What worries is that
its relatively inanimate power is under siege from the more tangible power of
the ruling party.
It is too early to
tell who will win, but my money is on the “unseen power” of the constitution.
It will outlast the present government because it is protected by the
constitution.
The US constitution
has persisted for over 200 years, with a mere 27 amendments. It has held its
own as the cornerstone of the world’s most prosperous, powerful and egalitarian
nation.
My point here is that
while most vest power and status in tangible or material things, by far the
most powerful forces in our world are neither.
Unseen forces like heat,
electricity, wind, gravity, radiation, pressure, time and human abstractions
like thought, love, faith and principle, shape our world - always have and
always will, just as a document has shaped the destiny of America.
That brings me to
Paul’s “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places”, in Ephesians
1:3.
In Romans 1:20, he
adds that “the invisible things of God are clearly seen and understood in the
things that are made”. He had a shrewd grasp of a subtle scientific idea: that what
really defines life and the world in which we live, is unseen.
That is notably true
of our spiritual foundation. It is the 2/3rds of hidden reserves and intangible
power that sits below the waterline of the church and her saints. The 1/3rd
that is visible is moot: generally useful, but often symbolic and trite.
However, the useful,
glorious, world-transforming aspect is enabled and driven by the part we will
never see. It has kept the church standing through the comings and goings of
history. It held her head high during periods of persecution and in the face of
great storms.
Therein lies the most
potent virtue of our faith, the rock on which we are built.
Ironically, when Jesus
made that point to Peter, in Matthew 16, it was never, ever about Peter being
the head of the church (a naive misinterpretation of scripture). Jesus actually
referred to another relatively unseen and obscure idea.
He asked Peter, “who
do men say I am?” Peter offered conflicting answers. Then He asked, “and what
say you?” “You are the Christ, the Son of the Most High God”. Jesus replied,
“that is the rock on which I will build my church and against which the gates
of hell will not prevail”.
On one hand we have
confirming scripture that Jesus is the bedrock of our faith, and I will not
dispute that. However, Matthew 16 looks beyond Jesus to an intangible, elusive
idea.
He was saying that He
would build a church, a holy nation, a people, a kingdom, a bastion of virtue,
an immovable island in the stream … on a simple revelation.
Doctor Dolittle said
to Eliza when she finally got “the rain in Spain”, “By George she’s got it”. Well
Peter got more. The crux of our faith, the pivot on which she turns and the
kingpin of our faith, is actually a grasp, something you get or miss
altogether.
We would like the
kingdom to vest in something as substantial as a royal throne, a diadem, an
angelic army and the swords of heaven, but Jesus vested the future of His
church in the simple epiphany that has led so many to give up so much for a
surpassing hope.
Paul said, “Whatever
was gain to me (he had superb credentials), I now count but loss for Christ.
Indeed, I count all things loss for the excellency of knowing Christ as Lord.”
The single greatest
advantage of our faith is faith, belief in the revelation that He is Lord. When
I got that 40 years ago it radically altered the course of my life and continues
do so.
Yet, there is more. We
too have a constitution, biblically referred to as a “covenant”, for indeed
that is the right way to view a constitution. It is a social contract, a
brother-to-brother covenant, sealed in the blood of those who fought for it, as
Lincoln implied at Gettysberg.
Only, ours is a
God-to-man covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus.
The precepts of that
covenant include a supreme court of appeal, rights of access through prayer,
promises aplenty and healing through the stripes and wounds of our Redeemer.
Most of all it vests our salvation in an cast-iron guarantee.
The sweetest part is
that is provides a basis for legal adoption and acceptance in God, regardless
of our pasts or our present failings, on the simple proviso that through the
counter-signature of faith we remain inside the refuge afforded by that
covenant (Hebrews 6:18).
It is not contingent
on me but on what He did, yet Jesus stands in God’s presence to afford a
perpetual witness, as a man, to the irreversibility of a covenant secured
between Him and His Father.
What a powerful truth.
Don’t tell me that
love, acceptance, forgiveness, promises, salvation, grace to overcome life,
provisions for life and Godliness, and more, don’t represent a potent
constitutional provision for all who believe in Him.
Out of such principles
will flow material benefits, just as the constitution of my land is changing
the way of life, the opportunities and the sense of inclusion of every soul who
lives within its refuge, just as a qualification on paper defines our future
careers.
Yet what God did for us
will change us in far greater ways, to: transform us from disenfranchised
slaves to sons, translate us from last-born afterthoughts to first-born heirs, give
us a name, a city with foundations, a future, a hope and incredible blessings
in this life.
Never, ever trade what
you can’t see, for the short-term, valueless pottage of this life, for what you
have in Christ will give you that and more, whilst giving your life meaning,
purpose, acceptance, fulfillment, nobility, dignity, and a foundation that will
never be moved.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
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