Meditations

Well, it’s children’s day today and this year, it hasn’t felt like one. There’s been a sour air hanging over us in Nigerian spaces, home and abroad. A sombre attitude to the cause of such a day. This is not at all the first time something like this has happened, the tragedy is only made clearer because it is rather close to home, it feels real, loud. Now there’s a good chance I might fall off character in this post, it is because a number of things, premises have been ever so clear to my understanding that it makes me ground my teeth seeing the way such a day has gone, especially for those of the faith. The question that falls front and centre in my mind is, why should I care? Why? What is my obligation to societal tragedy?

Now, the first premise I must lay down is that, we are not without hope. You see, in that five word phrase is the foundation of how we look upon everything in our lives. What is hope? A fire that cannot burn out, a waiting beyond all reasonable evidence, a complete lack of any ability to know anything other than that which was always known. That is hope. Now, we who now hope in God must know that which we wait on and the promise eternal which we grasp with both hands: There is coming a King.

Secondly, every day, every moment that we use on this earth is fundamentally less than what it should be. There is no world, there is no place that will ever satisfy the eyes of the One who is called just so long as it is situated in this physical realm. We are fallen. Irreparably. Irrevocably fallen. It had come to my mind earlier today, that there are very few humans who are not involuntarily struck by beauty, we all love beauty, inwards and out. It attracts us, awes us, brightens our minds and yet all too many times, we find that we are only capable of ruining the things we hold too dear in infatuation and all too often we find ourselves filled with dangerous rage when that which we adore scorns our innate ineptitude. We lack the grace to hold sacred things sacred. Like pigs bent on their ways, leopards who can never change their spots, we taint everything we touch and to think even slightly that I speak too lowly of our kind is to be either grossly arrogant or grossly oblivious.

The third premise we must lay down is the ever-progressively corruptible nature of kings and princes. I have found that whilst there is great treasure in living one’s lifetime simply, he who dies after such cannot say he truly knew himself. The heart of man is like a prismatic gem, you cannot truly see all of its sides until you place it in all different lights. It is also to be said of the nature of man that once he touches and holds influence over other men, he will stop at nothing to expand his domain and consolidate. Call it the Gen 1:28-blessing ghastly mutated.

Now the final key to this Pandora’s box we have on our hands is: The coming King is sovereign now.

There is nothing that happens, not the tiniest sparrow that falls, not littlest grain of dust that adds to a tornado that the Lord does not know intricately. His understanding no one can fathom, ask Job. Every single crisis, every single injustice, the last tear on the eyes of the helpless will not go unpunished. It is idiotic for the truly wise to think some organized system of judgment in this world will truly do justice, there is no justice in this world to he who has eyes to see. It is all darkness, all of it. We only have a more less varnished version here. The world over is bent on raping injustice every second, every second.

Might we cry for kidnapped children in a nearby city? Well, we might, but how unjust it is to not have cried so for thousands of others subject to a future of utter penury just outside your front door (should you live in Lagos like me). You say those children were kidnapped from school, well, at least they had a prospect of education. Don’t be stupid, open your eyes, it’s everywhere around you. The creation groaning in expectation.

So should you care? Why, yes of course. But don’t act it. Find it in your heart to see how you are indeed part of this fallenness and it dwells yet in you. Bear the burden with true grace and see the unseen. Let the light of truth and mercy shine from your own real hands. Don’t reshare or repost, that is utterly cowardly before the ageless monster that roams our roads, our rooms. Dare to love. Dare to show mercy to them who have no hope. Why? Because, indeed, of all men, we alone truly have hope.

Happy Children’s Day.

Was the thief on the cross saved? In what sense did he believe in Jesus and confess Him? Let’s take a look at that incredulous dialogue again; I do believe that locked in the words that formed that exchange are the keys to giving definitive answers to our questions. Please, pay attention here, this is crucial.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

Okay, stop. It may seem like a terrible thing which he said, but in the context of the happening, it actually was not. Majority of the people who beheld Jesus on the cross bore the same sentiment, only it seemed this criminal actually knew who Jesus was. He called him the same word that Peter, the rock, called Jesus in Caeserea Philippi; the Christ. If he truly believed what he was saying and hope for a means for deliverance, he spoke purely to that persuasion. ‘The promised prince hangs on the same mount that I now do, perhaps providence to reprieve my doom.’ Alright. Let’s continue.

But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man had done nothing wrong.”

Okay, the mood shifts now. The first criminal has made his own plea, now the second takes the stand. It’s an aberrant court session before the Most High. This second one immediately faults the first’s prayer as a prayer of the wicked. He claims the first criminal prays like one who is not just. This means that the prayer for deliverance from the mouth of the wicked is an abomination before God not because the wicked is wicked but because he cannot see clearly; he does not, cannot know the soreness of his predicament, he still believes there is something for him to grasp onto in this world, which is why he asks to be freed, not from his sin, but from the consequences of his sin. Does that ring a bell? I bet you’ve once prayed like this first criminal.

It had not yet dawned on the criminal, it seems, that he was indeed sentenced to die, his fate sealed. Sinful life still seems ever so alluring.

James called such a man double-minded, unbelieving, unwashed, a dog before the eyes of the Father. Are we any better than the first criminal, however? In fact, was the second criminal any better than the first? Well, he did not appear to think so. For we see him use the word 'we' when referring to the state of his being, twice. What caused this man to speak this way? Apart from the disciples who had been with Jesus for three years, he was the only one on that mount that day who seemed to see something glorious about a naked man hanging on a cross. Why? Now, what was that miracle? Hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself…

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

What?! This is absurd. He saw a king?! A coming King? On a cross, naked, bleeding to death, scorned by Romans and Jews. A King! And therein lies the mystery of faith. The mercy of mercies. But when did this change happen and why were his eyes opened? Why are you saved and not your friend with whom you grew up and did all those old things together?

See what Jesus said in return: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

That very second, the King spoke in His authority, for the man who, being shown mercy, asked for mercy. That is faith indeed. Believing. The opening of the eyes and the heart. We cannot truly follow Christ until we have tasted him as the only sweet thing there is. And that is virtually impossible unless the work of God is first done in the heart, the work of His mercy. So when is a man truly saved? The moment he sees the Son of man in His glory and himself as a rotting corpse. That is when a man is saved. The two have to happen simultaneously for the work of salvation to be the instantaneous aftermath.

There’s dozens of sentences from the Lord’s mouth making this clear as day. I’ll mention a few of them:

John 5:25: Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

John 6:44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 8:47: Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

John 9:41: If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Matthew: 13:11: It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

It is the mercy of mercies…

Ever so often, when we ponder the question of redemption from damnation, we deem the consequences of blindness to the light of Jesus as too great for God to deal out at the end of time, as though the Judge of all the earth could not possibly condemn so many people to such a fate. I mean, how dare He, right?

Well, see that’s where we are stupid. Because the greater power, the greater force that tilts humanity to its doom is not the justice of God but the power of sin. It is a great power. Deep in the mind, pulling every lever, calling every shot, spelling every outcome. When one’s eyes are open to behold the depth of his irreparability, the glory of the cross is made to shine all the more immaculate. That is the point of difference. And that indeed is the gospel of salvation. Paul says it this way in his short autobiography to his son, Timothy:

‘…and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost (sinner), Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.’

So where do we find ourselves who have seen the glory of the Son and truly know our own depravity? Which is the power which is yet now more real to us? The power of the promise or the power of sin? Which came first? Which will win out?…

Hi, it’s been a week since I have posted here. God helping me, I’ll make it worth the wait.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been one to find things out. I often remember a Peanuts panel that says, if it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. So here, so long as I am the one writing this post, we will not shy from the pertinent questions and we will not be afraid to own up to their answers.

Alright, that said, we will open up on the question of salvation. Soteriology, some call it. What does it mean for one to be saved? That’s the first question and the second is like it; how can we know that one is truly saved?

It’s useful to note here that the work of salvation is not a human work, it is an effectual work. The word, effectual, is one we often find the epistles in referral to the irrefutable operations of God. It is His work, salvation, the prime work in man. He orchestrated it from the beginning of time and for a certain purpose (which we will get to later). For there is nothing that God does for which He does not have a purpose. Nothing. So, should we be spur in our minds to find out the meaning of a work of God, we must learn of his purposes for such a work. A man is saved unto God from damnation and he is saved for eternity with God; I believe that is something we can all agree on.

So then in the here and now, who is indeed saved? Well, since it is in fact the work of God and a work unto His end and for Himself, He alone knows who it is who is saved. Now here is the first stone to mark. Once upon a time, an old prophet was instructed by God to go and anoint a new king for His people. This new king was not to be from royalty and if there was anything the kingmaker was to go by, it was that this new man would be one 'after God’s own heart'. Now, said kingmaker reaches the household of one Jesse and tells him to present all of his sons. The first one comes forth, a soldier, bred for the forefront. ‘Surely the chosen one’, the prophet thinks, reaching for his horn of oil. But the Lord was quick to object, saying, ‘I see not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but I look on the heart.’

Words to chart the course of a man’s life. But that’s not where we’re going to.

That statement implies that the Lord sees, He sees and as man see the appearances of others, He sees the innermost workings of men. Oh, but of course, for it is He himself who does the work, searching out a man and convicting him of his wretchedness, breaking the power of sin that blinds. He who works effectually.

‘Well, that is all well and good,’ one might reply, ‘how is it of any use to us who are called to love one another? How then shall we know our brother and our sister indeed?’

I daresay, that is not quite the right question to ask. The right question to ask would be, how on earth do I know that I am saved? We all know that he who is saved must first believe in the Lord in his heart and confess outwardly the intent of his heart. But we know that the believing and confession of a man is not what does the work of salvation, it is God who does the work of salvation, else a mortal might boast in his believing and confessing ability before the God who saves. So then where does the saving work of God start and where does it end?

Okay, here’s where we might examine a man who is not saved, about to be saved. A man who is not yet saved is often described in the New Testament as blind and dull. It’s put this way:

‘For this people’s heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing: and their eyes they have closed’

So the scriptures paint the picture of a creature robbed of his senses, robbed by a higher power, helpless against the current of his ancestry. This is one, this is all. The great travesty of the universe. Paul once ruminated on this great evil and concluded that the bent which the sons of men trudge their ways in the filth of their lostness like swine could be attributed to nothing of themselves but a living breathing power in them, deep in the heart. He called it 'the sin that lives in me'. The sin that blinds and dulls with such a hold is what the Spirit of God which searches does His work on, an effectual work, so that he who was blind and dull suddenly sees and hears. The first thing which the hitherto blind man sees and hears is the gospel; he asks, 'what must I do to be saved?!'

So when indeed is a man truly saved unto God? When is the work effectual? Is it when a man believes and confesses and before then, when his eyes are opened and senses awakened? Well, who better to ask that the man on the cross? No, not the cross, the other cross. The criminal...