Tag Archives: 2 Corinthians 5

Edward Taylor, The Daintiest Draft.1

19 Saturday Dec 2020

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Union With Christ

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Meditation 30, First Series

2 Cor. 5:17

This poem contains an interesting ambiguity in the way in the precise focus of poem is in places difficult to find. The overall thrust of the poem is a prayer that the Lord would repair the ruined palace of the human being. It is a prayer that the Lord would make the poet into something new

Lord, make me thy new creature. (line 45). Which comes from the text for the meditation, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17.

The “palace” in need of repair is the human being. The ambiguity comes about by the unclear focus as to whether it is the poet or Christ who is immediately in view. To call the poet himself “the stateliest palace angels e’er did view” (3) seems wrong. That would necessarily be Christ, himself.  

It would also be appropriate to write that the palace had been spoiled by an enemy. In Isaiah 52:14, the prophet writes that “his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of man.”

In the second stanza, the poet writes

Thou wast more glorious than glory’s wealth. (8)

Again, this would be more appropriately addressed to Christ, than to read this as the poet writing thus of himself fin the second person. 

But then in line 26, Taylor writes

My Lord, repair thy palace. 

And the remainder of the poem unambiguously reckons the poet to be the palace to be repaired, with the prayer to be made a new creature being the sum of that prayer. The deliberate use of the word “palace” then brings us back to the first stanza and the reference to “the stateliest palace”. It is possible the move referenes to two separate palaces. 

But I suspect that Taylor is doing something else. The palace is the image of God which is the purpose and the created nature of each human being (“the image of thyself”). Jesus is the perfect representation of that image; human beings who were created to accurately reflect that image are now spoiled and need to be remade to display that image.

The ambiguity which runs in this poem in his moving between apparent references to Christ and then to the poet can be sorted by using Colossians 3:10 as a key:

And we have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. 

In Colossians 1:16 Paul identifies the creator as Christ, “For by him all things were created.” And in verse 15, Paul identified Christ as “the image of the invisible God.” 

The ambiguity in the poem as to the reference of the palace being renewed lies in the identification of the Christian with Christ. I think that Taylor is playing off of this identification and purposefully creating an ambiguity of a dual reference. This is inherent in text for the poem. Consider:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

To be “in Christ” is to be the “new creature”. What appertains to Christ becomes in a manner impressed upon the creature in Christ. This identification of the individual believer with Christ lies at the heart of this poem. 

The first stanza sets up the problem:

The daintiest draft thy pencil ever drew

The finest vessel, Lord, thy fingers framed

The stateliest palace angels e’er did view

Under thy hatch betwixt decks here contained

Broke, marred, spoiled, undone, defiled doth lie

In rubbish ruined by thine enemy. 

It begins with a series of three parallel descriptions of the object of the poem: “The daintiest draft”, “the finest vessel,” “the stateliest palace.” Dainty no longer carries the same connotation as it did for Taylor, but the meaning is apparent by looking at the parallel construction: This is the finest which could be. To call a human being a “draft” (a drawing) is an interesting play on the concept of “image.”

A vessel and palace likewise make sense as that bears or displays something greater. 

As we have previously considered, the reference is ambiguous in that it appears to refer to Christ (who would be the greatest of all examples) and yet the reference in the end will be to Taylor and his prayer to be remade.

The fourth line creates a nearly impossible combination of metaphors: this draft, vessel, palace, is now stowed between the decks of a ship. A draft could easily fit below deck, but to put a ship or even more strangely a palace below deck is impossible. Perhaps the use of the word “vessel” in line 2 suggested a return to a ship in line 4.

This for Taylor must have been a vivid image, when we realize that he had taken a ship from England to New England in the 17th century, which would have been a couple of months in a cramped tiny ship in the middle of the Atlantic. That many things must be been spoiled below decks on these trips in the salt water and bilge I take for granted. 

And it is there in the depths of the vessel, churning on the sea, something of surpassing value. An enemy has thrown it into the bilge where is now ruined and sloshing in the half light.

a bilge pump

This is an apt image for the fallen human race; and for the head of the redeemed race, the Second Adam Christ as he was struck down at the cross. 

And before leaving this stanza we should know the alliteration:

The daintiest draft thy pencil ever drew

The finest vessel, Lord, thy fingers framed

The stateliest palace angels e’er did view

Under thy hatch betwixt decks here contained

Broke, marred, spoiled, undone, defiled doth lie

In rubbish ruined by thine enemy. 

Playing Volleyball With Angels.

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by in 2 Corinthians

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I lament that many Christians today think of the afterlife more in line with Plato than with Jesus or Paul. Some devout Christians are captured with a vision that when they die, they will float about heaven like Caspar the friendly ghost, play volleyball with the angels on the clouds, and glide between stars like a mannequin in outer space. Michael F. Bird, Evangelical Theology

That sounds dreadful, an eternity as an idea! I love the sound of wind, the feel of rain, the smell of salt as the ocean meets the shore. Thank God that he has not left us without a hope that we will never know the touch of an other. Thomas touched Jesus. Jesus ate bread and fish. A life without death is a great blessing; a life without a body, hideous. 

This is perhaps the most joyous section of all Scripture:

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. [Without a body] 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed [by an uncorruptible body], so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

Edward Taylor, Raptures of Love.3

06 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Atonement, Edward Taylor, Meditation, Praise

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The previous post in this series is found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/edward-taylor-raptures-of-love-2/

Yea, beauteous he in all his glory stands,
Tendering himself to God, and man where he
Doth Justice thus bespeake, hold out thy hands:
Come take my pensworth now for mine of me.
I’ll pay the fine that thou seest meet to set
Upon their heads: I’ll die to clear their debts.

Line 1:
The accent falls on the first syllable followed by another accented syllable “beaut-” which creates a rush over the third syllable “-e-” as one moves toward the “he”. By rushing the third syllable one scans the first half of the line ”-‘. One then ends with ten syllables for the line (the second half is perfectly regular -‘-‘-‘) but one too many accents. The introductory “Yea” (note the common use of the “yea” in the Psalms. See, e.g., Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”) draws attention to the line: Yes it is true see this! The accent as well as the comma pause slow the movement of the poem slightly, which then leads to the rush toward “he”.

Line 2:
“Tendering himself to God”. Again the line begins with an accent which leaves accents on Ten-, him-, God. The scene described, Christ offering himself as the penal substitution for human sin (the doctrine is known as “penal substitutionary atonement”) comes from several passages in the Bible.

Isaiah 53:10:
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

John 11:50:
Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:21-25:
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Yet, the passage most likely in mind for Taylor is Hebrews 10:
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Line 3:
Christ is speaking to Justice, not Justice to Christ. The Justice of God is here personified.

It has been called (by Mark Dever, I believe) the riddle of the Bible. How can God both forgive and refuse to acquit sin?
5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 32:5-7.

The offering of Jesus in sacrifice fulfills the demands of justice and thus makes a way for God to forgive sin. Without the death of Christ, God’s forgiveness would be unjust or impossible.

Line 4: I can’t determine what is meant by “pensworth”. The word seems to mean a small amount in that a “pen” may refer to a “pin”. The other meaning for the word at time of Taylor would be “pen” as in a quill. However, small amount does not make sense in this instance. The death of Christ is of infinite value.

“for mine of me”: The offering of Christ is on behalf of “mine” that is those Christ will save; and “of me”, that is, from Christ.

Lines 5-6: Jesus willingly pays the entire penalty and owed for sin on behalf of those saved by Christ. The cost of sin is death:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11.

The Believer’s Last Day His Best Day.2

07 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Ecclesiastes, Hope, Philippians, Preaching, Puritan

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The first post on this sermon can be found here:
https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/the-believers-last-day-his-best-day-1/

That a believer’s last day is his best day; his dying-day is better than his birthday.This will be a very sweet and useful point to all believers. I shall first demonstrate the truth that it is so, and then make some use of this point to ourselves.

1. That death is a change of place. A believer when he dieth, he doth but change his place; he changeth earth for heaven, a wilderness for a Canaan, an Egypt for a land of Goshen, a dunghill for a palace. 2 Cor. 5:2-6; Phil. 1:21-23.. We be not in our place, and therefore we groan to be at home—that is, to be in heaven, to be in the bosom of Christ, which is our proper place, our most desirable home.

2. That death is a change of company. The best that breatheth in this world must live with the wicked, and converse with the wicked, &c.; and this is a part of their misery; it is their hell on this side heaven. Ps.12:1; Jer. 9:2; 2 Pet.2:7-8; Heb. 12-22-23….Oh, but death is a change of company. A man doth change the company of profane persons, of vile persons, &c, for the company of angels, and the company of weak Christians for the company of just men made perfect.

3. Death is a change of employment. …The work of a believer in this world lies in praying, groaning, sighing, mourning, wrestling, and fighting, &c. And we see throughout the Scripture that the choicest saints, that have had the highest visions of God, have driven this trade; they have spent their time in praying, groaning, mourning, wrestling, and fighting: Eph. 6:12, … The truth is, the very life of a believer is a continual warfare, and his business is to be in the field always. They have to deal with subtle enemies, malicious enemies, wakeful enemies, and watchful enemies; with such enemies that threw down Adam in paradise, the most innocent man in the world, and that threw down Moses, the meekest man in the world, and Job, the patientest man in the world, and Joshua, the most courageous man in the world, and Paul, the best apostle in the world, &c. A Christian’s life is a warfare. …Job 14:14; 2 Tim. 4:8 ….Death is a change of employment. It changeth this hard service, this work that lies in mourning, wrestling, and fighting, for joying and singing hallelujahs to the Almighty. Now no prayers, but praises; no fighting and wrestling, but dancing and triumphing. Can a believing soul look upon this glorious change, and not say, Surely ‘better is the day of a believer’s death than the day of his birth’? Death is the winding-sheet that wipes away all tears from the believer’s eyes, Rev. 7:9.

4. Death is a change of enjoyments,

(4A) It is a change of our more dark and obscure enjoyment of God, for a more clear and sweet enjoyment of God. I say, the best believer that breathes in this world, that doth see and enjoy most of God, and the visions of his glory, yet he enjoys not God so clearly, but that he is much in the dark. … The truth is, we are able to bear but little of the discoveries of God, there being such a mighty majesty and glory in all the spiritual discoveries of God. We are weak, and able to take in little of God. Job 23:8-9
… This is our greatest burden, that our apprehensions of God are no more clear, that we cannot that our apprehensions of God are no more clear, that we cannot see him face to face whom our souls do dearly love. Oh, but now in heaven saints shall have a clear vision of God: there be no clouds nor mists in heaven.

(4B.) It is a change of our imperfect and incomplete enjoyments of God, for a more complete and perfect enjoyment of him. Job 26:14; 1 Cor.13:12 … There is no complaints in heaven, because there is no wants. Oh, when death shall give the fatal stroke, there shall be an exchange of earth for heaven, of imperfect enjoyments for perfect enjoyments of God; then the soul shall be swallowed up with a full enjoyment of God; no corner of the soul shall be left empty, but all shall be filled up with the fulness of God. … The best Christian is able to take in but little of God; their hearts are like the widow’s vessel, that could receive but a little oil. Sin, the world, and creatures do take up so much room in the best hearts, that God is put upon giving out himself by a little and little, as parents do to their children; but in heaven God will communicate himself fully at once to the soul; grace shall then be swallowed up of glory.

(4C) It is a change of a more inconstant and transient enjoyment of God, for a more constant and permanent enjoyment of God. Here the saints’ enjoyment of God is inconstant. One day they enjoy God, and another day the soul sits and complains in anguish of spirit. Psalm 61:3, 42:5, 30:6-7; 1 Thess. 4:17-18 ….. It is heaven and happiness enough to see Christ, and to be for ever with Christ. Now, oh what a glorious change is this! Methinks these things should make us long for our dying-day, and account this life but a lingering death.

5. Death is a change that puts an end to all external and internal changes. What is the whole life of a man, but a life of changes? Death is a change that puts an end to all external changes. ….All temporals are as transitory as a hasty, headlong torrent, a ship, a bird, an arrow, a post, that passeth by. Man himself—the king of these outward comforts—what is he, but a mere nothing?—the dream of a dream, a shadow, a bubble, a flash, a blast. …And then it puts an end to all internal changes. Now the Lord smiles upon the soul, and anon he frowns upon the soul. Now God gives assistance to conquer sin, anon the man is carried captive by his sin; now he is strengthened against the temptation, anon he falls before the temptation,

Death is another Moses: it delivers believers out of bondage, and from making brick in Egypt. …

6. Death is a change that brings the soul to an unchangeable rest. It is the bringing of the soul to bed—to a state of eternal rest. That is the last demonstration of the point, that a believer’s dying-day is his best day. Now while we are here the soul is in a-toss. The best his best day. Now while we are here the soul is in a-toss. The best man in the world—that is highest and clearest in his enjoyments of God—is too often like to Noah’s dove that found no rest: Rev. 14:13; Isaiah 57:1-2

…Death is a believer’s coronation-day, it is his marriage-day. ….It is a rest from sin, a rest from sorrow, a rest from afflictions and temptations, &c. Death to a believer is an entrance into Abraham’s bosom, into paradise, into the ‘New Jerusalem,’ into the joy of his Lord.

We Make it Our Aim

10 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Numbers, Obedience

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Paul writes:

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Verse seven is routinely lifted from context and attached any an every adventure. But Paul puts the phrase into parallel with verse nine: We make it our aim to please him.
He makes sure that the point is plain by mentioning the judgment seat of Christ (10).

A fundamental misapplication of the text would be to locate the object of faith somewhere other than God’s will: for the aim is to please God.

Numbers 14 seems to provide a good illustration of that principle: there is the apparent understanding of the circumstance, the need to trust God to know more, and the context of pleasing God. When reading through the story note that the point of faith and action and punishment and forgiveness is the glory of God (our aim to please him):

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”
10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,
14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,
16 ‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’
17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,
18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’
19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”
20 Then the LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.
21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,
22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,
23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Mistakes About Mortification, A False Opposition to Sin.6

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in 1 Timothy, 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Mortification

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Love provides some more false motives for mortification. One may seek to lay off a sin, not because sin is a wrong against a holy God. Rather, one may seek mortification to ease the conscience or to look good before others. In both instances, one may cease from a certain sin because it is too much for their conscience or too much for their company. One man may not sin because he cannot sleep well, another because he wants no bad press.

I knew a man once who committed serial acts of sexual immorality, which required him to lie to another woman on a consistent basis. I asked him whether this troubled his conscience. He stated that it “used to” but after awhile, he got used to it.  Conscience is a door keeper, but conscience cannot bar the door. Given enough trouble, conscience will fold turn the heart over to its desires. Given enough trouble, conscience will eventually keep quiet. First Timothy 4:2 refers to such as those who “consciences are seared”.

The one who refuses to sin merely on the ground politics will end up like politicians, who are famous for being found out. No man or woman is perfect, and thus we should not be surprised to find error in another’s life. Moreover, such a discovery is a time for sorrow — not gloating. Yet, we must realize that even people with tremendous standing, people whose lives are under constant scrutiny, cannot restrain from sin even under the fear of exposure.

The only sure stay for sin is a life which seeks to glory God — who sees at all time, who knows all things, and who gives change from the heart outward. Only a life constrained by the love of Christ has a hope of mortifying sin (2 Cor. 5:14).

Love also proposes a final means of false opposition to sin: those who mortify sin “faintly and slowly”. These are people who truly do not want to be rid of their sin. Such a person is one who has not aimed for true mortification, and thus wants only the appearance of mortification. These are the children who are given a task against which they rebel. They may set off to clean their room or weed the garden, but as soon as they turn the corner their heals dig in and their pace slows.

These various false mortifiers will be found in counseling: They will come in all aflush because their husband will leave them or their conscience is troubled. You will speak with them, encourage them, pray for them, ease their conscience and seek to reconcile their marriage. Then when the trouble subsides, they will drift and then run to their former sin. They are like Pliable in Pilgrim’s Progress who very much want the Celestial City and yet have no sure sense of sin upon their back. They dislike the trouble of sin but do not hate the stain of sin. They want their sin — only without consequence.

When counseling look to see how diligently the counselee responds to spurs to mortification. If he responds slowly, then consider whether he is a false professor.

Praise God for Judgment.1

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Psalms

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When modern writers put some portion of the Psalms to music, they routinely jump over or drop references to judgment; but the Psalmists see nothing incongruous about worship and judgment:

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Ps. 96:11-13.

Could we praise a God who would not judge?

Consider for a moment the mountains of injustice heaped upon the world day after day for thousands of years. What if God had merely set that aside with a wink and a nod?

Would God be worthy of praise if he did judge murder and rape and theft and fraud and oppression? The Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky draws that question with relentless force:

“Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end… but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature … And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell me the truth.

If God does not judge, then God is wicked. If God forgives as a whim, without full payment for sin, then God is a devil.

But God does forgive and judge. He offers forgiveness based upon the judge wrought upon Jesus:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Praise God for his judgment .

2 Cor. 5:17-21.