Things Revealed

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:22-24

How can it be that “the whole of creation” which God spoke into existence and certified as "good,” groans—right up to the present time—as in the pains of childbirth? How can God’s perfect creation be so distressed? And what of us? Paul says we "who have the first fruits of the Spirit” are groaning inwardly right along with creation.

In truth, all of creation has been groaning for the Kingdom to come almost from the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were not exactly like us. At least not at first. For they were created innocent, neither of them having been birthed in sin as we were. But like us, both were given free will. They were also given the perfect opportunity to thrive in the most perfect place on earth—Eden—the place where God walked in the Garden with them, blessed them in every way and held forth the perfect plan for their lives. There was just one warning for the man (and through him for the woman): whatever you do, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That was God's only law. But like any law, it placed a limit on what they could do. And like anyone with a free will, they could choose to obey or disobey it.

By the fourth chapter of Genesis, the fall of man was complete. Paradise was lost and sin and death entered the world. Mankind was now so far from innocent that his every inclination was to do evil all the time.

In his fallen state, man cannot get out of his own way. Sinful man still has free will, but there have been some drastic changes. Before the fall, he shared the Garden of Eden with the holy and righteous God of the Universe. Since the fall, he shares the earth with, “the god of this world,” Satan, who in his rebellion "was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

Is it any wonder the world groans? Is it any wonder we groan? We live in a world contaminated by sin, populated by fallen men and fallen angels where evil flourishes and truth is nowhere to be found. As a result, the world disappoints. Our families and friends disappoint. And even the church can disappoint. Because none are without sin, and no one is immune from the pain of sin or its grip on their life. The Apostle Paul described it this way: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Like Paul, we all can say “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

But Paul also recognized he was no longer captive to sin, “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” We still struggle, but Jesus has made a way through the Holy Spirit. We still battle sin, but defeat is not inevitable. We may “groan inwardly” when we glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven and see just how fallen our world really is, but “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

Here in the world, where the fallen live among the fallen, we are nevertheless called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and to be a light in the darkness. We are the redeemed with feet of clay, new creations in the same old body, living in the same fallen neighborhood, battling many of the same old demons. If only believing in Christ and receiving his Holy Spirit would have changed us forever, our struggles with sin and temptation would have come to an abrupt and definitive end. If only. We are profoundly changed, but our fleshly nature refuses to submit or renounce its claim on our desires.

God could have permanently transformed us in all ways at the moment of our rebirth, but he did not. Because had he done so, had he changed our nature in that fundamental way, he would have taken something so important from us that our transformation and our love for God would have lost all meaning by the next day.

Free will.

We have become children of God and are now heirs of the King and friends of Jesus. But we must still make choices when we are tempted; when our faith wanes; when we are wounded, rebellious or just plain tired of persevering. Which is why scripture says "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." That's not quite as easy as it sounds.

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Jesus uses the language of war because a battle for our souls rages all around us all the time, only “the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world.” Our battle is in the heavenly realms and in our minds, where the choices we make affect not only our own walk with God, but the lives of those who look to us as "Christ's ambassadors." As believers, we see action every day. It is as if every voice we hear, every argument we entertain and every choice we make is the front line of the war. We may be prepared by God’s word, strengthened by his love, armed with His holy spirit and equipped with the mind of Christ, but at the moment of decision it is our free will that determines what actions we take and whose side we choose.

We are constantly confronting the same choice as the first couple. As we battle our flesh, as we battle temptation and false teaching and vanity and the need for recognition, and as we successfully force our will to bend to His will, the Kingdom of Heaven forcefully advances, and forceful, imperfect but saved men and women, struggling sinners all—people like us—lay hold of it.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It is also near you, beckoning you home and holding forth the promise of God's ultimate redemption for his wondrous creation. Grasping this truth will energize you. It will lift your spirits and put hope in your heart for this troubled planet. There may be much that’s wrong in the world, but we’ve had a glimpse of the Kingdom to come and the unstoppable power of God's love to bring it to fruition. This fallen world we know is not the natural order our creator planned. Timothy Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, put it this way: "Jesus’s miracles were not so much violations of the natural order, but a restoration of the natural order. God did not create a world with blindness, leprosy, hunger, and death in it. Jesus’s miracles were signs that someday all these corruptions of this creation would be abolished.”

With every choice you make for God, every time you put others before yourself, pray for those around you, step out in faith and share your love for God with the broken hearted and the lost, you are serving as God's chosen vessel to restore the natural order in your corner of the Kingdom. And your obedience to God, even if it sometimes takes the full force of your will to obey Him, is a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is still advancing, that love never fails and that the corruptions of this creation are much closer to being abolished than any of us can ever know!

Now that is worth groaning about.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?"

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Genesis 32:24-29

How many rounds have you gone with God?

There’s a misguided biblical view that to argue with God—to wrestle with him—is to lack faith. According to this train of thought, people of faith simply accept their lot in life no matter how confusing or disappointing things get. For them, it should be enough to know that God has a plan and can always work things out for good. If he wants to.

It's true that James said “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” because "the testing of your faith develops perseverance” and perseverance “must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Clearly then, we are instructed to consider trials a joy. But no one says that the testing of our faith which produces perseverance is fun. Or something wonderful to behold or experience. It isn’t. If anything, it can be a spectacle of emotions gone wild.

Sickness and death, economic hardship, broken relationships and every other manner of testing that comes our way, including stepping out in faith only to be disappointed or frustrated, all challenge our understanding of God and can undermine our confidence in his plan for our lives. It isn’t only unbelievers and agnostics who cry out “Why!?” in such moments; believers can be just as mystified and deflated when God doesn't meet our expectations or intervene when we think he's most urgently needed. Is the correct response a dejected "oh well?" or are we called to something more confrontational.

God wants us to wrestle with him. To engage him. To seek understanding. To work through why he heals one person and not another or answers some prayers and not others. He wants us to come to the place of obedience and trust, even when we think God is wrong (Watchman Nee, the prolific Christian writer, puts it this way: "We ask that God's will be done. But do we actually like it?"). Getting to that place of obedience and trust does more than make us strong, it makes us mature and complete. Struggling with God is the way to get there. Maybe the only way to get there.

Jacob was a man like any other. He had belongings. He had problems. He had family issues. He was in the middle of a move. He was a coward and a conniver. He was afraid his brother was going to kill him and he was in the midst of executing his own plan to buy him off to deal with that possibility. Jacob had everything under control and had worked through all the contingencies he could think of. Except one.

He didn’t know he was about to have an encounter—a hands-on, no-holds-barred wrestling match—with God incarnate. And Yahweh, the undefeated and undefeatable, let Jacob have at it all night long. It says that when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip “so that it was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” Now surely the man could have overpowered Jacob before throwing a wrench in the works, but something else was going on here. A battle of wills, a contest of strength and endurance. Jacob could have gone on contending with the Lord forever if something didn’t happen. So God made something happen and the battle shifted from fists to faith, from the ring to the King.

After wrestling with God on Jacob's turf (given all that was going on in Jacob’s life at that moment, one can only imagine the thoughts that raced through his mind) and having the physical fight wrenched from him, there was only one thing left that Jacob wanted.

To be blessed.

To the natural man, it looked like Jacob was beaten and defeated. Not to God. For in the end, he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

When our own strength is gone, when our plans come up short, when we have surrendered our will, when we are changed by our struggles with God and accept that his ways are perfect no matter how mysterious they are or inadequate they appear, we no longer demand an explanation. Instead, we desire his blessing. It is at that moment that he says, “now you have overcome.” And it is at that point that we become new creations. For Jacob, the change warranted a new name: Israel. It means "God prevails."

Moses wrestled with God about his call to lead the people out of Egypt. Elijah wrestled with him about Jezebel and how Israel and the prophets had abandoned their God, leaving only Elijah to defend his name. And Peter wrestled with Jesus about almost everything. Even Jesus himself wrestled at the most difficult moment in his life, crying out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

It’s OK if we wrestle with God when we’re tested, as long as God prevails in the end. We are not the first ones to do it and we won't be the last. Moreover, we’re in the extraordinary company of those who wrestled before us. The victory comes not when we cry “uncle,” but when we cry "Father...not my will, but yours be done.” It is at that moment that the Lord says, “you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Becoming mature and complete is a life-long process. It is punctuated by spiritual growing pains and the voice of our Personal Trainer in Heaven cheering us on to both greater heights and to the fulfillment of our destiny in God.

Then, when the time is right, he gives us a new name which translates: "I am His."