Fruitful Labor for Me

 Philippians 1:21-26  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.  But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.  Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.

As a Christian, have you ever asked yourself "Why am I still here?" Have you felt depression or crushed by life's problems and pressures, desiring to simply depart the flesh and this world and be with Christ? Our faith indeed informs us to agree with Paul that such will be "very much better".  So why does God  compel us to so often carry such burdens when He could lighten our load or even remove it entirely by taking us up to Him sooner? Is not Death swallowed up by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ?  

In regards to this passage consider a parable: Paul is as a husband who works late for a time in order to buy his wife a particular piece of jewelry that her heart is set upon. As he toils away for a time, he wishes he could just go home and find sure rest and contentment in her arms. He is assured of her love and knows she would receive him gladly. That would surely be better than all this excessive toil burning the midnite oil. But then he considers the joy of seeing her joy when all this extra burden has produced its fruit: that piece of exquisite jewelry he knows she deeply desires. Not only at first, but for many years to come he can envision her face looking at the beauty of gold and stone, then smiling and engaging him year after year. It is this vision which compels him to press on with this temporal labor, for such labor will produce a much deeper and longer lasting reward.   

Revelation 4:10-11  The twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,  “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul teaches us that God will one day judge your works. Your works that were from Him, through Him, and to Him, those works that He worked in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, are the works that will come out of the fire as gold, silver, and precious stones.  But what of the works of wood, hay, and stubble? What of the seemingly good works you did from the flesh, through the flesh, to the flesh? They are burned up and you will "suffer loss". Suffer loss? What does that mean?

It means you will lose any glory of that much of your life's work, for such is only the flesh's vain attempt to glorify itself. Once again we must remember the contrast to these lost works; the works of gold, silver, and precious stones; these are not a testimony to us as much as they are a testimony to God and the great salvation He has wrought by the glorious works of His Son and His Spirit. For eternity, we will all be reflecting the glory of God back towards Him with our crowns of gold, silver, and precious stones, for, in the fullest sense, they are His works.  Truly, He "created all things", by His will "they existed and were created." 

Indeed, this is why you are called to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Verses 12 and 13 of Phillipians 2 should never be studied apart from each other, for they for only together do they fit into a right systematic theology.

To fear and tremble is to fear pushing away the work of Almighty God at His nearest proximity to you; the work He is striving to accomplish within you. To instead pursue works of wood, hay, and stubble is to first and foremost deny God His Glory. In this we find what means to "suffer loss". In eternity, our fully sanctified soul will desire one thing more than any other- to give glory to God. 

To find out we have lost some of what we thought to be the works of God, to reach for a crown that is not there in our holy desire to offer Him righteous worship is to suffer loss indeed...

1 Peter 1:6-7  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Crucible

Luke 22:31-34 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”

There is much to provoke thoughts of of Jesus’ omniscience, sovereignty, & love in this passage...

His omniscience in His understanding of both Peter’s denial & his return.

His sovereignty in His ability to pray to assuredly facilitate his return.

His love in that He never fails to exercise His sovereignty over our situations.

But I believe His omniscience extends far beyond a simple understanding of the future. I believe despite Peter’s many past & present expressions of a deep, passionate faith in Him, Christ knew there was a major, fleshly flaw in his beloved’s belief.

We can trust Him... because of His complete knowledge of us. He “searches mind and heart”, He knows us better than we know ourselves.  “He… needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

One fascinating thing to ponder in this passage is that Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail, yet only three verses later He emphatically tells Peter that his faith would fail! The “Bart Ehrmans” of the world, in their utter faithlessness, critique the paradoxes of Scripture in the most simplistic fashion & try to tell us to not trust the Bible because of such as these.

But the beloved are nevertheless drawn to God’s Word as true by the new creation within, being instead encouraged & motivated by its depth. 

The Bible reveals the glory of God, & His glory is great. So, it follows that the elucidation of such glory would also be great. We see & believe in God’s resplendent transcendence in part because it is seen in His Word. Like God Himself, there seems to be no end to the depth of the glory of Scripture; this thrills our soul, for it evidences it was neither composed by, nor about, an ordinary, simplistic God.

In regards to this passage, what’s also interesting is that the only thing comparable to Jesus’ emphatic declaration of Peter’s coming faithlessness is the Peter’s forceful denial of the possibility of his denial!  The disciple unquestionably refused the reliability of Jesus’ clear words concerning himself.

Now if his faith was truly & fully in Christ, he would never deny anything his Master says, yet here we have him steadfastly refuting Jesus’ distinct words. This action subtly reveals the carnal nature of Peter’s faith.

Today in the church, we have a movement known as “Word-Faith”. It teaches a didactic that has an individual's faith as the foremost cause of the direction & difficulty of his journey, instead of God’s constant omniscience, sovereignty, & love. They falsely declare “God doesn't give you more than you can handle, & if it seems like He is, then that is just a failure of your faith to speak your life into order.” The emphasis is continually on us to “speak” & “seed” great degrees of health & wealth into our lives.

This is so subtle, & the biblically naïve never catch it at first, but it is a false faith grounded on our words, our deeds, our strength, our righteousness. It is a Romish sort of faith, often even worse so, that relies on an imparted righteousness, wherein God supposedly delivers us the power to save ourselves by a faith & righteousness that is our own, in complete contradiction of Paul’s instruction in Romans 4 & 9. This sort of “faith”, being largely divorced from the life-giving glory of Christ & His substitutionary righteousness, is actually a dead, lifeless faith that results in a dead, lifeless righteousness, the filthy rags of Isaiah 64:6. Peter, to some degree, had this manner of faith...

He believed in his faith in Christ more than he believed in the words of Christ.

Our Lord omnisciently knew this, & out of love for Peter He sovereignly wielded Satan as a tool to destroy this weak, fleshly faith.

He gave Peter more than his flesh could handle. 

Yet, the text also says, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”

What of this prayer of sovereign God that seems to witness the steadfast perseverance of the disciple's faith?

Even the most cursory reading the first ten chapters of Acts, as well as his two epistles, reveals the incredibly deep, passionate faith of this apostle…

Acts 4:11-13 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

The same guy that refused to confess any knowledge of Jesus to even a lowly servant girl was now boldly declaring Christ’s full glory to the very seat of all Jewish authority. This is now a true & deep seeded faith that he possessed, & it was not forged in the cold fire of man’s ability, but in the hot fire of God’s glory! Our God is a consuming fire, & He will, sooner or later, jealously consume all anthropomorphous religion, even (& especially) within His beloved. (Deuteronomy 4:24)

Though certainly Peter’s faith failed in one sense, a better, stronger, faster six-million-dollar sort of faith (sorry, I was raised in the 1970s!) roared back less than two months later at Pentecost.

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I recently spoke with a dear saint who had recently suffered some trials. She said that when the Lord takes her out of this world, she hopes it would be brief experience; she didn’t think she could handle an extended illness that would result in a slow death. I told her of how Christ carried Peter through seemingly impossible trials & brought him out so much stronger on the other side, & He continues to do the same for us today. God & God alone knows our capacity for trials, & He alone is sovereign over these events, only giving us the “various trials” that are “necessary” & in accordance with His love for us, His beloved.

The Lord will never take us on a journey that will utterly destroy our faith in Him. His omniscient, sovereign love for us will never allow that, & in that sense He never gives us more than we, meaning our faithful new creation, can handle.

But also, out of that very same omniscient, sovereign love He will seek to destroy our faith in ourselves & our abilities, in the creation that is old & passing away, as that faith is false & futilely fleshly. In this way, He always gives us more than we can handle, to take the “we” part off the center stage & place our faith fully in Him & His rightful place on that stage.

Hebrews 12:5-8 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Two Trees or One- Why Does God Not Care for the Wild Olive Tree?

Rom. 11:1-36  I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?  “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”   But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”  So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.  What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”  And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”  So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.   Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.  For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?   If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.  Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”  That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.  Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.  And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.  For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.   And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”  As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.   For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”  “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

It is vital to a right hermeneutic of Romans 11 to consider the central metaphor that the Apostle utilizes is the singular cultivated olive tree. If Paul held to a dispensationalist doctrine, then he missed the perfect opportunity to teach it, for in fact he references two trees. If he had such a mindset as Scofield, Chaffer, & Ryrie, he then should have pictured something to the effect of God turning His attention to the the cultivation of the "wild" olive tree to raise it up it for a time, then later after "the fullness" of  the wild tree would appear, He would turn His attention back to the "natural" tree.  In stating His work among the Gentiles in such manner, the idea of a separate "plan B", an entirely new dispensation, a wholly separate program of salvation- this would be manifestly clear, & we would all be dispensational. The Church & Israel would be explicitly displayed as separate from one another.

But the Apostle chose the utterly opposite metaphor- the wild olive tree is virtually ignored, & only its branches are accorded any worth; that only comes as He grafts them into His one cultivated tree, for as Jesus said to the woman at the well, "salvation is of the Jews".  In essence, Paul not only missed this supposed opportunity to teach dispensationalism, he in fact contradicted it! It is highly ironic that dispensationals reference this chapter more than any other to support their didactic of separation, for the clear message of the one tree is that we Gentiles are to be identified as essentially one with the remnant of Israel. Once again- distinctly separate branches- agreed! But concomitantly- these branches are fed by one root, through one trunk, to produce one manner of fruit; they are only separate in their distinctive origins, which are obviously to be only regarded as the former realities. God is not a respecter of persons, so former things play no role in His ministry to His one Bride in the future. 

There remains one part of the tree discussed apart from the branches- the root. The root is not explicitly identified by Paul; most dispensationalists identify as it as Abraham. Clearly, by such titles as "the father of us all" (Rom. 4), this primary patriarch, & the covenant of unilateral grace God made with him, must be seen as the means to the root's common ministry of mercy & grace to the branches. But should Abraham be pictured as the root or source of the grace that saves? I say no!  To do so disparages the ultimate Source of not only the mercy & grace that nurtures us, but our fruit as well. We call as our witness the words of John 15...

John 15:1-12  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

We understand & agree that it the individual parables of the New Testament cannot be always synthesized into one narrative. Nevertheless, we press that if the root of the olive tree is to be declared, it must be essentially Christ, who is placed & ministered to in His central role by "the Vinedresser", towards the purpose of each branch producing fruit- to the glory of both the Vine & the Vinedresser. Abraham & his covenant of grace are present & they are central, but only in Christ. 

We fear pride is afoot here whenever man is put in the place of God. Such is the central apostasy of the church in Rome- with all the mediation of Popes, parishes, & dead saints- the glory of Christ is greatly obscured. It is not with their Christology that we dispute, it is with all the mediation that the Romans put between the sinner & the Savior that is the problem. It is subtraction by means of addition. 

We fear viewing Abraham as the root is a likewise concern, that there may raise up a proud spirit in the Jew, a spirit akin to the Pharisee that declares “Abraham is our father” (John 8:39).  If so, then the irony is deep, for Paul's desire with the metaphor of the root is to humble the Gentile, not exalt the Jew. Such a person would do well to revisit & ponder the previous chapters that state there is no essential difference between Jew & Gentile- that the previous distinctions are meaningless in the present & future kingdom of God.