See me Up, Speak me Up
Introduction
Whilst there is an unusual amount of prayer going on for revival at the moment in Australia this is not something I can join in on without raising some foundational concerns (2 Chron 7:14; 1 Tim 2:1-7). I believe that the Lord is displeased with much of the Church because Christians are not “walking in the light” in a way that is honouring to him (1 John 1:7). E.g. I was in a meeting recently where someone was lamenting the broken condition of another Christian then proceeded to suggest the reason for this person’s dire state were certain character faults in that individual’s life. After this meeting was over I approached the person who had been talking in this way and asked them if they were referring to “such-and-such”. I later confirmed with the man making these assertions the identity of the person they were talking about and that they had not been approached about their faults face to face. Lack of transparency in the Church is a problem of spiritual darkness and places us in opposition to God; “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5). Relationships between Christians are often not light-filled and many of us don’t want them to be because honesty is painful!
Gossip is a common symptom of the spiritual darkness amongst Christians. It can sometimes come under the cloak of a false spirituality which says; “Let me tell you what’s going on in such and such’s life so you can pray about it…” Gossip is condemned in scripture because it is spiritually destructive (Rom 1:29; 2 Cor 12:20; 1 Tim 5:13). Paul highlights this sort of spiritual destruction when he warns; “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:29-30). The word for “corrupting” (sapros) talk can be translated “rotten” or “foul” or “dis – graceful” (aischros) speech (Matthew 12:33 – 34; 13:48; 17:17 –18; Luke 6:43). The sort of critical spirit that is behind such destructive language pulls down rather than lifts up. Whilst in a prayer meeting one day dealing with some issues in a local congregation I was led to this scripture and saw a revolting image. As Christians were speaking foul words about one another a stream of vomit – like filth issued out of their mouths and was used by accusing unclean spirits to cover other believers who were being criticised (Rev 12:10; 16:13 –14). This disgusting and repellent reality so common across the Church is offensive to the Holy Spirit. Forget about spiritual renewal in this atmosphere.
Which World
The problem with our speech can be traced to a much deeper issue; we do not understand who we are speaking about. This is what Paul says about wrong spiritual judgements in 2 Corinthians 5;
“For the love of Christ controls 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. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:14-17)
Literally he says we no longer “know” Christ/the Christian according to the flesh. The knowledge he is referring to isn’t an intellectual thing but a rich spiritual insight. A revelation that in dealing with other believers we are dealing with someone who is a new creature in Christ who doesn’t belong to this old fallen world and whose condition may be fallible but whose position in Jesus is regal. Evangelical Christians love to talk about being “born again = born from above (Gk.)” but few allow this passage to have its full meaning. Jesus declared, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). If my brother/sister has been “born again” their identity is not a fleshly one but a spiritual one. All baptised believers have “died with Christ” and are new people in him (Rom 6:8 cf. Col 3:3; 2 Tim 2:11) and “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). No one can deny these biblical truths but we find it easier to deal with one another in terms of the present passing world of appearances, giving more status and reality to how people appear now than how they will be in eternity when Christ returns and we shall all be like him (2 Cor 4:18; 1 John 3:2). But the present and future worlds, the old and the new creation are not equally real; the death and resurrection of Jesus has transformed everything for those in Christ. Our sin is that we are dominated by seeing our brothers and sisters with the natural eye instead of by faith seeing them “seated with Christ in the heavenly places” (Eph 2:6), “raised up with Christ….died (and) hidden with God in Christ” (Col 3:1). If we have trouble seeing the dignity of our brothers and sisters in this way and speaking about them accordingly it’s because we don’t understand Jesus well enough.
Seeing Jesus
The identity of Jesus’ humanity is strikingly expressed in John’s Gospel in terms of his heavenly origin. “He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.” (John 3:31) “He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” (John 8:23). Because Jesus is “from above” we too have been born “from above” (Col 3:1-2). In an intimately related and even more profound way Jesus spoke of his heavenly identity in terms of God as his Father.
Christ’s opponents repeatedly tried to stone him because “he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God…you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 5:18; 10:31-33). Whatever miracles and mighty works Christ might have performed, in the eyes of his opponents he remained a mere mortal. Here is the same pattern once again, ““You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him…” (John 8:57-59).
Ordinarily if you wanted to prove someone was “only human” you’d point to their character faults; but this didn’t work with Jesus. When he asked, “Which one of you truthfully accuse me of sin?” no one could answer him (John 8:46). The religious leaders of Israel were totally convinced that Jesus was a mere flesh and blood person spiritually unfit to inherit the kingdom of heaven and they knew exactly how to prove this once and for all (1 Cor 15:50). God would never allow his Messiah to suffer; killing Jesus would prove that he was no more human than they were. A crucified Jesus could not be God’s Son (Matt 27:40, 43). Jesus knew he had to die, because through his death his humanity would be gloriously transformed beyond all natural vision of what it means to be a person.
Jesus had prophesied, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”” (John 12:32). Since Christ had an intimate knowledge of the scriptures he understood that his prediction had a double meaning conveyed in the prophecies of Isaiah. In the first place it means Jesus will be lifted up on the cross but in the second place it means he will be exalted to glory. Isaiah uses the language of “high and lifted up” in a profound way. In his vision of God in the temple he sees the “Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (6:1), but he also says that the Servant of the Lord, the one who will be “pierced for our transgressions…crushed for our iniquities” will be “high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (Isa 53:5; 52:13). This Servant figure is the crucified and risen Christ, who receives favour from God because, once again in Isaiah, “thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isa 57:15). The writer of Hebrews speaks of the same reality, “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death” (Heb 2:9). By faith we see that God has exalted the ordinary flesh and blood humanity of Jesus to share in his heavenly glory (Phil 2:5-11; Heb 2:14-15).
The broken despised humanity marred beyond human likeness in the cross now radiates the glory of God (Isa 52:14; Heb 1:3). As the wonderful hymn puts it, “He who once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now.” Whatever we once thought of Jesus, however we once judged Jesus “according to the flesh” e.g. as a great teacher, a wise man, a person of compassion and justice, we know see Christ as a new creation (2 Cor 5:16-17 cf. Rom 8:5-7; 1 Cor 2:14). This however is no mere intellectual seeing. The only way we can see Jesus in his true dignity and glory is “in the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:10; 12:3; Rev 1:10). It was the Holy Spirit who took Jesus to the cross and raised him up from the dead returning him the glory of the Father (Rom 1:4; 6:4; 8:11; Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 3:18). Jesus however came to change us. In Christ the status and dignity of what it means for us to be human has been transformed forever (cf. Phil 2:5-11). Those who believe in Jesus will be “conformed” to his image, for “when we see him we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (Rom 8:29; 1 John 3:2). If in the present time we see Jesus in the Spirit by faith this is exactly how we should see our Christian brothers and sisters. Not how they present to our natural eyes but by faith in the promises of God which are theirs we see their invisible status as children of God (Heb 11:27). What has to change in us so that we do see others in such a supernatural light?
Lifting Up
The Russian novelist Dostoyevsky rightly said, “To love someone means to see them as God intended them to be.” The reason we struggle so much to see others as God intended them to be is that our spiritual eyes, the eyes of our heart, are unenlightened. Paul prays for the Church, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18). If our eyes are unenlightened it means they are un-crucified eyes and un-crucified eyes mean an un-crucified heart. Only a crucified heart becomes a renewed heart capable of seeing in the Spirit the glorious inheritance which God our Father sees in us.
It’s not easy to see either ourselves or other Christians in this way. Seeing others as God sees them in Christ involves a great struggle with all our fleshly perceptions of what is really real (cf. Gal 5:16-17). Sometimes people say things like, “You don’t know what I’m really like on the inside.” But God knows what you are like inside and the death and resurrection of Christ had graciously fashioned for you a totally new identity (Rom 7:25ff.). One of the most dramatic experiences I ever had about seeing others as God sees them came after a dramatic spiritual crisis and healing encounter. (We must have “grace-healed eyes” in order to have “grace-filled eyes” Yancey.) I was taking a service in a nursing home where most of the residents were frail, weak, crippled, demented… Suddenly, perhaps it was in the context of Communion, they were transfigured in my sight, not outwardly, “in the flesh” they still looked just the same, but inwardly I sensed how beautiful they were in the image of God. This is how the Father sees his Son in us (cf. Gal 1:16).
Jesus said; ““A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13:34-35). Only this sort of love can undo the terrible damage that the sexual abuse scandals have done to the image of the Church in Australia and so to the reputation of Jesus. To love one another “as I have loved you” points directly to the cross. “By this”, John says, “we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:16). Or in Paul’s words, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Cor 5:14). The more we have a revelation of the love of God for humanity in the death of Christ the more we will sacrificially love other Christians as Christ has loved them (cf. Gal 6:10). We cannot escape the clear witness of scripture; “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20). Seeing one another in Christ means putting to death through the power of the cross every prejudicial idol of class, gender, race, education, social status, tradition, experience, doctrinal purity etc. which keep us fully recognising our brothers and sisters as children of the one Father (Col 3:5; Heb 2:11).
Since the New Testament consistently teaches that on the Day of Judgement believers “in Christ” will be presented blameless before God we must be very careful not to blame one another (Eph 1:4; Phil 1:10; Col 1:22; 1 Thess 3:13; 5:23; Jude 1:24). There is a deep wisdom in the exhortation of Paul, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 4:32-5:2). The aroma of Christ to God on the cross attracted the presence of the Father to glorify him in resurrection and pronounce us guiltless in Christ (Gen 8:20ff; Rom 4:25; 1 Tim 3:16). Likewise, when we release one another from debts/transgressions we are a pleasing aroma that attracts the glory and healing power of God (Matt 6:12).
We can forgive one another totally and unconditionally and never speak any negative gossip amongst ourselves because Jesus died for us to cover our sins with his blood. Everything that we see must be seen through the lens of the cross. With Jesus forgiveness must be love’s great priority, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet 4:8)
Protected
Imagine a fellowship of believers where the deep desire of every heart is to see others “lifted up to Christ”. This community would fulfil the description in 1 John1:7; “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Such a community is a community of mutual confession (1 John 1:9) and forgiveness which attracts the pleasure of God bringing powerful physical emotional and relational healing (James 5:16). Such corporate healing love places a congregation under a shared shield of faith protected from the accusations of the devil (Eph 6:16 n.b. the exhortations in Ephesians 6 to do with spiritual warfare are all in the plural). A C/church living like this would find raised over it a glorious canopy of spiritual protection from the satanic storms that are inflicting moral havoc today in the Church (cf. Isa 4:2-6; Rev 7:15-17). A community like this would already be in revival.
Conclusion
I am NOT talking today about “seeing the best in people” by pretending they are something they are not. I am not asking us to turn a blind eye to the sins of others as if they didn’t really happen. In fact the depth of sin which is already in the Church will only ever come out for correction when people know they are safe from accusation and gossip, when people know they will be treated with the dignity children of God deserve.
A friend of mine had been emotionally down recently and in prayer he felt God say, “I only want to lift you up.” The Holy Spirit’s single intention is to lift us up to the glory of the ascended glorified Christ and this must be our intention. We must resolve to see, speak and living consistent with what it means for our brothers and sisters to be “in Christ”. Let’s “in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3) and “Outdo one another in showing honour.” (Rom 12:10).
Let me close with something I have been rethinking. There’s a popular Christian song called “Above All”. Jesus is “above all powers, kings, nature and all created things…”. This is absolutely biblical (Col 1:16). Then it moves to the death and resurrection of Christ and concludes with these thoughts about the cross; “Like a rose trampled on the ground You took the fall And thought of me Above all”. If this line means the preeminent thought of Jesus as he died on the cross was you and me then the song is dangerously self-centred and narcissistic for Jesus highest thought in dying was to glorify the Father (John 12:27-28; 17:1). But if this song means Jesus was thinking of bringing us through his death into his ascension glory where we are seated with him “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this world but also in the one to come.” then this song perfectly illustrates what I have been trying to teach today (Eph 1:21-23; 2:6). This glorious exalted destiny is the inheritance and destiny of every Christian person and this is how God in Christ sees every one of us. If you want to get closer to Jesus in his heavenly glory then stop seeing and speaking about others “according to the flesh”; see, love, pray and forgive others as they are, lifted up in Christ. This is the beginning of the revival God is seeking.
Let us Pray: The first step in every revival is to confess our sins…