The Power of the Wounds of the Lord
“I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17); “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” (Col 1:24-26); “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor 4:10-12)
Background
As testified to in the above scriptures, Paul understood that suffering for Jesus was an essential mark of the apostolic vocation to grow and mature the Church. But where are the visible signs of such a call today? I was out praying in the darkness on the evening of 28th April, for next day was the WA Elders Round Table meeting, scheduled by Paul Botha. I sensed the Lord speaking about completing his wounding for our sorry state. This is precisely what I said in the meeting, that the wounds of Christ were not yet complete in the city. What does this mean in a situation that is crying out for godly leaders to guide a movement in renewal and revival? Until the Lord completes his raising up such folk we are doomed to continuing mediocrity.
Jesus
From near the beginning of creation God’s heart has been “filled with pain” (Gen 6:6), a wound that would lead him to become “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3-4). The cry of forsakenness from the cross (Mark 15:34) has a depth of wounding that cannot be questioned. It is the cry of a wounded heart. This testimony remains visible in the preservation of the scars on the glorified body of Jesus (Luke 24:40; John 20:27). Any ordinary view of God and the perfecting of his work would never allow this, but we must never forget that in his Son our God has been “made perfect” (Heb 5:9). Whilst God the Father is essentially/eternally perfect (Deut 32:4; 2 Sam 22:31; Matt 5:48), our stubborn consciences (Jer 17:9) will never allow us to believe this until we see his weakness for our sake. Humanity always needed God with a suffering human face in order to believe with its heart (Acts 2:37). Only the weak humanity of Christ can magnify God for us. Humanity’s self-manufactured gods must always be strong and victorious lest they betray their earthiness. In times of great suffering such truths can shine forth. Words of beauty only come forth in a world of vast pain (WWI). The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak; They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone. (Jesus of the Scars by Edward Shillito 1917)
Deceived
The regular judgement of the Western Church, as it looks to the revivals of the past, and the accelerated growth of the kingdom of God in the Third World, is that we are too weak, whereas the Spirit is saying that we are too strong. This was a lesson taught by Jesus to Paul through his thorn in the flesh, “a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor 12:7-9). Cf. “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” (2 Cor 11:29). The afflicted and imprisoned apostle testifies that “according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Phil 1:20). We need saints who know how to be weak before the Lord. This is a call to embrace a more mystical spirituality.
Mystical Way
If the “wounds of a friend” are “faithful” (Prov 27:6), we must accept that wounding is an essential ingredient of “the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.” (Job 5:18). Mystics are an ongoing gift to the Church who willingly accept such suffering from God. England’s most famous mystic, Julian of Norwich (1342-c.1416) tells us that during a period of serious illness, “I conceived a mighty desire to receive three wounds in my life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wound of steadfast longing toward God. And all this last petition I asked without any condition.” It is true that as Tozer says, “all great Christians have been wounded souls.” The individual wounded by God lives with the humility of the defeat of Adam inside them, and so in contrition bewails their sin before the Lord in genuine heartfelt repentance. If compassion is emotional identification, Christ once having suffered to save us (1 Pet 3:18), now suffers to win us. Such identificational confession is always for the sin of others (Ezra 9:6ff., Dan 9:3ff.). The final wound, “longing for God”, is a state of divine lovesickness that can never be satisfied. It consists of having found God and always seeking him more deeply. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps 42:2). Echoing the words of poet F.W. Faber, Tozer said, “Almost every day of my life I am praying that ‘a jubilant pining and ongoing for God might come back on the…churches.” An “always finding and always seeking, always having and always desiring.” This rare depth of desire is beautiful, pure and holy, but such authentic spirituality is fiercely contested.
The Counterfeited Wound
Again and again through the ages the devil makes a comeback. This is clearly the present condition of Western culture. Seeing the power and authority of the victorious wounds of Christ in his people (Rev 12:11), Satan works strategically to counterfeit such authority. This is the meaning of the now healed “mortal wound” of the beast whose “resurrection” so deceives the nations (Rev 13:3, 12). This is not a voluntary wounding of the heart, for his inner nature isn’t revealed in his pain, but only in outward power. Unlike Christ, he does not suffer for others under the authority of the Father (John 10:15, 18). Unlike Christ (Rev 1:18), his resurrection lacks all final power over death. Raw power may intoxicate, but only in this world, for Jesus takes us to another world where he is the unchallenged Lord (John 8:23; Rev 19:19-21).
Conclusion
The Church as we know it suffers from a dreadful “mixture” of flesh and Spirit. Praise God Christ’s wounds still cry out to his Father for mercy on all people and “compel” a mystical-apostolic testimony from us to do the same (2 Cor 5:14). This is the sort of fathering/mothering so desperately need in today’s Church. When it appears on the crest of a wave of suffering and struggle the renewal/revival we have long prayed for Perth shall appear.