Seeker sensitive churches. Seeker movements. Seeking God. Seeking faith. Frankly, I didn't know that any of those things were hiding. Today, let us dwell for a moment on the idea of seeking. Who seeks and what does the action of seeking imply to your theology; these are the questions that need to be asked of all these seekers. This post is in response to a question that was asked of me some two weeks ago. I have been overlong in answering and this reply may not be read at this point, but here at last is my reply. Let's start in the Pentateuch and work forward.
Notice Deuteronomy 4:29. On first glance, this is looking good. From there, you will seek God and you will find Him, if you search with all your heart and all your soul. OK, let's wait just a second. There are about four problems for seekers in that one sentence. From where? If you read the whole section, this is not looking so good. From where is from exile if you, Israel, break the Law. So, basically, Israel is in the position of having already suffered the curses from disobedience of the Law. "If." Ouch! "If" tends to mean more conditions, more blessings and more curses. Search with all your heart and all your soul. Seekers are feeling better at this point. They have an imperative and they think they can accomplish it. Never mind that the whole section implies failure on this point, Israel is given a second chance, so that means it must be doable. Kant's philosophy is the gift that keeps on giving, poisoning the minds of the current seekers to think that they can do what Israel failed to do. What do we know about our heart? Jeremiah and Isaiah will tell us about our heart later. All our hearts and all our souls sounds a bit like perfection to me, does it sound like perfection to you?
Proverbs gives seeking a review. Proverbs 1 is so good, it really speaks for itself. Seeking is down in verse 28, but read the whole thing. If you still think Solomon thinks you can successfully seek after reading that, go back and try it again. Who are the fools? More importantly, who is wisdom? This is a key passage because the Gospel will refer back to it. Everyone should see themselves in the group called fools. Wisdom is from Jesus, and He will lay claim to that attribute later in redemptive history. Proverbs 8 is more of the same. Wisdom was with God from the beginning. Those who seek will succeed. But look at those last 5 verses. We are looking at blessings and curses. Make no mistake about it. When we are reading the Law, you will fall on one side or the other. Perfection is the standard according to Jesus. Can you be a perfect seeker?
Ecclesiastes 8:17 bursts the seeker bubble pretty thoroughly. Sometimes, you can back up and encompass more of the passage for more context, and all it does it make the situation more vivid. Notice this referenced passage of Proverbs 25. It is clear that God has no intention of sharing everything with His creatures. And so, not only do we have to be perfect seekers to find God, if we can qualify as such, we should expect some disappointment.
In Jeremiah 5:1, the question is asked whether one can be found who seeks the Truth and does justice. The answer as Jeremiah tells us is no. In chapter 29, notice that this has swung to the imperative mood with blessings and curses. This story is about an event that will occur at the time of that writing, has already occurred, and didn't really go the way that Israel would have liked at the end of it all. So, the question remains: who seeks the Truth?
Amos 8 makes for fascinating reading. Verses 9-10 sort of describe a particular weekend, one that we annually remember, it might rhyme with Good Friday. I include it here mostly because the seekers come up short, but this passage is an incredible bit of prophesy fulfilled at Golgotha.
Matthew 7:7-8 This is my fifth or sixth trip back into the sermon on the mount, and the theme of this sermon has to be put back into the discussion to handle this passage in context. Remember that this sermon is all about Law. Each time we discuss this sermon, we have to go back and get the key verses from chapter 5. The passages in chapter 7 are a set of imperatives. Moving down to the end of chapter 7 is the imperative that sums up this section: if you do this, your house will be build on solid rock, but if you don't.... That is the point. Jesus has set up the imperatives. He has described the standard. Jesus has explained the letter of the Law, and it is unattainable. All of the imperatives within this sermon must be put in this context. If you do this, you will live; but who can accomplish it? The answer is that there is only One.
Luke takes these passages of Matthew out of this context, but the theme of the Covenant of Law versus the Covenant of Grace runs throughout the Bible, particularly Jesus' teachings. Therefore, it behooves us to view all Law passages in this light, as Jesus is fairly consistent on this point. But then in chapter 15, Luke turns it around. It is God who does the seeking here. Adding the prior section on the lost sheep to the discussion, this is definitely about God who seeks. Over and over, it is God who seeks his lost sheep.
In John 7 when Jesus tells the officers that they can seek him, but they cannot find him, are we to take this at face value? Where is Jesus now that we can not longer find him? Is this a part of the overarching redemptive theme or just a few words for officers who seek to arrest him? If Jesus is just playing hide and seek with officers, why include it in the Gospel? The point is that Jesus is going someplace where the rulers of this world have no dominion. No one can find Him when He is in that place. He is there right now, from Golgotha until the Second Coming. Seekers will fail. It is God who seeks His sheep.
At last, we come to the defining book on seeking: Romans. Paul is crystal clear on the subject of seeking. I have recently done the Building Blocks post on election, and it bears repeating here. In the classic first half of Romans 3, Paul states that no one seeks God, no one even tries. He is summarizing the Psalter and it convicts like no other passage in the Bible. There are no seekers. Then in Chapter 9, it is God who elects and God who seeks.
This is difficult for Americans in particular to handle. We are, by and large, all Arminians. When we are not Arminians, we have become Pelagians. We always want to have a part to play. We think we can contribute to our own salvation. We are egalitarians by politics and this has made us Unitarians by religion. The problem is that while this may be spiritual, it is not Biblical. The Bible is very clear on this point. We contribute nothing to our own salvation. Romans 3-5 talks about justification by faith alone. Paul is exceedingly clear on this point. We contribute absolutely nothing to this formula. We receive the gift. "...and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." This is from Acts 13:48. Predestination is part of the doctrines of Calvin and Luther, but more importantly here, we have no part to play in our own salvation.
When God seeks you, how do you know that you have been found? You know because you believe. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit that is in all believers. That is what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is the Seeker who was sent by Jesus to collect His sheep.
--Troll--
No comments:
Post a Comment