#105 Our spiritual scope of vision
From Meditations on the Gospel of Luke, by Samuel Froehlich
> Luke 20:39-44 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast
> well said. And after that they durst not ask him any question at all. And he
> said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's son? And David himself
> saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
> hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore calleth him
> Lord, how is he then his son?
Where did David find these Words of God, the Father, to His Son as the Son of
Man when He said, “Sit thou on my right hand,” (Psalm 110:1) since it is
written, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? …
(I Corinthians 2:16). Paul answers the question this way, “But God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea,
the deep things of God (I Corinthians 2:10). These deep things of God are His
hidden secrets and will, and there is no better organ in our present state than
the spiritual eye that is called faith for perceiving and knowing His hidden
secrets and will. For faith is actually an open eye to see the secrets of God,
and those who cannot believe are blind.
The concept of faith, however, is limited in its view. The believer has a
horizon or a spiritual scope of vision, and we cannot possibly see and know
beyond what God chooses to reveal to us of His secrets. It would be like dizzily
walking at the edge of the abyss to know His secrets. Our knowledge, our
understanding, and our prophesying are still incomplete. We are still as little
children. Of course, we clearly see the scope of what has been revealed to us,
but we know as little about what is beyond that as a person who has never been
out of his room or of his village could imagine about what is beyond his
familiar horizon.
However, our spiritual scope of vision and whether we see more or less also
depends upon our position. On a hill, a person sees farther than in a valley or
in a room. How much we see particularly depends on our faithfulness or
unfaithfulness in making use of our spiritual vision and whether we are diligent
or lazy or whether we are zealous or careless in asking, seeking, and knocking.
Laziness in spiritual things is our chief enemy when it comes to progressing in
understanding (Hebrews 5:11, etc., Matthew 11:25, etc., I Corinthians 13:9,
etc., Philippians 1:9, Luke 24:25, etc.).
The more humble and genuine a person is, the more God will reveal to him. That
is why we do not find the same degree of understanding even among believers, and
this is why David was also deemed worthy to be a prophet of God. (The
explanation in I Samuel 9:9 regarding seers and prophets fits here.) Of
course, the spiritual man has senses to perceive spiritual things other than the
eye of faith. It is also said: “The Lord God hath opened mine ear…” (Isaiah
50:5), “…taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalm 34:8), “And this I
pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all
judgment” (that is, in feeling and experience) (Philippians 1:9). “The Spirit
of the Lord shall ... make him of quick understanding1 in the fear of the
Lord” (Isaiah 11:2 and 3). Now, the Father spoke to the Son (which was
whispered in David’s ear so that it would be preached from the housetops), “Sit
thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool…,” (Matthew
22:44).
1
The word “understanding” in Isaiah 11:3 could also be translated as “to
smell,” and therefore Froehlich includes it here.
We cannot understand this about Christ since He is God’s Son and was in eternal
glory with the Father, and He created the worlds out of nothing by His Word. For
what Christ is in His divinity and oneness with the Father is beyond our present
scope of vision. We have only heard of it and believe it, but we do not
understand it yet. This, however, is what is necessary to understand about
Christ: that He became the Son of Man, that He took our sinful nature on Himself
(flesh and blood), He cleansed our sins through Himself, and thus healed and
glorified human nature again by uniting it with His divine nature. That is why
His exultation to the right hand of God is attributed to His merit and His
obedience. In His human nature as a servant of God, He earned back that eternal
glory that He had previously had with the Father, and which He had left by
becoming a man. He earned that glory back in order to share it with those who
would obey Him (John 17, Philippians 2).
He was not simply made a god as the Socinianists say as though He had not been
anything before becoming a man and as though He had only had His beginning upon
earth as we. An expression applies to Him that applies to no person or angel but
is also attributed to the Holy Spirit (Who is God too). This saying is that He
went out from the Father and came into the world to purify, sanctify, redeem,
and glorify our human nature by His obedience unto death on the cross. The
Spirit of the Only Begotten of the Father lived in the man, Jesus of Nazareth.
As soon as He (as a child) was aware of Himself, He also knew that He had come
from the Father and that He had been with the Father previously.
We have no awareness that we existed before our birth. But by our new birth from
above, we enter into a relationship with the Father similar to what Christ had
with Him upon earth. We know that the Spirit we receive is the Spirit of the Son
that goes out from the Father, and that is how we become conscious of coming
from the Father (Hebrews 2). We receive the divine nature in addition to our
purified human nature (Romans 8). Indeed, as reborn children of God, we must
do our part to earn the glory in Christ’s discipleship as Christ had to, by our
obedience to the will of God in working and suffering. We owe our share in
salvation to Him alone because of His obedience unto death on the cross. But if
we are not faithful, if we do not suffer with Him, if we do not overcome the
world and the devil, if we do not endure with Him to the end, we cannot be
exalted to glory with Him either although He died for us. Indeed, even if we
have been able to make a beginning (Hebrews 3 and 4), we might still miss the
mark and be lost. It is certain from the Scriptures, and it remains steadfast as
an eternal truth of God that those that are to reach that world and the
resurrection from the dead must be found worthy of it. We must merit it, and
this holds true even if all men would say “no” to it. But of course, the old man
does not do this. However, the new man who has been renewed does so (II
Corinthians 5). I am not in error when I assume that those who do not
understand this plain truth (that we must become qualified to share eternal
life), but who instead deny it, are the foolish virgins (Matthew 25) who take
their lamps but who take no oil in their vessels. They do believe in Christ and
think that they will and must be saved as poor sinners by His merit alone.
However, it does not cross their minds that they themselves must also earn their
part in that glory by their obedience. Indeed, they consider that to be a very
wrong, erroneous doctrine. At the end, however, they will come to the wise
virgins and say to them, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out”
(Matthew 25:8). And the wise virgins will answer them, “We have only enough
for ourselves. We do not have any extra for you.” At the end, everyone must bear
his own burden. None of the saints have a super-abundance of things that they
have accomplished with which they could supply the lack of others. What is
written in James 2 applies with full force and with full truth.
> Hebrews 5:11-12 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered,
> seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,
> ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the
> oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong
> meat.
> Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
> Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
> prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed
> good in thy sight.
> I Corinthians 13:9-10 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when
> that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
> Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
> in knowledge and in all judgment;
> Luke 24:25-26 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe
> all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these
> things, and to enter into his glory?
> I Samuel 9:9 (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he
> spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet
> was beforetime called a Seer.)
> John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may
> be one, even as we are one:
> Philippians 2:4-5 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
> the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
> Hebrews 2:10-11 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are
> all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
> salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they
> who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call
> them brethren,
> Romans 8:9-11 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
> the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
> he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;
> but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
> raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the
> dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
> Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
> unbelief, in departing from the living God.
> Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering
> into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
> II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
> old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
> James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
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