Will World History Become the Ballad of Eternity?
00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC]
00:00:04.660 | Marilynne Robinson has written a novel titled Gilead, a beautiful novel of hers
00:00:08.480 | that you readily recommend, Pastor John.
00:00:10.600 | And at one place in the novel, this is what she writes, quote,
00:00:14.440 | in eternity, this world will be Troy, I believe.
00:00:17.920 | And all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe,
00:00:20.840 | the ballad they sing in the streets.
00:00:23.000 | Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and
00:00:27.480 | I think piety forbids me to try, end quote.
00:00:31.080 | What do you think, Pastor John?
00:00:32.040 | Will this life be a ballad of eternity?
00:00:35.240 | Obviously, there will be no tears and no regrets in heaven, but
00:00:37.720 | are there any biblical clues on the place of history in eternity?
00:00:41.320 | >> I would love to know what she means by piety forbids me to try.
00:00:48.560 | I know what I mean when I say yes to your question, because I agree with her.
00:00:55.480 | At least insofar as I understand her, I agree with her.
00:00:58.680 | When Troy is mentioned, not everybody might get that.
00:01:02.280 | Troy was the city that the Greek states were attacking to try to capture,
00:01:09.600 | and it was a ten year conquest, and Homer wrote the Iliad about it.
00:01:15.280 | And the Iliad, I think,
00:01:16.680 | focuses pretty much on the last several weeks of that conquest.
00:01:20.280 | And Troy is captured, and so the bravery is heralded for generations to come.
00:01:28.680 | And the Odyssey is about the coming home of Odysseus.
00:01:32.640 | And so in other words, a great historical exploit that is told and
00:01:39.320 | written in poems for generations to come.
00:01:41.880 | And she's saying, in the age to come, after Christ returns and
00:01:46.280 | the kingdom is established and the new heavens and the new earth are in place,
00:01:50.480 | the last thousands of years of church history that we are living in right now
00:01:55.920 | are going to be that balladry.
00:01:58.760 | They're going to be that, and I think that's right.
00:02:01.760 | So here's my reason.
00:02:04.280 | What is history for?
00:02:06.200 | What is history for?
00:02:08.280 | All your, this is Psalm 145, all your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord.
00:02:14.480 | All your saints shall bless you.
00:02:16.800 | They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power
00:02:22.120 | to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and
00:02:25.520 | the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
00:02:27.600 | And I want to say, what?
00:02:28.720 | They're just going to stop?
00:02:29.840 | [LAUGH]
00:02:31.640 | All of that is magnificently worth heralding now, and
00:02:34.880 | it won't be magnificently worth heralding then?
00:02:38.240 | I don't think so.
00:02:39.040 | What does Christ's work mean?
00:02:47.360 | When I read in Revelation 5 that they are singing,
00:02:55.680 | in heaven worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.
00:03:00.600 | For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for
00:03:03.600 | God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
00:03:07.240 | They're singing that ages after the event in heaven,
00:03:13.480 | they're singing about the cross.
00:03:14.600 | Now, what meaning could the cross possibly have in heaven
00:03:20.560 | if the history of redemption is forgotten?
00:03:23.480 | Nothing, it will be meaningless.
00:03:26.440 | In other words, if you say, what will be celebrated about Jesus Christ?
00:03:30.760 | Surely, he will be celebrated for
00:03:33.840 | having fulfilled all the promises of the Old Testament.
00:03:36.680 | Surely, he will be celebrated in ways we've never seen
00:03:40.160 | by fulfilling everything the history of redemption was all about.
00:03:43.920 | Surely, he will be celebrated by being the ground and
00:03:47.120 | cause of every good thing that happened after him in the world.
00:03:51.160 | And so if Christ really is the center, the apex of redemptive history for
00:03:56.120 | that apex to have its meaning, then the rest of history of which it
00:04:01.360 | is the apex has to be known and understood and celebrated as well.
00:04:05.920 | And here's another pointer.
00:04:08.120 | Revelation 15, 3, they sing in heaven, they sing the song of Moses,
00:04:15.160 | the servant of God and of the Lamb.
00:04:16.680 | Now, the song of Moses is Exodus 15,
00:04:20.560 | where they're singing about the triumphs of the people of God over Pharaoh.
00:04:26.400 | So if we're singing about the Lamb and we're singing the song of Moses,
00:04:30.720 | surely that is symptomatic of singing the songs of the triumphs of God
00:04:36.080 | in world history right down to the salvation of Tony Ranke, surely, right?
00:04:41.080 | Why would your story not be told and not be remembered to the praise and
00:04:45.720 | the glory of God?
00:04:46.560 | You're a trophy of grace.
00:04:48.360 | Well, I think those trophies are gonna be walking around in the kingdom.
00:04:52.720 | And if you see a trophy on somebody's shelf, you say, what's that?
00:04:56.280 | And he tells you about the game, right, the game.
00:04:59.040 | And the season when the trophy was won.
00:05:03.160 | Or here's another clue.
00:05:06.800 | We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, Paul says,
00:05:09.960 | so that each one may receive his due from the body, what is good and what is evil.
00:05:14.480 | Well, if you're gonna receive something for what was good,
00:05:20.120 | though the good is gonna be remembered and something is gonna happen to you
00:05:23.760 | that will constantly call to mind the good.
00:05:26.680 | So there's another evidence or the ten talents, you're gonna be serving over ten
00:05:30.240 | cities, I'll be serving over five cities, and there will be some explanation for
00:05:34.400 | that, and the explanation is it has roots back in this age.
00:05:39.440 | Now, I think you asked also, well, wait a minute,
00:05:43.720 | there's a lot of sad stuff in this age, and he's gonna wipe away every tear.
00:05:48.880 | Okay, here's my take, and you can say this is speculative maybe,
00:05:53.960 | but I don't think Jesus is going to wipe away tears of joy.
00:05:59.880 | When he says every tear will be wiped away, he means painful tear,
00:06:03.640 | tear that is destructive and hurtful and paralyzing,
00:06:08.720 | and it makes my life miserable to have these tears and these memories.
00:06:13.240 | But if my, I mean, I'm sure most of our listeners will agree that
00:06:19.360 | the deepest joys have sometimes brought tears rather than laughter.
00:06:25.840 | Tears of stunned amazement that we've been treated so well,
00:06:30.800 | and those tears aren't gonna be wiped away, they're beautiful.
00:06:35.120 | You can see the sparkle of grace in those tears.
00:06:38.600 | And if you would ask me, well, will there be regrets?
00:06:43.280 | Hmm, for years I have tried to put together two texts that I think gives an answer to this.
00:06:52.000 | One is Philippians 3 where it says, forgetting what lies behind,
00:06:57.120 | we strain forward to the goal, so you're supposed to forget what lies behind.
00:07:00.800 | And the other is Ephesians 2 that says, remember that you were once separated from Christ.
00:07:06.640 | So you got a command to forget and a command to remember.
00:07:10.040 | How do you put those together?
00:07:11.080 | I put them together like this.
00:07:13.960 | Every regret and every memory will be done away with that cannot serve your greater joy,
00:07:24.360 | cannot serve your greater love for Jesus, your greater valuing of grace.
00:07:30.760 | So he will wipe away every way of remembering,
00:07:35.440 | every way of regretting that ruins your joy in heaven,
00:07:40.760 | and minimizes his mercy and minimizes his glory.
00:07:47.240 | But I think, Tony, that Marilynne Robinson is right that we have a great Troy in redemptive history,
00:07:57.480 | and God will see to it that all the mighty works of grace done in the thousands of years leading up to the second coming
00:08:05.480 | will not be forgotten.
00:08:07.320 | And yes, she's probably right that piety should prevent us from wanting it to be forgotten.
00:08:14.520 | Excellent. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:08:17.400 | Please email your literary questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:08:21.640 | At DesiringGod.org, you'll find thousands of other free resources online from John Piper.
00:08:25.840 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
00:08:27.480 | [Music]
00:08:29.480 | [Music]
00:08:31.480 | [Music]
00:08:33.480 | [BLANK_AUDIO]