Page 14 14 will come. Crisis will come. Suffering will come. Difficulties with your brethren will come. But remember: You can’t have a resurrection without death. And you will never know a triumphant Lord until you are a faced with a crisis. The church lives in resurrection. But there must be death before the Lord’s risen life can be made manifest. Listen to Paul’s words: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (2 Corinthians 4:10-12). When death comes into our lives, we tend to blame others. We don’t like suffering, so we tend to blame those at whose hands it comes. But remember: God is the author of the cross as well as the resurrection which waits on the other side. And He is after transforming us into His image. Suffering is a crucial part of that process. I want to commend both Martha and Mary in their darkest hour. In the face of death, they clung to the Lord. He didn’t meet their expectations or their hopes. To their minds, He let their brother die. Yet they still clung to Him in faith, regardless. A God Who Waits Too Long In Bethany, we discover a God who is willing to wait until it’s too late. In this story, Jesus showed up four days too late. Since I’ve given my life to the journey of restoring God’s house, I have known a God who waited four days too late in my own life. I have known a God who seems to have the disturbing habit of leaving the scene when I most need Him. When things got rough, He would often bail out. In Bethany, He will let His people die a long death. He will not always rescue you when you want Him to. He won’t act according to your timetable every time. He will let you die. And then He’ll wait four days before He does anything. Think about that, would you? Death is hopeless. But four days after death is beyond hopeless. Jesus Christ will wait until you are long dead. But then . . . when you least expect it . . . He will come leaping over the mountains in some strange and unforeseen way to do that which you never dreamed. God will allow us to get into situations that are beyond human aid. Why? So that He might display the glory of His resurrection life. You see, resurrection is God’s act alone. And that is why it always brings glory to Him. So there is crisis in Bethany. There is death in Bethany. There is sorrow and
The law of God had a definite function in the history of redemption. It still has a function, but it is not the same function as it had in Israel’s experience. The law that worked wrath in Israel’s conscience has been fully silenced and does not work, in any sense, either wrath or blessing in the Christian. The law of God can neither curse nor bless a Christian. It cannot curse a Christian because Christ has endured every curse the law threatened, and it cannot bless a Christian because even with a new heart, the child of God cannot earn the blessing that is the reward for perfect obedience. However, just as Christ endured every curse the law threatened, he also earned every blessing the law promised. If you read the law and feel guilt and despair, you do not understand justification, and if you read the law and feel good about your progress in sanctification, you are a deceived, self-righteous hypocrite.
John Reisinger