Matured in Glory

“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.” (Hebrews 6:1-3 ESV).

Introduction

One of the great strains on my life is dealing with Christians who never seem to have progressed beyond “the elementary doctrine of Christ,” no matter how many years they have been in Church and sometimes regardless of what positions of leadership they have held. Generally speaking such believers are not really responsible for their ignorance (Acts 3:17; 17:30; 1 Tim 1:13; Heb 5:2), they simply have never been taught with authority the “riches of (God’s) glory “in Christ” (Rom 9:23; Eph 3:16; Phil 4:19 cf. Eph 3:8). The author of Hebrews seems to have found himself in a similar situation with believers in his time; “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 ESV). This passage seems to link maturity with the ability to teach others the way of faith and a developed power of discernment; a mature person is a discipler of others.

In dealing with the matter of immaturity Hebrews follows a pattern; after teaching us about Christ as our exalted High Priest and Saviour it goes on to issue severe warnings about his readers falling away from God (2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29.). The author considers this sequence of exalted teaching about Jesus followed by solemn exhortation to be the way in which God will grow mature disciples. Paul also is very clear about this, “Him (Christ) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Col 1:28). Te lack of this pattern of promise and warning in the contemporary Church and explains why we are so short of mature disciples who disciple others, bear forth fruit in and out of season and make a real impact in the world for Jesus (2 Tim 4:2).
The writers of the New Testament have a very good reason for presenting exalted teaching about Christ followed by warnings to believers of the dangers of turning away from Jesus. When preachers exhort congregations to godliness without first explaining to them who they are in Christ spiritual exhaustion and depression inevitably follow. People burn out, give up or simply zone out of following Jesus because it’s too hard! There is a discipleship crisis in Australian Christianity and the only sure solution is to accept that Christ disciples us in the same way as he was matured by the Father (John 15:10). The scripture is clear that the Father used suffering to grow Jesus in holiness so he could share with him his glory .

The Glorification of the Word

The very notion that the Son of God had to mature is difficult for many Christians to come to terms with. Yet in speaking of Jesus as a child Luke says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52 ESV). Hebrews remarks, “since God’s children share in flesh and blood, Jesus also became flesh and blood” (Heb 2:14). Then in Romans we read, “God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3). Jesus was fully a human being, “tempted in every way as we are, yet without sinning” (Heb 4:15). Paul says Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:7-8 ESV). The action of the eternal and infinitely blessed Son of God becoming a human being born in a stable and living a very basic lifestyle in a rural backwater before dying as a young man, can be summed up in a single word, “grace”. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV) The grace of God always works through voluntary deprivation for the sake of enriching others. Only through the voluntary humiliation of Jesus can we experience the saving power of the grace of God. If we are not maturing it must be be because we are blocking the grace of God by refusing to sacrifice for others. The connection between voluntary suffering and growth in grace has always been poorly understood (Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14).

Remember the story of Jesus walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who had lost all hope because Christ had been crucified, “And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27 ESV). Only after the resurrection could the disciples understand that Jesus himself could only reach perfect maturity through suffering and death. “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (Heb 2:10 ESV); “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” (Heb 5:8-9 ESV cf. 7:28). Jesus never sinned, and at every stage in his life always obeyed his Father (John 8:29; 15:10), but only absolute obedience, that is obedience to death (Phil 2:8) could bring about the infinite spiritual growth of his humanity (1 Tim 2:5). Jesus needed to grow to human maturity / perfection so that we might as human beings grow to maturity just as he did. This means that Jesus’ own spiritual growth depended on his faith in God.

We are exhorted to look to Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). The crucial difference between Jesus and us is that he always believed the Word of God where we don’t . Remember how he answered the devil’s attacks in the wilderness with “it is written” (Matt 4:4, 6, 7, 10) and how when he when was about to be arrested and crucified he said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.” (Matthew 26:53-56 ESV). The disciples fell away from grace because they did not believe the scriptures which foretold that Christ must suffer in order to be resurrected and glorified, and we all fall away from the experience of grace when we don’t believe God’s word in times of hardship (1 Cor 15:4).

When Jesus believed in his heart the words of the scriptures and obeyed their directions these truths became incorporated into the fabric of his ever growing submissive humanity, part of his flesh and blood being (Ps 119:11; Luke 24:27). If God’s Word does not become a part of us we will, like the first unbelieving disciples, fall again and again. Let me use a very recent encounter as an illustration.

An Example: Belmont

For the first time in at least ten years I decided to get my regular Friday night pizza from a specialist store near us. As I was doing this a young aboriginal man (29) came down the street singing hip hop aloud and I could pick up some of the words were about Jesus. I could also sense there was something deeply wrong in his life. So I went across the road to speak with him. Straight away he wanted to know if I was “A born again Christian.” He then explained he had been a Christian for a year but found himself falling back again and again into using speed and into sexual sin. He kept saying over and over, with desperation, that he wanted to get Satan out of his life. Despite his sincerity I could discern a number of things which told me he was going around and around in circles as far as his Christian life was concerned.

I could see that his was life like a well. On the surface it was illuminated by the presence of the light of Christ, but the deeper you went down the darker it became, there were places of guilt and shame where tragically the light of Jesus had not shone. This young man was striving spiritually and had no knowledge of resting in the completed work of Christ. He had no idea of how to make the words of scripture part of his life (internalise the Word of God). He told me he was on his way to a miracle rally in the city hoping for an encounter with God which would instantly deliver him power over evil. I could see he had moved from one addiction to another, and that his seeking a quick fix from the Holy Spirit was a magical approach to things which could never make him holy.

I have been praying for him since I met him because he will keep on falling away again and again until he receives and submits to the revelation of how God works on the inside to make us like Christ. Jesus makes us holy disciples in the same way as he was discipled by the Father, through suffering and glory (John 15:10; Luke 24:26).

Glorious through Suffering

On the threshold of death Christ prayed, “Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 19 And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.” (John 17:17-19 ESV) Jesus himself will be made glorious and perfect through suffering as a holy person (cf. 1 Tim 4:5). A powerful theological statement goes like this, “Holiness is glory concealed, glory is holiness revealed.” God works through suffering to make humans holy so that he might share with us his glory (1 Pet 4:13-14). Jesus himself said, ““Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:26). Glory is released through the holy suffering of the cross.
When on the cross Jesus took on himself the world’s evil he entered into the total darkness beyond any witness to the truth of God’s promises (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24; Matt 27:45). Since every promise God ever made finds its “Yes” and “Amen” in Jesus as the Son of God, the cost of Christ carrying all our unbelief is to lose consciousness of himself as the fulfiller of God’s Word (2 Cor 1:21; Heb 3:12). In his fiery anger against our sins, which Christ carried on the cross, God hides his holiness so deeply and keeps his glory to himself so completely that Jesus experiences complete abandonment (Isa 45:15; Mark 9:43; Luke 3:17). The terrible cry, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me!” (Mark 15:34) is the pain of someone experiencing the extremity of hell outside of the awareness of the Holy Father and the saving grace of God (John 17:11; Acts 15:11; Eph 2:5, 8). This is the “outer darkness where men weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Typically When sinners suffer they find a way of cursing God or ignoring him (Rev 16:9, 11, 21; Rom 1:18; Eph 4:18); even Christians often do not “bless God” in the midst of their pain and struggle. Jesus is different. At the heart of Jesus’ agony is that the true identity of God as a holy and glorious Father appears to be obscured by his seemingly pointless suffering (Rev 3:14). It seems as if Jesus is no longer the light enlightening the way to the Father (John 1:9; 8:12). This stage of unbearable agony cannot however last, for Jesus clings to God as “My God” with all his strength. Jesus words of dereliction (“My God, my God why have you forsaken me!”) are a quote from Psalm 22, the only place in all of scripture where the two fold repetition “My God” is used; there was no other way of expressing the perfect intensity with which Jesus went past every abominable and sickening thing that assaulted his conscience and separated himself totally to God as his God (cf. Rev 21:27). This is the perfection of holiness (2 Cor 7:1). Such extreme holiness was only possible in the circumstance of the anxiety of absolute separation from the Father. Thankfully the time of Christ’s dereliction is a very temporary phase in the process of God’s bringing his Son into the fullness of his glory (John 17:5).

The resurrection is not some external reward for Jesus “doing the right thing” by God, the resurrection is the revelation of his glorious holiness, the manifestation for all to see that God’s grace has perfected his humanity (Luke 24:26; Acts 3:13; Heb 2:9; 1 Pet 1:21 cf. Rom 1:4; 2 Cor 7:1). From heaven Christ now is working to bring us into the riches of the glory he shares with the Father (John 17:5; Rom 9:23; Eph 3:16; Phil 4:19; Col 1:23). “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,” (Hebrews 2:10-11 ESV). Our wise Brother now works through the Spirit of grace to make us holy in the same way his Father brought him into glory; in the sphere of suffering.

Heal the Bride

The source of so much Christian immaturity is that we are find it incredibly difficult to believe that our sufferings s are the key to God’s transforming power in and through our lives. Let me use as an example a very contemporary controversy. I was reading an article the other day and the author concluded that sooner or later gay marriage would become legal because too many Christian marriages are not reflecting the beauty and power of the gospel. I agree, and want to use marriage as an example of how God uses pain to make us holy so that we can share his glory.

In the beginning God created a married couple in whose destiny was contained the future history of the entire human race (Gen 1:1; Matt 19:8). Instead of clinging to God’s holy Word they entered into unbelief and as a couple fell short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). God however has a deep and mysterious purpose to restore the glory of marriage. This is what Paul says in Ephesians (5:31-32), “As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” This means that the problems of Christian marriages stem from a breakdown in our relationship with Jesus the perfect Bridegroom. Paul is even more precise; “husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies.” (Eph 5:25-28). As Jesus makes the Church his Bride holy and glorious through his Word so husbands are to do the same through the beautiful holy words given us by the Spirit of Jesus.

I was praying with my wife Donna the other morning and sensed the Lord saying that many Christian men feel they are lacking in the spiritual depth needed to bring their wives to the fullness of their inner beauty. This calling from God is at the centre of the spiritual covenant union of marriage but men so often suffer from a deep unbelief in the power of God’s Word through our mouths to bring healing, restoration and new life into our marriages (1 Pet 4:10) . I have spoken of the calling of husbands first but many women have a parallel problem. They are paralysed by a sense of inadequacy in being the powerful helper God called them to be (Gen 2:20). The failure of Christian marriages to grow into true maturity has enormous implications. If you do not have faith that your marriage is going from one degree of glory to another how can you possibly believe in the glorification of the whole universe! Other consequences are even more serious.

The average pastor is called to minister the holy Word of God on behalf of Christ the Bridegroom refashioning the Church as his glorious Bride. I believe however that many pastors sense in their hearts that the depths of who the Church is called to be are beyond their spirituality. In the end most ministries and churches settle for the status quo. At the heart of the unbelief of so many husbands and pastors (wives too) is the failure to accept the simple but difficult truth that to be in holy matrimony, whether with Christ in heaven or with another human being on earth, is to be in a relationship that by divine appointment creates an unparalleled crucifying capacity. In the plan of God marriage, human and divine, uniquely allows God’s grace to make us holy through suffering and open to us the gate to glory. Our problem is that when things get tough, confusing and painful, we turn away from the Lord’s way of maturing us and seek some “easier” pathway to discipleship. Friends, there is no way to grow to be like Jesus than clinging to God for dear life like he did on the cross.

You cannot divide what God can never put asunder; you cannot separate glory from holiness. The undividable power of glory is holiness. Churches, marriages, Christian friendships, partnerships between believers in business etc. will continue to fracture and divide until we allow the Lord to retrain us so that we accept as beautiful God’s plan to make us holy through suffering so that his glory might be revealed. The Lord showed this to me in an unusual way recently.

Inside and Outside: Holiness and Glory

I was out praying and I could sense the Lord speaking to me about people, situations and movements where the outside is different from the inside. Many modern revival movements have looked spectacular and strong on the outside involving large numbers of people, signs, wonders, miracles, healings and deliverances. Despite their glorious appearance these movements went on to collapse as quickly as they rose up e.g. many revivals in aboriginal communities. What these movements were lacking was inner holiness, an inward strength forged by lengthy obedience through many trials. Such a holy character will always endure testing and is the true glory of God (cf. Rom 5:1-5) . Grace is free, but where grace does not produce holiness there is always a lack of discernment; only holiness enables me to distinguish the difference between how I am feeling about myself and how Jesus is feeling about me (Heb 5:11-14). When these two things get mixed up we either plunge into despair, like my young aboriginal friend, or become emotionally ecstatic about our own spirituality. Under such circumstances God inevitably judges us for our own pride, lust or fear. The maturity which the Father always seeks is a state of affairs where the inside and the outside are one, inner strength and outer grace, are one in love. This is the perfection of the life of Christ and the maturity to which we are called (1 John 1:1-3).

Conclusion

We live in a time of great spiritual superficiality. Where no one in the Bible ever asks the question “Have you been born again/are you a born again Christian?” this has become for many people a sign of assurance that they are true believers. Repeatedly however scripture says that “the one who endure to the end shall be saved” (Matt 10:22; 24:13 cf. Col 1:22-23; Heb 3:6; James 5:11; Rev 2:10; 26). At the very commencement of our journey with Christ, when we are “born again”, God expects very little from us, but once we have been in the family God for awhile he expects some mature cooperation. This has nothing to do with striving to be a Christian, but has everything to do with grace working holiness through suffering to bring glory to God.
As the people of God we need to recover the sentiments of the psalmists when they spoke about “the beauty of holiness” (Ps 29:1) and gazing upon “the beauty of the LORD” (Ps 27:4). Holiness speaks to us about the wonder of belonging only to God, of having one Husband for eternity (2 Cor 11:2), and in the light of this the excellence of one spouse for this life. You cannot however ever keep such holiness inside, it radiates outwards in glory always issuing in testimony to its source, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 13:14 ESV). Such things are too wonderful for words, but they are ours in Christ and part of the maturity, the grown up Christianity, that God is seeking for us today. In my experience the things of God always seem impossible, for this reason I exhort you to turn to Christ, who alone can make you holy.