Dying is Good for You

Oldie from November 2008:

Has this ever happened to you…You’re driving along, just thinking about various things, and then you begin down some path of thought that eventually has you in a charismatic, hallelujah fit? I had one of those yesterday.

I decided to give Knoxville a rest and hang out with my brother in Nashville for the weekend. On the way over, I started thinking about my life and got a little discouraged with all the job hunting stuff and the prospect of renting again. Long ago I heard some advice from John Piper who suggested preaching to yourself – remind yourself of the promises of God, etc. So, I started service. I would have taken up an offering but didn’t have anything to give.

Anywho, almost immediately, Romans 8 came to mind:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Now, I try to be critical when listening to others, so I started getting critical with myself and asked, “What is the all referring to? Is Paul including all of our experience, or perhaps just the foreknowledge, predestination, and calling that he gets into just a few verses down?” So, I kept going:

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“Nor anything else in all creation” seemed to answer my question – everything.

But then my mind began to focus on the phrase “in all these things…” And then I started getting excited and broke to a mid-service hymn.

First, look back at what “all these things” include. He just listed it….tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, and BEING KILLED! Slaughtered!

Next, notice what Paul did NOT say. He did NOT say, “when all these things are removed from our experience, THEN we are more than conquerors.” He didn’t say, “Eventually, we will be more than conquerors.” He said, “IN all these things….”

Plug it in folks: IN the experience of BEING SLAUGHTERED, we are more than conquerors! IN the middle of persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword; we are VICTORIOUS!

WOW! Let that sink in for a moment…..

What is all the fuss about with eschatology? What drives our differences? Is it not mainly on what it means to be VICTORIOUS?

As Preterists (christians who believe the biblical consummation is a done deal), we are banned, mocked, censored, spat on. Why? Because we seem to be presenting a “defeatist” view of redemptive history…our understanding of VICTORY is different than most.

Most Christians believe that victory will only truly come when Christ will step foot on the earth again, kick every wicked man’s butt and ERADICATE suffering, dying, danger, famine, nakedness, and so on.

But is that how Paul would have us think?

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors” and “all things work together for good.”

Got that? Our DEATH works for our GOOD and IN it we are VICTORIOUS! Why? Because NONE of these things are “able to separate us from the love of God.”

And therein lies what it means to have victory my friend…I am victorious NOT because I will one day reverse death, or live an earthly life with a perfect wife, perfect kids, perfect job, perfect health, and so on. Get back to the story…I am VICTORIOUS because I can call God my friend…..wow.

And there is absolutely NOTHING more glorious than that!

I know I sound like a broken record, but this leads me right back to empiricism. As we are IN persecution, famine, danger…as you lie on your death bed…you have one of two routes to go. You can live by SIGHT, thinking about all the mental and physical pain and suffering you’re in and the anguish it may be causing those close to you, and then empirically – experientially – infer that your life is being defeated and sucks at the moment – OR – you can look at it with the mind of Christ, informed by the Scriptures, living by FAITH and “know” that even in all this, your life is “good” and that in union with God, having been reconciled by the blood of Christ, you live as a King!

“…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”

God could have eradicated us all and been done with it. But that’s too easy. No, IN enduring the cross, he pursued joy and victory. IN suffering, he obtained that which is “good”.

That’s hard, but it is deep and glorious. And it is more “practical” than anything futurist doctrine has ever offered me. Christianity is not about escapism. It has nothing to do with some future rapture/disappearance of Christians from the earth. It is about endurance. It is about growth. It is about living IN and THROUGH the suffering and pain and coming out the other side still being able to praise our Creator, never wavering in our faith. A man who can go through a severe time of persecution and/or suffering and come out the other end still praising His God is a victorious man; a man who has defeated a brutal and cruel enemy.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our 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.

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.