God advises us, in the same way as traveller’s information, offered through your GPS, warns you of road construction, accidents, and traffic jams.
God’s enlightenment functions like the radar which helps a pilot avoid mountains while flying in zero-visibility conditions. As Webb Johnson writes,
In the same way, Jesus came to reveal the truth to us, to show us how things truly operate in the world. He came to remind us of the powers that run things behind the scenes, and expose their lies. His vision for us was not to condemn the sinners among us and offer them threats, but to expose the dark forces that seek to cloud men’s minds and mock God.
God offers us His guidance through His written word; through the study, preaching, and discussion of that word; and through the regular consumption of His body and blood, which is found in, with, and under the bread and wine.
Eventually, He will clear our spiritual vision, when He remakes the universe with a new heaven and a new earth, and gives us new bodies.
Until then, our groggy state makes us incapable of spiritual progress on our own. It is not we, but God who brings us forward (cf. Galatians 2:20). In salvation, man is passive and God is active. As Jeremiah writes:
Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city shall be rebuilt on its mound,
and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
and the voices of those who celebrate.
I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
Their children shall be as they were of old,
and their congregation shall be established before me,
and I will punish all who oppress them.
Their prince shall be one of themselves;
their ruler shall come out from their midst;
I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
for who would dare of himself to approach me?
declares The Lord.
And you shall be my people,
and I will be your God.”
This same divine action which wrought corporate and physical salvation, described in Jeremiah’s text, also works individual and spiritual salvation, for which Jeremiah’s text is an intentional metaphor.
