Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

We have arrived at the final two chapters of Adrian Warnock’s Raised with Christ:

Chapter Eighteen: Our Resurrection Bodies

Chapter Nineteen: The Resurrection of all Things

The certain hope of the resurrection has been much on my mind in the last two days as I prayed with a dying Christian brother.  What an incredible testimony.  His body racked with pain, but a calm and certain confidence of the Lord’s love and the realisation of soon being in His very presence.  That is now the reality for my dear friend.  I have been reminded of the words of the great evangelist of the 19th century, D L Moody.  At his funeral, the words he had spoken a year earlier were remembered. He had said:

“Some day you will read in the papers that D.L Moody is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now.”

And that wonderful biblical truth is explored by our author.  Adrian reminds us of Jesus’ words, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).  But that is far from the end of the story.  For the person trusting in the Lord Jesus, there is hope (certain confidence) beyond the grave.  It is a “hope that we will be physically raised, not merely somehow survive as spirits.”

The so-called intermediate state (between physical death of a believer and the resurrection) is helpfully described by Adrian.  At death we experience a kind of spiritual renewal  - we become fully aware of what is already true of us.  Our spirits are already with Christ (Eph 2:6).  And we will await (absolutely alive) in heaven our eternal destiny of a physical resurrection – the direct consequence of being connected to the One who is the firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20).

We are reminded by our author that at the return of Jesus, the whole world will be judged by Him.  Everyone will appear before Him, in bodies (John 5:28f; Acts 24:15).  ”Every wrong that has been committed that has not been placed on God’s Son will be put right.  No evil will go unpunished.”  Should that fill the heart of a Christian with dread?  No, in Adrian’s words, “if we are sure of our salvation, far from inducing fear and dread, judgment day should produce a joyful expectation.”

The return of the Lord Jesus will lead to the renewal of all things – all of God’s people will be with Him in an absolutely physical new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1-5).

Adrian Warnock has taken us on a journey that has wonderfully demonstrated the truth of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and the cosmic consequences of His death and resurrection.  The certain hope of the resurrection and the unveiling of the age to come is to impact every follower of Jesus NOW:

“Christians have the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead living inside them.  One day that power will complete the work of saving us, but in the meantime the normal Christian life can be one in which we are aware of the change that the resurrection brings.  We are citizens of the age to come, living in a world that is dead to God.  But we are not dead to Him.  We live to Him.  May God help us live in the light of that fact each day.  One day we will all see that, thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus, everything has been changed.  The whole creation will have been renewed, and we will be like Him.”

Here are the links to the earlier posts for Raised with Christ:

Chapter One: Christ Has Died! Christ Is Risen! Christ Will Come Again!

Chapter Two: The Empty Cross, the Empty Tomb

Chapter Three: Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

Chapter Four: Resurrection Neglected?

Chapter Five: The Importance of Resurrection in the Bible

Chapter Six: Glimpses of Resurrection?

Chapter Seven: Resurrection before the Cross

Chapter Eight: What did the resurrection ever do for us?

Chapter Nine: Raised for our Justification

Chapter Ten: Resurrected with Jesus

Chapter Eleven: Transformed by the Resurrection

Chapter Twelve: Send a Resurrection, O Lord!

Chapter Thirteen: Reviving Prayer

Chapter Fourteen: God’s Reviving Word

Chapter Fifteen: A relationship with the Risen Jesus?

Chapter Sixteen: Assured by the Resurrected Christ

Chapter Seventeen: Our Mission from the Risen Jesus

So we come to the end of our posts on God the Peacemaker: How the atonement brings shalom.

Chapter Ten: Conclusion

Graham Cole sums up in these words:

“Atonement brings shalom by defeating  the enemies of peace, overcoming the barriers both to reconciliation and to the restoration of creation.  This is God’s peacemaking mission.”

I like to think of this peace mission with vertical and horizontal components (just like the Moral Commission): vertical – peace with God; horizontal – peace with one another.

Is this project (that required the blood of the Cross) worth it?  Graham answers:

“Yes!  If it glorifies the triune God and results in a creature as close to being God as a creature can logically possibly become…”

Graham, may the Lord be pleased to greatly bless this book.  The more I have thought about the title of this book; the thesis of the book; the practical call to daily be a peacemaker, and the certain hope in a future state of peace that will never be shattered nor broken, the more I have been both challenged and encouraged.

Read this book slowly; chew on its contents; check out Scripture; and allow the Holy Spirit to continue His great work of transforming the followers of Jesus more and more into His likeness.  For the praise of His glory.

For reference, listed below are the posts on God the Peacemaker:

Introduction

1: The righteous God of holy love

2: The glory and garbage of the universe

3: The great need: peace with God, with one another and for the cosmos

4: Foundations and foreshadowings

5: The faithful Son

6A: The death and vindication of the faithful Son

6B: The death and vindication of the faithful Son (cont.)

7: The ‘peace dividend’

8A: Life between the cross and the coming

8B: Life between the cross and the coming (cont.)

9: The grand purpose: glory

Chapter Six: The death and vindication of the faithful Son (cont.)

As we return from a European holiday, it was again striking surveying the artwork of so many churches – a near non-existent expression of the resurrection of Jesus. 

And in our own verbal expression of Christ’s atoning work, we too can sometimes underplay the criticality of the resurrection and its consequences.

But our author of God the Peacemaker, although not providing an extended treatment of the resurrection, points to its significance.  Jesus has been raised from the dead (1Cor 15:20), He is enthroned at the Father’s right hand as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36; Heb 1:3).

Christ’s sacrifice stands vindicated; evil does not have the final word.  Graham Cole concludes Chapter Six with;

“The great news of the gospel is that the faithful Son is vindicated and His sacrifice divinely vindicated.”

I have previously highlighted too fuller treatments of the vindication of the Son – Raised with Christ by Adrian Warnock (chapter 9) and especially The Saving Righteousness of God by Michael Bird (chapter 3).

The Lord Jesus is risen from the dead and the shockwave from this cosmos impacting event will one day be clearly seen as the New Heaven and New Earth is ushered in.  What a Saviour!

In the last post, I briefly reflected on the suffering in this present existence and the certainty of a future in the transformed cosmos, for all who are in relationship with the living God.

The New Heaven and New Earth will be spectacular beyond our greatest imagination, when you consider that even our very fractured world often has a breathtaking beauty.

Years ago I flew the Grand Canyon in a two-engine plane, between the walls of the Canyon.  I had done a lot of flying but this flight was something else.  The pilot would put the plane into a left slide to “get a better view of the Canyon floor” when all of a sudden we would hit severe turbulence and the plane would be in a right slide!

But thanks to Aerial Filmworks we can enjoy God’s magnificent Grand Canyon from the comfort of our chair:

Grand Canyon Aerials

Does the impact of the Fall – its breadth and depth – sometimes hit you in the face?  I’m posting this from a chemotherapy ward, where my wife is undergoing treatment.  People of all ages are here – from teenagers through to seniors.  Suffering is etched on the faces of the sick as well as their loved ones.

But in the midst of this scene, there is much evidence of God’s common grace – the provision of the medical facilities and highly qualified staff; the availability of treatment regimes that, for some, significantly enhance their quality of life; the wonderful support of the caring nurses and doctors.

Tomorrow I’ll take our youngest son to hospital for an operation to allow him to continue to be fed through his stomach ‘peg.’  Early this week I spent two days visiting someone in a special medical unit, that cares for people struggling to cope with the pressures of daily life.  Again, those suffering spanned a broad age range.

Without Christ, is it any wonder that so many folk seek to dull the pain of living in this fallen world?  The tragedy is that so often the ‘escape pursuits’ so often increase the pain of daily living.

Praise God that there is healing in the atonement.   In God’s grace and wisdom, for some they will experience some respite from suffering in this life.  For all who are ‘in Christ’, healing will one day be comprehensive.  The New Heaven and New Earth is a future reality.

For sure, difficult to imagine in our current existence.  But as certain as the Lord Jesus came the first time, He will return and usher in a renewed and transformed cosmos.  Totally free from sin, disease, death.  A physical existence in the very presence of the Lord.  This is a certain hope for every follower of the Lord Jesus.  Praise God for this rock solid certain hope.