Lately, I have been
prayer-journaling through the Beatitudes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount,[1]
considering the descriptions of blessing that belongs to the children of God. For
each of the promises I considered what they would look like as seen through the
three dimensional properties of our salvation, that is, our justification,
sanctification, and glorification.
As I arrived at Jesus’
promise, “Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth”,[2]
I wanted to know how much of this is our present experience because of the
settled gift of our justification in partnership with the immediate work of our
sanctification, and how much is our future hope, the certainty of what will
take place upon the return of Jesus Christ.
At the same time, I have
been looking at these things through the filter of world events in which
persecution reports show the ever increasing hatred of the world against the
church of our Lord Jesus Christ. This now includes our own Canadian government
taking steps to deny the freedom of speech of our citizens, setting the stage
for Christians to face criminal charges for proclaiming Jesus Christ as “the way, the truth, and the life,” with
no one coming to the Father except through him.[3]
Between this ever
deteriorating condition of our world, and the Beatitudinal promise that the
meek shall inherit the earth, I arrived at this Scripture below as one of the
descriptions of how we relate to this blessing in our present sanctification.
If the meek indeed inherit the earth, what does it look like in the present as Jesus
continues building his church, and we continue growing “into a holy temple in the Lord… being built together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit”?[4]
Consider one of the distinctive ways the heirs of the kingdom live during this
season of our sanctification as we relate to the world as “sojourners and exiles”,[5]
strangers in a foreign land.[6]
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted
the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a
better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your
confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that
when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.[7]
For you had
compassion on those in prison,
This is not telling
us that the church went around visiting criminals in prison. While there is
nothing wrong with churches feeling a call to minister to people in prison,
seeking to reach out to them with the gospel, that is not what this verse is
talking about.
Rather, this is what
Jesus spoke about when he told the church of Smyrna, “Do not fear what you are
about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,
that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful
unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”[8]
The reference to the
believers’ “compassion on those in prison,”
is a reminder that, in the early days of the church, as believers were put in
prison because of their proclaimation of the gospel, the church felt compassion
for them. They had not hardened their hearts in fear of what might happen to
them if they associated with their brothers in prison. Instead, they related
compassionately, sharing in each other’s troubles. Instead of treating the
imprisoned brothers as on their own to face whatever troubles had come, perhaps
including loss of income to care for their families, the church related out of
compassion, and acted accordingly.
Our view of the meek
inheriting the earth accepts that, in the present time, we are living as
strangers in a world that hates our Savior. This means that we do not view
imprisonment as a conflict with the work of Jesus to build his church, but a
right of passage, so to speak, where we identify with the sufferings of Christ
since we are presently growing up to be like him “from one degree of glory to another”.[9]
and you joyfully
accepted the plundering of your property,
Part of our present
experience of life in this world includes the loss of property and privilege.
Even though Canada is suddenly on the verge of taking away rights and freedoms
that have been ours for as long as I can remember, the concept of a world that
hates the church is nothing new, and is quite solidly established in the words
of God.[10]
Our response to the
changes in the world is not to bemoan what we might lose, or to shut down
because of fear of what could happen, but to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let
steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.”[11]
In our present
experience of life, losing out on worldly advantages is normal, and responding
with joy a distinctive characteristic of our maturing in Christ. We do not need
to live without property or possession if peaceful times prevail, but when such
times of persecution come, as they will, it is characteristic of Jesus’
brothers to rejoice in our trials, partly with the knowledge that we are
obviously becoming more like our Savior.
since you knew
that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
This is the
clincher, that we KNOW what we have in Christ, and so, as Paul said, “if we hope for what we do not see, we wait
for it with patience.”[12]
Even Abraham “was looking forward to the city that has
foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”[13]
Although he knew God had promised his descendants an earthly nation, it was not
his hope of ever living in Israel, but of living in the eternal kingdom of God.
His descendants would live in the land as their own nation, but Abraham, “went to live in the land of promise, as in
a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the
same promise.”[14]
In both the realization of the promise of his descendants living in the
Promised Land, and his knowledge that there was an even greater city designed,
founded, and built by God, his earthly experience was one of looking ahead in
hope.
Everything is about
the “better possession” we have in
Jesus Christ, “an abiding one” that
cannot be taken away from us even though our earthly possessions can be
plundered. As is described of the witnesses of our salvation:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but
having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they
were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear
that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from
which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it
is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.[15]
A distinctive
characteristic of this season of our sanctification is what God describes of
Moses, “He considered the reproach of
Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the
reward.”[16]
As Moses gave up the worldly treasures of Egypt because his view of his reward
made the reproach of Christ a “greater
wealth”, and Paul counted “everything
as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”,[17]
including his expectation to “share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”[18]
so we are to keep our eyes on the “better
possession and an abiding one”, so that even our losses and persecutions in
this lifetime are cause for joy in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore do not
throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
We do not hang on to
some kind of confidence that we can get through life without trouble from the
world. Our confidence is not in a trouble-free life in this foreign land. Our
confidence is in the coming glory of the kingdom of God in which we will
experience the reward of our sufferings, the reward of being with Jesus forever
in the delights and pleasures of his eternal kingdom.
We hang on to our
confidence because of the sure foundation of our salvation, that those God
foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image and likeness of his Son,
and so he called them into the justification that is by grace through faith in
order that he will one day glorify them in his presence as the highest and
greatest of his creation.[19]
In this present
lifetime, we do not yet experience our inheritance, so we do not live as though
we have a right to take over the earth. While the whole creation belongs to our
Father, his plan for our future involves judging all Worldlings and purging the
earth with fire,[20]
creating a new heavens and a new earth as the home of righteousness for his
children.[21] Because
there indeed is “a great reward”
ahead, we do not throw away our confidence just because the world is acting
like the world. This world is not our home, so we press on in confidence as we
wait for our reward.
For you have need
of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what
is promised.
What we need is not
deliverance from our troubles, but endurance in our troubles. Our aim is to do
the will of God in this evil world, knowing that we will receive all that is
promised to the children of God. No matter what the world does to mock and
persecute the sons of the kingdom, our aim is to know and do the will of God
with a view to the prize that is set before us.
Jesus warned that,
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and
you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall
away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will
arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love
of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And
this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.[22]
This is what will
happen to the church during this season of our sanctification. Tribulation will
come; death will be inflicted in persecution; hatred from the nations will pour
out from Satan’s evil heart. People falling away, betraying us, hating us, is
not a shocking surprise, but something of which we have been forewarned. We won’t
stop false prophets from arising, or many going astray. We will see hearts grow
cold because of the increase of evil all around. None of these things
contradict the promises of God during this time of our growing up in Christ. We
simply endure whatever comes knowing that there is a reward, and that we will
indeed receive what is promised, including the complete fulfillment of all that
it means for the meek to inherit the earth.
It seems pretty
clear to me that we Canadian Christians are about to be tested the same as our
brothers throughout the world, and throughout the ages. Perhaps some of you
reading this are in countries already facing persecution and hatred from the world
more strongly than us Canadians have yet to face. I have heard of brothers from
persecuted countries feeling sorry for us North American believers because of
the bland and lifeless version of Christianity we present as normal. Whatever
the case, and wherever we live, we know that, “the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood
throughout the world.”[23]
The only thing that matters is that we endure to the end. It might seem like a
trite cliché, but the darker it gets, the more brightly we shine.
For those of us who
have reason to bemoan how poorly churches are doing, or how religious people
have treated us, or how our families have acted towards us, our hearts must not
nurse our wounds, so to speak, but seek the greatest experience of the
Spirit-filled life so that we can do the will of God. We must accept that we are
the ones making our churches what they are by our own choices and actions, not what
others have done to hurt us, or the world, the flesh, and the devil are doing
to “steal and kill and destroy”.[24]
The fact is that God’s
will will be done, and we are called to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling knowing that the thing that really matters is what God is working in
us to will and to work for his good pleasure and purpose.[25]
The world will always be working to hinder the work of God; it is imperative
that we join God in his work by “waiting
for and hastening the coming of the day of God”.[26]
© 2017 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Matthew 5:1-12
[2]
Matthew 5:5
[3]
John 14:6
[4]
Ephesians 2:21-22
[5]
I Peter 2:11
[6]
Hebrews 11:9,13
[7]
Hebrews 10:34-36
[8]
Revelation 2:10
[9]
II Corinthians 3:18
[10]
John 15:18-19; 17:14
[11]
James 1:2-4
[12]
Romans 8:25
[13]
Hebrews 11:10
[14]
Hebrews 11:9
[15]
Hebrews 11:13-16
[16]
Hebrews 11:26
[17]
Philippians 3:8
[18]
Philippians 3:10 (see context of Philippians 3:1-21).
[19]
Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 2:8-10
[20]
II Peter 3:7
[21]
II Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1
[22]
Matthew 24:9-14
[23]
I Peter 5:9
[24]
John 10:10
[25]
Philippians 2:12-13
[26]
II Peter 3:12
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