Jared Longshore's Blog, page 26

From the Collar Upward

The man’s a genius. From the collar upward he stands alone. 

P. G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves

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The Living Bread

Jesus made a very important distinction between the bread he gave and the bread Israel ate in the wilderness. In both instances, the bread came from heaven. In both instances, the bread was spiritual food. In both instances, the bread was a gift from God to His covenant people. But Jesus drew a distinction when he said, “Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead” (John 6:49). By contrast, Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (John 6:51). Manna was heavenly bread, but it was not living bread.

Christ is the Living Bread. And the wonder of this statement should not be lost on us. Bread simply does not last. Manna would go bad in a day. Your bread can make it a few days before growing moldy. The closest thing we can get to living bread is that sourdough starter, which we say is alive. But it is always in need of being fed and tended. Christ, however, is the Living Bread who doesn’t need to be fed or tended. He has life in Himself; the Father, who also has life in Himself, has granted this to the Son. Christ is the Living Bread who gives life to the world, and the life never runs out. The bread is eaten and yet the bread never diminishes.

All of this means that we have come to the table of the new covenant. We have come to the meal that marks the resurrection era. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. But we have come to the age where the firstborn of our race has risen from the dead and given His flesh to us as food. We will rise again for we partake of the bread who has already risen. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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In the Likeness of His Resurrection

Scripture says that we are baptized into Christ’s death so that as Christ was raised from the dead, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Baptism is not only a sign of what is past. It is also a sign of what is to come. The old man is gone. The new here. The old life gone. The new life before us. That new life is certain. God has promised it, saying, “If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”

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Why Christianity Triumphs

If man wonders why Christianity has triumphed throughout so much of the world, then he needs to look no further than the fact that Christians are ready to die. As Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Here is a principle that every man can grasp. If you face an army in which every soldier is ready to give his life, then you face a formidable force. Christians live in this world for something more than this world. We live in this world for the next world, the resurrected world. And the Christians who live most for that world are the most effective in this one.

Let the resurrection have its full force. You are coming out of the ground, my friends. This is a promise upon which we stand flat-footed. Your casket will crack. Your lungs will heave. Your ears will hear the sound of resurrected American robins. And you will attend the mother of all family reunions with honors and treasures given for how each one lived in this life. This resurrection will happen on an appointed day. Maybe a Tuesday. I’m betting Sunday. And what a day it will be.

This resurrection frees you from the fear of death—and not just physical death when you depart the body. The resurrection frees you from the fear of every death you face between now and then—those “dying-daily” deaths. There is no other way to do good works. Death must be at work in you so that life is at work in others. And how will you face those regular Thursday afternoon deaths? Honestly, how are you going to carry your cross on that long road to Calvary? It is quite simple: The same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you. 

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The Weakness of Thrills

If you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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Sing and Eat

The peace offering of the Old Testament was an offering eaten by the one making the sacrifice. One particular form the peace offering took was a thanksgiving offering. Leviticus 7:13 tells us that this thanksgiving offering was made with leavened bread. There was meat offered, too. For the priest was the one who sprinkled the blood of the peace offering (Leviticus 7:14). So bread and blood marked the peace offering in the Old Testament. And the same holds true for the peace offering before us. 

The blood of Christ testifies to our peace. Many have cried, “Peace! Peace!” when there is no peace. Cain attempted just that. But his brother’s blood cried out from the ground, testifying to his guilt and murder. But we have come to the blood of the new covenant, blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. As the Levitical priests would sprinkle the blood of the peace offering, so has our Great High priest sprinkled us and washed us thoroughly from our sin.

Likewise, the leavened bread testifies. This bread of the peace offering has a bounce to it. This bread has a spring it its step. Why is that? Because this is the bread of peace. You are not only sprinkled clean by the blood. You are also filled with good things. You have not only had your filth removed. You now consume life, peace, and joy. The only response can be a song of praise in your mouth as you eat and drink at this table.

The Lord has always welcomed His people to feast with him on the peace offering. And that is what He calls you to do now. So come giving thanks for peace that was by the Son of God Himself. It is a peace that surpasses all understanding. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Joy on the Way to the Cross

Today’s exhortation is on joy. And you might think it a bit misplaced. We are less than two weeks away from Good Friday. “Doesn’t the joy exhortation go on the other side of the cross?” Well, no. And I’m glad you brought that up.

Too many people assume that joy is simply the result of having obtained a prize. And I do not deny that there is an element of truth in that sentiment. We are to run the race to win the prize and we have not won it until we have crossed the finish line. But, joy is not so much what is bestowed upon you after you have crossed the finish line as it is the fuel which gets you across the finish line. As you have heard, our Savior endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him.

Joy is manifestly available to you now. And that joy is limitless. How much of it would you like? Joy is available to you now. But it requires setting your mind and heart on things above. Joy is not simply the fruit of your dominion. It is the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit is accessed by faith. Look around. You have been liberated from your sin. You will never know the flames of hell. Neither will your children according to the covenant promise of God. Look around, with your heart fixed on God. He has given you all things, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours. Winter is already turning. Just look at the crocus. Winter is already turning. Christ knew that when He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And you have been given the mind of Christ.

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How to Get Rid of Evil

“An evil is eradicated not by the removal of some natural substance which had accrued to the original, or by the removal of any part of it, but by the healing and restoration of the original which had been corrupted and debased.” 

St. Augustine, City of God

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As One Tolerant Member of This Plural Culture

In America pluralism has been resolved less and less by appeal to order that yields unity and more and more by tolerance that diminishes the ultimacy implicit in any cause’s demand for loyalty. Save for nationalism in time of putative military danger, the religious city alone states its claims over modern Americans in ultimate terms of absolute allegiance. But these claims ring hollow; American religion increasingly finds ways to express indoctrine its new-world experience and therefore also its distance from European Christendom. Although lacking explicity testimony to its own relativity as one cause among many, as one tolerant member of this plural culture, religion tacityly concedes by its internally pluralistic form that tit is not the overarching cause which collects all other loyalties.

W. A. Clebsch, From Sacred to Profane America

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The Whole House of Israel

The promise of the new covenant is that the whole house of Israel will know the LORD from the least of them to the greatest (Jeremiah 31:34). As has always been the case, those who belong to the house of Israel give birth to children who themselves are in the house of Israel. The LORD doesn’t send you out of His dwelling place to have your children. And He doesn’t require that you send your children out of His house after they are born. Moreover, He has made the new covenant promise that even the little ones will know Him. This is a promise from God to us guaranteed by Christ’s blood and sealed to us by His Holy Spirit through baptism.

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