Jars of Clay

Reformed theology provides categories that enable us to handle tough passages in the Bible with a great deal more ease.  One of the more important groups of categories is based on the amillennial eschatology idea of two kingdoms.  Eschatology is the study of redemptive history as revealed in scripture.  Amillennialism takes its name from the idea that the 1000 years of Revelations 20 may not be a literal 1000 years, but rather a figurative number that means a long time.  After all, 2 Peter 3:8 suggests just this sort of inexactitude, and Matthew 25 hammers home the fact that the Second Coming and Judgment happen together with no 1000 year gap.  However, amillennialism represents far more than this limited statement about time.  The two kingdom model changes how we read scripture and opens up much of the riches of the Bible that are hidden to the casual observer.

Jesus sets out early in His ministry discussing the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom yet to come.  These are all synonymous.  The other kingdom is the domain of man, the already, the right now, the world of man.  When reading both Old Testament prophets and New Testament Gospel and Epistles, pay particular attention to differences drawn between the world of man and the Kingdom of God.  All of the Gospels are thick with this language, particularly John.  Paul’s arguments are particularly rich in this imagery as well.  The prototype genre of the New Testament for these delineations is the parable.

Parables usually are working on three levels.  Let us take for example the parable of the rich young ruler.  In this parable, the man asks Jesus how to inherit the Kingdom of heaven.  Jesus answers him on several levels.  First, He states that there is only One who is good, meaning Himself as the One who kept the Law.  He refers the man to the Law and the Commandments, the Covenant of Sinai.  The man makes the typical mistake of the Pharisee assuming that he has always kept the Law.  Paul certainly recognized this error after his conversion.  What else, the man asks?  “If you would be perfect….” Jesus amps up the Law in order to demonstrate the full extent of the Law and the futility of man keeping the Law.

Most everyone focuses attention on the man’s wealth.  This is the surface layer.  Coupling this wealth with the eye of a needle comment, the assumption is that wealth is an idol that rules man and, therefore, it is nearly impossible for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is a shallow, sort of an Aesop’s fables approach, with some moral point to make, and it just plain misses the mark.  The next level of understanding concerns the Pharisees.  In most parables, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, who are the logical foil for Jesus as they embody the Covenant of Law.  Therefore, in each parable, the Pharisees easily see themselves in the parable represented as a character that ultimately is doomed.  The rich young ruler is clearly a Pharisee, a keeper of the Law.  

The third level is that of eschatology, the story of redemptive history unfolding.  The contrasts in the parables between the Covenants of Law and Grace parallel the contrasts between the already and the not yet, the world of man and the Kingdom of God.  This is particularly clear in the prodigal son analogy.  The young man returns and throws himself at the mercy of his father (Our Father) who sees him through the eyes of the Promise and offers him the full inheritance.  The older son, who has kept the Law, is jealous of the younger son who has done nothing and still gets the inheritance.  We see this same jealousy operating in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.  The man who arrives last gets a full wage and the first present are jealous.  These parables paint a true picture of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Jews, the older son and the early arrivers, who believe that they are the true Israel are jealous of the Gentiles who come late.  Jesus is demonstrating through the parables that the true Israel is in Him.  He may choose whomever He will. 

After the Resurrection, Jesus becomes the first member of the Kingdom of Heaven in a resurrected body.  Jesus Christ ushers in the Kingdom of God.  The amillennial view is that all of the time from Pentecost to the Second Coming and Judgment is the millennial time.  During that time, Christians are members of both kingdoms.  By virtue of their Baptism and faith alone in Jesus alone through Grace alone, Christians are transformed.  The problem is that we still inhabit these earthly bodies.  These earthly bodies are still bound by the Fall of Adam.  Therefore, we have a tension set up between our bodies in Adam and our transformation in Christ.  We are simultaneously members of both the kingdom of this world, the Creation, and the Kingdom of God.  We have dual citizenship, so to speak.

This is not to say that our souls are part of the Kingdom of God while our bodies are of Adam.  That is the Gnostic heresy.  When we become members of the Body of Christ, we become transformed.  When we inherit our resurrected bodies on the Last Day, those new resurrection bodies are reunited with our souls to create the perfection in Christ that is the promise.  Both body and soul are part of the promise.

Therefore, having set up the concept of the Two Kingdoms, each existing now with us Christians having dual citizenship, we return to the passage referenced in the title.  Paul writes to the church in Corinth concerning a number of topics.  In chapter 4, he refers to the Light of the Gospel that is in all Christians.  This light is held within Jars of Clay, our earthly bodies in Adam.  These bodies are fragile and break (die.)  When they do break, the Light within is released and goes on to the Kingdom of God, no longer bound by the Adamic Covenant.  Notice the language of verses 16-18.  The outer self is wasting away while the inner self is being renewed.  How do we renew this inner self?  By receiving Grace regularly (weekly) through receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and by the hearing of the Gospel preached to us correctly.  We do not look to that which is seen, this earthly body, but rather to that which is unseen, the Gospel and the promise of the resurrection.

If the Jars of Clay that are Christian jars of clay contain the Light of the Gospel, evangelism is the spreading of this Light.  The amazing thing about Light is that it fills all of the available space.  Therefore, the not yet converted can fill their empty jars from your jar, full of the Light of the Gospel.  What is also true is that the jars of clay of the reprobate remain empty.  So, focus on the Light within, unseen and yet clearly present.  That, the Great Commission, is our ministry as Christians according to Jesus, Paul and the Bible.

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