Thriving in the Tension

A People of His Own Possession

1 Peter 2:9 KJV — But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a PECULIAR PEOPLE; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light

Titus 2:14 KJV — who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a PECULIAR PEOPLE, zealous of good works.

The King James Version of the Bible says that we are “a peculiar people”. The word “peculiar” here means you are special and exceptional because you are God’s possession. He has redeemed you out of this sin-corrupted world and into His holy heavenly family, and this inherently makes you radically different from the world and those who remain in it. Instead of “peculiar people”, most modern translators would say “people of His own possession”. By being His own possession, you are different and special. You are owned and treasured by God, and therefore you no longer fit into the world’s system.

Imagine going to a junkyard. As you search through the nasty, dirty, rusty pieces of old vehicles, one particular hunk-a-junk catches your eye. You buy it from the junkyard, haul it home, and put all of your supernatural efforts and resources into restoring this thing. When you’re done, you have a beautifully and perfectly restored car that would sell for millions of dollars. The junkyard didn’t see what they had. And if they had seen it, they didn’t have the ability or resources to restore the vehicle. The perfectly restored, highly valuable vehicle no longer fits in or belongs in the junkyard, and the junkyard no longer has any claim on the vehicle. It is peculiar!

Jesus famously says (John 14:30b-31a ESV), “He [the ruler of this world] has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” Now that He has purchased you through the cross, the ruler of this world also has no claim on you. You have been claimed by Christ, and you do as He commands, not for salvation but so that the world may know that you love Him. When I see a man driving a beautifully restored classic vehicle, I think, “Man, that guy must really love his car.” And if the car had a soul, wouldn’t it love the man who purchased it and painstakingly restored it?

1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV — Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

You love someone you’ve never seen with your eyes, and even now, you believe and rejoice in an invisible God. How can you love, rejoice, and believe someone you can’t see? You are peculiar!

You’re no longer a cog in the world’s machine. You throw a wrench in the works. Have you heard that saying? It means that you disrupt a running plan or system. In a system dedicated to what we can touch, see, and sense, your presence is like a metal wrench being thrown into the gears of a machine, causing it to jam or break. Peculiar people really mess up the devil’s conveyor belt to hell. That’s what this world system is: a conveyor belt to hell. And it runs smooth until a peculiar people show up.

A People of Faith

Slowly read through chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. Go verse by verse, taking your time. Pay attention to the people described in the verses.

This chapter describes the essence of who we are as a people of faith. We live and operate according to unseen principles. Our facts are not based in flesh and bones and natural matter, but our facts proceed from our faith relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV — By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV — These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Because of our faith, we believe that greater things are coming. We’re not rooted into this world or its standards of life, therefore we are strangers and exiles here. We seek a city of God, a heavenly homeland, a better country that is founded, designed, built, and prepared by God for us. We walk now with eyes forward, in a tension between faith in the present and the future.

Hebrews 11:39-40 ESV — And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

The forerunners of faith did not receive what was promised, because they cannot receive it apart from us. Their faith and our faith are corporate. And the promise is not dying and going to heaven. We live for a promise that is bigger than any one of us or any single generation. We seek something that is both a place and a people, multigenerational and multiethnic. A city is not a house of one, but a center of life for multitudes —a large, densely populated urban area with a government, businesses, and residential areas.

Hebrews 11:35 ESV — Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.

Throughout Hebrews 11 there are repeated themes of a future city and resurrection. The promise for which every person of faith lives is the resurrection life with the reigning God-King in His perfect Kingdom. Jesus will catch up those that are His, both the living and the dead, and we will be made perfect together as His governing body. We will reign with Him on this earth for one-thousand years, and then:

Revelation 21:1-2 ESV — Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

A People of Tension

Living by faith is living in the midst of tension. We earnestly seek something that we cannot see while the world around us does everything that it can to conform us to what can see. It uses temptation, ridicule, rejection, and persecution to pull us into its operating system. It says, “Join our amazing city! You can see it and touch! It’s both pleasurable to the eye and full of exotic flavors. You don’t have to go anywhere. Stop seeking and stay with us. Find contentment, belonging, and identity among us.” The city of this world is a conveyor belt to hell.

John 17:14-17 ESV — “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

We are not of the world, yet Jesus doesn’t want to take us out of world. He wants us in the world, but he doesn’t want the world in us. We are here (world) yet citizens of there (Kingdom), and there (Kingdom) is in here (both within me and among us), and yet more of there (Kingdom) is coming to here (world). The Kingdom is at hand and the Kingdom is coming.

Hebrews 2:8b ESV — Now in putting everything in subjection to him [Jesus], he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

Jesus Christ has been given all authority over everything. He said this before He commissioned us to go make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20), “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” The Father left nothing outside of the Son’s control. Yet here is where faith is required: “At present, we do not yet SEE everything in subjection to Him.” Here is the tension: everything is under Him yet we don’t see everything under Him.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Though we may look around and see continual rebellion, corruption, and violence, in faith we have assurance that Christ is on the throne. We have been raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places, and we must now see by faith from this heavenly perspective (Ephesians 2:6, Colossians 3:1). Without faith, we do not see everything in subjection to Jesus. But through faith…

Psalm 110:1 ESV — The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

1 Corinthians 15:25 ESV — For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

Hebrews 10:12-13 ESV — But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Hebrews 2:9 says everything is in subjection to Jesus yet we do not presently see everything in subjection to him. What we see doesn’t line up with what we believe. Faith thrives (exists and is strengthened) in the midst of this tension between what is unseen and what is seen.

Tension — apply a force to something that potentially stretches it; a strained state or condition resulting from forces acting in opposition to each other; a relationship between ideas or qualities with conflicting demands or implications

Tug-of-war is an example of tension. You have two teams pulling the rope from opposite directions. Notice that there is no tension if there is not opposing tugs. Faith is one of those mysterious things that puts us right in the midst of the tension.

When we discover the truth in the tension, we have a Jesus encounter. Colossians 1:17 says that in Jesus “all things hold together.” He is the unbreakable rope who is powerful enough to take the tension and create impossible unity in what appears to be a paradox. The Kingdom is full of what appear to be opposing concepts that pull in opposite directions. Yet these seemingly contradictory or oppositional concepts can be both 100% true and simultaneous, for example Kingdom is here yet Kingdom is coming. A peculiar people of faith press into the tension, for this is the place of intimacy and increase.

A People Strengthened & Stretched

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to actually press into the tension together. We’re going to spend some time stretching together. I’ve mentioned repeatedly that Isaiah 54:2 is a key scripture for us right now.

Isaiah 54:2ESV — “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.”

We are in a time of strengthening and stretching. We must intentionally establish ourselves in Jesus (who is the Truth and the Word) so that we can stretch without holding back. If we don’t get deeply and firmly established, we will not be ready for the stretching. But through the stretching, God increases our boundaries of Kingdom influence. You are a peculiar people designed and called to be a connector between heaven and earth, the Kingdom and the world, the unseen and the seen. Press into the tension and get ready to be stretched!

Seeking His face!
Matt