Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
State College, PA
I’ve known a number of people who started out well in the Christian life, then later turned away. None of them turned away because they had heard an irresistible argument that undermined their faith. Most of them just drifted away over time. Their faith became buried under all the stress of living in this world, or some of them became embittered by suffering. Here’s one of the strategies Screwtape, a senior demon, suggests to Wormwood, a demon who is trying to destroy the faith of a Christian: “Your man... doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false,’ but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical,’ ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary,’ ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless.’ Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.... Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it ‘real life’ and don’t let him ask what he means by ‘real’” (The Screwtape Letters, p. 8). The idea is not to argue him out of the faith–because an argument could easily move in the other direction–but to encourage him to become so engrossed in the business of this world–“real life”–that the things of heaven seem remote and irrelevant. Screwtape goes on: “Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things” (p. 10). When we’re completely engrossed in the things of this world, the things of heaven seem remote and irrelevant.
This sort of thing easily destroys our spiritual lives. We become muddled and confused, and we begin thinking that we’re being silly to give so much attention to things we can’t see, talking to a person we’ve never met face to face, looking forward to a place where we’ve never been. Maybe it’s not really true. The “real world” seems so unquestionable. We have to deal with it every moment. And many people make a beginning in the Christian life but then turn back after awhile, not because they’ve heard an argument which undermined their faith, but because they’ve become completely engrossed in “real life,” the visible, physical realities around us. That pressure is there all the time. But it’s even greater when we experience suffering, which we all do at some point. The suffering is so real and painful, and the invisible realities of God’s kingdom can seem so distant. How do we prevent our faith from being overwhelmed by life in this world? How do we prevent the things of this world, both difficulties and joys, from crowding out our faith? Paul says some things in 2 Cor. 4:16 18 that can help us in this area.
The thing I want to emphasize in this passage is this: If we want to keep from being overwhelmed by our lives in this world, we need to learn, as Paul did, to live in the light of our future in eternity. We need to learn to weigh our present struggles–and our present enjoyments--in the balance with the eternal glory that awaits us; and we need to learn to live in the light of this comparison. We need to learn to live in the light of the reality of our eternal future.
The first thing to notice in this passage is Paul's description of his outward circumstances. He has just said, in v. 14, "we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence." Then, in v.16, he says, "Therefore, we do not lose heart." What he is saying is that, considered in themselves, apart from the assurance of his future resurrection and glorification, his outward circumstances would cause him to lose heart. If Paul judged his life by the world's standards, he would fall into despair.
He goes on to say that outwardly he is "wasting away." The word here was used of the corrosive effect of rust, or of moths eating away clothing. It is often tempting for God's people to assume that if we follow Him things will go well for us in the world. It wasn't this way for Paul. Things were going badly for him, by the world's standards.
Earlier in this chapter, he speaks of being hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted and struck down. And in chapter one, he says "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life" (1:8). In 1 Cor. 15:19, he goes even further and says, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
We need to beware of thinking that godliness will bring us success in this world. It may have just the opposite effect, as it did with Paul. Paul was much more successful, by worldly standards, before he became a Christian. He says in Philippians: "If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more...." He then goes on to describe his former way of life as a Pharisee, and then says: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ" (Philippians 3:4, 7). Becoming a Christian did not cause Paul to prosper outwardly. He was much more successful, in that sense, before his conversion. He was the ideal, the sort of person everyone in his society looked up to. Becoming a Christian ruined all that. We'd be wise to arm ourselves with this knowledge, so that we are not overwhelmed and surprised when difficulties come our way.
The Puritans have been unfairly caricatured in our popular culture as stern, sour moralists whose greatest worry was that someone might be having a good time. The term “Puritanical” stands for everything our society hates. But the Puritans, in reality, were people who sought to order their lives in relation to God. They stood for godliness and a heartfelt commitment to the Lord in every area of life, and they did so during very difficult times. But listen to what J.I. Packer says about the long term success of their ministry. "The Puritans lost, more or less, every public battle that they fought. Those who stayed in England did not change the Church of England as they hoped to do, nor did they revive more than a minority of its adherents, and eventually they were driven out of Anglicanism by calculated pressure on their consciences. Those who crossed the Atlantic failed to establish new Jerusalem in New England; for the first fifty years their little colonies barely survived. They hung on by the skin of their teeth. But the moral and spiritual victories that the Puritans won by keeping sweet, peaceful, patient, obedient, and hopeful under sustained and seemingly intolerable pressures and frustrations give them a place of high honour in the believers' hall of fame, where Hebrews 11 is the first gallery." (A Quest for Godliness, p.23) They were faithful, godly people, but they were not successful in accomplishing their outward goals. They remind us, as Hebrews 11 does, that it is dangerous to assume that godliness will lead to success.
But Paul does not stop there. He is not content to simply describe his miserable circumstances in this life and leave it at that. I think our trouble is that often we are content to stop here. We say, "Oh, things are really going badly; let me tell you about it," but then we don't go any further.
"Yes," Paul says, "we are wasting away outwardly, but inwardly we are being renewed day by day." If we don't get beyond a description of out outward situation, we are forgetting who we are as Christians, and we are forgetting that Jesus has promised to be with us until the end of the age. If all we do is complain about our problems, we’ve forgotten the most important parts of the truth.
But we need to notice what Paul is not saying here. He is not saying that this inward renewal will eventually raise us to a level of spirituality where trials will not bother us anymore. He is not saying that, as God renews us inwardly day by day we will gradually reach a point of detachment from outward things so that we just won't care about what happens to us. He’s not recommending the practice of resignation, which passively accepts everything that happens, in a spirit of indifference–as if the things that happen in this world don’t really matter. Some branches of mysticism have taught this sort of thing, but this is not what Paul has in mind.
Paul is saying that, with each new trial that threatens to destroy us, God graciously comes to our rescue and keeps us from being overwhelmed. Look at what he says in verses 8 and 9. He says, "we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." It is this daily inner renewal that enables Paul, in each of these cases, to say "but not." These things are still difficult and painful, but because of the present reality of God's grace they do not destroy him. Being hard pressed does not lead, as it otherwise might, to being crushed, perplexity does not lead, as it would if Paul was left to himself, to despair.
But Paul does not stop even here. Each time God rescues him and keeps him from giving in to despair, Paul is reminded that one day all of this is going to end. Each act of deliverance points beyond itself to that time when God is going to deliver us finally from this world of suffering and death. When one problem follows another, it’s easy to begin thinking, “one of these days it’s going to crush me; I can’t keep holding on like this forever.” But the reality is that we are not holding on. God is holding on to us. And He is keeping us until that day when He will wipe away all tears from our eyes and we will see Him face to face. Each act of deliverance reminds us that this is true.
Notice the word "for," at the beginning of verse 17. We are being renewed day by day, for these trials are achieving for us an eternal glory. God delivers us now, because we belong to Him, and because He intends to deliver us fully in the future. Each deliverance, each manifestation of God's grace on our behalf, is a foretaste of what is to come.
In the light of eternity, we can say that these trials themselves are working on our behalf. They are achieving for us an eternal glory. It is not that they can ever become good in themselves, but that by enduring them and standing firm in our commitment to the Lord we are storing up treasure in heaven. That treasure is a gift of grace; we are not earning God's favor by our endurance. But God, as a gracious father, will reward us in His presence for standing firm.
Paul says that, when weighed in the balance with the eternal glory that is ahead, these troubles he is enduring are "light and momentary." What he says in Romans 8:18 is similar. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Paul is not trivializing the reality of suffering in this life. He is saying that our future glory is of such magnitude that, when it is placed in the balance with our present troubles, there is simply no comparison at all.
In the first place, this future glory is eternal, while our present troubles are temporary. The contrast here is so great that he can describe our current trials as "momentary." This present age, with all of its suffering and horror, is going to come to an end. The age to come, where our true home is, will never end. Life may, at times, seem long and tedious. But looking back–from the perspective of eternity–it will seem like “only a moment.”
In the second place, this future glory is greater in magnitude than our present sufferings. Jonathan Edwards describes it in this way. "God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied, To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven...; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life." (Works, vol.2, p. 244). All the good we experience in this life is imperfect and temporary. God is the source of all good, and there we will see Him face to face. We’ll be there forever, and the glory will be so great that it will eclipse both the suffering and joy of life in this world.
Listen to what God said through the prophet Isaiah (65:17 19): “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.”
This is the teaching, that we have this great hope before us which makes our present troubles, by comparison, seem light and momentary. But Paul still has something more to say. He is not content to simply fill our heads with ideas. He goes on to work out the practical implications of this teaching. “So,” he says, “because of all that I have been saying, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”
Notice that he does not begin with this. We are not being asked to engage in pious wishful thinking, or to turn our thoughts away from the world because it will make us feel better to do so. No, he begins with the truth, and then, having stated that, he goes on to apply it.
He tells us to fix our eyes on things unseen, to intentionally turn our focus away from the things of this world and of time, and to set our minds on the things of eternity. How do we go about this? Let me make three practical suggestions in this area, before I close.
1) We need to be much in God's word. Our natural inclination is to be primarily focused on the things that demand our immediate attention. We need the continual correction and instruction that we receive from the Bible. Read it daily, think on it, pray over it, and ask God to transform your mind through it. The Bible consistently reminds us that this life is a pilgrimage, that this world is not our home. If we want to fix our eyes on things unseen, we need to immerse ourselves in Scripture.
2) Recognize that this is not a "once for all" thing. What Paul is describing here is the work of a lifetime, and a lifetime of effort in this area would come to nothing without the continual intervention of God's grace. So, let's fix our eyes on things unseen, crying out to Him for help. And when we forget for a period of time, as we will, cry out to God and start over again. The only way we really lose in this area is by giving up. Don’t worry about all your failures. Just get up, cry out to God for grace and mercy, and keep going.
3) We would do well to speak to ourselves, to remind ourselves often that our true home is not here. We need to take ourselves in hand and preach to ourselves about this. Martyn Lloyd Jones preached a series of sermons on spiritual depression (which was later published as a book), and he said that our trouble is often that we listen to ourselves rather than talking to ourselves. We need to follow the example of the Psalmist in Psalm 42: "Why are you downcast, Oh my soul, why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God." This same emphasis is found in a number of hymns. For example, Charles Wesley is oppressed by guilt, but instead of listening to himself, he says: "Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears." He reminds himself of the truth of the Gospel. Thomas Ken is struggling to get out of bed to have devotions, and instead of lying there and going back to sleep, he addresses himself: "Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run. Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise to pay thy morning sacrifice." We need to do the same thing in this area, to speak to ourselves often and remind ourselves that this world is not our home and that there is an eternal weight of glory awaiting us.
Horatius Bonar, a Scottish preacher in the 19th century, said this: “We are but as wayfaring men, wandering in the lonely night, who see dimly upon the distant mountain peak the reflection of a sun that never rises here, but which shall never set in the ‘new heavens’ thereafter. And that is enough. It comforts and cheers us on our dark and rugged way” (quoted by Alister McGrath, The Journey, p. 138). We see it dimly–that’s why Satan’s tactic is so often to try and cloud our vision–but we look forward to a day when we will see clearly that sun which will never set. Let's make every effort to fix our eyes beyond our circumstances and into eternity, but lets also cry out to God and ask Him to grant us foretastes of glory, to support us on our journey. He is gracious, and delights in giving us good gifts.
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