God and Man; Love and Truth, Truth and Love

 

It is impossible for God to speak the Truth without Love or to Love without the Truth - for this is God’s Nature, such is God; God is One, His Being is One.

 

For mankind, for men and women; when we speak truth without love we have tyranny and self-righteousness; when we love without truth we have ethical promiscuity and moral licentiousness.

 

We will not discover what it is to live “speaking the truth in love” without abiding in the Vine – and then we will live it because of He who abides in us; we will experience what John writes, “As He is, so are we in this world.”

 

In the Divine Nature, speaking in human terms, there is He who IS, and out of the I AM we see He who does – He does because He IS.

 

The verb proceeds from the noun, if you will. The action proceeds from the nature.

 

Mary has “chosen that which is better.” She sits and listens and drinks in our Savior.

 

Hence, in Christ, we are becoming what we are. In Ephesians, we must know what it is to “sit in the heavens” in Christ before we know what it is to walk in the Church and the world – and certainly to stand against wickedness. This is a basic (Christianity 101) discipleship and spiritual formation pattern that we miss again and again and again.

 

Attempting to speak truth without love, or to love without truth, is like blowing bubbles in the air – neither is sustainable. We might as well clothe ourselves with a Superman cape and hurl ourselves from the Empire State Building. If we will look at the sidewalk below we will see the result of man attempting what only God can do, and God does it because God IS it – the marvelous and majestic beauty of a Nature of Truth and Love (I write as a limited, a very limited, man).

 

Knowing Him is everything, knowing about Him is dangerous – for we easily mistake knowing about Him for knowing Him. We easily mistake information for relationship. Better to know Him as a child than know about Him as an adult.

 

O how I want to know Him!

 

What about you?

Behold My Servant (2)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isaiah 42:1 – 9).

Consider that the Father says, “in whom my soul delights.” Even as the soul of the Father delights in His Son, Jesus Christ, so He delights in the Body of His Son – for how can the Head be detached from the Body?

Again and again Jesus tells us of our Father’s love for us; and yet, do we believe Jesus? Do we believe that such a love could be ours? Can we believe that the soul of the Father delights in us?

Jesus says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).

Jesus says, “So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:31).

Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 – 30).

When our Father says, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” our Father not only sees our Lord Jesus Christ, He also sees us in Christ. “For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12). (Ponder also Hebrews 2:9 – 18).

When you came up from the waters of baptism our Father said, “This is My beloved daughter in My beloved Son.” “This is My beloved son in my beloved Son.” “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

If you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, by His grace and mercy; then live today knowing that the soul of the Father delights in you.

If you have not yet come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, what better day than today to allow the love and mercy and forgiveness of God into your life? What better day can there be than today to believe in Jesus Christ, confessing your sins, and beginning a new life in Christ – as a daughter, or a son, of the living God?

We are not accidents looking for a place to happen, we are men and women created in the image of God; and though the world wants us to believe that we are the products of time plus matter plus chance – that is a lie, a lie of darkness, a lie of Satan (yes, there is a devil who has blinded the eyes of humanity - Ephesians 2:1 – 2; 2 Corinthians 4:3 – 6).

O to live life knowing that the soul of our heavenly Father delights in us!

Behold My Servant

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isaiah 42:1 – 9).

Who is this Servant? If it is Jesus Christ then it is also His Bride, His Church, His Body; for “Even as the Father has sent me, so send I you.” (John 20:21; 17:18). When Jesus calls Saul on the Road to Damascus, Jesus incorporates Paul into this High Calling (Acts 26:14 – 23).

As Christ is, so is His Body. As Christ is called so we are called.

How is that calling being worked out in your life today? In the life of your local church? In the life of your family?

Is the world, indeed the universe, beholding the Servant in us, in His Church?

Pondering Daniel Chapter Three

Every week I prepare a handout for two men's groups that meet in the Richmond area. This is our handout for next week, perhaps there is something here to consider.

Our passage is Daniel Chapter Three.

For background: Exodus 20:1 – 6; Psalm 106:6 – 20; Revelation 13:1 – 14:5; Romans 8:28 – 30; 12:1 – 2; 2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18.

The danger of reading passages like Daniel Chapter Three is that we tend to relate them either to the past or to the future – another danger is that even if we relate them to today we tend to think they apply to others and not to us or our churches. It is important that we ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to how God desires to reveal Jesus to us through the Bible – both Old and New Testaments, and to how the Father desires to transform us into the image of His Son.

Considering that the image of Chapter Three (obviously) follows the dream of the image in Chapter Two, has Nebuchadnezzar learned anything? In John 2:23 – 25 how do we see Jesus relating to the people? What does John, the Gospel writer, point out about the nature of mankind?

What can we learn from this? What should be our realistic expectations regarding that portion of humanity – and its leadership – that does not know Jesus Christ?

In Daniel 3:8 we see that the Babylonian “home boys” used Nebuchadnezzar’s image and decree as a way of eliminating Daniel’s friends (we don’t know where Daniel was at this time – he’ll have his turn in Chapter Six). Consider the irony that if it had not been for Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream in Chapter Two that the Chaldean counsellors would have been executed by the king. So now the very people who Daniel and his friends saved are out to have them toasted in the furnace. This again is the way of mankind and we ought not to be so foolish as to expect that the nature of unredeemed humanity is going to change, only Jesus Christ can produce lasting change in people.

What is the response of the Hebrew men when confronted by Nebuchadnezzar?

How long does it take them to give a reply?

What does their response tell us about the way they have lived up until this point (remember what we learned in chapters one and two)?

Who is in the fire with them?

Are we living today in such a way that on a daily basis we are worshiping the True and Living God and refusing to bow down to the images of this world?

What are some of the primary images the world demands that we bow down to? How can we help each other think about these things? How can we support one another in not caving into the world’s images?

How can we teach our children, grandchildren, and others about the images of the world?

Note that in verse 28 the king says that the Hebrews “…yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god expect their own God.” How does Romans 6:12 – 14 and Romans 12:1 – 2 help us think about this?

Are we yielding our bodies to Christ every day? (1 Corinthians 6:18 – 20). Are we living as if our bodies belong to Christ, that we are no longer our own?

There are two groups of people in Revelation 13:1 – 14:5 – one group is worshiping the beast and their minds (foreheads) and actions (hands) are receiving the nature of the beast; the other group is following the Lamb in the purity of worship and in faithfulness to Him (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 15) – and this group is bearing the image of the Father and the Son, they are first fruits to God and to the Lamb (James 1:18).

There is no neutrality in this life, we are either following the beast or the Lamb, we are either bowing down to the image(s) of the world or we are worshipping the Trinity.

We become what we worship. What we behold we become. Whose image are we bearing?

How are we worshipping today? How can we help others? How can others help us?

Are there areas of our lives that we have not surrendered to Jesus Christ? Are there idols in our temples?

In conclusion, note that God did not remove the Hebrews from the trial, there was no guarantee that they would survive the fire. The Way of the Cross is the Way of Suffering with Christ (Philippians 3:7 – 16; John 15:18 – 27). It is a high privilege and honor to suffer for Jesus Christ and our brethren, and we should be concerned about any teaching that seeks to spare us the Cross of Christ, that suggests that we ought to avoid the Cross. The promise of God is that He will always be with us – both in “good” times and in times of trial, persecution, and suffering – including martyrdom. The fourth Man in the furnace would have been there whether the three Hebrews lived or died – and had they died they would still have lived (John 11:25).

The following is something I wrote in my journal on April 2, 2015 after reading Daniel Chapter 3:

Called to suffer, called to die

Called to lift Your Name on high.

Through the fire we walk with Thee

Use the fire to set us free.

To be counted worthy to bear His Name,

To be counted worthy to share His shame.

To be counted worthy to suffer loss,

To be counted worthy to carry His Cross.

Reflections on Galatians 2:20 (5)

“I I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

In Christ we have been crucified, we have died (see previous posts in this series); consequently we no longer live, yet what does “it is no longer I who live” mean? Does it mean the negation of the individual?

It is important to couple “it is no longer I who live” with “but Christ lives in me” - for where Christ is there is grace and there is liberty and there is joy. Jesus wants His joy to be made full in us (John 17:13), He wants us to be filled up with His joy. Christ died and rose for us so that we might have joyful life in Him, and how could life in union with the Trinity not be joyful? When Peter writes his first letter to Christians in the midst of suffering, he writes of them experiencing “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). When Paul writes to the Philippians from a Roman prison his message is, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). The joy of Christians in suffering doesn’t make sense; how could that which is transcendent and rooted in the Trinity make sense - make sense to the world or even make sense to those who experience it? The joy of God envelopes and overwhelms His people - for they no longer live in and of themselves, but Christ lives in them.

When we look at the immediate context of Galatians 2:20 and ask whether “it is no longer I who live” looks toward the negation of the individual we see the emphasis on grace and liberty in Galatians - to the point where Paul insists that, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery...You were called to freedom...But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians Chapter 5). God calls us to an abundant life in Jesus Christ (John 10:10), a life in the Holy Spirit, a life of intimacy with the Father and Son, a life in koinonia with one another - Christ has loosed our shackles and now He wants us to live in Him!

“It is no longer I who live” looks to our crucifixion with Christ, “I have been crucified with Christ” - and we reckon that our old sinful self-centered self died with Christ - we live constantly accounting and trusting that this is true, that it is reality - and so we view ourselves as “dead to sin but alive to God" (Romans 6:11, also previous posts). We can either accept the Gospel or refuse to believe it, and this is the Gospel - eternal life in Jesus Christ. Where the Gospel of Christ is there is joy and grace and freedom in Christ - there is a radical change of identity from Adam to Christ (Romans Chapter 5).

When we look to the Cross and our crucifixion with Jesus we can say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live,” oh but then we look to our resurrection with Him and we shout - “but Christ lives in me!”. And when we shout “Christ lives in me!” we testify that we are not dead but that we are alive - for the first time in our lives we are truly alive! That which God made and which was marred by sin has been restored in Jesus Christ. Yes, the old “me” is now dead - thank God that I died with Christ! But now I am on the Potter’s Wheel with Christ living in me and am being conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).  

Psalm 139 portrays God’s formation of each of us as individuals; it describes His intimate design and knowledge of us. We know from Genesis that we collectively in Adam were created in God’s image, we know from Psalm 139 that in God’s collective creation of man (if I may speak thusly to make a point) that He created us individually - one diamond with many facets; we find this in, I suppose, all groupings of humanity.

Our fall from relationship with God marred us both collectively and individually - hence the collective image of God in Genesis Chapters 1 - 2 and the individually-designed image of God in Psalm 139 have been desecrated by sin and rebellion. It is little wonder that we have conflict when we associate with one another for we are not who we were meant to be, we cannot naturally be complementary to one another as we were designed to be.

The redemption of Jesus Christ brings us into a process of restoring our God-designed individual images in Christ, thus allowing us to reflect particular facets of His glory, to complement one another, and to live interdependently in Him. Consider the Biblical emphasis on the Body of Christ with many members, a Living Temple, Living Stones - there is a dynamic connectivity in Christ - a unity in diversity and a diversity in unity in Christ.

As perhaps an aside, consider what happens when people are in a system in which uniform sameness is insisted upon and imposed - this can happen in churches, it can happen in political systems, it can happen in schools and in businesses - we have the atrophy of God’s design in individuals; those who acquiesce in the process survive, those who don’t are crushed...but no one in such an environment really lives.

The collective restoration of the image of God is in the great transfer of us out of Adam and into Christ; Christ is the Last Adam, when Jesus Christ dies on the Cross Adam’s race dies on the Cross; when Jesus Christ comes out of the grave in resurrection a Second Man, a New Humanity, comes forth in Him (see Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15). The Incarnation continues as Christ lives in His Body. Those living in relationship with God in Christ are the collective Second Man - for they are in Christ. Because Christ “is” we “are” (1 John 5:17).

Does “it is no longer I who live” speak of the negation of the individual? Hardly - it looks to the crucifixion and then to the present reality of “but Christ lives in me.” Christ living in us means that we can finally explore who God made us to be, we can finally leave the slavery of “self” to discover our true identity in the Trinity and our calling to be a source of light and life to others.

No wonder this was called the Gospel - the Good News!

Reflections on Romans 4:1 – 5:11: (7)

 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance proven character; and proven character hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1 – 5 (NASB).

Tribulation/suffering; perseverance/endurance; character; hope that does not disappoint or let us down or put us to shame – why? Because God’s love has been poured out [from God] into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

“Through the Holy Spirit” – life in the Spirit is amplified in Chapter 8, but here we see the role of the Holy Spirit in our formation into the character and image of Jesus Christ (8:29), a role which will be expanded upon in Chapter 8, to the point where we can say that we are sons and daughters of God through and in the Holy Spirit. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (8:14). The Spirit of sonship lives within our hearts, the very love of God for God is love.

This love sustains us and draws us into Christ in our suffering, developing endurance within us as we submit our will to the will of God; our submission to the will of God (by the grace of God) places us in the position for God to form the character of Christ within us (both in affirmation and negation), and as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to work out the will of God within our inner selves our hope in God grows deeper and brighter and into a heavier substance, reaching beyond the veil (Hebrews 6:19; 10:19ff)) – and the love of God draws us onward and upward and ever deeper into the Trinity.  

Affirmation in Christ confesses the complete and perfect work of Jesus Christ, the fullness of the Atonement – “By this will [the will of God manifested in Jesus Christ] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). We affirm the transforming power of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14 – 19). We affirm the “already – not yet” (Romans 8:30; 1 John 3:1-3).

Negation is found in our denial of “self” – “…If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). We also practice negation when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9 – 2:2). We live lives of negation as we continually consider ourselves “dead to sin” and then live lives of affirmation when we consider ourselves “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

The process of transformation into the image of Jesus involves both affirmation and negation, a vision of Jesus Christ and a repudiation of who we were/are outside of Christ. The sculptor must free the image embedded in the marble by chipping away at all that is not of the image.

“We have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Coming to know the love of God is a process, it takes time and it takes experience, and much of the experience can be in the form of tribulation and suffering – we don’t really understand this love that the Holy Spirit has poured within our hearts; we don’t understand and accept the deep assurance that it brings, we don’t really understand its nature, and we don’t comprehend the unwavering character of God’s love – not at first, not most of us anyway.

This is a love so “other” than we are that it loves its enemies (Romans 5:10) and not only loves them, but loves them to the point of drawing them into intimate relationship – of dying so that its enemies might live. Ought we not to humble ourselves and bow our knees before such love?

Reflections on Romans 4:1 – 5:11: (6)

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance proven character; and proven character hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1 – 5 (NASB).

Romans 3:21 – 5:11 is an upward trajectory that accelerates in 5:1 – 11. In chapters 1 – 3 God through Paul convicts the entire world, Jew and Gentile, of sin and rebellion – Paul looks at the jury in 3:10 and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, as the Scripture says, there is none righteous, no not one,” and then reinforces his point in 3:23 with, “For all have sinned and all short of the glory of God.”

But in the midst of his convicting words, as Paul wraps us his air-tight case against Adam’s Race, he introduces hope as he starts to talk about “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” (3:22), an image he introduced in 1:16 – 17 but which he held in abeyance until conviction of sin was argued and was secure, until there was seemingly no way out of mankind’s dilemma.

Just as Paul drove home in his downward trajectory that “all have sinned,” in his upward trajectory he emphasizes the “guarantee” (4:16) that we have that God justifies those who believe in Jesus Christ, and in 5:1 with his “therefore having been justified by faith” begins to show what this means in terms of a relationship with God and His purpose in our lives. This is not about getting some ticket punched for heaven, this about being in intimate relationship with the Trinity and with one another – this is about eternity present, past, and future.

The minor crescendo of 5:1 – 11 (minor compared to the major of 8:31 – 39) is one of exultation and rejoicing; we rejoice in hope of the glory of God (5:2), we rejoice in tribulations (5:3), and we rejoice in God through Jesus Christ through whom we have been reconciled (5:11).

In this upward acceleration Paul introduces the work that tribulation does in our lives (5:3), its work is such that we exult/rejoice in it. In the upward trajectory of Romans 8, in the setup leading to Romans 8:31ff, Paul returns to tribulation (8:18), “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” Then in the major crescendo we hear the words echoed through the cosmos, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The maturation process in Christ that Paul describes in 5:3 – 5 is linked to 8:28 – 29 in that we are justified, sanctified, and adopted in order to be “conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren,” (8:29). As I have said many times, Romans 8:28 is perhaps quoted out of context more than any verse in the Bible, all things do not work together for a nebulous and indefinable good – which is the way 8:28 is normally quoted; but rather they work together for good so that we might be more like Jesus, that we might be transformed into His image.

In 5:1 – 11 justification and peace with God are linked to a journey that not only includes glory, but glory in the midst of tribulation. But notice how the image of tribulation is placed within a context of assurance; we are justified, we have peace with God, our hope does not disappoint, the love of God is poured within our hearts, Christ died for us while we were His enemies, God demonstrates His love for us, we are saved from wrath, we are reconciled, we are saved by the life of Christ. Our tribulations are experienced within the ocean of God’s love and peace and desire for us to know Him.

Without such assurance at least one of two things will happen when we experience hardship and tribulation; we will either fall away (Matthew 13:20 – 21) or we will think that God is angry with us and doubt the work of Christ on the Cross, we will doubt the surety of His Word, we may even doubt our salvation and whether we have ever really known Jesus Christ. When people preach and teach a salvation that is contingent on us, contingent on man, they set their people up for insecurity, anxiety, and preoccupation with themselves. One can hardly not be preoccupied with oneself if one’s salvation is always in doubt, when it is contingent – this is hardly the guarantee that Paul writes of in Romans Chapter 4. Often folks in this situation seek signs or experiences to reassure themselves that they are in a relationship with God, that they are special – my friends, God’s Word is enough – if we should never “feel” a thing God’s Word is sufficient. Of course our kind heavenly Father will reveal Himself to us in myriad ways to make Himself know, of course He will share our days with us…but let us trust Him first and then trust Him to draw us to Himself as He desires, not as we desire. And let us never think that having begun in the Spirit of God that we can reach perfection through our own means (Galatians 3:3).

We are called to mature in Jesus Christ, to be discharged from the hospital nursery. This is the clear teaching of the Bible; is this our clear teaching? Our expectation?

Jesus, make us like you, individually and as brothers and sisters, as your Body, your Church. Let our marriages be like you. Our individual lives be like you. Our fellowships like you. Our friendships like you. Holy Father, conform us into the image of your Son, let your holy will be done, in our lives as in heaven. 

The Image of God

We talk about the image of God but we don’t believe it any more than Adam and Eve believed it. When the serpent said, “Has God said?” they doubted whether God had said, they gave credence to the serpent’s words and discredited God’s.

In Christ, God has restored us to His image, but we don’t believe it. We say we believe it. We say we believe in justification by and in Jesus Christ, but we don’t believe it. If we believed it we would call one another what God calls those restored to His image – we would call one another the term the Bible uses – we would call one another saints. But we allow our natural eyes to deceive us, just as Adam and Eve did, and just as Adam and Eve we think, “What we thought God said doesn’t make sense,” and we too eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than from the Tree of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, Pentecostals and charismatics may allow their “experience” to influence their interaction with the Biblical text (don’t’ we all?). But what about the rest of us who allow our experience of life to so influence our interaction with the Biblical text that we steadfastly refuse to call a saint a saint, who refuse to acknowledge the identity that we have in Christ, and who are aghast at those who dare to use the language of God as opposed to the language of common-sense man?

A people robbed of their identity is a people in slavery. As long as we think as slaves to sin we might as well remain in Egypt. Isn’t it time we took our eyes off ourselves and focused on Jesus Christ? 

Father Patrick Henry Reardon Part Two:

Continuing with Patrick Henry Reardon’s reflections on Psalm 12 in his book, Christ in the Psalms (see May 18), Reardon writes:

“At the beginning, before the Fall, Man was possessed of an accurate perception into reality. He was able to name the animals because he could perceive precisely what they were. His words expressed true insight…Human language then was a reflection of that divine light with which heaven and earth were full. The speech of unfallen man was but the voice of vision.”

“Human speech was already rooted in the vision of truth before it became the expression of human communication.”

“Moreover, the Fall itself, when it came, derived from that demonic disassociation of speech from truth that we call the Lie: “You will not surely die.” Eve’s acquiescence in that first lie was mankind’s original act of metaphysical rebellion.”

The language we use and the way we use language is critical, the names we give things is critical; when we adopt duckdog language (see May 7 and 18) we create ourselves and others into our own images, images that fracture, fracture again, and then fracture again; we expel truth from our minds and consciences as the thought police patrol our schools, businesses, governments, civic associations, and churches.

“Has God said that that is a duck?” “Has God said that that is a dog?” “What do you mean that God didn’t create a duckdog? Of course He did – it’s right there before your eyes.”

The question asked in many seminaries, the question introduced to many congregations, the question proclaimed within many denominations, is the question we call the Lie: “Has God said? Does Genesis mean this? Does the Gospel mean this? Can this really be? You misunderstand what God really meant.”

Why launch a frontal attack before subverting the people? But then once doubt has been introduced, once mistrust in the Word of God has been sown, then it is time for the coup de grace – then the faith of the people can be put to death. The enemy thinks he has time, time for the termites of demonic teaching to eat away at the faith and trust of the people, and it does seem that the termites have done their work – for now we see things that are not there but that we think are there – we think we see duckdogs and dogducks and any number of other strange things which the common sense of our ancestors would not have entertained for a moment.

We have turned the divine gift of speech into babel. The Word which was God and which was in the beginning with God came to show us the perfect harmony between Word and manifestation, between Word and expression (see John Chapter One) – and now we have taken His words and His life and have asked, “Did God say? Did Jesus really mean this? Did Jesus really live this? It could not have been for we know better. The record which Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John left us could not possibly be what was, so let us define ourselves and while we are at it let us define Jesus and mold him (turning Him into him) into our image and while we are at that let us make God into our image (turning God into god).”

And this is why those who still profess to follow Jesus Christ must learn to submit to the Scriptures, must learn to allow the Biblical text to mold them rather than attempt to make the text submit to them – because if we will not bow before the Lord of the Word and receive His Word as He has spoken it, then no words anywhere can mean anything and we find ourselves doing what the duckdog people do…we just use religious language when we do it. It is not enough for Christians to be well meaning, not enough for preachers to be well meaning – we must learn to obey what God in Christ has spoken and learn to allow the text to form us in Christ…we must stop the insanity of forcing the Word of God into our pragmatic and utilitarian molds and programs and entertainments and marketing.

Perhaps we should return to the picture books of toddlers: A is for apple, B is for book, C is for cat, D is for duck…it is not for duckdog…at least it didn’t used to be.  

A Temple or a House of Cards?

Do we submit to the Scriptures or do we force the Scriptures to submit to us? Do the Scriptures mold our experience, or do we force our experience on our understanding of the Scriptures? If our experience dictates our understanding of the Bible then we create the Bible in our own image. If we submit our experience, including our understanding, to the Bible then we are recreated in the image of God by the Word of God.

Perhaps never before has the issue of identity, of who we are, been as important as it is now. Our society has decided to kill mankind, to strip it of permanence, and to attack vehemently those who seek to maintain a common sense and common grace view of men and women, male and female. In the midst of this, unless Christians are firm in their identity in Jesus Christ, I question whether they will have the courage and moral strength to stand against the sewer gates that have been opened. I also question whether they will have the grace to peacefully witness in the onslaught of vitriol directed against those who say “no” to insanity and “yes” to the innate truth that God has placed in mankind.

The issue of identity in Christ is more than an individual question, it is a question for the church – and here is where much of Protestantism falls flat – for many Protestants view themselves primarily as individuals –from baptism to the Lord’s Table to accountability in daily life and in doctrine – they are individuals first, and if they are also members of a spiritual community, and I mean “if” strongly, being members of a community is voluntary and often does not significantly affect their view of life and of the world. This thinking has invaded the traditional sacramental churches which once emphasized community, and while it has invaded Roman Catholicism it remains the most pronounced in Protestantism.  

If a collective witness is unimportant, if Christians do not have a vision of the Temple of God on the earth today, if they do not see themselves joined to one another as that Temple, then they are but individual stones scattered about the earth and they will see little need to stand against the desecration of the image of God – and for certain they will have little inclination to suffer for Christ and little inclination to help those who are suffering. Our individualism, our appeal to individualism, our catering to individualism and our offering of a boutique religious experience centered on the “self” has left us without holy reference points and close to defenseless –and we continue to arrange furniture as the Titanic sinks. We lack the courage necessary for obedience, and I cannot help but see that obedience will have to manifest itself in disobedience to the insanity surrounding us. But who is likely to go against the grain knowing that economic and social retribution awaits? Very few. Having cultivated a church of individualistic individuals, we have become a house of cards.

A Temple made of living stones (Ephesians 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:1 – 12) – or a house of cards? Which will it be? Is it too late? What will you do? (Haggai 1:1 – 11).  

The Image of God

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them,” (Genesis 1:27).

“…be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth,” (Ephesians 4:23 – 24).

The Gospel message is that we were created in the image of God and that through sin that image in us has been desecrated; we have fallen from the glory of God, from the image of God. In Jesus Christ we can be reconciled to God and in that reconciliation the image of God is restored in us.

When we repudiate that image we repudiate the Gospel, and when we repudiate that image we no longer have the glory of God as our trajectory, but rather a swirling vortex of confusion tossing us every which way, destroying everything within it.  

Since Jesus Christ is the express image of God (Hebrews 1:1-4; Colossians 1:15; John 1:14 – 18), humanity’s assault on the image of God is an assault on Jesus Christ and it not only leads to confusion about humanity’s own identity (as desecrated as it may be) but it also leads to confusion about Jesus Christ.

Mankind has sought to redefine itself throughout history, exchanging the glory of God for image after image, external images and internal images – whatever those images have been is what humanity has been transformed into. Thankfully, in the ebb and flow of history God’s mercy and grace has preserved us from the full measure of self-destruction and self-repudiation, from collective suicide.

When we thought it improper to worship actual images of animals we adopted the myth that we come from animals, which in turn allowed us to behave worse than animals and to worship no longer images of animals but ourselves. Apparently we think that because we are gods we can do what we want, including changing ourselves into myriad forms and insisting that all of those around us bow down before our new self-images – worship what we worship or there will be trouble.

The professing church has acquiesced in the foregoing by abandoning the field of morals and ethics and righteous behavior – in ceasing to teach its own people to live in holiness and righteousness and truth, and in no longer teaching its own people to obey all that Jesus has commanded us. We seek to please those within congregations rather than please God, and have thereby brought idols into the temple just as those in ancient Judah brought idols into Solomon’s temple. The professing church, including some of its academic institutions, would also rather please the world rather than God – the approval of the world means more to us than the approval of God.

If the professing church will not clearly articulate the Word of God, and if we will not live righteously, then we can hardly expect the world around us to understand what we mean when we speak of the image of God – because the image we portray is confusing and without definition.

We must cling to Jesus, proclaim Jesus, and seek to bring others to Jesus – but if we are ashamed of the image of God in Jesus Christ, if we are ashamed of Jesus – of His holiness and righteousness and truth…of His Cross…if we are ashamed to be identified with Him by living in obedience to Him…then what? Is the church participating in the collective suicide of humanity? 

Questions to Ponder

Pascal writes, “The greatness of man is so obvious that it can be deduced even from his misery. What is natural in animals is seen to be wretchedness in man. From this we can recognize that since his nature today resembles that of the animals, he has fallen from a better state which in former times was more appropriate to him. Who does not feel more unhappy at not being a king except a king who has been deposed?...Who considers himself unhappy because he possess only one mouth? Yet who would not be unhappy if he had only one eye? No one, perhaps, has ever taken it into his mind to fret over not have three eyes. But man is inconsolable if he has no eyesight.

“So man’s greatness comes from knowing that he is wretched, for a tree does not know it is wretched. Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but it is a sign of our true greatness to know that we are wretched.” [Pages 82 and 83, Mind on Fire, cited in previous posts]. 

If we didn’t seek constant entertainment and diversion we might reflect on who we are; we might consider the dichotomy between good and evil that lies within us; we might ask why we have the capacity to act like angels one moment and devils the next; why we are capable of self-sacrifice at 9:00 AM and of inflicting harm on others at 9:05 AM.

We might also consider why things like a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment are important to us, whether we are an elementary-school child taking a spelling test or an employee receiving an annual review. Why do we want this year to be better than last year? If our names are in the paper recognizing an accomplishment why do we want others to see it? Why do we seek to love and be loved? Where does anger come from, not anger from bodily injury, but anger from wounded pride, from hurtful words, from a social slight?

Why do we seek something better today than we had yesterday? Why does the loss of position or of things distress us? Why this capacity for both good and evil, for right and wrong? Why does it matter what others think of us?

Why do stories of heroes and heroines and adventure and danger and overcoming impossible odds appeal to us? Why does it matter whether there is justice and redemption in novels and movies? Why do these things draw us and touch our hearts, reaching down into our souls?

What do people want and why do they want it? To listen to people, to ask questions, and then to ask more questions; we can serve those around us by asking questions – but then we must serve them again by listening without distraction.

Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost; to save the lost we must know where they are; to know where they are we must ask questions. We live and work with people but we do not know where they are, they might as well be on the other side of the earth, we see them but we do not know them. Why is that? 

In a society with noise and noise and more noise, questions that quiet the soul and mind, that invite reflection, that require more than an answer in a game of trivia – those are the questions that matter.

A line of questions we can ask people is, “Where do these desires for greater things come from? How can we be angels one moment and devils the next? Why do we want to be more than we are?”

Wisteria - The Image of God or the Image of Man? The Exchange

Paul writes concerning humanity,

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures,” Romans 1:22 – 23.

In Psalm 106:19 – 20 we read concerning Israel in the Wilderness:

“They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.”

In Romans we have humanity as a whole exchanging the glory/image of God for other images, in Psalms we see Israel, the people of God, exchanging the glory/image of God for another image.

The tree hosting the wisteria is a locust tree, but it has exchanged its glory for that of the wisteria, and the wisteria has killed it.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, yet Eve bought into the lie that if she ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that she would become like God. She was deceived into exchanging the glory she had for another (perceived) glory, and she and Adam became hosts for sin.

If Adam and Eve are a type of Christ and the Church, then we have a picture of an ever-present temptation to the Church, to exchange the glory of our husband, Christ, for the glory of another. And so we read the words of Paul:

For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Cor. 11:2 – 3.

It seems to me that the Western Church has become a market-driven competitive arena in which alternative glories to Christ are sold. Those glories have many forms; political agendas, self-help programs, family, doctrinal emphases, music, church polity, methods of prayer, evangelism, missions, small groups – just fill in the blank on methods, leadership training and coaching, gift assessment, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, various “charismatic” expressions, social relevance, the list is literally endless. Rather than the Bride being clothed in white, rather than the Bride being the glory of her Husband and seeking the glory of her Husband, the Bride is clothed in a patchwork garment and reflects competing glories and seeks competing glories.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Cor. 2:2.

Oh that we might be as jealous for Christ’s Bride as Paul was, and as determined to know nothing but Christ as Paul was determined.

Wisteria - The Image of God or the Image of Man?

Isn’t the wisteria in front of our friend’s home beautiful? Doesn’t it provide colorful adornment to its host tree? Isn’t it aesthetically pleasing? We have wisteria throughout the Zuck homestead, but this is, I think, its most beautiful expression.

But what are we really looking at? What is the wisteria doing in all of its lavender glory? Its roots are deep in the earth, its diameter is thick, wrapping around the trunk of the tree and entwining itself around the branches. The wisteria has embedded itself in the tree, what was once on the exterior of the tree and which could be pulled away by hand has now become one with the tree – there is a merging of identity. Do you see the tree or do you see the wisteria?

The wisteria may be beautiful, but it is also deadly, the tree is dead. Wisteria will kill a tree. That which is pretty to the eye is deadly to life in this instance – appearances can be deceiving, and perhaps never so much as in a society attuned to image and appearance. As a tennis star used to say in hawking cameras, “Image is everything.” That does seem to be the mantra of Western Society, “Image is everything.”

There is a sense in which this is true. The question is, “Which image?” That is, the decision we make as to which image we will pursue in life is everything. Shall we pursue the image of God or shall we pursue the image of man?