Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.Unbelievers often have a deep optimism and positive outlook for the future. Sometimes this manifests itself in quixotic ways. William Faulkner believed human beings to be wretched and evil. He wrote constantly of human depravity and the darkness of the soul. His portrayals of “white trash” in Yoknapatawpha County are depressing—although doubtless realistic and accurate. One of the aspects of his fictional world that is most compelling is how evil and degeneracy continues successively down through generations. Part of the power of his writing is the tracing of intergenerational evil.
John 14:12
Once when Faulkner was enduring one of his hated, fiscally enforced sojourns in Hollywood as a screenwriter he was present at an informal social group discussing his writing. One of his companions said, “Bill I get the impression [from your novels] that you don't much like Jews.” Faulkner looked at him with is famous piercing eyes, and growled, “I don't. I don't like Gentiles, neither.”
Yet, at the same time, inexplicably, Faulkner believed that eventually man would triumph and would overcome—in a moral and ethical sense.
He would rise to nobility. He was not a Christian believer—in fact, although steeped in Christian symbolism and its conceptual frame, he was a materialist, believing that nothing survived the grave. Yet, towards the latter part of his life he gave speech after speech seeking to encourage his auditors of the eventual triumph of humanity in man.
Men cannot continue in life in despair. Unbelief has to manufacture a positive future in order for the human heart to abide in life. Evolutionists are a classic example of the “genre” as it were. Confronted with real “in-your-face” depravity on every side, they continue to insist that mankind is evolving upwards—ever upwards. Like Faulkner, they cling to the vanity that although evil undoubtedly exists everywhere, in the end . . . .
One of the most hellish aspects of Hell will surely be the expiration of all false hopes and the reality of an eternity of never-ending despair. Having spurned God, sinful unredeemed humanity will face the bitter truth about man and his overlord, the Devil. With every last vestige of God's restraining grace removed, an eternity of unremitting total depravity is all that remains. Escape through suicide is not an option.
The Son of Man alone brings hope. He alone not only gives the prospect of hope, but has established the certain ground upon which hope can flame up and never die. The apostles were to live through one of the greatest conflagrations ever seen in human history, focused and limited to the crucible of Judea. In their lifetimes most would witness, if not live through, the awful extirpation of Israel under the Romans. Yet they were to remain filled with unquenchable hope that looked to the future with hope and joy.
The fundamental reason lies in our text. In the presence of our Lord on earth, their eyes had been opened to see unbelievable works of power, grace, mercy and redemption. As Jesus commanded or stretched forth His hand, they saw the curse of sin lifting as the blind saw, the lame walked, the demon-possessed were liberated, and unbelievers were converted. But this were just signs, just foretastes of what was to come.
Those who believed would do even greater works. How? Because Jesus was departing and going to the Father. From the right hand of God, He would pour forth the Spirit of God—the Helper—upon the Church, upon the people of the New Covenant. The work of the Spirit is to recreate into the fabric of the human soul, body, life, community, culture and creation itself the image of the Christ. This incarnated image of the heavenly and exalted Son of Man is to be extended over all the nations of the earth. This is the essence of the “greater works” that yet will be done by His followers. These things will undoubtedly and assuredly occur. Why? Because our Lord has ascended to the Father, and the Spirit of God Himself has been poured out as our Helper. None can stay His hand.
Faulkner represents a sad and tragic caricature of true hope. We, like Faulkner, do not obscure nor romanticize human depravity and sinfulness. But unlike him, we do not yaw back and forth between despair and irrational hope. We know that once, long ago, the dead really were raised. The lame really did stand up and begin to leap about. We know that at Jesus' hand, the blind really did see. Because of these things, and because our Lord has gone to the Father, because the Spirit has fallen like rain from heaven redeemed, regenerated mankind will overcome and triumph in the earth. We know that our works of faith, our service, our labours in the Lord are all working to transform our fallen world, removing its curse. It is all part of the greater works that are now being done on every continent, in every nation. None of it is in vain (I Corinthians 15:57,58).
And all those who have gone before in faith, in Christ will eventually return, and enter into the coruscating joy of the world renewed by our Saviour.
No comments:
Post a Comment