Undeniable Incarnate Inclusion

Before the incarnation we had no internal intimate union with the divine triune Perfection. Now we can know God like Jesus and experience God like Jesus and be loved by God like Jesus and be an anointed son like Jesus. This is what Jeremiah was talking about.

Heb 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,  16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”  17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (ESV)

We have His familial nature written on our hearts. We have the naturally present, observed and instituted inter-workings and inter-dependencies of Love written on our hearts. We have the laws of Love written on our hearts. We share a heart with Love incarnate.

Why would God remember our sin or make lists of our transgressions or store up judgment for our inequities or reserve wrath for our lawlessness when we are in Jesus and He is in us and God is in Jesus and the Holy Spirit is in, around and upon us? This would be God holding court for himself as judge and jury and accused. This would be holding court for Jesus when Jesus has already held court for us and His judgment was He consumed us into His being. He not only found us not-guilty but joined our humanity, as humanity.  He represented humanity as a human in a perfect relationship with the triune family. His anointed life is my life and your life. I have no life apart from His life. Where He ends and I begin are where I end and He begins. I can’t find the place where there is only me and not Him or only Him and not me. More than a jar of clay sharing an apartment we are in union with the one who holds all things together and in who we move and live and have our being.

Acts 17:29 MSG “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created (children in other translations).’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it? (parens added)

This union we have with Jesus is undeniable. His incarnation is the inclusion of all mankind. His death is the death of fallen Adam. His resurrection is mankind’s rebirth. His ascension is mankind’s new creation fully reconciled to and into the Godhead. We are set apart from what we were as fallen humans. We are no longer enemies in our minds but brothers in our nature.

Heb 2:11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,  (ESVST

This has always been God’s plan:

2 Tim 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (KJV)

We are just beginning to “see” this truth brought to light as Paul says.  It may have happened 2000 years ago but for some of us, we are just now “seeing” the light.

For Israel, God was with them externally, as a Nation.  His promise with Abraham for the inclusion of mankind was still in effect but without triune Love bubbling up from within they missed God’s true nature and intentions. Prior to the incarnation they were to be a beacon for mankind to see the glory of a God-man relationship. Instead they shuddered in fear and hid from intimacy to choose human traditions and human acceptance based on law inspired performance. The law that God gave them was to protect them from themselves.  It was never intended as a means to a relationship.  It was a guardian to bring them to safety:

Gal 3:24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. (NIV)

Now in Jesus everything changes. God was WITH Israel. Now God is IN mankind and mankind is IN God.

Gal 3:25 But when the faith came we were not under a guide. 26 For you are all children of God by the faith of Yeshua The Messiah. (Aramaic in plain English)

It was and is the faith OF Jesus.  It was His faith and is still His faith in God’s faithfulness and their perfect plan of inclusion:

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (KJV)

We were all immersed, consumed, pickled, dyed, and changed (baptised) in His death and resurrection:

Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (ESVST)

Under the law the nation of Israel (as mankind) had become experts of exclusion and division and conditionals in their fallen understanding. On this side of the incarnation none are excluded ever again. What was natural for a fallen Adam… God redeems in a perfect Jesus:

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (ESVST)

I can hear the questions…“If this is true then why are we still messed up?”

I have a few answers to that question I hope to address in the next few posts.  Maybe the first step is to believe what Jesus has done?  Maybe we haven’t actually lived from this truth for a very long time.  Maybe we have fallen back into religion instead of salvation?  Maybe it is OK to believe and then see.  Maybe there are many lies and traditions and wrong beliefs that have to be addressed.

The gospel is NOT the privilege of asking Jesus in to our lives.  The gospel IS the truth that Jesus has included us into His life (with all the family).

1Ti 4:10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (ESVST)

“So is everybody going to Heaven?  Are the Muslims going to Heaven?  What about the atheist?  Are you saying all roads lead to Heaven?”

So many questions come up in our minds when we hear the good news.  First I have huge hope and faith that God is so good that He can overcome any of our stupidity and rejection with His infinite Grace and Mercy and anything is possible.  I do however believe that God doesn’t make anyone do anything but invites everyone.  There is only one road to the Father and it is Jesus.  The intoxicating joy is found in seeing that we are all on that road.  Nobody is excluded.  They may reject Him.  They may fight like selfish beasts but He doesn’t give up.  He knows we will make poor choices.  He knows we are so deceived in our thinking about who He really is that He is patient and caring and Loving and tender and intense in His pursuit.  That is why He eliminated any religious barrier, human misunderstanding, guilt, shame, rejection, exclusion and so much more.  He is working His plan from the inside out.  That is why His plan from the very beginning was Undeniable Incarnate Inclusion.

Yay God!

Lance