1Cor 11:27-29 - The Risk of Defying Gravity
27-29 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
All of the previously enumerated truths and implications - the full richness of the meanings behind the symbols represented in the historical facts - are a declaration by the professing believer of his belief in, and commitment to, all that they stand for. So it is not hard to understand why Paul was so angry and so horrified at the way that the Corinthians were abusing and disrespecting the whole process. It was ignorant, perhaps blasphemous, certainly disrespectful and probably a harbinger of worldliness and apostasy. No wonder he warned of the imminent peril and pointed to the chastisement of God.That is why he uses the word anaxios. "An" means without or lacking, and "axios" refers to "worth" in the sense of weight or importance. Partaking of the Lord’s Supper without bringing and showing appropriate gravity is a fearful thing. When the partaking of bread and wine is done by the church body as an act of worship in remembrance of the sacrifice of the life of the Son of God it is right to remember the seriousness of the matter. I don’t think this is to be done at the expense of the joy, or gratitude - but right along with them.
Paul, therefore, in view of the gravely profane behaviour of the Corinthian church, charges that all who plan on partaking of this remembrance in the assembly of believers as the church, should take time to make sure that they are bringing a right heart and displaying a right public attitude. Yes, it is possible to appear right on the outside, without actually being right with God on the inside - we can be fooled because we cannot see the hearts of others with clarity - but God sees everything and He knows with absolute certainty if we are ready to partake, and if we do it rightly. He is a judge from which there is no appeal apart from Christ, and if we profane the remembrance of the very means of our appeal - if we degrade and cheapen and disrepect it - the severest of correction can be expected, and we may in the end prove to be reprobates.
There is only one thing worse, I think, than the chastisement of God upon a true believer, up to and including cutting them off, and that is when God no longer cares enough to correct, and thus leaves people in a state of irredeemable lostness. This He never does with His true children, for He is able to bring to completion in them that good work which He started. However, it is advisable for us not to sail anywhere even close to the edge and tempt God, lest we discover that our very acts prove our repbrobation.
posted by agonizomai at 12:01 am
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4 Comments:
Tony,
regarding this:
"There is only one thing worse, I think, than the chastisement of God upon a true believer, up to and including cutting them off, and that is when God no longer cares enough to correct, and thus leaves people in a state of irredeemable lostness."
Obviously this is true of those who enter hell. But do you think it happens to anyone before they experience physical death?
I have trouble reconciling the reality of reprobation with the eternality of God's love. Not that I disbelieve in hell or think God is unjust to judge us, but I can't yet see how this is an expression of His love. How it is loving toward those who are saved I do see, but I can't see how it is loving toward those who are lost. Does God cease to love those who are beyond correction? Have they stepped beyond His love and care forever? These are just a few questions I haven't explored as far as I'd like to. God must be glorified in the damnation of sinners, but how?
Derek,
You ask tough questions to which I have inadequate answers. All I have is the Bible and my woefully incomplete understanding of it.
But let's take a look at Esau for a moment. You will be familiar with the story in Genesis in which he was gypped out of his inheritance and birthright by the deception of his mother and brother. Their sin combined with his own led to all sorts of consequences. But we read in Hebrews 12: 15-17:
"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."
Esau could not find repentance though he sought it with tears. Why not? Because it is God who GRANTS the repentance that men display.(2Tim 2:24-25) To seek repentance is not the same as to repent. So God never granted Esau repentance. Esau was not elect of God (Romans 9:10-13). But, lest this is thought of as portraying God as arbitrary, remember that Esau was complicit in his own demise. And let us also see that Esau regretted what he had lost, but was not moved in that regret by a love for God and a horror of his own sin. His regret was not repentance.
But there is more. After 20 years away in Laban's land, Jacob set off for the land of his birth in petrifying fear of Esau's retribution. Cutting to the chase, we read in Genesis a number of things that can be put together. Look, for example at what God had wrought in that grasping trickster mommy's boy Jacob, as evidenced by his prayer in Gen 32: 9-12. Then wonder how God was going to answer that prayer (had, in fact, already answered it). For when Esau arrived on the scene we find a man who, in the face of his brother's desperate bribes said, "I have enough my brother, keep what you have for yourself." (Gen 33:9)
God had blessed Esau (a non-elect person) with increase and prosperity. Some would think of this as God's love. So would I. But I would see it as more the fruit of God's love for JACOB than for Esau because, in blessing Esau, Jacob's life was preserved so that the Messianic line would remain according to the predetermined plan of God.
Are God's graces to the non-elect given so that His plan can unfold through the elect church? Is God's love for the reprobate merely a product or an effect of His love for His people? Good Calvinists vary in their understanding of these things. High Calvinists centre on God's love for His elect and derive all from there; I tend to lean that way. Hyper Calvinists, however, deny that God shows any love to the non-elect - that He in fact despises and hates them. I can't go that far because...
...we must also account for the teaching that God loves His enemies, which clearly must include the reprobate. So the twin concepts of common grace and saving grace come into play. God loves all men, but loves some men in a way that He does not love others. Some He loves with an everlasting love from of old - a saving, sanctifying, glorifying love. The rest He loves in a different way - a lesser way - a way that leaves them to their own devices by which they make their own way in the world and suffer the consequences of God's curse, even while His restraining grace benefits them. And their perdition is not on account of God leaving them, but on account of their moral unwillingness to embrace God.
So some will be like Esau. God will love them in a certain way, He will bless them sometimes because he is gracious, but He will not grant them repentance. While a man lives there is always the hope that he will repent. There is hope that God will move and grant him repentance. But that is a hope for finite mortal men to entertain because we live without sight. God, however, has already determined whom He will save and whom He will pass over. He mercies whom he will and He hardens whom He will. (Romans 9:16)
All this to try to answer whether God gives up on anybody in this life. I say He has already given up men to reprobation but that WE cannot. I say it is a secret decree as to who is and isn't "in". But there is no doubt that God shows His hand sometimes. Esau is an example that gives us a glimpse behind the curtain. Maybe that's all we need. Maybe it's all we can handle. And maybe WE are the means by which God's love, even for the non-elect is to be manifested in God's world.
I'm going to stop here and not deal with how God is glorified in the damnation of sinners. You will probably want to shoot holes in what I've said so far. Be my guest.
Blessings,
Tony
A thought-provoking analysis here. I don't have any holes to poke in your thesis, Biblical as it is. Of course, as you have hinted, there is some mystery here. On the point of God not hating and despising the lost, I agree with you 100 percent. If God hates His enemies, why shouldn't I hate them also? This rips the guts out of "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." All of us have been His enemies, but a few of us become His friends - by grace - because we're won by His unrelenting love for ... His enemies! I'm not familiar with the term "high" Calvinist, but I wonder if I'm a "low" Calvinist??? Definitely not hyper!
Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed account. Just what I was looking for - a bit of perspective from someone whose mind has travelled into this territory. I'm still nipping at the edges, trying to stay balanced and a bit wary of the heresy I might come up with by proceeding too hastily.
Derek,
Thanks for your generous view of my ramblings. I felt like I was swimming through mud when writing them, and making things about the same degree of clarity.
Here's a link to an article by Phil Johnson on Hyper Calvinism in which there is a much clearer explanation than anything I can offer.
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/hypercal.htm
Blessings,
Tony
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