Noticing the Elephant on the Diving Board
June 15, 2008
An article I read recently opened by describing the gospel as “a pool in which a toddler can wade and yet an elephant can swim.” While the imagery is meant to communicate the simultaneous simplicity and depth of the gospel, it also alerts us to a potential problem in studying one aspect of the gospel to the neglect of others. That is, we could become the toddler that wades for a while then assume he knows the full ins and outs of the pool.
Along those lines, one of the inherent shortcomings of a sermon series like “Hold Fast to the Gospel” is that our focus on holding fast to what Christ has done for us might lead us to conclude that our salvation is the only thing the cross and resurrection effected. However, a cursory reading of the material surrounding the texts we have studied raises our attention to the elephant on the diving board, ready to plunge into much deeper waters.
Consider the Colossians text we explored Sunday. Whereas 1:21-23 address the individual’s alienation from God due to sin and reconciliation to God due to Christ’s death, the preceding verses speak of reconciliation with a much broader scope: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19-20). Here Paul places my personal, blood-bought reconciliation to God in its broader context of God’s reconciliation of “all things” to himself, that is, the complete recreation of our fallen world.
1 Corinthians 15 contains the same gospel breadth. As our memory verses remind us, the death of Jesus was “for our sins,” and we are being saved as we hold fast to this truth. Later in the chapter Paul states that Christ’s resurrection also has an individualistic purpose, namely, our own resurrection on the final day (vv. 21-23). But the effects of Jesus’ death and resurrection are not limited to individuals’ forgiveness and promise of resurrection. Consider verses 24-26:
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
In the gospel pool, the toddler can affirm, “Jesus died so my sins can be forgiven and rose so that I may have eternal life.” And for the elephant the gospel provides unfathomable waters: that the cross was the beginning of the end for spiritual powers opposed to God; that Christ is reigning and and will about a fully reconciled world where death is no more; that the resurrection was the beginning of the new creation which will result not only in believers’ resurrection but the recreation of the physical world.
As we hold fast to the gospel, let us wade securely in its simplicity and allow ourselves to plunge deeper and deeper into its eternal implications.
Pastor Chris