" The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8
Whenever I have read 1 John 3:8 before and have seen this sentence in context " Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared ..... I would always think of myself the way I was before I was saved, and all the works of the devil that I have been saved from. As I read this passage recently the word "appeared" rose up off the page as if it had been written in a red letter Bible. As I looked and meditated on it the Spirit showed me that I often subconsciously read passages about the finished work of Christ devotionally but not devotedly. In other words I felt like the Spirit was saying, "Hey, Brett do you see how often you properly personalize the Gospel in Scripture, but at the same time empty it of it's global context? The word appeared is aorist tense meaning it is more of a snapshot of what happened rather than a full motion picture. Truth be told, thats how I often times look at the Gospel. There Jesus and I are in all the pictures, but surprisingly the rest of my unsaved brethren are not there. Am I subconsiously abbreviating and limiting the work of Christ in demolishing the works of the devil in my own mind to my own past or immediate context? I began to reflect on how subtle this has become, and how deep down it reflects that even under the seemingly pure auspice of worship for what Christ has done for me, self is oftentimes trying to trump or hoard the overall context of the Gospel which is me, us and them. If I celebrate the cross exclusively without regard to the glory of God in His continual appearing in salvation to those whom He has chosen, is this fullness in worship? There is no doubt in me that I love His having appeared for me, the question is do I love His appearing to others in saving grace?
A Christological gospel is what I need to reflect on and perhaps you do to. I feel like I need to meditate not only on the salvation of Christ in my life, but also the saving character of Christ that demands He saves others. For us to reflect on salvation as merely a personal experience with borderline exclusiveness if not in word, in our tendency to be non urgent in evangelism practice, is to diminish the real and true character of Christ in the jewel of the gospel. It could be compared to someone looking at the Hope diamond upside down. Upside down it would still be enormous and appear overwhelmingly great, but it was designed to appear and destined to be even greater. The gospel was God's design to refract all the saving facets of the jeweled name of Jesus Christ past, present, future. It is interesting that Abraham, Jacob, Peter and others had their names changed to reflect who they had become or who they would be. Jesus's name in eternity past and in eternity future has and will always be "Yeshua" Jehovah Saves. We need to look at the gospel in its Christogically upright position, and when we do we won't merely worship Christ because He saved us, we will worship Him because of the character He displayed saving us. That same character we love and worship is the same character that demands that He continues to heroically save. There are the others right here in this generation, surely some placed in our own lives chosen to be saved, chosen to be conformed to His image that He is concerned with as much as we who are found. The Prodigal story speaks to this. So does Matthew 18:12 where it says "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountans and go in search of the one that went astray? " It is not that our salvation was not paramount with God, but that the salvation of those whom He chosen in this generation that are still out there. Afraid, alone, and without God and without hope in this world whose salvation is paramount now. '"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was , and is alive; he was lost, and is found." Luke 15:31-32
This is what I am wrestling with more and more these days. My piety absent a sincere redemptive heart is too shallow a reflection of a deeply concerned Savior. I don't want to be like the Prodigal's older brother who only wanted to celebrate his relationship to the father while others stood on the verge of eternal ruin. I want to be like Jesus. His concern for them must bear itself out, and we through the awesome privelege of evangelism get to participate in His beautifully jeweled character. Its as if Jesus appears in the burning corridor of a collapsing building called the lost world, and in the midst of mans suffocation, and his hopelessness of escape, and says I'm not leaving this building until everyone the Father has given me has escaped. Christ never takes one of us to the ground safely and then stops saving. My hope is that by the Spirit we will worship, praise, and thank Him for our own salvation while we follow Him back up the ladder.©
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