Terry
set out a challenge for us to take into our considerations over the
next week. It was a good challenge; the kind that is already bearing
fruit as we read of God's splendor in people's lives. I will be taking
his challenge with me this week.
I read
this discussion between jt and js (see below, waaay below), and my
heart becomes heavy. Rather than saying why that is at this time, I
would like to put forth another challenge for the week ahead. In
our quiet time, when we're just reading the Bible because we love
God's word, why don't we pay attention to the relationship between
the indicatives of grace and how they stand in comparison to the
imperatives of obedience? There's much to be learned here
and appreciated if we will but try to do it.
If you
are unfamiliar with my terms, please allow me to explain them a little
further. Indicatives are verbs that indicate the status of relationship
between the subject and the object of a sentence. Indicatives do not
expect or request things of the object; they simply indicate and
declare; e.g., in Jesus' prayer of John 17, look at the nature of the
subject-object relationships in verse 19 -- "For their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through truth." Jesus is the
subject throughout this statement. The verb "sanctify" is indicative.
Jesus sanctifies himself that the objects of his act, the their and theys, might also be sanctified
through truth. The verb indicates his heart for them; it indicates his
desire for them; it indicates his intention for them; it indicates his
willingness to suffer on their behalf, it indicates how he loves them,
all very relational stuff. The "indicatives of grace" are those
verbs that indicate the status of our relationship with the Father,
through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. What is the status of that
relationship? That is the question.
Imperatives,
on the other hand, are verbs which do make requests and carry
expectations. Often times in statements where the verb is an
imperative, the speaker, the one making the request, is not explicitly
identified in the statement itself. We have to look for the speaker
elsewhere in the context of the passage to determine his identity. By
nature then imperatives are less relational than indicatives in terms
of closeness between the subject and objects involved. This is not to
say that imperatives are non-relational verbs -- quite the opposite. It
simply means that the subject-object relationship of imperatives is
dependent upon the closeness supplied by the indicatives of their
relationship. In other words, relational proximity is established by
indicatives and not imperatives. Let me say this differently.
Let's
look at Matthew 28.18-20; there's all kind of indicatives and
imperatives in this passage. Let's look at how they relate. When Jesus
says, "... Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, ..." the words "go" and "make" are imperatives. They
are commands. The subject of this statement itself is "you." You go and
you make disciples. Now, the question is, is Jesus heaping the whole
weight of disciple making upon the backs of his disciples? This
statement, by itself (and without support from a greater context!),
sounds as though he is. It doesn't sound like he is close to them; it
sounds like he's abandoning them! Is that the case? No! Of course not But
we can only know that if we go looking for the proximity of the
speaker, the first subject of the statement, in
relationship to the recipients of his command (This is so
important, because sometimes the indicatives of the Speaker-recipient
relationship are several verses removed from the imperatives of his
request, sometimes they even show up after the imperatives have been
stated. BECAUSE sometimes the commandments will make us feel very
isolated and over weighted, AND SO we need know how to find something
to indicate the nature of our relationship to the speaker).
Where
is Jesus going to be while his disciples are making disciples? What is
his role in all of this? Where is he speaking from? To answer those
questions we have to look for something which indicates the status of
Jesus' relationship to his disciples. In this instance we do not have
to look very far: "And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. ... and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age." The verbs "came" and
"spoke" are indicatives. The verb "is given" is indicative. The verb
"am," in I am with you always, is indicative. What is the relational
status between Jesus and his disciples in the commandment to "go" and
"make"? It is very close and tight, Jesus empowering his disciples. We
know this because of the indicatives supplied by the greater context.
Disciples go and make new disciples through his authority and power,
baptizing them in his name (the name of our God) and teaching them to
obey, and we do this knowing that he is close and
that he is with us always. Oh those wonderful indicatives of Grace!
The
challenge for us is to search out those indicatives of grace every time
we come across an imperative of obedience. Where is the speaker? Who is
the speaker, really? What do His indicatives indicate about the status
of our relationship with Him? What does being obedient to what he
commands indicate about our relationship to Him?
I
think if we will take this challenge and place it alongside Terry's,
we'll find that we have all kinds of things to be thankful for, and we
won't be bored or running out of things to do -- everything to the
glory of this wonderful Savior.
Thanks,
Bill Taylor
