Conquering Logic

John 16: 17-33, "Then said [some] of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? 18. They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. 19. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? 20. Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21.A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. 22. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. 23. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give [it] you. 24. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. 26. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. 31. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? 32. Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 33. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."



I know that's a good chunk of Scripture, but really, can that ever be said to be a bad thing? So, now I continue, and I kind of summarize the passage here as well. In this passage Jesus is telling the disciples that He is about to leave them. He is telling them that they will be sorrowful as a woman is sorrowful when she enters labor, but will possess the same joy of a new mother. He tells them they will no longer need to ask Him anything, because the Father will supply them according to His name. he says the Father loves them because they had loved Him (Christ). He continues on to tell them that all He has spoken here has been in parable, but that the time was rapidly approaching, when He would show them plainly, "of the Father." The disciples respond, almost offended, telling Him that right now even, he doesn't speak in parable and that He knows all things now, and that this is how they believe He comes from God. And Christ's response is as blunt as it is beautiful. He immediately poses the question, "Do ye now believe?" and proceeds to tell them of their forthcoming denials, betrayals, and abandonements. But He won't need them even so, for the Father will be with Him, He says. This is just as we are, when Christ is gone, while He is not here upon this earth, the Holy Ghost is, and we have access to the Father through Christ; finally the process complete, and the opportunity vulnerable.
In this passage Christ speaks about how after His ascension, no man will be able to pluck the joy from their hearts. Why? Because we now can ask anything we want of the Father. Our inheritance was and is and always will be the same as the disciples, which is to say that their inheritance was Christ's inheritance.
Why then are we so down-trodden by the ways of this world? Why am I continually sluggish every day with the voluntary vesting of this world's logic and thrill? No man can take my joy! Never! I think Christians who are either wallowing in their sin or are trying to make worldly sense of Biblical and divine Christianity, are even more miserable and confused and lonely than the unsaved and the scholars of the world themselves. Why?! Because we have the answer! We have the answer and yet we are almost trying to convince ourselves into the idea that we don't. It's like having the answer, the satisfactory, abundant, and ever sufficient answer to the world's hardest and most abstract equation. This is equation exists to the world as the equation of life and purpose. To separate these two things is to sever the spinal cord from the brain. The world can't figure it out! They can't! God makes no 'sense,' and in this world where life is seen only and fully as an equation, God does not, will not, cannot make sense to them until He shows them the answer. But we have it! We who are saved have it! Yet, we try and convince ourselves, almost daily, routinely, that we don't. THIS IS SINFUL. We aren't being satisfied with the answer God has given us, because we want to solve it on our own. But this is not what we are called to and this will never happen. It is like knowing that the answer to the equation 2+2 is 4, but trying to figure out a way to make it equal 5. It doesn't and it won't! The gospel is God given only. If it could be made and given by man, Christ being here would have been completely unnecessary, and yes, useless. But the gospel is that Christ came and lived a perfect life so the He would be the subsidiary sacrifice for us to put away sin, fulfilling the law, taking upon Him the ultimate spiritual death of spiritual separation from God, but then, being the master of both the physical and spiritual deaths, came back to life self-sufficiently, pure and holy, conqueror of all things that have, do, or ever will exist. If we only believe this as our own salvation by faith, that Christ brings us to Himself not of our own wicked will, but of His own perfect, holy, and conquering will, and that we are saved from our spiritual death only by His grace, and only through his death, his burial of separation, and His conquering and saving resurrection, then we will be saved. No man will come to this on his own, only be God can He be saved. Let every man who claims to have conquered death personally be conquered by the witness of the Scriptures of Christ's supreme resurrection. May you know the gospel, and may God see fit to pen your eyes if they are not already, and if they are, may you preach the gospel boldly and with joy, being soaked in the joy of His crusade against death, against flesh, and against your own will. Amen