Next Door to Heaven (Chapter 10)

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 10)

Ron Bailey

The Baptism

The death of Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures in many different pictures; each one bringing a new facet of the event into clearer view. Passages sometimes arrest our attention simply because they use symbols which come ‘out of the blue’; without warning or expectation. One of these must surely be the idea of Christ’s death as a baptism.

Chronologically, the first time He did this is recorded in Luke’s gospel; "I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!” (1) It comes in the context of a passage where He has spoken of the need to be vigilant and prepared for His return, and His thoughts have turned to future judgments. It seems that His thoughts connected this picture of a fiery judgment with a future experience of His own. I often thought it a great pity that the translators did not use slightly different language here. The last phrase might well have been translated ‘it is finished’ and would have given us an immediate link with the moment of this ‘baptism’; So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (2) This eliminates all possible of confusion; this baptism is the moment of His death. It is ‘the hour’ and the moment of ‘propitiation’.

He describes the experience as ‘a baptism to be baptized with’; which seems tautological to Western ears. The Hebrew language has a particular way of emphasizing something; it repeats the idea. This is the background of phrases like ‘The Holy of Holies’, ‘The King of Kings’, ‘The Song of Songs’, and many more. When James, in his letter, wanted to speak of intense prayer our English translations speak of ‘fervent prayer’, but James’ own language speaks of ‘praying with prayer’; Elijah was a man like affected as we, and with prayer he did pray--not to rain, and it did not rain upon the land three years and six months; (3) The phrase then, as used by Christ, is not a pointless repetition but a way of indicating the intensity of the event. This, we might say, is the ‘baptism of all baptisms’.

As we read the words of Christ it is clear that this ‘baptism of all baptisms’ is a event which must be achieved before other events can transpire. The New King James version says He was ‘distressed’, but the word really means ‘held fast’. He was unable to unlock the future until this work was finished. All that He has come to do lies on the other side of this ‘baptism’; there is no access to it without this ‘baptism’. It is the focus of all history.

The same picture is captured in the book of Revelation. Mankind’s history lies closed and sealed and John is overwhelmed with the distress of such an impasse. "So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne." (4) Not until the Lamb had taken His place in the Throne could the future be released, and the Lamb is a lamb that has passed through death; as though it had been slain. The ‘baptism’ has unlocked the future.

The second incident in which Christ referred to His death as a ‘baptism’ in recorded in both Matthew and Mark. (5) This time the context is dispute among the disciples as to who would get the highest status places in the coming Kingdom. Christ’s response is powerful rebuke but in surprising language. But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"(6) Again we see this intense expression; a baptism to be baptised with. This time however it is associated with another symbol; the Cup. It was His destiny to ‘take the cup’; to consciously embrace all that His Father’s will included. The Cup is uppermost in His mind in the sufferings of Gethsemane; And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." (7) The imagery is very powerful. In our mind’s eye we see the Father offering the cup, and Christ’s phrase ‘this cup’; it is no longer distant but at hand.

We see too His instinctive expression of Sonship in the word ‘Abba’, used only here in the gospels. His mission was not forced upon Him, but offered by the Father’s outstretched hand. The word ‘Abba’ is an expression of nearest intimacy. Mark’s gospel records that en route to the journey to the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane Christ had quoted a piece of scripture from the prophet Zechariah; Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.’…”(8) It is an amazing piece pf scripture and one which explains the horror of Gethsemane. Its impact will be seen if we identify just who is speaking in the quotation; who is the ‘I’ of ‘I will strike the Shepherd?

The prophet Zechariah lived over 500 years before Christ. How could he have said something which struck such horror in the heart of Christ? It is a passage of scripture which sends a shiver down the spine. Without trying to explain the context let us just quote the words as we find them in Zechariah’s prophecy; And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. (9) The words appear suddenly in Zechariah’s prophecy without explanation; what are these wounds in thine hands? These words point to the nature of what awaits Him in the next few hours, but it is not the nature of the wounds that breaks His heart, but their source. The one who speaks is God Himself; Jehovah of Hosts. Their horror is to be seen in the words awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow… smite the shepherd.

For centuries God had instructed the people of the Old Covenant that He was ‘One God’. That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. (10) But in other parts of the scripture we have strange hints that the full story is more complex than this simple statement. It is not that the statement is not true, but that there is more truth to be added to it. In the book of the Proverbs, for example, the writer personifies Wisdom, and suddenly finds that Wisdom (11) speaks back to him. The word ‘Wisdom’ is very close to what John meant by ‘the Word’ in the first chapter of his gospel. Wisdom testifies to an existence that pre-dates the whole of creation, and to a wonderful intimacy with God; I was by Him. (12) It continues in a wonderful picture of an eternal fellowship of delight and laughter in ‘heaven’ before anything was made. This ‘perfect fellowship of eternal co-equals’ theologians have called Trinity. No shadow ever dimmed this fellowship; all was in perfect harmony… until the day God said ‘awake, o sword, against the man that is my fellow’.

There is a little Bible cameo of Father and Son in perfect accord in the story of Abraham and Isaac. On two occasions in that account there is a simple phrase ‘and they went both of them together’ (13) ; Father and Son journeying ‘together’ to the place of sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac went beyond the sight of those who travelled with them, and at Calvary Father and Son went beyond all human observation. Where no one could witness Abraham took the knife in his hand and began the downward strike, when an angel intervened and stopped him mid-strike. At Calvary there was no angel. It was not the wounded hands that broke Christ’s heart, but the knowledge that His Father held the sword. Another prophet had seen it even before Zechariah; He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. (14)

Gethsemane was Calvary seen in prospect. A great Victorian preacher once said “The debt is discharged to the utmost farthing; the account is cleared; the balance is struck; the scales of justice turn in our favor; God's sword is sheathed for ever, and the blood of Christ has sealed it in its scabbard." (15) It was as though the Father had unsheathed the sword of His righteous indignation against all sin, and sheathed it once and forever in the body of His Son. But the pain of separation in that ‘eternal moment’ is conveyed in just a few words when Christ cried ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me’. The eternal consciousness of ‘Abba, Father’ was gone, and in its place there remained the determination to drain the cup to its bitterest drops. When the Greeks described the utter overwhelming of stricken ship they would use the word ‘baptism’. This was His cup and His baptism.

There is an interesting question that Paul asked the disciples in Ephesus; And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism." (16) I wonder how we would answer the question if we asked it of Christ’s Baptism; ‘into what was He baptised?’ John Baptist baptised his converts in water, and later Christ would baptise His sons in Spirit and Fire, but what was the element into which He Himself was ‘baptized’? The term ‘baptize’ was used in many ways, including Greek cookery recipes. It had the idea of a thorough soaking through which the flavours of the marinade passed into the vegetables or meat. In that sense something which is baptised shares the nature of the element that it is baptised into. We can see this in the letter to the Romans where Paul speaks of a union which is produced by baptism; Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (17) It was used to describe how a piece of white cloth ‘baptised’ into a purple die would become united with the dye to produce purple cloth.

So we repeat our question; into what was Christ baptised? There is another clue half-hidden in a language. In Hebrew one word for sin is ‘chataah’, however, the word for ‘sin-offering’ is also ‘chataah’. There is such an identity of the ‘sin’ with its ‘sin-offering’ that one word covers both. The consequence of this is that Bible translators have to look at the context to decide whether to translate the word as ‘sin’ or ‘sin offering’. In one sense, just making the decision, interrupts the identity. For the Hebrew mind-set it would have been impossible to consider the one without the other. The simple answer to our question is that He was thoroughly united with humanity, not just its outward appearance, but with all that it had become. He was born as man in order to be completely identified with man; one with him. But the identification was made complete in the overwhelming tide of Calvary when He became baptised into all that mankind had become. Is this an extreme statement? For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (18) Some Bible students have said ‘but this really means a sin-offering rather than sin’; in the heart of God and in the mind-set of the Hebrew there was complete identity between both. The judgment of the ‘sin offering’ was the judgment of the ‘sin’. This is representation, identification and substitution; He was made sin. When the priest placed his hands upon the goat he said ‘this for us, this is us, this is instead of us’.

There is a story which often comes to my mind when I think these thoughts. It is the story of the final conflict between an Otter, Tarka; and an Otterhound, Deadlock; in Devonshire. The Otterhound had been the curse of Tarka’s family for generations; father, mother, mate and children had all fallen victim to Deadlock cruel jaws. Finally Deadlock chases Tarka into the coastal waters…

Deadlock saw the small brown head, and bayed in triumph as he jumped down the bank. He bit into the head, lifted the otter high, flung him about and fell into the water with him. They saw the broken head look up beside Deadlock, heard the cry of "Ic-yang" as Tarka bit into his throat, and the hound was sinking; with the otter into the deep water.

Oak-leaves black and rotting in the mud of the unseen bed, arose and swirled and sank again. And the tide slowed still. and began to move back, and they waited and watched, until the body of Deadlock arose, drowned and heavy, and floated away amidst the froth on the waters.

They pulled the body out of the river and carried it to the bank, laying it on the grass, and looking down at the dead hound is sad wonder. And while they stood there silently, a great bubble rose out of the depths. and broke, and as they watched, another bubble shook to the surface, and broke; and there was a third bubble in the sea going waters, and nothing more. (19)

Tarka had taken his ancient enemy down into death with himself. So our wonderful Saviour took down into death, with Himself, all that mankind had become. Our old man was co-crucified with Him. (20) By death He rendered powerless him that had the power of death. (21) His great, bloody, baptism had brought all the consequences of Sin and Death in the human race to an end, in Himself. It was… all …finished.

Notes:
1. Luke 12:49, 50 NKJV
2. John 19:30 NKJV
3. Jam 5:17 Young’s Literal Translation
4. Revelation 5:4-7 NKJV
5. Matt 20:2-28; Mark 10:35-40
6. Matt 20:22; Mark 10:38
7. Mark 14:36 NKJV
8. Zechariah 13:7
9. Zechariah 13:6,7 KJV
10. Isaiah 45:6 NKJV
11. Proverbs 8
12. Proverbs 8:30
13 Genesis 22:6, 8.
14. Isaiah 53:3,4
15. Charles Spurgeon: “Death and Life in Christ” preached on Sunday Morning, April 5th, 1863
16 Act 19:3 NASB
17. Romans 6:4,5.
18. 2 Corinthians 5:21
19. Tarka the Otter: Henry Williamson
20. Romans 6:6
21. Hebrews 2:14

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 (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…