4-3 The More Real, The More Credible

As we have said, the paradox of which we have spoken is articulated in our preaching of the Gospel. On the one hand, we appeal to men and women to repent, bringing forth fruits appropriate to that repentance, be baptized and live a life in Christ worthy of the high calling. Yet on the other, we plead with them, with the lines showing in our foreheads, one eye slightly squinting, to accept the same pure grace which we have come to know…our whole body language pleading with them, that all you gotta do is say yes… I know, of course, that this is not all we say in preaching the Gospel. But my phrase is there to strike a spark, to make a point. For on one hand, the Gospel of grace does simply need to be accepted for what it is- that for those who can believe it, God will for nothing grant us salvation in Christ. And yet it is here that I part company with the Pentecostal idea that preaching is all about trumpeting from the rooftops ones own confident certainty of a simplistic personal salvation. Yes, in some forms we must do this; but it must ever be underpinned by a genuine realization and showing forth of our own total reliance upon grace, and our unpretended sense of unworthiness to the point that proclamation of our salvation can only be made with hung head. And it is in this that it seems to me our witness has real power and credibility. For the more real, the more credible.

I have been baptized coming up to 20 years. For about 17 of those years I have had this feeling that spiritually I am slipping, that my faith and living is not what it once was, and especially at the breakings of bread I have realized that I must urgently do something about it, to take hold, to grip the more firmly once again. And yet somehow, I feel ever more strongly that somehow in the very very end, I will be there. I confessed this feeling to an old brother in his 80s. He replied that he had had this same sense of slipping for most of his life, and that he still felt that same paradoxical confidence in his place in the Kingdom. I suppose that this is how it must be, this side of the judgment seat. It can really be no other way. We walk a tightrope, teetering between gloom, or the loss of faith due to such a low self-image, on the one hand…and a temptation towards self-congratulation on the other. Both extremes lead us to fall. Here in its most acute form we see our potentiality towards destruction or redemption. If one arranges Paul’s letters chronologically, it is apparent that there is within them a progressive growth in awareness of his own sinfulness. He starts off telling the Corinthians that he is the least of the apostles; and then later writes to the Ephesians that he is “less than the least of all saints”; and finally writes to Timothy at the end that he is “chief of sinners”. And yet in his very last words in 2 Timothy, he is absolutely certain that there is a crown of righteousness laid up for him (2 Tim. 4:8). The paradox of these two strands of thought can only be brought together in the heart and feelings and self-perception  of the individual believer. Which means, in each of you, my beloved readers.

Having spoken of how we are bidden by God to the ‘feast’ of the Kingdom, lived out by us in prospect and symbol at the breaking of bread, the Lord goes on to say: “When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection” (Lk. 14:13,14). This inevitably is to be connected with how the Lord went on to say that we are the poor, blind, lame etc. who have been invited to the feast (Lk. 14:21). The point being, that if we perceive our own desperation and inappropriacy to be called to the Kingdom feast, then we will likewise invite others who are perceived by us as the lowest of the low, and otherwise unsuitable for a king’s banquet table. So we are to reflect God’s calling of us, the desperate, the down and outs, in our calling of others. A person who feels they are somehow a nice guy and worthy of invitation will be the one who tends to consider others as unworthy of invitation to the Kingdom. He or she who perceives their own desperation will eagerly invite even those they consider to be in the very pits of human society. The lame, blind etc. were not allowed to serve God under the law (Lev. 21:18), nor be offered as sacrifices (Dt. 15:21), nor come within the holy city (2 Sam. 5:6-8). The Lord purposefully healed multitudes of lame and blind (Mt. 15:30), and allowed them to come to Him in the temple (Mt. 21:14). His acted out message was clearly that those who were despised as unfit for God’s service were now being welcomed by Him into that service. The lame and blind were despised because they couldn’t work. They had to rely on the grace of others. Here again is a crucial teaching: those called are those who can’t do the works, but depend upon grace. We need to appreciate too that in Palestine, to refuse an invitation to a feast was a major insult to the person who gave it. That the majority of people refused it would’ve been so hurtful to the host. And in this we see a picture of the pain of God, that the majority refuse His invitation. Therefore He is so happy when anyone does respond, even if they’re down and out. And we should hold in our heart the tragedy of God, the pain of God, that so many have refused Him; and therefore never judge anyone as unsuitable who may respond to the invitation. We’re making the invitations for His sake, not our own. And on this basis we ‘bring in’ those desperate types to the Lord’s feast (Lk. 14:21). The same word is used about Barnabas ‘bringing’ the unlikely convert Paul to the apostles (Acts 9:27), and later ‘bringing’ or introducing him to the Antioch ecclesia (Acts 11:26), the “other sheep” being ‘brought’ into the fold (Jn. 10:16), the blind man whom people thought was no good for Jesus being ‘brought’ unto Him (Lk. 18:40), the Samaritan ‘bringing’ the good-as-dead wounded man to the inn / the ecclesia (Lk. 10:34), all reflecting how the goodness of God leads / brings [s.w.] desperate sinners to repentance (Rom. 2:4). In our ‘bringing in’ of desperate people to the Lord’s feast, we are vehicles for that grace of God which ‘brings in’ men and women to Him. Notice in passing that we invite people to the Kingdom feast without seeking a recompense from them- i.e. we should not expect anything from them, be it personal loyalty, money, respect etc. And if we don’t get it from them, only then will we be rewarded / recompensed for our preaching at the last day. So it should  be no surprise to us if as with Paul our converts turn against us and in no form ‘recompense’ us for calling them. Actually we should take comfort from this, as it is an encouragement that we will have our recompense at the last day.