When I used to play chess, there would sometimes come a moment when after a long period of thought, the winning move would suddenly present itself to me. I’ve observed the same thing in other players when their face moves from an expression of perplexity to one of relaxed self-confidence. For them, the game is already over—not in the sense that they still don’t have moves to make, but in the sense that they already know the end.
It is the same with Christians: they are witnesses of the winning move in the cosmic battle between good and evil. In the Cross, the power of sin, the most powerful weapon in the enemy’s arsenal, has been defeated. To be sure, we still have moves to make, and our opponent may still win a minor exchange here or there, but the final outcome is inevitable—the church will win.
whether the visible church thrives or diminishes is ultimately irrelevant to any real gain or loss registered in the Kingdom of God
It is important to bear in mind, however, that we are referring here to what the older devotional writers used to call the invisible church, and that this is an entity that can only be seen with the eyes of faith. If we begin focusing our attention on the visible church, and directing our gaze to what we can see with our physical eyes, we shall easily fall prey to a whole host of false joys and sorrows. For whether the visible church thrives or diminishes is ultimately irrelevant to any real gain or loss registered in the Kingdom of God.
We find this principle illustrated in the ministry of Jesus. His brothers encouraged him to reveal himself to as many as possible: No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world (John 7:4). But he was not concerned with revealing himself to as many as possible, but only to the few who had been given to him from God: I have revealed you to those you gave me out of the world: I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours (John 17:6-9). Moreover, the few who belonged to him were not marked by any outward sign, but inwardly by their faith in his word: I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them (John 17:8).
We live in a culture that is very unspiritual, and even among those who profess to be believers there are many who have little patience with the slow, interior, and invisible work of God. Because they live by sight, and not with the eyes of faith, their hearts are in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction, for which they blame others and not themselves, and on account of which they are always busy trying to manipulate the people and circumstances around them. Yet for those who in the midst of the visible church behold by faith the beauty of the invisible church, there is an ironclad hope: they rest secure in the knowledge of the inevitable victory of the people of God. Like the chess player who has already won, they do not derive their confidence from what they see on the board in front of them, but from what they behold with the eye of the mind. Therefore let each one of us open the eyes of our faith that we may behold the glory of his invisible church: Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek YHWH: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. YHWH will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the Garden of YHWH (Is. 51:1-3).
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