Hello everyone!
This week I was reading a fascinating sermon by the great Phillip Brooks, the greatest American preacher of the 19th Century. He wrote the well-known Christmas Carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. The sermon was called “The Secret of the Lord”. In it he writes, “Every living thing which is really worth the knowing has a secret in it which can be known only to a few. The forms and methods of things lie open to whoever chooses to study them, but the essential lives of things are hidden away where some special sympathy must find them.”
Brooks then explores the secret of God. It is a fascinating read. Some of his insights sent me back to the scriptures exploring and triggered off new revelations for me, too. Here are some of them.
The secret of God is not kept secret by God’s arbitrary design. His secret is not kept secret by some strange trickery of His playing hard to get. He doesn’t tantalise or mock us, or play games with us … love doesn’t do that. God shows us – always – as much of himself as He can. Brooks wrote, “The coming of Jesus – the incarnation – was the opening of the door into the very secret of God.” And that this is the deep abiding intention of His heart and nature. When Jesus said to the disciples, soon to become apostles as Jesus’ earthly ministry was coming to a close, he revealed something incredibly important …
John 10:7-10 (MRO) "Very truly I tell you, I am the door for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Did you see it? I changed the NIV translation a little. Instead of using the word “gate”, I translated θυρα (thoo-ra) as “door” which is the better translation, anyway, given the overall context of what Jesus was saying. Translators using the word “gate” draw the reader’s mind to a scene where sheep are safely penned up at night and can go about their lives by day coming and going. But John used θυρα for another reason entirely. An important reason. Jesus told them “I am the door”, or portal (which is still a better translation here than gate). A door. A portal. In the whole context of this passage in John’s Gospel this is an important revelation. The significance is this: whoever really knows Christ … knows the secret of God, that we may be holy even as He is … He is the access portal, the door.
1 Peter 1:16 (NIV) for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Why? To be a nice person? No. To be religious? No. To please God? Yes. How? Holiness is a means to one end, ultimately. That we may fellowship with God the Father. God has not kept this secret from us. Jesus is the door opening into the very secret of God the Father. To know Christ is to have the secret, the knowledge of the Father, given to you. In Christ, the Father gives the secret of Himself to His children … this sweet communion fellowship, this close loving friendship which invites us into the deep purposes and ways of God.
Some born-agains know this secret, having learned Christ and, thus, have been transported deep into it … it is sheer delight, a sublime thing.
Others wish for it, and go through their whole born-again life never finding it …
FINAL WORD
And so, Jesus is the door. Through Him we enter into the secret of God. There is no favouritism. God is no respecter of persons. All may go in through the door, but many do not; and some, who continue to pursue sin think God is playing hard to get. This is a most serious error. Remember that God always shows us as much of Himself as He can. The door to the Father is opened in Christ.
Christ is also the Lamb that deals with our sin on the Cross and by which we are redeemed and made righteous, in order that we might become holy. Righteousness is not enough … without holiness says the writer to the Hebrews (12:4), “no one will see God”. So, let’s get this straight. Righteousness is about our position in God – that will never change. Righteousness is the basis on which the work of sanctification can proceed unto holiness. We are now sons and daughters of the Most High. We are made righteous by the blood of the Lamb, our position is restored.
Holiness? That is a whole other thing and is about our condition in God.
"Be holy, because I am holy."
That’s how it has worked from the beginning. The righteousness of Christ with which we are now clothed gets us through the door. But holiness takes us deep into fellowship with God.
If we take holiness seriously … really, really seriously in the fear of the Lord, and we ditch our sin and turn from our soulishness; if we are prepared to consecrate ourselves and yield to the ministry of Holy Spirit who waits to sanctify us; if we are prepared to be washed by the Word and made holy (Ephesians 5)… then God will not delay one millisecond to give Himself to us just as swiftly and as richly as is possible.
Any impossibility we imagine in all of this … lies with us. Never with God. The possibility also lies with each one of us, if we will walk in the fear of the Lord. This quality in our spirituality – the fear of the Lord – that makes us so horrified to offend Him, is what He uses to make Himself known in the deep places.
Psalms 42:7 “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.”
The essential lives of things are hidden away where some special sympathy must find them. That special sympathy for the born-again person is the fear of the Lord beyond the door.
You are truly, deeply loved.
Ps Milton