http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/14727450/we-have-a-father-over-all

Audio Transcript

On Friday we looked at the return of Christ. It has not happened yet; it’s yet to come in the future. When? Today we talk about timing; namely, we are going to look at one of the clear pieces of evidence that Christ’s return is drawing near. Here’s the question from a listener to the podcast named Alex. “Hello, Pastor John! I have a question about what Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, where he said of the end times that ‘lawlessness will be increased’ and that ‘the love of many will grow cold.’ What does Jesus mean when he says love will grow cold? Where will this be evidenced? What is ‘cold love’? And how can we prevent this in our own lives?”

Yes, that last question is the nub of the matter, isn’t it? So, let’s set the stage from Matthew 24, where the quote comes from in verse 12.

Beginning of Birth Pangs

Jesus had just looked at the temple in Jerusalem and said, “Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). And then the disciples asked him, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3).

Now, that phrase “end of the age” refers to the phase of history that we are in, ending with the coming of Christ in judgment, separating the sheep and the goats, raising the dead. We know that because of the way the phrase is used in Matthew 13:39–43, where Jesus interprets the parable of the weeds like this:

The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The disciples had heard Jesus talk about this. They had heard this description of the end of the age, and they were asking about the end of this period of history marked by that amazing final judgment. They didn’t know how that related to the destruction of the temple, when all the stones would be thrown down. They were asking about both. Jesus answers by describing the kinds of things that will mark this age leading up to the end of this age. For example,

Many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:5–6)

“Hate is the final outcome of hypocritical love — just the shell of love where the warmth has gone out.”

So, he says, “The end is not yet.” He has the end in view, but he warns them that there’s going to be some time lapse here. It’s not the very end yet. The end is not yet. These things will be happening on the way to the end. This will be your experience leading up to the end. Then he adds, “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:8), to make clear that there is some time lapse before the end. This is the beginning of the birth pangs. They will last for some unspecified time, and then there will be the end of the birth pangs as the new order is brought to birth.

Four Observations on ‘Cold Love’

He goes on:

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:10–14)

Now, here are four observations.

1. Cold love is the opposite of warm familial affection.

For example, in Genesis 43:30, when Joseph was about to reveal his identity to his brothers, it says, “Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep.” We see the same thing in Hosea 11:8. God says to Israel, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? . . . My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.”

So, cold love is the shell of love that has lost its inner familial warmth.

2. Cold love betrays.

The effect of this coldness is that brother betrays brother. Matthew 24:10, “Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” That hate is the final outcome of hypocritical love — just the shell of love where the warmth has gone out, and ice has come in, and the upshot is no longer just hypocritical love but rather hate that betrays brother to brother.

3. Cold love results from lawlessness.

Jesus says that the reason for this upsurge of cold, hypocritical love that eventually betrays a brother is owing to the increase of lawlessness. Matthew 24:12, “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” That’s worth thinking about, because you might want to turn it around like this: “Because love grew cold, there’s a lot of lawlessness.” The root of this growing coldness of love in the church toward each other is a deep hostility to authority. That’s my interpretation of lawlessness: a deep hostility to authority, especially God’s authority. That’s what lawlessness is at root. “I will not submit to law from outside my sovereign self. I’m not going to yield to authority anymore.”

Now, to use the language of Paul, the church becomes infected with “the mind of the flesh” rather than “the mind of the Spirit”:

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. [That’s lawlessness.] Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7–8)

The upsurge of lawlessness is the upsurge of self, the mind of the flesh over God, the insubordinate, “I will not submit,” stiff-necked self. And Paul speaks directly to this lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 in relation to the second coming. He says that a great apostasy must come before the end, along with “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Make that connection between Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8)

So, just when anti-authoritarian lawlessness inside and outside the church seems to be reaching its fevered peak in history, Jesus will step forward and return on the clouds, and there will be a great reversal.

4. Cold love must be combatted.

Finally, a fourth observation to Alex’s question about how we can prevent coldness of love from taking over our own hearts. Since cold love, Jesus says, comes from the increase of lawlessness, we must fight upstream, so to speak, from the river of love. We’ve got to get up there to the springs. We must fight against arrogance and pride and self-sufficiency — that is, against the spirit of lawlessness in our hearts that says, “I will not submit. I don’t like people telling me what to do, least of all an omnipotent God.”

“The root of growing coldness of love in the church toward each other is a deep hostility to authority.”

Lawlessness means we want to be our own law. We don’t want anybody — especially an infallible, omnipotent God — telling us what to do. We want to create our own meaning, create our own identity, create our own rules. And when this happens, we have cut ourselves off from Christ and from the Holy Spirit — and therefore from love.

Let me end with the way Hebrews 10:24–25 exhorts us in view of the second coming:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Bad mirrors disturb me. FaceTime clearly lies. That box in the corner reflects a fish-eye view of my bulbous nose. Surely I don’t look like this! The mirror in an airplane bathroom reveals scales and blotches I’ve never seen before. Is this reality? The disdain in the eyes of someone who opposes me reflects only my failures. My deficiencies are all he shows me. I walk away from these mirrors with a deflating lack of confidence. Surely no one could be drawn to this visage! I need a better mirror.

We have one in the Bible. The seventeenth-century pastor and poet George Herbert delighted in the word of God. He opens his poem “The Holy Scriptures (1)” with ardent affection: “Oh Book! infinite sweetnesse! . . . Precious for any grief in any part; . . . Thou art all health.” Herbert goes on to compare Scripture to a mirror that does more than reflect. True, we see ourselves clearly in the word; it reveals more flaws than we can imagine. But at the same time, Scripture changes us. This mirror makes us better the more we look. Herbert writes,

. . . look here; this is the thankfull glasse,

That mends the lookers’ eyes: this is the well     That washes what it shows.

The truth-telling mirror of Scripture exposes and composes us. Imagine a mirror that would make you as appealing as you could hope to be. Imagine a well of clear water that not only reflected but washed you clean of dirt and blemishes. When we read Scripture with open hearts and in reliance on the Spirit, that’s what happens.

Let’s look at three ways this encounter with Scripture becomes a transforming mirror.

1. Mirror of Conviction

The flaws revealed by those wretched airplane mirrors are nothing compared to what we see of ourselves in the Bible. It takes a lot of courage to peer into this looking glass of truth. Hebrews describes how Scripture works: “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

There’s a good reason we avoid reading the Bible when we know we’re not living according to our calling in Christ. The word fillets the soul. Full light shines on the ugly truth of my motives. I’m caught worshiping false gods. My double heart cannot be hidden under a Christian facade. Everything comes to light in Scripture’s truth.

For instance, this verse regularly nails me in traffic: “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Or, amid the busyness of all I want to get done, these words of Jesus stop me in my tracks: “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45). The mirror of Scripture peels away pretense and shows us the truth about ourselves.

“Scripture changes us. This mirror makes us better the more we look.”

Hebrews goes on, “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). There’s no more realistic sight of the human condition than what we get in the looking glass of God’s word. We might well be tempted to keep this mirror draped with a sheet, or at least under a stack of magazines. But the mirror of Scripture also shows me in a light I desperately need.

2. Mirror of Redemption

The Spirit uses the sight of my reflection in Scripture to strip away my prideful self-sufficiency. When I see myself in the prodigal or the angry elder brother, in the faithless disciple or the judgmental Pharisee, I know that I cannot live a God-pleasing life on my own. The word peels away the illusion that I am in control and reveals my helplessness, all so that Christ can show me what I look like united to him.

If you’ve ever worked your way through the book of Romans, you know this movement from conviction to redemption. The first three chapters show me as a suppresser of reality, foolishly exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:18, 25). In this mirror, we all look pretty much the same, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). I see myself truly in the word, an enemy of God and his purposes for humanity. But as I keep looking, I see Jesus reconciling me to God through his death: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). There’s no cleaning up my image with a divine Zoom background. Rather, there is a costly, realistic atonement.

When I look in the mirror of Scripture, I get re-visioned. The image of me transfers from a lonely sinner, isolated by my own choices, to someone joyfully in communion with Christ in all his righteousness. I see myself incorporated into Jesus. I am a member of his body, connected to all the others who are also in him (12:4–5). This new sight of myself fills me “with all joy and peace in believing” (15:13).

3. Mirror of Transformation

The mirror of Scripture also propels us on the journey of being made more and more like Christ, our sanctification. We become like what we look at. For instance, I love being around joyful people. Their laughter and dancing eyes and constant hope make me view life that way. I smile more and love more when I see a face that reflects such love. So when I look at Jesus prayerfully through the word, I see what we were meant to be. He shows me more than I am in myself, but in such a way that I can participate in all that he is.

Here’s how John describes it:

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. . . . Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1–2)

When I read these words, I see the image of a beloved child held by the Father. Scripture reflects back to me that I belong to God. It also shows me that more is coming. One day, I will see Jesus in all his glory — power and humility, meekness and majesty. “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Gazing at him with clear sight, I will become like him. Similarly, Paul expresses elsewhere,

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. . . . For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:6)

In Scripture, we look upon Jesus. As we look away from ourselves to all that Jesus is and does, we get changed from the inside out. Jesus is a mirror for what we are meant to be and all we will be in him.

Scripture’s Glass

We look in the glass of Scripture and see ourselves with terrifying accuracy. But if we keep gazing in faith, we see ourselves taken into Christ. He is mending us as we look at him in his word. We are being made into his likeness.

Herbert concludes his poem with one more metaphor. He says about Scripture, “Heav’n lies flat in thee.” The heights of Christ’s heavenly glory are contained in the flat pages of a Bible. We go up to Christ in Scripture only when we go down before him in humility. The mirror that mends is “subject to ev’ry mounters bended knee.” In repentance, I let the first reflection from the word move me to cry out for grace. Then I discover how my image gets cleansed and taken into the glory of the Savior’s face I see revealed in Scripture.