Latest / Reformed Thinking / Now, and Then (1 Corinthians 13:12) | Charles Spurgeon

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Now, and Then (1 Corinthians 13:12) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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When you break an ARM, the medical field offers you this
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really clean binary answer. Oh, sure, yeah.
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Broken or not broken? Right.
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The X-ray machine hums, it produces this crisp image, and
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the doctor just points to a jagged white line.
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It is a very satisfying, measurable reality.
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We love that level of diagnostic clarity like we crave it.
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But what happens when the X-ray machine for your own soul is,
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you know, permanently glitching? There's a much harder question,
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yeah. What happens when you try to
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diagnose your own faith, or the motives of your local church, or
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even the actual direction of human history, and all you get
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is this blurry, warped image? It's frustrating.
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It really is welcome to reformed thinking.
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This is a deep dive where we're looking at a text that, quite
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frankly, forces us to admit our own staggering ignorance.
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Yeah, we have a single massive source text to work.
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We. Do we are unpacking Charles
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Haddon Spurgeon sermon titled Now and Then?
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He delivered this to his congregation in London back in
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1871. Based on the Apostle Paul's
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letter to the Corinthians. Right.
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Specifically First Corinthians 13 verse 12.
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For now, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.
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And our mission for you, the listener, is to analyze
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Spurgeon's framework for how our current limited earthly
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understanding of ourselves, the church God, will eventually give
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way to complete comprehension. Yeah, we're going to look at
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what this means for how you process trials, knowledge, and
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your faith today. So, OK, let's unpack this.
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We have to start with the rivalry Spurgeon sets up right
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at the beginning. The big rivalry.
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Right between two things we usually assume go hand in hand,
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which are knowledge and love. Yeah, To understand this
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rivalry, we really had to transport ourselves to the
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environment Paul was writing to. And then, you know, look at the
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environments Bergey was preaching in.
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Let's do it. So Corinth was a booming
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economic hub in the ancient world.
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Who is this highly competitive, status obsessed city?
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Sort of like a modern. Metropolis.
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Spot on. And when you brought people from
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that culture into a newly formed church, they naturally imported
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their worldly metrics for success.
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Yeah, they couldn't just leave that at the door.
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No, they turned spiritual gifts into basically corporate key
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performance indicator. Oh wow, KP is for the church?
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Yeah, the ability to speak in different tongues or prophecy,
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or, you know, the skill to teach brilliantly.
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Those became status symbols. Because they were measuring
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people by their intellectual or supernatural output.
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Precisely, and spiritual gifts were distributed unevenly by
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design, meant for temporary earthly use to equip individuals
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for specific tasks. But human nature twisted those
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differing abilities into a. Hierarchy.
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Yeah, creating rampant jealousy. Which is a very human
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psychological instinct. I think we naturally gravitate
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toward things we can quantify. Oh for sure, we love a
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spreadsheet. Right.
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You can count how many languages someone speaks, you can measure
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the eloquence of a sermon, but you can't easily quantify.
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Love, no you can't. So the Corinthians were building
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this hierarchy based on measurable output and completely
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sidelining the invisible virtues.
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And Paul steps into this chaotic dynamic and says, look, you are
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prioritizing the wrong metric entirely.
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He elevates charity. He elevates charity or love way
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above these specific localized gifts.
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Spurgeon notes that while gifts are distributed like specialized
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tools for specific jobs, love belongs to all believers.
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It's the universal mark. Yeah, it's the mark of someone
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who has passed from death unto life.
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Love is personal. Spurgeon describes it as a light
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in the heart, right? A light in the heart and the
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star in the breast. While spiritual gifts will
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eventually cease because their temporary function will end,
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love thrives at all times and in all places, living eternally.
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Spurgeon uses a fantastic analogy here to explain the
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relationship between these gifts and love.
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Oh, the artist one. Yeah, he compares the believer
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to an artist. He says an artist wants to have
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deft limbs. You want your hands to be
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steady, your fingers to be nimble, your senses to be sharp.
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You need the technical skill. Right.
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Those physical attributes are like the spiritual gifts.
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They're incredibly useful for getting the work done.
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But love is the pure taste, the secret spring living and
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breathing within the artist. Because that inner faculty is
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what actually prompts the skill. Yeah, you can have the best,
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most steady hands in the world, but if you lack that inner
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artistic vision, that pure taste, you're just painting by
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numbers. You aren't creating art.
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And this is where Spurgeon bridges the ancient world to the
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19th century. And honestly, it translates
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perfectly to our time today. Oh, so Spurgeon looks around at
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his own culture and points out that in the academies of Greece
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and in modern schools, knowledge takes all the prizes.
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Yeah, the smartest guy in the room wins.
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Always he mentions Doctor Arnold, the famous headmaster of
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Rugby School, and notes how much of Doctor Arnold's success as a
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schoolmaster was due to the honor he gave to a good boy in
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preference to a clever boy. That's interesting.
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But in our modern systems, being the clever boy is everything.
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Being the clever boy gets you the scholarships.
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It gets you the promotions, the platform.
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We have a psychology of metric fixation.
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We reward the visible intellect. But in the church, prioritizing
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the clever boy over the good boy creates disastrous rivalries.
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Right. And love acts as the great
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equalizer there. It doesn't matter if your
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talents are few and your intellectual capacity is
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average. If the love of Christ dwells in
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you richly, you possess the superior grace.
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I want to push back on Paul's hierarchy here on behalf of the
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listener though, OK? Laid on me we live.
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In an era where acquiring information is our primary
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currency, like we pride ourselves on being well
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informed, people listen to audio programs like this deep dive
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specifically to gain knowledge. That's true.
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So is our drive to acquire information actually a trap if
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it lacks this element of charity?
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Are we just recreating the Corinthian problem with modern
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technology? That raises a really critical
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question about the nature of the knowledge we're acquiring.
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Paul isn't against knowledge inherently.
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Right, he was brilliant himself. Yeah, but he understands its
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limits. In our current state, if earthly
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knowledge is secondary to love, it's largely because our current
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knowledge is remarkably flawed, partial, and honestly juvenile.
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It's incomplete. Very Our drive to be well
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informed becomes a trap. When we mistake our accumulation
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of facts for complete reality. We start thinking we possess the
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whole picture, which breeds arrogance instead of charity.
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But when we realize our knowledge is just a tiny
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fraction of the truth, charity becomes the only logical
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response to our shared ignorance.
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If we all only have a piece of the puzzle, we have to
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cooperate. Which requires love.
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Exactly. That leads directly into
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Spurgeon's metaphor of childhood, which I find
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incredibly disarming. Oh, it really is.
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Because, like we said, Paul was arguably the foremost intellect
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of his day in the Christian Church.
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A Pharisee of Pharisees trained under Gamaliel.
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He had massive influence. Yet he pauses to reflect on his
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own infancy. Yeah, he says.
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When I was a child, I speak as a child.
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I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
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Spurgeon pauses on this reflection and points out how
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beneficial it is for us to recall our own humble
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beginnings. Why does he say that?
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Because forgetting that we were once entirely dependent,
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ignorant children causes our sympathies to dry up.
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Oh, we get rigid. Yeah, we become churlish.
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Our opinions get overbearing. We we become repulsive in our
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selfishness, Spurgeon says. Paul could have leaned on his
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authority, his office, his visions, his academic training.
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But he chooses to look back at his infancy to ground himself.
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He compares the two stages of his natural life and it acts as
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a parable for his spiritual life.
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So he feels himself to be, spiritually speaking, in his
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infancy right now. Yes, his maturity, his thorough
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manhood lies ahead of him in future state.
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He imagines a future where he looks back on his present self
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as a beginner, just groping his way amidst the shadows of his
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own fancy. And that brings us to the famous
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phrase, right? For now, we see through a glass
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darkly. Right.
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And when we hear a glass, we naturally think of our clear,
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pristine bathroom mirrors or perfectly transparent window
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pane. But that is not the historical
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context Paul or Spurgeon had in mind.
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Not at all. Spurgeon clarifies that ancient
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glass manufacturing was incredibly primitive compared to
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what we have today. The glass used in Roman times
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and even common glass in the 19th century, was full of
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impurities. It was thick, dull, often tinted
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green or brown. Filled with bubbles.
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Yeah, imagine trying to identify the specific features of a
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landscape by looking through the thick, warped bottom of a green
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glass bottle. You know there are trees, you
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know there is a sky, but the details are distorted.
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There is a vast difference between viewing an object
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through that obscure medium and closely inspecting it with the
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naked eye. What's fascinating here is how
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Spurgeon takes the word darkly and explains that the Greek
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literally translates to seeing in a Riddle.
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The Riddle? Yeah, he says.
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So weak are our perceptions of mind that plain truths often
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puzzle us. Wow.
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The words that teach us are just pictures that need explanation.
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The thoughts that stir us are just visions floating in our
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brains that want rectifying. So the limitation isn't in the
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revelation itself. No, God's revelation is ample
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and vast. The limitation is entirely in
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our own near sightedness and our shallow understanding.
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We're experiencing the cognitive dissonance of trying to process
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infinite truth with finite, flawed equipment.
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That's a great way to put it. We are looking at a highly
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complex reality through a blurry lens and our brains struggle to
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make sense of the shapes. So what happens to all the
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theological frameworks, the arguments, the things we value
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so highly right now, when we finally grow up?
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Spurgeon makes a striking assertion here.
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He says that in our spiritual adulthood in heaven, we will
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discard many things we currently count as precious.
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Like what? Well, think of a grown man
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discarding the toys of his childhood.
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When you were 5A particular toy was the most valuable thing in
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your world. You'd fight over it, cry over
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it, protect it. Right.
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But when you're 30, you recognize it was just painted
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wood or plastic. In the same way, much of what we
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pride ourselves on knowing now, much of our intellectual
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treasure will be set aside because we will have access to
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the unclouded reality. The shadow gives way to the
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substance. Exactly.
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It's like looking at your high school debate notes.
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At the time, you thought you had solved the world's geopolitical
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issues. You were utterly confident.
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Completely. And now, decades later, you read
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them and just cringe at your own overconfidence.
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You realize you were working with a tiny fraction of the
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data. That is precisely what Spurgeon
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is saying about our current theological and spiritual
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knowledge. OK, let's unpack this a bit
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more. We have this thick, dull bottle
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like glass. We are looking through it right
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now. What specific things are we
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looking at that will eventually come into sharp focus?
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Well, Spurgeon says. The very first thing we see now,
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but we'll see perfectly then, is, surprisingly, our own
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reflection. Ourselves.
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Yeah, he says seeing ourselves is one of the first steps in
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true religion. He immediately draws a contrast
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between how the mass of humanity sees themselves and how the
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believer sees themselves. OK.
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How does the mass of men see themselves?
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Virgin argues they have never truly seen themselves.
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They see a flattering facsimile. A projection?
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Yeah, A. Projection created by their own
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ego, tailored to hide their flaws and amplify their virtues.
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It's an edited, filtered image designed to protect their pride.
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Like an Instagram filter for the soul.
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Right. But by contrast, the person
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whose eyes have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit sees their
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ruin. They bemoan themselves on
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account of the Fall. They are made conscious of their
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own natural. Depravity, he says the believer,
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is ground to the very dust by the discovery of their actual
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sinfulness. They recognize their emptiness.
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And Spurgeon argues this is actually a highly profitable
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thing. Why is it profitable to feel
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empty? Because discovering your
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emptiness is the essential first step toward receiving divine
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fullness, discovering your weakness is the prerequisite for
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participating in divine strength.
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But even with this enlightened view, Spurgeon says, we still do
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not fully see ourselves clearly right now, do we?
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No, we don't. In heaven we will understand the
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desperate mischief of the fall in a way that would probably
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crush us today. Oh wow.
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We'll see the true blackness of sin and understand it's hellish
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desert. We'll look down from that starry
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height and realize just how fast we were stuck in the miry clay
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to use the biblical imagery. We'll comprehend the absolute
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totality of our own depravity in ways our current minds suppress
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just to function daily. Yeah, but it's not just a
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realization of how bad things were.
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There's a bright side. The flip side of that coin is a
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glorious self discovery regarding our redemption.
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Yes, when the believer sings Worthy is the Lamb that was
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slain, they will look at their robes washed in that blood, and
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see how incredibly white they are.
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They will understand the Crimson stains of their past and the
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immense value of the blood that have faced those spots.
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But even more than that, they will fully grasp their adoption.
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Right now, believers feel the spirit of sonship.
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They cry ABBA Father. But in the future, they will
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understand fully what it means to be joint heirs with Christ.
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Let's pause on that term joint heirs, because it sounds like
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nice theological poetry to modern ears.
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But Paul was writing to an audience who understood Roman
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law. Exactly.
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When Paul and Spurgeon talk about adoption, they are leaning
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on the legal weight of Roman adoption laws.
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The Patriot protestas. Right.
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In that legal system, the father had absolute life or death
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control over his household. When an adult was adopted into a
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new family, it was a massive legal proceeding called
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adrogacio. And it changed everything for
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them. Everything.
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The person's previous debts were completely legally cancelled.
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They were given a new name, a new legal identity, and they
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became a full, legally binding heir to the new father's estate,
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entirely equal to any biological children.
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It was an ironclad transfer of status.
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So when believers are called joint heirs with Christ, it is
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not a metaphor, it is a legal reality in the divine courtroom.
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They will see the estates that belong to them.
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They will understand the mystical marriage bond that
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knits the soul to Christ, seeing how vital and real that union
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is, like a branch springing from a stem.
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Spurgeon uses this beautiful imagery of the robe of
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righteousness. He says that right now we know
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we are covered by it, but then we will actually discern how
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lustrous it is. Decked with needlework and rock
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gold. Yeah, far better than the pearls
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and gems of earthly monarchs. So we will see ourselves clearly
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the depth of our ruin and the staggering height of our
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redemption. That's the first thing.
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But the second thing Spurgeon points to is our view of the
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church. And right now, our view of the
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church is definitely through that thick bubbled glass.
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Well, for sure. If our internal mirror is that
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warped, it completely destabilizes how we look at the
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people sitting next to us in the pews.
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If I can't accurately judge my own soul, how am I constantly
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judging theirs? Well.
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Currently, the church is scattered.
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We believe there's a chosen people, but they are spread
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across the globe. And Spurgeon is very honest.
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Here he is, he says. The church is filled with many
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people we might not even like if we knew them.
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Personally, we've all met a few of those, yeah.
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They have strange views, odd habits, and outward
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characteristics that might grate on us, yet they are moved with
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one life, quickened with one spirit, redeemed with one blood.
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We feel attachment to them for the sake of Jesus Christ, who
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has married the Church as the bride.
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But when we get to heaven, the population of the church is
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going to be a massive shock to our systems.
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How so? Spurgeon says.
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We will know more of the numbers of the chosen, and it will be to
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our intense surprise. This is a crucial point for how
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we evaluate our own discernment. OK, I'll unpack that.
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He highlights that we will miss some people in heaven whom we
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confidently assumed we're perfectly secure.
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Like who? He uses the examples of Judas
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and Demas. Judas walked with the apostles,
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managed their finances and look the part.
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Demas was a fellow worker with Paul before abandoning him.
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These people blended in perfectly with the Saints on
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Earth. And their absence will shock us.
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Conversely, we will find some among the elect whom we, in our
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bitterness of spirit, had completely condemned.
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So people, we had written off entirely.
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Yeah, people that are earthly theological camps or personal
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prejudices had said no way they are in.
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OK, if our processes of discernment fail us so
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spectacularly, how is a local church supposed to maintain any
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standards or boundaries at all? Doesn't this just lead to
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theological anarchy? That's a fair question.
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If we can't tell who the modern Judas's or Demas's are, why even
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have church membership? That is the tension we live in.
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We are called to maintain boundaries based on visible
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fruit and clear confessions of faith.
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The church must exercise discipline based on what is
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visible to preserve its witness. But Spurgeon is cautioning
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against internal arrogance. It mandates humility.
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Acknowledging that we are looking through a glass darkly
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regarding the final state of other people's souls should stop
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us from acting as the final judge and jury over our
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neighbors. It changes our posture.
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It means we should be far more generous in our assumptions and
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far less hasty in our condemnations.
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We must recognize that the Lord knows those who are His and our
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job is to love and extend charity.
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While leaving the final sorting of the wheat from the weeds to
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the ultimate judge. Right, our vision is simply too
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clouded for that final sorting work.
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That completely reorients how we participate in a local
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congregation. It forces a radical grace.
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It does, so we move from seeing ourselves to seeing the
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individuals in the church. And then Spurgeon zooms out even
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further. He shifts the focus outward to
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the chaotic events of the world, asking how God manages it all.
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He moves to the Providence of God.
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And this might be the area where our earthly vision is the most
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obscured. Currently, believing that all
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things work together for good is a matter of faith, not sight.
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We can sometimes see how things work out well in retrospect, but
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largely we cannot tell how every bark and bending line meets in
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the center of God's love. We don't perceive how dark
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dispensations of trials and afflictions actually subserve
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God's glory and our lasting happiness.
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No, we really don't. Spurgeon has an analogy here
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that I think is incredibly relevant.
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He calls it the Black envelope. Oh.
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This is brilliant. He says sometimes a person
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refuses a letter at the door because the envelope looks
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ominous. It looks black.
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It looks like bad news, but it happens that there is something
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incredibly valuable inside. Like a massive check, yeah.
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God often sends us a massive amount of mercy inside the black
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envelope of trial, Spurgeon is basically saying.
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We spend half our prayer lives begging God to return to send
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her the exact packages we need to survive.
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Wow. We see the black envelope of a
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job loss, a medical diagnosis or a financial collapse, and we
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treat it as an attack. We want it gone.
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Because it looks black. Right.
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But inside that terrifying envelope is the exact mechanism
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God is using to kill our pride or to move us to a place where
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we are entirely dependent on Him.
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Because it looks black. We shut our door against it.
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We pray against it. We fret over it.
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And this applies on both a micro and a macro level.
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On the micro level in our individual lives, we will review
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our history in heaven and realize we pray desperately
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against the exact circumstances that were best for us.
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We will see that the thing we fretted and troubled ourselves
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over was the richest mercy the Lord ever sent.
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And on the macro level, Spurgeon connects this to the history of
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the world. He suggests that devastating
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wars, pestilences that fill graves, and earthquakes that
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make cities tremble are actually necessary cogs in the great
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wheel of divine machinery. Wait, wars and pestilences as
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necessary cogs? How do we reconcile the horrors
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of human history with the concept of a loving God steering
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the ship? It is really counterintuitive to
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our earthly minds, but Spurgeon is asserting the.
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Absolute sovereignty of God here, leaning heavily on the
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understanding of primary and secondary causes.
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OK, untack that a bit. God is the primary cause
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steering all of human history toward His designated
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conclusion, even while human beings and natural disasters act
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as secondary causes. He who sits upon the throne
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rules supremely over every creature in heaven, earth, or
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hell. So nothing is outside of his
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control. Nothing in the future state God
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will make it manifest to us that His government was right.
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Every part and portion will be seen to work together with the
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unity of design. Which is a massive comfort,
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especially in times when earthly government systems feel like
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they are loosening or failing entirely.
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Especially then, it reminds the believer that the government is
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upon his shoulder and it must come out right in the long run.
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So we will see the machinery of Providence face to face.
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We will see that all the dark and bending lines actually made
20:56
a perfect circle. But moving from earthly trials
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to heavenly truths, Spurgeon notes that if our view of daily
21:02
events is obscured, our grasp on high theology is even weaker.
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It is this brings us to the ultimate visions, doctrines,
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Christ and God himself. Spurgeon points out that while
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believers love the grand doctrines of the faith, our
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understanding is simply too feeble to grasp them fully.
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We account them to be mysteries. Right.
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We reverently acknowledge them, but we dare not attempt to
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explain them perfectly. We see things in a mist.
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He quotes the biblical story of the blind man gaining his sight
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in stages. Yeah, the man says he saw men as
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trees walking. That's our theology right now.
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Exactly. We see a doctrine here and a
21:39
doctrine there, and we are often completely at a loss to figure
21:43
out how one part harmonizes with another part of the same system.
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We cannot untie the knots. Like how does absolute divine
21:51
sovereignty harmonize with human responsibility?
21:54
Right. It's a knot we cannot fully
21:55
untie with our current mental capacity.
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And here is where Spurgeon uses a bit of humor, which I
22:00
appreciate. He says he has fancied sometimes
22:02
that the elucidations of the most learned doctors of divinity
22:05
on earth. The guys writing the massive
22:07
textbooks. Right.
22:08
The theologians, the men who drafted the most complex
22:12
confessions, if those writings could be submitted to the very
22:16
least person in the Kingdom of heaven, it would only cause them
22:19
to smile. They would smile at the learned
22:21
ignorance of the sons of Earth. Because in heaven, things that
22:25
puzzle us here will be as plain as the alphabet.
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We will not need textbooks because we will have the reality
22:31
right in front of us. And that humorous image sets up
22:34
the transition to the most serious and awe inspiring point
22:37
of the entire text, seeing Jesus Christ physically.
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Yes, Spurgeon contrasts our current view of Christ by faith
22:44
with the future literal presence.
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Currently we see him through the lattice to the ordinances of the
22:50
house, like the Lord's Supper. We see enough to know he's all
22:53
together lovely, but it's just a report.
22:56
He uses the story of the Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon.
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I love this analogy. She heard all the rumors of his
23:02
wisdom and wealth. She was highly skeptical,
23:04
assuming the reports were exaggerated.
23:07
But when she actually arrived at his court in Jerusalem and saw
23:10
the architecture, the seating of his officials, and the wisdom he
23:13
possessed with her own eyes, she declared that the half had not
23:17
been told her. Spurgeon says whatever we have
23:19
experienced of Christ on earth is just the rumor of the Queen
23:23
of Sheba. The reality will be entirely
23:26
different. And Spurgeon gets specific about
23:28
this physical reality. He speaks of the joy of seeing
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the feet that were nailed, touching the hand that was
23:33
pierced, and looking upon the head that wore the thorns.
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It's the physical, bodily presence of the resurrected
23:39
King. He says the streets of gold will
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have small attraction and the harps of angels will barely
23:44
enchant us compared to seeing the king in the midst of the
23:46
throne. The physical presence of the
23:48
mediator is the focal point of heaven.
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But then he pushes into the really deep things.
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He says beyond a doubt, we shall also see God.
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Now wait a minute, how is that possible?
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Mechanically speaking, we are finite creatures.
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How can a finite creature see the infinite creator?
24:04
If we connect this to the bigger picture, this is where we touch
24:06
the very edges of our theological capacity.
24:10
Spurgeon acknowledges that no creature will ever be
24:13
omniscient. We'll never comprehend all the
24:15
thoughts of the Creator. The finite can never contain the
24:18
infinite. However, it is written that the
24:20
pure in heart shall see God. This is often referred to
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historically as the Beatific vision in heaven.
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God's immediate dwelling in the midst to the New Jerusalem is
24:32
its peerless glory. His presence is the literal
24:35
light of the city. We will understand more of God
24:38
than we do now. Come nearer to Him.
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Be more familiar with Him. Spurgeon says he cowers before
24:43
the thought while he revels in it.
24:45
He recounts how he has strained his eyes looking at nature to
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try to see God's handiwork, listen to the voice of
24:50
conscience, and heard the gospel, almost seeing God
24:53
Incarnate in Jesus. But to see God directly?
24:55
He admits What that means or what it is, ah, me, I cannot
24:59
tell. It is a beautiful admission of
25:01
the limits of his own intellect. It really is.
25:03
Which leads me to ask, if we are so limited now, how will this
25:07
drastic shift in our perception actually happen?
25:10
Like what are the actual mechanics of this shift from
25:13
seeing through a glass darkly to seeing face to face?
25:16
Will Spurgeon offers a few vital suggestions for how this change
25:20
is affected. The first is a change in our
25:22
actual Constitution. Our bodies, yeah.
25:25
He explains that the revelation we have right now suits us as
25:29
men and women clad in poor mortal bodies, but the
25:33
revelation in heaven will suit us as immortal spirits raised
25:36
from the dead with immortal spiritual bodies.
25:38
So our hardware, so to speak, will be upgraded to handle the
25:41
new software of Heavenly Revelation.
25:43
Exactly. A mortal body is subject to
25:45
decay, fatigue, and neurological limits.
25:48
A glorified body is built for an entirely different spectrum of
25:52
existence. But it's not just our bodies,
25:53
it's our location. He gives us incredible astronomy
25:56
analogy. Oh this is one of my favorite
25:58
parts. He says for ages, astronomers on
26:00
Earth thought planets were retrograde, going backward or
26:03
standing still. The orbits made no sense.
26:06
Right. This is a reference to Ptolemaic
26:08
astronomy, which placed the Earth at the center of the
26:10
universe. When ancient astronomers looked
26:13
up at the planets, particularly Mars, the orbits seemed
26:16
illogical. Mars would move forward across
26:18
the sky, then seemed to stop, go backward, and then move forward
26:22
again. They called it retrograde
26:24
motion, and to explain it they had to invent these incredibly
26:28
messy mathematical concepts called epicycles, circles within
26:32
circles. The math was chaotic because
26:34
they were observing from the wrong center.
26:37
But then Copernicus comes along and places the sun at the center
26:40
of the model. Right, once you stand in the
26:41
sun, mathematically speaking, you see that the planets are
26:44
moving in perfect, elegant ellipses.
26:47
And right now we are standing on the earth looking at the
26:50
Providence of God, and it looks like it is going backward.
26:53
It looks chaotic. We try to invent spiritual
26:55
epicycles to explain why bad things are happening.
26:58
Yes, Heaven places us at the center, near God's throne.
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When we get to The Fountainhead, the center of all things, the
27:04
machinery of Providence will become entirely clear, because
27:07
our vantage point has been corrected.
27:09
We will see the elegant ellipses of God's sovereign plan.
27:12
We will that reframes the entire concept of our confusion.
27:16
But then Spurgeon talks about capacity, and this might be the
27:19
most practical insight for how we view our current limitations.
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Why don't we have this complete knowledge right now?
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Why the thick glass? Spurgeon argues that our current
27:28
organs and mental faculties are properly adapted for our current
27:31
moral requirements. It is a matter of capacity.
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OK, give me an example. He says we might wish we had
27:37
better ears able to hear 10 miles away, but if we did, the
27:41
sounds would drown each other out and deafen us.
27:44
We might wish for sharper sight, but it would not be useful.
27:47
We have a psychological concept today called cognitive overload.
27:51
If you present a human brain with too much data, too many
27:54
tasks, or too much sensory input all at once, the system shuts
27:58
down. It freezes our souls.
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Operate with a similar limitation.
28:02
He applies this directly to our spiritual capacity, He says.
28:05
If we knew more of our own sinfulness right now, we might
28:09
be driven to absolute despair. We couldn't handle the truth.
28:13
No, we couldn't. If we knew more of God's glory
28:16
right now, we might literally die of terror.
28:19
If we had more understanding, without the equivalent moral
28:22
capacity to employ it, we would be filled with conceit and
28:26
tormented with ambition. Why would seeing God's glory
28:29
terrify us right now? Compare the human souls current
28:33
hardware to a 1990s computer trying to process a petabyte of
28:37
modern data. It would simply crash.
28:40
Our current ignorance is an act of divine protection.
28:43
We cannot drink the wine of the Kingdom right now.
28:46
It is too strong for us. It would intoxicate us with
28:48
tried or stagger us with passion.
28:50
So in the future state, our minds and systems will be
28:53
strengthened to receive more without the damage that would
28:56
come to us here from over leaping our divinely regulated
28:59
boundaries. Our capacity will finally match
29:02
the revelation. So we complain about the thick
29:04
glass, we complain about the Muddy Waters, but God is
29:07
essentially giving us sunglasses so we do not burn our retinas
29:10
staring at the sun. That's a great way to think
29:12
about it. Our ignorance is a shield that
29:15
completely changes how I feel about the things I do not
29:17
understand. Which brings us to the final
29:20
section of our deep dive, the practical lessons for the now.
29:24
Because understanding this future reality shouldn't just
29:27
make us sit around daydreaming. Right.
29:29
It demands immediate, practical changes in how we Live Today.
29:33
Spurgeon draws out three distinct practical applications.
29:37
The 1st is gratitude. Instead of complaining about
29:40
what we cannot see, we must be thankful that we can see even a
29:43
little. Bit he compares the believer to
29:45
someone born blind who has been granted some sight.
29:48
Even if you only see men as trees walking, the fact that you
29:51
are no longer entirely blind to your own sin and God's grace is
29:54
a miracle. The natural man receives not the
29:56
things of the Spirit of God, so the mere fact that you possess
30:00
any spiritual sight should produce immense gratitude.
30:04
The second lesson is hopefulness.
30:05
This vision is coming soon, as Spurgeon knows.
30:08
It may be just a day or two. Hence betwixt us in heaven there
30:12
may be but a single step. But the third lesson is where
30:14
the rubber really meets the road for us in our daily
30:17
interactions. It is the lesson of forbearance.
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Forbearance, especially in our theological debates and our
30:23
interactions with other believers.
30:25
Spurgeon uses a brilliant illustration here.
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The two men in the dark. Yes.
30:30
He pictures two people standing in a pitch black room, wrangling
30:34
over the color of an object. One says it is blue, the other
30:37
says it is green. They're getting angry.
30:39
The debate is getting heated. Someone brings in a few dim
30:42
candles to help, but the candlelight distorts the color
30:45
even more. Spurgeon says bringing in
30:48
candles will not solve the dispute.
30:49
What do they have to do? They must wait for the morning
30:52
sun. They must wait for the morning
30:54
sun. What a picture of our current
30:56
theological arguments, Spurgeon says.
30:59
Our disputes are often childish. We are wasting time arguing
31:03
while we are sailing on a dangerous rough sea.
31:05
The winds are high. The focus should be on managing
31:08
the ship, keeping the sails in good order, and avoiding the
31:11
quicksands. We have to leave some questions
31:13
in abeyance until we reach the Fair Haven.
31:15
When we reach the Fair Haven and talk with those bright spirits
31:18
before the throne, Spurgeon suggests, we will confess the
31:21
mistakes we made and rejoice in the light we receive.
31:24
We will look back at our better earthly debates and realize how
31:28
foolish we were to fight over colors in the dark.
31:31
It is a massive call to soften the asperity of our debates and
31:35
practice Christian forbearance. We must tolerate differing
31:38
opinions on secondary issues because we recognize the thick
31:42
glass we are all looking through.
31:44
The final lesson Spurgeon offers is 1 of aspiration.
31:47
He compares earth to a school for children.
31:50
We are learning the basics, but heaven is the great university
31:54
where we finally take our degree.
31:56
Therefore, fearing death is completely illogical for the
32:00
believer. He addresses the fear of death
32:02
head on. Many believers shudder at the
32:05
thought of death, dreading to enter the gate.
32:07
But Spurgeon points out that there is no pain in dying.
32:10
The pain is in living. When we leave off living here,
32:12
we have done with pain. Death is merely, or rather,
32:15
death is simply the conclusion of that pain.
32:18
Exactly. I absolutely love this phrase
32:20
from the text. The man that is afraid of dying
32:22
ought to be afraid of living. Let's unpack that.
32:24
It sounds almost paradoxical, but it makes perfect sense.
32:27
It really does. Living in this broken world with
32:29
these mortal bodies, dealing with the thick glass, the Muddy
32:32
Waters, the black envelopes of trial, that is where the pain
32:36
is. Death is the mechanism that
32:38
graduates us from the School of Pain into the University of
32:41
Light. We're blaming the exit door for
32:43
the discomfort of the waiting room.
32:44
If we truly believe that, we are moving from partial childish
32:48
knowledge to a state where we will know even as we are known.
32:51
If we truly believe, we are moving from seeing a scattered,
32:54
flawed church to a unified, perfected assembly.
32:58
If we believe we will move from questioning Providence to seeing
33:02
its perfect machinery, then our posture should be 1 of eager
33:05
aspiration combined with a patient, loving endurance of our
33:09
current limitations. So to bring all these threads
33:12
together, we started with the rivalry between knowledge and
33:15
love, realizing that because our earthly knowledge is so limited,
33:19
like looking through the bottom of a thick green bottle, love is
33:22
the only logical grace to prioritize.
33:24
We learned that discarding our current intellectual pride is
33:27
like a man putting away his childhood toys.
33:31
We saw that in the future we will finally see the true depth
33:35
of our ruin and the staggering height of our redemption.
33:37
We also confronted the shocking reality that heaven's population
33:41
will surprise us, humbling our earthly discernment.
33:44
We saw that the black envelopes of trial we receive are actually
33:48
necessary cogs in a perfect divine machinery that we can
33:52
only understand when we change our vantage point from earth to
33:55
the center of God's throne. And perhaps most cumberingly, we
33:59
realized that our current inability to fully grasp these
34:01
mysteries is a feature, not a bug.
34:04
Our limited capacity is a divine shield protecting us from being
34:08
overwhelmed by despair or terror.
34:10
We are wearing sunglasses until our immortal bodies are ready
34:13
for the blazing noon of God's presence.
34:15
Which leaves us with a mandate for how we live the now in light
34:18
of the then, with gratitude for the sight we have, with hope for
34:21
the clarity to come, and with immense forbearance for the
34:24
people we were sailing with in the dark.
34:25
Well said Which? Brings me to a final thought.
34:28
I want to leave you with something for you to ponder long
34:30
after this audio stops. Think about the Sherpas
34:33
disagreement you currently have with someone over a deeply held
34:36
belief. Maybe it is a theological
34:39
debate, maybe it is a judgement you have made about their
34:41
character. If you are both just standing in
34:44
a pitch black room arguing over a color that you cannot possibly
34:47
see clearly yet, Wait, not an ellipsis.
34:50
If you are arguing over a color you can't possibly see clearly
34:53
yet, how does anticipating the sunrise tomorrow change the way
34:56
you speak to them today? Thank you for joining this deep
34:59
dive on reformed thinking. Keep questioning, keep
35:02
listening, and we will catch you next time.