I try to maintain twin objectives in my day-to-day spiritual life. They run parallel to each other, like train tracks. If one or the other is lacking, bent, or damaged, my spiritual life tends to derail. One track is the daily mortification of sin, and the other is actively pursuing the glory of God in Christ. Seeing and knowing God is the positive and ultimate goal, but killing sin is the necessary and often more tangible exercise I engage in. Killing sin does not equal seeing God, nor does success in battle automatically result in a view of the glory of God. But, failure to mortify sin is certainly an effective preventor of seeing and delighting in God’s glory.

Killing sin sometimes means embracing self denial or ceasing to engage in some sinful activity or bad habit. But the deeper and more constant effort of sin killing engages my thoughts, motives and emotions. This kind of mortification is invisible. It happens in my head and heart.

Similarly, beholding the glory of God is also an invisible transaction–pillars of fire and parting of waters are not a part of the glory I behold. Rather, spiritual light, the radiance of God, is apprehended in my heart.

It’s tricky to maintain these two important tracks upon which my life rolls toward its ultimate heavenly calling–especially since their condition is invisible and my ability to evaluate their state of repair is often veiled. Yet daily mortification and unceasing orientation Godward is necessary if I’m to stand firm in Christ.

The Old Testament is full of episodes where many of the things which happen inwardly and invisibly now were practiced outwardly and physically then. Circumcision, for example, was a visible physical sign then, whereas true spiritual circumcision is now a circumcision of the heart. Under the new covenant a true Israelite is not one by ethnicity, but only if he is God’s inwardly. Idolatry, back then, often involved physical Ashera idols that could be chopped down with an axe, whereas the typical forms of idolatry I contend with now include inward orientations toward greed, pride, and covetousness.

As a help in my inward battle with sin and the pursuit of the glory of God in Christ I have the many Old Testament examples for my consideration and instruction. As I face inner battles it is very helpful to have physical illustrations that help my mind with concrete, imaginable stories. Such is Exodus, chapters thirty-two and thirty-three. They illustrate the mortification of sin and the glory of Christ.

First Corinthians, chapter ten, recounts a few occurrences of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness and equates these events with spiritual realities in Christ. Passing under the cloud is likened to our baptism in Christ. Drinking from the rock is like our drinking living water from Christ. Verses six and eleven explicitly say that these occurrences that happened in the desert are for examples and for our instruction. This is a massive statement. Especially considering that the primary example in view in chapter eleven is Israel’s rebellion and subsequent judgment, in which thousands died. Calculating by human lives, this was a very high price to pay to create an example, an illustration, a lesson, for me. But so it is. The great cost of this lesson should cause me to weigh very heavily the reading of Paul’s conclusion in versus twelve and fourteen,

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

What happened in the desert was harsh–not undeserved, but a very costly and painful lesson. The weight of these real, physical, painful occurrences are given to focus my mind on the reality, urgency and weightiness of their point–resist temptation.

Back to Exodus thirty-two and thirty-three, these two adjacent chapters are equally instructional. In chapter thirty-two I see a real-life, physical demonstration of killing sin. In chapter thirty-three I see a real-life, physical demonstration of eyes laying hold of the glory of God. The one prepares the stage for the other.

The reason these stories are so helpful is that they help to make metaphors more real. For example, Jesus uses metaphors like cutting out eyes or chopping off hands. He uses such language to emphasize the urgency of fighting sin–and I must hear and heed these extreme words. But they are metaphors. Jesus doesn’t intend that I literally employ such ineffective strategies–but rather to accept the urgency of not tolerating sin or else I may end up in hell. The real battleground and the most effective techniques in battling my sin are spiritual and employed in my mind, my thoughts and my heart. But it is very useful for me to consider the scene described in Exodus thirty-two to give examples to these metaphors.

The Israelites had, in short order (Moses being absent for forty days), turned to idolatry and had begun worshiping a golden calf. Moses did not merely rebuke the people that sinned. He killed them. He ordered that all who were loyal to the Lord strap on swords and kill each one his brother, his neighbor, his friends. Wow. I cannot imagine how they could do that. I imagine it’s very hard for a soldier to kill, even when he’s killing an enemy, but killing a friend–unimaginable. Yet the Lord is over all and no friendship or family relationship trumps obedience to our maker and so they did it. The passage does not go into gory details but it is not hard to imagine the terrible scene of these faithful men, swords in hand, striking down those they had known all their lives. They struck at the ones with whom they had been enslaved in Egypt, the ones who celebrated with them at the sea, and with those who stood in awe with them at Mt. Sinai. They killed the ones they walked with, the ones they talked to every day. They attacked their fellow desert sojourners, cutting them to pieces with the sword.

This chapter is instructive for me because such is the killing of my own sins–my dear friends, my comforters, the ones I have been familiar with all my days. These close sins have entertained me and pretended to care for me. My familiar friends need the sword. Any so called friend that would encourage me to turn to idols rather than seek the living God is no true friend. Though I am familiar with my sins and though they are tightly integrated into my life–I must be as ruthless toward them as those Israelites who obeyed Moses, picking up their swords and swinging without mercy at their close, intimate and idolatrous friends. It is hard to put sin to death. But fixing the story of Exodus thirty-two in my mind–being instructed by it–I know I must take up the sword and kill my sin with no less vigor and alacrity.

But what of chapter thirty-three? Moses did a hard thing by taking up the sword against idolatry–he purged the sin from the midst of the camp. It is not surprising that having gone to war against sin, the very next chapter describes his seeing God’s glory. Chapter thirty-three is as instructive is chapter thirty-two. Whereas chapter thirty-two instructs as to the mortification of sin, chapter thirty-three instructs as to the ultimate objective of sin killing–seeing and beholding the light of the glory of the only God.

What did Moses want most?

“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight.”

and

“I pray You, show me Your glory!”

And God said yes. He showed Moses His glory. He passed by before his very eyes.

There is no greater thing than beholding the goodness and glory of God. This is the final result and purpose for my calling as a Christian–Jesus saved me in order to bring me to God (“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…” – 1 Peter 3:18), to see Him and His Father’s glory in His eternal kingdom. This is to be my longing and my heart’s desire all my days.

Old Testament physical realities often have corresponding New Testament spiritual realities. What was visible in the old covenant is often invisible in the new. Thus a physical blade is replaced by divine weapons against thoughts and pretensions. Thus Moses’ actual visible experience of God’s glory is replaced with a spiritual apprehension of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And while I do not expect to see His glory with my eyes, while I remain alive, I do expect and desire to apprehend Christ’s glory in my heart by the Spirit. Moses’ words are instructive for killing sin and instructive for seeing God’s glory. And while I do not use metal in my mortifying, yet I do mortify. Neither do I see with my eyes, yet I seek out and long to apprehend spiritually the glory of Christ.

Dear Lord. I pray, show me Your glory. Jesus, keep me longing, waiting, and seeking. Let me not become satisfied with small things when awesome things are promised. Set the eyes of my heart on things above where you are, in your glory. You are my heart’’ desire–intensify this desire for you. I need you more and more. Amen.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”

Zephaniah 3:14-15, 17

At, first, when I read verses like these in Zephaniah, verses that extol me to shout with joy, or to rejoice and exalt with all my heart, at first my heart rises with the possibility of such an astounding and consuming joy in God. Quickly following this spark, however, sadness often comes because my heart, in fact, is not like this. Such exuberance of joy and gladness displayed in such active expressions as shouting for joy are not typical of my emotional currents. Yet the occasion that calls for such joyful, glad celebration has been more completely delivered to me than it had been for those to whom these verses were originally written. They originally promised a physical deliverance from armies of oppressors. I have been given a greater deliverance; I have been delivered from sin. All God’s judgments have been thoroughly taken away from me. He has utterly defeated my enemies. Why shouldn’t my heart rejoice and shout joyfully since I have received, in full, these promises?

In truth, my heart may rejoice, and does rejoice by the grace of God, yet there are preventers that can keep my heart from the joy to which it has been called, or that mitigate and stifle the fullness of its joy. What are these evil, stubborn preventers; these robbers and mufflers of joy? In a word they are my sin, residing yet in my flesh, which daily and constantly battles against my faith to the end that I will fail to lay hold of the glorious victory God has already won through Christ’s overcoming on the cross. By the spirit I may have the spiritual eyes to see and the spiritual ears to hear the victory song of my risen Lord. But if the flesh wins its skirmishes my faith will be weakened so that the heavenly singing fades and my joy diminishes.

Oh to gain the victory, by the Spirit, over the flesh and kill my sin. Putting to death the flesh is necessary if my faith is to be strong. And when my faith is strong and I can hear more clearly the sounds of joy and my heart resonates with its chords.

The fight of faith includes daily battles, and while it has not been ordained for me to decisively win every battle, it has been ordained for me to fight a winning war, to gain ground, to push back the enemy, to grow in strength, and, praise God, to ultimately win. Therefore I will fight and engage in battle and wrestle against sin, and never give up.

Here is just one tactical maneuver I can use in my fighting. Look at verse 17 “He will exalt over you with joy, He will be quiet in his love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” At moments when my heart might not be shouting for joy I need to remember that God, though I may not hear it, is singing over me with joy and rejoicing over me with shouts of joy. While my heart might grow faint, God’s never does. While my joy might ebb and flow His never does. Let the bigness, the sovereignty, the transcendence of God always assure me that He is in control, but remember that for as infinite as God is, He is also personal, present, and emotionally engaged, more deeply than I will ever know. His call to me to rejoice with shouts of joy is not a call to originate something out from myself. It is a call to respond to His shouts of joy. To command my rejoicing is not to frustrate me by requiring something that I cannot generate – it is a command that awakens faith to see and hear the exaltation of God’s joy and to be caught up in His victory song.

Therefore my soul, when you are fighting against the deadening attacks of the flesh, fight back with faith that believes that God’s music yet plays – His songs are being sung, He is shouting with joy. Let your heart arise and think about the music of heaven – make your shouts of joy an echoing of God’s shouts of joy. Meditate and contemplates on what it will sound like when the war is over and the final battle has been won, and your faith will turn to sight and the songs of heaven will ring forth, and your ears will hear them perfectly. Listen soul; listen to the joy of the Lord.

John own writes this sentence in the context of waiting on God to restore peace to us, after we’ve repented of a particular sin. His advice is that we do not jump too quickly from confession to restoration. Yes it is blessedly true that we have been fully forgiven even from the time of Christ’s death on the cross. Yet God is the one with whom we are seeking peace, when we turn from our hostile activity of sinning, and so is God who must bestow it. Forgiveness and restoration are ours by possession; they have, in fact, been given to us in their entirety through Christ’s death, once for all. Yet its application, such that we are fully healed and relationally restored to God happens incrementally. God is faithful and dependable. We need not fear his rejection, but we must wait for Him to touch us, and move by his Holy Spirit, thus bring us deep and experiential peace. We must use all the means God has ordained – repentance, confession, restitution, and repudiation, among others, yet God is the one who will decide when it is best for us to obtain what we seek by them, in this case, peace with God.

I think this principle is the same with regard to all of the means of grace God has ordained. Whether it be prayer, the Word, spiritual gifts, or simply general health. We must use the proper means of attaining these things, but the results are never mechanical or automatic, yet it is assured. God will bestow the blessings of grace upon us at the time, and in the manner that He, by his perfect wisdom, knows will be best for us. Normally, God is quick, sometimes instantaneous in bestowing blessings when we use means of obtaining blessing. He is so consistent and dependable in this, that it is no wonder that we sometimes begin to think of means, and bestowing, as automatically connected. Yet the bestowing of Grace always remains God’s prerogative, and sometimes, if only to remind us of this, he will withhold, or delay his blessing, even as we avail ourselves of proper means. He does this lovingly, carefully, and wisely, as a gentle shepherd and doctor to our souls. He does this for our good, our benefit, and our greater blessing. He does this for his own glory, and for his glory to be known by us most fully, which is, of course, our greatest good.

Consequently, I must be active in using and availing myself of every established and ordained means of grace by which I may lay hold of that which I need (and I need God). I must rise early. I must open my eyes to the Word. I must ask God for help. I must pray and praise and worship. I must seek diligently, desperately and vigorously. I must confess my sin in my weakness. I must look to Jesus. Because of God’s promises he will bless these means, but it is his prerogative as to how and when. It is for me to use the means; it is for God to bless them.

Thank you, Lord, for your complete and total faithfulness. Thank you for giving me life and breath and strength that I might use the means you’ve ordained. Please help me to continue to use them. Grant me steadfastness and perseverance and endurance in using all available means. Make me patient and humble, and happy to trust you for the blessing I desire and the grace I need. In Jesus’ name. Amen.