Prophets and the Glory of God Rom 1:16-25; 1 Cor 15:35-49
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOhddn-hsRM
Introduction
Over the last 4 weeks we have been discussing how prophets are constrained to prophesy by their discernment of God’s, “plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in (Christ) him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph 1:10). This Plan is fiercely opposed by evil powers and their use of idols. This was to be the subject matter of tonight’s teaching, but I decided to reshape it to the more foundational issue of Prophets and the Glory of God. The “glory of God” is usually described as the manifestation (Ex 16:10; Num 14:22; Isa 40:5) of the divine nature. But from a more Christ-centred perspective the glory of the Lord it what the Lamb of God knew of the Father in the power of the Spirit from the foundation of the world (John 17:5; 1 Pet 1:20; Rev 13:8). Understood like this, the glory of God meant everything to Jesus. The prophetic task is to contend/fight for the glory of God in all things like Jesus did(Rom 11:36). A passion to return to the Lord his proper glory (soli deo gloria) (Eph 3:20-21) has been the springboard for every transformational movement in Christian history.
Creation
Whilst God’s glory is eternal, a reasonable starting point for teaching on the conflict over glory is creation. Whilst Psalm 19 declares, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (v.1), it’s humans who are the concentration point of divine glory (1 Cor 11:7) in the world. The Lord declares in Isaiah (43:6-7), “bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” The shining magnificence of God is seen pre-eminently in his sons and daughters. As human beings we “live and move and have our being” as “offspring” (Acts 17:28) of the glorious Creator. The ultimate worth of humanity means becoming just like Jesus in whom the fulness of God’s glory shines forever (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18; 4:4; Heb 1:3). The prophetic S/spirit is restless until the presence of Christ is “preeminent in all things” (Col 1:16, 18). E.g. JY commitment to “market/workplace ministry”; not just church life but all of life and culture. This obviously isn’t the case today.
Temptation Eden and Beyond
When Paul says that lost humanity, “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Rom 1:23) he expounds something that began with the temptation in Genesis 3. From God’s perspective, the test in Eden is an integral part of God’s great plan for his glory in us.
To understand the Lord’s wisdom in allowing the snake/Satan (Rev 12:9) to tempt Eve we need to read the Genesis story through the lens of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness (cf. Rev 13:8). Satan offers Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” “if you…worship me” (Luke 4:5-6). By refusing to submit to temptation Jesus he leaves the desert empowered by the Spirit (Luke 4:14) to exercise God’s dominion over every evil force. If Eve and Adam had resisted the temptation to “be like God knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5) they would have grown immeasurably in spiritual strength as faithful true children of God in the likeness and glory of the Son of God and successfully exercised the dominion over the world as they were originally commanded (Gen 1:26-28). There are hints in scripture of the destiny of the first couple if they had refused to sin.
The glorious future God planned for humanity is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 15; “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;5 the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (44-45). Adam’s created body prophetically anticipated (Rom 5:14) the Spirit-filled body of Christ’s resurrected glory unlimited by the constraints of space-time (cf. John 20:19). This sort of higher existence was always part of the Plan of God but was forfeited by the Fall. If there had been no sin we would have surpassed the glory of the heavenly beings mirroring the progress of the life of Jesus from humiliation to exaltation (Ps 8:5; Heb 2:9) at a very deep level in a way which is rarely thought about.
Since Eve and Adam were deeply attracted to the tree of knowledge, as it “was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and…to be desired to make one wise” (Gen 3:6 cf. 1 John 2:16), it would have caused pain in their hearts NOT to eat of the tree. To resist temptation would have meant a real death to natural desire and a share in the willingness of the Lamb of God to die for his Father’s glory (cf. John 12:27-33). As such it would have also meant a share of the resurrection life enjoyed by Jesus at the right hand of power. If Adam and Eve had not sinned would they still have died and what would that experience have been like? Some theologians think that they would have immediately attained to immortality when they ate from “the tree of life” (Gen 2:9; 3:22), others that death would be just like falling asleep. I think they would have shared in the victorious manner in which Jesus passed beyond this world into the peace-filled presence of God; ““Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”” (Luke 23:46).
In sinning however, they lost an opportunity to glorify God (Rom 3:23) and bought into the Satanic lie that human beings could grow apart from fellowship with God. They should have understood that disobedience to the almighty Word of the Creator of all (Gen 2:17) could only diminish their destiny as his children (Luke 3:38). They behaved as if the heavenly Father was just like the behaviour of the serpent insinuated, God was absent from the Garden, and so not all-present, ignorant of what was happening, thus not all-knowing, and powerless to stop the spread of evil, not Almighty (cf. Ps 14:1; 53:1). They wanted to be “like” this sort of “God”, a “God” of a lesser glory. Refusing the “wisdom from above” they were corrupted by “selfish ambition” and enslaved to the “wisdom from below”, “earthly, unspiritual, demonic (James 3:14-15) fallen people are stuck in the decaying limits of horizontal realm until the moment of their physical death. (Selfish ambition is what uproots every move of God, and it is something that God will always work to root out before he pours out his Spirit.). God is not frustrated, his Plan will bring to us a greater glory than we could ever have enjoyed if there had been no sin. (O felix culpa)
The Greater Glory of God
Paul proclaims, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). The hymn writer Isaac Watts testifies, “In Him (Christ) the tribes of Adam boast. More blessings than their father (Adam) lost.” (Jesus shall reign where’er the sun). Adam failed to contend/fight for the glory of God but Jesus’ whole being is motivated by a desire that the Father be magnified in his body whether by life or by death (Phil 1:20). Since “the greater the suffering the greater the glory” it is important that we believe that the temptations that assailed Jesus were more powerful than those in Eden, and which afflict us.
I think most of us find this very hard to believe, because even though we all affirm Jesus is truly God and truly human in practice we operate as if his deity swamps his humanity. Hebrews tells us that Jesus, “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). For us, temptation is something natural and everyday, but for Jesus it was a vile demonic assault seeking to cloud the beautiful vision of the glory of God. We give in to the power of temptation easily, but Jesus fought every temptation to the end. Unlike us, Christ was willing to suffer anything when tempted (Heb 2:18) for the sake of the greater glory of God. This means that the front line of the devil’s attack is Jesus identity as the Son of God.
The Gospels tell us that the devil began his assault after Jesus was empowered by the Spirit at his baptism when he heard the voice of the Father, ““You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Luke 3:22). The first word of the devil in the wilderness, “if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3) attempts to lure Jesus into defending his Sonship by performing a miracle. The same strategy comes at the cross, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross…. “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”” (Matt 27:40; Luke 23:35). If Jesus had listened to these voices and taken his eyes off the Father to the least degree he would have fallen like Adam.
What then are we to make of the greatest test of all, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). To understand the depths of this anguish cry we need to remember that Jesus was always conscious that ““all things were created through him and for him…. that in everything he might have first place” (Col 1:16). He always knew that he was entitled to all the glories of the universe. This was the core identity of Jesus in the glorious Plan of the Father (John 17:5; 24; 2 Pet 1:17 cf. Eph 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4; Heb 1:3) and it filled his consciousness with praise to God. When the disciples came back from their mission testifying of their authority over evil spirits, Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said…. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21-22). The revelation of the Father through the Son is at the centre of the saving Plan of God for the world and the source of God’s eternal pleasure.
The cry of forsakenness at the cross means that the beautiful vision of the Father is so completely clouded by our sin (2 Cor 5:21) that the Son feels he has nothing and no-one to give to God for his glory. Surely the condition of Christ crucified is that of those who “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,” (2 Thess 1:9). Bearing the wrath we deserve the “God” Christ experiences has become as small as the one insinuated by Satan in Eden, not present, not knowing, not almighty. i.e. no Father at all. To cancel out Adam’s forsaking of God Jesus must experience a spiritual death of being forsaken by God. However, unlike Adam, Jesus contends for the glory of God until the very end of his life strength. Cf. John Wesley praying for the lost on his deathbed. The cross of course is not the end of the story.
“Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” (Rom 6:4). Having triumphed over all the forces of evil Jesus has been given unlimited authority in heaven and earth (Matt 28:18) to pour out the God’s glorifying Spirit on all who call on his name (Matt 3:11; Acts 2:33). Jesus is the “Lord of glory” once foolishly crucified by “the rulers of this age” (1 Cor 2:8). A human being like us has entered into this exalted status on our behalf (Phil 2:5-11) by voluntarily abandoning his natural status in submitting to the shame of the cross (Heb 12:2). What does all this mean for the Church?
Prophets and the Protection of the Church
Since the Western churches are gripped by a sense of spiritual entitlement which have stripped them of power (2 Tim 3:5) Prophets understand that resisting temptation for the cause of the kingdom of God is the key to true spiritual power. In an age of instantaneous self-gratification, the genuine prophetic voice counsels voluntary self-deprivation for the greater glory of God. This includes, something I never understood as a young preacher, waiting for a move of the lord. Whist I have been preaching revival in Perth since 1988 I know that the Lord has delayed a breakthrough so that when it comes he might get the greater glory. Brothers and sisters, we live in very interesting times.
Conclusion
Last week I shared a sense that we were close to tipping point in relation to a great move of the Lord. What I didn’t share, because it has taken me a little while to process it, was that prior to the first Jesus Talk meeting a month ago I lapsed into semi-incoherence and virtual speechlessness, then last Sunday morning as soon as I sat down in church I heard voices in my head telling me I don’t want to be there and I don’t belong. Since these impressions came from nowhere and are in conflict with the call of God on my life they cannot be a part of the Plan of God. All such suggestions are demonic and must be resisted (James 4:7). We may be close to the tipping point of a move of God BUT the warfare is intense and it will prove too much for us unless we actively contend for the glory of God.
What I had hoped would happen after I preached last week was that many of us would openly for this i.e. the greater glory of God. That things didn’t happen that way is for the greater good, for it means that all of us who were blocked from such praying by fear of embarrassment, or some other reason, can open our hearts to the Lord and ask him to replace self-consciousness with Christ-consciousness. Self-consciousness is one of the devil’s great strategies against the prophetic witness, but whereas “The devil tempts that he may ruin, God tempts that he might crown. (St. Ambrose). The temptation to be silent when we sense the Lord would have us bring a witness must be resisted for the greater glory of God that Jesus wants to share with us. The Father is clearly saying to us that our call is to “get Jesus out there” in the power of the Spirit. This is more important than anything. Than life itself.