Part II: Whose City? Heb 12:18-25 Rev 21:1-14 

 

Audio: https://www.daleappleby.net/media/podcastmanager/BeyndPolit.mp3

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4tpuU2cBQ

 

Introduction

 

It is much easier to argue with someone over political right and wrong than it is to wrestle against the evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realms who have been in conflict with the kingdom of God from before the foundation of the world (Eph 6:12). It is much simpler to side with the ceaseless demonic charges against humanity (Job 1:9; 2:4; Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10) than to be filled with the all-forgiving love of Christ (Luke 23:34). Ultimately, this is because no-one can confront the real depths of their fallen shame without a revelation that it has been taken away from them in Christ.

 

The Depths of Fallen Pride and Shame

 

When humans sinned in Eden their whole being turned inwards on themselves (incurvitas in se cf. Rom 7:1, 18-19) so that they became radically aware of the depths of their loss of dignity and worth. When Eve listened to Satan and Adam listened to Eve humanity abandoned the truth that God alone has authority to tell us what we are worth and handed power to demons and other sinner to incite in us guilt and shame.

 

This total disaster exposed the conscience to the accusations of parents, teachers, peers, pastors, tribes and societies that lay blame and shame on people. The magnitude of fallen guilt and dishonour reflects our denying God his place. The Word of the Lord calls us to step out of comparing ourselves with ourselves and with others (2 Cor 10:12) and to accept that God compares us only with himself. Compares us with himself exclusively as he has been revealed in Jesus, whose dignity and worth are that he is that he is “God with/for us” (Matt 1:23). We were never designed to submit to the tyranny of the moral labels of mere mortals and the strategies of the heart designed to deflect fallen guilt and shame (Prov 4:23).

 

Self-manufactured pride is an idolatrous attempt to annihilate its opposite emotion, shame. But since shame is ultimately a sense of the loss of the glory of God all efforts at priding ourselves are futile. Let me use a single but notable example. Many Indigenous Australians glory in the fact that they are the oldest culture on earth. Much better that they should glory in the truth that the Lord providentially gave them laws and skills to preserve them across the millennia (cf. Acts 17:26-27) until the coming of the revelation for which we were all created, the gospel of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). God’s eternal plan is that all human pride should find its origin and centre in the Incarnate humanity of Jesus, God’s  Son (Col 1:16) the Father’s eternal pride and joy (Luke 3:22 cf. Prov 8:22-31).

 

If the depths of shame drove Adam and Eve to cover up with fig leaves, with the development of technologies Cain and his descendants try to cloak their shame with cities. Cities with ballads sung of them, cities famous for fashion, who hasn’t seen a T shirt with London Paris New York on it, cities with great concert halls, sports stadia and stock exchanges. Civilisation exists around two poles, the valid one is that it is an expression of the creativity of the image of God, the invalid one is that it is an exercise in self-justifying righteousness. Remember Nebuchadnezzar walking on the room of his palace saying to himself, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan 4:30) Every Babylonian city, from the original to Rome (Rev 18) to Washington or Beijing or Perth will fall under the judgement of God.  This is the shame of all the cities of this world, a shame no human conscience can face apart from a revelation of the power of the blood of the cross.

 

Cities Built from Shed Blood

 

The shedding of blood gives perspective, for in scripture it stands for the image and likeness of God terminated violently and unjustly.  The blood of “Abel” slaughtered because his righteousness was superior to that of Cain (1 John 3:12) cries out for vengeance (Gen 4:10). The shedding of “innocent blood” (Deut 19:10; 21:8; 2 Ki 24:4; Ps 106:38 etc.) shouts to heaven raising the issue of righteousness before the throne of God demanding a settlement. The Lord said to Noah, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning…From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Gen 9:5-6). Unjust killing is the extermination of a unique expression of the image of God. The only possible covering over/ atonement for murder is life for life blood for blood.

 

History is an endless trail of the shedding of blood. I will only point out a few notable examples. For all his popularity with liberal Christianity Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of the killing of the unborn, “The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this emerging human being has been deliberately deprived of his/her life…this is nothing but murder.”  The “frontier wars” or massacres shed the innocent blood of Indigenous men, women and children on the ground across this nation. Their blood cries out to God in heaven for vengeance so that divine wrath cannot be turned away by acts of social righteousness, like caring for minorities and the poor, and certainly not by pretence or denial.

 

If the blood of the first brother slain cries out for vengeance the blood of the Older brother of humanity (Heb 2:11-13), Jesus, cries for mercy upon us all (Luke 23:34) and is heard by the heavenly Father (John 11:41-42). The power of the shed blood of Christ is of great importance for salvation. In the New Testament the “blood” of Christ is mentioned three times more frequently than the “death” of Christ and Paul can speak of “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). The power of the shed blood of the Son of God has infinite ability to cleanse from sin and cover over shame. The blood was always central to the plan of God for a world which would Fall. Peter extols “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Pet 1:19-21 Cf. 1:2 Rev 13:8).

 

God’s high moral ground in creating is found at the foot of the cross. When we see the crucified Lord (1 Cor 2:8) immersed in our sin and shame (2 Cor 5:21) crying out in anguish as if  his Father’s face was hidden from him (Mark 1:34), the ultimate act of shaming by God (Isa 59:1-2; Heb 12:2), we see Christ’s identification with the demeaned sinner who cannot lift his head up towards heaven (Luke 18:13) and with the billions of prodigals whose whole being makes them feel unworthy to be called a “son” of God (Luke 15:19, 21).

 

The blood of Christ cried out from the ground to his Father for the reward of resurrection and glorification, which were granted, not just for himself, but for all for whom he died. His triumphant blood sprinkled on guilty hearts (Heb 10:22; 1 Pet 1:2) imparts to renewed consciences the value of the life of Christ. The power of the blood testifies that all the depths of our guilt and shame before God have been taken from us and we share in the honour and righteousness of Christ himself.

 

Shameless Alien Righteousness

 

If the desire to be righteous in our own eyes and the eyes of any in-group drives the cultural conflicts of our time, this dynamic is totally undermined by the righteousness that is a gift of grace in Christ. Luther called this righteousness in the presence of God an “alien righteousness”, something we receive through faith that belongs to someone else, Jesus. God honours us in a way that puts the world to shame without us having to do anything to attain it.  

 

“God chose what is foolish in the world to in order to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Cor 1:27-30) 

 

The dignity of the alien righteousness we enjoy in Christ frees us from having to be right, to win an argument or appear liberated, successful or anything else in this world. The power of this righteousness-making of grace comes out in this quote by Karl Barth; “How can ‘honour’ be denied to even the most miserable of men when the glory of God himself was the honour of this man nailed in supreme wretchedness on the cross.”  Fallenness has lost its power to degrade. Those who believe in Jesus “do not come into judgement but pass from death into life” (John 5:24). Salvation means saying “Amen” to the “Amen” which Jesus said to the Father’s decree on our sin by taking it upon himself on the cross and taking it away (Heb 10:11-14), and accepting the “Amen” the Father said to the Son by raising him from death (Rom 1:4). The Final Judgement holds no terrors. Let me share a couple of divine encounters to testify how real this is.

 

The first happened some years ago at Uluru at night. Sensing I was surrounded by demonic presences and aware of a history of curses at the Rock, including the prayers of confused Christians, I was led by the Spirit to proclaim repeatedly to the spiritual world, “Judgement has been taken away.” This was a gospel proclamation that no evil power has any authority over Australia or the Church. Another experience of the taking away of the pollution of sin was much more personal.

 

I related a traumatic church experience to an Orthodox priest some years ago. As he prayed for me it was like I was immediately transported back to when Jesus was walking with the cross to Calvary: people were shouting at him, except I could hear the shouts and accusations he was taking were actually those which had traumatised me. This was an amazing healing experience through which I knew Jesus took away the power of accusations hurled at me. This applies to us all. If the atonement is complete and its purpose was to prepare for us a city, “whose designer and builder is God.” (Heb 11:10) why are Christians distracted from such great things?   

 

Failed eschatology

 

The deception that embroils the mass of Western Christianity in corrupted forms of godliness intoxicated with material prosperity (2 Tim 3:1-5) comes from denying the revelation of the mystery that shed blood releases eternal glory. Think of all the slaughtered prophets, starting with Abel (Luke 11:49-51), think of the martyrdom of Stephen as a key to the mission to the Gentiles (Acts 8:1-4; 11:20,) think of the blood of the Lamb himself (Rev 5:6). Currents in Western theology have failed to understand that tribulation opens up apocalyptic revelation. Through shedding his blood Jesus enters glory (Luke 24:26), as he is dying Stephen sees the Lord of heaven (Acts 7:54ff), exiled on Patmos John received the visions of Revelation (Rev 1:9). The theology that teaches the Church will be “raptured” out of the world before some final “great tribulation” denies the mystery of redemptive suffering in Christ (Col 1:24). Not living with minds “on things above…hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:2-3) hordes of believers have turned to the “real” power of politics rather than the kingdom of Christ and God as the only ultimate hope of the world (Rev 11:15). A wisdom that is “jealous, selfish, demonic” has invaded the Church (James 3:14, 16). We are embarrassed to admit that crucified love shames not only the dynamics of a fallen world but the pragmatic wisdom of dominant Western Christianity. What do we need to see to turn from the vanity of immersion in the political-social sphere to revealing the life of the city of God now (Eph 3:10)?

 

The City of Glory Faith Response

 

According to Revelation, “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” is “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,11 having the glory of God” (Rev 21:9-11).  We, the Church, are the eternal city of God resplendent with Bridal glory (cf. Eph 5:2-27). Already in every city of fallen man there is being built from heaven the beautiful eternal city of God (Gal 4:26). Already believers are the “kings of the earth” bringing the glory of lives lived for Christ into this holy city (cf. Rev 21:24), I see a scene of countless living creatures, far more than those of this world (Heb 12:22; Rev 5:11 cf. Ps 104) thronged around the throne of the Lamb, I see the followers of Jesus “shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:43 cf. Dan 12:3) fully reflecting the radiance of Christ (Heb 1:3; Rev 1:16) and filling the universe with the rainbow colours of divine wisdom (Eph 3:10). What is politics compared to this!

 

Conclusion

 

When we understand our place in the plan of God from the End of all things (1 Pet 4:7) we will see his workings (1 Cor 12:7). We will see that the Holy Spirit is doing a great work of exposing the superficiality of Western spirituality. But we can never see in the Spirit (Rev 1:10) until we live as the people of faith, as “tent dwellers” “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Heb 11:9-10). Such a massive shift in the lifestyle priorities will only come when the power of the gospel does its true work of stripping us of all guilt shame (Rom 1:16). Then, disregarding how others might see us we will live in the honour of possessing a “citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20). May such things come quickly. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part II: Whose City? Heb 12:18-25 Rev 21:1-14 

Audio: https://www.daleappleby.net/media/podcastmanager/BeyndPolit.mp3

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4tpuU2cBQ

Introduction

It is much easier to argue with someone over political right and wrong than it is to wrestle against the evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realms who have been in conflict with the kingdom of God from before the foundation of the world (Eph 6:12). It is much simpler to side with the ceaseless demonic charges against humanity (Job 1:9; 2:4; Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10) than to be filled with the all-forgiving love of Christ (Luke 23:34). Ultimately, this is because no-one can confront the real depths of their fallen shame without a revelation that it has been taken away from them in Christ.

The Depths of Fallen Pride and Shame

When humans sinned in Eden their whole being turned inwards on themselves (incurvitas in se cf. Rom 7:1, 18-19) so that they became radically aware of the depths of their loss of dignity and worth. When Eve listened to Satan and Adam listened to Eve humanity abandoned the truth that God alone has authority to tell us what we are worth and handed power to demons and other sinner to incite in us guilt and shame.

This total disaster exposed the conscience to the accusations of parents, teachers, peers, pastors, tribes and societies that lay blame and shame on people. The magnitude of fallen guilt and dishonour reflects our denying God his place. The Word of the Lord calls us to step out of comparing ourselves with ourselves and with others (2 Cor 10:12) and to accept that God compares us only with himself. Compares us with himself exclusively as he has been revealed in Jesus, whose dignity and worth are that he is that he is “God with/for us” (Matt 1:23). We were never designed to submit to the tyranny of the moral labels of mere mortals and the strategies of the heart designed to deflect fallen guilt and shame (Prov 4:23).

Self-manufactured pride is an idolatrous attempt to annihilate its opposite emotion, shame. But since shame is ultimately a sense of the loss of the glory of God all efforts at priding ourselves are futile. Let me use a single but notable example. Many Indigenous Australians glory in the fact that they are the oldest culture on earth. Much better that they should glory in the truth that the Lord providentially gave them laws and skills to preserve them across the millennia (cf. Acts 17:26-27) until the coming of the revelation for which we were all created, the gospel of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). God’s eternal plan is that all human pride should find its origin and centre in the Incarnate humanity of Jesus, God’s  Son (Col 1:16) the Father’s eternal pride and joy (Luke 3:22 cf. Prov 8:22-31).

If the depths of shame drove Adam and Eve to cover up with fig leaves, with the development of technologies Cain and his descendants try to cloak their shame with cities. Cities with ballads sung of them, cities famous for fashion, who hasn’t seen a T shirt with London Paris New York on it, cities with great concert halls, sports stadia and stock exchanges. Civilisation exists around two poles, the valid one is that it is an expression of the creativity of the image of God, the invalid one is that it is an exercise in self-justifying righteousness. Remember Nebuchadnezzar walking on the room of his palace saying to himself, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan 4:30) Every Babylonian city, from the original to Rome (Rev 18) to Washington or Beijing or Perth will fall under the judgement of God.  This is the shame of all the cities of this world, a shame no human conscience can face apart from a revelation of the power of the blood of the cross.

Cities Built from Shed Blood

The shedding of blood gives perspective, for in scripture it stands for the image and likeness of God terminated violently and unjustly.  The blood of “Abel” slaughtered because his righteousness was superior to that of Cain (1 John 3:12) cries out for vengeance (Gen 4:10). The shedding of “innocent blood” (Deut 19:10; 21:8; 2 Ki 24:4; Ps 106:38 etc.) shouts to heaven raising the issue of righteousness before the throne of God demanding a settlement. The Lord said to Noah, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning…From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Gen 9:5-6). Unjust killing is the extermination of a unique expression of the image of God. The only possible covering over/ atonement for murder is life for life blood for blood.

History is an endless trail of the shedding of blood. I will only point out a few notable examples. For all his popularity with liberal Christianity Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of the killing of the unborn, “The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this emerging human being has been deliberately deprived of his/her life…this is nothing but murder.”  The “frontier wars” or massacres shed the innocent blood of Indigenous men, women and children on the ground across this nation. Their blood cries out to God in heaven for vengeance so that divine wrath cannot be turned away by acts of social righteousness, like caring for minorities and the poor, and certainly not by pretence or denial.

If the blood of the first brother slain cries out for vengeance the blood of the Older brother of humanity (Heb 2:11-13), Jesus, cries for mercy upon us all (Luke 23:34) and is heard by the heavenly Father (John 11:41-42). The power of the shed blood of Christ is of great importance for salvation. In the New Testament the “blood” of Christ is mentioned three times more frequently than the “death” of Christ and Paul can speak of “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). The power of the shed blood of the Son of God has infinite ability to cleanse from sin and cover over shame. The blood was always central to the plan of God for a world which would Fall. Peter extols “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Pet 1:19-21 Cf. 1:2 Rev 13:8).

God’s high moral ground in creating is found at the foot of the cross. When we see the crucified Lord (1 Cor 2:8) immersed in our sin and shame (2 Cor 5:21) crying out in anguish as if  his Father’s face was hidden from him (Mark 1:34), the ultimate act of shaming by God (Isa 59:1-2; Heb 12:2), we see Christ’s identification with the demeaned sinner who cannot lift his head up towards heaven (Luke 18:13) and with the billions of prodigals whose whole being makes them feel unworthy to be called a “son” of God (Luke 15:19, 21).

The blood of Christ cried out from the ground to his Father for the reward of resurrection and glorification, which were granted, not just for himself, but for all for whom he died. His triumphant blood sprinkled on guilty hearts (Heb 10:22; 1 Pet 1:2) imparts to renewed consciences the value of the life of Christ. The power of the blood testifies that all the depths of our guilt and shame before God have been taken from us and we share in the honour and righteousness of Christ himself.

Shameless Alien Righteousness

If the desire to be righteous in our own eyes and the eyes of any in-group drives the cultural conflicts of our time, this dynamic is totally undermined by the righteousness that is a gift of grace in Christ. Luther called this righteousness in the presence of God an “alien righteousness”, something we receive through faith that belongs to someone else, Jesus. God honours us in a way that puts the world to shame without us having to do anything to attain it.  

“God chose what is foolish in the world to in order to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Cor 1:27-30) 

The dignity of the alien righteousness we enjoy in Christ frees us from having to be right, to win an argument or appear liberated, successful or anything else in this world. The power of this righteousness-making of grace comes out in this quote by Karl Barth; “How can ‘honour’ be denied to even the most miserable of men when the glory of God himself was the honour of this man nailed in supreme wretchedness on the cross.”  Fallenness has lost its power to degrade. Those who believe in Jesus “do not come into judgement but pass from death into life” (John 5:24). Salvation means saying “Amen” to the “Amen” which Jesus said to the Father’s decree on our sin by taking it upon himself on the cross and taking it away (Heb 10:11-14), and accepting the “Amen” the Father said to the Son by raising him from death (Rom 1:4). The Final Judgement holds no terrors. Let me share a couple of divine encounters to testify how real this is.

The first happened some years ago at Uluru at night. Sensing I was surrounded by demonic presences and aware of a history of curses at the Rock, including the prayers of confused Christians, I was led by the Spirit to proclaim repeatedly to the spiritual world, “Judgement has been taken away.” This was a gospel proclamation that no evil power has any authority over Australia or the Church. Another experience of the taking away of the pollution of sin was much more personal.

I related a traumatic church experience to an Orthodox priest some years ago. As he prayed for me it was like I was immediately transported back to when Jesus was walking with the cross to Calvary: people were shouting at him, except I could hear the shouts and accusations he was taking were actually those which had traumatised me. This was an amazing healing experience through which I knew Jesus took away the power of accusations hurled at me. This applies to us all. If the atonement is complete and its purpose was to prepare for us a city, “whose designer and builder is God.” (Heb 11:10) why are Christians distracted from such great things?   

Failed eschatology

The deception that embroils the mass of Western Christianity in corrupted forms of godliness intoxicated with material prosperity (2 Tim 3:1-5) comes from denying the revelation of the mystery that shed blood releases eternal glory. Think of all the slaughtered prophets, starting with Abel (Luke 11:49-51), think of the martyrdom of Stephen as a key to the mission to the Gentiles (Acts 8:1-4; 11:20,) think of the blood of the Lamb himself (Rev 5:6). Currents in Western theology have failed to understand that tribulation opens up apocalyptic revelation. Through shedding his blood Jesus enters glory (Luke 24:26), as he is dying Stephen sees the Lord of heaven (Acts 7:54ff), exiled on Patmos John received the visions of Revelation (Rev 1:9). The theology that teaches the Church will be “raptured” out of the world before some final “great tribulation” denies the mystery of redemptive suffering in Christ (Col 1:24). Not living with minds “on things above…hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:2-3) hordes of believers have turned to the “real” power of politics rather than the kingdom of Christ and God as the only ultimate hope of the world (Rev 11:15). A wisdom that is “jealous, selfish, demonic” has invaded the Church (James 3:14, 16). We are embarrassed to admit that crucified love shames not only the dynamics of a fallen world but the pragmatic wisdom of dominant Western Christianity. What do we need to see to turn from the vanity of immersion in the political-social sphere to revealing the life of the city of God now (Eph 3:10)?

The City of Glory Faith Response

According to Revelation, “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” is “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,11 having the glory of God” (Rev 21:9-11).  We, the Church, are the eternal city of God resplendent with Bridal glory (cf. Eph 5:2-27). Already in every city of fallen man there is being built from heaven the beautiful eternal city of God (Gal 4:26). Already believers are the “kings of the earth” bringing the glory of lives lived for Christ into this holy city (cf. Rev 21:24), I see a scene of countless living creatures, far more than those of this world (Heb 12:22; Rev 5:11 cf. Ps 104) thronged around the throne of the Lamb, I see the followers of Jesus “shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:43 cf. Dan 12:3) fully reflecting the radiance of Christ (Heb 1:3; Rev 1:16) and filling the universe with the rainbow colours of divine wisdom (Eph 3:10). What is politics compared to this!

Conclusion

When we understand our place in the plan of God from the End of all things (1 Pet 4:7) we will see his workings (1 Cor 12:7). We will see that the Holy Spirit is doing a great work of exposing the superficiality of Western spirituality. But we can never see in the Spirit (Rev 1:10) until we live as the people of faith, as “tent dwellers” “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Heb 11:9-10). Such a massive shift in the lifestyle priorities will only come when the power of the gospel does its true work of stripping us of all guilt shame (Rom 1:16). Then, disregarding how others might see us we will live in the honour of possessing a “citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20). May such things come quickly. Amen.