In context here, what does it mean to be a witness? Isaiah is speaking to those who have seen and
tasted that the Lord is good. The
witnesses are those who have seen these things, either by the testimony of
scripture which is the testimony of their fathers who came out of Egypt and
into the Promised Land, or for what they have literally seen for themselves in
the goodness of the Lord. The Passover
is the celebration of what has occurred but it is more than that. It is either the present enjoyment of the
fruits of the exodus or the prayerful anticipation of the return to the
Land. It is also the future expectation
of the fulfillment of the permanent establishment of the kingdom of God on
earth. Those who are witnesses are those
who believe in the truths of the Biblical story. They are the ones who believe in the God the
Bible reveals, the one who can do anything and will do all He promises. They are the ones who stand in awe of what He
has done, is doing, and will do.
Is it sufficiently clear in this passage that Jesus is speaking
propositionally? “If it were not so,
would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?...I am the way, and
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is a metaphor in that first question of
course. What does it mean to “prepare a place for you.” Preparing a place for
another is something a Jewish bridegroom did for his beloved; he added a room
onto his parents home where the newlyweds would move and the wedding didn’t
happen until that was ready. Jesus has
prepared that place in the Father’s house yet the time has not yet come for
those who will dwell there to be complete.
The disciples have entered that place of rest as they await the fullness
of time. Jesus is very clear and we need
to be as well about the truth, that He is the only way. If we make some other assertion we fail to
tell the biblical truth and we run the risk of misleading others to believe to
their own damnation. It isn’t a mistake
I am interested in being responsible for in the end.
What has happened to the “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”
that is the church? Some parts of the
church no longer understand what the Lord has done for us in Jesus and have
gone to proclaiming other ways to God.
Who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light other
than the one who, alone, was raised from the dead, Jesus. If we proclaim other ways, we have clearly
not only underappreciated Jesus, we have rejected His way. He is either the living stone or a stumbling
stone. If the rest of the church has
grown tired of Jesus, let us be those who know, once we were not a people, but
now we are God's people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have
received mercy, and all this only because of what Jesus has done, is doing, and
will do.
No comments:
Post a Comment