Behold and Believe

There is a particular device used for dramatic effect in literary narrative and cinematic narrative; in Latin the phrase is in medias res.  In medias res.  It means roughly ‘into the midst of things,’ and is used to define or describe a story where you are immediately dropped into a scene often of immense danger, daring or drama— it could be incredible heartbreak, phenomenal loss, the chaos of conflict as bullets are flying, bombs are dropping, grenades exploding.  Or maybe even the sun-drenched fields of victory.  That is in medias res …and that is where most of us find ourselves not only in relation to our King and His Conflict, but in relation to the very Gospel itself!  We’re not too sure how we got to where we are… and we’re not too sure if where we are is of any value to the Larger Story.

This is the point where we look for the camera to begin moving up and away from the action, for the author to begin flashing back in his protagonist’s mind, i.e., for the Story-teller to begin building piece by piece, memory by memory, a context, a setting, for the scene into which we were dropped.  Here is where the apostle Paul steps onstage to show us a Gospel whose Message is cosmic in scope and epic in breadth.  And to tell us, since we have such a difficult time discerning this for ourselves, that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the Creation waits in eager expectation for the Children of God to be revealed.  For the Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the Children of God” {Rom. 8:18-21}.

A huge part of the problem in our post-modern perspective is the highly-individualized Gospel we’ve been given, a hyper-personal message of hyper-personal redemption requiring hyper-personal response.  And there is an element of truth to this hyper-personalization….  However, as with everything we get our greedy little paws on here in America, we have turned the Story of the Redemption and Restoration of a fallen Creation into an over-individualized message about our happiness, our peace, our personal fulfillment, the power of ‘just a bit of Jesus’ applied to our financial ambitions!

Notice, however, the power and the glory Jesus has in store for His fallen Creation.  It will be “brought into the glorious freedom of the Children of God.”  …Yes, that’s precisely what a fallen world is waiting on, eagerly.  Creation is groaning under the Curse, and all the while looking, longing, laboring toward the Day when her Rightful King will return and return her to being right!  To the Day when Jesus the Hammer of God will remove every stain and stench of sin, every ounce of brokenness, when He will heal every hurt and bind every wound, scouring bitterness and betrayal from the very face of the Earth.  That’s the Day which puts it all in perspective.  “Behold”— yes, behold my friends, behold and believe— “I am making all things new” {Rev. 21:5a}.


Ric Webb

Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community

www.hjcommunity.org