Paradigm 30: Discipleship and sacred trust

In this last chapter Edmund Chan looks at Jesus' last words recorded in the Gospel according to Luke (23:46). In the other Gospels there is no record of Jesus calling out, "Into Your hands I commit my spirit". Luke makes it explicit that the "loud cry" mentioned in Matthew 27:50 and Mark  15:37 was indeed this very statement. John instead records Jesus' dying words as "It is finished" (GK: tetelestai) instead. Tradition places the loud cry of "Into Your hands I commit my spirit" ("The (7th)word of reunion") after "It is finished" ("The (6th)word of triumph"). It is a quote from Ps 31:5 - "Into your hand I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God."

Do we shout in trust before or after we have finished our work? I think the gospels are not clear, but the traditional sequence seems more likely to me since it makes more logical sense. Theologically it also makes more sense that Christ, having finished the work of redemption and paid the price for sin, can now be reunited with the Father.

Sacred trust (dependence, belief in someone as faithful to promises, whom we can stake something on) is important in discipleship. This is because discipleship is not just following a set of principles or moral ideals - to be a disciple we must have a Master. We must know who it is we are knowing, following and becoming like. When the journey is difficult and our Lord leads us through valleys of the shadow of death (Ps 23:4) we can doubt His goodness and love. We trust that He is still leading us in paths of righteousness (Ps 23:3) to green pastures and still waters (Ps 23:2-3). We will quickly lose our motivation to follow Him. This trust should be a settled confidence rather than an intermittent feeling. But that trust must rise to the heights needed to overcome particularly difficult times of great testing or death. 

Why would we think God is trustworthy? God is trustworthy because

• We know His character as revealed in the Bible
• We know how faithfully He dealt with us in the past. We have had personal encounters and experiences with Him before that tell us that He will act in the same way again.
  
• We know His saving goodness to all who trust Him. Others apart from us have experienced His faithfulness.

I think of Paul's statement of trust here:

"But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me."(2 Ti 1:12)

Paul says that he is unashamed of his suffering (v.12a), because he knows 2 things:

• the One "in whom (he has) believed"
• that that One has the power to guard "my deposit " (Gk paratheke)

Who has entrusted the deposit? And to whom is is entrusted? I think the ESV main reading (that God has entrusted something to us) is preferred over the variant in the footnote (that we have entrusted something to God). I feel that the context (especially v.14) is decisive: Paul tells Timothy to guard what has been entrusted to the latter by the Holy Spirit in 'us', suggesting that it is through the Spirit that God guards what is entrusted to Paul as well. The context of 2 Ti 1 speaks of Timothy's heritage of faith (v.5), his spiritual gift (v.6) and  the gospel worth suffering for (v.8, 10). So I think Paul's idea of 'deposit' is all the spiritual wealth God has given both of them. He expresses confidence in Christ's power to keep Him, not in his long-standing faith or spiritual merits. Paul rests in Jesus' power to keep him to the end. This too, is our confidence as fellow-disciples with Paul.

Jude 1:24-25 is a doxology to the One who will keep us from stumbling and save us to the very end. This doxology would be meaningless if God were to keep only some (and not all) of His children from stumbling! So we should be assured of the ultimate success of our journey of discipleship and give Him all the glory for His guarding us.

Now unto Him who is able to keep, able to keep you from falling

And present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty

Dominion and power both now and forever

Amen!