Reflections on The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689: Part 29 ~ The State of Man in Death and Resurrection

This is the penultimate post in our series on the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.  I hope and trust that you have benefited from looking at doctrines in Scripture thematically and systematically.

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Benjamin Franklin is credited with the now famous assertion that in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.  It is to death that the Confession now turns its attention.  There are three groups of people that the Confession addresses.

Everyone

The Confession agrees with Franklin that death is a certainty for everyone – there is no exception.  Everyone’s final destination on this earth is death (if the Lord does not return).  What is the state of man in this certainty?  To begin with our bodies return to dust.  From dust they came, and to dust they return (Gen. 3:19).  Even the greatest Israelite King, David, saw corruption and decay (Acts 13:36).  However, we are not only physical bodies, but also eternal souls.  And so, our “souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them” (pg. 120; Ecc. 12:7).  The implication here is that there is something beyond the grave, of which we are conscious.  It is at this point that we must consider the second group of people.

The Righteous

Everyone’s bodies return to dust, and all their souls return to God, but everyone does not enjoy the same treatment.  The righteous (or Christians, believers in Christ) are immediately received into Paradise (Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23).  It is here that the righteous await their full redemption at the end of time.

Of course, the reality is that there will still be people living when the end of time arrives.  These people will not experience death per se, but they will experience resurrection.  Scripture clearly teaches that these people will be caught up into the air and changed in the blinking of an eye (1 Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thess. 4:17).

For the righteous who have experienced death, at the end of time they will enjoy having their souls reunited with their resurrected bodies (1 Cor. 15:42ff.).  In this we will be raised to be made like Christ (Jn. 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; 1 Jn. 3:2).  This is the glory which awaits the righteous in death and resurrection.

The Unrighteous

Sadly, there is a third group of people – the unrighteous.  These people have spurned Christ and his love throughout their life, and so face a very different experience on the other side of death.  As mentioned above their souls return to God, but not to be welcomed into Paradise.  Instead, these individuals are cast into a place of suffering and torment until the final judgement which will occur at the end of time (Luke 16:23-24; 1 Pet. 3:19; Jude 6-7).

At the end of time, however, the unrighteous will be brought before God again and will be judged for their rebellion and hatred against God (Jn. 5:28-29; Acts 24:15).

Conclusion

I want to conclude with three implications for what I assume will be a Christian readership:

1. First, we should note the great comfort that Scripture affords the Christian in death. While we will suffer death like everyone else – and for some that will be painful, undignified and brutal – we will not enter some strange abyss.  To be absent from the body, to die, is to be with the Lord.  For those who have lost loved ones in Christ this is a great comfort as we know they are now present with God.  As the Confession reminds us they “behold the face of God in light and glory” (pg. 120).  For those perhaps facing death and their final days, know this: when you close our eyes for the final time God will be the next person you see!
2. Second, we must think again what heaven (or to be more accurate the new heaven and new earth) will be like. This is somewhat difficult as Scripture uses lofty imagery to describe the indescribable, but so often our ideas are mistaken (and badly informed by media).  In resurrection we will be given back our bodies, only they will be glorified.  We will be perfect representations of Jesus Christ.  We will experience what Adam and Eve enjoyed all too briefly.  We will not have some bodiless, floating experience.
3. Third, can we really it back in our comfortable churches and not cry out to the world in darkness about the dangers that lie ahead of them? To die, to be raised, to be put in a ‘holding cell’, to be brought before God, to be judged and condemned eternally is a frightful prospect.  We alone hold the remedy to that in the gospel of Jesus Christ – and thus, we must proclaim it!  Again there is comfort to be found here, because it is never too late to trust in Christ while there is breath in your lungs.  After all, Jesus promised the thief on the cross that that very day he would be with him in Paradise!

Easter Meditations: The Glorious Message Announced and Spreading (Luke 24:1-12)

The Sabbath has been observed and now the women head to the tomb at early dawn with their spices at hand (v. 1).  The women are heading to the tomb to complete the burial – remember on Friday we noted that these people did not expect Jesus to rise again.  In their minds he was dead, and was going to stay dead.  So they come to the tomb to complete the burial process.

However, as they reach the tomb they make two discoveries (vv. 2-3).  First of all, they discover that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb.  Secondly, as they enter the tomb they realise that the body is gone!  These discoveries obviously caused them some concern.  We read in verse 4 that they were ‘perplexed’ – this was not how it was supposed to be.  As the NEB puts it, they were ‘utterly at loss’.  But, in the middle of this being perplexed suddenly two men stood beside them in ‘dazzling apparel’ (v. 4).  This type of language is used of heavenly phenomena and so although Luke only ever calls them men, we can be certain that these two men are angels. 

However, the really important section in these verses is the announcement by the angels, which begins in verse 5.  To begin they ask the simple question which presupposes the resurrection, but then they confirm it in verse 6 – ‘He is not here, but is risen!’  We should note that ‘risen’ in this text is passive, perhaps a better rendering of it would be ‘has been raised’, this is a work of God.  It is God who raised Jesus from the dead.  What is more amazing though is that the angels suggest that the women should not be surprised at this resurrection (vv. 6-7).  Jesus did indeed predict this, in Luke 9:22 he says ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised’.  And so the women are reminded about this promise and told that this promise has been kept.

The announcement of this glorious message reminds us that God keeps his promises.  Jesus promised he would be raised on the third day – God kept that promise raising Jesus on the third day.  We must be encouraged that God keeps his promises.  While there are numerous promises that we could consider throughout Scripture allow me to pick just one promise:

‘Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven’ (1 Cor. 15:49)

Jesus resurrection is a forerunner to our resurrection.  We will be raised, and will bear the image of the man of heaven as Paul puts it.  Is that not a great promise?  And can we not have great assurance from this passage in Luke that God keeps his promises?  1 Corinthians 15 is a magnificent chapter which speaks of our resurrection, and our victory over death, which is ours only because of Easter and Jesus enduring of it for us!

We soon see that the women remember this prediction that the angels have drawn their attention to (v. 8)!  However, they do not just remember, they respond.  Verse 9 tells us that the women returned home from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven disciples and to all the rest.  The women are not content with just being encouraged by this glorious message, they must announce it and see it spread throughout all Jesus disciples.

However, the spreading of this glorious news appears to stumble at the apostles.  Isn’t it ironic that the first sceptics that Jesus faces are his very own disciples?  Luke tells us in verse 10 that these words seemed like ‘idle tales’, or as some other versions put it ‘nonsense’ to the disciples.  The word used is one which was used in medical settings for description of the delirious talk of sick people.  And so the impression is given that the disciples wrote off the testimony of these women.  In fact, this thought is underlined in that Luke states it this way, ‘their words seemed like idle tales, and they did not believe them’ (v. 11 NIV).

While it appears that no one believes them, one disciple feels the need to investigate.  That disciple is Peter, Luke tells us that Peter got up and ran to the tomb (v. 12).  He wasn’t going to waste any time arguing – he just wanted to see for himself!  And he does.  He reaches the tomb, peers in and sees the cloths lying on the ground – the body is gone, perhaps he really has been raised from the dead?  So, Peter goes home ‘marvelling’ at what had happened.  The force of the word is trying to understand.  Peter pondered is really the outcome…  And so in these last few verses we see that the glorious message has spread, from the angels, to the women, to the disciples.

And it has continued to spread.  We think of the reformation and men like Martin Luther trying to reform the church in the 1500s.  Then came the Puritans who took this glorious message to USA in the 1600s & 1700s.  Then we think of individuals like William Carey who took this glorious message to India.  Or David Livingstone who took this glorious message to Africa.  Or Hudson Taylor who took this glorious message to China.  Indeed I can even think of my very own Baptist Missions taking this glorious message to Peru.  But it doesn’t stop there, this message has continued to spread and will continue to spread.

The Long Wait

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of Christians met all across the globe to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago through song, prayer, Scripture readings, sacraments and preaching. Easter Sunday is a day of triumph for the Christian – the seeming destruction of their religion and their king was turned around as God in his great power raised Jesus from the dead. Moreover, just a few weeks after he was raised from the dead he ascended to heaven giving us the hope of following suit.

But, as we look around at the creation creaking under the weight of sin; as we watch the evil and wickedness perpetrated by humans against humans; as we feel the sinful nature and flesh waging war within us, we can sometimes wonder where the victory, joy and triumph have gone.

Recently it has been impressed upon me through some study that waiting in difficult circumstances for this victory, joy and triumph has been a feature of God’s people throughout redemptive history.

Habakkuk

Prior to the exile that Israel suffered, righteous people were awaiting God’s intervention. Habakkuk lamented the fact that God’s chosen people were neglecting law and justice (1:2-4). God’s response was as shocking as it was delayed (in the eyes of Habakkuk anyway). God was going to deal with his chosen people, but through the wicked Chaldeans (1:5-6). This was a problem for Habakkuk; how could a less righteous people execute God’s punishment of a more righteous, albeit still wicked, people (1:13).

God’s response in chapter 2 makes it clear that neither the wicked Israelites, nor the brutal Babylonians will escape his judgement. Indeed, they will all know the glory of the LORD (2:14) and it will be evident that the LORD is in his holy temple (2:20). However, it will not all take place immediately – there will be a period of waiting, perhaps even a long wait. Therefore, Habakkuk confesses ‘Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us’ (3:16).

Haggai

Sadly, things did not improve much after the exile.

The Jews have looked on somewhat helplessly, and somewhat to blame, as their nation was divided into two kingdoms; then as those kingdoms were invaded; after invasion came the deposing of the kings and finally the exile of the peoples to foreign nations. In amongst all of this the beloved city Jerusalem, and the revered Temple were demolished.

In the book of Haggai the Jews have returned to Jerusalem, and have already begun rebuilding the walls and the temple. But the temple is not quite as spectacular as when it was first built (2:3). Life as a Jew is not what is should have been – all God’s promises seem to be failing. This will not continue though, as Haggai makes clear to Zerubbabel, a descendant of King David. Haggai tells Zerubbabel that the LORD has said ‘I will take you my servant and I will make you like my signet ring’ (2:23, paraphrased). In other words, there will be a king in Jerusalem again.

Zerubbabel fades from the face of history though, and no king is reinstated in Jerusalem. The people are in for a long wait yet again. But this wait is worth it, because in little over 500 years from Haggai uttering those words the Messiah, King Jesus, is born. And in the genealogies recorded for us in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 this man Zerubbabel is named.

James

God’s people in the New Testament still find themselves waiting even though they stand on this side of the Messiah’s birth.

This is evident in the book of James. James writes to Christians facing differing trials (1:2). In these trials he has much practical wisdom to share with them: from how they live their religion (1:27; 2:24), to the way that they use their tongues and speech (1:19; 3:1-12; 4:11). The book then comes to a close with the exhortation to wait patiently (5:7ff.)

James is addressing those who are living in difficult circumstances, most likely farmers being exploited by the rich landlords (5:1-6). In the context of coming judgement James then has this exhortation, ‘Be patient’ (vv. 7, 8a). Patiently endure, just like the prophets and Job (vv. 10-11). If you do so the Lord will be seen to be compassionate and merciful (v. 11).

Those suffering trials are told blatantly by James, wait!

The Long Wait

And so we reach the twenty first century, with we who find ourselves on Easter Monday 2015 awaiting the full victory and triumph that Jesus’ resurrection initiated. The message is no different – we as God’s people must continue to wait.

This is not a sitting back and twiddling our thumbs kind of waiting though. It is an active, militant and tenacious waiting. We strive, and work, and labour for the spread of the gospel, the building of the kingdom and the revelation of God’s glory in all its fullness here and now. But we do so with the knowledge that we wait, we wait for the full victory and triumph that Jesus’ resurrection is a foreshadowing of.

Therefore, as we look around at the creation creaking under the weight of sin; as we watch the evil and wickedness perpetrated by humans against humans; as we feel the sinful nature and flesh waging war within us, we know that the victory, joy and triumph will one day come – all we must do is wait patiently.

An Antemortem Dyslogy in Anticipation of the Death of Death

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26 ESV)

Death was born in a garden.

Image by Roma Flowers

The offspring of Satan and the hubris of humanity.

It came as an unstoppable invading force indiscriminately laying waste to all that stood in its path (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3a).

The world God made was free from the tyranny of death. It was a world in which humanity would live in continuous joyful community with God and one another, world without end.

To perpetuate this ongoing life of joy all that was required of Adam and Eve in their garden paradise was trust and obedience:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)

God asked them to trust him. He wanted Adam and Eve to trust him just because. So he gave them an opportunity to express their love and gratitude for all he had graciously done for them by obeying what likely seemed a light and arbitrary rule. One which would not even be difficult to obey because God had generously provided them with so many other fruit trees from which to feast.

When they were tempted by Satan to eat of the forbidden tree Adam and Eve broke faith with God and in disobedience ate from the tree of which they were told, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Immediately the life of joyful community, with one another and with God, died.

In shame they covered themselves up, in effect hiding themselves from each other, and, in a laughable attempt, tried to hide themselves from God himself behind the very trees God had made (Genesis 3:6-8).

Because they had broken faith and disobeyed him God exiled them from their once garden home to the wilds of the yet untamed land east of Eden. To save them from further self-harm he placed a guardian with a fiery sword to stop Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life lest they live in a perpetual state of death (Genesis 3:22-24).

They were cut off from God. Their relationship with one another was deeply fractured. And creation itself was cursed because of them; subject to futility and corruption, groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-22).

The effects of death were far reaching and the man and his wife had yet to taste the worst of its bitter dregs. They had yet to feel it’s full sting.

As the seasons came and went, and years passed, the man and his wife, by the grace of God, rebuilt what was broken. They began, once again, to trust God and one another. With toilsome effort and an abundance of sweat they made a living cultivating the cursed ground from which they came. And then, into a world inherently pervaded by death, new life was born.

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel.” (Genesis 4:1-2a ESV)

God blessed them with two sons. One to work the ground and the other to tend their flocks (Genesis 4:2b).

“In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.” (Genesis 4:3-5 ESV)

Seeing Cain’s anger God asks, “Why are you angry? Beware of the sin lurking in your heart or it will devour you.”

Turning a deaf ear to God’s warning Cain, consumed by his sinful anger and jealous, turns a closed fist upon his innocent brother, Abel, whose spilt blood called out to God for vindication (Genesis 4:6-10).

In a heated moment the sting of death was felt, signifying the end of a life, and not for the last time.

The reign of death was only beginning.

The world was soon plunged into the darkness of savage bloodlust and the earth irrevocably dyed a deep violent red.

It’s rule over humanity uncontested, for,

“just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man… [and] led to condemnation for all men,” (Romans 5:12, 17, 18 ESV)

Death reigned because there was none for whom death was not the end.

But God had a plan to save us from our dreadful fate, a plan in which death was not the last thing:

“The gospel is the announcement that in one person’s history death is no longer the eschaton, but was only the second to last thing. It has now become past history. Death lies behind Jesus, qualifying him to lead the procession from death unto new life. Since death is what separates persons from God in the end, only that power which transcends death can liberate humans for eternal life with God. This is the meaning of salvation in the biblical Christian sense. It is eschatological salvation, because the God who raised Jesus from the dead has overcome death as the final eschaton of life.”

Carl E. Braaten

For Jesus death was not the end, instead, he is the end for death; that is, in his death he has put an end to death.

Likewise, in Christ death is no longer our end, as Braaten concludes,

“Our final salvation lies in the eschatological future when our own death will be put behind us. This does not mean that there is no salvation in the present, no realised aspect of salvation. It means that the salvation we enjoy now is like borrowing from the future, living now as though our future could already be practiced in the present, because of our union with the risen Christ through faith and hope.”

Through his death Jesus has brought about the death of death, for,

“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it… that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil… our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel… saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades'” (Acts 2:24; Hebrews 2:14; 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 1:17-18 ESV)

And in the end when he returns triumphant, victorious to make all things new, “Then Death and Hades [will be] thrown into the lake of fire… and death shall be no more.” (Revelation 20:14, 21:4 ESV)

~

Quotes from Carl E. Braaten, “Who Do We Say That He Is? On the Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ,” Missiology 8 (1980): 25-27

The Resurrection: Deus Ex Machina or Eucatastrophe?

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:19-21 ESV)

Imagine that fateful Sunday evening.

The sun is setting outside the window. Its shutters drawn, flickers of light intrude through cracks in the screen meant to keep out prying eyes.

The doors, locked and bolted against unwanted “guests”, proves no barrier to the fear that continues to grow in the hearts of all present, threatening to overwhelm them.

The silence: deafening. Broken only by an excruciating groan from the protesting joints of a wooden chair as one of those seated shifts their weight.

No one speaks. But volumes are communicated as ashamed, bloodshot and guilt-ridden eyes meet across the room and quickly withdraw.

Suddenly, a familiar voice, clear and strong, declares, “Peace be with you.”

As if the roof were ripped off the house and the noon day sun flooded the room so their hearts were engulfed in joy.

In one glorious moment their inconsolable sorrow was unexpectantly turned to inexpressible exultation.

Deus Ex Machina

From the disciples point of view the Resurrection must have seemed like deus ex machina (pronounced ‘day-s ex mac-in-ah) because they obviously didn’t see it coming.

Deus ex machina is a Latin literary term that literally translates to ‘god out of a machine’ and refers to an event in a story which suddenly and unexplainably resolves an unsolvable problem that a character or characters have gotten themselves into. It is as though, in the closing chapters of a book or the final moments in a film, the hero is about to be unquestionably devoured by an evil monster when suddenly, out of nowhere, they are rescued by a never before seen character riding in on a white horse to slay the aforementioned evil monster. And they all live happily ever after.

Most literary critics regard deus ex machina pejoratively because it shatters the reality of the world created by the author as it removes any sense of real peril (the hero is going to be rescued anyway so why worry?).

Was the resurrection a god out of a machine? Was it an unexplainable resolution that no one saw coming? Or is there another explanation?

Eucatastrophe

J.R.R. Tolkien believed there is. In his essay ‘On Fairy Stories’ he coined the term ‘Eucatastrophe‘ which he describes as,

“the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): … it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of  deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium [good news], giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief…”

It is differentiated from deus ex machina by its “inner consistency of reality”, meaning that it arises naturally from the story having been foreshadowed by the author.

Tolkien continues, describing the Gospel from this perspective,

“The Gospels contain a fairy story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable Eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world [that is, our world]; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfilment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the Eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the Eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.”

Tolkien could speak of the resurrection as the Eucatastrophe, the sudden joyous turn, of the story of the incarnation because it had been foreshadowed so well by the Author. It was no deus ex machina plotting device hastily thrown in so we might have a cheerful, happy ending.

Time and again Jesus predicted his own death and subsequent resurrection (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:17-19; Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:32-34; Luke 9:22, 44-45, 18:31-34; John 2:19-22). The disciples should not have been surprised by Jesus’ death and resurrection. They had Jesus’ word that his death would not be the final word in the story, not to mention the testimony of Scripture.

Hundreds of years before the Incarnation the prophet Isaiah foreshadowed the resurrection in these words, speaking of the Suffering Servant of the Lord, the Messiah,

“And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:9-10 ESV)

Like the disciples Jesus’ resurrection speaks, “Peace,” to us in this the present, ‘primary world’ because we have now been declared right with God on his account (Romans 4:25, 5:1) and can now live in anticipation of his promise of peace in the future world where ‘Legend and History have met and fused’ and we see with gladness the Lord who makes all things new (Revelation 21:1-8).