Author Archives: asphaleia

John 14: Doing the Works of Jesus

Posted on April 9, 2010 | 3 comments

 By Marv

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

This is an astounding statement.   If overfamiliarity with it has dulled its impact, mull it over a while and let it sink in.  Jesus spoke these words as part of the farewell instructions he gave to the eleven (after the departure of Judas) during supper the night before He died.  Prefixing it by “Truly, truly, I say to you…,” He intended this statement to be taken seriously, and we would do well to pay careful attention to it.

We have ways, though, of mitigating its force.  One is by focusing on the second part, the “greater works” Jesus says we will do.  “That just means we will evangelize far more people than Jesus ever did” is the comeback.  The way this works is that “greater works” can be “greater” in some way—without being the same works that Jesus did.  Yet “the works that I do” allow for no dodge from Jesus’ clear intent.

Nor can we take His words as being for the apostles alone.  Apart from the fact that He told them to teach us to do everything He had commanded them (Matt. 28:20), Jesus opens the door wide: “whoever believes in me…”  Where have we seen this phrase before?

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)

“Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.  And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.  I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. (John 12:44-46)

Now, what are the “works” Jesus is referring to?  He makes this clear in the immediately preceding verses:

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (John 14:10-11)

The works were the works of God, which Jesus did under the Father’s authority, and they were such that even if one was not convinced by Jesus’ words, His works were reason enough to believe.  These were acts through which the Father manifested Himself on the earth, glorified Himself.  As the John 12:44-46 citation above shows Jesus’ works led ultimately to belief in the Father by making visible the invisible: “whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”  And Jesus repeats this very point in this chapter: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (v. 9)

Why?  Because, as Jesus said “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (v. 10) With His farewell instructions He is extending the chain:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. (John 13:20)

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)

The works are those through which God makes visible His character and His nature, to which the world is blind.  If this is not clear enough, Jesus explains:

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (vv. 13-14)

This is all quite astounding, if we will dare to believe it.  It is difficult not to qualify this promise, to discount it somehow, because we’ve tried it and have come to the conclusion that there must be some fine print somewhere.  There is no fine print, but we have to pay attention to His words.  He says it twice; “in my name.”

This is not a tag phrase for our prayers.  It means acting under His authority, as He acted under His Father’s authority.  Recall what He has just said: “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (v. 10).  Jesus was sent and acted in the Father’s name (John 5:43).  We are sent and are to act in Jesus’ name, and it is only by virtue of the ongoing dynamic connection with Him that we do His works, that His promise of “anything” has force.  It involves acting under His orders, and if we do not understand that this involves an open channel of communication with Him, through the Spirit, then this promise of prayer, and indeed, any ministry “in His name” ceases to have power. 

And all this, Jesus says, “because I am going to the Father.”  How is that?  His departure brings an end to one phase of His ministry, and His departure begins another, and that will happen at Pentecost: “if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” (John 16:7).  “Because I am going to the Father” means then “because the Holy Spirit will come as the Helper.” 

Some of the works that he did, such as prophecy, which we examined in a previous post in this series (John 13: Jesus and Prophecy), are what we would label as “miraculous.”  But there is no dividing line here between these and works of compassion or preaching the word, which Jesus also did.  He did all that He was sent by the Father to do, including living out God’s love and displaying His character, as well as “mighty works.”

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

Since Pentecost, each believer has been anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, and we are sent as well, with specific works to do:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:10)

And these manifest God’s light to the world to bring Him glory:

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  (Matt. 5:16)

The best of us carries out our assigned works so imperfectly, so fallibly, it truly is a wonder that God has ordained to use believers in this way to bring glory to Himself.  Yet he has.  The power is there, in the indwelling Holy Spirit, but we must grow in our willingness and in our ability to manifest this power, whether it is living a godly life, speaking words of prophecy, or effectively praying healing for the sick. 

So from this passage I conclude:

  • The second phase of Christ’s ministry is for believers to carry on the works that He did.
  • This is true for every believer, not just the apostles.
  • This involves an ongoing vital and dynamic connection and communication with Christ through the Holy Spirit.
  • This is true beginning with the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost and while He remains until Christ’s return.
  • This is Christ’s express will and His Father’s plan.
  • This brings glory to God and is part of God’s means to effect faith in the world.
  • Christ’s Word promises the power, but we still have a learning curve in doing these works.

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Posted in continuationism, Holy Spirit, John 13-17, miracles, Power, prophecy

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John 13: Jesus and Prophecy

Posted on March 28, 2010 | 1 comment

By Marv

Paul tells us: “the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Cor. 14:3).  True Christian prophecy, he also stresses, is an act of love (1 Cor. 13:2).

There is no better illustration of all these aspects of prophecy than Jesus’ prophecies to Peter, starting with the one recorded in all four gospels, regarding his betrayal of Jesus.  John reports it this way:

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”  Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”  Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. (John 13:36-38)

On first glance the consolation, the encouragement, the upbuilding, and the love are not readily apparent.  Love, however, is exactly what this exchange is about.

John begins that chapter with a statement that seems to have eluded adequate translation:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

As the ESV renders it here, it sounds as if it were a chronological point John is making: Jesus continued to love them up to the moment of His death.  With John’s proclivity for multiple meaning of a phrase, it probably includes that idea, but there is far more here.

The NIV captures a different nuance:

“…he now showed them the full extent of his love.”

This has something to commend it, since the word the ESV translates “the end,” telos, indicates not just a stopping point, but the goal, the purpose, completeness, even perfection.  Also the statement does have immediate relevance to what follows: Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet (vv. 3-11).  This act of loving service he instructs his disciples to imitate:

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (vv. 14-15)

Following in the steps of the Teacher, doing His same works, are of the essence of discipleship, as Jesus indicates here:

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  (v. 16).

He had made this point before:

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. (Matt. 10: 24-25)

He most specifically means it in terms of love:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (vv. 34-35)

So since we are called to love as he loved we must understand more fully John’s point in verse 1 that that Jesus loved his disciples eis telos, “to the end.”  Jesus will make the point explicit shortly afterward in chapter 15:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13).

John’s wording here will prove significant: “love” is a rendering of agape, “friends” of philos. Though the distinction between these word groups is frequently overstated, John will later employ the contrast between them in an important way.  At this point in the narrative, though, Jesus is demonstrating agape, “love,” and that eis telos, “to the end.”

John understood what this love meant, as he made clear in his first epistle:

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 John 3:16).

Peter understood immediately, too, and he was ready to proclaim his love for Jesus:

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (John 13: 36-37)

This was Peter’s prediction, though not by prophecy.  It was the statement of his intent, of the love he felt.  There is no question but that he meant this passionately, but if there was passion he felt, it was another kind of “passion” he feared.  When the Lord’s Passion, His suffering, began, Peter’s courage, his boast failed him.  He failed to love as he had promised.  He failed to find this agape in himself so that he would truly lay down his life.  He felt it there, but did not find it there.  It happened, of course, precisely as Jesus had predicted, for his prediction was true prophecy.

Jesus said of His predictive prophecy:

I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he (John 13:19).

And:

But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you (John 16:4).

This is exactly what did happen; Peter remembered Jesus’ words when the prophecy was fulfilled:

Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Matt. 26:74-75).

Not that he could ever forget those words, but neither did he forget what else Jesus had told him, as Luke records:

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:31-32).

Peter’s love failed, his passion failed, his boast failed, but his faith did not fail, because Jesus had prayed for him and prophesied his return.

And so even in the shame of his failure, he ran toward Jesus (even swam toward Him) and not away from Him.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea (John 21:4-7).

This brings us to a second prophecy Jesus made to Peter.  He began by dealing with Peter about his failure, and about his boast.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15a)

This was precisely a confrontation about his boast to greater love for Jesus than the other disciples, as Matthew recorded it: “Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” (Matt. 26:33).

So John makes it clear that Peter will now no longer make such a boast.  He shows this by very particular wording, Jesus’ question asks about Peter’s love, using the verb agapao.  Peter, however, answers using the verb phileo, which is cognate to the word for “friends” we saw earlier. 

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love (phileo) you.” (John 21:15b). 

What is John telling us? First, that though Peter did not have the love to die for Jesus, he knew he was one of Jesus’ friends, and that Jesus had the love to die for him.  More to the point here though, Peter would not deny the love he felt for Jesus, though his words admitted not living up to his aspirations.  I think we can capture the force of the exchange with the following paraphrase:

Jesus: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Peter: “Yes, Lord; you know how I feel about you.”

This exchange happens three times, though with differences each time.  Each time, Jesus recommissions Peter:

  • “Feed my lambs” (v. 15)
  • “Tend my sheep” (v. 16)
  • “Feed my sheep” (v. 17).

 

Moreover, on the third time, Jesus condescends to Peter’s wording and asks His question in terms of Peter’s previous responses, employing the word phileo.  This disturbs Peter greatly.

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love (phileis) me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” (v. 17b)

It is at this point that Jesus pronounces his prophecy:

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (John 21:18)

Peter could have no doubt whatever that Jesus’ prophecy would be fulfilled. In fact, it seems clear that when John wrote these words, Peter had in fact died (by crucifixion we are told by extrabiblical sources) just as Jesus said.

This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. (v. 19)

What does this all mean?  Jesus was saying he knew Peter’s works: he had a passion for Jesus, yes, but not one that was adequate for the task, though it was a starting point, and evidence of the spirit’s work, to will though not yet to do.  Jesus accepted this reality by accepting Peter’s confession of love (phileo), inadequate though that be.  Yet He promised Peter that He would finish by loving Jesus eis telos (to the end), by having that greater love, because He when that day would come, he would not fail again, but in his own passion in the likeness of Christ’s Passion, he would love Jesus to the end, and bring Him glory.  Jesus was now boasting for Peter, because He Himself would give Peter the power to succeed, to love, to stand firm to the end.

So he consoles, so he upbuilds, so he encourages.  So much so that in days to come when Peter stood again in peril of his life, just after James, John’s brother, had been beheaded as the first apostolic martyr, and Peter was slated for the same fate, he could sleep securely (Acts 12:6).

Peter had encouragement from Jesus prophecy in two ways.  First, if he were to die the next day, it meant success where he had failed before, he would live out in dying, the boast that Jesus had made of him, and this had to be sweetness itself for Peter.

Second though, in this and doubtless in many other perilous situations, Peter knew until that day Jesus had prophesied, he would be indestructible.  Pondering the words of Jesus’ prophecy, he may well have realized he would not die by beheading.  Furthermore, Jesus had said it would happen “…when you are old…”  This event happened in about A.D. 44, and if Peter was roughly Jesus’ age, he was hardly old.  Still one can imagine in any such situation Peter considering any gray hair, what wrinkles he had on his face (talk about interpreting prophecy by looking at head lines!)

Jesus demonstrated His love for Peter most of all by laying down His life for him, but also in building Him up in love, in no small part through the prophecies He gave Him.  And he commands us to love one another as He has loved us.  The author of Hebrews reminds us:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb. 10:23-24)

Prophecy does this, as Paul says, as Jesus shows.  Has its purpose, then, passed away?

Not if we believe the Lord, who said of His words and His works (such as prophecy):

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  (John 14:10-12)

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Posted in experience, John 13-17, prophecy

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What Continues?

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 13 comments

by Marv

Continuationism is not a wholly satisfactory term.  In some ways I prefer Non-cessationism. However, this latter is a term of negation rather than affirmation, and as such communicates reaction to another view, i.e. it denies cessationism.  So it not only states what it is not rather than what it is, but it grants the initiative to the side it disagrees with, and to a degree lets that side establish the terms of the debate, which may not be helpful.  Continuationism is not totally free from these criticisms, since “continue” is an opposing response to “cease.” Yet, at least it is a positive, affirmative term, as it should be.

Moreover, the term, both terms, imply a complement that may or may not be clearly understood.  With cessationism, there is something that ceases. With continuationism, there is something that continues.  The “something” may not necessarily be the same in both cases.  It certainly does not have to be so for one side simply because the other side defines itself in particular terms.  This is one reason I have objected to the term “sign gifts.”  Some cessationists may hold that what they say has ceased is this category, “sign gifts.”  However, when I use the term continuationist, I am not thereby asserting that “sign gifts” continue, since I find that term problematic.

What then is it that continues?  This post is an attempt to provide an answer and to elaborate on that answer.  The views are my own, though I welcome reaction and input from others.  I see this as a starting place for establishing some definition.  So this statement will surely require refinement and expansion.

Continuationism, then, is the belief that between Christ’s first and second advent He continues His work of glorifying His Father, building His Church, and advancing His Kingdom through the ongoing, vital and dynamic interconnection He maintains with those who are in Him, accomplished through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit through whom the individual members of His redeemed community are enabled to fulfill the good works prepared for them, such that in interrelation with all the others, the entire community, despite differences of time and place, constitute Christ’s bodily presence on earth during this age.

  1. This reality exists by the Father’s good pleasure, in the Son, and through the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God.
  2. Christ made it clear that the same works that He did in carrying out His mission on earth He expected to be performed through believers, empowered by the Holy Spirit as He had been, starting with Pentecost and continuing to the end of the age when He will return in glory.
  3. The completeness of Christ’s ongoing ministry is a function of the community of those who are in Him, who constitute His Body, while individually each member participates and contributes according to the part assigned to him or her, as the Holy Spirit directs and according to his or her measure of faith.
  4. Christ established a small group of people to establish and found this community, whom He designated His apostles, and each of these in himself seemed to function in completeness of ministry, while non-apostolic members are apportioned aspects of Christ’s ministry, characterized as “gifts.”
  5. Through the apostles and a few individuals closely related to them, the corpus of the New Testament was written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, forming the completion of Canonical revelation, which together with the Old Testament constitutes the only inerrant and infallible rule of faith and practice for humankind and the Church in particular.
  6. Canonical revelation, that which God chose to inscripturate and establish as the only inerrant and infallible rule of faith and practice, is to be distinguished carefully from God’s other acts of revelation which in His wisdom He has chosen to do throughout history.  He has revealed Himself and continues to reveal Himself in ways both general and specific, whether in imagery, in proposition, perceptibly to the physical senses, or perceptible only to individual cognitive functions, such as memory, dream, or intuition.  This is far from saying that any and all perception or cognition ought to be treated as God’s revelation, whenever it may happen to appear to be such to a particular person.  The standard for evaluation of any purported revelation from God is, as for all other things, the Canonical revelation, the Scriptures, as stated above.
  7. All of God’s revelation and communication is wholly true and free from error.  Human perception, reasoning, and interpretation is fallible, to put it mildly.  Scripture is that which is specifically designated as inspired or God-breathed and so designated God’s very words and recognized by inference as inerrant.  Non-inscripturated prophecy has never been given this guarantee and so requires discernment by those to whom it is spoken, since it entails one or more human act between the Spirit’s act of revelation and the report of that revelation by a person.  In all cases an accurate and complete report of the revelation is expected and required, though never guaranteed as it is with Scripture.  In the Old Testament, the theocratic role of the prophet was matched with severe consequences for inaccurate representation.  The situation in the Church changes with the generalization (“democratization”) of revelation and prophecy inherent in the New Covenant.  Reports of revelation, prophecies, are to be weighed and evaluated within the community.
  8. The Holy Spirit’s work in this age, in Christ’s body has many aspects which together make up a unified whole.  Sanctification, illumination, and empowerment for ministry, along with others, are integral parts of the whole, according to the way God was well pleased to arrange the Body of Christ.  The vital ongoing connection in terms of empowered ministry is variously described as abiding in Christ and bearing fruit, effectual prayer of faith, doing the works of Jesus, spiritual gifts, signs, wonders, and mighty works, and other terms.  Some understanding of these matters may center on specific terms (“spiritual gifts” for example) or draw questionable distinctions (“sign gifts,” or between “gifts of healing(s)” and prayer for healing, for examples) which tend to obscure the holistic nature of the vital, dynamic interconnection with Christ.
  9. God has established this ongoing, vital and dynamic interconnection in His wisdom, in His good pleasure and for His purposes, including confirmation of the gospel message, though there are many others, including encouragement, comfort, conviction, and edification.
  10. The provision of this ongoing interconnection is God’s own intitiative and is wholly within His sovereign control.  How He chooses to manifest it at different times and in different places is His choice to make.  At the same time the recognition of and participation in it by the Church has also varied because of factors within man’s responsibility, such as awareness, understanding, and acceptance. However, none of this means that God has at any time Himself withdrawn His provision for it or no longer wishes it to continue. What indications there are in the Scriptures for its duration is that it is continuous from Pentecost through the Second Advent.

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Posted in about, continuationism, Holy Spirit, Power, revelation

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Experience, Faith, and the Word

Posted on March 19, 2010 | 2 comments

By Marv

My wife’s parents were like many French people, agnostic to atheist, covered over with a vague New-Age layer. Many years before the events of this story happened, she had a thought occur in her mind, with a comfort and confidence, and she took it to be the Spirit of God speaking to her. “Your mother will come to faith first, then your father.”

Now, regeneration and conversion is a miracle always, but in a country such as France, you tend to diminish your expectations by a factor of ten, no, more like a hundred. It’s a tough, tough place for Christianity. We talked to them about the Lord, but apart from a little more openness for our sake, nothing much happened. It was hard to have too much impact; we were in the U.S. and they were in France.

One day in 1999, we had just brought home a new electronic answering machine. Back then those things were still gadgety enough to be kind of cool. You had to put a code on it to be able to retrieve messages. My wife suggested 828, because she liked Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” We were about to get a lesson about that verse.

We installed it, and the first time it rang, we decided not to answer but let the machine pick it up. What could it hurt?

Only it was her parents calling from France—with bad news. About 18 months earlier, my wife’s mother, Nicole had been operated on for cancer, successfully, we all thought. The cancer was back, and it wasn’t looking good.

In the next few weeks Nicole declined rapidly. My wife talked to her doctors, but French doctors are typically not frank with the patient or with family in regard to bad news. They told her they could treat her, which Nicole seemed to interpret as “cure,” but this was not what they meant. My wife eventually persuaded the doctor to level with her, since she was so far away and needed to know whether and when to fly over there. “Come now,” she was finally told, since they gave Nicole perhaps a couple of months.

While she was preparing to go over there, my wife spoke to her mother on the phone. We knew most of the evangelical ministers in their town and we wanted to get someone to her to pray for her. My wife quoted to her James 5:14: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

She wasn’t in any church, but we were working on arranging a pastoral visit with someone we had contact with. But before this could happen, she was at the hospital for chemotherapy, and a Catholic priest happened by. She told him what her daughter had said, and asked him if he could anoint her with oil and pray over her, like James said. Now for Roman Catholics this verse has basically become the basis for extreme unction, last rites for the immediately dying. Yet he agreed, and came to her house the next day and did just as James instructed.

Well, my mother-in-law still died of cancer, but it was a year later, and here’s what happened in that year. First of all, though the cancer was not cured, she did have an immediate change of symptoms, whereas she was weak and also unable to eat, she had new energy and her appetite returned right away. She was up and out of bed, and was able to spend many pleasant months with her husband and later with us, when we came to be with her.

We still had “our people” come and pray for her, and they spoke with her about the Lord. Now she was ready to listen. And she did listen, and she placed her trust in the Lord, and she started attending that evangelical church. My father-in-law went with her, and seeing her faith, and impressed by the love that body was giving them, he came to faith as well.

The cancer was still progressing and eventually Nicole did become weak again and unable to do much out of bed. But the very last day, as it turned out, that she was physically able to attend church, both she and my father-in-law were baptized. Nicole gave her testimony, between tears, recounting the story of the priest’s prayer, and her healing, partial and temporary as it was. Then she said, “If I had not gotten sick, I never would have come to know the Lord.”

Nicole still had confidence that the Lord could heal her, and she even thought he would. Now the doctors still had not made it clear to her that they considered her terminal, and we did not wish to discourage her either. You have to understand something; in this beautiful, but post-Christian country despair fills the air, so thickly sometimes that you feel you could cut it with a knife. Cancer patients as a rule do not go gently into that good night, and if her oncologist did not spell out the doom she foresaw, it was to grant a measure of false hope to her remaining days. That is the only hope she was able to dispense, having seen so many agonizing as death approached.

One night my wife stayed with her mother in the hospital, conflicted over knowing the medical prognosis and yet not wishing to overtax her mother’s new faith. But Nicole had a dream about Jesus, and she awoke the next morning both radiant—and knowing she was going to die.

“There’s going to be a reunion,” she said mysteriously. Not understanding, my wife asked her what reunion, with whom? “A reunion with Jesus,” she said.

Her remaining weeks were spent in one hospital or another, and all her friends came and visited her. And Nicole told all her friends about Jesus and how wonderful he was and how she was so happy to be going to be with him. This was a new experience for the oncologist, who was not at all used to hopeful—dying patients.

The doctor told us she wouldn’t last until Christmas, but she did. She died in January 2000. In those last weeks, her estranged son came to see her, and there were tears and there was forgiveness.

At the end of the most difficult but amazing year of her life, she went to her dearly anticipated reunion. The church was packed for the funeral, all her family and friends had come. It was a long service. We gave her testimony. We gave our testimonies. The pastor preached to gospel. That day everyone Nicole loved was gathered together and heard about the love and grace of the Jesus she had come to love and with whom she was now joyfully present.

Perhaps I should think it inadequate that her healing was not quite a “New Testament quality” miracle, not complete, irreversible, permanent. Right.

I am persuaded that the Lord used experiences, in Nicole’s life, in all our lives, to encourage, to build up, to demonstrate His love. And to demonstrate the truth of His Word. Frankly, I really did not have much confidence in the Roman Catholic priest who had prayed for her. But our faith is not in men but in the Lord and in His Word. Besides, James did say to call for the elders, the presbuteroi in Greek, and in the history of the church that word became prêtre in French,“priest.” Of course, the greatest gift was not the physical healing, would not even have been her being totally cured of her cancer. James goes on in verse 15: “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

And the Lord proved His Word that all things, even painful, grievous things work together for good to those who are called, and “those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Rom. 8:30b)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vv. 35, 37-39).

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What is “the Perfect”?

Posted on March 17, 2010 | 3 comments

By Marv

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 reads: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” (ESV)

a. Does “the perfect” refer to the Bible here? No.

b. Does “the perfect” refer to the Second Coming of Christ? No, but (b) is closer than (a).

Think about it. Why would Paul refer to either of these in this enigmatic way? Yes, you can find reasons, excuses, to understand either one of those, and surely other things, by the title “the perfect.” But we don’t have to scour distant contexts to discover what is motivating this choice of words here.

“The perfect” isn’t any one thing; it is a class of things. Or rather it is a state in which many different things can be: whole, as opposed to partial. We know that is what “the perfect” is, because that is what “the partial” is. Paul states in verse 9 two things that we do “in part”: know and prophecy. The phrase for “in part,” ek merous, is the most prominent part of each clause in verse 9. It’s what he is talking about. Reading it in the Greek order: “In part we know, and in part we prophesy.”

Then he takes this prepositional phrase and nominalizes it by adding the article: “the in part,” to ek merous. This is what the ESV translates as “the partial.” Another way of saying this would be “that which is only in part,” not referring to a specific thing, but anything which is partial.

The contrast Paul is making between “the partial” and “the perfect” tells us what specific meaning he has in mind for “perfect,” teleion. It means the state in which something has reached its fullness or completeness. The phrase he uses parallels “the perfect” to teleion with “the partial,” to ek merous.

The point he makes about these two states of being is not so much a prediction as a principle, a proverb, something that is true across the board: when the full and complete version of something arrives, the preliminary, partial version of it loses its value.

He provides an analogy and two examples to illustrate. First, he states that at one time his thoughts and words were those of a child, but as a grown man, of full age, his education complete, the ideas he had while still under age were not worth holding on to.

So then “partial” and “complete” also correlate with “now” and “then,” in comparison with minority and majority. This is equivalent to “not yet” and “already,” and at this point we see that “the perfect” is not itself a reference to the Second Coming but the state of things that will only occur at the second coming.

Now we see some things but much remains unseen (v.12a) . For these we have “faith” and “hope” (v. 13). Then, at the consummation of all things, our partial sight yields to completeness of sight, as faith becomes sight.

The same is true for our knowledge (v. 12b), which is partial now, but will in that day be complete. The two phrases are unmistakably descriptions of conditions only available beyond this age; we will “see face to face,” and we will “know as we are known.”

Faith is the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Who hopes for what he sees (Rom. 8:24)? So even faith and hope, which remain “now,” will give way “then” to sight and fullness of knowledge. Love, however, is greater because as it reaches completeness it has all the more reason to continue.

This is the reason Paul commends it above all that it “in part.” The examples he gives are prophecy, knowledge, and tongues. These are things that are in a state of “in part.”

Prophecy entails revelation in bits and pieces, riddles and puzzles (Num. 12:8). It reaches its fulness, obviously, when it is fulfilled. So even the prophecies of Revelation, of the completed Canon, are partial until all is fulfilled.

Knowledge too can only ever be partial in this age, but one day the knowledge of God will cover the earth as water covers the sea (Hab. 2:14).

If tongues is a “sign to unbelievers” (1 Cor. 14:22a), then it has value while there are still unbelievers. The contrast of faith and lack of faith exists only in this age when sight is partial. So tongues reaches its fullness when every knees bows and every tongue confesses (Phil. 2:10).

Love alone surpasses this age. The rest, even faith, even hope are for the present age, where knowledge and sight are partial. If Paul is telling us anything about the gifts he mentions, it is that they correspond to the age of the partial, they are coterminous with faith and hope. They come to an end, yes, they cease, yes, but only when they reach the state of their fulness.

It is odd that this passage is so often used to teach the previous cessation of these gifts, when it is such a very strong argument for their enduring until the end of this age.

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