The cry for justice in current culture is growing louder, even as it becomes more and more apparent that the cultural institutions and the people who comprise them are incapable of producing the goodness and justice that our souls long for. The temptation is to give in to cynicism and even despair under the pressure of failed attempts to produce justice, but that pressure can actually steer our souls toward hope, if we will allow it.
That hope comes from the fact that there is One whose Kingdom is built on righteousness and justice, which are declared to be the foundations of His throne (Psalm 89:14). These two terms – righteousness and justice – are central promises of the Kingdom of God that will be established when Jesus returns to earth as the King of all kings. The promise of Isaiah 42:1-4 is that He will establish justice to the ends of the earth, and that nothing will deter Him in this quest. Our longing for goodness and justice will be satisfied, fully, when He returns.
What do these terms actually mean? Are they merely religious words that have little meaning for us, or can we understand them as the powerful promises they are? In my own study and meditation, I’ve come to the conclusion that righteousness means the perfect alignment and conformity of all things to the design that was in God’s mind when He created everything. To be “righteous” means to live fully in the perfection of God’s design for my life. Therefore, a Kingdom of righteousness (Matthew 6:33) will be the context in which every individual and every institution will live and operate in perfect alignment with the design and will of God. Because of Jesus, we will be everything we were created to be.
Justice, then, is the process of bringing all things, people and institutions, into that perfect alignment. When justice is established, all individuals and entities will relate and operate in perfect coordination and unity. What’s more, for those who live by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, this will not be a coerced reality, externally enforced. Rather, there will be the complete internal transformation into the image of Jesus, where every individual will freely choose to live in perfect alignment with God’s design and purpose. “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).
The impact of these truths is astonishing – we do not have to opt for a cynical, despairing outlook in response to our longing for goodness and justice. Those realities are surely coming to the earth. Goodness, righteousness, and justice will be the way of things. The wrongs will be made right, and evil will be done away. Jesus is surely coming!
And, importantly, we do not have to wait until that blessed day to begin to live like that. We can begin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to seek after righteousness and justice in our own context. We can tune in to the Father’s voice, and receive His perspective on ourselves, on other people, and on situations. We are not forced to choose between objectionable extremes; rather, we can receive understanding from heaven, and wisdom in how to apply that understanding. The Kingdom is here now, through believers, even as we wait for the fullness when Jesus returns.
Let the longing for goodness and justice increase! Let our voices be raised in worship and intercession, calling for the Lord’s return, even as we extend our hands to work for righteousness and justice now.
The Prophet Amos said “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:4). It’s one of our deepest longings, and it will surely come.
Gary Wiens
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
The Transcendent Longing for Goodness and Justice
Perhaps you can picture the scene as it plays out. It can be among the children at the playground, or as we are experiencing as I write this, among the athletes at the Olympic Games. Whatever the level of skill, the participants are engaged in some sort of competitive activity – who’s the fastest, who’s the smartest, who’s … whatever! And suddenly, it’s apparent that some part of the game has gone awry: a rule has been broken, or maybe one competitor is simply so much better than the others, and you hear the exclamation – “That’s not fair!” Something has gone wrong, someone has experienced a development in the exercise that somehow doesn’t seem right, and the key thing is, we know it when we see it or experience it.
In our day and time, the cry “It’s not fair!” is shouted long and loud from so many different situations and voices. The term “microaggressions” (little annoyances about you that offend me) has become a part of our daily vocabulary, athletes and their coaches are accused of cheating to gain a competitive edge, and countless individuals have raised their voices against rampant abuse and misuse of people in a variety of settings. Our political process is mired in real or imagined scandal, and dirty tricks seem to be an element of every day life.
Why are we so up in arms about all of this? It’s because deep down inside, we know that there is a right way, that there should be goodness and justice in human relationships. Healthy and honest competition should be the rule of the day. People in power should not abuse those around them. Children should not be molested, or murdered in their school rooms. We yearn for Utopia, yet an honest look at “reality” strongly draws us toward a pessimistic reaction – “good luck trying to find that!” The cynical religious joke is “if you find a perfect church, don’t go there, because you’ll ruin it.”
In short, we know that something deeply important – goodness, justice – is broken, not only in our culture, but in every culture. Our problem is not that we know it’s broken – it’s that we can’t fix it, no matter how hard we try. Somehow, we humans seem to always return to our own self-serving motivations, and goodness/justice takes a back seat to our personal desire and felt need, regardless of the impact on others. And when an unjust situation is exposed to the light, the immediate reaction in our soul is that somebody, somewhere, has to pay for this! We want justice!
What faces us here is the same dilemma that arises in every one of these “transcendent longings of the soul.” We yearn for truth, for love, for goodness and justice. We know what should be, but we can’t find it or produce it. We long for perfection, we strive for it, we try to legislate for it, and yet the pursuit always, always falls short or breaks down before we can reach the goal.
Will there ever be justice in the earth? Will goodness ever win out, completely? Will evil and brokenness ever be overcome? I believe there is an answer to that question, and we’ll explore it in the next article. Stay tuned!
Gary Wiens
In our day and time, the cry “It’s not fair!” is shouted long and loud from so many different situations and voices. The term “microaggressions” (little annoyances about you that offend me) has become a part of our daily vocabulary, athletes and their coaches are accused of cheating to gain a competitive edge, and countless individuals have raised their voices against rampant abuse and misuse of people in a variety of settings. Our political process is mired in real or imagined scandal, and dirty tricks seem to be an element of every day life.
Why are we so up in arms about all of this? It’s because deep down inside, we know that there is a right way, that there should be goodness and justice in human relationships. Healthy and honest competition should be the rule of the day. People in power should not abuse those around them. Children should not be molested, or murdered in their school rooms. We yearn for Utopia, yet an honest look at “reality” strongly draws us toward a pessimistic reaction – “good luck trying to find that!” The cynical religious joke is “if you find a perfect church, don’t go there, because you’ll ruin it.”
In short, we know that something deeply important – goodness, justice – is broken, not only in our culture, but in every culture. Our problem is not that we know it’s broken – it’s that we can’t fix it, no matter how hard we try. Somehow, we humans seem to always return to our own self-serving motivations, and goodness/justice takes a back seat to our personal desire and felt need, regardless of the impact on others. And when an unjust situation is exposed to the light, the immediate reaction in our soul is that somebody, somewhere, has to pay for this! We want justice!
What faces us here is the same dilemma that arises in every one of these “transcendent longings of the soul.” We yearn for truth, for love, for goodness and justice. We know what should be, but we can’t find it or produce it. We long for perfection, we strive for it, we try to legislate for it, and yet the pursuit always, always falls short or breaks down before we can reach the goal.
Will there ever be justice in the earth? Will goodness ever win out, completely? Will evil and brokenness ever be overcome? I believe there is an answer to that question, and we’ll explore it in the next article. Stay tuned!
Gary Wiens
Saturday, February 10, 2018
The Transcendent Longing for Love - Part 2
In considering these “transcendent longings” of the human soul, I am driven again and again to this concept that comes out of the mind of CS Lewis. It goes something like this:
“The fact that a man is hungry does not mean that he will be fed; however, it certainly means that there is food available somewhere.”
When we find ourselves yearning for perfect love, we are ultimately brought to the feet of Jesus, who lived out this love to the fullest extent. Perhaps, like me, you have wished that you could have lived when He did, and walked with Him as one of the disciples, or even as one of the crowd that followed Him, heard His words, and witnessed His miraculous works. What wondrous experiences those people must have had!
But we live now, 2000 years removed from Jesus’ physical presence, so the best we can hope for is to meditate on the stories and wait faithfully until He returns, so that we might be with Him, in person, forever.
Or is it?
Actually, the Scripture gives us a different picture. It records Jesus’ words to His followers that it is actually better for them that He goes away, because then the Holy Spirit can be sent from the Father. Jesus maintains that the promise of the Holy Spirit is actually better than His physical presence – for now – because by the Spirit, His love will actually be poured out into our hearts and souls, that we might experientially know the love that surpasses comprehension.
Romans 8 speaks of the coming of the Spirit of sonship, that will release to us the same kind of relationship with the Father that Jesus has. Ephesians 3 tells us of the Spirit of the Father being given to us, to strengthen our inner man so that we might receive and know the incomprehensible love of Christ. Romans 5 reminds us that the love of God – that perfect, unshakeable, all-inclusive love – has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
In other words, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we can access transcendent realities. We can know unknowable things. We can touch the reality of Heaven here and now through the cultivation of intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told His disciples that when He went away, He would not leave them comfortless, but would send the Comforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, who would minister to us internally, and feed our souls with the transcendent food of His table – His very life.
My prayer for you, and for my own life as well, is that our passions would be focused on this one thing: getting to know the Holy Spirit intimately. He is the One who will sustain us with real food and real drink until the day that Jesus comes again.
Be blessed.
Gary Wiens
“The fact that a man is hungry does not mean that he will be fed; however, it certainly means that there is food available somewhere.”
When we find ourselves yearning for perfect love, we are ultimately brought to the feet of Jesus, who lived out this love to the fullest extent. Perhaps, like me, you have wished that you could have lived when He did, and walked with Him as one of the disciples, or even as one of the crowd that followed Him, heard His words, and witnessed His miraculous works. What wondrous experiences those people must have had!
But we live now, 2000 years removed from Jesus’ physical presence, so the best we can hope for is to meditate on the stories and wait faithfully until He returns, so that we might be with Him, in person, forever.
Or is it?
Actually, the Scripture gives us a different picture. It records Jesus’ words to His followers that it is actually better for them that He goes away, because then the Holy Spirit can be sent from the Father. Jesus maintains that the promise of the Holy Spirit is actually better than His physical presence – for now – because by the Spirit, His love will actually be poured out into our hearts and souls, that we might experientially know the love that surpasses comprehension.
Romans 8 speaks of the coming of the Spirit of sonship, that will release to us the same kind of relationship with the Father that Jesus has. Ephesians 3 tells us of the Spirit of the Father being given to us, to strengthen our inner man so that we might receive and know the incomprehensible love of Christ. Romans 5 reminds us that the love of God – that perfect, unshakeable, all-inclusive love – has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
In other words, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we can access transcendent realities. We can know unknowable things. We can touch the reality of Heaven here and now through the cultivation of intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told His disciples that when He went away, He would not leave them comfortless, but would send the Comforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, who would minister to us internally, and feed our souls with the transcendent food of His table – His very life.
My prayer for you, and for my own life as well, is that our passions would be focused on this one thing: getting to know the Holy Spirit intimately. He is the One who will sustain us with real food and real drink until the day that Jesus comes again.
Be blessed.
Gary Wiens
Friday, February 2, 2018
The Transcendent God for the Transcendent Longing of the Soul, Part 3 - The Longing for Love
Of all the longings of the human soul, the desire for perfect love is perhaps the most powerful. To be loved – unconditionally, perfectly, without fail or question – is the yearning that simmers deep in the human heart, and drives virtually everything we do, every choice we make. Somehow, deep inside, we KNOW that we should be the object of perfect love, and so we go on the life-long search for “The One” who will love us in the way we ought to be loved.
There is a short passage in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) that gives the characteristics of this love that we innately know is there:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
On top of that, Jesus adds His version of perfect love:
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13
If you’ve spent any time at all in the context of Christian community, you’ve probably heard teaching about these passages. Most of the time that teaching is focused on how we should love like this toward other people. For me, that focus has always been discouraging, because I know myself too well. I’m simply not going to love like that with any kind of consistency, period, end of sentence. And what’s more, I have reasons – good ones! – for falling short of that standard. And most of those reasons have to do with short-comings in the people I’m supposed to love. The reasoning goes like this: “If they were more loving toward me, I would ….”
The dilemma is that we all know that we should be loved perfectly, and we all have reasons why we don’t express love perfectly toward others. So we collide with each other, fully loaded with expectations of being loved perfectly, but knowing that we ourselves can’t meet the challenge. The inevitable result is, again, disappointment, hurt, and eventually disillusionment with the other party. Sooner or later the temptation arises to look elsewhere, because I’ve either gotten involved with the wrong person, or the wrong church, or the wrong job, or whatever.
Here’s the core issue: we’ve set our sights too low. These Scripture passages are talking about God’s kind of love, the perfect love that is His fundamental attribute, and that has been expressed toward us in the Person of Jesus. No one else can love like He does, no one else can meet the ultimate longing for love that boils in my deepest soul. No one else was ever intended to fulfill that yearning.
Perfect love. We know it should be there. We know from experience that no human relationship can meet the standard. We can keep looking to the next relationship or the next situation, or we can fix our gaze on Jesus. There is no other choice.
More on this next time.
Gary Wiens
There is a short passage in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) that gives the characteristics of this love that we innately know is there:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
On top of that, Jesus adds His version of perfect love:
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13
If you’ve spent any time at all in the context of Christian community, you’ve probably heard teaching about these passages. Most of the time that teaching is focused on how we should love like this toward other people. For me, that focus has always been discouraging, because I know myself too well. I’m simply not going to love like that with any kind of consistency, period, end of sentence. And what’s more, I have reasons – good ones! – for falling short of that standard. And most of those reasons have to do with short-comings in the people I’m supposed to love. The reasoning goes like this: “If they were more loving toward me, I would ….”
The dilemma is that we all know that we should be loved perfectly, and we all have reasons why we don’t express love perfectly toward others. So we collide with each other, fully loaded with expectations of being loved perfectly, but knowing that we ourselves can’t meet the challenge. The inevitable result is, again, disappointment, hurt, and eventually disillusionment with the other party. Sooner or later the temptation arises to look elsewhere, because I’ve either gotten involved with the wrong person, or the wrong church, or the wrong job, or whatever.
Here’s the core issue: we’ve set our sights too low. These Scripture passages are talking about God’s kind of love, the perfect love that is His fundamental attribute, and that has been expressed toward us in the Person of Jesus. No one else can love like He does, no one else can meet the ultimate longing for love that boils in my deepest soul. No one else was ever intended to fulfill that yearning.
Perfect love. We know it should be there. We know from experience that no human relationship can meet the standard. We can keep looking to the next relationship or the next situation, or we can fix our gaze on Jesus. There is no other choice.
More on this next time.
Gary Wiens
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