Monday, July 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
John 14:12-14 – The Farewell {for Now} Discourse: Staggering Promises
© Eric M Schumacher – Preached June 28, 2009 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Audio available here.
On May 31, 1792, ministers and messengers from the 24 associated churches in Nottingham gathered at the Friar Lane Baptist Chapel to hear reports of prayer and signs of revival, to pray, to hear preaching and to discuss business.
The preacher that morning was William Carey, a 31 year old shoe-repairer, who pastored a small Baptist church. His goal was to stir his fellow believers out of apathy and inactivity to form a society to take the Gospel to foreign lands. His text was Isaiah 54:2:
On the next morning, when the association gathered to discuss its business, they still seemed apprehensive, doubtful and uncommitted to forming a missionary society. However, with much prodding from Carey, his friend put forward a resolution that was accepted:
The Society consisted of only 14 men—12 pastors, 1 layman, and 1 ministerial student. All but one of them were virtually unknown. Only one of them had any money of which to speak. Their detractors mocked them with the question, “Are these the men and means with which the conversion of the world was to be attempted?”
They later appointed two men, one of whom was Carey, to be their missionaries to India.
Carey went to India, where he preached for 7 years before seeing his first convert. By the time he died in 1834, Carey, with the aid of his team of colleagues, had:
Audio available here.
On May 31, 1792, ministers and messengers from the 24 associated churches in Nottingham gathered at the Friar Lane Baptist Chapel to hear reports of prayer and signs of revival, to pray, to hear preaching and to discuss business.
The preacher that morning was William Carey, a 31 year old shoe-repairer, who pastored a small Baptist church. His goal was to stir his fellow believers out of apathy and inactivity to form a society to take the Gospel to foreign lands. His text was Isaiah 54:2:
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.As Timothy George writes, “The burden of the sermon came to a crescendo in a summarizing couplet, eight syllables, six words, ‘two plain, practical, pungent, quotable watchwords:’
Expect great things. Attempt great things.He poured himself into the sermon, preaching it with animation and eloquence. And though no copy of the sermon remains, it has become known as “The Deathless Sermon”—not because of the effect it hand on its listeners (they were not much moved by it, though appreciative), but because of its long-term effect on the history of missions.
On the next morning, when the association gathered to discuss its business, they still seemed apprehensive, doubtful and uncommitted to forming a missionary society. However, with much prodding from Carey, his friend put forward a resolution that was accepted:
Resolved, that a plan be prepared against the next ministers’ meeting at Kettering, for forming a Baptist Society for propagating the gospel among the heathen.In October of that year, the “Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel to the Heathen” was formed (later renamed the Baptist Missionary Society).
The Society consisted of only 14 men—12 pastors, 1 layman, and 1 ministerial student. All but one of them were virtually unknown. Only one of them had any money of which to speak. Their detractors mocked them with the question, “Are these the men and means with which the conversion of the world was to be attempted?”
They later appointed two men, one of whom was Carey, to be their missionaries to India.
Carey went to India, where he preached for 7 years before seeing his first convert. By the time he died in 1834, Carey, with the aid of his team of colleagues, had:
- translated the Bible into 34 Asian languages;
- compiled dictionaries—still respected today as authoritative—of Sanskrit, Marathi, Panjabi, and Telegu for translation work and education;
- started the Serampore College (still influential today);
- started 19 mission stations and numerous churches (which number in the hundreds of thousands of converts since);
- began 100 rural schools for the education of girls;
- started the Horticultural Society of India;
- began the weekly publication “The Friend of India” (still published today);
- printed the first modern Indian newspaper;
- introduced the idea of the savings bank for the assistance of farmers;
- and successfully fought to ban the practice of burning widows on their husband’s funeral pyres.
Carey was influential in reforming India society, and responsible for bringing them the Gospel.
Moreover, Carey is considered the Father of the Modern Missions Movement. In his lifetime, he was influential in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the support of missionaries. And through his writing and his example, tens of thousands have gone to the mission field to proclaim the Gospel to the lost.
Why did Carey attempt great things?
Because when he read the Bible he saw that God promised great things. Therefore, believing the promises, he expected great things. And because he expected great things, he attempted great things. Faith precedes works. You believe and then you go.
Greater Things
Last week, we saw that Jesus called for his disciples to believe. Following Jesus’ appeal for faith, he focuses on the fruitfulness of believers.
The promises that he makes in these verses are staggering. He says, “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.” Jesus promises that the one who believes in him will do what he has done and great!
Think about that! What have we seen Jesus do? Just in the Gospel of John, we have seen Jesus turn water into wine, teach, debate and confound religious authorities, heal the sick, heal a paralytic who had been lame for 38 years, multiply fish and bread to feed five thousand plus, walk on water, teach people that he is the fulfillment of the Scriptures and the Feasts, give sight to a man who was born blind, and raise Lazarus from the dead! And we will do “greater works than these!”
What does it mean?
What could Jesus possibly mean? Let’s break down his statement and see if we can understand it (and believe it!).
To begin with, Jesus speaks this of “whoever believes in me.” So, it is not possible to say that his promise belongs only to the Apostles and the apostolic age. This embraces all believers individually (“whoever,” “he”), which includes us.
“Works”
So, then what does Jesus mean by “works?” Some have tried to tone down the promise by suggesting Jesus means the “works” he just did around the table, deeds of humility and love, such as washing feet (13:15) and loving one another (13:34-35).
Suggesting that Jesus means his “humility” and “love” fails to make this verse less staggering. For ultimately, what he just did at the Last Supper was a picture of his humility in leaving the Father’s glory to live as an obedient slave and of his love in laying down his life for our sins. Could we ever come close to demonstrating “greater” humility and love than this!?
Jesus works do not exclude his miracles. Jesus work includes everything he did in his whole earthly ministry—his humility, his love, his teaching and, yes, his miracles.
But, that begs the question, what were his “works” essentially? Essentially, his works were his revealing of who the Father was and what the Father was doing in and through the Son. Jesus did that perfectly, but that revelation was not received perfectly. His audience, with a few exceptions, largely did not see his works with clarity or believe what they pointed to. That is important to keep in mind.
“Greater”
So, what does Jesus mean by “greater”?
Does he mean greater “in power”? No, he does not mean “more spectacular” or “more supernatural.” It is hard to imagine surpassing the spectacle or supernatural nature of turning water into wine, opening the eyes of a man born blind, multiplying fish and loaves for over 5,000, or, especially, raising Lazarus from the dead.
Does he mean greater “in number”? Many, including bible teachers that I respect, suggest that “greater” means “greater quantity.” The works are greater in their extent, not in their power.
Some argue that “greater” points to the fact that there will be more conversions through the preaching of Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, it is noted, there were more conversions in one day than throughout Jesus’ three years of public ministry.
Others argue that because there are so many believers over two thousand years, then numbers plus time equals more works.
All that is true, but it fails to get at Jesus’ point. The language had better options for saying “more” if Jesus meant “more.”
Moreover, Jesus does not say “those who believe in me…they will.” He speaks of the individual believer, when he says “whoever” and “he will.” Jesus is saying that each individual believer will do greater works, not believers corporately.
Besides, such a meaning would be overly obvious. If I were teaching a class on preaching to twelve men and said, “You will preach sermons like I preach. And together, you’ll preach more. (In other words, I can only preach one sermon. But together, you’ll preach 12 each week.),” that would be so obvious it would go without saying. And it would be overkill for me to begin that statement with, “Truly, truly, I say to you…”
Jesus begins with that emphatic assurance because what he is about to say is startling and needs to be believed.
I would suggest that what Jesus means is that our works will be “greater” in effect. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, in the new age brought by Jesus’ death and resurrection, their works will be clearer and more effectively reveal who the Son is than did Jesus’ works.
This does not mean that all believers will perform miracles. It does mean that when believers point to who God is and what he is doing in the person and work of Jesus Christ, it will be more clearly perceived and more broadly embraced and believed, than Jesus’ witness was in his day because believers belong to a greater age.
This is not because believers are greater than Jesus. Rather, it is because believers belong to a greater age, an age which is based on the completed cross-work of Jesus, in which the departed Lord Jesus empowers them through his Spirit to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Clues to Jesus’ meaning –
There are two clues that point us to this meaning.
1) The first clue is the final clause of the sentence, “because I go to the Father.” Remember, Jesus is trying to comfort his disciples before his departure by convincing them that it is better that he go away.
This is the basis for why and how believer will do “greater works” and therefore helps define the nature of “greater works.”
This does not mean that with Jesus out of the way, he has given ministry to his disciples. The emphasis is not on Jesus’ departure, but on his destination, his departure to the Father. The place to which he goes carries significance regarding the ministry that will happen through his disciples once he gets there.
His departure is also an arrival. When he departs—through his death, resurrection and ascension—he arrives at the Father’s right hand in glory. Once there, as the authorized King and heir of the promised Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, he pours his Spirit out into his believers. This is why Jesus will shortly, in verse 16, begin to talk about the sending of the Holy Spirit.
His departure to the Father marks the beginning of a new order, a new age in redemptive history. So, at least part of what it means that his disciples will do “greater things” has to do with the new age that is inaugurated through his departure.
That is, these “work” are done after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
2) The second clue is a parallel in John 5:20. There, Jesus uses the exact same phrase, “greater works.” He says:
So, in this parallel, Jesus’ “greater works” are also those that follow his “departure.” Jesus will do greater works, but these works depend on him first accomplishing the work he was sent to do in dying and rising.
A Greater Age
Both these clues point us to the fact that “greater things” is connected with the unfolding of the history of redemption.
Jesus’ works, done during his earthly ministry, revealed Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. They were seen and believed by some, but not by many. Jesus works and words were “veiled” to some degree during his ministry on earth. That is why so much confusion and misunderstanding accompanied Jesus’ earthly ministry. That is clear from the questions his disciples have just been asking. His own disciples are still failing to understand what his ministry is truly all about. Only after his departure and glorification would his works be seen for what they were.
But, as Jesus will teach later in the Farewell Discourse, following his glorification and arrival at the Father’s right hand, they will both know all that Jesus is and does—and they will make known all that Jesus is and does. They will be given understanding and their teaching will impart understanding—both by the power of the Spirit who will be poured out after Jesus’ departure. Their words and their deeds will belong to the new age that dawns with Jesus' resurrection and out-pouring of the Spirit.
Like Jesus, believers’ works will reveal who Jesus is and what God is doing in him. And, they will reveal them with greater clarity and with great reception. Because, the works of Jesus’ disciples do not belong to the old age, but to the new. The works of believers are done (a) after Jesus’ glorification and (b) by the power of the Spirit who is poured out in the last days.
Jesus’ works, in some sense, had to wait for a coming day in order to be clearly perceived as demonstrating that he is the Messiah. Their works, however, are set in the context of Jesus’ death and victory and therefore can immediately and clearly reveal who the Son is.
The post-resurrection works of believers—whether acts of love and humility, the preaching of the Gospel, or even the performance of miracles—are “greater” because they belong to a greater age, an age of power and clarity, which is brought about through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Great Works Happening
We see very few examples, during Jesus’ earthly ministry, of persons clearly and accurately comprehending the identity of Jesus Christ, repenting and believing the Gospel. And so “greater works” are happening:
Moreover, Carey is considered the Father of the Modern Missions Movement. In his lifetime, he was influential in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the support of missionaries. And through his writing and his example, tens of thousands have gone to the mission field to proclaim the Gospel to the lost.
Why did Carey attempt great things?
Because when he read the Bible he saw that God promised great things. Therefore, believing the promises, he expected great things. And because he expected great things, he attempted great things. Faith precedes works. You believe and then you go.
Greater Things
Last week, we saw that Jesus called for his disciples to believe. Following Jesus’ appeal for faith, he focuses on the fruitfulness of believers.
The promises that he makes in these verses are staggering. He says, “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.” Jesus promises that the one who believes in him will do what he has done and great!
Think about that! What have we seen Jesus do? Just in the Gospel of John, we have seen Jesus turn water into wine, teach, debate and confound religious authorities, heal the sick, heal a paralytic who had been lame for 38 years, multiply fish and bread to feed five thousand plus, walk on water, teach people that he is the fulfillment of the Scriptures and the Feasts, give sight to a man who was born blind, and raise Lazarus from the dead! And we will do “greater works than these!”
What does it mean?
What could Jesus possibly mean? Let’s break down his statement and see if we can understand it (and believe it!).
To begin with, Jesus speaks this of “whoever believes in me.” So, it is not possible to say that his promise belongs only to the Apostles and the apostolic age. This embraces all believers individually (“whoever,” “he”), which includes us.
“Works”
So, then what does Jesus mean by “works?” Some have tried to tone down the promise by suggesting Jesus means the “works” he just did around the table, deeds of humility and love, such as washing feet (13:15) and loving one another (13:34-35).
Suggesting that Jesus means his “humility” and “love” fails to make this verse less staggering. For ultimately, what he just did at the Last Supper was a picture of his humility in leaving the Father’s glory to live as an obedient slave and of his love in laying down his life for our sins. Could we ever come close to demonstrating “greater” humility and love than this!?
Jesus works do not exclude his miracles. Jesus work includes everything he did in his whole earthly ministry—his humility, his love, his teaching and, yes, his miracles.
But, that begs the question, what were his “works” essentially? Essentially, his works were his revealing of who the Father was and what the Father was doing in and through the Son. Jesus did that perfectly, but that revelation was not received perfectly. His audience, with a few exceptions, largely did not see his works with clarity or believe what they pointed to. That is important to keep in mind.
“Greater”
So, what does Jesus mean by “greater”?
Does he mean greater “in power”? No, he does not mean “more spectacular” or “more supernatural.” It is hard to imagine surpassing the spectacle or supernatural nature of turning water into wine, opening the eyes of a man born blind, multiplying fish and loaves for over 5,000, or, especially, raising Lazarus from the dead.
Does he mean greater “in number”? Many, including bible teachers that I respect, suggest that “greater” means “greater quantity.” The works are greater in their extent, not in their power.
Some argue that “greater” points to the fact that there will be more conversions through the preaching of Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, it is noted, there were more conversions in one day than throughout Jesus’ three years of public ministry.
Others argue that because there are so many believers over two thousand years, then numbers plus time equals more works.
All that is true, but it fails to get at Jesus’ point. The language had better options for saying “more” if Jesus meant “more.”
Moreover, Jesus does not say “those who believe in me…they will.” He speaks of the individual believer, when he says “whoever” and “he will.” Jesus is saying that each individual believer will do greater works, not believers corporately.
Besides, such a meaning would be overly obvious. If I were teaching a class on preaching to twelve men and said, “You will preach sermons like I preach. And together, you’ll preach more. (In other words, I can only preach one sermon. But together, you’ll preach 12 each week.),” that would be so obvious it would go without saying. And it would be overkill for me to begin that statement with, “Truly, truly, I say to you…”
Jesus begins with that emphatic assurance because what he is about to say is startling and needs to be believed.
I would suggest that what Jesus means is that our works will be “greater” in effect. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, in the new age brought by Jesus’ death and resurrection, their works will be clearer and more effectively reveal who the Son is than did Jesus’ works.
This does not mean that all believers will perform miracles. It does mean that when believers point to who God is and what he is doing in the person and work of Jesus Christ, it will be more clearly perceived and more broadly embraced and believed, than Jesus’ witness was in his day because believers belong to a greater age.
This is not because believers are greater than Jesus. Rather, it is because believers belong to a greater age, an age which is based on the completed cross-work of Jesus, in which the departed Lord Jesus empowers them through his Spirit to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Clues to Jesus’ meaning –
There are two clues that point us to this meaning.
1) The first clue is the final clause of the sentence, “because I go to the Father.” Remember, Jesus is trying to comfort his disciples before his departure by convincing them that it is better that he go away.
This is the basis for why and how believer will do “greater works” and therefore helps define the nature of “greater works.”
This does not mean that with Jesus out of the way, he has given ministry to his disciples. The emphasis is not on Jesus’ departure, but on his destination, his departure to the Father. The place to which he goes carries significance regarding the ministry that will happen through his disciples once he gets there.
His departure is also an arrival. When he departs—through his death, resurrection and ascension—he arrives at the Father’s right hand in glory. Once there, as the authorized King and heir of the promised Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, he pours his Spirit out into his believers. This is why Jesus will shortly, in verse 16, begin to talk about the sending of the Holy Spirit.
His departure to the Father marks the beginning of a new order, a new age in redemptive history. So, at least part of what it means that his disciples will do “greater things” has to do with the new age that is inaugurated through his departure.
That is, these “work” are done after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
2) The second clue is a parallel in John 5:20. There, Jesus uses the exact same phrase, “greater works.” He says:
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.In the verses to follow in John 5, it becomes clear that “greater works” equals displays of resurrection and judgment. The power of the Son to give life and his authority to judge are both given in consequence of his death, resurrection and exaltation. (They would “marvel” that one who appeared so weak on earth is the one who resurrects the dead and judges.)
So, in this parallel, Jesus’ “greater works” are also those that follow his “departure.” Jesus will do greater works, but these works depend on him first accomplishing the work he was sent to do in dying and rising.
A Greater Age
Both these clues point us to the fact that “greater things” is connected with the unfolding of the history of redemption.
Jesus’ works, done during his earthly ministry, revealed Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. They were seen and believed by some, but not by many. Jesus works and words were “veiled” to some degree during his ministry on earth. That is why so much confusion and misunderstanding accompanied Jesus’ earthly ministry. That is clear from the questions his disciples have just been asking. His own disciples are still failing to understand what his ministry is truly all about. Only after his departure and glorification would his works be seen for what they were.
But, as Jesus will teach later in the Farewell Discourse, following his glorification and arrival at the Father’s right hand, they will both know all that Jesus is and does—and they will make known all that Jesus is and does. They will be given understanding and their teaching will impart understanding—both by the power of the Spirit who will be poured out after Jesus’ departure. Their words and their deeds will belong to the new age that dawns with Jesus' resurrection and out-pouring of the Spirit.
Like Jesus, believers’ works will reveal who Jesus is and what God is doing in him. And, they will reveal them with greater clarity and with great reception. Because, the works of Jesus’ disciples do not belong to the old age, but to the new. The works of believers are done (a) after Jesus’ glorification and (b) by the power of the Spirit who is poured out in the last days.
Jesus’ works, in some sense, had to wait for a coming day in order to be clearly perceived as demonstrating that he is the Messiah. Their works, however, are set in the context of Jesus’ death and victory and therefore can immediately and clearly reveal who the Son is.
The post-resurrection works of believers—whether acts of love and humility, the preaching of the Gospel, or even the performance of miracles—are “greater” because they belong to a greater age, an age of power and clarity, which is brought about through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Great Works Happening
We see very few examples, during Jesus’ earthly ministry, of persons clearly and accurately comprehending the identity of Jesus Christ, repenting and believing the Gospel. And so “greater works” are happening:
- …when Jesus disciples’ preach the Gospel in languages they did not know on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 are added to their number,
- …when Peter raised Dorcas from the dead and many believed in the Lord.
- …when a preacher stands in the pulpit of a small country church and proclaims the Gospel and a man is converted.
- …when a church member visits a nursing home and shares the Gospel with an elderly woman who turns to Jesus.
- …when a young family packs all their belongings into a crate and heads to Africa, where they preach the Gospel and tribes begin to worship Jesus.
- …when a father or mother sits on the side of a little bed and explains about the forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus to their child, who, meditating on that message before falling asleep, sees who Jesus is and believes.
- …when you do acts of love and kindness toward your neighbor and then shares the Gospel with them and they understand who the Christ is and put their hope in him.
In all these things, the last-days Spirit is empowering the Gospel of the Crucified and Risen Lord to be preached with clarity, removing the scales from eyes and turning hearts to trust in Christ.
No Cause for Boasting
The fact that we, those who believe in Jesus, do greater works than our Lord did while on earth is no cause for thinking that we are greater than Jesus. He is comparing works, not persons.
In some sense, we do our works no differently than Jesus did his. In verse 10, we read that Jesus said, “the Father who dwells in me does his works.” Jesus’ works were done by the Father who dwelt in him.
In verse 16, we will read that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit who “will be in you.” And we learn in John 16:8, that this Spirit, who will indwell believers, will “convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment.” In Acts, Jesus promises that the Spirit will empower them to be his witnesses.
The “greater works” that believers do are done not in their own strength and sufficiency, but through the power of the Father and the Son dwelling in them through the Holy Spirit.
The Reason for Fruitfulness
Boasting is further excluded when we look the reason for such fruitfulness given in verses 13-14. The “greater works” of believers’ ministry will be the outcome of prayer that is offered in the name of Jesus. (And this is connected to union with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and through abiding in his word.)
Prayer is typically spoken of as being directed to the Father. But verse 14 shows us that prayer can be offered to either the Father or the Son.
What is significant here is such prayer is offered “in Jesus’ name,” is answered by Jesus, and is answered for the sake of the Father’s glory in the Son. All of this has connection to the new age inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Answered by Jesus
Jesus very clearly states that, in this greater age, he is the one who is answering the prayer. So, the final issue is not the works that Jesus did versus the works that we do as believers. The final contrast is between the work of Jesus before his glorification (through death and resurrection) and the work of Jesus after his glorification.
No longer limited by his position of great humility, in his pre-death role as a Suffering Servant, he is now the exalted Son, who sits at the right hand of the Father in glory. Redemption has been won. The promised Holy Spirit has been given to the reigning Son, who has poured him out into his people. And through their Spirit empowered witness and proclamation of the Gospel, the saving reign of the Messiah is invading the world and bringing masses of people from every tribe and language and people and nation are submitting to his reign and confessing him as Lord and Savior and Anointed King to the glory of the Father.
Believers are doing great works, but these are done through the work of Jesus answering prayer. And that will hinge on verse 16, where Jesus promises to send a “Helper.”
In Jesus’ Name
Twice Jesus states that the prayers he answers are prayers offered “in my name.” Again, this highlights Jesus’ role in this new age that follows his death and resurrection. He is acting as our mediator. Prayer is going through him, on the basis of his completed cross-work.
Prayer in Jesus’ name is not a magical incantation that is attached to the end of every prayer. You may close prayers with “in Jesus’ name,” but you do not have to. Prayer in Jesus name means at least two things:
First, prayer in Jesus’ name is prayer that is offered recognizing that our only access to God is through the Son. It is prayer that does not come with confidence that is based on the merits of the one praying or confidence in the fervency, eloquence, or length of the prayer. It comes in confidence that Jesus Christ is our advocate before the Father, who has died as the propitiation for our sins and been raised so that we might be reconciled to God by grace through faith.
Second, prayer in Jesus’ name is prayer that is in accord with who he is and what his name represents. John records in 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that is we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Prayer “in his name” is prayer that accords with “his will.”
That the Father Might be Glorified
Jesus also tells us the purpose for which he answers prayers. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The glory of the Father has been the purpose of Jesus’ mission and his death. In John 7:18, Jesus refers to himself as “the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him.” In John 8:50, Jesus says, “I do not seek my own glory.” In John 12:27-28, while troubled by his approaching crucifixion, Jesus prays, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” And in John 17:1-5, as that hour draws even nearer, Jesus lifts up his eyes to the heavens and says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify you Son that the Son may glorify you…I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”
Jesus was absolutely and utterly devoted to obeying his Father and bringing his name all the honor that it deserves. And, Jesus resolve and purpose to glorify his Father did not end when he was glorified in the Father’s presence. The Father’s right hand is only an opportunity and a platform from which to bring even greater glory to his Father’s name. And that is the purpose for which he answers prayer and enables his people to do “greater things.”
“Whatever”
Sometimes people will ask the question, “Does Jesus really mean whatever, as in anything? And, if so, why do my prayers go unanswered.” Those three observations are important in answering that question and in learning how to pray and for what to pray.
For Jesus to answer our prayer, it must…
…first, be for something that Jesus can do. Jesus cannot sin. Therefore, if your prayer is for Jesus to give you an idol that you worship (like a car, house, health, etc.), he cannot and will not support and supply your idolatry. Therefore, if, as James writes (4:3), “you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions,” then you will not receive.
…second, be in accord with his name. That means you come asking, not with confidence based on your merits and works, but with confidence based on his. And, it means that you ask for things that are in accord with who he is, in accord with his purposes, his kingdom, his glory, his honor, his praise.
And, we must recognize that there are times when Jesus knows what is best for us and for his cause—and that might be opposite of what we’re asking for. And so, as a good father would do, he will lovingly deny our request because it would not be our request if we really knew what we were asking for.
…third, be glorifying to the Father. If the reason that Jesus answers our prayer is “that the Father might be glorified in the Son,” then it almost goes without saying that he will not answer a prayer when the answer would not glorify the Father in the Son.
No Boasting, Only Great Boldness
As with the greater works, so with the greater prayer—this is not a ground for boasting. Our greater works and our answered prayer are both the works of the crucified and risen Lord, based on his finished work in the Gospel.
These promises are not a ground for boasting, but they are a ground for boldness. Think about what boldness we ought to have, Northbrook! Our Lord and King has sent us on mission to live as his people and his witnesses until his return.
And he has given us these promises—that we will do the works he did and greater works; that whatever we ask in his name he will do!
This should cause us to live with humble boldness. Humble, because we act on the basis of all he has done and is doing. Bold, because our Lord has promised as much and is faithful and true to the end.
Are we bold or half-hearted?
In his essay, The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis says this:
Northbrook, are we bold in works and prayer? Do you shrink back from sharing the Gospel in loving deeds and good works and verbal proclamation because you think you’re not skilled enough?
Do you shrink back from sharing the Gospel with your coworker at the office, with the students at your school, through a neighborhood Bible study, through devotions with your spouse, through family worship with your children, over the fence with your neighbor, through a letter to your parents, etc.?
Do you shrink back because you feel that you are so unskilled and they are so educated and smart or uneducated and stupid that you could never convince them and they would never believe?
Do we shrink back from evangelism, and adopting people groups, and sending missionaries, and teaching Sunday School, and leading Bible studies, and preaching, and hosting small groups, and visiting the sick and homebound, and practicing hospitality in our homes, and meeting new people, and inviting people to church, and reconciling relationships, and rebuking and correcting, and confessing sin and asking forgiveness, and serving with our gifts, and being generous in our giving—because we are scared, discouraged, apathetic, pessimistic…because we are far too easily pleased?
Do we believe that our Lord Jesus was crucified for sins and rose from the dead? Do we believe that he has ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Holy Spirit into us? Do we believe that he has promised that we (and “whoever believes”) will do “greater works” than he did? Do we believe that he has promised to do whatever we ask in his name? Do we believe that he did as much through his apostle and the saints in generations before us? Do we believe that he is the same yesterday, today and forever?
If not—then, believe! And if we do believe all this—then why are we so half-hearted? Let’s live boldly!
Be Bold!
Beulah Baptist Church is located in Hopkins, South Carolina is a bold church. Hopkins is an unincorporated community, too small to appear on most maps. The church only averages 275 people each Sunday. But in 2007, they adopted the Bambara people group of Mali to pray for and minister. At the time, there were no evangelical churches or Christians among the 3,000 Bambara. They were unreached.
Their commitment to pray for them grew into volunteer teams traveling to visit them every six weeks. Two years and 12 mission trips later, they have seen 100 people from the formerly unreached Bambara repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
Beulah Baptist is a small church. William Carey and his friends were 14 in number when they started their missionary society—and the modern missions movement. Martin Luther was one man when he stood against the Roman Catholic Church. Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and their friends were less than a dozen when they set themselves on reaching the Waodoni people with the Gospel. Brother Andrew was one man when he first smuggled Bibles across Communist borders.
I do not claim that we are the same caliber of men and have the same gifts as William Carey or Adoniram Judson or John Paton or Jim and Elizabeth Elliot or Lottie Moon or Amy Carmichael or Martin Luther or Brother Andrew or Jonathan Edwards.
But, in the end, they were all made of dust and weak jars of clay, just like us. And their God is our God. And these promises are our promises.
O, Northbrook! Would you join me in believing these great things, expecting great things, praying great things and attempting great things to the glory of the Father in the Son!
No Cause for Boasting
The fact that we, those who believe in Jesus, do greater works than our Lord did while on earth is no cause for thinking that we are greater than Jesus. He is comparing works, not persons.
In some sense, we do our works no differently than Jesus did his. In verse 10, we read that Jesus said, “the Father who dwells in me does his works.” Jesus’ works were done by the Father who dwelt in him.
In verse 16, we will read that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit who “will be in you.” And we learn in John 16:8, that this Spirit, who will indwell believers, will “convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment.” In Acts, Jesus promises that the Spirit will empower them to be his witnesses.
The “greater works” that believers do are done not in their own strength and sufficiency, but through the power of the Father and the Son dwelling in them through the Holy Spirit.
The Reason for Fruitfulness
Boasting is further excluded when we look the reason for such fruitfulness given in verses 13-14. The “greater works” of believers’ ministry will be the outcome of prayer that is offered in the name of Jesus. (And this is connected to union with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and through abiding in his word.)
Prayer is typically spoken of as being directed to the Father. But verse 14 shows us that prayer can be offered to either the Father or the Son.
What is significant here is such prayer is offered “in Jesus’ name,” is answered by Jesus, and is answered for the sake of the Father’s glory in the Son. All of this has connection to the new age inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Answered by Jesus
Jesus very clearly states that, in this greater age, he is the one who is answering the prayer. So, the final issue is not the works that Jesus did versus the works that we do as believers. The final contrast is between the work of Jesus before his glorification (through death and resurrection) and the work of Jesus after his glorification.
No longer limited by his position of great humility, in his pre-death role as a Suffering Servant, he is now the exalted Son, who sits at the right hand of the Father in glory. Redemption has been won. The promised Holy Spirit has been given to the reigning Son, who has poured him out into his people. And through their Spirit empowered witness and proclamation of the Gospel, the saving reign of the Messiah is invading the world and bringing masses of people from every tribe and language and people and nation are submitting to his reign and confessing him as Lord and Savior and Anointed King to the glory of the Father.
Believers are doing great works, but these are done through the work of Jesus answering prayer. And that will hinge on verse 16, where Jesus promises to send a “Helper.”
In Jesus’ Name
Twice Jesus states that the prayers he answers are prayers offered “in my name.” Again, this highlights Jesus’ role in this new age that follows his death and resurrection. He is acting as our mediator. Prayer is going through him, on the basis of his completed cross-work.
Prayer in Jesus’ name is not a magical incantation that is attached to the end of every prayer. You may close prayers with “in Jesus’ name,” but you do not have to. Prayer in Jesus name means at least two things:
First, prayer in Jesus’ name is prayer that is offered recognizing that our only access to God is through the Son. It is prayer that does not come with confidence that is based on the merits of the one praying or confidence in the fervency, eloquence, or length of the prayer. It comes in confidence that Jesus Christ is our advocate before the Father, who has died as the propitiation for our sins and been raised so that we might be reconciled to God by grace through faith.
Second, prayer in Jesus’ name is prayer that is in accord with who he is and what his name represents. John records in 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that is we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Prayer “in his name” is prayer that accords with “his will.”
That the Father Might be Glorified
Jesus also tells us the purpose for which he answers prayers. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The glory of the Father has been the purpose of Jesus’ mission and his death. In John 7:18, Jesus refers to himself as “the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him.” In John 8:50, Jesus says, “I do not seek my own glory.” In John 12:27-28, while troubled by his approaching crucifixion, Jesus prays, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” And in John 17:1-5, as that hour draws even nearer, Jesus lifts up his eyes to the heavens and says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify you Son that the Son may glorify you…I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”
Jesus was absolutely and utterly devoted to obeying his Father and bringing his name all the honor that it deserves. And, Jesus resolve and purpose to glorify his Father did not end when he was glorified in the Father’s presence. The Father’s right hand is only an opportunity and a platform from which to bring even greater glory to his Father’s name. And that is the purpose for which he answers prayer and enables his people to do “greater things.”
“Whatever”
Sometimes people will ask the question, “Does Jesus really mean whatever, as in anything? And, if so, why do my prayers go unanswered.” Those three observations are important in answering that question and in learning how to pray and for what to pray.
For Jesus to answer our prayer, it must…
…first, be for something that Jesus can do. Jesus cannot sin. Therefore, if your prayer is for Jesus to give you an idol that you worship (like a car, house, health, etc.), he cannot and will not support and supply your idolatry. Therefore, if, as James writes (4:3), “you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions,” then you will not receive.
…second, be in accord with his name. That means you come asking, not with confidence based on your merits and works, but with confidence based on his. And, it means that you ask for things that are in accord with who he is, in accord with his purposes, his kingdom, his glory, his honor, his praise.
And, we must recognize that there are times when Jesus knows what is best for us and for his cause—and that might be opposite of what we’re asking for. And so, as a good father would do, he will lovingly deny our request because it would not be our request if we really knew what we were asking for.
…third, be glorifying to the Father. If the reason that Jesus answers our prayer is “that the Father might be glorified in the Son,” then it almost goes without saying that he will not answer a prayer when the answer would not glorify the Father in the Son.
No Boasting, Only Great Boldness
As with the greater works, so with the greater prayer—this is not a ground for boasting. Our greater works and our answered prayer are both the works of the crucified and risen Lord, based on his finished work in the Gospel.
These promises are not a ground for boasting, but they are a ground for boldness. Think about what boldness we ought to have, Northbrook! Our Lord and King has sent us on mission to live as his people and his witnesses until his return.
And he has given us these promises—that we will do the works he did and greater works; that whatever we ask in his name he will do!
This should cause us to live with humble boldness. Humble, because we act on the basis of all he has done and is doing. Bold, because our Lord has promised as much and is faithful and true to the end.
Are we bold or half-hearted?
In his essay, The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis says this:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.The promises in these verses are “unblushing” and “staggering” are they not? Does your life reflect their reality? Are we settling for small and trifling and meager, when Christ speaks of “greater”?
Northbrook, are we bold in works and prayer? Do you shrink back from sharing the Gospel in loving deeds and good works and verbal proclamation because you think you’re not skilled enough?
Do you shrink back from sharing the Gospel with your coworker at the office, with the students at your school, through a neighborhood Bible study, through devotions with your spouse, through family worship with your children, over the fence with your neighbor, through a letter to your parents, etc.?
Do you shrink back because you feel that you are so unskilled and they are so educated and smart or uneducated and stupid that you could never convince them and they would never believe?
Do we shrink back from evangelism, and adopting people groups, and sending missionaries, and teaching Sunday School, and leading Bible studies, and preaching, and hosting small groups, and visiting the sick and homebound, and practicing hospitality in our homes, and meeting new people, and inviting people to church, and reconciling relationships, and rebuking and correcting, and confessing sin and asking forgiveness, and serving with our gifts, and being generous in our giving—because we are scared, discouraged, apathetic, pessimistic…because we are far too easily pleased?
Do we believe that our Lord Jesus was crucified for sins and rose from the dead? Do we believe that he has ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out his Holy Spirit into us? Do we believe that he has promised that we (and “whoever believes”) will do “greater works” than he did? Do we believe that he has promised to do whatever we ask in his name? Do we believe that he did as much through his apostle and the saints in generations before us? Do we believe that he is the same yesterday, today and forever?
If not—then, believe! And if we do believe all this—then why are we so half-hearted? Let’s live boldly!
Be Bold!
Beulah Baptist Church is located in Hopkins, South Carolina is a bold church. Hopkins is an unincorporated community, too small to appear on most maps. The church only averages 275 people each Sunday. But in 2007, they adopted the Bambara people group of Mali to pray for and minister. At the time, there were no evangelical churches or Christians among the 3,000 Bambara. They were unreached.
Their commitment to pray for them grew into volunteer teams traveling to visit them every six weeks. Two years and 12 mission trips later, they have seen 100 people from the formerly unreached Bambara repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
Beulah Baptist is a small church. William Carey and his friends were 14 in number when they started their missionary society—and the modern missions movement. Martin Luther was one man when he stood against the Roman Catholic Church. Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and their friends were less than a dozen when they set themselves on reaching the Waodoni people with the Gospel. Brother Andrew was one man when he first smuggled Bibles across Communist borders.
I do not claim that we are the same caliber of men and have the same gifts as William Carey or Adoniram Judson or John Paton or Jim and Elizabeth Elliot or Lottie Moon or Amy Carmichael or Martin Luther or Brother Andrew or Jonathan Edwards.
But, in the end, they were all made of dust and weak jars of clay, just like us. And their God is our God. And these promises are our promises.
O, Northbrook! Would you join me in believing these great things, expecting great things, praying great things and attempting great things to the glory of the Father in the Son!
Labels:
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William Carey
Friday, June 26, 2009
2009 Father's Day Sermon
Labels:
biblical manhood and womanhood,
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fathers,
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Cry Out to Your Father!
Christ cried to a Father who was silent as he let him die,
so that you could cry to a Father who will hear you
and give you what you need to live.
How People Change, p 190
so that you could cry to a Father who will hear you
and give you what you need to live.
How People Change, p 190
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
And Can It Be – Wondering at Free Grace
© Eric M Schumacher – Preached June 14, 2009 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Sermon audio available here.
Do you wonder at the Gospel? By “wonder,” I don’t mean “are you curious about and what to learn more about the Gospel?” The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers this definition of “wonder”: “the quality of exciting amazed admiration” and “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience.”
With that in mind I ask: Do you wonder at the Gospel? Does the message of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, crucified for your sins and raised from the dead to forgive you and give you a righteous standing in God’s presence fill you with “exciting amazed admiration” and “astonishment”?
We often think that those who are most thankful for the gospel are those who were rescued from a life of outwardly terrible sin and ruin (such as, perhaps, John Newton the slave ship captain). Those who have “amazed admiration” for the Gospel are those who once lived in what the world would consider “amazing sin.”
I want to introduce you this morning to a man who spent the last 50 years of his life “wondering” at the free grace of God given to him in the Gospel, a man who was not saved out a life of rampant wickedness, but out of a life of disciplined religion and confidence in his religious good works.
Biography
Charles Wesley was born December 10, 1707, the eighteenth child (out of nineteen children) of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. As a child, Charles was educated with his other siblings by his mother and then went to Westminster School and, finally, to Oxford in 1726.
His first years there were spent carefree, “intent only on having a good time.” But, in 1729, Charles became quite devout and poured his energies into trying to live the Christian life.
Holy Club
This devotion led him to form what other students mockingly called the “Holy Club,” which existed for the purpose of (1) studying the Bible in a disciplined manner, (2) improving Christian worship and celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and (3) to help the needy. George Whitfield, the famous evangelist, joined in 1732 and became close friends with Charles. Whitfield would be converted in 1735.
Members of the Holy Club “fasted until 3 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays, received Holy Communion once each week, studied and discussed the Greek New Testament and the Classics each evening in a member’s room, visited prisoners and the sick, and systematically brought all their lives under strict review.” There use of disciplined methods would later gain their movement the nickname of “Methodists.”
Ordination & Missionary to Georgia
After graduating in 1733, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1735. After his ordination, he traveled for year with his brother John on a missionary journey to the New World, in the British Colony of Georgia.
Conversion
Despite all this, Charles was not converted. He was resting on his good works. Early in 1738, Charles had become sick and was close to death. Peter Bohler, a German Moravian missionary, visited him and asked him, “Do you hope to be saved?” When Charles stated that he did, Bohler asked, “For what reason do you hope it?” Charles replied, “Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.” Bohler shook his head and said no more. Charles later recorded that he thought, “What are not my endeavours a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to.”
For several days, Charles sought to believe in Jesus Christ, and felt himself to be without him. He spent several days, though sick and confined to bed, speaking with Christians and studying the Scripture.
Another Moravian missionary named William Holland left Charles a copy of Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians, which he began to read and by which he was quite affected. He noted on May 17, 1738, “I spent some hours this evening in private with Luther, who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion to the second chapter. I laboured, waited and prayed to feel ‘Who love me and gave Himself for me’.”
On May 21, Pentecost Sunday, Charles wrote in his diary:
Three days after Charles’ conversion, John was converted at a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where Peter Bohler was reading from the introduction to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. When John announced that night, “I believe,” they sang Charles’ first hymn, “Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?”
Closely following that hymn, Charles wrote, “And Can It Be.” On the one year anniversary, he penned the hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” which he recommended singing “on the anniversary of one’s conversion.”
Hymn-writing
Charles continued writing hymns for the next 50 years. He would write almost 6,500 hymn. 15 of them are included in our hymnal. He wrote such popular hymns as:
Sermon audio available here.
Do you wonder at the Gospel? By “wonder,” I don’t mean “are you curious about and what to learn more about the Gospel?” The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers this definition of “wonder”: “the quality of exciting amazed admiration” and “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience.”
With that in mind I ask: Do you wonder at the Gospel? Does the message of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, crucified for your sins and raised from the dead to forgive you and give you a righteous standing in God’s presence fill you with “exciting amazed admiration” and “astonishment”?
We often think that those who are most thankful for the gospel are those who were rescued from a life of outwardly terrible sin and ruin (such as, perhaps, John Newton the slave ship captain). Those who have “amazed admiration” for the Gospel are those who once lived in what the world would consider “amazing sin.”
I want to introduce you this morning to a man who spent the last 50 years of his life “wondering” at the free grace of God given to him in the Gospel, a man who was not saved out a life of rampant wickedness, but out of a life of disciplined religion and confidence in his religious good works.
Biography
Charles Wesley was born December 10, 1707, the eighteenth child (out of nineteen children) of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. As a child, Charles was educated with his other siblings by his mother and then went to Westminster School and, finally, to Oxford in 1726.
His first years there were spent carefree, “intent only on having a good time.” But, in 1729, Charles became quite devout and poured his energies into trying to live the Christian life.
Holy Club
This devotion led him to form what other students mockingly called the “Holy Club,” which existed for the purpose of (1) studying the Bible in a disciplined manner, (2) improving Christian worship and celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and (3) to help the needy. George Whitfield, the famous evangelist, joined in 1732 and became close friends with Charles. Whitfield would be converted in 1735.
Members of the Holy Club “fasted until 3 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays, received Holy Communion once each week, studied and discussed the Greek New Testament and the Classics each evening in a member’s room, visited prisoners and the sick, and systematically brought all their lives under strict review.” There use of disciplined methods would later gain their movement the nickname of “Methodists.”
Ordination & Missionary to Georgia
After graduating in 1733, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1735. After his ordination, he traveled for year with his brother John on a missionary journey to the New World, in the British Colony of Georgia.
Conversion
Despite all this, Charles was not converted. He was resting on his good works. Early in 1738, Charles had become sick and was close to death. Peter Bohler, a German Moravian missionary, visited him and asked him, “Do you hope to be saved?” When Charles stated that he did, Bohler asked, “For what reason do you hope it?” Charles replied, “Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.” Bohler shook his head and said no more. Charles later recorded that he thought, “What are not my endeavours a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to.”
For several days, Charles sought to believe in Jesus Christ, and felt himself to be without him. He spent several days, though sick and confined to bed, speaking with Christians and studying the Scripture.
Another Moravian missionary named William Holland left Charles a copy of Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians, which he began to read and by which he was quite affected. He noted on May 17, 1738, “I spent some hours this evening in private with Luther, who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion to the second chapter. I laboured, waited and prayed to feel ‘Who love me and gave Himself for me’.”
On May 21, Pentecost Sunday, Charles wrote in his diary:
… The Spirit of God strove with my own and the evil spirit, till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced, I knew not how nor when, and immediately fell to intercession…Charles immediately began to regain his strength. The next day, he began to write a hymn.
At midnight I gave myself to Christ, assured that I was safe, whether sleeping or waking. I had the continual experience of His power to overcome all temptation, and I confessed with joy and surprise that He was able to do exceedingly abundantly for me above what I can ask or think.
…I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. My temper for the rest of the day was mistrust of my own great, but before unknown weakness. I saw that by faith I stood; by the continual support of faith, which kept me from falling, though of myself I was ever sinking in sin. I went to bed, still sensible of my own weakness, yet confident of Christ’s protection.
Three days after Charles’ conversion, John was converted at a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where Peter Bohler was reading from the introduction to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. When John announced that night, “I believe,” they sang Charles’ first hymn, “Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?”
Closely following that hymn, Charles wrote, “And Can It Be.” On the one year anniversary, he penned the hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” which he recommended singing “on the anniversary of one’s conversion.”
Hymn-writing
Charles continued writing hymns for the next 50 years. He would write almost 6,500 hymn. 15 of them are included in our hymnal. He wrote such popular hymns as:
- Jesus, Lover of My Soul
- Rejoice, the Lord is King
- O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
- Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Chris the Lord is Risen Today
- Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending
- Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Preaching, Marriage and Death
Charles became an itinerant evangelist until 1749, when he married Sarah (aka Sally), with whom he had an almost ideal marriage. They settled in Bristol and later London, where Charles preached. They had eight children, five of whom died as young children.
Charles died in March of 1788.
Applications
Before moving on to looking at Charles’ hymn and our text for today, I want to pause to dwell on something important. We should note that Charles formed the “Holy Club,” to study the Bible, care for the sick, and improve Christian worship, almost 10 years before he was converted. He was ordained as a priest, served as a pastor and missionary, three years prior to his conversion.
Charles, like Paul before his conversion, was extremely disciplined and devoted to religion, but was not saved. He had been baptized as an infant in the Church of England. He made a decision to lead a good life. He fasted. He prayed. He was disciplined in the reading of his Bible. He visited the sick and those in prison. He took communion each week. He was ordained to ministry. He went overseas as a missionary.
And, in spite of all this, as he would later admit, he was not saved. He was not truly a Christian. When asked about his hope of salvation, he replied that he hoped to be saved because he had given his best endeavors to Christ.
Perhaps that describes you this morning. You’ve been baptized. You take the Lord’s Supper. You go to church regularly. You pray, and maybe fast. You are disciplined in your reading of the Bible. You care for the sick. Perhaps you even have held official positions of service in the church for many years and have gone on missions trips. Yet, when the question is put to you about your hope of entering eternal life, your answer is in these things, and not in Christ.
When it all comes down, you trust that Christ will save you because you have given all these things to him—and not because he has given himself for you. And one of the clearest signs of your false hope and your unsaved condition is that you have no wonder at the Gospel. The message of salvation does not amaze you because you don’t really believe that you’ve ever needed to be saved. You’ve saved yourself, you imagine. You don’t wonder that Jesus would bleed for the helpless, because you imagine that you’ve helped yourself.
I hope that Charles Wesley’s testimony will encourage you to examine the state of your own soul, to quit hoping in yourself, and to turn to trust in Christ alone, crucified for sins and raised from the dead.
And should you come to conclusion this morning that you are not saved, do not shrink back from pursuing Christ, from the study of Scripture. Press on!
When Charles understood that he was not saved, he did not quit his religious devotion to the study of the Bible and prayer and such—he increased it. Realizing that he was without faith in Christ, without the forgiveness of sins, without the assurance of salvation, he pressed in toward Christ. He asked until it was given to him. He sought until he found. He knocked until the door was opened to him.
If you fear that you are not saved, then wake-up! Arouse yourself this morning to seek the Lord while he may be found!
The Wonder of the Gospel
One of the things that marked Charles’ conversion, was his “wonder”—his astonished amazement—in the Gospel. I would argue that such “wonder,” to some extent, marks every believer. Peter assures his readers in 1 Peter 1:8 that their faith is genuine because the “believe in [the Lord Jesus Christ] and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible…” Joy that cannot be expressed is the joy of the Christian.
That, I believe, is what drove him to write over 6,000 hymns. His very first hymn, written the day after his conversion, began “Where shall my wond’ring soul begin?” His soul was full of astonishment at the Gospel and desired to express it. So, he asks, “Where do I begin?”
That question, of course, leads to the similar question, “Where do I end?” The Gospel is so rich, so wonderful, so deep, so beautiful, that its glories cannot be exhausted, especially in one hymn. Human language simply cannot suffice to describe it. That may be why Wesley would ask for “a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”
Every one of Charles 6,500 over the next 50 years hymns was a failed attempt to describe the depth and the riches of the Gospel. Wesley’s entire life of hymn writing is one sustained effort to proclaim the glories of the Gospel.
And Can It Be
And that is what “And Can It Be” is—an attempt to describe his soul’s wonder at the Gospel. This hymn was written shortly after his conversion in 1738 and published in 1739 under the title “Free Grace.” It is not a theological treatise, written by a tenured seminary faculty member who is sitting in a study, giving precise expression to all the finer points of conversion theology. It is the overflow of a new Christian, who is struggling to find words to express his amazement at being saved. It should be read and sung as such.
“And Can It Be” is a hymn of amazement at love, mercy and grace shown by God to an undeserving enemy, through the humble, substitutionary death and resurrection of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ; grace which seeks out and regenerates one who is dead in sin, and gives him justification, sanctification and glorification.
And I want to show you this morning, from its four stanzas, and from Romans 5 and a few other Scripture passages, four things about the wonder the Christian has at the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.
The Christian has…
…Wonder at Blood Shed for the Benefit of an Enemy (Stanza 1).
Wesley begins by expressing his wonder that he should “have an interest” in the Savior’s blood. By interest, he doesn’t mean “curiosity about.” He means having a share in Christ’ blood—he gets to participate in and have an advantage in Christ’s blood. He benefits from it.
He wonders at the fact that Christ—who is fully God—should die for him. The emphasis here is not on Christ’s death. That is to come in the next stanza. The emphasis and focus of the wonder here is that Christ, his God, should die for him.
Wesley presents himself as the Savior’s persecutor and enemy. He is the one “who caused his pain.” He is the one who pursued Christ to death. Wesley pictures himself as one who is not simply a sinner, but one who is chasing Christ in order to kill him and torture him. How is it that Christ could die for such a person?
And that is exactly the point that Paul is driving at in Romans 5:6-11. In verse 5, Paul has mentioned the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts. And where is this love grounded and where is it seen? In Christ’s death.
And when did Christ die for us? “While we were still weak.” And what does Paul mean by “weak”? He is referring to our moral condition. He says that “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
On rare occasions, scarcely, someone will die in the place of a righteous person (one’s whose life is outwardly morally upright) or for a good person (someone who does good). But such is scarce.
God’s love—which Wesley calls “amazing love”—is seen in this, “that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In verse ten, Paul says that this happened “while we were enemies.”
Friend, do you believe this morning that you are one “who caused his pain, who him to death pursued”? Do you believe that you are “weak,” “ungodly,” a “sinner,” and an “enemy of God”? If you do not believe yourself to be such, then you cannot possibly believe that Jesus Christ died for you—because that is who this passage says that Christ died for!
And why did he have to die? Paul has covered this already back in chapter 3. He says that God put Jesus Christ “forward as a propitiation by his blood.” All have sinned. All have failed to give God the glory and honor that he deserves. And therefore, all deserve the wrath of God. God’s justice demands that he punish sinners.
And yet God, in a display and act of “amazing love,” sent his Son Jesus Christ to become man and to live a life of perfect obedience. And then, in the supreme act of obedience to his Father, Jesus Christ was crucified. He died beneath the wrath of God as a “propitiation by his blood.” That is God’s wrath was propitiated, it was satisfied by inflicting on Jesus all the wrath and punishment that his sinful enemies deserved.
That propitiation is “to be received by faith.” That is, we cannot purchase or earn it. We simply trust in it. And God is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The one who trusts that Jesus—believes that Jesus took all the wrath of God for him on the cross—has “an interest in the Savior’s blood.” God counts Christ’s death as the death of the believer—and is satisfied. He declares the believer to be forgiven and righteous before Him.
Therefore, Paul can say in Romans 5:10-11 that “while we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of his Son.” God no longer has any anger toward the one who trusts in Jesus. We are no longer enemies; we have received reconciliation through his death.
Do you, this morning, understand that your sin made you an enemy of God? And do you wonder that Jesus Christ would shed his blood for you?
…Wonder at Humility Embraced for the Undeserving Helpless (Stanza 2).
Next, Wesley steps back to examine what Jesus Christ did in coming to die to be the propitiation for our sin. He focuses on Christ’s incarnation, his becoming man to die for man.
His words echo those of Paul in Philippians 2:5-8:
Paul highlights that Jesus was “in the form of God.” That is, he was eternally God. As Scripture teaches elsewhere, he is the eternal Son of God, who existed eternally, possessing the true and exact nature of God; he is and always was fully God. He possessed all the characteristics and qualities of God.
The next sentences of Paul’s receive some of the most pages of commentary of any passage of Scripture, and can be difficult to know how to translate. But, the basic idea is that Jesus had every right to hold on to the privileges of being God. He had every right to eternally enjoy glory together with the Father.
But, as Paul writes, he “made himself nothing.” The phrase there is literally, “he poured himself out.” Some have wrongly interpreted this to mean that when Jesus Christ became man he became “less than God” or that he gave up some of the attributes of God (such as being omnipotent or omniscient). That is a heresy known as “kenotic theology.”
What Paul was speaking up is Christ giving up his privilege of being the King of the universe and sharing eternal glory in the presence of his Father, in order to make himself, as the King James puts it, “of no reputation.” He, who was the king of all creation, became a slave and servant of all. He, who spoke the worlds into existence, was born in a stable, would wash the feet of sinners, and would die on the cross for their sins. He chose suffering over comfort and obedience over authority. Though he was rich, he, for our sake, became poor (2 Cor 8:9).
Unfortunately, some have accused Wesley of believing and teaching the kenotic heresy in his line “Empty’d himself of all but love.” Granted, Wesley’s language is unclear. But, we have no grounds from either this hymn or Wesley’s wider writings on which to accuse him of the heresy of saying that Christ gave up divine attributes in the incarnation. That phrase, like all language, must be interpreted within the context it is written.
First, that heresy was being raised by German theologians in 1850. Wesley died in 1788. He would have been confused by the whole conversation.
Second, Wesley is clear that Jesus Christ, even at the moment of his death, is God. “Thou, my God, should die for me,” he writes! (In fact, his language about the divinity of Christ is so strong, that some have accused him the heresy of saying that God suffered and died.)
Third, in its context, it points directly where Paul was pointing. No where in this verse does Wesley refer to anything to do with the attributes of God. He is referring to Christ leaving a place of glory in order to die. He speaks of Christ’ great humility. Wesley connects “emptying himself” with humility and death. And that—Christ’s great humility—is precisely Paul’s point in the passage Wesley quotes—Jesus left his place at the Father’s right hand in glory in order to suffer and die a shameful death.
Wesley brings out that this act of humility is one of mercy. He humbled himself in order to bleed “for Adam’s helpless race.” It was not for Jews alone—but for mankind, for Jew and Gentile—that Jesus came to die. As John will write, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” And as Paul will write, the living God is “the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” And as the Baptist declared, Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Mankind had fallen into rebellion, wickedness, and sin. He was trapped in death and “helpless,” and the God whom he had offended became man and bled for men.
And Wesley again wonders that it should find him. Do you wonder that Jesus Christ would humble himself and bleed for you in your helpless condition?
…Wonder at Redeeming Grace Reigning Over Death (Stanza 3).
Next Wesley moves from the humility of Christ to thoughts of his own conversion. He illustrates what he means by “helpless.” For a long time, his spirit lay imprisoned, “fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
This echoes Paul’s description of all of us, prior to conversion, in Ephesians 2. He writes:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We were not sick, but dead. Not righteous, but following this world and Satan. Not sons of God, but “sons of disobedience.” Not children of God, but “children of wrath”—and that “by nature.”
We could not raise ourselves. We were dead. We could not change our nature, anymore than a leopard could change its spots or an Ethiopian could change the color of his skin.
But Wesley says that while he was in that helpless condition, God’s eye looked upon him and sent forth a “quick’ning,” that is a “life-giving” ray. When God looked upon him with favor, he was brought to life and saw light. The chains of his sin and natural condition fell off. His heart was set free from the reign of death. He was given new life; he got up and followed Christ.
And that is what Paul says in Ephesians 2 happen with us. We were dead:
Do you wonder at the redeeming grace of God—that reigns over death? Have you experienced this? Have you been converted?
…Wonder that Produces Astonishing Boldness in Life and in Death (Stanza 4).
Finally, Wesley reflects on the effect and application of the Gospel. He no longer fears any condemnation—from God or from man. He does not fear condemnation because Jesus—and everything in Jesus—belongs to him. He not only has “an interest in the Savior’s blood,” he has an interest in the Savior life and resurrection and reign. Jesus death has been reckoned as his. And so has the righteousness of Christ in a perfect life been reckoned his. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is his also.
As Paul writes in Romans 5:1-2, “we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We will not be condemned when we enter God’s presence, because he has already pronounced us righteous. We gain this access, not by our works, but by faith. We stand in grace.
Wesley now wonders to find his life “alive in him, my living head.” That is, Christ is his head, his representative.
Paul writes in Romans 5:18 that “one trespass led to condemnation for all men…by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” That is, Adam is the head of mankind. He represented us. All those who are connected to Adam by being born human share in the guilt of Adam. But, Paul continues, “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men…by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” That is, Christ is the head of all those who are born again by grace through faith. Because he is their representative “head,” they share in his life and are “clothed in righteousness divine.”
If we “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” then we have no fear of death and no fear of the presence of God. “Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”
If God has already declared you to be righteous, if he has reconciled you to himself through the blood of his Son, if he has said that we will “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ,” then we can live with boldness and approach God with confidence.
Two months after Wesley’s conversion, he did something amazing. He asked to spend the evening locked in the prison cell with prisoners condemned to be executed the next day. He has spent the week preaching the Gospel to them, and wanted to spend the last night with them before they were hung the next day. He did. And all of them were converted and died with peace.
Those prisoners had nothing more to lose. They would be hung the next day. They would lose nothing by killing Wesley that night. How did he live with such boldness?
When you have peace with God through Jesus Christ—when you have a Gospel that gives you confidence to approach the throne of God without fear of harm—then there is nothing and no one else that can ultimately do any harm to you.
Does your wonder in the Gospel produce the boldness the approach throne of God with confidence and live with confidence now?
Charles became an itinerant evangelist until 1749, when he married Sarah (aka Sally), with whom he had an almost ideal marriage. They settled in Bristol and later London, where Charles preached. They had eight children, five of whom died as young children.
Charles died in March of 1788.
Applications
Before moving on to looking at Charles’ hymn and our text for today, I want to pause to dwell on something important. We should note that Charles formed the “Holy Club,” to study the Bible, care for the sick, and improve Christian worship, almost 10 years before he was converted. He was ordained as a priest, served as a pastor and missionary, three years prior to his conversion.
Charles, like Paul before his conversion, was extremely disciplined and devoted to religion, but was not saved. He had been baptized as an infant in the Church of England. He made a decision to lead a good life. He fasted. He prayed. He was disciplined in the reading of his Bible. He visited the sick and those in prison. He took communion each week. He was ordained to ministry. He went overseas as a missionary.
And, in spite of all this, as he would later admit, he was not saved. He was not truly a Christian. When asked about his hope of salvation, he replied that he hoped to be saved because he had given his best endeavors to Christ.
Perhaps that describes you this morning. You’ve been baptized. You take the Lord’s Supper. You go to church regularly. You pray, and maybe fast. You are disciplined in your reading of the Bible. You care for the sick. Perhaps you even have held official positions of service in the church for many years and have gone on missions trips. Yet, when the question is put to you about your hope of entering eternal life, your answer is in these things, and not in Christ.
When it all comes down, you trust that Christ will save you because you have given all these things to him—and not because he has given himself for you. And one of the clearest signs of your false hope and your unsaved condition is that you have no wonder at the Gospel. The message of salvation does not amaze you because you don’t really believe that you’ve ever needed to be saved. You’ve saved yourself, you imagine. You don’t wonder that Jesus would bleed for the helpless, because you imagine that you’ve helped yourself.
I hope that Charles Wesley’s testimony will encourage you to examine the state of your own soul, to quit hoping in yourself, and to turn to trust in Christ alone, crucified for sins and raised from the dead.
And should you come to conclusion this morning that you are not saved, do not shrink back from pursuing Christ, from the study of Scripture. Press on!
When Charles understood that he was not saved, he did not quit his religious devotion to the study of the Bible and prayer and such—he increased it. Realizing that he was without faith in Christ, without the forgiveness of sins, without the assurance of salvation, he pressed in toward Christ. He asked until it was given to him. He sought until he found. He knocked until the door was opened to him.
If you fear that you are not saved, then wake-up! Arouse yourself this morning to seek the Lord while he may be found!
The Wonder of the Gospel
One of the things that marked Charles’ conversion, was his “wonder”—his astonished amazement—in the Gospel. I would argue that such “wonder,” to some extent, marks every believer. Peter assures his readers in 1 Peter 1:8 that their faith is genuine because the “believe in [the Lord Jesus Christ] and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible…” Joy that cannot be expressed is the joy of the Christian.
That, I believe, is what drove him to write over 6,000 hymns. His very first hymn, written the day after his conversion, began “Where shall my wond’ring soul begin?” His soul was full of astonishment at the Gospel and desired to express it. So, he asks, “Where do I begin?”
That question, of course, leads to the similar question, “Where do I end?” The Gospel is so rich, so wonderful, so deep, so beautiful, that its glories cannot be exhausted, especially in one hymn. Human language simply cannot suffice to describe it. That may be why Wesley would ask for “a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”
Every one of Charles 6,500 over the next 50 years hymns was a failed attempt to describe the depth and the riches of the Gospel. Wesley’s entire life of hymn writing is one sustained effort to proclaim the glories of the Gospel.
And Can It Be
And that is what “And Can It Be” is—an attempt to describe his soul’s wonder at the Gospel. This hymn was written shortly after his conversion in 1738 and published in 1739 under the title “Free Grace.” It is not a theological treatise, written by a tenured seminary faculty member who is sitting in a study, giving precise expression to all the finer points of conversion theology. It is the overflow of a new Christian, who is struggling to find words to express his amazement at being saved. It should be read and sung as such.
“And Can It Be” is a hymn of amazement at love, mercy and grace shown by God to an undeserving enemy, through the humble, substitutionary death and resurrection of the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ; grace which seeks out and regenerates one who is dead in sin, and gives him justification, sanctification and glorification.
And I want to show you this morning, from its four stanzas, and from Romans 5 and a few other Scripture passages, four things about the wonder the Christian has at the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.
The Christian has…
…Wonder at Blood Shed for the Benefit of an Enemy (Stanza 1).
Wesley begins by expressing his wonder that he should “have an interest” in the Savior’s blood. By interest, he doesn’t mean “curiosity about.” He means having a share in Christ’ blood—he gets to participate in and have an advantage in Christ’s blood. He benefits from it.
He wonders at the fact that Christ—who is fully God—should die for him. The emphasis here is not on Christ’s death. That is to come in the next stanza. The emphasis and focus of the wonder here is that Christ, his God, should die for him.
Wesley presents himself as the Savior’s persecutor and enemy. He is the one “who caused his pain.” He is the one who pursued Christ to death. Wesley pictures himself as one who is not simply a sinner, but one who is chasing Christ in order to kill him and torture him. How is it that Christ could die for such a person?
And that is exactly the point that Paul is driving at in Romans 5:6-11. In verse 5, Paul has mentioned the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts. And where is this love grounded and where is it seen? In Christ’s death.
And when did Christ die for us? “While we were still weak.” And what does Paul mean by “weak”? He is referring to our moral condition. He says that “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
On rare occasions, scarcely, someone will die in the place of a righteous person (one’s whose life is outwardly morally upright) or for a good person (someone who does good). But such is scarce.
God’s love—which Wesley calls “amazing love”—is seen in this, “that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In verse ten, Paul says that this happened “while we were enemies.”
Friend, do you believe this morning that you are one “who caused his pain, who him to death pursued”? Do you believe that you are “weak,” “ungodly,” a “sinner,” and an “enemy of God”? If you do not believe yourself to be such, then you cannot possibly believe that Jesus Christ died for you—because that is who this passage says that Christ died for!
And why did he have to die? Paul has covered this already back in chapter 3. He says that God put Jesus Christ “forward as a propitiation by his blood.” All have sinned. All have failed to give God the glory and honor that he deserves. And therefore, all deserve the wrath of God. God’s justice demands that he punish sinners.
And yet God, in a display and act of “amazing love,” sent his Son Jesus Christ to become man and to live a life of perfect obedience. And then, in the supreme act of obedience to his Father, Jesus Christ was crucified. He died beneath the wrath of God as a “propitiation by his blood.” That is God’s wrath was propitiated, it was satisfied by inflicting on Jesus all the wrath and punishment that his sinful enemies deserved.
That propitiation is “to be received by faith.” That is, we cannot purchase or earn it. We simply trust in it. And God is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The one who trusts that Jesus—believes that Jesus took all the wrath of God for him on the cross—has “an interest in the Savior’s blood.” God counts Christ’s death as the death of the believer—and is satisfied. He declares the believer to be forgiven and righteous before Him.
Therefore, Paul can say in Romans 5:10-11 that “while we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of his Son.” God no longer has any anger toward the one who trusts in Jesus. We are no longer enemies; we have received reconciliation through his death.
Do you, this morning, understand that your sin made you an enemy of God? And do you wonder that Jesus Christ would shed his blood for you?
…Wonder at Humility Embraced for the Undeserving Helpless (Stanza 2).
Next, Wesley steps back to examine what Jesus Christ did in coming to die to be the propitiation for our sin. He focuses on Christ’s incarnation, his becoming man to die for man.
His words echo those of Paul in Philippians 2:5-8:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.Paul’s point here is to emphasize the humility of Christ—which is exactly Wesley’s emphasis.
Paul highlights that Jesus was “in the form of God.” That is, he was eternally God. As Scripture teaches elsewhere, he is the eternal Son of God, who existed eternally, possessing the true and exact nature of God; he is and always was fully God. He possessed all the characteristics and qualities of God.
The next sentences of Paul’s receive some of the most pages of commentary of any passage of Scripture, and can be difficult to know how to translate. But, the basic idea is that Jesus had every right to hold on to the privileges of being God. He had every right to eternally enjoy glory together with the Father.
But, as Paul writes, he “made himself nothing.” The phrase there is literally, “he poured himself out.” Some have wrongly interpreted this to mean that when Jesus Christ became man he became “less than God” or that he gave up some of the attributes of God (such as being omnipotent or omniscient). That is a heresy known as “kenotic theology.”
What Paul was speaking up is Christ giving up his privilege of being the King of the universe and sharing eternal glory in the presence of his Father, in order to make himself, as the King James puts it, “of no reputation.” He, who was the king of all creation, became a slave and servant of all. He, who spoke the worlds into existence, was born in a stable, would wash the feet of sinners, and would die on the cross for their sins. He chose suffering over comfort and obedience over authority. Though he was rich, he, for our sake, became poor (2 Cor 8:9).
Unfortunately, some have accused Wesley of believing and teaching the kenotic heresy in his line “Empty’d himself of all but love.” Granted, Wesley’s language is unclear. But, we have no grounds from either this hymn or Wesley’s wider writings on which to accuse him of the heresy of saying that Christ gave up divine attributes in the incarnation. That phrase, like all language, must be interpreted within the context it is written.
First, that heresy was being raised by German theologians in 1850. Wesley died in 1788. He would have been confused by the whole conversation.
Second, Wesley is clear that Jesus Christ, even at the moment of his death, is God. “Thou, my God, should die for me,” he writes! (In fact, his language about the divinity of Christ is so strong, that some have accused him the heresy of saying that God suffered and died.)
Third, in its context, it points directly where Paul was pointing. No where in this verse does Wesley refer to anything to do with the attributes of God. He is referring to Christ leaving a place of glory in order to die. He speaks of Christ’ great humility. Wesley connects “emptying himself” with humility and death. And that—Christ’s great humility—is precisely Paul’s point in the passage Wesley quotes—Jesus left his place at the Father’s right hand in glory in order to suffer and die a shameful death.
Wesley brings out that this act of humility is one of mercy. He humbled himself in order to bleed “for Adam’s helpless race.” It was not for Jews alone—but for mankind, for Jew and Gentile—that Jesus came to die. As John will write, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” And as Paul will write, the living God is “the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” And as the Baptist declared, Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Mankind had fallen into rebellion, wickedness, and sin. He was trapped in death and “helpless,” and the God whom he had offended became man and bled for men.
And Wesley again wonders that it should find him. Do you wonder that Jesus Christ would humble himself and bleed for you in your helpless condition?
…Wonder at Redeeming Grace Reigning Over Death (Stanza 3).
Next Wesley moves from the humility of Christ to thoughts of his own conversion. He illustrates what he means by “helpless.” For a long time, his spirit lay imprisoned, “fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
This echoes Paul’s description of all of us, prior to conversion, in Ephesians 2. He writes:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We were not sick, but dead. Not righteous, but following this world and Satan. Not sons of God, but “sons of disobedience.” Not children of God, but “children of wrath”—and that “by nature.”
We could not raise ourselves. We were dead. We could not change our nature, anymore than a leopard could change its spots or an Ethiopian could change the color of his skin.
But Wesley says that while he was in that helpless condition, God’s eye looked upon him and sent forth a “quick’ning,” that is a “life-giving” ray. When God looked upon him with favor, he was brought to life and saw light. The chains of his sin and natural condition fell off. His heart was set free from the reign of death. He was given new life; he got up and followed Christ.
And that is what Paul says in Ephesians 2 happen with us. We were dead:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.As Paul wrote in Romans 5, “death reigned” through Adam, and sin reigned through death. But through Jesus Christ, we receive abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness and we will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Do you wonder at the redeeming grace of God—that reigns over death? Have you experienced this? Have you been converted?
…Wonder that Produces Astonishing Boldness in Life and in Death (Stanza 4).
Finally, Wesley reflects on the effect and application of the Gospel. He no longer fears any condemnation—from God or from man. He does not fear condemnation because Jesus—and everything in Jesus—belongs to him. He not only has “an interest in the Savior’s blood,” he has an interest in the Savior life and resurrection and reign. Jesus death has been reckoned as his. And so has the righteousness of Christ in a perfect life been reckoned his. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is his also.
As Paul writes in Romans 5:1-2, “we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We will not be condemned when we enter God’s presence, because he has already pronounced us righteous. We gain this access, not by our works, but by faith. We stand in grace.
Wesley now wonders to find his life “alive in him, my living head.” That is, Christ is his head, his representative.
Paul writes in Romans 5:18 that “one trespass led to condemnation for all men…by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” That is, Adam is the head of mankind. He represented us. All those who are connected to Adam by being born human share in the guilt of Adam. But, Paul continues, “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men…by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” That is, Christ is the head of all those who are born again by grace through faith. Because he is their representative “head,” they share in his life and are “clothed in righteousness divine.”
If we “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” then we have no fear of death and no fear of the presence of God. “Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”
If God has already declared you to be righteous, if he has reconciled you to himself through the blood of his Son, if he has said that we will “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ,” then we can live with boldness and approach God with confidence.
Two months after Wesley’s conversion, he did something amazing. He asked to spend the evening locked in the prison cell with prisoners condemned to be executed the next day. He has spent the week preaching the Gospel to them, and wanted to spend the last night with them before they were hung the next day. He did. And all of them were converted and died with peace.
Those prisoners had nothing more to lose. They would be hung the next day. They would lose nothing by killing Wesley that night. How did he live with such boldness?
When you have peace with God through Jesus Christ—when you have a Gospel that gives you confidence to approach the throne of God without fear of harm—then there is nothing and no one else that can ultimately do any harm to you.
Does your wonder in the Gospel produce the boldness the approach throne of God with confidence and live with confidence now?
Labels:
Charles Wesley,
hymns,
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