On Disappointment
No Longer Humans but Angels (and Demons)
The following extracts are from the recent article ‘No Longer Humans, but Angels (and Demons)’ by Dan Strange. It is published in Themelios, Vol 46 Issue 2.
“My colleague asked what had kept [a bishop] persevering in ministry all these years. We were all expecting something uplifting yet predictable: ‘The glory of God’, ‘love for the sheep’, ‘my prayer life’, even ‘my wonderful family’, etc. What we got was somewhat different. The bishop paused, looked down at the lectern, looked up at us all, and responded with the following: ‘An infinite capacity for disappointment’…
…‘Life under the sun’ may feel like one disappointment after another, but life in the Son in faith union is the opposite. Jesus Christ is the one who never disappoints and whose blessings never disappoint. He really is the only one who, with fellow-feeling and sympathy, has an infinite capacity for disappointment in our dismal failures. And Jesus is the one who has secured disappointment’s end in the promise of the new heaven and new earth—that Greatest Expectation finally realised. In the reality of the resurrection and ascension of Christ we see the declaration of the Father well pleased with his beloved Son. This is the Christian negentropic principle: God has installed his king on Zion, his holy mountain (Ps 2:6).
Commenting on this verse Spurgeon writes:
Read the full articleIs not that a grand exclamation! He has already done that which the enemy seeks to prevent. While they are proposing, he has disposed the matter. Jehovah’s will is done, and man’s will frets and raves in vain. God’s Anointed is appointed, and shall not be disappointed.
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David