Being towards hope || John Pesebre

[J]ust as Christian came up with the Cross, 

his Burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back

Dear Christian, guard your affections from the enticement and snare of sin by your vigorous and lively desire for God.

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Dear Christian

A new Christian believer received the actualization of the election of God as Christ let's you share in His inheritance from the Father. It is a long journey from the covenant of redemption to the application of justification to his poor wretched soul.

It is a new beginning not only because he is now conscious of the balm of mercy poured out for him, but also and most importantly, because he now realizes that his real beginning started not on his throwness into this world but by the covenant of Jesus' thrownness into this world in the pactum salutis.

Indeed, a new Christian believer is someone who has found a new beginning. How he found that new beginning is a work of grace, through the ministration of the Holy Spirit. In this new beginning he has a new sense of personhood who understands that his life has changed since he believed the gospel. He knows that he is in a new faith. He understands the brevity of his life but has that reflection with a sanctified consciousness. He still recognizes the voices of people, but now has an ear for the voice of God. He leaves people's chatter which he previously pursued vigorously, only to find himself in the private room of prayer and spiritual meditation. He is a new being.

He also discovers that he is towards something. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for" as the writer of Hebrews puts it. There is a new kind of He sees a new emplotment for his life. An emplotment is "[t]he assembly of a series of historical events into a narrative with a plot."

This new knowledge brought about by his faith, builds itself up towards a moral-practical knowledge structure. Christians oftentimes talk about word and deed, or walk the talk. It's the James 1:22 admoniition, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only."

But the Christian not only has a new direction, this new direction has a consummation, or what John Owen calls as gospel hope which can "no longer rise any further." This gospel hope is eschatological as Owen explains,

The especial object of hope is eternal glory (Col 1:27; Rom 5:2). The peculiar use of it is to support, comfort, and refresh the soul in all trials, under all weariness and despondencies, with a firm expectation of a speedy entrance into that glory, with an earnest desire after it. Wherefore, unless we acquaint ourselves by continual meditation with the reality and nature of this glory, it is impossible it should be the object of a vigorous, active hope, such as whereby the apostle says “we are saved.” Without this we can neither have that evidence of eternal things, nor that valuation of them, nor that preparedness in our minds for them, as should keep us in the exercise of gracious hope about them.

And as such our consciousness of our true eternal beginning, our thrownness into this world, the trajectory of our journey, out mettle as we our confronted with our death and our eternal glory all because of the Grace of God proves that our very being we owe to God who deserves our glory. As such, our consciousness should continue to be towards the celebration in our minds about these things. It is to this the Puritan Thomas Watson gloriously put it,

They have married into the crown of heaven, and by virtue of the conjugal union all Christ's riches go to believers: "communion is founded in union." Christ communicates his graces (John 1:16 ). As long as Christ has them, believers shall not be in want. And he communicates his privileges - justification, glorification. He settles a kingdom on his spouse as her inheritance (Heb. 12:28). This is a key to the apostle's riddle, "as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:10). By virtue of the marriage union, the saints have an interest in all Christ's riches. [here]

And so dear Christian, it is no wonder that the enemy of our souls would want us to denounce these gems in place of dung so that Satan can make a mockery not only of you but of God.

It is to our joy however that Benevolent Grace carries out His Goodness far above the actings of Satan. The very reverend Richard Sibbes puts it this way,

See the gracious way he executes his offices. As a prophet, he came with blessing in his mouth, `Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matt. 5:3), and invited those to come to him . . . `Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden' (Matt. 11:28) . . . He is a meek king; he will admit mourners into his presence, a king of poor and afflicted persons. As he has beams of majesty, so he has a heart of mercy and compassion. He is the prince of peace (Isa. 9:6). Why was he tempted, but that he might `succor them that are tempted' (Heb. 2:18)? What mercy may we not expect from so gracious a Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5) who took our nature upon him that he might be gracious? He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart. He died that he might heal our souls with a plaster of his own blood, and by that death save us, which we were the procurers of ourselves, by our own sins . . . The lion of the tribe of Judah will only tear in pieces those that `will not have him rule over them' (Luke 19:14). He will not show his strength against those who prostrate themselves before him.

Such is framed the hope of our lives in the midst of Satan's desire to lay us bare.

Yet in Psalm 141:8 we see a different picture in the laying bare of God's children. The Psalmist was to God not to intervene but to stop. The Hebrew word for destitution which means "to lay bare" a euphemism for strip naked, is the word te'ar which is not in its ordinary verb stem the Qal, but is in its intensive stem the Piel. In Filipino, it would be the difference between, pinakitanggal ng damit at hinablot ang damit na namy nuance of wrath. One would arguable be correct to transliterate this as, "Wag niyo na pong hubaran palagi ang kaluluwa ko." God is sovereign.

Richard Sibbes, talks about this divine action of nakedness with a trope of "bruising,"

The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it, for, whatever pretences sin makes, they come to an end when we are bruised and broken. [here]

LORD OF ALL BEING, There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,that calls forth my ardent desires,That is, that I may answer the great end for whichI am made —to glorify thee who hast given me being.