David shares his notes from the first lecture in which Dr. Powlison talked about the relevance of our destination as glorified beings to the daily process of change now. Among the seven descriptions he gave of what life will be like when we are raised immortal is this one:
Some day, I will be good. So will everyone else. On the near side of evil is goody-goody, Pollyanna. On the far side of evil is good, a true good that has gone through evil and is truly good. I will be a person with no stain or calculation of self-interest. I will be genuinely living the beatitudes. I will be the person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, who is pure in heart, who is a peacemaker. Having been persecuted, I will be like Christ.I read that and marvel, "That will really be me?!" Grace truly is amazing, isn't it?
In addition to his class notes, David offers some exhilarating personal reflections on the glories of the new heavens and new earth as well as its occupants. Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.
4 comments:
Keith-
Thanks for posting this reference to the entry at jollyblogger. David Powlison is one of my favorite authors too, I know I will enjoy reading his entry in its entirety.
I was wondering, do you have some background or connection with CCEF or Biblical counseling? I rarely hear people mention either, so I was encouraged to see you do so on your blog. I studied Biblical counseling for four years at the Master's College, so I enjoyed reading some of your old posts and especially your review of Petty's book.
-Christa
Thanks for this post, but I have a question regarding one idea:
"I will be a person with no stain or calculation of self-interest."
Does he mean we will have no self-interest at all? Or does he mean that self-interest will be properly placed beneath our interest and motive to glorify God? Isn't it the case that most Christians think of virtue in the sense that all self-interest is bad? I think that's a mistake. I would argue that self-interest is good and necessary, but needs to be placed beneath interest in God's glory issuing in love to our neighbor. Heaven will be a world of love, as Edwards says. We will have self-interest, but we will not be selfish, correct?
Hi Keith,
I posted a longer reply to the issue of self-interest on my blog. It's called The Positive Side of Egoism. Let me know what you think of the Steve Wilkins quote from his book Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics.
Hi, Christa
I'm an avid reader of the Journal of Biblical Counseling as well as of practically anything I can get my hands on from David Powlison, Ed Welch, Paul Tripp and the other faculty at CCEF. Our church has hosted Ed Welch for a seminar based on his book, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave and we're currently making use of CCEF's excellent discipleship curriculum in addition to promoting other literature by their faculty. I'm very appreciative of the work they're doing to help liberate the American church from its therapeutic captivity.
Thanks so much for reading and for your much-appreciated encouragement.
Keith
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