Tuesday, April 13, 2021
What kind of warrior has shiny armor?
When I was in the Marine Corps infantry, there were lots of ways we could tell who the new guys were. One way was to look at their gear. If it was new and untested, so was the warrior. And if a warrior is untested, doesn’t that mean he is unproven as well? And can he really go around telling everybody he’s a warrior when he’s never been in the field? Isn’t he just pretending, fooling no one but himself?
Another question: What kind of messenger expects people to come to him? What’s the point of giving a man a message if all that man does is sit where the message found him, waiting and expecting those who need what he has to come and find him? Isn’t this how we’ve “done church” in America for at least a century?
Messengers have always been sent, and the obedient ones always go, no matter what. Even Jonah went, though he hated the people God sent him to. Fact is, messengers go, and if you call yourself a Christian, you have been given a message.
These points serve to illustrate what Jesus is like. If He had armor, it wasn’t shiny and new but well used.
In fact, you could argue that when He stepped into peril, He left His armor behind because that was the whole point, wasn’t it? He didn’t want to be insulated from us. He wanted to make the Father known to us. That would never happen if heaven were set up as an exhibit in a museum. It had to be demonstrated, not just declared.
And Jesus was not the kind of messenger who loves the abstract of the Word and despises its application. He didn’t study the Word to collect ammunition against sinners, to sling it from a high tower like arrows against them and their ways. If the Man studied the Word, it was to stay close to the Father so that He could become the Word made flesh for those to whom He had been sent. He came for the sick, not the healthy. He came for sinners, not the righteous.
But that’s not how we usually do church, is it? Usually, we hide behind shiny armor and are hell bent on trying to get people into the museum. We love the abstract of the Word and hate its application. Words slide out from behind our masks that Jesus is more than enough, but we rarely even attempt to prove it in our lives. We’re too busy proving that His grace is sufficient to cover a multitude of sins.
As for me, I don’t want to need more grace than I already do.
Charles Spurgeon pointed out that Jesus Christ is more than enough as our Prophet, Priest, King, Husband, Friend, and Shepherd. I see Jesus as God down on our level, proving His heart, that His ways are not a threat to the new life He has caused to spring into action within us. Yet when we hold to the old way and refuse to crucify it as instructed, we make ourselves hostile to God. We bivouac in the enemy’s camp.
Colossians 2.9 says that in Christ, the whole fullness of God dwells in bodily form. This is unequivocal. How could we not respond with total surrender to Him?