What does it mean to be truly human? What was the original creative purpose for man? What does it mean to live spontaneously as a human being? Our definition for "human" is so often just an excuse for our deep sense of failure and of our falling short of our true design and creative purpose. I believe that an understanding of true "humaneness" is the key to living free and spontaneous according to our true design!
Increasingly, humanity's response is to throw off all yokes and laws in order to find this illusive "higher life", some turn to drugs, fame, sex, money and all sorts, only to discover that when you live contrary to your true design, your new found "freedom" is short lived and becomes a harder slave master than the one(s) you threw off! A fish will always be only free if it stays within the water! Unfortunately most humans associate God and Jesus with religion or religious activities and therefore have become almost immune to the only antidote to lawlessness- a relationship with Jesus! Only in a relationship with Him find the human being completeness and fulfillment.
Jesus came to earth not only to demonstrate God, but also to demonstrate true humanity-He came as the last Adam and as the Second Man! In Him we see our true purpose and design. The title "Son of Man" is the one Jesus chose to use most when referring to Himself, much more than any other title, including the title "Son of God". I believe He was trying to spell out to His "human" followers His total identification with humanity even in their sinful condition. That is also the meaning of His baptism by John the Baptist which was a baptism of sinners unto repentance-That baptism prophesied about His "baptism" on the cross when His total identification with humanity would reach it's climax!
The title "Son of Man " is first used in Daniel 7 in the Old Testament; "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (vv 13-14) This "son of man" appears to be a corporate entity as explained to Daniel by the angel; "I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this. So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: ... But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever--yes, for ever and ever"(vv.17-18). Paul refers to this in 1Cor. 6:2-3 when he says;"Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!" and John heard the same message in Revelation 2:26-27 " To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations--
'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from my Father."
At the heart of this title lies the revelation of humanity's origins in God, but also the revelation of humanity's authority in it's association and identification with Jesus! May we understand what Jesus tried to get through to Peter when He said; "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt 16:14-19) Jesus was trying to show His disciples that true authority was linked to humanity discovering their true origin and identity-the son of man is the son of God! He wanted them to "see" their true identity in the "pefect law of liberty". Faith is to see what God sees and to acknowledge His work in us.
A revelation of our origin in Christ will bring about a perfect balance between authority and humility. "The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.
Joh 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;
Joh 13:4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
Joh 13:5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped"(John 13:2-5) around him.Jesus knew His origin and that is why He could serve His disciples, even the one who was about to betray Him!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
The Bible and the Living Word
What is the Word of God? Is it a compilation of books? Is it letters on paper? Is the Bible the Word of God or is there more to it? There is a real danger that Christians could make the Bible something that was not God's intention at all! This danger is what is sometimes called "Biblidolatry"-making an idol of the Bible! When you listen to some Christians you get the feeling that they worship the Bible more than Jesus. "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." (Hebr1:1-2)
Despite the fact that I read(studied) Biblical Studies as part of my degree and achieved excellent results, my spirit was still "dead" until I met the Living Word, Jesus. Suddenly the Bible became a living book as I could identify with the experiences of Abraham, David, Peter, Paul and other heroes (and "villans") of faith. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."(John1:1,14)
Whichever way the Word of God came to the human race in the past, it was always an expression of the Eternal Word that was with God, and this Eternal Word became a human to reveal God, but not only God, also our true identity! It is generally known that the original ekklesia(church) did not have the Bible as we know it today. They had the Old Testament scriptures and the public preaching and teaching of the apostles and prophets. James Fowler put it like this: "The early Christians were not propogating a belief-system. They were not dispensers of theological information about God. They were not Book-bearers. They were bearers of the Living Word, the Life, the Person, the Power of Jesus, "who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18)."
We need to be careful not to fall into the Pharisaical trap that Jesus referred to in John 5:39-40 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." The Bible's importance lies in the fact that it testifies of Jesus in whom is the Life! It can assist in helping us to find the Living Word and once we have found the Word, the Bible becomes a living book full of meaning and life. The Bible serves as an objective standard whereby we can test and judge our own experiences and understanding of God against the experiences of other men and women in the early ekklesia.
We live in a largely post-modern society where you cannot witness to people by saying," The Bible says..." We must become carriers of the Living Word, Bibles of flesh and blood, demonstraters of the Christ-Life, expressions of true humanity, and once people have been hooked by the sweet fragrance of Jesus through us, we can introduce them to the Bible which can then become to them what Paul said about the Scriptures.(at that time only the O.T.) "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."(2 Tim.3:16-17) My hunger for the Living Word often drives me to the Bible to feed on the Life that has breathed upon the lives of so many people,and because I have the Living Word in me the scriptures becomes spirit and life. "who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." ( 2 Cor. 3:6) or in the words of The Message:" The plan wasn't written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It's written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!"
Despite the fact that I read(studied) Biblical Studies as part of my degree and achieved excellent results, my spirit was still "dead" until I met the Living Word, Jesus. Suddenly the Bible became a living book as I could identify with the experiences of Abraham, David, Peter, Paul and other heroes (and "villans") of faith. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."(John1:1,14)
Whichever way the Word of God came to the human race in the past, it was always an expression of the Eternal Word that was with God, and this Eternal Word became a human to reveal God, but not only God, also our true identity! It is generally known that the original ekklesia(church) did not have the Bible as we know it today. They had the Old Testament scriptures and the public preaching and teaching of the apostles and prophets. James Fowler put it like this: "The early Christians were not propogating a belief-system. They were not dispensers of theological information about God. They were not Book-bearers. They were bearers of the Living Word, the Life, the Person, the Power of Jesus, "who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18)."
We need to be careful not to fall into the Pharisaical trap that Jesus referred to in John 5:39-40 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." The Bible's importance lies in the fact that it testifies of Jesus in whom is the Life! It can assist in helping us to find the Living Word and once we have found the Word, the Bible becomes a living book full of meaning and life. The Bible serves as an objective standard whereby we can test and judge our own experiences and understanding of God against the experiences of other men and women in the early ekklesia.
We live in a largely post-modern society where you cannot witness to people by saying," The Bible says..." We must become carriers of the Living Word, Bibles of flesh and blood, demonstraters of the Christ-Life, expressions of true humanity, and once people have been hooked by the sweet fragrance of Jesus through us, we can introduce them to the Bible which can then become to them what Paul said about the Scriptures.(at that time only the O.T.) "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."(2 Tim.3:16-17) My hunger for the Living Word often drives me to the Bible to feed on the Life that has breathed upon the lives of so many people,and because I have the Living Word in me the scriptures becomes spirit and life. "who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." ( 2 Cor. 3:6) or in the words of The Message:" The plan wasn't written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It's written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!"
Friday, October 14, 2005
Identity in Sonship
God has spoken to humanity in these last days through the truth of Sonship. "Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end."(Hebr.1:1-5)
The authority and power demonstrated by Jesus during His earthly ministry was not linked to His office of Messiah, but to His Sonship." I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.(John 5:19) True spiritual authority will be released in these days through a people who walk in a revelation of Sonship - it will not be our "offices" or "ministries" of apostles, prophets etc. that will release authority, but our intimate relationship with Dad as sons! "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me." (John 6:54-57) It is in an intimate organic relationship with the Son that the Life of true sonship will be experienced. What a firm foundation for identity! I am a son of my heavenly Dad!
The revelation that motivated Paul's ministry was a revelation of Sonship."But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man,"( Gal. 1:15-16) "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:25-26) "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." ( Gal. 4:6-7) Sonship brings freedom; freedom to be who God created you to be; freedom from rules and regulations imposed by man and freedom from the tyranny of self-image. As this reality is fleshed out by the sons of God, all of creation will be set free from the bondages that were put on it by humanity losing their identity. This is God's strategy; "In bringing many sons to glory"(Hebr 2:10),all of creation will be brought into the same freedom as that of the sons!
"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."(Rom. 8:19-21) Come on, Sons of God! Take a firm grip on your identity, declare with boldness who He has made you, walk in the reality of sonship and allow the Pattern-Son to flow through you; creation is waiting in birth pangs for your manifestation! This manifestation starts with you appropriating what Father says about you by faith. It grows as you continue to look deeply in the mirror-reflection of your true identity as revealed by Jesus! (James 1:25)
The authority and power demonstrated by Jesus during His earthly ministry was not linked to His office of Messiah, but to His Sonship." I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.(John 5:19) True spiritual authority will be released in these days through a people who walk in a revelation of Sonship - it will not be our "offices" or "ministries" of apostles, prophets etc. that will release authority, but our intimate relationship with Dad as sons! "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me." (John 6:54-57) It is in an intimate organic relationship with the Son that the Life of true sonship will be experienced. What a firm foundation for identity! I am a son of my heavenly Dad!
The revelation that motivated Paul's ministry was a revelation of Sonship."But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man,"( Gal. 1:15-16) "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:25-26) "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." ( Gal. 4:6-7) Sonship brings freedom; freedom to be who God created you to be; freedom from rules and regulations imposed by man and freedom from the tyranny of self-image. As this reality is fleshed out by the sons of God, all of creation will be set free from the bondages that were put on it by humanity losing their identity. This is God's strategy; "In bringing many sons to glory"(Hebr 2:10),all of creation will be brought into the same freedom as that of the sons!
"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."(Rom. 8:19-21) Come on, Sons of God! Take a firm grip on your identity, declare with boldness who He has made you, walk in the reality of sonship and allow the Pattern-Son to flow through you; creation is waiting in birth pangs for your manifestation! This manifestation starts with you appropriating what Father says about you by faith. It grows as you continue to look deeply in the mirror-reflection of your true identity as revealed by Jesus! (James 1:25)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Identity in eternity
One of the biggest problems that humanity struggle with is identity. Many wars have been fought and many relationships have been destroyed in humanity's drive for identity and recognition.Nationalism, patriotism, the gang-culture and racial pride are all manifestations of this search for identity.The apostle Paul explained the roots of humanity's identity like this; "Long before he laid down earth's foundations,he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ."(Ephesians 1:4)
The implications of this truth are magnificent; before God created any atom, molecule or galaxy he had His focus on humanity; before we did anything wrong or right for that matter, our Father has already made up His mind about us;before anything evil was done to me by someone I trusted, He has already decided that I would be a success because His Son was the "prototype", the original,the pattern, the true Human,see Genesis 1:26.In Jesus we see our original design and in union with Him we live fully human again!In Christ we have entered the realm of eternity; we entered the order of Melchizedek who has no beginning and no end; we have entered the realm of the One known as the Alpha and the Omega! I have no past but Christ, I have no future but Christ and He is also my present!
My identity and self-worth are not dependant on race,status,gender or achievements in the corporate world, but was determined in eternity when God decided my destiny as a human being. He decided that I would be born into this material world to reflect His image and glory(opinion). With this new perspective on my origin and identity I realise that everything that happens to me has a redemptive purpose; in other words they only serve to push me to my true identity. That is why James could write to the believers these words;"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.( James 1:2-4) Keep looking deeply into the mirror-reflection of your true identity(James 1:25) and you will experience the transforming power of His Life flowing spontaneously through you.(2 Corinthians 3:18)
The implications of this truth are magnificent; before God created any atom, molecule or galaxy he had His focus on humanity; before we did anything wrong or right for that matter, our Father has already made up His mind about us;before anything evil was done to me by someone I trusted, He has already decided that I would be a success because His Son was the "prototype", the original,the pattern, the true Human,see Genesis 1:26.In Jesus we see our original design and in union with Him we live fully human again!In Christ we have entered the realm of eternity; we entered the order of Melchizedek who has no beginning and no end; we have entered the realm of the One known as the Alpha and the Omega! I have no past but Christ, I have no future but Christ and He is also my present!
My identity and self-worth are not dependant on race,status,gender or achievements in the corporate world, but was determined in eternity when God decided my destiny as a human being. He decided that I would be born into this material world to reflect His image and glory(opinion). With this new perspective on my origin and identity I realise that everything that happens to me has a redemptive purpose; in other words they only serve to push me to my true identity. That is why James could write to the believers these words;"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.( James 1:2-4) Keep looking deeply into the mirror-reflection of your true identity(James 1:25) and you will experience the transforming power of His Life flowing spontaneously through you.(2 Corinthians 3:18)
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Feasting on the Tree of Life
By Wayne Jacobsen with David Hebden and Paul Young
For those who don’t think we truly died that day in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of good and evil over the Tree of Life, you only have to look at the human drive for personal fulfillment. Isn’t it a search for life itself? I don’t mean physical life that comes with breath and nourishment. I mean the deep, inner sense of peace and fulfillment that comes from a life well lived in the heart of God.
That’s what he created us for and everyone is looking for it in one way or another, even when they don’t realize that he is the only source of it. Many think they’ll find life if they could just find the ideal job, mate, or dream home, or circumstances free of pain or anxiety. Very few, ever get all of those to line up at the same time, and those who do, even if only for a brief time, have assured us that these things are no guarantee of true life. In fact, ideal circumstances can expose how empty our inner life really is. Just ask Solomon. All our temporal joys are fleeting and with each passing day we are all reminded by our aches and pains, both physical and emotional, that we are slowly dying and there is nothing we can do to change that.
Jesus warned us that life doesn’t consist of one’s possessions. It is not found in what one owns or controls. It doesn’t even come from finding the ideal church. True life, quite simply is the practical, knowable presence of Jesus in the reality of our days. It is an inner sense of safety and provision that our whole being is in his hands, and the fulfillment that comes from engaging his purpose in the world. This life isn’t derived from circumstances, and in fact supersedes them all. It endures the most horrendous situations and even uses them to transform us ever more to be God’s reflection in the world. I’ve watched people live in its beauty and serenity even in the most severe places of need and pain.
Jesus promised his followers again and again that his kingdom would flood their hearts with the abundance of life. He compared it to a spring of refreshing water flowing out of them and assured them that his words had in mind the fullness of their joy. These are the promises and assurances of the New Covenant—the joy of eternal life in this age with ever-increasing glory and its fullness in the age to come.
But not all believers find their way into that reality. Some do, most certainly, while others seem to search for it through a seemingly endless cycle of emptiness and frustration?
The Life that Really Is Life
This article is a bit different. I have two co-contributors* (some might say co-conspirators) on this piece and that’s because this is less an original article than it is an attempt to put into words something that is already coursing through the veins of the body of Christ. Over the last year I have heard numerous people from all over the world share a similar insight that has had a profound effect on transforming their spiritual lives. It has helped them find freedom from the flesh-focused attempts to please God or themselves, and allowed them to live simply in his reality. I’ve asked two of these to work on this piece with me so that we might blend our thoughts together.
Describing ‘life’ to one who has never tasted it is like describing color to someone who has been blind from birth. Even though something inside all of us searches for it desperately, it is not easy to actually define. It’s something you have to experience to appreciate and even then, it can vanish again overnight to the gnawing demands of this age. Some give up the pursuit, jaded by their disappointments. Others hope for better days, but live constantly frustrated that it eludes them. Still others pursue a relentless search to find it again. But many find that the harder they try to grasp it, the more surely it slips from their fingers.
But this doesn’t have to be. Jesus wants nothing more than to lead you into the fulfillment of an ever-deepening relationship with him. Nothing substitutes for this, not a good book, insightful teaching, doctrine or even expression of community life. Religion can’t produce it, which is why there is no correlation between someone’s religious zeal or activity and the depth of God’s life they experience.
Where is that life? It is in Him alone (I John 5:11-12), and only by learning to feast on him as the Life itself, will we ever know the reality that our hearts desperately long for. But that takes eating from a different tree than the one we’ve grown accustomed to.
An Independence of Painful Consequence
The drama of creation opened in a Garden called Eden where the physical creation was intermingled with spiritual reality in such a way that it was nearly impossible to determine where one stopped and the other started. The Genesis story of the Garden is dominated by the presence of two trees around which the destiny of humanity would revolve. Both trees had a spiritual essence and dramatic spiritual consequences would result from eating the fruit of either one.
The first tree was the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were invited to eat of it freely and it would provide spiritual life that would make them immortal. But God strongly warned them about the other tree—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Though it would open their eyes to good and evil it would also bring them certain death.
Their choice to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ripped the fabric of the universe in two, separating the physical and spiritual dimensions. The consequences were immediate and fatal. They knew good and evil, but knowing they had partaken of evil flooded them with shame. No longer safe with each other, they sought coverings to hide themselves from each other and to hide from the God with whom they had walked with every day in the creation. Death had begun its work.
What had they done? Why did this one simple act rend apart the universe? How could the eating of the fruit of this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil been so disastrous? To put it simply, this was their grand declaration of independence. Until that moment only God had defined for them what was good and what was not good (evil). Creation was good, very good. Man being alone in the garden was not good.
In one tragic act, they had taken it upon themselves to determine what was good and not good for them apart from their relationship to God. They had said, “It is good to eat of this Tree” even though God had said it was not good. And they were wrong. Though they now possessed the knowledge to determine good and evil, they had no capacity to choose the good. They could only live by their own perception of what would make them happy, not by God’s truth. The result truly was death—spiritual first, with physical death to follow.
Not By Principles Alone
What an unfortunate inheritance! Instead of living in God’s goodness they sought to establish their own, which turned out not to be goodness at all. Their selfishness and independence brought death into the world, the very fruit God said the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would bear. Living by our own desires and doing what we think is best for our own lives, no matter how well intentioned, will leave us bereft of his life.
Sadly enough that is not only true of our fleshy pursuits; it is also true of our spiritual aspirations. We may even think we know what God wants for us, but once we begin to use our own wisdom and preferences to get there, we often end up unwittingly working against him. Jesus exposed how easy it was for the Pharisees to use the law to subvert the law. Instead of honoring their parents by giving them what they needed, they would declare their possessions ‘dedicated to God’ so they could keep it for themselves with all the religious justification that made them look holy. (Mark 7).
That’s why we love following principles more than following Him. We can interpret principles in whatever way suits us. Even New Testament principles can be twisted to justify whatever we want and by doing so, death again works in us. How many people in the name of Jesus have exploited, and betrayed others, certain they were doing what was right? I’ve heard Scripture quoted to justify the most absurd desires—from building extravagant buildings, to treating others unjustly or pretending to withhold God’s grace to punish those that will not conform.
Subtly we are drawn into the mistaken notion that by gathering enough evidence from Scripture or the experiences of other believers, we can conclude what is good for us in any situation. However, failing to see how our own affections and desires shape our interpretations, we turn out to be wrong 90% of the time. Who of us would have confirmed Hosea’s obedience to marry the prostitute, Jesus’ surrender to his trial and execution, or Paul’s journey into Jerusalem and certain imprisonment?
We may believe that the Father only gives His children good gifts. Jesus said so, claiming his Father would never give us stones for bread or a snake instead of a fish. But if we take it upon ourselves to judge those gifts on our own terms, we’ll convince ourselves that the bread he’s giving is actually a rock that will hurt us. Some of the things in my own life which I most ardently prayed against, and was devastated when they unfolded, turned out to be the very tools he was using to carve his image in me.
Give Us A Model!
“But what does it look like?”
Whether I’m talking about personal intimacy with Jesus, or body life in his family, this is the most frequently asked question I get. And I always hesitate to answer. It’s not that I don’t know what it looks like. I do! It’s just that it can look like a lot of different things depending on the person or people involved. God’s creativity is limitless and though there are consistent underlying priorities to the way he works, those who want to know what it looks like instead of knowing him, will end up caught in someone’s model rather than following the Master himself.
Jesus didn’t leave us with models and that with good reason. He knew that any model could be easily exploited for personal gain. Instead he left us with his Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth.
If our focus is on implementing models, no matter how Scriptural we think them to be, instead of living by the Spirit we will miss out on the fullness of his life. Don’t get me wrong. Using the Scriptures as an objective compass certainly is a significant factor in knowing how God thinks and how God works in the world. But it does not begin to cover every situation with a principle or every task with a model. It invites us to know him, and only by following him will we find the life that really is life.
In our best efforts to apply principles or implement models we will end up judging good and evil for ourselves. Though we think we’re following Scripture, we won’t realize when we are only following our misguided interpretation of it. We will still seek to please our flesh on religious terms while convincing ourselves it is his leading. Meanwhile our mindset is still on the flesh and what is most comfortable for us, and that can only lead to death. As long as I am judging what is good and evil for myself, even the most well intentioned of us will end up marooned on the beach of our own reason.
A New Covenant
I know many cringe when I encourage individual believers to listen to Jesus and follow him. We all know people who claimed to be obeying Jesus as they divorced their spouse for an illicit love or started some outlandish ministry to their own ego. But don’t let the abuse of something rob you of its reality. One of the greatest bondages perpetrated by religion is that Jesus is not able to make his way clear to each of us who want to follow him.
Isn’t that what Jeremiah prophesied and the writer of Hebrews said that the death of Christ fulfilled?
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8:10-11)
How often do teachers tell us we don’t need them or that we each have an anointing from the Spirit to discern truth and error? The New Testament underscores it multiple times. That’s not to say teaching can’t be a blessing to us, but if that teaching does not equip us to cultivate our own relationship with Jesus, it robs us of what he desires most. The life of Jesus cannot be lived second-hand. You can’t find it by following guidelines and principles laid down by others, even the most gifted teachers. We experience his life only in a personal relationship where we learn to live in his purpose with his wisdom. That’s a daily reality each of us is invited to live. Do I really trust people to live like that? That’s not the point. I trust him who is able to lead his sheep, even the least of them, because they will know his voice.
He can make his way clear to you by the growing convictions that nestle in your heart as you draw close to him. Don’t worry. Following Jesus as he writes his words on your heart will not take you further from the reality of Scripture, but closer to it. He will not serve your agenda, but dethrone it as he invites you into the fullness of his life. For there is no resurrection life unless we first die to our own ambitions, our own demands and our own wisdom.
Dieing to the Right
Those I meet who live deeply in the life of Jesus have one thing in common: they are not using Christianity to get their way, but have abandoned their right to decide what is good or not good for themselves. That was the independence of the Garden and it will betray us every time. Even Jesus refused to do it. “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” (John 5:30)
If Jesus didn’t trust his own judgment, how can we? To live in his life we have to die to the right to judge anything on our terms and learn to live out of our relationship to Father. To think we can figure out the great puzzle he is putting together, not only in our lives, but also in the lives of others around us and the church around the world, is to assume intelligence none of us possesses.
Imagine how our lives would change if we stopped wasting the energy we spend frustrated over past events or worried about future ones and used it instead to draw near to him and learn to listen to his heartbeat? He wants to lead us and for us to trust him even through the most brutal circumstances. Clearly he is capable of using even horrendous evil to advance his purpose in us. That doesn’t mean we’ll ever celebrate evil, or even that God orchestrates it, but neither will we ever give up in the face of it. Joseph was a great example here. He recognized that God was using the great evil his brothers had plotted against him to put Joseph in the very place that would fulfill his wider purpose.
The decision not to judge anything has for me been a very conscious decision with deep and profound ramifications. While I am constantly tempted to decide what is good or evil I don’t have the finished picture nor do I have all the puzzle pieces. I am only one piece in the puzzle myself and my place is not to move other pieces around but to simply rest in His hand and let Him put me where He will. I don’t even have to seek out my place in the puzzle!
At Rest in His Work
I’ve thought a lot lately about Peter walking on the water. What if Peter had not let the sea and wind distract him from Jesus? He might have ended up standing beside Jesus, surveying the roiling waves and tossed boat, ready for whatever Jesus wanted to do next.
Yet I have more often been like Peter, crying out to him in the midst of the tumultuous seas that I ‘know’ are dangerous. Once you give up deciding for yourself whether or not the seas and the wind are dangerous you will find yourself beside Him surveying the scene secure that it is in his hands. He may see it as good and that what is ‘not good’ he will take care of anyway.
I am learning albeit, very slowly, to simply be thankful in everything including the tumults that rage in my own mind and watch in awe as He uses them as opportunities to teach me to walk on water. As long as we live to our own agenda, even what we think God might desire for us, we will miss out on the very life he is giving to us. I find my prayers changing from “God, change this!” to “Father, how are you working in this for your glory?”
When we die to the right to determine good and evil for ourselves we find the freedom to feast on the tree of Life. No longer growing frustrated when our comfort zones are breeched, we are free to see his purpose unfold and not be bogged down by our agenda. Now we are free to live in his life, not be plagued by our own agenda. This has a three-fold effect:
Freedom from our Unresolved Past: Instead of whipping ourselves with blame, or remaining paralyzed as a victim of someone else’s bondage, we can see him draw a line of purpose through our past. There is nothing so heinous that he cannot work into his plan for our lives. There is no failure that his mercy cannot overcome. In Father’s hands, even the most painful events in our past become places where he transforms us and builds his compassion for other wounded lives into our hearts.
Freedom from our Imagined futures: Jesus warned us to, “Take no thought for tomorrow” and “Be anxious for nothing.” How much of our energy for living is sapped because of our fears and anxieties about the future. But God does not live in our imagined futures. When we do, we live apart from him, which is why stress overcomes us there. By determining what good we want or what evil we must prevent, we end up manipulating everything and everyone around us.
Freedom to Live In the Moment: Jesus had the amazing ability to live in each moment with his eyes and ears on his Father. By living in each moment, free of the past, unharried by the future and divested of his own agenda, he could live in the middle of Father’s life and purpose as circumstances unfolded around him.
This is the tree Jesus wants you to feast from and the power of his cross makes it possible. As he reveals his love to you, you too, will find yourself increasingly skeptical of your own agenda and preferences. Instead of wasting all your efforts trying to sculpt your life the way you want it, you’ll find the joy of living in the middle of his purpose working out in you. You’ll be able to embrace him and his work in you as easily in times of trouble as in times of ease. And by standing in his unfolding purpose you will know the truest joy of being his son or daughter in the world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BodyLife is published periodically by Lifestream Ministries and is sent free of charge to anyone who requests it. For those with email we recommend our web-based version so that we can hold down costs and get it to you much more quickly. This is especially important for international subscribers.
© Copyright 2005 Lifestream Ministries
Permission is herby granted to anyone wishing to make copies for free distribution.
Go to Previous Issue of BodyLife
By Wayne Jacobsen with David Hebden and Paul Young
For those who don’t think we truly died that day in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose the knowledge of good and evil over the Tree of Life, you only have to look at the human drive for personal fulfillment. Isn’t it a search for life itself? I don’t mean physical life that comes with breath and nourishment. I mean the deep, inner sense of peace and fulfillment that comes from a life well lived in the heart of God.
That’s what he created us for and everyone is looking for it in one way or another, even when they don’t realize that he is the only source of it. Many think they’ll find life if they could just find the ideal job, mate, or dream home, or circumstances free of pain or anxiety. Very few, ever get all of those to line up at the same time, and those who do, even if only for a brief time, have assured us that these things are no guarantee of true life. In fact, ideal circumstances can expose how empty our inner life really is. Just ask Solomon. All our temporal joys are fleeting and with each passing day we are all reminded by our aches and pains, both physical and emotional, that we are slowly dying and there is nothing we can do to change that.
Jesus warned us that life doesn’t consist of one’s possessions. It is not found in what one owns or controls. It doesn’t even come from finding the ideal church. True life, quite simply is the practical, knowable presence of Jesus in the reality of our days. It is an inner sense of safety and provision that our whole being is in his hands, and the fulfillment that comes from engaging his purpose in the world. This life isn’t derived from circumstances, and in fact supersedes them all. It endures the most horrendous situations and even uses them to transform us ever more to be God’s reflection in the world. I’ve watched people live in its beauty and serenity even in the most severe places of need and pain.
Jesus promised his followers again and again that his kingdom would flood their hearts with the abundance of life. He compared it to a spring of refreshing water flowing out of them and assured them that his words had in mind the fullness of their joy. These are the promises and assurances of the New Covenant—the joy of eternal life in this age with ever-increasing glory and its fullness in the age to come.
But not all believers find their way into that reality. Some do, most certainly, while others seem to search for it through a seemingly endless cycle of emptiness and frustration?
The Life that Really Is Life
This article is a bit different. I have two co-contributors* (some might say co-conspirators) on this piece and that’s because this is less an original article than it is an attempt to put into words something that is already coursing through the veins of the body of Christ. Over the last year I have heard numerous people from all over the world share a similar insight that has had a profound effect on transforming their spiritual lives. It has helped them find freedom from the flesh-focused attempts to please God or themselves, and allowed them to live simply in his reality. I’ve asked two of these to work on this piece with me so that we might blend our thoughts together.
Describing ‘life’ to one who has never tasted it is like describing color to someone who has been blind from birth. Even though something inside all of us searches for it desperately, it is not easy to actually define. It’s something you have to experience to appreciate and even then, it can vanish again overnight to the gnawing demands of this age. Some give up the pursuit, jaded by their disappointments. Others hope for better days, but live constantly frustrated that it eludes them. Still others pursue a relentless search to find it again. But many find that the harder they try to grasp it, the more surely it slips from their fingers.
But this doesn’t have to be. Jesus wants nothing more than to lead you into the fulfillment of an ever-deepening relationship with him. Nothing substitutes for this, not a good book, insightful teaching, doctrine or even expression of community life. Religion can’t produce it, which is why there is no correlation between someone’s religious zeal or activity and the depth of God’s life they experience.
Where is that life? It is in Him alone (I John 5:11-12), and only by learning to feast on him as the Life itself, will we ever know the reality that our hearts desperately long for. But that takes eating from a different tree than the one we’ve grown accustomed to.
An Independence of Painful Consequence
The drama of creation opened in a Garden called Eden where the physical creation was intermingled with spiritual reality in such a way that it was nearly impossible to determine where one stopped and the other started. The Genesis story of the Garden is dominated by the presence of two trees around which the destiny of humanity would revolve. Both trees had a spiritual essence and dramatic spiritual consequences would result from eating the fruit of either one.
The first tree was the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were invited to eat of it freely and it would provide spiritual life that would make them immortal. But God strongly warned them about the other tree—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Though it would open their eyes to good and evil it would also bring them certain death.
Their choice to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ripped the fabric of the universe in two, separating the physical and spiritual dimensions. The consequences were immediate and fatal. They knew good and evil, but knowing they had partaken of evil flooded them with shame. No longer safe with each other, they sought coverings to hide themselves from each other and to hide from the God with whom they had walked with every day in the creation. Death had begun its work.
What had they done? Why did this one simple act rend apart the universe? How could the eating of the fruit of this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil been so disastrous? To put it simply, this was their grand declaration of independence. Until that moment only God had defined for them what was good and what was not good (evil). Creation was good, very good. Man being alone in the garden was not good.
In one tragic act, they had taken it upon themselves to determine what was good and not good for them apart from their relationship to God. They had said, “It is good to eat of this Tree” even though God had said it was not good. And they were wrong. Though they now possessed the knowledge to determine good and evil, they had no capacity to choose the good. They could only live by their own perception of what would make them happy, not by God’s truth. The result truly was death—spiritual first, with physical death to follow.
Not By Principles Alone
What an unfortunate inheritance! Instead of living in God’s goodness they sought to establish their own, which turned out not to be goodness at all. Their selfishness and independence brought death into the world, the very fruit God said the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would bear. Living by our own desires and doing what we think is best for our own lives, no matter how well intentioned, will leave us bereft of his life.
Sadly enough that is not only true of our fleshy pursuits; it is also true of our spiritual aspirations. We may even think we know what God wants for us, but once we begin to use our own wisdom and preferences to get there, we often end up unwittingly working against him. Jesus exposed how easy it was for the Pharisees to use the law to subvert the law. Instead of honoring their parents by giving them what they needed, they would declare their possessions ‘dedicated to God’ so they could keep it for themselves with all the religious justification that made them look holy. (Mark 7).
That’s why we love following principles more than following Him. We can interpret principles in whatever way suits us. Even New Testament principles can be twisted to justify whatever we want and by doing so, death again works in us. How many people in the name of Jesus have exploited, and betrayed others, certain they were doing what was right? I’ve heard Scripture quoted to justify the most absurd desires—from building extravagant buildings, to treating others unjustly or pretending to withhold God’s grace to punish those that will not conform.
Subtly we are drawn into the mistaken notion that by gathering enough evidence from Scripture or the experiences of other believers, we can conclude what is good for us in any situation. However, failing to see how our own affections and desires shape our interpretations, we turn out to be wrong 90% of the time. Who of us would have confirmed Hosea’s obedience to marry the prostitute, Jesus’ surrender to his trial and execution, or Paul’s journey into Jerusalem and certain imprisonment?
We may believe that the Father only gives His children good gifts. Jesus said so, claiming his Father would never give us stones for bread or a snake instead of a fish. But if we take it upon ourselves to judge those gifts on our own terms, we’ll convince ourselves that the bread he’s giving is actually a rock that will hurt us. Some of the things in my own life which I most ardently prayed against, and was devastated when they unfolded, turned out to be the very tools he was using to carve his image in me.
Give Us A Model!
“But what does it look like?”
Whether I’m talking about personal intimacy with Jesus, or body life in his family, this is the most frequently asked question I get. And I always hesitate to answer. It’s not that I don’t know what it looks like. I do! It’s just that it can look like a lot of different things depending on the person or people involved. God’s creativity is limitless and though there are consistent underlying priorities to the way he works, those who want to know what it looks like instead of knowing him, will end up caught in someone’s model rather than following the Master himself.
Jesus didn’t leave us with models and that with good reason. He knew that any model could be easily exploited for personal gain. Instead he left us with his Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth.
If our focus is on implementing models, no matter how Scriptural we think them to be, instead of living by the Spirit we will miss out on the fullness of his life. Don’t get me wrong. Using the Scriptures as an objective compass certainly is a significant factor in knowing how God thinks and how God works in the world. But it does not begin to cover every situation with a principle or every task with a model. It invites us to know him, and only by following him will we find the life that really is life.
In our best efforts to apply principles or implement models we will end up judging good and evil for ourselves. Though we think we’re following Scripture, we won’t realize when we are only following our misguided interpretation of it. We will still seek to please our flesh on religious terms while convincing ourselves it is his leading. Meanwhile our mindset is still on the flesh and what is most comfortable for us, and that can only lead to death. As long as I am judging what is good and evil for myself, even the most well intentioned of us will end up marooned on the beach of our own reason.
A New Covenant
I know many cringe when I encourage individual believers to listen to Jesus and follow him. We all know people who claimed to be obeying Jesus as they divorced their spouse for an illicit love or started some outlandish ministry to their own ego. But don’t let the abuse of something rob you of its reality. One of the greatest bondages perpetrated by religion is that Jesus is not able to make his way clear to each of us who want to follow him.
Isn’t that what Jeremiah prophesied and the writer of Hebrews said that the death of Christ fulfilled?
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8:10-11)
How often do teachers tell us we don’t need them or that we each have an anointing from the Spirit to discern truth and error? The New Testament underscores it multiple times. That’s not to say teaching can’t be a blessing to us, but if that teaching does not equip us to cultivate our own relationship with Jesus, it robs us of what he desires most. The life of Jesus cannot be lived second-hand. You can’t find it by following guidelines and principles laid down by others, even the most gifted teachers. We experience his life only in a personal relationship where we learn to live in his purpose with his wisdom. That’s a daily reality each of us is invited to live. Do I really trust people to live like that? That’s not the point. I trust him who is able to lead his sheep, even the least of them, because they will know his voice.
He can make his way clear to you by the growing convictions that nestle in your heart as you draw close to him. Don’t worry. Following Jesus as he writes his words on your heart will not take you further from the reality of Scripture, but closer to it. He will not serve your agenda, but dethrone it as he invites you into the fullness of his life. For there is no resurrection life unless we first die to our own ambitions, our own demands and our own wisdom.
Dieing to the Right
Those I meet who live deeply in the life of Jesus have one thing in common: they are not using Christianity to get their way, but have abandoned their right to decide what is good or not good for themselves. That was the independence of the Garden and it will betray us every time. Even Jesus refused to do it. “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” (John 5:30)
If Jesus didn’t trust his own judgment, how can we? To live in his life we have to die to the right to judge anything on our terms and learn to live out of our relationship to Father. To think we can figure out the great puzzle he is putting together, not only in our lives, but also in the lives of others around us and the church around the world, is to assume intelligence none of us possesses.
Imagine how our lives would change if we stopped wasting the energy we spend frustrated over past events or worried about future ones and used it instead to draw near to him and learn to listen to his heartbeat? He wants to lead us and for us to trust him even through the most brutal circumstances. Clearly he is capable of using even horrendous evil to advance his purpose in us. That doesn’t mean we’ll ever celebrate evil, or even that God orchestrates it, but neither will we ever give up in the face of it. Joseph was a great example here. He recognized that God was using the great evil his brothers had plotted against him to put Joseph in the very place that would fulfill his wider purpose.
The decision not to judge anything has for me been a very conscious decision with deep and profound ramifications. While I am constantly tempted to decide what is good or evil I don’t have the finished picture nor do I have all the puzzle pieces. I am only one piece in the puzzle myself and my place is not to move other pieces around but to simply rest in His hand and let Him put me where He will. I don’t even have to seek out my place in the puzzle!
At Rest in His Work
I’ve thought a lot lately about Peter walking on the water. What if Peter had not let the sea and wind distract him from Jesus? He might have ended up standing beside Jesus, surveying the roiling waves and tossed boat, ready for whatever Jesus wanted to do next.
Yet I have more often been like Peter, crying out to him in the midst of the tumultuous seas that I ‘know’ are dangerous. Once you give up deciding for yourself whether or not the seas and the wind are dangerous you will find yourself beside Him surveying the scene secure that it is in his hands. He may see it as good and that what is ‘not good’ he will take care of anyway.
I am learning albeit, very slowly, to simply be thankful in everything including the tumults that rage in my own mind and watch in awe as He uses them as opportunities to teach me to walk on water. As long as we live to our own agenda, even what we think God might desire for us, we will miss out on the very life he is giving to us. I find my prayers changing from “God, change this!” to “Father, how are you working in this for your glory?”
When we die to the right to determine good and evil for ourselves we find the freedom to feast on the tree of Life. No longer growing frustrated when our comfort zones are breeched, we are free to see his purpose unfold and not be bogged down by our agenda. Now we are free to live in his life, not be plagued by our own agenda. This has a three-fold effect:
Freedom from our Unresolved Past: Instead of whipping ourselves with blame, or remaining paralyzed as a victim of someone else’s bondage, we can see him draw a line of purpose through our past. There is nothing so heinous that he cannot work into his plan for our lives. There is no failure that his mercy cannot overcome. In Father’s hands, even the most painful events in our past become places where he transforms us and builds his compassion for other wounded lives into our hearts.
Freedom from our Imagined futures: Jesus warned us to, “Take no thought for tomorrow” and “Be anxious for nothing.” How much of our energy for living is sapped because of our fears and anxieties about the future. But God does not live in our imagined futures. When we do, we live apart from him, which is why stress overcomes us there. By determining what good we want or what evil we must prevent, we end up manipulating everything and everyone around us.
Freedom to Live In the Moment: Jesus had the amazing ability to live in each moment with his eyes and ears on his Father. By living in each moment, free of the past, unharried by the future and divested of his own agenda, he could live in the middle of Father’s life and purpose as circumstances unfolded around him.
This is the tree Jesus wants you to feast from and the power of his cross makes it possible. As he reveals his love to you, you too, will find yourself increasingly skeptical of your own agenda and preferences. Instead of wasting all your efforts trying to sculpt your life the way you want it, you’ll find the joy of living in the middle of his purpose working out in you. You’ll be able to embrace him and his work in you as easily in times of trouble as in times of ease. And by standing in his unfolding purpose you will know the truest joy of being his son or daughter in the world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BodyLife is published periodically by Lifestream Ministries and is sent free of charge to anyone who requests it. For those with email we recommend our web-based version so that we can hold down costs and get it to you much more quickly. This is especially important for international subscribers.
© Copyright 2005 Lifestream Ministries
Permission is herby granted to anyone wishing to make copies for free distribution.
Go to Previous Issue of BodyLife
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
The end of racism
We just spent four weeks in our beloved and beautiful South Africa and what a wonderful experience! We were blessed by friends and family who went out of their way to accomodate us, and who spoiled us with many a "braai". However, it was sad to sense that there is still a strong spirit of racism in that wonderful country and this spirit is fed by people of all races for various reasons and because of various agendas. What is the solution? Clearly political freedom alone cannot and has not brought real freedom to the peoples of South Africa( and the world for that matter!)
What can bring a lasting solution to the problem of racism?: How can a sustainable peace be reached between the Jew and the Arab?; How can Roman Catholic and Protestant in Ireland come to a peaceful agreement? Oh! if only people can get a revelation of the mystery of Christ who brought an end to all forms of racism, social inequalities and sexual prejudice(Galatians 3:28). Christ is the only standard by which God judge people. Read the words of Paul in the Message; " Instead of continuing with two groups of people seperated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody... The Cross got us to embrace,and that was the end of the hostility."(Eph.2)
Let those of us with a revelation of Christ in us, flesh out the reality of this "new kind of human being". To once again quote Paul in this regard; "Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches(communities),this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!"(Eph. 3:10- The Message)
What can bring a lasting solution to the problem of racism?: How can a sustainable peace be reached between the Jew and the Arab?; How can Roman Catholic and Protestant in Ireland come to a peaceful agreement? Oh! if only people can get a revelation of the mystery of Christ who brought an end to all forms of racism, social inequalities and sexual prejudice(Galatians 3:28). Christ is the only standard by which God judge people. Read the words of Paul in the Message; " Instead of continuing with two groups of people seperated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody... The Cross got us to embrace,and that was the end of the hostility."(Eph.2)
Let those of us with a revelation of Christ in us, flesh out the reality of this "new kind of human being". To once again quote Paul in this regard; "Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches(communities),this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!"(Eph. 3:10- The Message)
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Christ, the true human
In the beginning God said," Let us make man in our image..."(Gen. 1:26) and in Hebrews 1: 3 we read about Jesus, " He is the sole expression of the Glory of God and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God..." Where the first Adam failed( due to disobedience) to be the physical manifestation of the invisible God , the Last Adam( Jesus) perfectly mirrored the qualities of God!
The creative purpose of man was to manifest and mirror God, just as earth was to be the physical manifestation of heaven but this purpose was shortcircuited in the failure of the first Adam. Humanity was always in the heart of God and Jesus demonstrated the limitless potential of Man living with a consiousness of his origin and in union with his Designer. However, He became much more than just an example to us; He became the very Life of the believer!
Jesus Christ became indeed " The Way(back into relationship with God); the Truth(more than a philosophical construction or a dogma, but a relationship with a Person!) ); and the Life( the only life that is pleasing to the Father)" Believers need to awake to this reality that Christ in us is the only Life we can live, and when we set our minds on this truth, His Life will start to flow through us spontaneously. When we live His Life we become truly human again-the less of His Life in us the more inhumane we act!
What a message to the world we as Christians have! When we live in Christ and He through us, we become more human and as we become more human we manifest and mirror more of the Divine to the world!
The creative purpose of man was to manifest and mirror God, just as earth was to be the physical manifestation of heaven but this purpose was shortcircuited in the failure of the first Adam. Humanity was always in the heart of God and Jesus demonstrated the limitless potential of Man living with a consiousness of his origin and in union with his Designer. However, He became much more than just an example to us; He became the very Life of the believer!
Jesus Christ became indeed " The Way(back into relationship with God); the Truth(more than a philosophical construction or a dogma, but a relationship with a Person!) ); and the Life( the only life that is pleasing to the Father)" Believers need to awake to this reality that Christ in us is the only Life we can live, and when we set our minds on this truth, His Life will start to flow through us spontaneously. When we live His Life we become truly human again-the less of His Life in us the more inhumane we act!
What a message to the world we as Christians have! When we live in Christ and He through us, we become more human and as we become more human we manifest and mirror more of the Divine to the world!
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