2023-05-11 A Meditation on Gospel Horizon

“Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life” (1 Co 6:3 ESV)

Piece by piece, no man an island, we revel in discovered truth, the work-underway of a heart converted, the unfurling of a Gospel promise. We revel to know a heightened gamesmanship, as God on High is basking in the praises of His saints, who know a thing or two about spiritual war.

For instance, the plethoric advance forward in dream or thought, followed by—if we are not alert—the crumbling of those same thoughts. No matter: God reworks the pottery that has been broken (Jer 18:4). Yet He is attentive even as a cosmic war is underway. We are trusted to defeat a devil through the unexpected, through what strange days Faith outworks, through a revealed brand of response to our prayers and our worship, a response that makes us New Creations, wise for the journey, sage for the callings, practically-equipped and miraculously solvent, sane, coping, healthsome, and ready.

All that keeps us limber, fit for duty. Like David of OT lore, who spoke, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Ps 51:3–4). God implants His Word in our hearts, giving us that notion of being absolved, giving us that notion of a holy interest in what we have going on, what is on our mind, maintaining His stature only insofar as we delight to say at day’s end, “I can tackle this one on my own, I just needed to know you cared…” We can thus be assured, because He has maintained His holiness and His masterful role.

A master of earth-bound agents, He is fighting a Satan determined and persistent. Like a good father, He longs for our own innocence preserved, that is, our tutelage and upbringing in rich climes, in spiritually-persistent hope, in some future Vision and Hope that by our expansive environs, thought free to roam, self preserved from deeper concerns, we might begin to develop and grow a fighting spirit, a principled observation, a personal quest and thesis. For it behooves those lords of war to envision God-wrought peace.

Piece by piece, no man an island, we do our religious observance in mystery as to its effect or rational justification. Piece by piece, we find ourselves equipped and duty-bound, committing precisely because of the airy expanse in which we were allowed to maintain childlike innocence and hope. Piece by piece, we have grown and have adjusted, have explored the meaning of Faith, and have emerged strengthened for the journey.

We are crucial. We are an experiment with live ammunition. We are basking in hope because it is the pure delight of God the Father, through His Son, to make up for our sins, and assure us with the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are still sons and daughters.