What has always been at the root of the demise of mankind is our fallen image of God. The knowledge of good and evil made us so self-aware and self-centered that we couldn’t look past our shame to embrace the beauty and love of God. Our obsession with self had created a void of identity. Our hiding from God in irrational fear had us groping for empty get-well solutions. We find failure after failure at the end of self-improvement programs and spin-off into frustration trying to fill a void of non-existence. Because we don’t know who we are we condemn ourselves or condemn others to elevate ourselves. All of that churn and constant worry is rooted in our false perception of our divine family.
Jesus completely restored us to the truth of who God really is. His life as a human in a perfect divine love relationship redeems a human race that hid in the bushes from a good God. His death at our hands is God’s expression of other-love which is His substance. We see there on the cross the naked reality of the true nature of God. Our innermost being is pierced to the heart at the revelation of a God who would stoop so low. His resurrection is the proof that God cannot be angry with his children but instead is so intent on our inclusion, that Jesus is still the Word become flesh. The great I Am is joined to humanity forever. We are now so accepted and included that it cannot be undone. An incarnate God cannot be un-incarnate. The cosmos was formed by the Word and is held together by the Word and is now restored by the Word in His union with the cosmos.
Check out the last post. This is the beginning of a series to answer the hard question:
“So if we are all included in this divine circle dance then why is the world still so messed up?”
There are many parts to the answer. Just a thought however…How valid is the question? I bet if you took someone from the dark ages and dropped them into this reality they would say things are better here. I bet your great grandparents would say things are better. Just a thought. Maybe the “better or worse” is still wrapped up in our empty identity. Take two people in similar situations with two different perspectives and you will get two different assessments. Take a refugee from Sudan and give them a breakfast at Denny’s and I bet you will encounter a different perspective.
To me the number one reason our inclusion and redemption doesn’t manifest is … unbelief. We still have a world full of religion. We still have people groups and nations and families separated by religions that are trying to appease an angry god that isn’t real. We need help in our unbelief.
Remember the story of the dad with the child who had seizures? He had an inkling that Jesus could heal his son. In their reveling conversation what does the father say?
Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (ESV)
The phrase “cried out” is this word in the Greek: krázō – an onomatopoetic term for a raven’s piercing cry (“caw”); (figuratively) cry out loudly with an urgent scream or shriek, using “inarticulate shouts that express deep emotion”
When Jesus appears to the people after His resurrection He also appears to the 11.
Mark 16:14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. (ESV)
Are we crying out for more belief? Have we seen Jesus and are still living in unbelief? Check out how far Jesus will go so we will believe:
John 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (ESV)
What is it we are to believe?
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (ESV)
What does that look like for us now?
John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (ESV)
The substance of evil is emptiness or the absence of God. God is everywhere. He is in us. The triune family resides in us and us in Him. So when I am living in unbelief I am creating a place where He is not. That is creating evil. Our response as humans living in unbelief and irrational fear of God is to fill the void (the evil) with effort. We churn and work and worry and fret and complain and condemn and hurt and take… and so much more. We were made for Him to be with Him to be in Him to be filled with Him to be inseparable from Him. He is three in one. His oneness is His otherness. That is our created intent. That is our nature. That is our reality NOW. Unbelief denies this truth. The Holy Spirit reveals this truth (our inclusion in the divine triune family). Through the eyes of Jesus we begin to “see” what this family dynamic is really like. We take little baby steps and get stronger in the truth every day. No more void. No more “evil.” No more striving. No more bondage.
John 8:31 Jesus said to those who believed in Him, “When you continue to embrace all that I teach, you prove that you are My true followers. 32 For if you embrace the truth, it will release more freedom into your lives.” (The Passion Translation)
We are forever included in the best family in the universe. Actually we are included in the family that made the universe. Actually we are included in the family that redeemed the universe. When we live apart from that reality and continue to strive trying to please an angry mythological god we are missing the mark (sinning).
John 8:34“ I speak eternal truth,” Jesus said. “When you sin, you are not free. You’ve become a slave, in bondage to your sin. 35 And slaves have no permanent standing in a family, like a son does, for a son is a part of the family forever. 36 So if the revelation of being a son sets you free from sin, then become a true son and be unquestionably free! (The Passion Translation).
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your sonship (or daughtership). Ask Him for more belief. Step out in faith and dare to believe that God is that good. Your life will change. Your circumstance will look different. Your perspective will be transformed. Your mind will be renewed. Jesus calls that salvation. Jesus calls that eternal life. Your triune inclusion is your life in the Kingdom of God. You will come to “know” God (all of them in one) and you will be set free indeed.
Yay God!
Lance
alancetotheheart 