This was the original script for the scripture reading given at the funeral:
I am John Peng, the son-in-law. I had the privilege of being with my father-in-law for the past month before he passed away. I would like to give an account my time with him in the context of these verses from the Bible.
Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
In Hymn 2, the Christian is seeking to go to Calvary, which is the place where Jesus was crucified. This thought is based on Gal. 2:20, where it is revealed that the Christian has been crucified with Christ. That is, Christ’s history can become our experience. As the hymn suggests, this experience involves suffering. Since the diagnosis over a year ago, my father-in-law experienced intense suffering.
Hebrews 2:10
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
The Bible reveals that the pathway to glory involves suffering. Heb. 2:10 shows that Jesus Himself needed to pass through human suffering to be qualified to lead the many sons of God into glory. Jesus lived a life of suffering. He not only suffered on the cross, but His whole life was a life of suffering as signified by being born in a manger and dying on the cross. His life began with suffering in a manger and ended with suffering on the cross.
2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.
18 Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Not only was Christ commissioned to live a suffering life, but also all Christians are called to take this way into glory. This can be seen in 2 Cor. 4:17. In this verse, we can see that this suffering is measured. It is not too much, and is even a momentary of lightness of affliction which works out for us an eternal weight of glory. In verse 18, we see that the suffering which is visibly apparent in this age is temporary, but the reward of glory which is hidden in this age is eternal.
1 Peter 1:24
For “all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen off.
This brings us to the question, what is this glory? 1 Pet. 1:24 speaks of the glory of the flesh, which withers and fades as quickly as flowers on grass. In this funeral, we could have spoken more about how my father-in-law fulfilled his American dream: how he came from Taiwan as a graduate student and later joined the founding team of a startup that eventually went public. However we feel that we would honor him more by speaking of the eternal weight of glory that was being worked out in him.
Genuine glory is God expressed. When the invisible and hidden God is expressed and made known, we can say that God is glorified. Man was created by God to become the means by which God can be expressed and glorified. This is done by God working and dispensing His life and nature into man. Jesus was conceived in a virgin by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18). Thus in Jesus, humanity and divinity were joined and mingled together in one person. He is the complete God and the perfect man. In Jesus’s human living, the divine attributes of God were expressed in his human virtues. However God is not satisfied with just one individual expressing Him. He would like a greater and enlarged expression, and a greater degree of glory to be manifested.
John 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
The way this is accomplished is exemplified in John 12:24 where Jesus as a grain of wheat is sown and broken through the suffering and death on the cross in order that the divine life within him could be released. Thus his humanity was like the shell of the seed which had to be buried and broken for the divine life to be multiplied. The crucifixion of Christ on one hand paid the price to appease God’s righteous demands concerning our sins, and on the other hand released the divine life so that it could be sown into those that have been cleansed by their faith in Christ. The sins that prevented the joining together of God and man were taken dealt with on the cross (1 Pet. 3:8).
Both forgiveness and the divine life are freely offered by God to the entire human race. Today, Jesus is not confined to the individual who walked the earth over two thousand years ago. He is available as the life-giving Spirit to anyone willing to receive Him. My father-in-law received the Lord Jesus as his life and savior as a freshman in college. From that point, this divine life began to grow and mature in him as it does in all Christians who continue to love God in the midst of the sufferings they encounter.
At this point, I would like to testify to everyone here today that my father-in-law still loved the Lord Jesus at the end. He was constantly calling, “O, Lord,” in Chinese, to the point that my mother-in-law had difficulty sleeping. He was still praising the Lord, and telling the Lord, “I love you.” God had allowed his health to decline. After the stroke his mental capacity was impaired. And finally the simple human dignity of being able to feed oneself or relieve oneself in the bathroom privately was gone. Yet he was able to praise God, worship God, and love God. I can testify that in the final conscious days before his passing, he was at peace and in fellowship with the Lord. This was a victory and glory to God.
What seemingly was a private family affair in that bedroom was in fact a display to the universe: to God and to the angels that there was a person on the earth who was stripped of his ability and dignity and yet be able to offer the sacrifice of praise to God (Heb. 13:15). As with the crucifixion of Christ, what seemed to be a display of weakness and shame was actually a glory to God and an expression of the divine life. I believe what transpired in that room will be an eternal memorial of the divine history of God within man.
1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord abides forever.” And this is the word which has been announced to you as the gospel.
1 Pet. 1:25 is the continuation of 1 Pet. 1:24. While longevity of the human flesh is likened to grass, the word of the Lord abides forever. This is how practically we receive this eternal life of God which is Jesus Christ Himself (Col. 3:4). If your heat is soft, and you receive this word being spoken this afternoon, then this divine life which can bring you into the divine glory will enter into you. Like my father-in-law, I am an electrical engineer. Christ as the Spirit is like electricity, and the word of the Lord is like a wire which conducts the divine electricity into us. You will have the sense that you are not just yourself anymore, and that another person who is Christ has come into you. I can testify that this experience is real.
Because Christ as the grain of wheat suffered and went to the cross, He can now be multiplied by being sown into the hearts that are open to him. This divine life is indestructible and when given the opportunity to grow, mature, and multiply, the result is the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose which is to express Himself and be glorified in humanity.
1 Corinthians 15:35
But someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?
36 Foolish man, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies;
37 And what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other of the rest.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption;
43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a soulish body, there is also a spiritual one.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
1 Cor. 15:37-43 speaks of this process of the divine life being sown into the human life and developing through the suffering of corruption, dishonor, and weakness. This was certainly James’s experience. However I am full of faith that he will be raised in incorruption, in glory, and in power. His suffering was just temporary, but the eternal weight of glory that this suffering worked out for him will be eternal.