Recap: The goal of the current series of posts is to ensure that our quest for a non-contradictory, true-to-Scripture doctrine of election (and all Christian doctrine) is established on a firm, biblical foundation. In the recent posts we looked at the holiness of God - righteous and just (Post 18) and we looked at God's unwavering commitment to protect his glory, which I defined as the visible display of his holiness (Post 19). We saw the God-man Jesus as the exact representation of God's holiness - the radiance of his glory (Post 20).
In the last two posts, we explored the enigma of being human - unholy (unrighteous and unjust) yet the pinnacle of God's creation, endued with amazing divine attributes and with the potential of an even higher level of glorification through our steady beholding of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 3:18).
In this post, we begin to connect the pieces. God's amazing plan to save the world through his Son, Jesus Christ, begins to take shape.
The Death of Life
What happens when the Creator and Sustainer of life dies? What happens when the One who gives "all men life, breath, and everything else" dies? What happens when the "Light of men" dies? This is the amazing circumstance of the death of Jesus on the cross. The apostle Paul answers those questions with this jaw-dropping "conclusion" -
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; (2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV).
Although we can certainly look at the cross from a number of perspectives and still never plumb the depths of the most significant, impactful, paradigm-shifting event in the history of the universe, Paul's amazing disclosure in his letter to the Corinthian church is not often fully comprehended by most Christians.
The phrase "we have concluded" indicates that Paul's statement is really the culmination of some significant mental reflection on his part. Even though Paul's theology came directly from Jesus himself (Gal 1:12), the implication is that this particular revelation regarding the effect of the cross was not immediately made known to him, nor to the other apostles. Their conclusion is that the cross was, in a very real sense, the beginning of a complete spiritual reboot of all of creation. When Jesus died, everyone died! The (spiritual) population of the world at the moment of Jesus' death on the cross - zero!
As prophesied, while on the cross, Jesus drew everyone - all of mankind - to himself (John 12:32). When one died, all died. At the cross, it seems that God "neutralized" (kind of like the "flashy thing" in Men in Black) all human life in the world - not physical life as with the flood, but spiritual life, with a consuming fire - the cross.
New Life
So, when Jesus, the "second Adam"(1 Cor 15:47), - the "firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15) - arose from the tomb, he stepped out into a spiritual void - a lifeless world, but one that was completely reconciled to God for the first time since the Garden (2 Cor 5:19). When Jesus emerged from the tomb, it was as the first ray of sunlight in the morning, casting its warm glow across a cold, dark and desolate spiritual landscape. A new hope had arrived. Love, life, and warmth were on the way. The life-giving, life-sustaining Hope of a new world was about to kindle new life... again.
The Eyes of the Heart
The spiritual deadness of the entire world - the result of the cross - is manifested in the pages of Scripture as blindness. "Dead" people walk. "Dead" people talk and work and play, and laugh - but spiritually dead people can't see until the eyes of their hearts are opened. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he would not be able to see the kingdom of God unless he was born anew (John 3:3).
This spiritual blindness caused by the cross is evident from the first encounter with the risen Jesus at the tomb. Mary Magdalene sees Jesus, but in her spiritual deadness she doesn't recognize him until he softly calls her name - the life-giving call from the Voice of new life. "Mary", he said. That was it - the still, small voice of God. Her spiritual eyes open. Life pours into her soul. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher) (John 20:16 ESV). The "re-population" of the world had begun.
In a similar fashion, two disciples heading home that same day, encounter the risen Lord. Yet, in their new state of blindness, they did not recognize him even though they walked and talked together for several hours. Yet, as they sat down to eat, after Jesus blessed, broke the bread and gave it to them - their eyes were opened, and they recognized him (Luke 24:31 ESV). The Bread of new life took away their blindness.
Even his apostles, his closest disciples and friends, failed to recognize the risen Lord. The Bible tells us that, when they beheld Jesus, the Giver of new life, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, they could not reconcile what they were seeing with the image that they beheld with the "eyes of their hearts" (Eph 1:18), giving us one of the strangest and most provocative verses in all of Scripture. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord (John 21:12 ESV).
The Remnant
With these wonderful, yet intriguing stories, we witness the beginning of the restoration of the promised remnant and the launching of the Christian Church. These stories are evidence that God had not forsaken his people and had not abandoned his promises.
I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! ... God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. (Romans 11:1-2 NIV) ... at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. (Romans 11:5 NIV)
And although, in the verse above, Paul was referring specifically to the Jewish remnant, foreknown and chosen by grace, the Jews were not the only people who were in God's plan of restoration, nor was God's plan of redemption restricted to the remnant. At the Jerusalem Council, James makes clear to those gathered, that the grace of God that offers new life has now been extended to the whole world.
Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles... that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things'-- (Acts 15: 14,17 NIV)
Final Thought
While there are many ways to appreciate and celebrate the cross, we can't overlook the amazing truth that, on that day, God initiated a whole new and wondrous phase of his plan to save the world. With his words to the Jerusalem Council, James, the brother of Jesus, makes clear that, after the cross, "(all) of mankind is able to seek the Lord." The door of grace has swung wide open, revealing a mystery that has been "hidden for ages"(Eph 3:9) - a peek into how the holy God was going to use his glorious Son to provide salvation for the most precious of his creatures - us.
Next Post: In the next post we'll see that this understanding of the cross - God's "reboot of creation" - is a key for solving a "mystery" and much of the confusion regarding the doctrine of election. Here's a link to the next post:
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