Your Amen (2 of 2)

Part Eight gave him the forty days, so that when he says Amen to the resurrection he is saying it to a body of evidence that the risen King accumulated with the specific intention of leaving no room for doubt.

And Part Nine has given him the Amen itself — the name and nature of the One whose voice he has been hearing throughout. So that when he speaks his own Amen, he knows who it is directed to.

The King has spoken. He has sealed what He has spoken. He is the Amen. What remains is yours to give: the wholehearted, informed, cost-counted confirmation that He is who He says He is, that what He has promised He will perform, and that following Him is the only life worth living.

Three Amens for the Disciple to Speak

This chapter closes not with a summary but with three specific Amens that the disciple who has received this volume is now positioned to speak. Not as a liturgical exercise. As the actual response of a person who has been changed by what he has received.

Amen to Who He Is

The first Amen is the Amen of recognition. Jesus is the Amen — the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. He is the I AM of John 8:58, eternal before Abraham. He is the One who holds all things together. He is the One in whom all divine promises are Yes. He is the One at the right hand of the Father, interceding for the disciple right now, as this sentence is being read.

To speak Amen to who He is is to say: I have received this. Not as information I have processed. As the reality around which I am orienting my entire existence. He is the Amen. My life says Amen to that.

Amen to What He Has Said

The second Amen is the Amen of reception. The Verily statements have been given. The constitution of the Kingdom has been declared. The definition of eternal life has been stated. The hard words have been spoken. The prayer authority has been conferred. The resurrection has been established.

To speak Amen to what He has said is to say: I receive all of it. Not the parts that are easy to receive. Not the parts that are culturally acceptable. Not the parts that confirm what I already believed. All of it. The narrow gate and the broad one. The “I never knew you” and the “Peace I leave with you.” The vinedresser’s knife and the vine’s fruit. The Woes and the lament. The hard words about marriage and the hard words about the idol. The Amen that seals the promise of answered prayer and the Amen that seals the prediction of tribulation. All of it, sealed, received, confirmed. Amen.

Amen to What He Is Doing

The third Amen is the Amen of participation. The King is not only the Amen of what has already been declared. He is the Amen of what is currently being done and what is coming. He is actively interceding. He is actively gathering His church. He is actively advancing His Kingdom through the salt and light of the disciples who have received this volume and gone into the world to live it. He is actively preparing for the return that Revelation 22:20 announces. And He is asking the disciple to participate in every dimension of what He is doing.

To speak Amen to what He is doing is to say: I am in. Not partially in, maintaining some reserve for the things I am not yet sure about. Not conditionally in, available as long as the conditions remain acceptable. In. The Amen that releases the idol. The Amen that enters the battle without the guarantee of the outcome. The Amen that prays for the prodigal in year twenty because the Amen of the Father’s love for the lost has not expired. The Amen that stands in the cultural battle not because the battle looks winnable but because the King who has overcome the world is the One who sent the disciple into it and promised to be with him. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Come into what I am facing. Come through what I am doing. Come to complete what You have started. Come soon.

THE FINAL WORD

Volume I made you a soldier. Volume II has been making you a son. Not one without the other — but both, held together, in the right order. The soldier who does not know the Commander he is fighting for will eventually run out of the motivation that duty alone can produce. The son who knows the Father but does not engage the battle has received the relationship for which the battle is fought but has not yet given back to the One who gave it what the King is asking for.

The two volumes belong together. The nine Parts of Volume II have given you the theological content and the relational depth to receive the commands of Volume I not as an external burden imposed by a distant King but as the natural expression of a life that has been changed by the knowing for which the King went to the cross.

The Seal is on everything He said. The Amen has been spoken by the One who is the Amen. The invitation of Revelation 3:20 is extended: here He is, standing at the door, knocking, asking to come in and share the meal that transforms servants into sons.

Open the door. Say Amen. Not as the end of a prayer. As the beginning of everything.