9:25
The consequences are made more clear. We might think we gain something by not following Christ, maybe the opportunity to gain wealth or power or pleasure. But the cost will ultimately be our own life. In fact, even more than our own life, we will lose our very self. With all the talk these days of transgenderism there is a desire to find or choose our identity. The tragedy of all this is that in pursuing their own identity, as they see it, they will lose their self. But this applies in much less dramatic ways as well. Any decision to go our own way rather than Christ’s way, no matter how small, will always result in loss. We were created by Christ and for Christ. That is our identity, and it is only in fulfilling that role that we will truly find our identity.
9:26
This is a very serious business, and we need to pay heed to the serious words of Jesus. If we are ashamed of Him and His words, then He will be ashamed of us when He returns in glory. There is so much in this verse. One is that Jesus is the one with ultimate authority. He is not just a prophet, He is not just a good teacher nor a good man. He is the Son of God, He is the One with all power and authority. One day He will return with glory, and to judge the living and the dead. Note also that Jesus talks of being ashamed of Him or His words. “His words” also include the whole of the Old Testament, but even if we leave that aside, we need to take this verse most seriously. Currently our society wants us to be ashamed of God’s word, and many foolish Christians and foolish churches are going along with it. If we take this line then we will one day have a very heavy price to pay. We need to hold to God’s word, and it is the wisest thing we can do. It is also the most loving thing we can do, including for the sake of those who hate the word of God. For it is only in repentance and coming humbly before God that anyone will find true fulfilment.
9:27
Now we come to one of those verses that causes us great problems. What does He mean when He says “some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God”? Some say Jesus was talking about His return and was mistaken, we can safely reject such an interpretation. Those of a preterist view see almost all things fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem AD 66-70. I think we can also safely reject this view. Some of the apocalyptic stuff was fulfilled in AD 66-70, and appreciating this can help us to better understand Revelation and other passages, but to say everything was fulfilled ends up with us having to fit square pegs into round holes. It seems better to take “seeing the kingdom of God” in a much more general sense of having a proper appreciation of what the kingdom of God is about. The problem the religious leaders had, the problem the general populace had, and the problem the disciples had was a total lack of appreciation of what the kingdom was about, and what Jesus was about (one might say not much has changed in 2000 years!). That was true, but soon a time would come when some of them would start to truly appreciate who Jesus is and what He is about.
No comments:
Post a Comment