The debate around what "marks" of our life on earth will persist in glory is confounded at times by what I believe are mistaken comparisons between our scars and Christ's. I have a colleague who says regularly that like Christ, the scars that "glorify God" are the ones we'll bear in eternity. For me this is problematic. What scars of mine will ever measure up to the one who has, as mentioned in Hebrews, been "sawn in two" for her faith? That's a God-glorifying scar. Will she appear in glory knit together with a big line around her middle, or as two halves?
It may be more helpful to remember that Christ's scars are essential to Christ's eternal identity. Our scars (physical and emotional) are simply the evidence, here and now, of that which God may have used to make us more Christlike. Will the evidence of physical and emotional hurt and struggle remain? Or will the Christlikeness God used those things to bear in us be the remnant of that work God did this side of glory? In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul dispels the idea that these bodies are the ones we'll have in glory. He compares them to seeds that are planted in the ground. The seed that is planted contains the stuff of the new thing God will raise to new life. But the new being will be so different as to be almost unrecognizable. And Paul asserts that the new body will be of new "stuff" - a "heavenly" or "spiritual" body, not an earthly one. This passage gives great comfort to those whose loved ones' bodies have been obliterated in or after death. It is, I believe, also a great comfort to those of us who have struggled with the limitations a broken world have placed on our spirits, senses, bodies and wills. Christ's scars are inextricable from his eternal identity. Ours are the reminders, right now, of the stuff God's using to generate the eternal in us: greater and greater Christlikeness. We are all people who long for the resurrection, when we are indeed made new.
I believe that there will be swathes of who we are and who/what we know here and now that will in fact be forgotten by us as we enter glory. Now I arrive at this in response to some of these dilemmas:
-will we remember sin and its effects in glory?
-will we marry/be given in marriage at the resurrection?
-will we be heartbroken in glory at those who are "missing"? (e.g., what if the spouse and kids whom God used to make you more Christlike don't themselves embrace Christ as Lord and Savior)?
I wonder if our frame of reference for what matters and what will last is so rooted in a sin-corrupted world that we can't possibly know what we'll keep as we enter glory. This side of the grave we can't fathom not knowing our spouses and kids and even our own bodies the way we do now. But perhaps even these most precious things are ones God will ask us to exchange for the better thing he has for us in eternity. When Jesus calls disciples he says,
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
I don't think this is a command to hate any of these good things per se. It could however be an acknowledgment that we can't be disciples of Christ unless we're willing to let everything else serves as a means of communion with him rather than an end to itself; and that in the end, he's the only thing we'll be guaranteed to keep.
I appreciate your perspective, and would welcome your thoughts about some of these other questions.
Posted in: Of Elephants and Rabbits: Church Multiplication
Joe,
If you're interested in a church that has structured itself according to a central site/satellites/home church model, check out The Meeting House:
http://themeetinghouse.ca/
Posted in: Will People Have Disabilities in the New Heaven and Earth? Part 2
Mark and Tyl,
The debate around what "marks" of our life on earth will persist in glory is confounded at times by what I believe are mistaken comparisons between our scars and Christ's. I have a colleague who says regularly that like Christ, the scars that "glorify God" are the ones we'll bear in eternity. For me this is problematic. What scars of mine will ever measure up to the one who has, as mentioned in Hebrews, been "sawn in two" for her faith? That's a God-glorifying scar. Will she appear in glory knit together with a big line around her middle, or as two halves?
It may be more helpful to remember that Christ's scars are essential to Christ's eternal identity. Our scars (physical and emotional) are simply the evidence, here and now, of that which God may have used to make us more Christlike. Will the evidence of physical and emotional hurt and struggle remain? Or will the Christlikeness God used those things to bear in us be the remnant of that work God did this side of glory? In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul dispels the idea that these bodies are the ones we'll have in glory. He compares them to seeds that are planted in the ground. The seed that is planted contains the stuff of the new thing God will raise to new life. But the new being will be so different as to be almost unrecognizable. And Paul asserts that the new body will be of new "stuff" - a "heavenly" or "spiritual" body, not an earthly one. This passage gives great comfort to those whose loved ones' bodies have been obliterated in or after death. It is, I believe, also a great comfort to those of us who have struggled with the limitations a broken world have placed on our spirits, senses, bodies and wills. Christ's scars are inextricable from his eternal identity. Ours are the reminders, right now, of the stuff God's using to generate the eternal in us: greater and greater Christlikeness. We are all people who long for the resurrection, when we are indeed made new.
Posted in: Will People Have Disabilities in the New Heaven and Earth? Part 2
Mark,
I believe that there will be swathes of who we are and who/what we know here and now that will in fact be forgotten by us as we enter glory. Now I arrive at this in response to some of these dilemmas:
-will we remember sin and its effects in glory?
-will we marry/be given in marriage at the resurrection?
-will we be heartbroken in glory at those who are "missing"? (e.g., what if the spouse and kids whom God used to make you more Christlike don't themselves embrace Christ as Lord and Savior)?
I wonder if our frame of reference for what matters and what will last is so rooted in a sin-corrupted world that we can't possibly know what we'll keep as we enter glory. This side of the grave we can't fathom not knowing our spouses and kids and even our own bodies the way we do now. But perhaps even these most precious things are ones God will ask us to exchange for the better thing he has for us in eternity. When Jesus calls disciples he says,
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
I don't think this is a command to hate any of these good things per se. It could however be an acknowledgment that we can't be disciples of Christ unless we're willing to let everything else serves as a means of communion with him rather than an end to itself; and that in the end, he's the only thing we'll be guaranteed to keep.
I appreciate your perspective, and would welcome your thoughts about some of these other questions.
Ben