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Chapter 13

 

CALLED  TO BE SAINTS -

BY JESUS CHRIST

DO YOURSELF NO HARM ... THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVES US THE VICTORY

THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Acts 16:28-31 with I Corinthians 15:51-57

 

DO YOURSELF NO HARM

The jailer at Philippi had seen Paul whipped, a result of the incensed crowd who bubbled crudely about the apostle and Silas, because commerce had been affected. A fortune teller having lost the lost soul of the possessed girl who made him his money, had brought volcanic fury onto them, and in the incensed turmoil, they had been beaten with many stripes.

Despite this, a violation of the Roman code that Roman citizens could not be treated in this intemperate and headstrong way, Paul and Silas sang. Some might have been inclined to suicide in such a situation,  to lament, to groan both physically, mentally and in spirit, but not these men,  commissioned and authorised by God for their task. This was like a spill on the racing track, but you do not avoid your task for that, but return and resume. How  much more here! and in the lives of each one of us when assaulted with vile  filth,  slander from worthless tongues,  on fire from hell, in need of redemption that they might belong to a sound heart in a sound body, and live, or when calamity attacks. Then what is found ? It is then that there is need of stability and strength, wisdom  and self-control, from Christ who gives  the  victory.

In  Paul's case, this was preceded by a faithfulness astonishing in its exuberance,  for he and Silas were singing despite their bleeding backs, praises to God, and that at midnight! This was a testimony, not in a wounded spirit, but in a liberated heart that man could not subdue: for to suffer for Christ's sake is indeed a privilege (Acts 5:41), and a part of a Christian's service,  for it needs  to be shown that living in Christ is not simply an escape, but rather a commission, not a door to ease but a dynamic to please the God of creation, by whom one has been brought into existence and then restored, redeemed and adopted! (Ephesians 1:5-14). To take up one's cross, it is NOT to take up a tenure in pastoral retirement, but being filled with the Spirit,  and strengthened in Him  (Ephesians 5:18, 3:16), to endure pain nobly and well. It is to suffer for penetration of the cloying darkness of this world with the clear light of salvation, the explanation of truth (I Peter 3:15) on the testimony of the truth track, in Christ. It is to seek sanctification of soul, mind and body in His presence (I Thessalonians 5:23).

Since this, the world does not value, being blind, there is much to be both said and done to secure the impact, indeed in faithful presentation of the Gospel and the word of God entirely, to invade the darkness with the light of salvation. Meanwhile, each of His messengers must be strengthened in spiritual stability (Isaiah 33:6).

Those who toy or travel with sin  as a pleasant companion may cringe, or cry, but the saving work needs to be done. It is like the removal of a cancer: the scalpel can hurt, but the task is needed; and while we but minister and it is Christ who heals, yet the testimony of truth is the sword of the Spirit; and though its task is at last to  slay the wicked and at first save the lost, yet its sparkling severity is resented by the pained tissue of misled life!

Thus, having banished an evil  spirit which possessed a woman serviceable, like so many other evil  things, to  commerce, Paul was  stricken many times through the word of the magistrates, but not screams of terror but hymns of praise were his  response; nor was this all. AS He  gave the Lord an  opening for pure  power, through this purity of heart, and made it apt and  appropriate for Him to use it, SO the Lord sent an  earthquake which liberated the prisoners.

Again, the test which we must learn not to resent! A test  DOES try:  that is its nature, and God is on record not to try us too hard (I Corinthians 10:13), but rather than let this occur,  He provides a way of escape. In  Paul's case, this was not to escape (from the prison), though it WAS to  escape from the trouble. Indeed, when the astonished jailer was saved after his amazement at Paul's neither escaping nor helping others to do so, but rather being a stabilising influence, in this way seeing goodness such as overwhelmed him in the context of the praise to God heard in the singing of these two prisoners, there was more to watch. In the morning, the apostle went so far as to insist that the illegal  magistrates,  guilty of mishandling a Roman citizen, should appear at his release. Thus his name was preserved and the impact heightened.

But what of the drama at the first, when the divinely sent earthquake blasted open the prison ?

DO YOURSELF NO HARM! Paul had cried  to the jailer, in consternation  at the freed prisoners following the earthquake, and so let every one of us heed this. Let this then be in the mind of of those not yet saved, not to bray in dismay but to call  on the  Lord as in the  case of the jailer, and rejoice in the liberty HE gives. Thus in the presence of those not yet in Christ, instead of acting rashly in regret, carnally in pain, ruthlessly in fear, be self-controlled, praise and trust the Lord as a testimony to His over-riding power and glory and the beauty of His holiness, as living letters of His love.

If the earth is removed as in Psalm 46, then  look to its Maker! If a Christian, though the mountains be moved into the midst of the sea, yet enjoy the tumult of the waters, do yourself no harm nor slip trembling into any sin, but instead continue in your task, fearless in the fearful, unafraid amidst nature, because it is His and He controls it; and though death threaten, yet life is for ever. Now this brings us to our second major point. 

DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY

Paul, in  II  Timothy 4, is shown near his eventual death evidently through Nero, persecuted for his amazingly vigorous and extensive testimony to the truth in Christ Jesus, declared his conviction. It was this,  that through all the rigours and rigors of his adventurous way and many perils, the Lord  would deliver him from every evil work:  that He did, and would, right up to His heavenly kingdom. This is his absolute assurance (cf. Romans 8:16, II Timothy 1:9), for where saving faith is, then as in Romans 8:29ff., that is testimony to a salvation secured in eternity before time was (Ephesians 1:4), so that

"I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep

what  I have committed to  Him until that Day" - the day of judgment. 

It is a victory which is absolute,  entire  and entirely a gift (Ephesians 2:1-12),  so that those saved are even  there called the  "having been saved ones" through grace by faith, while the apostle is there proclaiming directly that the whole thing is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God! Hence it is not a saving partnership,  for there is no Saviour but God, and grace is not works, nor are works grace (Romans 11:6). Since man has NO part in this salvation,  to secure it as if a co-pilot, he CAN have no part is the fiction of losing it, though many having no pilot in the framework of a broken vessel, merely hit the rocks.

Our part is to be ON and IN the Rock (II Samuel 22:32), so that we are surrounded by what cannot be countermanded. What is not yours  to add  to, or subtract, your salvation by grace only, not of works, you cannot lose, for it does not rest on you, but in Him. What cannot be snatched, or perish (the promise of John 10:9,27-28), cannot secure for itself a deleted destiny, since the seed of Christ remains in its newly begotten place, that of a child of God (I John 3:1-3, Ephesians 1:5-11). THESE adoption papers cannot be lost, since HE has secured and sealed them, and they have been plain from eternity (II Timothy 1:8ff.). His sheep CANNOT perish, though wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15) ply a trade that will surely damn those who pursue it.

Accordingly, in I Corinthians 15:50ff., as in Philippians 3:21, you see a composed and assured  conviction, resultant from  the reality in Christ, that our bodies WILL be transformed by the working of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will. There is not a possibility of a resurrection into the likeness of Christ's glorious and  glorified body here, but an  announcement of a fact. It WILL be. While this "mortal", this life IN flesh (but not BY it), must put on immortality (I Corinthians 15:50-54), no less will this  corruptible and susceptible body must put on incorruption, an incorruptibility that is inherent in its very nature (just as Christ is He who died, but is alive for evermore, as in Revelation 1:18).

Thus the Christian is one who was dead in trespasses and sins, but  is now a "having been saved one," through grace without works,  so that he CANNOT contribute what is in the first place excluded for this purpose, this being Christ's task by His grace ALONE. He too, or she, is alive for evermore, through the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23), for just as by one man's sin many died, so by one Man's obedience, many are MADE righteous (cf. II Corinthians 5:21), through the gift of HIS righteousness (Romans 5:17).

It is through this that we not only live forever, but rejoice in our present path of sublimely  assured  pilgrimage  (Romans 5:1-12, 8:29-39). It is a path self-attesting, confirming in  His presence as  He leads, whether  in  exaltation through His power, humiliation through  His  correction, illumination through  His Spirit, activation by  His word; and as the  end is assured, so is the way not a voyage through the seas, but an oceanic  experience, if not necessarily as dramatic as Paul's was, as seen in  I and II Corinthians 4, yet lively because God given redeemed life is like that, as  distinct from wallowing in  death before its time, set in the warm muds of cloying or annoying spiritual sleep, mulling into  death.

What then ?Just as WE who are Christians do not die for our sins,  since Christ did so, so WE cannot save our souls, for Christ did, and WE cannot resurrect our bodies into that glorious likeness to His, since this is the task of the Creator in His role as Redeemer in Christ. NONE of it is our doing; ALL of it is His.  To be sure we may be disciplined, suffer as test or tribute to the Lord in  making up what remains of the testimony to the love of God, suffering in the execution of His work, not as He did, to ransom,  but in parallel, to illustrate. Yet that is  all prelude, for

"when this corruptible has put on incorruption
and this mortal has put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

'Death is swallowed up in victory.' "

It is not a plan of the mind; it is a evidenced  testimony of fact. Death goes (and good  riddance), has had its come-uppance, and is  dismissed now in  spirit,  then in body at the  resurrection, based  on and brought to  light in His (Romans10:9),making a clear  path  to  eternal life, not in mere poetry or principle, but in  irresistible fact  and  entire  individuality in Him (I John 3:1ff., I  Corinthians 15). in God it is the assured outcome of the invested income of Christ crucified, which came to this earth, to be taken by whosoever will. This, it is no mere  thrill,  but restoration  to the  Creator in  whose  eternal inheritance is the  gift of  priceless value (Hebrews 6:19ff., 9:12ff.). 

The vitality of Christ's presence, the energising of the mind, refinement of the spirit, illumination of the heart, presentation of governance, guidance and peace, the challenges and the faithfulness in answering  prayer for the pursuit of His will, by those  redeemed: these things amid the needs of discipline, the upbuilding of character and the tests of the heart (rather like aircraft wind-tunnel tests at times), make for abundance of life. It need not be  so dramatic as that of Paul, as seen in I and II Corinthians 4 and  Acts; but its quality is there.

All these things, with the surpassing  performances  of the Lord as  needed (Ephesians 3:20): these are empirical facts  which,  compared with His promises, make life-reading a matter of sobering  joy; for we MUST  grow in  grace  and knowledge (II Peter 3:18). That is a thing not always easy, while at the same time,  we must complete our tasks

It is a thing  gloriously fulfilled as we who are His seek  to fulfil His word, and  obey the Great Commission find His power unlike any other: for  it is not long lasting like a battery, but ever present. At that, it is not even like electricity pylons, for that must be first generated, while  the  power of  God is infinite, and surges or enables, is gentle or intimating, as He will.

WE SHALL BE  ALL BE CHANGED

Therefore DO YOURSELF NO HARM! as Paul persuaded the distraught jailer,  fearful of execution for the loss of the prisoners, something that Paul helped  to prevent. Fear nothing but the Lord; and in this fear,  let love and assurance dwell, not in  complacency or jauntiness, but in delighted reception, trusting God to perform what He did for Daniel, Joseph, David, for Paul, in the interstices of even imperfect life, in the work of discipline as for children, whose security is based in and on God Himself. In HIS covenant, the very stars may fail, but not His love, for

      "NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE  LOVE OF GOD",

whether things future or other; and the future is merely a present to  come, in which the presentation of the present of eternal  life is make manifest outwardly, as now inwardly. Amen.

Therefore when crises challenge, remember, HE GIVES us the victory; and not as in mathematics, where there are things 'given', but far more certainly even than that,   is this gift. That is a serial matter in the procedures of logic, very sure; but this is a sovereign matter, in the passing on of things personal from Saviour to the sheep of His pasture who have entered by Him as the door (John 10:9,27-28), and not as a chair in the living room!

This victory through  faith is the prelude to earthquakes, to seas, to journeys (as in I and II Corinthians 4); but it is one which is GIVEN whatever be the fluctuations of gyroscope or the thrusts of the gimlet. We are here on mission, and eternal life is without intermission, for the victory which embraces it is GIVEN. We shall "ALL BE CHANGED", for each of His people He has  secured  through a repentance not to be  repented of, a salvation that  cannot be annuled, that  does not fade  away, reserved in heaven as the  destiny of  saving faith,  and the consummation of justification  (Romans 8:30).

"Thanks be to God who GIVES US THE VICTORY."

It is secured by the Lord Jesus Christ, who has sealed His people, each one, as redeemed to  salvation, the guarantee wrought for Him by His Spirit IN US, to whom He gives it (Ephesians 1:14). Eternal life and resurrection to  eternity are both gifts, and oh what praise for His grace who made it free by a payment not on mere paper, but in Person (Romans 3:23-27). Thus, as to us who know Him, have been saved by Him, and not by a flicker of the  will (John 1:12), but through faith in  Him through the  word of God (I Peter 1:23),

"We shall  all be  changed."

 the result of the victory already given.