There's Something About Jesus

Sometimes there seems to be a thousand different ways to understand the Gospel, what Jesus' mission was, and what it means to be a Christian. I am often confused and frustrated by the multitudes of different opinions and ways of understanding Christianity. Sometimes it makes me doubt, while other times it is just frustrating.  Even in my own life my faith and belief has change and transformed as I have gone through different periods of life, had different experiences, faced different contradictions, and noticed greater complexity in the world around me. I often wonder if my current understanding of the Gospel is correct, both because of the ways I have changed and because of the seemingly endless supply of differing ideas around me. Yet amidst all the different ideologies, understandings, and practices, there is one common denominator across Christianity, one thing that the Christian world revolves around, Jesus.

The fact that there are so many ideas, opinions, and understandings about Jesus reveals how important He is. He has gripped our attention, and we are compelled to figure out who He is and what He is about. When I feel confused or frustrated by the theology and ideas that so many people hold, many which seem contradictory, I find great assurance in the fact that Jesus is at the center of it all. We are intrigued by Jesus and by the Gospel.  Across the undulating ideas and practices of the Christian world He remains rock solid at the center of it all. That gives me hope, that gives me peace, even through my own struggle to understand Him.  As the apostle Paul put it, Jesus is the cornerstone. It isn't our understanding that makes Him central to our lives, the fact that He is at the center evokes our desire to understand Him. We begin to realize that our existence, our life, and this world finds it's true meaning in the person of Jesus. He is our faith and our confidence, not our specific understanding in a given period of time.

Jesus alone remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. As our feelings, experiences, and understanding is shaped and molded through life, we can take confidence in Jesus relationship with the Father, and what He did for us and as us. He is our confidence, our security, and our assurance. My faith isn't that I have grasped the truth, but that the truth has grasped me. I am very thankful for Jesus in my life, otherwise I would not have a solid place to stand.

The Sinful Nature: A Way of Functioning, Not a State of Being

Over the last number of years I have really struggled to understand what Paul means when he talks about the ‘sinful nature’, or the flesh. In my mind it has always been merely an idea that gives us a reference point to understand our internal struggles. It is the ‘reason’ we turn to sin, the ‘root’ of our evil, or the deepest ‘part’ of who we are. After all, when you talk about the nature of something, we generally are talking about what it’s made out of, what defines or characterizes it.

The sinful nature has always seemed more of an idea then something that can actually be defined and pointed to in our experience. After all where is it? Is it our entire body? Is it within our spirit? What about us is bad? Is it our emotions? Our thoughts? Our actions? The deepest part of a person is where all these things stem from, but they are not necessarily the most defining aspect of our humanity.  For now, I will define the common understanding of the sinful nature as ‘our propensity to sin’.  Let’s break that down a little bit.

What causes us to sin? What causes someone to commit adultery? Well they are probably lonely, wanting to experience intimacy, love, and desiring companionship. Are these desires bad? Of course not, in fact when we look closely they are actually good, they are part of who God created us to be! What causes someone to drink in access or do drugs? Chances are they want to feel good, or to escape from their pain, hurt, or shame.  Well we aren’t created to experience those things, the desire to not have them is also good! What causes someone to lie about themselves? Deep down they have a need to be valued, to belong, and to be recognized; they do not experience that, and so try to make that happen by pretending they are someone they are not. Again these needs and desires actually point to the goodness of our design, not the depravity of our essence. All sin stems from needs or desires that we are actually created to have fulfilled, needs and desires that aren’t bad. So the sinful nature, although can be the root of why we sin, isn’t the deepest part of who we are. So why do we sin? Well, because of confusion, of blindness, of insecurity, hurt, and shame. We sin because we have deep God given needs, but we have insecurity and a conscience understanding of good and bad that causes us to strive to look for activity, thoughts, ideas, systems, substances, or relationships to answer those needs. It isn’t the need that’s the problem, it’s that whole way of functioning! We will never find fulfillment when we use our understanding of what is good and bad to live in certain ways. From this mode of functioning we will always do things that won’t satisfy, because there isn’t anything that can while we exist within that framework. The sinful nature then, is this way of functioning, it is not a state of being.

To identify what this way of functioning is, we need to go back to see where things got off track. Humanity was created to live within the perfect relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit. To share in their joy, creativity, intimacy, and love.  We were completely naked and unashamed; no darkness, doubt, insecurity, or fear existed in our hearts. There was no need for rules to regulate our behavior, no relational advice for how to treat each other, and no moral code or guidelines. We didn’t need them, humanity was pure in heart and spirit, willing to be fully known.

Satan came and started planting doubt and insecurity in our minds. Why is God holding out on you? Don’t you know you could be so much more than you are? Doubt, fear, and uncertainty was presented to our hearts, as well as the promise of fulfilling the need to be something we never even knew we had. Then Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which God told them that if they ate of it they would die. What happened when they ate of it? Simple, humanity became consciously aware of the difference between good and bad.  We never had a conscience before, and it brings death! The knowledge of good and evil came on the foundation of doubt and insecurity. You tell me, what happens when someone feels insecure and has an understanding of what is good and bad? They will use their knowledge of good and bad to try to solve or disprove their insecurity.

And that is how the sinful nature came into existence. Good and evil playing off of the existence of shame, doubt, fear, and insecurity. What does it produce? All sorts of striving, straining, religiosity, jealousy, selfishness, pride, and sin. Again, it is a way of functioning, not a state of being. We never lost our state of being, our design, what we were created for. What happened was we became blinded and confused by our shame, and then our conscience was awakened and became the tool we used to try and overcome our insecurity. When you think about it, this way of functioning is really the cause of all personal, relational, and global suffering. It’s what turns us in towards ourselves and away from vulnerable face to face relationship.

Are we stuck with this sinful nature forever? No of course not, we just need stop functioning out of insecurity, shame, doubt, and pain; oh and we need to stop using our conscience to try and navigate our understanding of who we are. Seem impossible?  Think about it, how many of our actions, relationships, activities, thoughts, and emotions revolve around using our understanding of good and bad to climb our way out of our insecurities? How much do our insecurities shape our self-image, causing us to fall into comparison, jealousy, and deep feelings of inadequacy? How often do we justify our thoughts, emotions, and choices based on our own personal understanding of right and wrong? Do you see how that is just a hamster wheel of insecurity, striving, and self-justification?

Unfortunately this Sinful Nature, this way of processing and functioning, exists at the root of most of our relationships, jobs, activities, and even flows into the way we engage in religion. Unfortunately our understanding and construction of Christianity is often completely interpreted from this fallen way of functioning. We end up defining Jesus, salvation, heaven, hell, worship, prayer, and church from our insecurity and our obsession with good and bad. Christianity just becomes another good/bad entity in our consciences that help us try and overcome our insecurity.  We feel justified for doing certain things like ‘accepting Jesus into our hearts’, or going to church on Sunday’s. We feel good about ourselves for overcoming certain behaviors and comparing ourselves to others we judge through our conscience’s as bad. We create systems of ‘climbing’, ‘serving’, and ‘becoming’ something in God to give us a system to sate our insecurity. We forget that God never wanted us to function in that way to begin with!

I am definitely writing too long, but when we look at Jesus, we see that He is introducing a whole new reality to us, a new way of functioning. We killed Jesus because we could not recognize Him, He doesn’t make any sense to our sinful nature. Yet He came to end that for us by meeting our deepest needs and by fulfilling the requirement that our conscience demanded.  In so many different ways, believing in Jesus is our salvation from the death of our sinful way of functioning.  Thinking we are saved, ‘if we believe’, is just another idea produced out of our insecurity and systems of self-justification. 

Believing in Jesus is seeing everything differently. Instead of shame, my belief in Jesus is my belief in my innocence. Instead of feeling like I need value, I see in the person of Jesus how valued I am. Instead of feeling bad about my mistakes, I see in Jesus that they are not held against me. Instead of striving to justify myself through good living, I see Jesus showing me that it has nothing to do with my conception of good and bad.  Jesus didn’t come to change our behavior, He came to change the root of our behavior, which was our sinful nature. He came to introduce us to a whole new world, and He did so by entering into ours, submitting Himself to our angst, frustration, shame, pride, and insecurity. When we believe in Jesus we are no longer functioning from insecurity or conscience.  There is more I would like to say, and things I would like to articulate in greater depth, but this will have to do.  I will close with these verses of scripture.

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).”

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).”

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).”

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).”

Learning to See Christ In Me!

Expecting the bitter bite of cold, I was pleasantly surprised to find the water was very comfortable to be in. It wasn't long before I had dipped my head beneath the surface. I felt the silky water moved against my skin, and ripples moved and undulated away from me as I brushed the surface of the lake with my hand. I noticed the hint of fall colors just beginning to show themselves in the trees, and took pleasure in the rustling leaves as the wind played through the branches. The sun reflected and danced over the water, and I felt a deep pleasure well up within me; wonder bubbling to take expression in my heart and on my face.

My last couple blogs contain my theological journey into understanding that the Gospel is the good news that we are united to the Father, Son, and Spirit, not that we somehow need to make that happen. Furthermore, not only are we wrapped up into the relationship of the trinity, but Christ is actually inside of us! We aren't relating to a distant deity trying to get Him involved in our lives, we are waking up to the reality of how included and and involved He already is! I am now going to try and communicate how this truth has changed me and how I relate to God, to others, and to creation. I want to share some insight into how I experience Christ in me.

If we start relating with God from a belief of separation, my interaction with Him will need to be completely different then anything I think, feel, or experience on a normal day to day basis. If I am separate from Him, then everything that I am and everything that I experience has to be interpreted as originating primarily from myself or from this world. This means that any 'relationship' I make with God is very disconnected from everything that I know and everything that I am.

Separation is the fundamental belief that religion thrives on. Since I am separated, now I have religious/spiritual life that I need to add onto the natural/human life that I currently have. I now have to separate my life into these two categories, spiritual and natural. This dualistic way of thinking easily goes one step further and becomes Gnosticism, which has always been recognized as a heresy within the church. Since I am separate from God, anything that I currently experience, think, feel, and know is bad, while anything that is spiritual, religious, or different then my normal life is good. That is Gnosticism in a nutshell, reject the physical to pursue the spiritual. Thinking this way leads to a very disconnected life with lots of straining and striving. It creates confusion, uncertainty, shame, and pride. Our lives become a disjointed attempt to supplant our natural human experience with some sort of religious or spiritual one. This will be awkward and it won't feel natural or very human.

The underlying cause of this binary way of living, is the belief that we are separated from God. I have discovered that Jesus came to show that we aren't separate, but united to Him and to His Father! Union is the main premise of the good news, and when we start with union we interpret our thoughts, emotions, and experiences very differently. There is no separation between God and I. He is involved in my life, I don't' need to get Him involved. Now I look to see what He is doing and what He is saying. My relationship with Him starts with us already being together, it isn't something that I need to make happen. My faith is my active participation in a relationship that already exists from God's side of the equation.

In Christ He reconciled all things to Himself, and united Himself to us while we were still rejecting Him in the blindness of our sin. He is at work in our hearts and minds, leading us into His light and truth, revealing Himself in us, and showing us the life we were always created to live. If I need to make this relationship happen, then I will always be on the hamster wheel of religion, trying to make it happen and wondering if I am doing it right. This relationship isn't something that we choose, we do not invite Jesus into our lives, He has included us in His life. Now we are waking up to this great dance of relationship that we are already in, and we can actively participate as it is unveiled in our lives.

Baxter Kruger puts it so succinctly. "If it is my job to get Jesus into my heart, then I will spend my entire life trying to get Him in there, and the rest of it trying to convince myself that He is actually there." This way of thinking only leads to comparison, insecurity, introspection, self-justification, and religion! I don't believe that anymore. Jesus included us all in His life, death, and resurrection. He united Himself to the entire cosmos in our darkness, hurt, confusion, pain, and rejection of Him. From there He is sharing His life with us, and inviting us to participate in the relationship and life that He has already brought us into. I am learning to understand and interpret my experience from this union; it is so refreshing to me, and is very different from when I interpreted my life believing I was separate from God. It has been a process of repentance, of changing my mind, and it still is! Jesus has presented us with a whole different reality, and asks us that we agree with Him and re-think everything we have thought to be true. Here are some of the ways He has renewed my mind.

About a month ago I went up to my families cabin for the weekend to help close it up for the winter. My grandparents live on the lake during the summer time, but then leave for Northfield MN before the cold of winter arrives. They are getting older and so are less able to accomplish the chores and tasks that need to be done at this time of year. The opening of this blog described what took place when I went swimming after a short run.

As I gazed around me at the beauty of creation, experiencing wonder within me, I had quite a large paradigm shift. In the past when I have experienced joy or wonder in creation, I have interpreted that as seeing God's glory in the beauty of what I am seeing. I then would feel compelled to 'give God credit' in some way for the beauty before me. In a subtle almost unrecognizable way that line of reasoning is premised by the idea that God is 'out there'. This moment was different for me than others. As I swam there in the lake, I realized that I wasn't just attributing the beauty that I saw to God, but that my very wonder and appreciation for that beauty was from Him. I am united to Him, He is in me. When God created the world He said, 'It is good'. When I behold the world He is resonating His delight and enjoyment in me and I also say, 'It is good'. My delight and wonder isn't something I make up, it is actually God sharing His life and wonder in me, expressing His delight through me!

I realized something so beautiful; any love I feel, yearning for relationship, recognition of truth, compassion, or delight in beauty, only exists because I am united in Christ! The Father, Son, and Spirit are sharing their life in and through me, resonating with me their love, joy, peace, and wholeness. I can't interpret those experiences as set apart from God, but as His voice and presence within me! Relating with God, hearing His voice, and responding to Him isn't me conforming to an outside principle or reality, it is responding and recognizing the voice and presence that is already within me. As I recognize how He is already united to me, I don't live from a place of straining and striving to build a relationship with God, but instead, I live from a place of discovery and enjoyment of the relationship that already exists.

I now see God in my recognition of beauty, joy, love, and wholeness. I am learning to recognize His presence as the source of those things in my life, and am learning that I don't need to 'search for Him out there'. I now can see God within myself, how He is moving and shaping, producing His love, sensitivity, compassion, wisdom, and joy inside me. Relating with God is now very personal, very present, very real! It isn't something that is 'out there', something that I 'need to accomplish'. His presence isn't distant from my normal ordinary life but inextricably connected to it! My thanksgiving and praise is the simple acknowledgement of His voice and my active awareness of Him rather than a forced expression to a God I believe demands it or is 'other than me'.

Even my love and awareness of God is Christ in me, we don't manufacture that on our own. So much of religion is built on separation and a relationship based on the idea we need to 'build' with God. This isn't further from the truth. Christ came and united Himself to us, He is at work within us, speaking to us, leading us, and producing life in us. Our relationship with Him is actively being aware and enjoying that union, not making it happen! . It is contemplative and mystical, but very personal and real. He is with me, within me, and He is in you too.

My Grandpa loves to work, he loves to use his hands and strength to accomplish projects. He takes delight in being able to build, do chores, and fix things. I love my Grandpa very much. Because I love Him I know what he delights in and therefore I delight in participating with what he is doing. As we worked that weekend I felt his delight and satisfaction as we raked the yard and took in the dock. It wasn't work for me, but a joyful experience of relationship with my Grandpa. This is how God is teaching me to relate with Him, and I believe that's how He wants to relate with all of us. He is very passionate about life, goodness, wholeness, and love. He is the creator of harmony, relationship, and the origin of all goodness. He is sharing Himself with us, resonating His delight and love for life at the core of our being. Our relationship with Him is one of recognizing His presence in our hearts and minds, learning to love Him, and out of that love living within the things that He takes delight in.

This is the most intimate relationship we can ever experience, it is what we were created for. To experience face to face relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit, to respond to His heart, and to live in His love as He shares it with us. This isn't about religiously conforming our lives to principles or ideas, it isn't about making something happen or about looking 'out there' for God. This is about participating in the very source of life, of realizing that we are united with Him and that there is no separation! It is about learning to recognize His voice within us and joining in the dance of God's other centered love and delight. As I realize my union, I attribute many of my emotions, experiences, and insights to His presence, and not to myself. I am learning to relate to Christ in me, and I have hope that it will only become more glorious (Colossians 1:27)!

The 'Not So Out There' Jesus

I have gone through a huge paradigm shift over the last couple years when it comes to seeing and experiencing God. This hasn't only been an intellectual overhaul, but an experiential one as well. I have always thought of God as being 'out there'. What do I mean by that? I mean that I have primarily interpreted by thoughts, emotions, and experiences as originating in myself; and therefore since I start from a place of independence, any interaction and pursuit of God has to be towards a God that is 'outside of myself'. Does that make any sense? Believing I am alone; I have prayed and worshiped and interpreted my experience from the standpoint that God is 'out there' somewhere and I want to get Him in with me and my life.

The reason I have thought that way is why we all do. First off, I often feel separate from God! We are all such natural control freaks governed by shame and anxiety, that our experience tells us that we are alone. I often feel alone, feel like everything in me and in my experience originates primarily from myself. I have a very self-centered perspective, the world must revolve around me right? Everybody is so aware of who I am and what I do. . anyone relate?

Unfortunately the feeling of being alone is validated in our lives by theology that tells us we are alone. Christian teachers affirm our 'feelings' by telling us we are excluded by God, that we are separate from Him and He from us. We are told that Jesus made a way for us to 'get' to God, and now it is up to us to put in the right amount of effort in order to do so. Get to God. . . a God that is 'out there', beyond us, and removed from my experience. Like I said in the beginning, my perspective has taken a rather large shift.

First off, I am already extremely self-centered; if I am told that God is 'out there' inviting me to include Him in my life, where am I going to start trying to do that? Through my own behavior of course! I am going to navel gaze, to fall into introspection, and try and figure out what I can do right to get God involved. My faith is going to start with me, what do I need to do in order to get Jesus into my life/heart/whatever you want to call it. As Baxter Kruger so succinctly puts it, "If I need to ask Jesus into my heart then I will spend my whole life trying to get Him in, and the rest of it trying to convince myself that He is actually there."

The idea that God is 'out there' makes a whole lot of sense to my experience; and since I am so used to anxiety and fear, it seems normal to interact with God through that lens of will power and selfishness. That is until I realized that I what I have been trying to make happen has been true all along, I have just been blind to it!

You see, Jesus united Himself to me, to you, and to the whole world. The whole point of Him coming was that we couldn't 'climb the mountain' to 'get to Him'.  Jesus, talking about when the Holy Spirit would come said, "on that day you will know, that I am in my Father, that I am in you, and that you are in me (John 14:20)." Wait, what did Jesus just say? He said that the Holy Spirit was going to reveal to us that Jesus is already inside of us! Woah! Take a look at when the apostle Paul was reflecting on encountering God, he sad, 'God was pleased to reveal His son in me.' Wait, so Jesus was already inside a man that was rampaging around killing Christians! Apparently so. Furthermore Paul's mission was to 'reveal Jesus in the Gentiles (Galatians 1:16).' God was in Christ reconciling the cosmos to Himself, Jesus universally represents us all, and included us in His life death and resurrection! I am not separate from Him, Jesus has brought me in, He is inside of me, closer than my next breath!

What does that mean for our faith, for walking out this whole Christian thing? First off, we aren't looking 'out there' for Jesus, we are looking to see Him already with us! That means we have to reinterpret all of our experiences of separation, distance, and exclusion, because they aren't true. Yes you heard me right, those experiences are not what is true in reality. Jesus has always been united to us, always been speaking to us, sharing His life with us, and guiding us. It is our shame, hurt, and pain that blinds us to it; and yet it is actually at the deepest places of our hurt that Jesus united Himself to us! He died for us while we were dead in our sins. It is there, in our hurt and pain where He is doing His redemptive work, that is where He is pouring out streams of living water.

What do we need to do? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts so that we can see Jesus there. We need to let go of our pretense and shame to actually get deep enough into ourselves to experience the God of life that has been sustaining us all along. We need to learn to recognize how anxiety, fear, and shame influence our perception and decision making. We aren't made to live from those! We need to fight against the lie of separation by calling it a lie. We need to speak the truth so that our minds can come into alignment with reality. I am not separated, I am in union with Jesus. Now I start coming to terms with the contradictions in my experience, the hurt that I feel, and the lies I believe. Now we ask, since Jesus is in me, how has He been at work in my heart and in my life? How is Jesus sharing His life with me in this situation, what is He speaking to me? These aren't questions that make us look outside of ourselves for the answer, but in. He is already with us, already leading and speaking to us. His way is the one of hope, truth, and love; look for how that is taking effect in your life.

We need to interpret our life from union not from separation like we normally do.  If I start with separation, the responsibility still rests on my shoulders to get to God; therefore I start from insecurity and remain self centered. If I start with inclusion and union, I learn to let-go of my efforts and to sink into a place of trusting and seeing how Jesus is already holding and sustaining me. In this way my faith starts with Him not with me.

 "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them (John 7:37-38."

Adoption in Love: The Beauty of the Gospel

"Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you." (John 16:15). 

The Holy Spirit is going to take what is Jesus' and share it with us! What do the Father, Son, and Spirit have? Unity, delight, joy, love, hope, and wonder. Within their connection there is no shadow, no fear, no shame, no worry or anxiety. They share other centered love and delight. They are creative, and they take great joy in goodness. 

The plan from the beginning of creation was to include us in the relationship that the Father, Son, and Spirit share with each other. "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to son-ship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves (Ephesians 1:4-6)."

The Father, Son, and Spirit created us out of love; not for some obscure purpose or goal, but for the simple joy of relationship. They created us to share with us the life that have together! A life of union, joy, peace, and love. In that passage it says that He predestined us in 'love', and that he chose us to be holy and blameless in His sight. Holiness isn't some sort of squeaky clean moral rightness. Holiness is how set-apart, unique, and wholesome the relationship is that they share. It is their life, their essence, their goodness and love that makes them holy. We are destined to be blameless so that we can stand naked and unashamed before each other and God, just like Adam and Eve did in the beginning. 

We do not have some sort of obscure practical purpose here on Earth. We were created out of love to exist in love; both with each other and with our creator. A dance of intimacy, wholeness, and goodness that produces joy! Our purpose is to live in the dance of His love and to participate in that relationship; nothing more, nothing less. 

The fall was humankind turning away from face to face interaction. It was a turning from the dependence and dance of other centered love to pursue independent existence. An existence that we were never created for. Eating from the tree of good and evil brought conscience into our existence, and with our conscience came shame. Instead of intimacy, vulnerability, and other centered love, we became ashamed, pretentious, and self-centered. We turned in on ourselves in our hurt and pain. We couldn't see God for who He actually was, and our guilty conscience tainted our perception of the world around us. Out of our desire to hide from ourselves, we ran from Him and His love. God became an evil being in our eyes because we could not bear to stand in His all consuming love. 

God never changed His original purpose. In love, we were predestined for adoption. This, the Father, Son, and Spirit would still accomplish; but because of our brokenness, it was going to be adoption through pain and suffering. Pain for us, because we would have to be confronted with our deepest hurts and shame; pain for God because in order to unite us to Himself He would have to enter into our brokenness and blindness.  Our pain and shame caused us to reject and hate the God of pure love. Because He is love, He would do anything to reconcile us to Himself, to show us who He really is, and to show us how loved we are by Him. How He did that is what we call the Gospel!

Jesus entered into our world; in the likeness of sinful flesh he entered into our sense of separation. He was the light in the darkness, the image of the invisible God. He came to show us who the God of Israel actually was, our loving Father. He came to His own, but we did not recognize Him. Jesus did not make sense to our minds, our hurts, and our shame. Jesus came and declared that 'no one knew the Father'. We were messed up, blind, and confused. No one knew the Father but the son, and if we wanted to know the Father we would have to come to Him. 

Jesus was not accepted, and not understood; instead He was spurned. Jesus submitted Himself to our anger and frustration. Out of our angst, pride, and hurt, we killed the loving God that created us, holds us, and sustains us. Jesus took all of our sin as we vented our frustration by crucifying Him as a criminal on the cross. We could not handle who He was, and what He represented. Our shame and pride could not stand in His presence. He died under our bondage, under our hurt, on account of our transgressions. He hung on cross and entered into our blindness, 'My God my God why have you forsaken me.' That was the first time Jesus had said 'God' rather than Father. He entered into our alienation, and in that place of feeling alone He met His Father face to face, "Into your hands I commend my spirit." 

Jesus, just like Adam, represented all of us. He united Himself with us at our worst, dying for us while we were dead in our own sins. The apostle Paul talks about this mystical union we have with Christ. When He died we all died, when He rose we all rose, when He ascended we all ascended. On the cross Jesus adopted us into the relationship He has with the Father, not when were are at our best, but when we still were rejecting Him. We are united to Him because He chose to adopt us. Our faith is the waking up to that reality. The Apostle Paul met Jesus and he declared that, 'God was pleased to reveal His son in me.' 

Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would come and share with us what is His. That on the day of the Spirit we would come to realize that Jesus is one with the Father, that He is in us, and that we are in Him (John 14:20). We have been wrapped up in the Father's embrace, into the holy life of God. Our walk of faith is to see Christ in us the hope of glory who is producing Himself in us, sharing the intimate embrace of the Father in our deepest places of hurt, rejection, and isolation. We are no longer separate from God even in our darkness, for the light still shines there. God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Now the question is how do we participate in that relationship? What is our walk of faith? How do we see and experience our union. Where is God in our hurt, confusion, and pain? That we will look to tackle in the next blog post! 

Life To The Full

"The Thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10)."

From the Garden of Eden to Revelation, God's one focus is to give us the abundant life He has created us for. There isn't some abstract reason or purpose that God wants us to join Him in, He has always been and always will be purposed towards one end; to give us life. This life isn't abstract either, it is real, something we all yearn for and recognize on a fundamentally human level. This life He has for us is about love, connection, freedom, true pleasure, fellowship, joy, and hope.

Creation:
God created us to live in the Garden of Eden with Him and with each other in unbroken fellowship, other centered love, and joyous discovery. We were created to be completely vulnerable without any distrust, hurt, anger, or pain in our lives; to be completely naked and unashamed. Simply put we were created for life and life was created for us. We were created to wonder, to enjoy each other, to create, and to live life like God does; in unbroken fellowship, unconditional love, and never ending joy.

The Fall:
This was the turning point, the destruction and complication of the life we were intended to live. Shame entered our relationships, hurt, distrust, and fear became present in our connection with each other and with God. Death, non-life, began to dictate how we lived, what we lived for, and how we interacted with each other. Comparison, envy, entitlement, pride, and anger entered our world. We formed our conception of purpose, existence, and even God out of that hurt. God's purpose for us never changed, He set out to reach us in our hurt and shame to liberate us from the shackles of death so that we could live once again in freedom, love, and hope.

The Gospel:
God reveals His love for us, showing us that our value doesn't come from the broken systems of the world but from Him. He reveals that our true origin, our point of reference, is found in Him and not in our parents or in the ways we seek to identify ourselves in the world. Jesus reveals that we were created for life like He experiences with the Father and Spirit, and that we were designed to thrive in a certain way. We see Him standing in contradiction to the way of the world; His vibrant life, His truth is the light of life shining in the darkness of death.

 He meets our deepest needs, our deepest insecurities, and confronts our best efforts of making something of ourselves by accepting us despite our behavior. He forgives us our trespasses because He wants us to live shame free. He submitted His life to our hurt, allowing he dysfunction of non-life kill Him, thereby taking the sin of the world into His own body for one purpose only; to give us life. Not some abstract life, but very real, very human, very tangible. Love, peace, purpose, justice, security, and hope.

Jesus came to reveal who the Father actually is. When we see Jesus we see the true nature and character of God. When we see Him we recognize His likeness in ourselves. When we know the truth the truth sets us free. Jesus came to give us life, to set us free from death, plain and simple. The Gospel reveals what life is and isn't about. It gives us meaning and purpose. Life isn't about entertainment, success, or shaping our lives to match the opinions and expectations of others. Life is about meeting God in our daily lives recognizing His voice in our circumstances and relationships. Life is about sharing in His love, joy, peace, and purpose. Life is about Jesus, Jesus is life.

Faith in Jesus:
Believing in Jesus is believing that God is for us and not against us; a radically new understanding to what our shame filled consciences cause us to see God as. We see that we are forgiven from all our mistakes, sins, and agreements we have made with death. Our faith is saying no to the way of the world, to non-life, and saying yes to life in all it's fullness. We believe that we are like Him, created for love, peace, service, rest, joy, hope, purity, and goodness. We see that the law was never about rules, but it was actually about abundant life. It is our shame and guilt that cause us to sin and live in ways that produce hurt, anger, division, uncertainty, and fear. It is Christ's forgiveness that sets us free from bondage to have the light of 'life'!  "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2)." 

Having Faith in Jesus is very different from having faith in God. Having faith in 'God' is relatively meaningless to our lives. Jesus defines God, defines us, and defines life. God is ambiguous and distant without Jesus. Our lives are meaningless and without hope without Jesus. Jesus reveals God's true nature, Jesus is God's mind made up about us. As I believe in Jesus I see my own identity reflected and defined in Him. Life has it's true reference point in Jesus, it is in Him that we find life's clear definition. Jesus is God, when we see Him we see the Father. "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3)."

Loving God:
Loving God is knowing that He is the giver of life. He is our champion, our redeemer, and our savior from death. Every good gift comes from above from the Father of lights, and we know He is leading us in the way everlasting. We love Him because He loves us, He is sharing His life with us, giving us hope, compassion, and love. He is teaching us to love with Him, to hurt with Him, and to be angry with Him. We love God because He has come to give us life, and He is everything that is good, true, and holy. We do not exist apart from Him, anything in us that is good comes from Him, and His promises are all about our good and our abundant life. In Him we live, move, and have our being.

We love God by agreeing with Him in the context of our daily lives. We learn to love connection, hope, and security so, we work alongside Him to experience those things in our relationships. He reveals to us the destructiveness of sin, so we agree with His voice in fleeing from it. Loving God involves loving abundant life. It is taking time to see Him in creation and in our own lives. Loving Him is loving our neighbors.

The Kingdom:
"The kingdom of God is not of eating or drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17)." The kingdom is not about rules. It is about the abundant life of God taking root in our lives, permeating our thoughts, emotions, and interactions with love. It is an internal kingdom in terms of how we function as human beings, but it is a external kingdom in how we relate with the world around us and with God. We live in the kingdom when we live the way we are designed to, when we function like we are supposed to, and when we relate with others in accordance to the reality of who God is and who we are.

The 'Glory of God':
The glory of God is nothing less than His life and light being expressed and experienced in our day to day life. We glorify God by lifting His name high in our choices and relationships. His name is simply His essence, His character, who He is. The glory of God is real connection, hope, joy, peace, purity, and love; it is wonder, harmony, creativity, and purpose. Giving God glory is recognizing His goodness, His loving care, and acknowledging how He is sharing His life with us.

The Holy Spirit:
The HS is given to us to teach us, to remind us, to direct us, and to empower us; ultimately the Holy Spirit is the spirit of life. He is all about producing God's life, the life of our design, in us. Just look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5!

Hearing God's voice and being obedient:
Both God's voice and Satan's voice are so woven into the very fabric of our lives that we don't recognize them even though they are always present. God's voice is speaking to our hearts and minds through our experiences, emotions, and interactions; leading us to listen to His will, and trust that He knows what is best for our lives. He shares his life in us by giving us compassion, love, and anguish over sin and suffering. His voice is the quiet whisper leading us into everlasting life, leading us away from sin that is so destructive to our lives, and leading us to establish love and connection in our relationships. His is the voice when we are tempted to hurt, lash out, complain, or sin that compels us to act in love. We choose whether or not to agree with Him, and obey Him.

Our Life and Mission as Christians:
Our mission as Christians is to bring the kingdom of God to earth by destroying the works of the devil. In other words our lives are transformed by who Jesus is, what He reveals, and the forgiveness He gives us. That life, the life of love, joy, hope, and peace influences the world around us.  We agree with His voice, with His life, and our lives take on the qualities of heaven. We live our lives walking with the Holy Spirit, who everyday is speaking to us, leading us to have compassion on those around us, to love in specific ways, and to communicate the forgiveness of God in the midst of real life. This will lead us to come against the works of the devil. We will value people outside of their behavior, we will love people even when they are difficult, and we will fight to see the abundant life of God manifest here on Earth.

Evangelism, spreading the good news of Jesus, is the the proclamation of life itself. It is the declaration or worth, of forgiveness, and of love. The good news of the Gospel is hope when we're hopeless, peace when we're anxious, acceptance when we feel unacceptable, and life in all it's fullness.

We pray to submit ourselves to Him, to learn His ways, and to see the goodness of God work in the lives of those around us. We pray because as we focus on Him and invite Him into our lives His voice becomes stronger and more clear; directing our steps, and leading us to impact those around us with His love. We worship Him, because He is altogether good, we do not have any existence apart from Him, and because we become like what we worship. As we interact with God we are transformed evermore into His likeness, becoming like Him, living like Him, relating like Him, and loving like Him.

Being a Christian is living with God, the giver of life. It is about living in, towards, and for His will and purpose for humanity. This is hard to do, but so very natural and human at the same time. It is standing for life, for goodness, for love, for forgiveness, for value. It is working alongside God, learning to hear and respond to His voice, to live the abundant life He has designed us for. It is declaring the good news of who Jesus is, what He has done for us, and what He reveals to us.

Heaven:
In this world we see in a glass darkly, in other words we don't see clearly. We still have thought patterns, temptations, and struggles that prevent us from experiencing the fullness of life here and now. Even though we grow in our experience of abundant life, in the world there is still suffering, pain, sin, and hurt. People still agree with the devil who is out to destroy life and cause disconnect between us and God. We can still feel ashamed, and hurt, which poisons our lives with jealousy and striving.  Heaven is the promise to us that God will fulfill His ultimate plan, to restore all things to the fullness of life. No more pain, hurt, or sin, that is our promise, our hope, and our joy in the midst of hurt and pain that we experience here on Earth. God wants us all to come to know who He is, and to learn to love the life we are created for so that we want to be with Him for eternity; He will not force us to like it or join with Him however. It is our free choice to do so.

Lifestyle Worship

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds (Romans 12:1-2)."

These two passages have a deep but practical meaning to them. Our thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and decisions are visible signs that point to what influences us. The way we choose to live, the way we make decisions, the things we care about, and the way we define ourselves, are all indicators of what we deem to be the most important in life. If someone took an assessment of our attitudes, thoughts, and decisions for the purpose of trying to figure out what drives us as individuals, we would probably be rather embarrassed. 

In the passage above, Paul is making quite a statement. How we choose to submit our lifestyles and what we choose to submit to, is actually worship.  When my thoughts, emotions, and choices are driven by the fear of what other people think, then I am worshiping other people. When my life is being driven by the pursuit of creating an image for myself, by the drive for success, fame, and glory; then I am worshiping myself. When I limit my language, my actions, my interests, and my interactions to what is normal/expected then I am worshiping the culture. 

Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. . . there are many, many, patterns of this world that we are influenced by, but we don't need to be. A lifestyle of entertainment, a perpetual attitude of entitlement that leads to complaining, or justifying compromise because it is just 'human', are all ways we conform to the pattern of this world. We are prevented from breaking those patterns by the fear of what other people think, the expectations we have built in ourselves about the way things 'ought' to be, and our relentless insecurities that tell us to lie low, stay comfortable, fit in, or strain for achievement. 

You see, worship isn't just about singing songs that have words of adoration, true spiritual worship is when we conform our lives to His. It is the practical human reality of how we function, how we think, and how we decide to live that is worship. It is about how we 'present our bodies as living sacrifices'. We worship what we submit our lives to. It is one thing to set aside time to 'worship' God; it is another reality entirely to worship Him by changing the way we function on a fundamental level.

That is why John drew such a hard line in one of his letters; "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them (1 John 2:15)." Certainly that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the world. God has given us the beautiful gift of creation, but there is a difference between using and enjoying the world, then being owned and enslaved to it. We are meant to be above the ways of the world even thought we choose to participate in them, unfortunately we are often victims to it's patterns, attitudes, and expectations. 

There is one mentality that is detrimental to our understanding of worship. You see, we often live with a dualistic perspective, we live life as if the secular and the sacred are separate from one another. Jesus, in the incarnation, united the physical and the spiritual.  Our time with God and our worship of Him cannot be minimized to a once in a while, in church, 'i'm going to worship', experience. God is everywhere, and we can exalt Him in our lives by how we live and how we function in this world. It isn't what we do in public that reveals the most about our connection and worship of God, but what we do in private when no one is looking.   

Decide in yourself what kind of person you want to be. What sort of relationship with God do you want to make a priority? Will it be the sporadic kind, where you 'go to worship' once in a while, or will your life take on the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ as your entire being is influenced by who He is and what He has revealed to be true about reality? 

Our Redeemed Image (Part 1)

In the beginning God created man in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26). God, Elohim, is plural. You see, God's essence is one of other centered love, connection, wholeness, and safety.  We were created in His likeness, bearing his same characteristics; in other words, we were created to live the kind of life that He does within Himself. We were created to walk intimately with both God and the rest of humanity in all truth and wholeness; we were created to be naked (completely vulnerable/exposed) and unashamed (no insecurity or pretense).

Satan came into the garden and did the one thing he could to undermine God's children, he tactfully placed a lie at the core of what made us His. 'Did God really say?. . . You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil (Genesis 2:1,4-5).  Already bearing God's likeness, humanity believed the lie that Satan presented, and the lie produced in them thoughts and actions that went against their true nature.  We call those thoughts and actions sin.

The lie came to Adam and Even, imparting a very powerful belief at the core of their being; the belief of 'I am not'.  For the first time they had reason to question God's goodness, and began to wonder if He was holding something from them. It gave birth to pride in them, a new experience, where they felt entitled to have what they thought they needed. This lie of 'I am not' birthed sin in them. They eat of the fruit of the tree, and immediately lose their innocence. They cover themselves up because now they have been introduced to the shame of doing something wrong. Out of that shame and insecurity Adam lashes out at both God and Even by blaming them for the mistake, 'The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate (Genesis 2:12).' Sin then, led to death, which is the opposite of the life were created to be in. All human suffering, shame motivated actions, idol worship, and depravity stem from the believed lie, 'I am not'.

It is this lie that still dictates much of the world today, and much of our lives. I am not good enough, I am not beautiful enough, I am not smart enough, I am not strong enough, I am not popular enough, I am not spiritual enough. . . the list can go on and on.  What is your, I am not?

We never actually lost our God-likeness, but we fell into a lifestyle of functioning out of lack. We began behaving and feeling like children of the devil rather than children of God.  We can tell we weren't created for that kind of life because of how destructive those thoughts and actions are to the world and our own well-being. Again, God's image never left us, but we adopted a way of living that waged war against the life of our design.  Instead of feeling secure we feel ashamed, instead of focusing on others we focus on ourselves, instead of having empathy we have jealousy, instead of giving we take, instead of gladness we are angry. Sin birthed all of these in us, because sin is actions/thoughts/emotions that are outside of the life of our design; they blind, numb, destroy, and kill our capacity to be whole. That sounds a lot like Satan's life goal, to 'kill steal and destroy'.

God never forsook us, but continually worked within and through our blindness to reveal Himself and our true selves.  It culminates when God Himself comes to Earth in human form; Jesus, the image of the invisible God. God's ultimate plan to reach us in our blindness, to reveal Himself to us, and in so doing to introduce us back to the life we were created to live. He starts telling stories about coins bearing Cesar image, 'give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar, and give to God what belongs to God.' He talks about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. He talks about the treasure hidden in the field that the man gives everything he owns to redeem. These parables and more we will look at in the next blog.

There is no doubt, when we see Jesus we see the Father, but we also see something else. As we gaze upon Him we are suddenly transformed from glory to glory into His likeness (2 Cor. 3).  As in a mirror we see ourselves made in His likeness, and the life of our design is revealed in us through Christ. The Holy Spirit testifies with ours spirit that we are God's children, He teaches us, reminds us, and reveals Christ in us, the hope of glory!

What's The Big Deal About Sin Anyway?

Sin, a word that seems less and less relevant in the world today. It is a concept viewed as primitive, unnecessary, and or too harsh.  Outside of the religious world, and even sometimes within it, sin is re-named or not directly talked about. Yet sin seems to be such a key component for us in understanding God through the Bible; sin is a big deal in the Old Testament, with Jesus, and with the rest of the New Testament.  Even grace preacher Paul took a very hard stance when it came to sin. So what do we do with it? We certainly don't want to throw it out just because we don't like the context sin has been delivered in.

There are two ways of looking at sin that really stem from two different ways of looking at God. The first, is to see sin as merely wrong because God said it was. This perspective assumes a few things. First, it assumes that God is controlling, that He is set apart from the natural world, and that He demands our obedience.  It therefore also assumes that we need to do something in order to placate this god, to position ourselves in a certain way in order to get his blessing or avoid his punishment.  It perceives a God that is primarily about legal justice, a distant score keeper in the sky that only involves himself with us once we score high enough; or when he decides to pull out the whip to punish us. This perspective is pervasive both outside and inside 'Christianity'.  I put that in quotes, because I think that Christianity is truly about the breakdown of that entire perspective, but we will get to that later.

The first way of looking at sin is right in the fact that God has told us that certain things are good and bad, right and wrong; but it falls short when interpreting why those are labeled as such. We find the reason behind sin in the second perspective, which I would like to say is the Christian perspective.  In this understanding god isn't an egotistical solitary deity demanding our obedience, but a relational God that is completely other centered.  A God who is whole, lacking in nothing, and who's very essence desires all goodness, truth, and fulfillment.

Depending on which God we start with, we come up with a different understanding of sin. The solitary disapproving god makes sin to be a ladder we must climb in order to get into His good graces. The God of love, truth, and wholeness however, reveals sin to us because He wants us to know how to avoid hurt, suffering, relational disconnect, shame, and all sorts of other negative consequences in our lives. This loving God starts as 'for us', the distant god starts as 'against us'. The distant god hates sin because his own ego is injured, the God of love hates sin because of what sin does to His children.

In our world today 'sin' is an ugly word, but talking about healthy and unhealthy behavior is very acceptable. There is a large movement, in even secular society, that pursues wholeness, well-being, healthy living, and intentional loving relationships. Just scroll through your Facebook news feed and you'll probably find 50 articles about healthy living in one area or another. Never has a culture been so focused on learning how to make the best of their lives. Surrounded by options, our society is desperately trying to figure out how to live balanced, whole, and happy lives; and that is what the conversation about sin is really about, which makes it very applicable in this day and age.

People don't want to enter into a conversation about sin, because they believe in the distant god that demands their 'proper' behavior in order to gain his approval.  Unfortunately much of the 'Christian' world has played a role in reinforcing this idea of a solitary deity in the sky. We need to regain a more holistic and relational understanding of God so that we can properly understand why sin is such a big deal as the bible makes it out to be.

Salvation Made Simple: The Mystery Revealed

The idea of salvation has been complicated on one hand, and overly simplified on the other. Take a moment to define salvation for yourself. . . . chances are you came up with a statement like 'accepting Jesus', 'asking for forgiveness', 'asking Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior', or 'saying the prayer of repentance.' What do these actually mean, and how does that actually save someone? Too often we think we are saved by some weird sort of allegiance we give to 'Jesus'.  As if our small amount of will power in positioning ourselves alongside Jesus changes God's perspective about us.  Let me be clear, Jesus is not calling us to have faith in Him in order to change God. Jesus is God's mind made up about us, and it is our faith that allows us to see it. 

 What are we saved from? Again answers are given  that are vague and elusive. 'Saved from the devil', 'saved from our sins', 'saved from hell', again these statements aren't wrong, but don't necessarily give us the depth of understanding how this actually plays out in our human experience.  Let's just say it is hard to 'nail down' what salvation is really about, thankfully that has already been done for us.  


I want to try and simplify what it means to 'be saved', and at the same time I want to show how it is shrouded in such mystery that our pat answers barely scratch its' surface. Jesus Christ is the 'mystery revealed' (1 Corinthians 2:7), and it is in Him that we find the true meaning of salvation. 

Jesus says it this simply, "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3). What is eternal life? Knowing the Father. There is only one problem with that, "No one knows the Father (Matthew 11:27)."  They definitely knew a God, and related with Him throughout the Old Testament, but Jesus is very clear in saying that nobody actually knows the one true God.  It is here that we start our journey into understanding salvation. God's will for mankind is for us to come to know Him, which proceeds the fact that we do not currently know Him. God accomplishes this by entering into our world to reveal Himself in the midst of our confusion and brokenness.

This is the essence of what Jesus came to accomplish on earth, to reveal God to us. "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matthew 11:27)." Being saved then, is coming to know who God actually is! Who did we think He was before? And how does knowing who He is now save us? Well to answer that we must go back to the very beginning. 

In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth.  Elohim is plural, the first sign that the center of God's being is relational.  We see the Spirit hovering over the waters, and John shows us that in the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the word was with God (John 1). Jesus also talks about being with the Father before the world was created in John 17. The apostle Paul goes further in telling us this, "For in him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians 1:16)." Creation started with a relational God; it is the Father, Son, and Spirit that collaborate together to bring things into being. 

This is essential, for we see later in Genesis that God created humankind in His image (Genesis 1:26). In what way are we made in His likeness? We were created to be in relationship, both man and woman He created us.  We are created to have unbroken fellowship with a God that knows nothing but connection, wholeness, and safe relationship; out of this flows the relationships we have with other people. The 'fall' then, was the breakdown of these relationships.  Satan deceived humanity by planting a seed of doubt about God's goodness. He imputed to us insecurity by telling us we could become 'like' God even though we were already made in His image. The fall keeps progressing further when Adam blames Eve for their mistake, causing a rift in their perfect connection. No longer can they stand naked and unashamed, instead, realizing their nakedness they are filled with shame.  

Adam and Eve flee to the bushes. Filled with self-loathing, shame, pride, and hurt, they now perceive God through a lens of their own making. God walks right into the Garden looking for them, but they, in their own brokenness can do nothing to please the god they believe Him to be. So instead of fessing up to their mistakes and asking for forgiveness, they make excuses, play the victim, and cast blame. In an act of mercy, God sends them from the garden so they do not eat of the tree of life, which would cause them to stay in their brokenness forever. Out of their brokenness, shame, anger, and selfishness, humanity created a God in their own image; a distant, solitary, deity that demands some sort of act on their part to appease him.  In comes pagan religion, volcano gods and other nature gods that inspire fear, obedience, and sacrifice in order to receive blessing or to escape destruction.  This is what God has to work with, and work with it He does. 

Because He is love, God (Elohim) can only be purposed towards one end, to reconcile humanity to Himself. He seeks to break into humanities fallen identity to accomplish three goals. 1) To reveal Himself to be who He is in all goodness, love, and wholeness. 2) To reveal to humanity who they actually are, bearers of His own likeness who are created to live a life of abundant freedom. 3) To help people see and treat others in accordance to their divine origin and not with their current worldly standard.

In order to help us see these things in truth, God needed to work with us in our fallen state. He needed to use a form of communication that we would understand and that could eventually lead us to see Him as He actually is. In comes the Levitical law, the practice of sacrifices and burn offerings, and the order of the priesthood. God works within the constraints of the brokenness of His children, by allowing them to have kings, to build a temple for Him to live in, and to ultimately create a system within which, they feel comfortable to engage Him in.  All this God allows and uses in order to reveal Himself later on. 

We see a beautiful picture of this early on in the Old Testament. God starts his redemptive work with a pagan named Abram, who He later names Abraham. Abraham means 'Father of a multitude' (imagery of God's true identity already being expressed).  God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, who was born according to a promise from God Himself.  Although this is a very challenging request, it would not be unusual for Abraham's understanding; all god's required sacrifice and obedience in order to be appeased. Abraham chooses to obey god. Abraham takes Isaac all the way to the mountain, and at the apex of his religious obedience God stops him. You see, God needed to take Abraham to the deepest part of his misconception about God.  He needed to get real and personal. Abraham's lost mentality was never so evident as when he became willing to kill his own child out of religious duty. It is there, and only there that Abraham would have a chance to see God for who He actually is.  God, with a prophetic act of things to come, provides the sacrifice rather then demanding it, a ram caught in a thorn bush (Christ with a crown of thorns). He breaks apart the pagan understanding of an angry deity in the sky, revealing himself to be the provider and lover of the human race. 

This is Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice that brings an end to the whole system of works. A system put in place only as a way to communicate to a confused and lost humanity. God set humanity up, constantly working with His children to speak in a language we would understand. He provides the final sacrifice and brings an end to the curse of our perpetual struggle. Jesus, the lamb slain before the foundations of the world, enters into our brokenness, stretches His arms wide, and with His dying breath, pulls our old selves and our old perception into the grave with Him. With His resurrection we rise with Him in newness of life, our old selves have been put to death with Him, and we become new creations in Him. 

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves (John 14:6-11)."

Jesus came to reveal the Father whom nobody knew. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15). When we see Jesus we see the Father in truth, and He definitely challenges the way we think god ought to be. God is not an angry deity wanting us to jump through the hoops of religion and moral reform in order to gain His pleasure; He is a God of other centered love who has always been in relationship with us His children. We see in Christ that God would do anything to reconcile us to Himself.  Because of our fallen state God needed to meet us in our brokenness before we would be able to see Him in all his completeness; He does this by doing the very opposite of what we think a god should do.  Rather than demanding our subservience, He submitted Himself to us and embraced us at our worst point. 

Jesus let go of His divinity and God stepped into the world as a man (Philippians 2:6). He came to reveal Himself to those who did not seek Him, to a people who did not know Him (Romans 10:20). He submitted himself to the harsh judgement and brokenness of His own children. "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him (John 1:11)." Our shame, brokenness, and insecurity did not know how to deal with a God who showed mercy instead of justice, a God who came to meet man rather than demanding man meet Him. Out of our own bondage the human race persecuted, tortured, and murdered a God they could not understand or accept; and in their act of judgement, God united Himself to humanity. The very act of our damnation was the occasion for our salvation. In one fell swoop God took all the sin of the world by using it as the necessary ingredient of our inclusion in Him. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6)."  

It is not sinners in the hands of an angry God, it is God in the hands of angry sinners (Baxter Kruger). God  is love in the purest form, because of that He is willing to submit to the rejection of His own creation in order to convince us of His good pleasure towards us.  Jesus is God's ultimate yes to mankind, and in Christ the Father displays His true nature and character.  Jesus' Father is a God of love, mercy, forgiveness, joy, and purity; He is for us, not against us, and nothing can separate us from His love. He is the lover of the entire world, and the redeemer of every person. He has already met us in our weakness, He has already united Himself in our own brokenness. "He died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8)."

You see, our faith is merely coming to know who God actually is. Knowing Jesus is knowing the true nature of God and His commitment and love for us, as opposed to thinking He is a disapproving score keeper who keeps us at arms length waiting for us to break a rule.  Our salvation is the salvation from our own dead works of religion, our striving and straining to please a God that we believe is distant and eternally disapproving. Our faith acknowledges the fact that God is for us, that He isn't keeping tabs, and that He remembers our sin no more.  When we believe in Jesus we are saved from a lifestyle of religion, of self effort, and of perpetual insecurity. 

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father (Romans 8:15)."

Not only does Jesus show us the true nature of the Father, but as in a mirror we see our true nature reflected in Him. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children (Romans 8:16)." The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus in us, He helps us to see our holiness, our purpose, and our unbreakable, unchanging union with God. In Jesus our old way of living and self-perceptions fall away because they can no longer co-exist with the truth we now recognize.  Our minds are renewed to see God in truth, and as we gaze at Him we see ourselves in truth as well.  

Now our 'Christian' journey is one of discovery, of moving from Glory to Glory as we are increasingly transformed into the image of Jesus. Or, in other words, we are realizing and becoming who we were meant to be all along. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)."

Just like there are three persons in the trinity, there is a third reality that is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. The incarnate God also reveals the true nature of all humanity. God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the cosmos to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). He didn't just die for my sins, or meet only me in my depravity, but He 'died for the sins of the whole world.' Now we see no one according to the flesh, but according to Him and who He has revealed us to be (2 Corinthians 5:16).  Since we now know the one true God as revealed by Jesus, we can proclaim the good news of our reconciliation; inviting people to participate and experience God for who He actually is. "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Corinthians 5:14)."

 As a result of our union with with the trinity our whole lives take on new qualities like love, peace, joy, and hope. This is what makes us the light and salt of the world.  Knowing the truth about who God actually is sets us free, and we are able to live in that freedom. That freedom permeates our lives which in turn announces the glorious good news of Jesus Christ to those around us.  What does that freedom look like? It looks like a life lived without fear, anxiety, and worry.  It looks like making decisions that are grounded in wholeness and truth. It looks like hope and an expectation for good. It looks positive, inventional, and joyful relationships; filled with wisdom and thanksgiving. Faith looks like the object other centered love. 

Thinking of faith in Jesus and salvation is this way, helps us understand hard scripture passages like in 1 John where it says, 'If we do not love our brother then the love of Christ is not in us.' Or 'If we keep on sinning we make Him out to be a liar and the truth is not in us.' These passages are not demanding us to try to will power our way into a free and loving lifestyle, they are simply emphasizing the reality that in Christ we necessarily see the world differently and live in accordance to what we see. We have complicated so many things about Christianity by trying to simplify it into a system we can easily 'apply' to ourselves. The Gospel cannot be applied it can only be experienced.  The Gospel doesn't demand faith it produces it. 

The Christian life is not about asking Jesus into our hearts, it is about realizing the fact that He has wrapped us up in His heart  "If it is our job to get Jesus into our lives then we will spend our entire life trying to get Him in; and the rest of it, trying to convince ourselves that He is actually there (Baxter Kruger)." When Jesus talks about returning to the Father so that the Holy Spirit can come He says, "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:20)." The Holy Spirit's job is to show us our true redeemed image, and to know that our Father has been with us, and for us all along. We all will see it, and we will all realize how much we have gotten it wrong.

When the Apostle Paul realizes the truth of the Father, he doesn't say he was 'converted'; he says that 'God was pleased to reveal His son 'in' me (Galatians 1:16). That is salvation, that is the mark of a believer. We do not make it happen, our faith does not save us.  Salvation is simply to know Jesus.  To know Jesus means to know that he is God's stamp of approval on us as His children, no matter what we have done. Knowing Jesus is to know that our silly failures and even sillier performances do nothing to change his perspective on us. Salvation is not a transaction that we participate in. 

 It is not as if our verbal, emotional, or spiritual 'allegiance' to Jesus makes God change His mind about us. When we think like that we are rejecting the very essence of who Jesus is! Allegiance mentality is basically paganism; it is thinking that if we offer God something worthy He will treat us different. It is this mentality that Jesus proved is absolutely wrong about God! An allegiance mentality causes us to think ridiculous things like, 'if I go to church God will treat me better', 'if I say my prayers Jesus will bless me'. We then start getting cross tattoos, putting pictures of Jesus on our walls, and making sure we say 'under God' extra proudly when we say the pledge of allegiance.  We think if we 'live by the bible' and politically align ourselves with people who say they are Christian we are doing God some sort of service. It is disgusting.  When asked, 'are you a christian', our system of allegiance has people believing they are if they 'go to church', 'pray', or 'went through confirmation'.  We understand belief in Jesus to be some sort of mental assent, when if we actually believed in Jesus we would see that God was never in the condemning business to begin with, and that not only is he satisfied with me but he has rested from all of his works!

This altogether 'simple' way of looking at salvation has given us an 'us and them' mentality that is a religious breeding ground. Faith in Jesus should produce in us hope, love, joy, and goodwill towards everyone; instead we often see 'Christians' battling over petty arguments, defending Jesus as if God is in danger from the world, jumping on a political bandwagon, and creating a lifestyle rooted in elitist pride. We see insiders and outsiders, feel proud for making 'our choice for Jesus', and miss the boat when it comes to what Jesus has revealed about the true nature of both God and humanity. Listen, all of our religious striving, all of that activity motivated by fear, envy, pride, and shame, find their end when we believe in Jesus.  When we see Jesus, we see the Father, and all of our comparison driven lifestyles fall away and are replaced with peace and joy. When we see Him we are at rest, when we know Him we are set free. "The Gospel is nothing more than laughter and joy (Martin Luther)."

Likewise evangelism is not some work that God needs us to do on His behalf. It is the natural consequence of our own realization of reality. We love because He first loved us. We do not produce or manufacture it Godly character or love, we just reflect it (2 Corinthians 3). 

So rest in Him today.  Allow your mind to be renewed to who God actually is; a loving Father who knows nothing but unencumbered, unconditional relationship. A Father who has united you to Himself at your worst, a Father who has displayed Himself to you through His son, and a Father who has invited you to participate in His life and love through His Holy Spirit; truly a life of abundance (John 10:10).

Are you still interacting with Him as if He is far away and solitary. Are you seeking to please Him by posturing yourself a certain way, thinking you need to sacrifice your life in order to get Him to bless you? Do you picture a god not interested in your affairs, and demanding you to jump through certain hoops in order to get him to intervene on your behalf? He does not demand our worship, our prayers, or our wimpy attempts at mustering up faith. He is inviting you and I to see Him in truth, to see ourselves in truth, and to watch His life permeate our own. Knowing the Father is eternal life, our salvation is simple and yet very mysterious. Jesus, the mystery hidden for ages, has been revealed as the savior of the human race.  Our salvation is far more real and tangible then we could ever hope to imagine. 

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him (John 14:6-7)."

To dig deeper, read Jesus prayer in the garden in John 17 before His crucifixion.  It is quite powerful with this perspective.