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Time does not seem to
change the struggles of man. The conditions that existed among the
believers of Corinth in the days of the writing of the New Testament
sounds like the everyday affairs of modern man. The atmosphere was
charged with aggressive competitiveness, unrestrained individuality,
sexual abuse, and dietary concerns. They even had those who thought they
knew it all and attempted to make everyone live accordingly. Living in
the flesh and blood world of human existence always seems to produce
divisions, conflict, and injustice.
The only salvation for man is for God to intervene into the affairs of
man and establish His kingdom. Man has to be literally saved from
himself. He has to experience a baptism that takes him down in death to
the earthly reign of corruption and decay and raises him in life to the
heavenly reign of incorruption and glory.
In a world of competition, selfishness, sexual harassment, dietary
abuse, and one-upmanship, man can experience peace, joy, and fairness.
Although living in the world, he can come to experience being not of the
world. God, through the mysteries of
baptism, can intervene into your life and establish his kingdom among
you.
Jesus revealed how this miracle of the bloom of the rose occurs when he
stated, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be
glorified" (John 12:23). He would also state, "But first must
he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation" (Luke
17:25). Jesus would have to be taken to the end of His physical
existence in order to experience the fullness of His spiritual
existence.
The suffering of Jesus in many things and being rejected of his
generation was how He would be taken to the end of His physical
existence. He knew to experience the glory of the Father it would
require Him being taken to His physical death by the Father. He said,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit" (John 12:24). He added, "Now is my soul troubled;
and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause
came I unto this hour" (John 12:27).
This is the real essence of living by faith--the secret of life. Jesus
finding Himself being brought to the end of His physical life would not
pray to be delivered from what God was doing in His life. Neither would
He attempt to save himself from the troubling circumstances by the
scheming of His mind. He knew (saw things as His Father saw them--the
essence of faith) to be glorified by the Father was the end of all
things. He simply stated, "He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal" (John 12:25).
Before anyone can be glorified by the Father they too must be brought to
the end of their physical existence. Although experiencing the bloom of
the rose does not require the physical death of the believer, it does
require the death of anything physical on which the believer is
attempting to experience his life. The harvest comes only after the
planning of the seed.
When God the Father has so arranged the circumstances of life to bring
about death to the physical existence, only those who do not attempt
"to save [himself] from this hour" will experience being
glorified by the heavenly Father. As Jesus said, "Now is my soul
troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for
this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27). When the struggles
of life are all around, the faith that knows does not falter. It
realizes that the heavenly Father is at work to bring forth the glory of
His Son Jesus Christ. All physical dependency for life is being brought
to its end and the glory of the spiritual reality of the manifestation
of Jesus Christ is being brought forth. |
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