Nathanael Szobody

Wisdom and Knowledge

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In Proverbs 3 it is written that the Lord founded the earth by his wisdom, that he established the heavens by his understanding and by his knowledge the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. Is this mere rhetorical devise to poetically speak of the power of God’s Word? I think not. There is certainly wisdom, knowledge and understanding that go into creating such a massively powerful and yet perfectly functioning and altogether beautiful and beneficial creation.

The writer of this proverb is telling his son that if wisdom, knowledge and understanding were what God employed to create all things good, then certainly it was sufficient to guide his life. This wisdom, certainly, is not of man but of God’s Word, his commandments that are referred to at the beginning of the Proverb.

In Colossians 2 it is written that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. “Hidden” would imply that they are not to be confused with what the world produces under the title of knowledge; this Paul refers to as philosophy and empty deciet following human tradition and the elemental spirits of this world.

What then should the Christian look for in seeking the wisdom from God? If it is hidden in Christ, then how is it revealed? And how does the son of the Proverbs find it? Is it not also said in Colossians that the mystery concerning Christ, though hidden for ages and generations past, is now revealed the saints, that is, those who believe? This mystery is that Christ is in us.

We are indeed the beloved children of God, and he does indeed desire for us to share in this same wisdom, knowledge and understanding that founded this very earth. Though hidden previously, it is now revealed to us by faith; that Christ through whom all things were made, and for whom we ourselves were created, indeed died in and for his creation, then rising to life that it might dwell in him. This is wisdom: Christ suffered, died, and lives, and we are in him.

Let us distinguish that which differs. In the first creation we see all physical things were made from God’s Word, and they were given to man to sustain him. In this is also earthly knowledge and wisdom, which is good insofar as it causes the knower to lean all the more on its author and sustainor. But we did not recognize God’s merciful providence in this and, leaning on our own understanding, grabbed hold of the creation for sustenance rather than trusting in the Creator with all our heart and not leaning on our own understanding. So we were lost without the pure wisdom of God, which is simply: “trust in me.” In the new creation, God himself must be revealed among men so that we might know what is true wisdom and knowledge–and it looks nothing like human knowledge.

But now it is in us, not just as a knowledge of wisdom, but a life of truth, that is, complete faith in God’s sovereign provision, giving our minds to the transformation of the new self being renewed according to the maker of the new creation, and abiding in the love of the Son, the Word, God’s Wisdom, as he abides in the Father.

Where then is angst? Why do we worry? Will he indeed make our paths straight or won’t he? Is the instruction of the Proverbs inticing and beautiful to you so that your soul longs for such a blessed life? Find it then in the Son, for there is no other. The one who made heaven and earth is the one who is transforming you to his likeness by giving himself to you by complete, chilklike faith in the heavenly Father.

Repentence

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The secret to all the treasures of Christ is in repentence, the loss of the self. We desire love, the love of God, but we cannot love as long as we are trying to. Because love is of God, it is his business to love. The only way to have God in us is to live a life of repentance, losing the self to be filled by the spirit.

Eternal Suffering

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In life we suffer. Because we live in a fallen world we experience pain, both physical and emotional. The hardest to deal with is the pain that arrives in relationships, pain which seems to almost never leave, but continues to abide deep in the heart. This pain may be brought on by sin in our own lives and our own failures, or it may be simply the result of deep dissappointment or lose. Such pain occurs, it is part of life in this fallen world.

Christ experienced this pain to the fullest extent. When he walked on the earth he was full of grief at the sin of the people, their lack of faith and their rejection of him who had lovingly created them! Because of this brokeness, as it were, he was a man in constant humility before his father. He was a perfect man, and yet he felt deep, deep suffering, all the way to the cross. And this suffering was allowed in his life by the sovereignty of his father, the same God and father who allows the same in our lives.

The suffering of this life is great, but this mystery is even greater: through God’s mercy, the suffering of this life can be transformed into eternal suffering. Eternal suffering? Can such a thing be good? Yes it can be good, and is good if one understands the meaning of the word eternal. As explained in the last post, eternal is the attribute of God that expresses his everythingness. He is all in all, he is eternal.

The Apostle Paul rejoices over the sufferings of the Philippians because through it they are participating in the gospel, that is, God’s revelation of himself in all righteousness and mercy through his Son Jesus. This joy is so confusing to our natural selves. But Paul knew suffering, and it was his joy. How can this be? The secret was in transforming temporal suffering into eternal suffering.

What we suffer in this temporal world comes and goes (yes, it does go, by God’s grace also), but in Christ we are given the opportunity to benefit from a richer and more fulfilling communion with the spirit of God through these temporal sufferings. We know that if one is to come before God, he must do so in all humility, for the essence of sin is pride. And nothing humbles the human spirit like suffering. When we feel the deepest pain, we don’t like it, we weep, we are weak, and yet when it is accepted in humility, in a spirit of thanksgiving to God for his goodness, it is one of the sweetest things on earth. For in the suffering we are brought low, and in lowliness Christ is found to be real. One can know Christ all one’s life, but to find him to be real in ones baseness is of a joy and peace which cannot be described.

For in our lowliness we are brought to a more acute awareness of our hope in eternal communion with God where there will be no more pain or sorrow. This hope is joy everlasting that fills our soul and causes the dificulties of this life to faid away. It does not always cause the pain to fade away, and that is the blessing! For it is by that very suffering that we are brought to such a low estate, a spirit of repentance, that lose of the self in complete dependence on the Lord, that we catch a glimpse of the communion with Christ his suffering. And in that we taste the glorious and joyous communion that is ours in him for all eternity. In this way, by faith, our pain has become an eternal suffering, one which knows the life of God.

Eternity as Relationship

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We cannot be anything but created beings. We think and reason and feel according to our nature as creation. How then do we understand eternity? How do we understand something that is outside of our first principles of existence? In thinking of eternity we often think of it as a continuum, or like time–that never ends, but keeps going on and on, like a mathematical infinity. But of course we know that this understanding falls woefully short of real eternity, because time itself is somehow bound up in the that which is created.

The Apostle Paul says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we desire to understand eternity, let us then look at Jesus Christ, in whom the fulness of deity dwells bodily, that is, eternity. God is all and there is none beside him. So eternity is not some independent idea to be examined and toyed with, but rather it is an aspect of God’s character. All the more reason, then, for us to look to its revelation in Christ, who is that of God which became man to commune to us God’s life and essence. Jesus does not say “think of me as I think of the Father” no, he says “abide in me as I abide in the Father.” And many other passages also show that knowing God is not of propositional understanding but personal experience, fueled, certainly, by this objective knowledge that is revealed, but only efficient if approriated subjectively to the individual. As it says in Colossians 3: “For you have died, and who you are is hidden with Christ in God.”

So we see that eternity can be nothing if it is not relational. What and who God is can only be real to us insofar as it is in personal relationship with him. So also it is with eternity. Eternity is not an unending timeline. Though certainly its character is that it has no beginning and no end, this is because neither does God, and eternity is that unchanging unchangeable nature of God’s being. And the knowledge of it is found in Christ.

If then we are in Christ and our lives are hidden with him, we see that our every breath and thought and word and action is eternal in significance. They are temporal in that they pass away and are thought of no more, but they are also eternal because they are expressed in the relationship that God has established with us in Christ.

Therefore, what greater crime than to not be content, for who we are now and what we are now is given in order that we might express through it what is eternal, that is, of God’s character. For this reason scripture tells us to first put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony, to then let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, and to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. Such things are practical, real time ways of living, which are in fact eternal; not that we have conjured up eternity by our actions, but that eternity is and always has existed in God as a relationship and is therefore given to us to partake of in Christ by faith.

Joy of Longing; True Worsip

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“[C. S.] Lewis defines joy as a longing — the pang of desire that is itself more desireable than any earthly satisfaction, almost an unhappiness of grief — but the kind you want. Lewis’ definition of joy [is] true worship — that rare fusion of both fear and trembling and ecstasy and dancing.

“Such worship springs from grace — our former position and our future position, realized together. And joy in relationships similarly spring from such a worship, such an already-but-not-yet approach that comes down to simple, delicious longing.”

–Ben

The Narrow Way

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The modern pagan world seeks “open mindedness.” Christians are labeled as being “close-minded.” Do they not seek the narrow way? Is this something to be ashamed of?

What the world does not see is the spiritual state behind their broad way and the narrow way of Christ. For the assumption of American pagans is that spirituality is “out there” and therefore the broader one is the greater one’s potential to connect with the universal spirituality. And thus they are captive to empty deceit and the prince of the power of this world.

But when one is discovered by grace and is awakened to the love of Christ, the narrow way is that beautiful and unambiguous straight and clear way to freedom of the soul as it basks in the life of God’s spirit. Who would guess that the “straight and narrow” is freedom and life and the “broad” is what holds the soul in bondage to ever seeking, but never finding?

What does it matter that you are labeled as “narrow minded?” Is it freedom in Christ that you have; freedom from the guilt of sin and life of selfishness and the flesh that you used to live in the world? Then what you have is all there is to be had in this life and the next, and it is surely enough!

What Was the Sin?

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In Augustine’s “City of God” He explores the nature of the first sin. He points out that there wasn’t necessarily anything bad in the fruit itself; it was only created fruit. It was bad because it came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that was the tree God had said not to touch. But of course we can’t say that the tree was bad. God created it to be in the garden, and we know that God wouldn’t create something that is contrary to its own environment, i.e. ‘not good.’ And what about eating? Was eating itself a sin? Well of course not. But the disobedience was.

The sin of disobedience therefore, had to have begun before the disobedience was actually committed. In other words, in order for Adam and Eve to eat of the tree they must have already desired what God forbade and thus already sinned in their heart. In the end Augustine identifies the first sin to be pride. Because Adam and Eve rejected what God gave and wanted to supply themselves. They rejected the true light, that is the truth, and wanted to judge truth for themselves. Thus the first sin, and the sin that is at the root of all sin is pride.

When we take the crown off of God, the only one who is capable of ruling us and the world, when we seek to be our own light of understanding while we reject the only light and only knowledge which comes as a gift from the Father of lights, and also when we depend on other physical, relational and emotional gifts as ‘idols’ to supply us with the stuff of life, that is, its fullfilment,that is sin, and necessarily death. Truly this is humbling, and it shows how serious our pride is. It’s not just a symptom of sin, it is our sin. How difficult it is to lose sight of ourselves. To not even be concerned with what we are or aren’t but only with what Christ is and what he desires to be in us. And yet, someone has described the Christian life as a child, stumbling through the mud; it’s messy, we get dirty, but the Lord is gracious in not allowing us to sink, but in making us stronger in the struggle till we are with him in his perfection. For we know that the struggle, so long as it is not the willful acquiescence to sin, is part of our identification with the sufferings of Christ for the sake of our salvation. Praise the Lord!

True Prophecy

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When we speak of prophecy we probably most often think of the fortelling of events under the inspiration of God. This gives rise to the question of whether or not there still exists the gift of prophecy, as it clearly did in the New Testament.

Firstly, it may be helpful to note that the larger portion of the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament were prayers, sermons and laments on the current spiritual condition of Israel, declarations of judgement of sin, calls to repentence, promises of mercy, and other teachings which could have been readily preached from what had already been revealed in the law and in God’s previous dealings with his people. Though certainly prophets did foretell events and the workings of God that were to happen in the future, this does not seem to be the larger portion of their writings.

Prophets speak, quite simply, whatever God deems best for his people to hear for the sake of the strengthening of their faith, and sometimes this involves the prediction of God’s future acts.

All the words that they spoke were parts and manifestations of the one and eternal Word of God. This Word is what brought all things into being, physical and spiritual, reveals to us the nature of God, reveals his expectations of us, his judgment for our sin, demonstrates his mercy toward us, and ultimately, that it might do all this to perfection and reunite us to God through faith in him, becomes human flesh, dies, and rises to life. This Word is eternal, and as such, predictions of the future or teachings from the past, or exhortation in the present, are all one and exist as Truth in the eternal Word. For this reason even though we are not dwelling in our new and incorruptible bodies, nor are we free from the temptation of the flesh, and though we continue to struggle with this present world and its temptations, the Apostle Paul can say that we have every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The measure of true prophecy, therefore, is not whether it accurately predicts the future (though if it does speak of the future it most certainly must be right if it is true prophecy!) but rather the measure of true prophecy is whether in all its teaching and exhortation, it builds up the body in knowledge and understanding of the eternal God as he is revealed in Christ, knitting the body together in love to reach full maturity through the effective application of the Word, that is, the gospel.

The Eternal Moment

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There arguably exists only two aspects of time. One is the moment, the other is eternity.

There exists no future for it hasn’t come; there is only the hope of the future, which finds its being in the moment. There exists no past, only its effects, its ramifications, its signature, and all these are observed and experienced in the moment.

The eternal truly exists and in it is all that is of God. All wisdom, insight, knowledge and, most importantly, relationships, are in eternity.

So we live according to eternity for in it is all that is good. But we live it in the moment. We cannot, even if we desired it, live in anything but the moment. So enjoy it; let it be a fragrant sacrifice unto God. For these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love, because the faith is in the existence of eternity and God’s plan in Christ, hope is looking forward its consumation, and love is for this moment in which both of the others find their realization.

In this we see that the moment is, in fact, eternal. For in eternity there is God and his holiness, and in the moment there is God, and his holiness in us. Does the moment end? No, it is always with us. What we do in this moment ostensibly defines what we are in eternity.

Idolatry of Complacency

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“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘he LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.'”

How subtle is the human heart. “I am no idolater” it says, “I serve the one true God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I have faith.”

Oh so confident in your theology, in your practice. You fulfill all the criteria, know all the right things, you even read your Bibles and pray and serve the church. How upright you think you are. And in addition you are reasonable; you are not like the radical church down the street that preaches a health and wealth gospel, or the one that has an exagerated application of spiritual gifts, or the crazy Christians who yell their heads off down-town as they street preach. Surely such Christians give Christ a bad name by their emotionalism. You are more balanced; you live quiet lives as good Christians, not expecting too much or being too dissappointed that your church doesn’t grow. After all, God is sovereign, this is where he wants you, so you’ll just stay put.

What a fine line it is between contentment and complacency! Or perhaps not. To be content is to be always filled with the knowledge of God’s grace. To be complacent is to ignore that God’s grace even exists. Do you believe? Are you one of Christs? Well Christ works mighty things! God is a just God who move on behalf of his people for the sake of his name. Is it any better to say “The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill” than to say that God does not exist at all? For the latter condemns himself and lets it be known, but the former insults God. For he claims the name of Christ and recieves the gift of God’s Spirit in the gospel which is the power of God for all who believe, and yet in their complacency they deny it all again to the world. They make God out to be a liar and make a mockery of the cross.

You have relational problems, so Christ died to make us one in his sacrificial love. So you struggle with temptation; Jesus did too and won, and now he gives you the power to do the same. These aren’t nice thoughts or right statements to be assented to; they are a life to be lived! This is the redeemed life: to live God’s gifts.

There is a power which softens hearts, which opens blind eyes, which releases from bondage, and this power is real! Believing in the cross and life of Jesus is to live the cross and life of Jesus, suffering without hesitation for your neighbor, living in a joy that is only eternal life welling up in you. Belief is an experience, faith is an experience, not just some rational assent. It is a transformed life by the power of believing that God does work in this world and that he does so for the good of his people.

So don’t wait for God to search you out with a lamp, you who do not expect anything from God. Get on your knees before him. The arrogance of complacency is the lie of self-sufficiency. Humble yourself before him and pray the words that he gave you, and know that God is at work in you, through you, for you, for his glory.