Blood, Iron and Gold

I have been reading two completely different books, yet each has stirred me in the same way. One, the above title, is about how the railways transformed the world; the other, a novel called "Empire of silver", is of the rise of the Genghis Khan dynasty.


What has caught my attention is that each of these world movements involved single overpowering ideas executed in a way that had not been seen before.


For the Mongols it was all about conquest, and the way they did that was through an unstoppable new method of warfare. They didn't care who they faced, nor how strong they were; they were supremely confident in themselves and their ability to win. Interestingly, and this is another thought worth developing, they began to fall apart the more they assimilated themselves into the surrounding cultures. For some inexplicable reason, when Genghis' son, the new khan, died they pulled back from total domination of Europe - if they hadn't, modern world history would have turned out completely different. Eurasia just never had an answer to the blood conquest!


Unlike the Mongols, the conquest of the railways - the iron - did change the course of world history. It was all about a single idea: freight - the movement of people and produce over vast distances. No matter who ran them, public, private or government, they expanded across all continents and nations. The great engineers would go out into the world, in often hazardous and difficult terrain, to proclaim the "iron gospel"; nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the progress of the railroad vision!


What does that mean for us; what do we learn from these world-changing events? Are there any lessons for the Church? I think so. Firstly, it must be noted that Christianity is not interested in conquest for its own end, but, to stretch the analogy, we have a conquest of gold - something so precious that it is worth sharing until the world changes. It is our single overpowering idea: the Gospel.


Like the Mongols, we have to find new methods, methods that the world has no answer for, without being assimilated into the surrounding culture. Like the railroad, we must let nothing become insurmountable; in God, we will always find a way! The Gospel is world-changing; let it be so!

Surprised again!

It never ceases to amaze me that we can have the best plans set but God will still have His way - "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD'S purpose that prevails" (Pr.19:21).

I have been trying to get into a series of teachings on the Trinity and how it makes a difference to all that we do, yet God has been steering us on a course of Justification and Assurance. It is an amazing journey, one filled with delight and wonder at how much God has achieved for us through the completed work of Jesus. Jesus did it all, and I am saved, or He didn't, and I'm in trouble! That is the basic challenge to us: which way will we respond?

(Jude 24-25) - Wuest's Expanded Translation:

"Now, to the One who is able to guard you from stumbling and to place you before the presence of His glory, faultless in great rejoicing, to the Only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority before all time, both now and forever. Amen"

 

There is a point to make, something worth listening to, and is not to be put off, nor to be deterred by whatever we face: there is never a moment when we cannot consider our assurance. It is too important for us to not consider it. We have to recognise where our assurance lies - it is to God that we turn. We turn to Him because

a.    He is a personal God, not an abstract philosophy, and He makes a point of identification with each one of us - it is "you". God has no problem with looking us in the eye and declaring us His own, so we need to take ownership of that identity.

b.    It is only God who is able. Not only does He have the ability but also the application. He doesn't keep His ability to Himself, nor withhold it from us; neither does He have it but offer us something else or lesser - He uses His full ability on our behalf. It is not something that God might do, if we have the correct requirements or credentials, but He actually is participating in this right now.

 

God is able to keep and guard us from falling/stumbling - into sin or falling away; i.e. we won't fall away because God is guarding us! Because He is able, we won't fall. On the contrary, He will make us stand; He will place and establish us before His radiant moral splendour - the piercing glory of God that cuts through all, leaving us naked of soul before Him, completely open. He is able to scrutinize everything about us - and in that scrutiny He finds us faultless! That is so difficult for us to imagine because we are so aware of our own faults and shortcomings - but He doesn't see any of them: we are placed faultless before Him!

 

The terminology used is that of the OT sacrifice - the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb: perfect, blameless. I love the emphasis on the "without" (Gr. - anōmous (cf. use of 'a' prefix e.g. amoral) - without = none!); the fact that there is "nothing" - nothing to count us guilty! Without fault: a final reminder that all our sins are forgiven. This is the wonder of justification and imputed righteousness: we can stand in His presence, in the future and the present, faultless, based on the external righteousness of Christ (2Cor.5:21). We are not able to get to the state of "without" by any means of our own, whether it is good deeds, holiness, or self-righteousness.

 

All that understanding leads naturally to the most logical of outcomes - exceeding joy! Triumphant, ecstatic delight and exultation! Interestingly we stand in His glorious presence with nothing, except joy! It is the one thing that can withstand His piercing gaze! And it is that one thing that enables us to live for Him, serve Him, sacrifice for Him with a willing and generous heart - we are filled with an unspeakable, indescribable, exceeding joy!