I love it when the “planets align” or when “a plan comes together” or when “all things work out for the good.” I like that kind of stuff don’t you? Nobody wants to be “suspended” in “suspense” of an unknown outcome, right? Isn’t our nature as humans to be in control? We want to know stuff and manage stuff and decipher stuff and analyze stuff and be consumed by our analysis. In the engineering world we often say that we suffer from “the paralysis of analysis.” It is almost like our obsessive focus on understanding or controlling can kill any creative opportunity to move out of a routine and into a revelation. Whoa, that was deep. Still isn’t there a powerful truth somewhere hidden there in the depths of dissection? Ever have someone say “that is as plain as the nose on your face?” Or maybe you have heard “you are missing the forest for the trees.” OK, you are getting the picture. Now add a giant dose of fallen-nature thinking, broken relationships with the source of wisdom, living in an irrational fear of a good and loving God, hiding from a God that loves us so much He saves us, running from the obvious truth of an amazing God…and we have a formula for obsessive, compulsive death seeking, deer in the headlights numbness to the very source of life. Ouch! That hurts. Actually it kills.
In a very supernatural way that I don’t really understand and don’t expect to understand and am really OK with not understanding, God pulls us out of that death-eater existence and into the light of His revelation. He brings us back from death and gives us His life. Those are a very metaphoric sounding terms but are very real in a spiritual sense. That is why I really like it when God gives us a tangible, human, five-senses experience to confirm what we already “know” on the inside. So often we are driven by our “seeing is believing” so when we have a “believing is seeing” experience that seals the deal in our faith. It is the “evidence of things not seen” kind of stuff. So here is one for you. Ready?
In a few of these “I am” posts I talked about the word hypostasis. Check out “Mystic Portal” and “At the speed of light!” This word has a depth that likely exceeds our complete understanding but the idea of being held up or suspended in Him is really powerful. Since the beginning of time or as Paul says before the foundations of the Earth we have been in Jesus. That thought alone really blows my mind. “So what you are saying is that mankind was in Jesus before Adam?” Yeah, that is what the Bible says. When we “see” that truth then it changes everything, it shifts our perspective.
Paul talks about seeds and life and dying and all that with regards to the resurrection and these bodies and…well…way more than we can comprehend in our limited minds. Still there is a definite connection to our physical understanding about seeds and plants. When a plant produces a seed something died in the process. The very nature of that plant, all of what that plant is and can be, is in the seed. When you plant the seed in the dirt (too obvious?) then it comes to life by the power of God to bring forth a plant. This plant does not look like the seed but is what the seed had inside of itself. You get the idea.
Let me suggest that “mankind” is like this seed concept. We were alive in Jesus, died in Adam and come alive in Jesus again. We had all the “Jesus stuff” in us in Adam and a death had to occur to have the “seed of Jesus” come to life in us. Too stretching?
Here is the connection. Ready, set GO!
The word hypostasis that I discussed in the previous posts is our assurance that we are good to go. We are in suspension with Him as He moves and works. We are riding on a river of living water as we take this journey down the road (way) of Jesus. We were designed to be like Jesus. Our true identity is found in Jesus because we were made to be like Jesus. We were made for a union with God in the Spirit that is a oneness in the Spirit. Our Spirit is joined with His Spirit. We are filled with His Spirit. We are married to Him. We are His children. We are being transformed into His likeness from glory moment to glory moment. The more we see the love of Jesus the more aware we are of His fullness in us. The greater we move in His love the greater we are in His love. It is awesome to be like Jesus! We get to be a child of God. What could be better?
Want to know how we got here? We were resurrected. Now before you get all scriptural on me I do believe something will happen to my “meat sack” in some future. That is not my identity however. My identity is in Jesus NOW. So here is the fun part. Resurrection is the Greek word anastasis…pause for effect. Hypostasis…Anastasis. Come on! Can you see it?
Anastasis is to stand up again or stand anew. We are in a hypostasis because we were anastasis(ed). We were “seeds” in suspension in Jesus that were brought back to life. We were in a stasis that was renewed. We are a new creation because we were seeds that needed a breath of life. We came forth, were born again, came into a new understanding, were raised from the dead understanding of a good God and so much more. Our fallen human nature including all its tendencies for rebellion and sinful stupidity was killed with Jesus and when He was raised our new creation was raised with Him. We came to life in our new suspension with Jesus.
Jesus even reveals this truth to us in a practical way in His discussion with Martha. Remember this one:
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, (ESV)
There are “extra” words in the English to give clarity. What Jesus is saying is “even though you are dying (we live in a dying body) we will live (in our spirit body). He gives us life. His eternal life is knowing Him.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Jesus resurrects us in a very real sense because our spirit connection was dead. He resurrects us in a practical sense because our understanding of God was dead. He resurrects us in a future sense because this body is dying. He brings revelation in the renewing of our minds and in a supernatural union with Himself. This revelation brings life (the knowledge of a good and loving God instead of the monster that the deceiver wants us to believe in).
The problem is we get in the way. Our insistence on “seeing to believe” and our dependence on fallen fruit for food sets us up to ignore these truths of our new life. We have to “die” to “live.” That requires faith…trust in the one we love who is Love.
Simply put when we stop trying to categorize God and die to our old understanding we give him freedom to raise us from our dead and broken relationship to discover a relationship with Love Himself. Some are on this journey and are enjoying the ride in the living waters while they are being transformed into a new and greater understanding of a beautiful and glorious Father. Others are still searching the words of scripture to find eternal life when He is the Word that lives and can’t be bound to lifeless pages. It takes faith to surrender our false identity (founded in our list of data) to discover our true identity in Jesus. In this place of faith the number of questions exceed the number of answers. But there is no fear because perfect love is the only answer we need.
Still there are others searching the cosmos to find a God they want to believe in but they have been deceived by the voice that says “it’s too good to be true.” That is the same voice of the serpent in the garden. His first deception was to convince us that God was withholding something He wasn’t. The first deception was a challenge to our identity. We were already like God. We were already “in Jesus.” God wasn’t holding anything back. We got poisoned, we died and we’ve been hiding ever since.
Now it is time to embrace our anastasis so we can enjoy our hypostasis. Said another way it is time to realize our new condition and step into His arms that suspend us on this journey.
Yay God!
Lance
alancetotheheart 