We’re so consumed with our lives and what is going on around us that we lose sight of Christ’s centrality. We are strange creatures with a foot in two worlds: one that is passing and dying and one that is coming and vibrant. By recreation and longing we are part of the world to come. Don’t we long for more of it!?
If we long for liberation, and our spirits are groaning for it (Romans 8), what we are longing for is heaven- a goodness that is so good that we can’t even conceive of it.
In Hebrews 2:17, the writer goes on to describe Christ as our “merciful and faithful high priest.” He elaborates on that theme in Hebrews 10:11-13: “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.”
Here is the contrast: These priests stand. They weren’t allowed to sit because their work is never finished. Christ sits down, because His work was completed decisively, once for all, never to be repeated- neither in the Mass nor even in Heaven.
Psalm 110:1 is cited 21 times in the NT: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'” That teaches the sovereignty of Christ. It portrays Christ in the same light in which Isaiah 40 portrays Jehovah: utterly and totally sovereign. But with this very important difference: The sovereignty of Christ arises out of His enemies’ defeat. Symbolically, this describes how the Conqueror puts His foot on the neck of the defeated foe.
(Dr. Wells quoted a series of texts declaring the supremacy of Christ: “[God has seated Christ] at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21, etc.).
So why is this world still beset with so much evil? Why do the wicked prosper? Why is there no balancing of the scales of justice?
Is it that God is not sovereign? Of course not.
Is it that God is not good? Of course not.
One reason: The final chapter has not been written yet.
The doctrine of hell has caused such heartburn to liberals. How could a good God do something like this?
The Christian perspective is entirely different: What is He waiting for? “How long, O LORD, how long?” (Psalm 6:3, etc.).
When God acts in judgment, he is going to put truth forever on the throne, and he is going to put evil on the scaffold. His universe will run the way He planned.
We should not be taken by surprise at this NT doctrine of judgment, because if we look at the cross, we already see a token of it. What we see at the cross is how God is going to act against sin and evil. For those who are in Christ, that judgment has come forward in time. For unbelievers, they will bear that judgment themselves.
Two points in closing:
1. Christian faith is only about this kind of Christ, who is supreme in our redemption as He is supreme over His enemies. About two decades ago, some decided that the preaching of this kind of Christ is a little bit off-putting to postmoderns, so they began to proclaim a toned-down view, without mentioning heaven, hell, judgment, or the supremacy and lordship of Christ. They created a diminished imitation of Christianity, and the results have been disastrous.
We have only one Christ to preach, and He is supreme over all and Lord of all.
2. We are living between the “already” and the “not yet.” We need to keep that perspective. Even though the trials of this present life may seem as if they threaten to consume is, they are not the final word. “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Roman 8:18).
One of our duties as pastors is to remind our people that the evil in this world will be overthrown. This is not all there is. So we must proclaim the answer to the problem of evil. We must preach heaven, hell, and God’s judgment exactly as Scripture presents it. How can we withhold these truths from people?
Wow.
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