Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Times of Loss”. As the quarterly states on Sabbath’s lesson, commenting on Adam and Eve’s fall, “So many losses came as a result of one decision”. And so it is. “Yes, we all know the reality and pain of loss, and most of us feel it the deepest when this loss strikes us in the family. And no wonder, for in the family we have our closest bonds; thus, loss there in its many varied forms hits us the hardest” (quarterly for Sabbath May, 25). As a counselor friend of mine says, “We spend our entire lives increasing in capability, knowledge, accomplishments and possessions. We often marry, have children and grand-children. We are acquiring constantly. So losses are foreign to us”. And the lesson for this week delves into several “losses” that most of us will endure at some time in our lives. But there is one “loss” that we must willingly seek and willingly embrace. For unrepentant unregenerate sinners, it seems painful and hard. Impossible. But for “born-again” Christians, this “loss” is a relief. What is it we are to willingly, gladly “lose”?
We are to “lose”, “give-up” our sin-polluted heart. For the unregenerate heart, giving-up “self’ is a struggle. “But what do we give up, when we give all? A sin-polluted heart, for Jesus to purify, to cleanse by His own blood, and to save by His matchless love. And yet men think it hard to give up all! I am ashamed to hear it spoken of, ashamed to write it” (Steps to Christ pg. 46). Any “struggle” to submit “self” is really due to an unregenerate heart. It is an internal struggle in the heart of sinful, rebellious man. But was this the cause of the suffering for the apostle Paul, the repentant and converted Saul? Is this the suffering for every true “born again” Christian? I think not. Paul said that he was distressed because he did not know how to die to self, not distressed about dying-to-self. The dying-to-self is what he desired, what he longed-for. He desired to be free from the body of this death, but knew not how. Once he saw the truth of the cross (that we die to self with Christ, choosing to die with Christ moment-by-moment), then he praised God. The suffering he experienced was not due to an unwillingness to die to self. Paul was thankful he could die to self… with Christ. Dying-to-self with Christ was a relief, not suffering. And so it is for the true Christian. The suffering of the true Christian is not due to dying-to-self. This is the suffering for the world-ling who sees not his true condition. Who sees God as taking something away, not giving a most precious gift… the gift of self-less, self-sacrificing love. The true Christian highly prizes the gift of the cross. Willingly goes to the cross. For he sees the cross as a demonstration of the character of his God… his Father and his Brother. And the true follower desires to follow his Lord to the cross so that self can perish and be lost there. Christ’s demonstration has illuminated us all to the true nature of God (not as the Israelites had spuriously depicted Him). And so we go willingly, desiring to follow our Lord. Desiring to “lose” self and have Christ lead.
This loss is no suffering to the true Christian. “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (Hebrews 11: 24-25). But didn’t Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane experience a reluctance to “lose His life” for the good of others? Is that the cause of the suffering He experienced in the Garden? Perish the thought! As if Christ was reluctant to save. His whole life demonstrated His willingness to save… even to the sacrifice of Himself. What was the reason for Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane? Was He reluctant to “lose” self in love for others?
I do not see Christ suffering on the cross due to His reluctance to save. But suffer because He was tempted to doubt the love of His Father. Suffering from love rejected. Tempted to think that His Father ceased to love and had rejected Him. Suffering from love rejected… or at least that is what it seemed by all appearances. But this temptation Christ did not entertain for long. He rejected the idea that the Father had rejected Him, despite appearances. “Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father's acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father's favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor” (Desire of Ages pg. 76).
For validation of EGW’s statement, also read Psalms 22. As we know, that Psalm is full of prophetic events and prophetic words spoken by Christ on the cross. A.T. Jones contended that Psalm 22 was not just full of prophetic allusions but was precisely what Christ was reciting on the cross. That centuries before, David under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had written this hymn of despair and hope while he himself was despairing. And yet they perfectly presaged the same sentiment Christ had on the cross. So Jesus repeated them on the cross… actually recited or sang that Psalm on the cross. And the recorded words of Christ from that cross are but those heard on the ground as He recited/ sang that Psalm. Psalm 22 begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” and ends with a sentence that could be translated, “It is finished”. Read in this light, Psalm 22 accurately reflects the true sentiments of Christ. We see Christ distressed and suffering. Not so much with the physical nature of the cross, but suffering over the seeming rejection by His Father. But we also see a turn in Christ’s thinking toward the end of the Psalm. He shifts to remembering God’s past dealings with Him and with us all [just as EGW states above]. We see the Psalm progress to a crescendo of faith and assurance, despite appearances to the contrary. Christ does not die defeated, but as a victor… and He knows it.
True Christians do not suffer because of what others do to you. True Christians do not suffer because they are missing-out on all the “goodies” of this world and do not want to “lose” them “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). The loss of prestige, the loss of fame, the loss of possessions, the loss of anything in this world is but dung or manure. These things gained or lost is not the cause of the true Christian’s suffering. We suffer because of the path we have chosen. We have chosen the way of the cross. Which is the way of self-sacrificing love. The cross shows us the true nature of love. Love that will not seek its own. Love that will sacrifice all for the “other”. And hence, we suffer. We suffer because we love. We suffer in our hearts that are moved with compassion for those who are in the world. Those we seek to save and love; for they do not understand; and reject that love. The cross crucifies us to the ways of the world, not to the people of the world. In fact, our hearts go out more to the people of the world because of their misguided ways. Devastating ways which destroy them. Ways which make our brothers and sisters into Satan’s food. And as we love them, we suffer… and suffer. “Yet for your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalms 44:2). Our hearts are always in a state of bleeding. Always in a state of reaching-out. And because we love them truly, we suffer. Such was Christ’s suffering and Paul’s suffering, and our suffering, too. On Calvary, the physical pain was hardly felt by Christ. It was heart-pain that killed Him. And so for us, too. Heart-pain, heart-suffering. It is the cost of love.
I pray that we all choose to “lose” our lives in love to others. It is the way of God, of all Heaven. It is the way of the cross. A welcome relief to our sin-polluted heart.
With brotherly love,
Jim