PROMISE & PURSUIT • ABRAHAM’S HOLY DREAM
We had the t-shirts, the motto, and the mural on the wall. My high school youth group in our town’s First United Methodist Church was named after Romans 12:2:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.[1]
We were—and this is a true story—the Transformers.
Part of me wishes I still had the t-shirt, but the lasting impact this had on me is much more fruitful and profound. It may have been a kitschy kind of late 90s youth group marketing strategy, but this was one of the first Bible verses I became familiar with as I developed a life in fellowship and the Word. This one verse alone stands on several theses critical to a life of discipleship and obedience:
My mind needs to be transformed and renewed
This process is available to me through the Scriptures
God designed this for my benefit according to His will
His will is perfect and good, so this is in my best interest
Ultimately this is to salvage me from “this world”
His will is “not of this world”
God has plans for us in His world—whatever that is (on which the Bible expounds)
These concepts are seen elsewhere in Scripture; Paul refers to this epoch in the eternal story as “this present evil age;”[2] Jesus declares in His Gethsemane prayer just before His arrest that His disciples are “not of this world” just as He is “not of this world.”[3] By morning, He would be face-to-face with a small-town Roman prefect supervising Judea, the now infamous Pontius Pilate. Their conversation—Pilate’s audacious, absurd interrogation of the Man he came to recognize as “King of the Jews”[4]—makes this point with profound implications for us, even today:
Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”
Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”[5]
And now, something of a pivot:
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.”[6]
Embedded in this conversation is a predictive observation: “If,” says the King of Glory, “If My Kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight” to prevent His crucifixion. We can fairly infer here that through the three years Jesus spent in itinerant ministry with His discipleship team leading up to this moment, He deliberately did not shape them with some brand of nationalism, either violent or peaceful. This has been misunderstood by many teachers and commentators in the years since to justify their misguided allegorization of promises made to Abraham, as if truth and beauty are singularly spiritual with no impact on physical creation—as if the Gospel of the Kingdom bears neither care nor jurisdiction over our bodies, or our living space. As if creation is not “groaning for the redemption.”[7] For this reason, we have abused the last conversation between these same disciples and Jesus before His Ascension with a wildly arrogant accusation against the apostles:
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”[8]
This conversation took place at the conclusion of forty days wherein the resurrected Jesus taught His disciples specifically “things pertaining to the Kingdom,”[9] but pastors and theologians across Christendom have long surmised, “Those silly Jews just couldn’t get their eyes off the dirt, those foolish Zionist nationalists! Don’t they understand the Kingdom is spiritual now??”
While it is true that nationalism is incongruent with the Gospel of the Kingdom, these men had reason to believe the Kingdom soon-to-be restored to Israel is the same Kingdom Jesus spoke of to Pilate just the month prior— it is this Kingdom that birthed their nation in God’s earliest promises to their father Abraham. This had radical consequence on Abraham’s life, all his decisions, and even created the dust storm that is Middle Eastern geopolitics today, shaped by the hurricane that is the “controversy of Zion.”[10]
It is appropriate to believe in and behave according to what God has spoken through His Word, through His prophets and ultimately through His apostles as recorded through the Scriptures. This is faith, without which it is impossible to please God.[11] Interestingly, we find ourselves in a unique moment in Western civilization: At once, the faith that fueled the apostles’ earnest expectation for a Kingdom restored to Israel is being scorned worldwide as carnal nationalism, while many who decry this testimony are themselves attempting to leverage the Gospel of the Kingdom for political power and influence in non-covenantal nations—as if God mandated all Christians everywhere to fight for a kingdom that is of this world. As if Jesus did not say what He did to Pontius Pilate. As if He did not allow the Romans to spit on Him, to lash Him, to beat Him bloody, or to hammer rusty nails through His body to hang Him in the air on splintered wood until He asphyxiated.
But He did, and He did so “for the joy set before Him.”[12]
That joy is synonymous with Abraham’s dream, the provisions promised to him that he pursued in faith all his days—breathing his last before being buried in Hebron never having seen his promises come to pass.[13] The three provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant[14] include seed: making mankind eligible for redemption, land: that creation can be restored, and blessing to all nations ensuring all sons and daughters of Adam have access to the first resurrection[15] and can live in the renewed heaven and earth.
This is the Kingdom for which Jesus shed His blood; these are the provisions He secured the day Pilate sentenced Him to a criminal’s execution.[16] Abraham staked his entire life—and that of his covenantal son—on the dream given to him through promises: the city whose builder and maker is God.[17] John the Beloved saw this city in his own dream, the “wife of the Lamb,” the new Jerusalem which will descend “out of heaven from God.”[18] He is her builder; He is her Husband.[19] Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth: the City of the Great King.[20] Her gates will never be shut, yet no immorality will ever be permitted to enter her jurisdiction.[21] It is from this city the law of the LORD will go forth, the knowledge of the LORD will “cover the earth as waters cover the seas,” and from this city the healing of the nations reach even the very ends of the earth, teaching mankind to unlearn his ways of war and Cain.[22] This is Abraham’s city—and it is Jesus’ city. This is what the apostles asked Him if He would ignite two thousand years ago.
But God’s blessing is meant to be global, and so the apostles were commissioned to “go ye therefore” and bear faithful witness to what they had seen and heard, in word and deed.”[23] This is still our mandate now, preeminent above nationalistic zeal and tribalistic polity. It is possible and worthwhile to engage in civil politics, but it is wicked and unhelpful to bastardize the Bible to justify your own personal power grabs. William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle transformed Great Britain through innumerable initiatives, ranging from establishing the SPCA, Sunday schools, and ending both the British slave trade and slavery. But none of them were so foolish as to suggest that Christianity should be forced upon British citizens through political, police, or military might. You cannot legislate the salvation of a soul. Wilberforce’s group effectively “planted gardens in Babylon”[24] and bore witness of the better Kingdom coming.
Our commission is to better nations, not to make them. We are commissioned to make disciples,[25] which is a supremely relational effort. It requires time and tables, the exchange of life and the sharing of the Gospel.[26] We are not to fight, but to serve.[27] Disciples do not conquer; we carry crosses.[28] Bondservants do not brow-beat; we wash feet.[29] This is the transformative renewal in our cognition, a precursor to the renewal of the world and our bodies,[30] to be so “liberated” from this world that we serve it, cheerfully and joyfully, faithfully bearing witness with burning hearts.[31] We cannot be “not of this world” if we spend all our emotional energy and influence fighting to preserve it. His Kingdom is not of this world. It is coming, and when it does, our labors will be tested for the degree to which they represented it.[32]
A few pages before Paul wrote the verse that branded a youth group in the 90s, he wrote these words:
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.[33]
Following the footsteps of the great father of the faith in the resurrection and restoration of all things necessitates we find the narrow road that leads to life.[34] Pursuing these promises, Abraham’s holy dream, is not without its grief. Crosses are not without their splinters. But this process will forge meekness and humility in us, conforming us into the Image of Jesus,[35] and for it we will inherit the earth.[36] Is this not the most worthwhile endeavor?
May we abandon every dead weight, every hindrance that slows us down.[37] May we repent of prioritizing political power and influence, and reject the conflation of party affiliation with cross-wrought devotion to the One slaughtered at the Place of the Skull: the King of the Jews.[38]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Am I driven by or disconnected from the “joy set before” us? (Hebrews 12:2)
What are the consequences of conflating the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) of Jesus’ Kingdom with our own earthly kingdoms now?
How can I bear better witness as an “ambassador” of this coming Kingdom in this “present evil age”? (2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 6:20; Galatians 1:4)
[1] Romans 12:2
[2] Galatians 1:4
[3] John 17:16
[4] Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19
[5] John 18:33-35, NKJV
[6] John 18:36-38, NKJV
[7] Romans 8:19-22
[8] Acts 1:4-11
[9] Acts 1:1-3
[10] Isaiah 34:8
[11] Hebrews 11:6
[12] Hebrews 12:2
[13] Genesis 25:8-10
[14] Hebrews 11:8-16
[15] Genesis 12:1-3
[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18; Revelation 20:5-6
[17] Hebrews 13:20
[18] Revelation 21:9
[19] Isaiah 54:5, 11-17
[20] Psalm 48:2; Matthew 5:35
[21] Revelation 21:25-27
[22] Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-3; Habakkuk 2:14
[23] Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:19; John 1:14; Acts 1:6-8; Romans 15:18
[24] Jeremiah 29:5, 28
[25] Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20; Acts 1:6-8; Romans 15:18
[26] Mark 2:14-15; Luke 19:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:8
[27] Matthew 20:24-26; Mark 10:41-43
[28] Luke 9:23-26, 62
[29] John 13:1-17
[30] Matthew 19:28; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55
[31] Luke 24:32; James 1:2-4, 26-27
[32] 1 Corinthians 3:9-15
[33] Romans 8:22-25, NKJV
[34] Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24; Hebrews 11:17-19
[35] Romans 8:29; 12:2; Philippians 3:10, 21
[36] Matthew 5:5
[37] Hebrews 12:1-2
[38] Matthew 27:33, 37; Mark 15:22, 26; Luke 23:38; John 19:17, 19
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is the founder and creative director of The Emmaus Table. She lives in the Golan Heights and hosts the TABLE TALKS podcast. Browse her free music, films, and books in THE EMMAUS TABLE App and at stephaniequick.org.