meeting Paul: "And as he journeyed," (that is, Saul-later Paul) "he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth." Notice here the connection with what we have already seen in the descriptive phrases that are connected with the Mount of Transfiguration: "Light shone round about him, and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul rose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus."
He had been made blind by the glory-light. Where? On the road to Damascus. So definitely is the space-situation fixed. And the time could be told. There was an hour of the day when this took place.
The same thing is repeated in Acts 22:6. "And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon," (there is a space-element, the road to Damascus; there is a time-element, very close to noon) "suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me." And the 11th verse: "And when I could not see for the glory of that light," (that is why he was blinded: it was not just some mystical thing, but the sheer glory of the light which made him blind for a time) "being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus."
In chapter 26 the story is repeated again, with a very significant addition: "At midday, 0 king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun" (verse 13). Here is the first addition: it was at midday, nevertheless at the brightest hour of the Near Eastern sun, here was a brighter light, a light of the glorified Christ, "shining round about me and them which journeyed with me." "And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue . . . " (verse 14).
This is one of the most significant things in the Word of God in the midst of twentieth century discussion. Here is a declaration that you have space, time, history, and rational communication. The rational communication comes not through some mystical experience of Paul, but in the midst of space and time, the glorified Christ, the raised Christ, spoke to him in terms of the Hebrew language. At noon, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared-the glorified Christ in history-speaking in a normal language, using normal words and normal grammar, to a man named Saul. With this, there is a complete denial of the twentieth century projection of th
ese things into a religiously "other" world. Here we are in the realm of space, time, history, normal communication, and normal language.
But again it does not stop here. Later, many years later, there was another man, named John. He was on the isle of Patmos. And the first chapter of the book of Revelation tells us that he sees Jesus again. And by "again," I mean, after Paul had seen him. I am not saying this is the only other appearance-for example, Stephen also saw him-but here are two clear steps some time after the ascension. After the ascension, the glorified Christ was seen in space and in time on the Damascus road, by Saul. After the ascension, the glorified Christ was seen on the isle of Patmos-again, a spatial identification. The isle of Patmos is still there. Actually, there is not only a spatial identification: there is time, too. It was the Lord's day.
"And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the chest with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:12-14).
John is describing here what he actually saw. This is not strange, or incongruous, any more than it was when, after his resurrection, Christ's eating was spoken of in normal terms.
"And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am the living one that became dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the keys of death and Hades" (Revelation 1:15-18).
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