The Final Freedom

Introduction

FREEDOM FREEDOM is a political ad appearing daily on the front page our local newspaper (United Australia Party, The West Australian p.1. “Freedom” is something people feel strongly about. The nature of human freedom has preoccupied philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and neuroscientists.  Uniquely, Christians believe that the Son of God became human so we by grace might share in the nature of God’s absolute and eternal freedom.

At times the Spirit speaks through the Word in an indelible way. I heard the Lord speak like this back in the 70’s through Geoff Bingham via Luke 24:26, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (RSV). Geoff insisted “inevitable” and “indispensable” were not the same.) Luke 24:26 has become one of the controlling texts of my life (cf. Ps 73:25-26). It was from Geoff that I became convinced that to suffer for Christ wasn’t optional for Christian growth. I have since learnt, from experience and study, that suffering with Jesus is even more foundational (Rom 8:17). Missing the difference between these dimensions of suffering explains the immaturity of contemporary Western Christianity.

Dei you Say

Sometimes the smallest words have the largest importance. δεῖ in Greek means “necessary”, and it’s the word Jesus uses in prophesying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:22 cf. 24:7 etc.). being a truth about God-in-the flesh this is no ordinary necessity like 2+2=4, or “something” and “nothing” are non-identical. Divine necessity is an inner rightness in God that could appear in no other form but by His own law and being. The appearance of God-in-the flesh destined to die for us was a necessary Truth of the divine nature. Suffering with the outcome of glory is the deep inevitable foundation of the plan of God that made possible the creation and salvation of the universe. The planned death of Jesus and his resurrection were as eternal as God’s own being. This explains why the Bible speaks with clarity of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8) and “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot chosen before the creation of the world” (1 Pet 1:20 cf. Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9). When Jesus ascended as our Mediator he returned to the glory he had with the Father “from before the world existed” (John 17:5). The simplest way I can put this is to say that Christ’s suffering-and-glory make God to be the one true saving God (John 17:3) compared to all other “gods” (1 Cor 8:4-6). To make this more real let me use a couple of life scenarios involving actual Perth people.

Jesus Today

A very biblically oriented sharp-edged brother (Heb 4:12) recently responded to my teaching that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12), by saying, “Thinking about my whole life…I have not really been ‘actively persecuted’…..can this point to a deeper issue or may it have been circumstantial?” Since Christians believe, “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28 cf. Jer 29:11etc.), we cannot believe in “mere/neutral” circumstances. Every experience is designed by God to lead us into greater Christlikeness. Since persecution can come from within the Church, this brother has kindly forgotten the times he has been maligned and cast out of Christian fellowship. In the future I know more persecution will come his way because of the accuracy of his prophet-like commitment to the Word. My second contemporary witness seems very different.

This friend has a serious medical condition, but he is increasingly excited about producing online material about the Lord Jesus. In his recent email to me about suffering for Christ he states, “just writing this has come with significant persecution….as I started to write the above paragraph I became violently sick for no apparent reason….Yet I consider it complete joy [James 1:2-4]. However, please pray that I may expound to others the revelation of Christ I am enjoying to encourage them through these times of tribulation and to give them a greater surety of faith until our Lord’s return.” Can a physical illness be a persecution? If it is demonic in origin that’s manifest (Luke 13:10-16). Thinking more generally however, it’s surely the case that every medical problem has been pressed into the service of Christ and transformed from being a dimension of the last enemy, death (1 Cor 15:26), into a servant of God whose final purpose is to make us more like the Son of God. This is an exciting, though never easy, revelation. The Victory of the Lamb through death-and-resurrection (Acts 10:36; Rom 8:31-39; Rev 5:6) brings all things into subjection to the will of him who willed to die for us (Mark 14:36). Through such faith illumination (2 Tim 1:10) the intention of evil to use all forms of suffering to undermine godliness is exposed and undone.

All About Jesus

Do you fear, or secretly hope, that it is hard for God to use contemporary secularised societies to persecute the Church. this conviction suffers from unbelief, because the wise sovereign all-inclusive plan of God will always find ways to hand over fallen human nature to its hatred of his unconditional love revealed in the Church (Matt 24:9; Rom 1:30; Col 1:21 etc.) Suffering is as necessary for the hope of glory in our Western world (Col 1:27) as it was when Jesus, who now indwells us, spoke so intimately to Saul, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” In the Spirit we can see that the “must” of Jesus’ own suffering and of Paul and of ourselves are essentially one in their glory (John 17:22; Acts 9:5, 16). (I believe this is what makes the whole Church throughout the ages the two suffering end times witnesses of Revelation 11.) If suffering with Christ seems beyond you, ask the Spirit to open your heart (Rom 8:23-26) as you intercede for the persecuted Church in Myanmar or Afghanistan or Congo or… By grace you will find yourself sharing in their pain in Jesus. To willingly choose to enter such suffering is to choose in the freedom for good works for which we were eternally chosen in Christ. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10)

Conclusion

“You are free when you’re free to do what you are free not to do.” (Bingham); let me attempt to expound this saying. As God  in Christ freely suffered for our sin (2 Cor 5:19), the Spirit of liberty (2 Cor 3:17) can never coerce us to suffer for Christ. Nevertheless, Paul says, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor 5:14-15). Overcome by love, Paul is on the trajectory of eternal life, heading to God’s final goal in creating humanity that all in the image of Jesus (2 Cor 4:4; Col 3:10) will share in the glory of his unlimited unconditional freedom. When we “see him as he is” (1 John 3:2) our consciences will be perfected and clear that if we could have our time in this life for Jesus again, we would love sinners unconditionally to the point of death. To know such things by faith NOW, brings “perfect peace” (Isa 2:63) and the rest which is the foundation for revival (http://cross-connect.net.au/a-prophetic-picture-for-perth/).The essence of Christian maturity isn’t an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Bible nor faith to move mountains nor the ability to raise the dead (1 Cor 13:1-3), but the grace to submit to unjust suffering for the cause of the kingdom of God (Matt 5:10). This is how and why the Church exists for the glory of God in Christ.