Friday: Further Thought ~ The Mystery of the Gospel
Further Thought:
Ellen G. White, “Modern Revivals,” in The Great Controversy, Pages 461-478.
“How can we harmonize our dwarfed spiritual condition with the presentation of our text [Ephesians 3:14-19] that describes the fullness of knowledge it is our privilege to possess?
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
How can Heaven look upon us, who have had every spiritual and temporal advantage that we might grow in grace, when we have not improved our opportunities? The apostle did not write these words to tantalize us, to deceive us, or to raise our expectations only to have them disappointed in our experience. He wrote these words to show us what we may and must be, if we would be heirs of the kingdom of God. How can we be laborers together with God, if we have a dwarfed experience? We have a knowledge of the Christian’s privilege, and should seek for that deep, spiritual understanding in the things of God that the Lord has desired us to have.
Do we really believe the Bible? Do we really believe that we may attain to the knowledge of God that is presented before us in this text? Do we believe every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God? Do we believe the words that have been spoken by prophets and apostles, by Jesus Christ, who is the author of all light and blessing, and in whom dwelleth all richness and fullness? Do we really believe in God, and in his Son?” — Ellen G. White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 1, 1889.
Discussion Questions:
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The author starts todays discussion with a question:
I remember someone in my youth lamenting the fact that he was not quite perfect just yet. He still gave in to the temptation of eating ice cream. He was worried that probation would close before he had overcome the eating or ice cream. I thought at the time that if not eating ice cream was the ticket to salvation, I had a long way to go before I could be saved.
Somewhere between then and now, I came to understand that this salvation thing is much more than just worrying about what you eat.
Waterlilies are beautiful flowers. They have their roots in mud but they grow towards the light and as they grow they become mature and more beautiful. They break through the surface and their blooms open and reach towards the sun. (Yes, I know its not a perfect illustration)
And just like the waterlilies, it depends on what where we point our spiritual noses. If we are looking downward towards the mud worrying about our sinfulness, the sun of Jesus' love may never reach us. When we look towards Jesus, the photosynthesis of his relationship with us empowers us to bloom and share his beauty with others.
Paul in another epistle wrote:
...and that helps me to see beyond the ice cream.
Yes, Maurice, I agree totally and would add to this what Yeshua said in Matth.15,11: "It is not what goes into the mouth of a man (for instance ice-cream ...) that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth. This makes a man unclean and defiles him."
Do we really believe? Our actions are proof of what we believe.
In cell biology, the surroundings (called the extracellular matrix, ECM) influence the inner parts of the cell (and vice versa), although the cell itself is the producer of the ECM!
What kind of environment are you and I creating around? This can influence our inner self too! Thus, today, let us believe in a God of Love who can build us from the inside, giving us such a vital peace that all surroundings get contaminated!
Christ pointed out an attitude of coming to God in prayer, which is being merciful unto us sinners, with an atitude of remorse and forgivness for our sins. Christ admonition goes along with the Lord's word of advice in the Old Testament.
Luke 18:9-14.
Psalms 34:18.
Isaiah 65:5.
These point out the necessity to avoid the mistake Cain made, which was to come to the alter with thankfulness only, rather than ask for forgivness of his sins. Abel came before God as a sinner, confessing himself as lost; his only hope was the unmerited love of God. Paul also admitted to being a sinner.
1 Timothy 1:15.
Paul in Ephesians 3:3 is telling us remember what he explained in chapters 1 and 2, that the good news of the gospel is, God in His mercy, even while we were dead in sin, made us alive together with Christ. We find redemption through the blood of Christ from our sins. We go on to trust in Christ, after hearing the truth, the gospel of our salvation, having believed, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the grantee of our inhertence. Good News indeed. When we are sealed and even while in the process, what do we do? No we don't sit in our seats and keep hearing we become doers. Feed my lambs Christ told Peter, the same goes for us.
Yes, the mystery of the gospel was not fully revealed until Christ was born, lived amoung humanity spotless, died for us, and was resurected as an example of what is ours through Him. He showed us the Father, gracious and merciful and full of love. Our God, the God of Abraham and Moses.
Thank you, John, for reminding us of the necessity of repentance. I understand that the closer we draw to Christ, the deeper our repentance will be. Consequently our gratitude will be deeper as well.
We need to repent and be converted daily in order to have Christ live in us. When we consecrate ourselves to God in the morning, it allows Christ to demonstrate His character through us. I pray that it may be so for each of us.
I hear Paul praying that I will understand something that is too big to understand - the love of God (Eph. 3:18-19). He calls it being grounded in the "breadth and length and depth and height" of Christ's love and all the fullness of God. So this week I've been thinking and praying about this very thing - the dimensions of God's heart towards me and us.
I began with, "How many people does God love?" Or same question said differently, "How many people have ever lived on planet Earth?" The Young Earth Creationist websites estimate around 35-40 billion, including the 8 billion alive today.
To get an understanding of this large number, I "googled" it. Interestingly, that is the amount, $40 billion, that the American Congress in 2022 approved to send in aid for Ukraine and other countries affected by the current conflict in that region. Also last year, the USA committed $40 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to strengthen its workforce and increase jobs. So that showed me that it's a number that governments use and bandy about. It doesn't sound all that big. I still wanted a better sense of how big that is.
An article titled, "How long would it take to count to a million?" was helpful. I learned that at one number per second with no breaks at all, it would take a little over 11 days to count to 1 million. But for a real person to count to a million, with short breaks only for personal needs, how long would that take? A man named Jeremy Harper actually did it. He counted about 16 hours per day, even in the bathroom, stopping only for food and sleep. It took him 89 days. 3 months just to count to 1 million! That surprised me. Even preschoolers learn about 1 million, game shows give away 1 million, but it's such a big number!
How much bigger is 1 billion? One billion is equal to one thousand million. So 89 days x 1,000 = 89,000 days. Divide that by 365 (for days in a year) and you get about 244 years of a person counting basically nonstop.... and that's how many people God loves...and the number is still growing! (If you go with the computer model of one number per second, it's still a staggering 30 years to count to 1 billion.) God knows each one intimately, by name, knows the hairs on the head, had a unique plan and purpose for each person before the foundation of the Earth was laid, each one created to demonstrate a unique aspect of the image of God!
Next, I was thinking about John's vision of heaven and the "great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language" (Rev. 7:9). Is that figurative or is that also such a big number that it would be difficult to count? Remembering that only 8 made the choice to take safety in the Ark Noah built, I thought I'd try the math on a very low amount of 1% of 40 billion. What if only 1% of all the people who have ever lived say "yes" to receiving God's salvation? Using these test figures, that would be 400 million. And using Jeremy Harper as an example of a person counting, that would take 97.5 years to count to 400 million. No wonder John saw it as too big to count!
I shared some of this with a friend, and she said that it made her feel small. For me, it also has the opposite effect. It makes me feel a part of something bigger than me and greatly encouraged. Sometimes I agree with Elijah in feeling like there are so few who are not bowing their knee to the culture of self-serving and Satan's ways (1 Kings 18:22;19:10,18). But, we are actually part of a vast throng of people - past and present and future - who live to worship God. Or at least who want to live to glorify God. And God's love is so big that He loves the whole world (Jn. 3:16), each and every person. For math like this, the math of God's love, we need an eternity to grow into the knowledge and experience of it.
Very fascinating observations, Esther, though I really hope the number saved are greater than 1% Otherwise it's unlikely I will be there. I'm not in the top 1% of anything. However, I am encouraged when I think that 11/12 of Jesus disciples stayed faithful. I'm not saying the majority will be saved, but maybe it will be bigger than we think.
Oh yes, dear Christina, I agree that we hope and pray that far more than 1% choose Jesus…..that’s God’s own desire, that everyone be saved! That is very encouraging that most of the disciples stayed faithful.
I just started with 1% for calculation purposes, and to show that even 1% is a huge number for our human brain to picture. If we upped it to 10% of 40 billion that’s 4 billion…another huge number. This is sort of like Lot throwing numbers out to God to test and see how great His love is.
(Oh and by the way, to correct an error in my original post, 244 years is the number of years to count to 1 billion… it takes a person 9,760 years to count to 40 billion, the estimated number of people who have ever lived so far! And God loves all of us, and is constantly drawing all of us to Himself, not just those who are faithful.)
I chuckled when you said you’ve never been in the top 1% of anything. I understand. And thank you for sharing your reaction… Humbled is another response to God‘s love . By this world‘s competitive standards, it can feel and look like we’re on the bottom . Left out of the “in” group.
My friend and I were talking last night about the world’s view of success, and what that feels like because many of our non-Christian friends are making far more money than we in high-paying jobs and rising in the world of business. We were reminded that God’s definition of success is about where our hearts are fixed … We prayed that we’d use our resources wisely and make changes if need be to be better stewards of time and talents, but that we would be comforted and content to keep our eyes on Jesus and following Him.
Hallelujah, there’s no top and bottom rankings in His amazing heart! God is faithful to finish the work He has begun in us. …. We can rejoice that the numbers are in His gracious hands .🙏