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AN ELUSIVE ETERNITY #10
CHEAP WRAPPING PAPER, PRICELESS GIFT
Have you ever had to get up in front of a group and
make a presentation — maybe a PowerPoint production, or a speech when
you’re a junior in high school — and you just feel so intimidated? Maybe
it’s simply stage fright, or your palms glistening with sweat because
you’re in front of your peers. And sometimes it’s just plain because the
topic is so important and the opportunity so important. You’re the presidential
nominee of your party, and your convention speech is going to be seen
by millions, set the tone for the entire campaign. Every word on the prompter
is a make-or-break moment.
These past two weeks on the radio have been like that for us; they really
have. The Bible talks about assurance of salvation and our confidence
in Calvary . . . and yet it’s a hard topic. Good Christians have debated
it for centuries. The difficult verses that sound like they’re on both
sides of the issue are challenging to reconcile.
So here as we wrap up our final fragments of thinking and get ready for
new adventures in the Bible, we feel a bit like a New Testament preacher
named Paul. He didn’t just grapple with challenging truths in the Bible;
he was actually setting them down for the first time! He was the writer!
He had to get the whisperings of the Holy Spirit written down in letters
that you and I would pray over two thousand years later . . . and I think
he knew it. And in his second epistle to his fellow believers in Corinth,
he makes this human confession:
“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that
this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
What does he mean by that? What are “jars of clay”?
There’s a very popular Christian band out right now with that name, and
it comes from right here: II Corinthians 4:7. And what the Bible is referring
to is the glorious message of the gospel being packaged in a cheap, fragile
$1.99 box with rips and tears in one corner and faded UPS stickers on
it. The NIV text notes for this verse tell us something interesting; here
it is:
“It was customary,” they write, “to conceal treasure
in clay jars, which had little value or beauty and did not attract attention
to themselves and their precious contents. Here they represent Paul’s
human frailty and unworthiness.”
The Tyndale commentary describes these “jars of clay”
as “cheap and of little intrinsic value.” Then Colin Kruse, the author,
adds:
“Paul may have had in mind the small earthenware oil-lamps
sold so cheaply in the market-places.”
And again, he had his own frail, stumbling preaching
in mind as he writes these words.
That’s how we feel here at the Voice of Prophecy just now. Salvation is
such a grand, glorious, holy topic . . . and how can we put an accurate,
or even an acceptable, face on it? We try to put together a hard verse
from the “assurance” side and another one from the “holiness and responsibility
and sanctification” side, but who’s to know if we are understanding what
the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us?
Well, friend, this is all part of what the Bible goes on to call “the
foolishness of preaching.” In fact, that’s from Paul’s FIRST letter to
the Corinthians. But you know, despite his very healthy sense of insecurity
about theological understanding and credentials, Paul follows his “jars
of clay” lament with a beautiful expression of confidence. First of all,
the jar of clay is a cheap, breakable thing, but the treasure inside is
something we can count on and rejoice over: it’s the “all-surpassing power
of God.” We’ve talked about assurance of salvation for two weeks now,
and that all-encompassing power is available to make it happen. Remember,
God WANTS you to be saved! He WANTS to lock you in the embrace of His
heart. We’ve thought about the possibility of slipping away, or of losing
our place as adopted sons and daughters, but we have the power of the
Holy Spirit, who is the promised “seal” of our salvation. “Nothing can
separate us,” Paul writes, especially when the Holy Spirit daily and hourly
is in our hearts, keeping us safely in the grasp of heaven.
And now notice the next few lines of Paul’s “jars of clay” sermon:
“We are hard pressed on every side,” he writes, “but
not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned,
struck down, but not destroyed.”
And you know, particularly when we slow down and think
about God’s promise of salvation and our confidence in that promise, these
four metaphors are so perfect. When it comes to the believer’s hope, are
we sometimes “hard pressed on every side”? Does the devil want us to lose
our faith? Yes! Does he remind us of our shortcomings? He sure does; he
does it for a living. So we’re hard-pressed . . . but not crushed.
Are we sometimes perplexed because we can’t reconcile every Bible verse?
Do we sag when the Internet has 500 web sites on various Scriptural topics,
and they don’t seem to agree? That can be very intimidating, especially
when you’re already in a “jars of clay” mindset! So, yes, we’re perplexed,
but friend, we’re not in despair. Whatever the Yahoo search engines may
put up on our laptop screens, John 5:24 tells us that God’s children have
crossed over from death to eternal life and won’t be condemned.
For centuries now, Christians and courageous reformers who proclaimed
a gospel of assurance have been persecuted, as we find in verse 9. The
church of the Dark Ages left men and women in spiritual despair, never
knowing if they had successfully atoned for enough sins to hope for heaven.
Had they bought enough indulgences and done enough penance? Could yet
another mortal sin come along and wipe them out again . . . and again
. . . and again? Luther and others faced grave danger as they began to
preach assurance. They were persecuted . . . but not abandoned. And often
“struck down,” but never destroyed. Not eternally destroyed, that is.
I love how the recent Message paraphrase brings new life to this already
vibrant Bible passage in II Corinthians. By the way, if you haven’t yet
gotten a copy of the entire Message Bible — Old and New Testaments both
— it’s a wonderful investment in your own Christian growth. Why not get
a copy, then enroll in our Discover Bible Course, and journey through
both together? But notice how Eugene Peterson takes us through this “jars
of clay” section:
“If you only look at US, you might well miss the brightness,”
Paul writes. “We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay
pots of our ordinary lives.”
So it’s not just our preaching and our Christian radio
ministries that are jars of clay; our quiet, sometimes fragile lives can
hold the treasure as well.
“That’s to prevent anyone,” Paul continues, “from confusing
God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of
that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been
surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’ve
been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been
thrown down, but we haven’t been broken.”
If you’ve ever felt battered by your own boastful words,
spiritually terrorized by your temper, thrown down by the demons of despair
and discouragement, friend, remember these promises. God promises that
He will NEVER leave us, NEVER let us go. That’s in Hebrews 5.
One of the crowning promises found in the archives of my own denomination
is from a book entitled Steps to Christ. The writer ponders the reality
that we often do feel “hard pressed and perplexed and persecuted and struck
down” by our repeated experiences with sin. Why is it like this? But the
author goes on to quietly encourage us with these words:
“There are those who have known the pardoning love
of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize
that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready
to doubt whether their hearts HAVE been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To
such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to
bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and
mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged.” And this is so helpful; listen:
“Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken
and rejected of God. . . . Do not forget the words of Christ, ‘The Father
Himself loveth you.’” That’s John 16:27.
So, friend, let’s take heart and be of good courage.
“Hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed but [never] in despair.” We serve
a mighty Savior, don’t we?
We mentioned that our efforts to understand this and to preach it are
just “jars of clay.” The contemporary band with that name did a song that
hints at “struck down but not destroyed.”
“God, I admit that I’ve loved these chains,” they sing. “And crawling
around this cage sometimes has its advantages. I know someday this could
get old. And I’ll need Your healing water to find my home.” And then this
powerful promise in the chorus: “I feel Your grace come running over every
road. You break the floodgates down and carry all.”
Can you feel those floodgates opening up right now?
And a river of grace, ready to wash you clean and wash you home . . .
and KEEP you home?
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