Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship: July 10-16, 2011
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Compass, Discipleship, Puritans, Spiritual Disciplines
Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship is a daily resource designed to help you find direction in your walk with Christ. This week we continue our study of John Flavel’s teaching on our union with Christ. The book, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, by J. Stephen Yuille is our primary resource. The theme this week is the suffering involved in our union with Christ.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 SHARING CHRIST’S SUFFERING
Compass:
Colossians 1:24 ‘…I rejoice in what was suffered for you….’
Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Map:
When Paul speaks of ‘what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,’ he is NOT suggesting that something is lacking in Christ’s atoning work. Flavel explains that there are two kinds of suffering in view. In the first kind, Christ ‘suffered once…in his own person, as Mediator.’ And ‘these sufferings,’ he says, ‘are complete and full.’ But our Lord also suffers ‘in his church and members;’ that is, ‘he still suffers in the sufferings of every saint.’ This is a second kind of suffering.
Journey:
Paul is speaking of this second kind of suffering, the kind Christ experiences when his people suffer for his sake, when he says he rejoices in sharing Christ’s afflictions for his church. We are called upon to suffer with and for one another. We ‘mourn with those who mourn,’ Paul says in Romans 12:15, and Scripture says elsewhere, ‘Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering’ (Hebrews 13:3).
Monday, July 11, 2011 EMBRACING GOD’S PROMISE
Compass:
Romans 8:28 ‘…In all things God works for the good….’
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Map:
We are called, as we said yesterday, to share one another’s sufferings and thus to share Christ’s. But is it possible to follow Paul’s example and rejoice in suffering with and for others? It is if we embrace God’s promise in Romans 8:28: ‘In all things God works for…good.’ Flavel says that the ‘good’ here means God’s plan to glorify his name by conforming us to the likeness of Christ.
Journey:
This promise, according to Flavel, is ‘the compass which sets the course, and directs the motions of all the afflictions of the people of God; and no ship at sea obeys the rudder so exactly as the troubles of the righteous do the direction of this promise. Possibly we cannot discern this at present…[so we yield to despair and] say all these things are against us; but hereafter we shall see, and with joy acknowledge them to be the happy instruments of our salvation.’ Even in our adversity, then, we are called upon to trust God’s plan. As Stephen Yuille writes, ‘Believers are never in the grip of blind forces. On the contrary, everything that happens to them is divinely planned.’
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 EMBRACING GOD’S PURPOSE
Compass:
2 Corinthians 12:9 ‘…My power is made perfect in weakness….’
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Map:
God has two purposes in the suffering of his people: (1) to display his power in supporting them and his wisdom in delivering them and (2) to promote his people’s happiness.
Journey:
Flavel says that God promotes his people’s happiness by using suffering in five ways: (1) ‘to mortify the corruptions that are in their hearts;’ (2) to produce ‘sincerity…to the joy and satisfaction of their own hearts;’ (3) to free the church from an ‘abundance of hypocrites, which were its reproach, as well as burden;’ (4) to produce unity in the church (‘to endear them to each other’); and (5) to awaken us to our duty ‘to pray more frequently, spiritually, and fervently.’ Taken together, these five ways God uses suffering have the effect of bringing us closer to God.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 EMBRACING GOD’S LOVE (I)
Compass:
Romans 8:28-29 ‘…Nor anything…will be able to separate us from the love of God….’
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Map:
If we are to experience joy in suffering with and for one another, we must not only embrace God’s promise and purpose; we must also embrace his love. We do this by remembering that we will never be separated from ‘the love of God that is in Christ.’ According to Flavel, this confidence is based upon six grounds. We will look at the first two today, the next two tomorrow, and the final two on Friday.
Journey:
What is the first ground for our confidence in God’s love even in the midst of suffering? Flavel says that it is ‘God’s eternal electing love.’ He reminds us that God ‘chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4), and, therefore, his decision was based on anything in us (which would be changeable) but solely on his unchangeable purpose. What is the second ground of our confidence? Flavel points to the covenant of grace. God’s promise is to secure for eternity all who are in Christ. Since God is not changeable, this promise will not, indeed cannot, be revoked. Furthermore, Jesus shed his blood to ratify this covenant; therefore, the promise has ‘everlasting merit and efficacy.’ Finally, the covenant of grace depends on God, not us. We can be confident that, even when we do not feel God’s love, we have God’s love.
Thursday, July 14, 2011 EMBRACING GOD’S LOVE (II)
Compass:
John 17:24 ‘…I want those you have given me to be with me….’
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Map:
Yesterday we looked at the first two reasons John Flavel gives for our confidence in God’s love. Today we look at the third and fourth reasons.
Journey:
Third, there is the believer’s mystical union with Christ. We are joined with Christ; therefore, we can never be lost. Why not? Because our union with him means that whatever he is or has is for us – his knowledge, his power, his pity. We are a part of his body, and we will never be cut off. The fourth reason for our confidence in God’s love, even in the face of suffering, is Christ’s ‘prevalent intercession.’ Read again John 17:24, where we find Christ praying for us. Keep in mind two things: (1) It is Christ who prays, and, since it is, the Father will listen. (2) What Christ asks is suitable to the Father’s will. Again, we can be confident that, even when we do not feel God’s love, we have God’s love.
Friday, July 15, 2011 EMBRACING GOD’S LOVE (III)
Compass:
John 6:39 ‘…I shall lose none….’
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
Map:
We have already observed four reasons John Flavel gives for being confident in God’s love as we endure afflictions of various sorts. Today we look at the fifth and sixth ‘grounds,’ as Flavel calls them, for our confidence.
Journey:
The fifth ‘ground’ is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says that we ‘have the firstfruits of the Spirit’ (Romans 8:23), and the Spirit’s presence in our lives is a guarantee that we are heirs of God, that God has placed us permanently in his family with all the rights and privileges that go with such placement. As Paul says elsewhere, ‘It is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’ (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). According to Flavel, the sixth ‘ground’ for embracing God’s love when adversity strikes is Scripture, especially verses like John 6:39, where our Lord says, ‘This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.’ Or, like 1 Corinthians 1:8, where we are promised that Christ ‘will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (English Standard Version). In the midst of your suffering, remember: nothing, absolutely nothing, ‘will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39).
Saturday, July 16, 2011 CHRIST SHARES IN OUR SUFFERING
Compass:
Acts 7:54-56 ‘…I see…the Son of Man standing….’
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Map:
Acts, chapter 7, tells us the story of the martyrdom of Stephen. He lost his life to give his witness. As his executioners were stoning him, he said that he saw heaven opened and ‘the Son of Man [Jesus] standing at the right hand of God.’ The New Testament attests over and over that Jesus is ‘seated at the right hand of God’ (e.g., Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13). BUT ONLY HERE do we see Jesus ‘standing at the right hand of God.’ When Jesus’ people suffer for the sake of the gospel, our Lord doesn’t take it sitting down. He shares our suffering with us.
Journey:
John Flavel puts it this way: We do not only partake of what is his, but he partakes of what is ours: he hath fellowship with us in all our wants, sorrows, miseries and afflictions; and we have communion with him in his righteousness, grace, sonship and glory: he partakes of our misery, and we partake of his blessedness; our sufferings are his sufferings…. O what name shall we give to such grace as this?’
Photo Credit: Upstairs Window by Dave Barger
