"That also is a mystery..."

"So there was a division among the people because of Him." John 7:43

John 7:2 through 10:21 chronicles the events surrounding Jesus' visit to the temple at Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. Many notable events occur, containing several reoccurring themes. John 7:43, however, captures one of the most interesting themes, a theme whose implications are highly important.
It is an error to claim that Jesus was an enigma to only one group of people. The truth of the Gospels (esp. John) is that Jesus was an enigma to everyone. Of course, the Pharisees did not get Him, but neither did His family, or His disciples, or the Jews, or the Gentiles, or the woman caught in adultery, or the man born blind. From the highest rungs of political and religious power, to the lowest dregs of societal outcasts, the theme was the same: Jesus astounded and confounded; and all the while (esp. John 7:2-10:21), Jesus continued to hammer another theme essential to the former: (1) I am of God; (2) anyone who is of God gets me; (3) if you don't get me, then you are not of God. Even that bit of logic escaped them (John 8).
Perhaps these two intrinsically linked themes (Jesus' enigma caused by being from God) is what Paul was trying to express by the whole "conform/transform" dichotomy (Rom. 12:2). Jesus seemed to express the same thing in John 15:19: "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world (because I have chosen you out of the world), therefore the world hateth you." The author of Hebrews shares the same sentiment with their image of "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13-14), and John adds his own voice when he said, "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not" (I John 4:6a). There seems to be an assumption in Scripture that those who are "of God" through Christ are necessarily a strange bird to everyone else. Some Rubicon has been crossed. Our relation to the world and its people has changed, and it will not and cannot be the same ever again; for we are no longer of this world (John 17:16).
Hence comes the frustrating tension of the "in the world but not of it" scenario, and the battles lines over this issue are drawn deep. Factions vary, but most can be safely grouped into two camps. One camp (we shall call them "Relevantists") claims (quite truthfully) that people are weary of an impersonal and sloganeering Christianity, detached from their lives and concerns; the truths of God must matter to them (who they are and where they are) before they will accept them. This particular camp condemns their opponents of being too aloof and "hands-off". Their favorite words of commendation are "real," "relevant," and "authentic"; their favorite words of condemnation are "Pharisaical," "fake," and "disingenuous". Meanwhile, the other camp (we shall call them "Sanctificationists") claims (again, quite truthfully) that we are clearly called to "be holy" as God "is holy," and to be bound up in the trappings and garb of the world will corrupt us and subsequently ruin our evangelism; the world needs and seeks holiness, and if we do not emit holiness then we have nothing to offer them. This particular camp condemns their opponents of being too down-and-dirty and "hands-on". Their favorite words of commendation are "godliness," "holiness," and "holy"; their favorite words of condemnation are "worldly," "fleshly," and "carnal".
Both sides equally claim that their way is the "Christ-like" way and that the other's way will (and is) sabotage and destroy the Christian mission. The rest of us are caught in the middle of these two trends, pulled by each side's truths and repelled by their errors. We do feel the necessity of relevance and honesty, yet feel that our Relevantist brothers and sisters are a bit too comfortable with the world. Likewise, we do feel the necessity of holiness and separation, yet feel that our Sanctificationist brothers and sisters are a bit too disconnected with the world. Thus, the frustrating tension continues without a resolution.
Oh, and guess what? Jesus does not help us on this point. He is still confounding, especially since both Relevantists and Sanctificationists quote Him to prove (and quite clearly prove) their respective cases! Jesus ate with sinners; He also met with Nicodemus. He argued against the unbelief of the Pharisees and the common folk, and thus committed Himself to no one. He told the woman at the well, a Samaritan and enemy, strange thoughts and astounding knowledge; and she believed, and He welcomed her. Yet this same Jesus told a rich young ruler, a man eager and ready to follow Him, strange thoughts and astounding knowledge; but the man went away, and Jesus did not go after Him. His enemies were divided over Him, but so where His own disciples. The self-righteous could not understand Him, but neither did the broken and downcast. Neither Relevantists and Sanctificationists nor any other group can claim Jesus as solely theirs. It is as if He belongs to no one but Himself. He is untouchable, as if the understood arrangement is "He does not belong to you; you belong to Him."
It seems to me (an admittedly unlearned man of faith and the Faith) that all of the movements and groups that try to make Jesus their "example" (a better word would be "mascot") are merely committing the unintentionally yet rather serious error of trying to completely rationalize and categorize what is inherently mysterious. The life of a Christian is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ is the life of God; and the life of God--that triune dance, that sovereign power so great that it can allow for free agents and yet cause no injury to its omnipotence, that love and wrath burning and boiling to their uttermost side by side, that immutable yet jealous zeal, the life of God--is inherently mysterious. It is with that life that we are made one in Christ (John 17:20-23). Why, then, do we act like we should make sense?
Madeleine L'Engle quoted some Cardinal (I forget his name) as saying that we are to live in such a way that our lives would make no sense if there was no God. I think that about perfectly sums it up. Jesus frustrated the logic and sensibilities of everyone, and the end result was either (1) they collapsed with their logic, or (2) their logic collapsed and they could finally see the truth (Matt. 21:42-44). Are we not called to be made into the same image? We are the living mysteries: we touch and yet are untouchable; so very real and yet so unreal. We frustrate and confound, yet none can turn away. Something within us burns with a fervent heat and living light, something that equally appalls and attracts. That something is not our charm and honesty, our righteousness and godliness; it is the life of the living God, surging through us like electricity through a conduit. At least, that is how it should be. For now, most of us (if not all of us) are tangled up in our own misconceptions and subsequent inconsistencies and inadequacies, faithfully missing the point and the mark. Yet God's grace fills up the crack of our imperfects, and makes (and is making) us what we ought to be. That also is a mystery, a great and beautiful one; let us leave it at that.

-Jon Vowell

Our Dwelling Place

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. [...] Because thou hast made the Lord...thy dwelling place, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Ps. 91:1, 9-10

These thoughts are not fanciful idealism; they are solid, practical truths of life. It is true that your physical dwelling, possessions, and relationships may be touched by evil and plague; your own body may be as well. Such is the way of the world. However, when God is your true dwelling place, nothing can ultimately touch, for God, His character and His promises, are sure and secure. The soul that is "hide with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3) may be beset by many troubles, but they will never be shaken. This is not prosperity gospel; Job 13:15 and Romans 8:37 encapsulate these truths more than the tenets of prosperity dogma. The one who has made God their dwelling place has become fundamentally unconquerable, and evil and plague can never truly touch them again, though the body they may kill.
"Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him.... I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him..." (vs. 14-15). Deliverance necessarily implies that one is in the midst of something, and it is a hard truth that much of human life means being "in the midst" of things. Nevertheless, the one who has made God their dwelling, their love, their one and only desire, will find deliverance, whether it by a miracle in the moment or death that gives way to victory. Like the Lord, the Christian is to put no stock in the people and things of this world, for we know that they are fallen and fragile, and will fail (John 2:23-25). Instead, our hope is in the eternal God who is and neither falls nor fails, and whoever dwells in Him shall never be moved (Ps. 15).

-Jon Vowell

The Fundamentality of Grace

"Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, and all nations shall serve Him; for He shall deliver the needy when he crieth. The poor also, and he that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight." Ps. 72:11-14

That which will cause every knee to bow in the end will be the understanding and acknowledgment of God's goodness and grace. Christ's humiliation was and is the grounds for His exaltation (Phil. 2:8-9), and that humiliation was to become a man and die on the Cross. We do not draw men unto God by lifting up clever arguments and sound speeches. Those things are useful, but they are not the needful thing (I. Cor. 2:1-5). The needful thing is the elevation of Christ as the demonstration of God's love towards us (John 12:32 & Rom. 5:8).
Any old god can garner worship out of fear and terror, and our God is a God of wrath and judgment. It is grace, however, that serves as the grounds for worship, His goodness as the foundation of praise. Of course, His grace and goodness is complex; from our limited and fallen perspective, His love towards us can often look like hate. We will see the goodness of it all in the end, however; we will see the hidden workings of grace, and we will know that in all things the Divine was and is not indifferent towards us and has directly involved Himself in our salvation; and with all the nations of men left on the earth, we will cry, "Holy, holy, holy."

-Jon Vowell

Grace in the Context of the Trinity

"Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God...[Let] the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord our God, and He will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:5-9

The mystery of grace sneaks up on us now and again. That the Holy Almighty pardons guilty sinners is a truth that is oft given mouth service in our minds, but if we ever seriously considered its implications we would fall on our faces as one dead. The glory of God's trinitarian nature of Holiness and Love is that He has made it to where He can separate the sinner from Sin and bind the former to Himself in whole communion and cast the latter into outer darkness. The mystery of grace is that it is the fullest expression of God's holiness and love. It is a matter of grace that not only are we saved, but also that Sin is destroyed, never to plague us again. That God's immutable character did not produce our utter destruction (either by annihilation or leaving us to our own vices and devices), but rather our utter salvation through the redemption wrought by God in Christ, such a fact should boggle our minds into thunderous worship, for grace is truly amazing.

"Mysterious grace, mysterious ways

The sweetest song that turns

Unworthy wretches into

Sons and daughters of God..."

-Jon Vowell

The Way of Holiness

"And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, 'The way of holiness.' The unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the [redeemed]: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Isaiah 35:8

There is a reality to the truth of Paul's saying, "We are more than conqueror," that Christians do not live in. To be "more than a conqueror" means to be past the ability of a conqueror to conquer, viz., to be unconquerable. Through God in Christ ("through Him that loved us," Romans 8:37), there is no foe that can beat us, there is no way for us to lose. "If God be for us, who can be against us," carries the weight of this truth. Victory is not something we are striving to obtain; it is forever ours in Christ. At all times, we are victors.
"The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Even without a sharp mind, or with a disposition given to foolish behavior, once you are set upon the way of holiness, there is no going astray. You are forever the redeemed (vs. 9). The true power of the grace of God is that He brings you into the way of holiness and He keeps you there. You can never lose in the spiritual realm, for the condemnation of Sin is gone. That is freedom.
It is true that, though we are free, we should not behave foolishly because we are free, because Sin has no meaning for us anymore (Roman 6:1, 2). However, get the freedom in your mind first: though you be a fool (a poor, broken fool), God's grace guarantees that you can never go astray on the way of holiness.

The Road goes ever on and on,
Dow from the door where it began,
And never shall I leave that Way,
For I am kept by Grace alone...
(adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien)
-Jon Vowell

The Thread of Grace

"Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground?..For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Isaiah 28:24, 26

The plowman is instructed by God on how to till the earth: when and where to plant, how to properly till the ground, and what to use to thresh with what. All this is very interesting because the need to till the earth is a result of the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19a). What we see here is God's grace providing mercy in the pain: when the ground is cursed for our sin, He comes in and shows us how to survive.

It could be said that people today cannot see the ark for the flood. God does not abandon us in the pain and the trial and the judgment; His grace is always there. There is no fall so great that God's grace does not touch it with mercy somehow. Even Hell, in all its terror and darkness, is paradoxically tinged with mercy: God saw fit to quarantine those souls who ultimately reject Him to a place set with limits and boundaries, so that they cannot affect and infect anyone on the outside, nor can their sin totally consume them into oblivion. It is the last mercy His grace can do for a soul that will let Him do no more for them.

"The bread corn is bruised..." (Isaiah 28:28a) When man fell, God promised a "bruising" (Genesis 3:15). The Son of God was promised in the garden, and He was the bread bruised for us. In Christ we find that all that God is and says is proven true, including that He is full of grace and mercy. Christ is the ultimate testament to the thread of grace in our existence, woven throughout the entire tapestry of our lives. We hardly notice it: we seem naturally geared to focus solely on what is wrong and frustrating, and totally ignore the moments of grace around us.

In Diary of a Country Priest, the priest's final words before he dies are, "Grace is everywhere." This is a truth we too often miss. At the Fall, God was there; in the flood, God was there; throughout the lives of the patriarchs, God was there; in Egypt and through the wilderness, God was there; through promised land and exile, God was there; from empire to empire, God was there; through trial and tribulation, God is there; through the joy and the sorrow, God is there. It we would only step back and try to take even one tenth of the energy we waste when we worry and become frustrated to focus on the thread of grace woven through our lives, we would be astonished at such doctrine: Why, God was there all along, though I knew Him not! We could truly say with the Psalmist that neither heaven or hell are proper hiding places from Him, and be convinced with Paul that there is nothing that could separate us from the love of God.

How do we ultimately know that God is gracious? Because: Christ died. Jesus is the first letter and final punctuation point in the testimony of who God is. Christ is concrete proof that God is active and enmeshed in our lives, that His grace reaches to the uttermost; for He, being God, made Himself nothing, and condescended to our depths to reach us (Philippians 2:5-7). Christ is that true yet abstract thread of grace bursting through into concrete reality, so that for all time we will know, there is a God in Israel, and He is intimate in our lives.

The Fall brought the need for a plowman, so God filled the need. It also separated us from God, and He bridged that gulf. There is no escaping His grace; it is an inescapable rhythm behind the noise of the world. Even in Hell, though you never will nor can know its presence, you are still wrapped up in its web. When the gray rain curtain of this world is rolled back, and all is seen in the light of God's presence, we will be astounded at the tapestry He has woven, and we will cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!" Amen.

"From the Heights of Heaven,

To the Depths of Hell;

To the Uttermost,

Your Grace touches All..."

-Jon Vowell