Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 8)

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 8)
Ron Bailey

The Hour

The life story of Jesus of Nazareth is a thrilling demonstration of One who came, not to please Himself, but His Father. John’s account, in particular, is full of expressions which show Him to be ‘on course’ and in ‘perfect synchronisation’ with His Father’s will. He lived in the conscious approval of His Father and all His teachings and signs demonstrated it. We cannot linger on this wonderful story however; we have an appointment with a unique moment in history. John’s account of Jesus’ life has another feature; Jesus was conscious that His life was leading inevitably to His death. This death would not just be a natural consequence of ageing, or of circumstances which overwhelmed Him. His death would be the culmination of His life. Uniquely, this man was born to die.

Military campaigns often demand pin-point timing. “Synchronise your watches” is a key scene from many a war film. In general terms the stage was now set, but there would need to be perfect synchronisation of events. Christ’s appointment with His destiny was no approximation but timed to the very second.

John records a series of progress points, and reveals the element of truth. At the very beginning of His public ministry a domestic emergency arose. His attention was drawn to the fact by His mother who clearly intends His intervention. It was at a wedding celebration and there would have been considerable disgrace for the family if the situation had become more widely known. Mary addresses her observation and request to Him personally. They have no wine. (1) At this point there had been no public display of special powers, and it is interesting to wonder what Mary had in mind when she raised the issue.

Christ’s response is surprising in its apparent abruptness, although it is not as stark as it appears in our English translations. Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. We sometimes say of an individual that ‘he marches to the sound of a different drum; Christ was such an individual. He said so Himself using somewhat different words; I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (2) Before His public acknowledge as the Father’s Son, Jesus was content to submit Himself to the authority of His mother and adopted father but from the time of His baptism in the Jordan, He never again submitted to Mary. He could do only what His Father authorized.

His hour had not yet arrived. What hour? Here was an opportunity for Him to display His Messianic authority. Moses had provided food in the wilderness why not Jesus at a wedding? However, when He provided for this needy family He did so in a way so discrete that only the servants and His immediate followers knew what had happened. (3) There were many aspects to Christ’s vocation, but the full scope of His Messianic role would be seen later. Above all others there was one supreme task to accomplish. One time which above all others would be His hour.

John’s account of things keeps this truth at the forefront of things. Neither Satan nor men could hurry that hour, although they certainly tried on more than one occasion. (4) His teaching continued, as did the miracles accomplished under His Father’s instruction, but it seems as though He always had His eye on another hour.

One of His acts of power is a special point of time reference in this gospel. The feeding of the 5000 is the only one of His miracles recorded in all four accounts. (5) Many Bible students feel that part of the reason for this is what is known as the Caesarea Philippi Confession of Faith. This was the time when Peter (and perhaps the others too) received a heavenly revelation of who Jesus of Nazareth really was. It was a true watershed. From this point the disciples knew clearly who He was, but they were not nearly so clear about what He had come to do.

The feeding of the 5000 was, without doubt, a spectacularly public display of power. John records the immediate response of some who experienced the miracle personally. Their response was to try to start a revolution. Our mental pictures of The Holy Land are usually of quiet country scenes with gently grazing sheep and the steady rhythms of an agricultural society. These were not the mental pictures of the Roman Legionaries who found themselves stationed in this seething hotbed of passionate nationalism.

The earthly lifespan of Jesus Christ was lived out in a country under enemy occupation with numerous terrorist groups committed to national liberation. The most violent group were referred to by the Romans occupation forces as the Sicarri; they carried hidden daggers and used to assassinate Jewish collaborators, especially in the crowds at festival times. This was merely, however, the ultra-violent terrorist fringe of a movement who called themselves Zealots. (6) One of Christ’s own disciples had been a Zealot, and it is possible that the term Iscariot is derived from Sicarri. Perhaps this is why Matthew (an ex tax-gatherer and hence collaborator) groups them together as Simon the Zealot and Judas the Assassin. (7)

Imagine the scene; a popular orator who could now become the front-man for a national uprising. Thousands of potential revolutionaries on a hillside ‘eating out of his hand’. Too good an opportunity to miss. Some activists refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer determined to take Him by force to make Him king. (8) But this was not His way, and this was not His hour. This was not His vocation. He acted promptly, removing his disciples from the danger zone and climbing the hill alone to receive fresh orders. (9)

It was in the shadow of these events that Jesus asked “who do the crowds say that I am?” Peter’s answer is unequivocal, Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (10) No sooner is this revelation established in Peter’s understanding than Christ’s thoughts turn to the significance of the role. His thoughts turn immediately to His hour; He must go to Jerusalem, He must suffer, He must be killed, He must rise again. (11) Peter protested and received the strongest possible rebuke. There could be no compromise on this issue. He was heading towards His hour and Peter’s misplaced compassion could not be allowed to hinder Him.

As events unfold the consciousness is of His appointment with the hour. The arrival and request of the non-Jews or Helenists provokes an awareness that the time has arrived. His soul is troubled but He knows that the whole purpose of His incarnation was to keep this appointment. It was in the consciousness of this imminent hour’s ultimate stripping of all His rights, that He stripped to the waist and acted out the role of the servant. It was with a supreme consciousness of the hour having arrived that He prayed the great prayer of personal consecration; which could only ever be accomplished by the works of the hour. (12) The repetition of the phrase is like the tolling of a great bell; the hour is coming. Mark records some of the words spoken in Gethsemene on the night of the betrayal. To the sleepy disciples He says Are you still sleeping and resting. It is enough! The hour has come! (13)

But other events were reaching their climax too, in an amazing synchronisation. Luke’s gospel adds another dimension to these momentous events. Those who arrived to arrest Him heard these extraordinary words; when I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness. The New International Version senses the mood in its freer translation; Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this is your hour – when darkness reigns. (14)

Satan’s and mankind’s wickedness has always had a restraint upon it. Although almost unbelievable evil had been seen in our world, the full force of a murderous malice aimed at God Himself had hardly been seen. For generations mankind had been able to hide behind the protest of an independent spirit; we will not have this man to reign over us. (15) The prophet Isaiah caught this refusal to submit to God’s reign when He records mysterious details of the original rebellion;                              

I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthert sides of the north;l
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High. (16) In this form of expression the rebellion is a bid for equality; I will be like the Most High, but as all restraint is removed in this cosmic conflict the expression takes on an unmistakable form; Crucify Him! (17) There is no hiding behind some kind of mutual co-existence now. The treacherous secret is out in the open. There never could have been two supreme beings in the universe; the nature of the usurper is clearly revealed; he intends to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. (18)

Calvary then was a battlefield where two mighty combatants were to meet. This was both My hour and your hour. A terrifying synchronisation of love and hate in all their full measure. The hour in which Evil and Good met is at the centre of the universe. A meeting in which one pretended to equality with God and who in this moment reaches out to take his prize, and One who existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. (19)

The cross was a demonstration. On the one hand it was an hour in which God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (20) On the other hand is wa an hour which demonstrated the workings of the darkest powers in the universe, in the attempted murder of God. It is a synchronisation beyond human comprehension of God’s carefully planned intention and foreknowledge, and the creature’s red-handed guilt. An old Charles Wesley hymn expressed a grateful wonder; Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? (21)

These are mysteries too profound for ordinary human words. God, however, has had a means of expressing something of the depths of these sufferings. The Bible itself tells us that Christ’s own Spirit has testified to His own sufferings. This testimony was ‘heard’ in the heart of prophets and is the source of much of their revelation. (22) King David was such a prophet, and Psalm 22 is that kind of prophecy. It is an amazing song written a thousand years before the hour, but recounts in powerful imagery the events of the hour. This psalm was not directly David’s testimony. David’s hands and feet were never pierced, not did men cast lots for his clothing. This is the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. (23) It first words reveal its real author; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (24)

If it is at all possible, read it now, down to verse 21. Its subtitle is ‘the hind of the dawn’ and the imagery is of a young deer hunted to exhaustion. Its atmosphere is heavy and brooding. It is Calvary’s cry of dereliction. It is prayer of One who in His identification with the human race in all its ruin is now a worm, and no man. He is quite alone; there is none to help. Alone, that is, except for His prowling enemies. He is impaled upon the horns of the wild oxen; this animal is almost certainly the now extinct great auroch. These were animals of prodigious and awesome strength and probably the most powerful animal known to those regions. In Bible idiom ‘horn’ is very often the symbol of power. The symbolism of Psalm 22 has its victim finally impaled on the horns of this terrible power.

There is a mystery within a mystery here. Ancient Israel’s laws were very explicit. If an ox gored to death a common slave compensation had to be paid to the slave’s owner. The price was fixed for all generations; thirty pieces of silver. (25) This fixed price may well have been in Matthew’s thoughts as he recorded Judas’ betrayal. Quoting from the prophecies of Jeremiah and Zechariah; They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel. (26) ‘Thirty pieces of silver’; the compensation price for a slave who had been gored to death by an ox.

Let’s return to our reading of Psalm 22. There is a point in the psalm where the whole atmosphere changes. It is half way through a verse in most modern translations, but Bible chapters and verse breaks are very arbitrary things. The New King James version format of the verses will help to make the point; Deliver me from the sword, My precious (life) from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horn’s of the wild oxen.
You have answered me.

I will declare your name to my brethren;
In the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (27)
The translators have done us a real service here. Psalm 22 has two quite separate sections with two entirely different atmospheres, and the change comes with the conviction that the prayers of the first section have been heard and answered; You have answered me. (28) Later in the psalm the writer records, when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of you in the great congregation. (29) 

In the second half of the psalm He is no longer alone. He knows that His prayer is heard and He looks forward with absolute certainty to the joys set before Him in the fellowship of His church (the great congregation). It is the familiar pattern of so much Old Testament prophecy; the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. (30)

Understood in this way the psalm becomes a commentary on a passage in the letter to the Hebrews. Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears; (and having been heard because of his piety). (31)

In the gospel account all these invisible mysteries are hidden from the natural eyes, but the moment of conviction that the work was accomplished rings through ‘loud and clear’; it is finished. (32) He had spoken of His death as a baptism which must be ‘accomplished’; using the same word. (33) Now emerging from His baptism, while still on the horns of the wild oxen, we hear the victor’s triumphal shout; ‘it is finished, it is accomplished, it is done! In one place, at one time, in the history of all creation evil in all its power and love in all its power kept their divine appointment, and the battle won. The appointment with the hour has been kept, and the Mission Accomplished.

Notes:
1. John 2:1-11
2. John 5:19 New International Version
3. John 2:9,11
4. John 7:38; 8:20.
5. Matt 14:13-21; Mark 6:33-44; Luke 9:11-17; John 6:2-14
6. A History of the Jews; Paul Johnson
7. Matt 10:4. This is a possible paraphrase. In Acts 21:38 the word translated ‘assassins’ is ‘sicarion.
8. John 6:15
9. Matt 14:23
10. Matt 16:16 King James. The ‘thou’ is emphasised in the original text.
11. Matt 16:21-28
12. John 12:23,27; 13:1; 17:1
13. Mark 14:41
14. Luke 22:53
15. Luke 19:14
16. Isaiah 14
17. Mark 15:13
18. John 10:10
19. Philippians 2:6 1901 American Standard Version
20. Romans 5:8
21. ‘And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?’ Charles Wesley
22. 1 Pet 1:10,11
23. Revelation 19:10
24. Psalm 22:1
25. Exodus 21:32
26. Matthew 27:9; Jeremiah 32:6-9; Zechariah 11:13
27. Psalm 22:2-22 KJV. Notice how the last section of verse 21 has been separated from the main body of the verse.
28. Psam 22:21b
29. Psalm 22:24,25
30. 1 Peter 1:11
31. Hebrews 5:7 J N Darby translation.
32. John 19:30
33. Luke 12:50

Next Door to Heaven (Part 7)

Next Door to Heaven (Part 7)
Ron Bailey


Setting the Stage


Luke is the main historian of the New Testament. He carefully date-stamps the beginnings of John’s work in water baptism by putting it, "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontus Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Itrurea and the region of Trachonitus and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene." (1) Caesar Augustus died in AD 14 but Tiberius Caesar was associated with him for the last two years of his reign; this gives us a date of AD 26 for Luke’s account of John Baptist’s ministry.

Paul gives a different kind of time scale. In the passage where he had described Israel’s years of waiting for the Seed to come He refers to the coming future moment as the "time appointed by the father." And then with a note of triumph he declares when the fulness of the time had come God sent forth his Son. (2) His word for ‘fulness’ was a word used of a ship being fully manned and ready for sailing, as the English would says ‘a full ship’s complement’. We might even paraphrase it very loosely by saying when everything was completely ready God launched his Son.

The coming of Christ was not the result of a sudden impulse on the part of the Godhead, but a perfectly synchronized and perfectly executed keeping of an appointment. On the natural level we can see how the political events of the past centuries had prepared the Mediterranean world for the coming of the Truth. The momentous changes that over hundreds of years would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands were all the preparations for history’s central event. The stage was being set…

On the level of language the conquests of Alexander the Great, three hundred years earlier, had spread Greek culture from Greece to India. If the Finns (3) are the snow-specialists and the Hebrews are the sin-specialists then the Greeks were the thinking-specialists. They had numerous words for thought processes which gave the possibility of great exactness to communication; they were the idealists of the ancient world. Their philosophers and their philosophies still hold a place of honor in western universities. Their language developed in such a way that its prepositions, for example, could have an almost mathematical precision. Greek commerce (they were great sailors) had consolidated their cultural base around the borders of the Mediterranean. The stage was being set…

Greek ideas filtered into Judaism sometimes to advantage and sometimes not. The people of the Old Covenant who spread throughout the Mediterranean became more at home in Greek than in Hebrew and a Greek translation of their sacred scriptures was produced. (4) This is turn, gave non-Hebrews the opportunity to learn about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to consider the moral codes of Judaism. This version of the Bible was later to become one of the most powerful weapons in the early spread of Christianity. The stage was being set…

This Greek culture mind-set was taken up by the Roman empire which followed Alexander’s and proved a lingua-franca of thoughts and ideas for western Europe. (5) The Romans who later annexed the broken remnants of Alexander’s successors also added their own contribution. The Romans were the law-specialists. Its codification, its application and its enforcement were all part of the lasting consequence of the Roman Empire. Their army operated not only as frightening machine of conquest but as an international police force.

The Romans cleared the Mediterranean of pirates. They established a system of roads to speed their armies from one location to another. In Britain there were better roads in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD under the Romans than in the 18th century! A network of roads spread from Rome to the Persian Gulf to North Africa, to the whole of Western Europe including most of Britain. Their shipping routes and road network expedited the itinerant preachers of the gospel and gave them a measure of safety. The Roman Pax Romana was harsh, but it was peace. The stage was being set…

On the inner frontiers too the time was ripe. Greek philosophies might gratify the mind but they could never warm the heart. Much Greek philosophy was highly speculative but a consensus had been reached that the physical world and the body in particular was essentially evil. Being ‘evil’ it must be restrained. In some ways philosophies were a reaction against the puerile and amoral antics of the Greek gods. The high moral ground of Judaism was an attraction to many at this time. Some converted and became thorough going Jewish proselytes, and some merely became fellow-travellers known as ‘God fearers’.

The emotional vacuum began to be filled with designer-religions from the east where rationality had no part at all. They are known as the Mystery Religions and have been described as "coming from the East these Oriental systems had over centuries first seeped into, then flooded the Empire. Spiritistic in origin; bizarre in method; immoral in manner of life; fanatical in demands; grotesque in ritual; degrading in effect, they shocked their way into the Roman world." (6) In terms of true spirituality these religions were bankrupt from their beginnings, but initiation rites supplied a sense of belonging. The stage was being set…

The heathen world was ripe for the gospel. It is remarkable how different but similar our current world is to those days. Again we have the sterile philosophical speculations of secular humanism and the bizarre practices of New Age religion. Again we have possibilities of communication on a level never before available. These, too, are days of unprecedented opportunities for the spread of the Truth. Among the people of the Old Covenant two things were poised for a unique purpose. Synagogue worship probably began in the time of the Babylonion exile. It has been said that, "Nebuchadnezzar’s battering rams breached Israel’s theology."

When Jerusalem fell in 587 BC Israel’s destiny seemed to be ruined beyond any hope of repair. David’s dynasty and all the promises that surrounded it seemed lost in the exile and humiliation of Judah’s last monarch, Zedekiah. (7) Their sacrosanct ‘son of David’, their sacrosanct city and their sacrosanct temple and priesthood disappeared in wall of flame. Every national symbol of their faith perished in that conflagration.


Beyond consolation, they mourned their loss by the rivers of Babylon. (8) But the rivers of Babylon were the scene for new beginnings too. Separated from the territorial distractions of their promised land they began a Judaism which was no longer dependent upon priest and temple; the Judaism of the synagogues. Its key workers were no longer the priests but the scribes and lawyers. It became bible-based rather than temple-based.


The Babylonian captivity was also a watershed for the development of the Diaspora; the scattered ones. (9) The people of the Old Covenant spread throughout the known world and wherever they settled they formed synagogues. (10) One legend has it that there were 394 synagogues in Jerusalem alone when Titus destroyed it in AD 70. And the vast majority of Jews lived outside their promised land. 


Between 73 & 581 BC there were six distinct deportations of the Israelites, and more fled voluntarily into Egypt and other parts of the Near East. From this time onwards, a majority of Jews would always live outside the Promised Land. (11)
 
It may be difficult for the modern reader to appreciate the size of the Diaspora. One calculation is that during the Herodian period there were about eight million Jews in the world, of whom, 2,350,000 to 2,500,000 lived in Palestine, the Jews thus constituted about 10% of the Roman Empire. (12) And wherever they settled they formed their synagogues. Synagogues which were witnesses to God’s earlier revelation to Moses.

When James the apostle had addressed the conference in Jerusalem he had been most mindful of this Jewish presence and witness throughout the world. It was with these in mind and the numerous proselytes and God-fearers that the early Christians subscribed, for love’s sake, to some simple prohibitions of diet. James had made the point very clearly in his address. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in the synagogues every Sabbath. (13)
 
These synagogue communities constituted not only a potentially fruitful mission field for the gospel, but a rich network of contacts and associations throughout the Mediterranean area. Not only ‘mission fields’ but ‘mission bases’ from which the gospel might have spread like a prairie fire. As a mission strategy it was perfect. Wherever seekers were seeking the synagogue was the perfect starting point. Spiritual pilgrims, at whatever point in their pilgrimage, had access to those who were preaching Moses and pointing to the true God. It is no accident that the synagogue or its equivalent was always Paul’s first point of contact. (14) The stage was being set…


There is a time gap of almost 430 years between the prophecy of Malachi and the events of Luke’s histories. During this time there was, no doubt, much setting of the stage. It was during this time that the synagogues grew to such importance. It was during this time that the empires of Alexander and his successors rose and fell. It was during this time that the bloody wars of the Maccabees were fought. It was during this time that the empire of Rome rose to prominence. The stage had received most of its final preparations during this time and yet there had been a strange omission. The spirit of prophecy seemed to have died out. These were the silent years. The length of the gap is not insignificant. For a third of its history the people of the Covenant had been without a Spirit-inspired messenger.


There are four messengers in the book of Malachi; the last book of the Old Testament. The name ‘Malachi’ means messenger, so he is the first. Israel, the priest-nation was to have been ‘the messenger’ (Malachi 2:7) Then in the last two chapters we are introduced to two more messengers. There is one called ‘my messenger’ (Malachi 3:1) whose work is to prepare the way for the fourth and final messenger. The final messenger is described as ‘the Lord… the messenger of the covenant’. (Malachi 3:1)


For four hundred years they waited. The super-powers of those centuries ebbed and flowed in their control of the ‘promised land’. The people of God waited. Their hopes flamed and died away again as their nationalistic heroes began a new golden age that quickly degenerated into a sordid power struggle. They waited… False Messiah’s came with their promises awakening hopes of deliverance which all came to nothing. (15) And still they waited.


Some of those who waited are known to us by name. Simeon was one who was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Anna too knew of those who were waiting for redemption, and was quick to tell them the news of what she had witnessed. (16) Perhaps many had given up hoping, but there were those like Abraham before them who contrary to hope, in hope believed. For perhaps close on 15 centuries the people had boasted a special relationship with God, and for the last four centuries He had had nothing to say to them. All natural optimism must surely have been long dead. But this too, is just the setting of the stage…


Suddenly, without any apparent warning, there comes a flurry of Holy Spirit activity. In clear preparation for some powerful new initiative from God there is often an unmistakable preparation; the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters. (17) An angel interrupts a solemn temple service with a promise of the soon arrival of a Spirit-filled messenger to be born to the aged wife of a aged priest. (18) Six months later the same angel visits a young teenager with the message that the Spirit is about to effect unheard-of miracles within her virgin body. (19)
 
In the moment that the two potential mothers meet, the older woman is filled with the Holy Spirit; a phenomenon not recorded for the previous 400 years! Three months later her aged husband, the priest, experiences the same phenomenon. (20) And an angel visits the virgin’s betrothed husband, and soon shepherds see the skies filled with angel warriors. (21) The sense of anticipation grows. The final preparations are being completed. The stage is set. 


The ‘fulness of the time’ has come… the dayspring from on high has visited us… (22) there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. (23) When the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman…(24)


Notes:
1. Luke 3:1
2. Galatians 4:2,4
3. See Chapter 1
4. The Septuagint, often referred to simply by the Roman numerals LXX.
5. Captive Greece took Rome captive: Horace
6. H Brash Bonsall
7. 2 Kings 24:17-25:7
8. Psalm 137
9. The Disapora are the people referred to in John 7:35. Jews living outside the land of Israel.
10. Acts 13:5,14; 14:1; 17:10
11. A History of the Jews: Paul Johnson.
12. Encyclopaedia Judaica xiii 871
13. Acts 15:21
14. Acts 16:13
15. Acts 5:36,37
16. Luke 2:25,38
17. Gen 1:2 Young’s Literal Translation
18. Luke 1:11-17
19. Luke 1:26-37
20. Luke 1:67
21. Matt 1:18-24
22. Luke 1:78
23. Luke 2:11
24. Gal 4:4

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 5)

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 5)

Ron Bailey

A Lost Destiny

C S Lewis wrote a science fiction trilogy; the second volume was called ‘Voyage to Venus’. It told the story of a man from earth who arrived on Venus just as that world was being created. Lewis’ Venus had its own Adam and Eve, and its own devil. The man from earth is instrumental in preventing a repeat of earth’s tragedy and as the book comes to its conclusion the whole of the Venus creation is gathered around its own Adam and Eve in happy celebration. The couple wants the visitor from earth to share their celebrations, but he cannot bear the sight and lies face down on the ground. “Don’t raise me up”, he says “I have never seen a real man or a real woman. I have lived all my life among shadows and broken images”.

We have learned to live in our fallen world; we have never known anything better. They say that you never miss what you never had, but I don’t think it is true. We do miss what we never knew although we are hard pressed to explain our longings. The cultures of the world look backwards or forwards to a golden age when things will be as they ought. Where does this longing for Utopia, Shangri-La arise? How is that we can imagine this thing that has never been?

Paul’s letter to the Romans adds a further thought to the accusation of universal sinfulness; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God(1), In that short sentence there lies the hidden half of our tragedy; we have not only ‘sinned’ but we ‘fall short of the glory of God’. We never became what we were intended to be. In the words of C S Lewis, we have spent all our lives among shadows and broken images. Ephesus was a magnificent city; its white stones still glitter in the bright sun. It is a ruin; its glory is gone but just enough remains to give us an idea of what it must have been like in its prime. Our race is the same; it still glitters and is capable of marvelous exploits, but it is a ruin with just enough remaining to haunt us as to what might have been…

What is man? That is a question that has often been asked and answered in a variety of ways. Mark Twain wrote an essay to answer the question and the human race constantly attempts to define itself, but is there a definitive answer? An intuitive shepherd boy asked the question some 3000 years ago and provided some astonishing answers.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psa 8:4-6 KJV)

The current scientific consensus is that man is a little higher than the apes. David, the shepherd boy, had a different perspective; man is a little lower than the angels. In fact, the word translated ‘angels’ here is a Hebrew word; elohim(2) and can be translated ‘gods’. David’s vision of mankind is amazing; there is nothing negative in his description. There is no sign of sin or its ravages. This is man as he was created; in the image and likeness of God. Our race was created to be the living link between heaven and earth. In our spirits we were a functioning part of the spirit world of God and angels. In our bodies we were a functioning part of the physical creation. Our unique glory was that we were to be equally at home in each.

David describes mankind as; ‘crowned with glory and honour’. Our race was created to be noble and glorious; instinct with life and power. If we were to give a definition I wonder if it would resemble David’s? Not unless we had the same vision. There is no sin in this definition of ‘man’ because sin is not part of man’s original constitution. It is easy to forget this; we have spent all our lives among shadows and broken images. He was created perfect in an original state of childlike innocence. As a consequence of right choices he would have become holy. God is holy, angels are holy, and man was created to be holy. Man’s holiness would not have been angelic holiness anymore than the angels have divine holiness, but he would have been holy nevertheless. 

Our race was given ‘dominion’ over the rest of the sentient creation, but it was not a tyrannical dominion. He was to serve the creation and guard it (3). Man was creation’s masterpiece and its chief servant. His service of God was to be worked out in his serving of the creation; he would have become a co-worker with God. His original ‘project’ was a garden with 3 rivers in it but all the earth was his potential task. He worked, not to pay the bills, but because it was his calling under God. When anything is functioning in the environment for which it was created there is perfect harmony; so it was to have been.

That plaintive cry comes to my mind again; “what hast thou done?” He plunged our race into disgrace and bestiality; that is what he had done. Perhaps we should not be surprised that the scientific consensus is that he is a little higher than the beasts; there is little evidence in his history that he was ever behaved like someone who was a little lower than the angels.

There is a amazing link to this theme in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In reference to Christ and Adam he says; The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven(4). The first man is Adam, the second man is Christ. There have only ever been two men; the others did not deserve the label, and the first did not deserve it for long. If the definition of man is that he is in the image and likeness of God, and that he is crowned with glory and honour, then there have only ever been two men.

Christ’s qualification is plain to see. In his incarnation he was the one Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (5) He was determined to carry this role through all his trials. Satan tempted Him by demanding that he prove He was the Son of God. Christ’s answer begins; “it is written man shall not…”(6) His life on earth was as the representative of the race; He was the second man.

What a culmination of tragedies had eclipsed God’s creation designed to be in His own image and likeness From his glorious beginnings to disgrace and degradation. From a being designed to be the dwelling place of God, he has become infested with an alien spirit. From a being with the capacity to be indwelt with God’s own life, he has become the carrier of Sin and Death. Man had become a magnificent ruin, haunted by a rebellious spirit. God’s glorious plan appeared to be wrecked by a cosmic vandal; the race of Man was spoiled beyond repair.

I am trying to be disciplined in the telling of this story but I cannot resist the temptation at this point to run ahead just a little. There have only ever been two men, but there will be more… The writer to the Hebrews had this in mind when he said; But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ( ). The disgraced race had a champion and he has prevailed; we shall know again the glory from which Adam fell, and more…

Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest;
And all the sons of want are blessed.

Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more;
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.(7) 


Notes:
1. (Rom 3:23 NASB). 
2. Elohim sometimes refers to angels and judges and often God Himself. It is a word that is used to signify someone as ultimate authority in a given situation. This fits well with the context of Psalm 8.
3. And Jehovah God taketh the man, and causeth him to rest in the garden of Eden, to serve it, and to keep it. (Gen 2:15 Youngs Literal Translation)
4. 1Co 15:47 KJV
5. Heb 1:3 KJV
6. Matt 4:3,4
7. Heb 2:6-10 KJV
8. Isaac Watts: Jesus shall reign where’er the sun…

Next Door to Heaven (Chapter 1)

Next Door to Heaven Ron Bailey Chapter 1 Disobedience and Disaster It is only logical that in trying to discover the origins of things we should turn to the book of the beginnings which is what the word 'Genesis' really means. The Bible does not attempt to be a chronicle of world history. It is a highly selective, God's eye view, of key events in the destiny of the human race; it is mankind's story. It is the only genuine explanation for the world as we have come to know it. In the Bible other histories do touch mankind's history from time to time but the creation of the angels is not mentioned, and the animal creation is only referred to in passing; it is man's story, but where other histories touch ours the point of contact gives fascinating insights. At a specific point in human history God breathed a spirit of life into the creature he had formed and that creature became a living soul. Man was made with a unique description and destiny; he was made in the image and likeness of God. He was given authority to care for the rest of the creation as its chief servant. His role was to be a servant-king for creation itself; true dominion is the authority to serve. The man, Adam, was placed into the garden of Eden to serve it and guard it. The woman shared this destiny with the man, being in Adam when Adam received his commission. There's a gentle hint of the nature of man's amazing relationship with God in the words of Christ to the Pharisees regarding divorce. Jesus says that God had decreed that one man and one woman should be united, but a reading of the account in Genesis might suggest that it was Adam who voiced the statement. Adam was to learn by revelation rather than experiment. His relationship with God was such that God's words could flow spontaneously from him, and the words of a man would be the Word of God. What a destiny! God's will done on earth, as it was in heaven. This intimacy was devastated by mankind's sin. The sin was disobedience. The biblical revelation is that the woman was deceived by the Tempter, but that the man sinned with his eyes wide open. The story and its consequences are all too familiar. Sin brought immediate separation from fellowship with God and consequently from the presence of God too. It also quickly revealed the characteristic human trait of blaming others for our own faults. The sin was not merely the taking of forbidden fruit; that was the outward manifestation of an inward folly. Man had imbibed the Satanic lie that he need not remain under God's authority; he could go-it-alone and become a god himself. The noun 'god' is used in the Old Testament to describe not only the one true God, but to designate someone in ultimate authority in a given situation. Consequently it is used of judges and angels in certain contexts. The nature of the temptation and man's response to it shows clearly that this was a break for freedom, and a usurping of God's rightful place. The letter to the Romans contains this same truth; although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful. Although the man had been warned of the consequences of such action he made his choice and sealed his fate. The temptation, like most temptations, was at its root a slander against God's character. God was reported as being selfish and possessive. God was portrayed as standing between men and man's true destiny. God's influence must be eradicated. Man had nothing to loose but his chains. As in all temptations there was a genuine point of contact between the Tempter and the tempted, and an element of truth which could be manipulated. It is probable that Adam did have a sense of destiny; future glories awaited him. There was within him amazing potential and the Tempter tapped into it. Satan is not a creator. He does not have the power to create but he does have the power to corrupt what has already been created. The most beautiful instincts in the human race have been distorted almost beyond recognition by this cosmic vandal. God had greatness in store for man, but in His time and by His means. This Satanic short-cut was a slur on the character of God, and a buy-now-pay-later bait which Adam swallowed whole. Frustration is always a sign of unbelief. It is also an indication that I want to be in control. I will be a god. I will impose my will. I will have what I want now. For the believer it is a sure call to prayer. Activities pursued in frustration never produce lasting satisfaction; they merely bury the seeds of impatience for a future harvest. If Adam did fear that his opportunity was passing there is a remarkable parable of this in the Bible story of King Saul. (1 Samuel 9 onwards) At his beginning Saul was an exemplary man; physically and morally head and shoulders above his peers. Greatness awaited him. His destiny was to be a powerful servant-king for the people of Israel. At a point early in his reign frustration and fear ruled his conduct. Instead of waiting for God's time he precipitated an action which he reasoned was in everyone's best interests; a religious sacrifice to prevent the army's defection. Samuel the prophet echoes the words of Eden's fateful day; "what have you done?" He had forfeited his destiny; that is what he had done. We shall return to this theme later. For King Saul the disaster would take some time to work through. His initial feelings may have been shame or loss, but the full consequences were not immediately apparent. Saul had pre-empted God's provision in an independent action which was the beginning of the end of his unique role as a servant-king of Israel. In the moment of Saul's sentence of dismissal comes a promise of another man who will fulfil God's destiny. Saul’s intended destiny was not a fantasy, but the genuine intention of God. God, however, is not to be taken by surprise and the future provision was already in hand. This is all a remarkable echo of the Genesis account. Light shines in the darkness. It was in mankind's darkest hour that God declared his settled intention to the vandal; I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15) Man's disobedience had an immediate consequence for the creation that had been placed under his authority and care. The creation as we now know it has been described as a beautiful bride who on the day of her intended wedding receives the news that the husband-to-be has committed suicide. It is a stark and sombre image. Paul's letter to the Romans tells us that the whole creation shared Adam's fall. This is not the place to examine the controversy between Creationism and Darwinian Evolution hypotheses, but the world as we see it is now is both wonderful and amazingly cruel. For every evidence of a wise and loving creator there seems to be a counter-evidence for 'nature red in tooth and claw'. Most sensitive observers will see in nature cause for celebration of the marvel of life and that which evokes a feeling of deep distress. The biblical revelation is that the creation itself is in distress; things are not as they were, or as they were intended to be nor, indeed, as they will be at some future time. Events have occurred which have profoundly affected the world around us. The language of Romans is poignant; we read of it being subjected to futility, imprisoned in corruption, it groans as in the pains of childbirth. Let's stay with the picture of frustration. The English word comes from a word meaning in vain. The effort seems to be pointless. Life is an endless round of 'might-have-beens'. This painful conclusion is what the writer of Ecclesiastes discovered for himself. Here was a man equipped with all the resources of his day to find fulfilment in life. At every attempt in every area of life he arrives at the same verdict; all is in vain. It is literally meaning-less. This is not to say that there is no enjoyment in life, but that it is always hauntingly incomplete. "Life is a short, fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot give. When we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay down our instruments. There is not time enough to think, to become, to perform what the constitution of our natures indicates we are capable of. " is how A W Tozer once described it. So man sits, like Charles Dickens' Miss Haversham, amidst the dying wreckage of all those might-have-beens. So much for this bold bid for freedom. Man's short-cut to destiny has proved to be a certain route to disaster.