Building Blocks

Life consists of people coming and going from their homes and their jobs. It consists of pilgrims going on journeys, of traveling, of hiking up mountains and then back down again. It is made up of entering rooms and leaving rooms, of walking through hallways, going up elevators, passing through wooded areas, of taking trips to the grocery store.

Our world is made out of flowers and butterflies. Flowers begin as seeds which "die" and are buried - just like Jesus, just like people - and which blossom into new, beautiful, fragrant life. Butterflies start out as caterpillars, and then they come up out of Egypt and pass through the Wilderness and become butterflies.

Light exists. Bread and water exist. Snow exists. Rain exists. Sun exists.

Rivers exist. Oceans exist. Fountains exist. Plants exist. Honey badgers and squirrels exist.

Life consists of songs and stories, which are made up of tension and resolution, just like the people who come and go from their homes, just like butterflies, just like flowers. We set out, we study, we labor, we cry, we argue, and then we sleep at night.

Life consists of a million little narratives, which can each be broken down into smaller segments, or lumped together into larger segments. This is the infinite depth of life. No thing is not made up of many things which make up one thing. And each of the many smaller things are likewise able to break down into even smaller pieces. And any group of things can be lumped together to make up one thing. This is the possibility of human art. This connection of things creates meaning. When all things are connected, when all things are lumped together - everything in the universe and all moments in history - what is the meaning? What is the picture this Mosaic creates?

Life is utterly ironic and the universe constantly turns itself on its head. The loser often wins. And you often backtrack to get onto the freeway which in the end will save you time. And sometimes you hurt your knee when you try to run and then you can't run at all. And sometimes people realize that they are humble and become Pharisaical. You would expect the clergy to be guilty of pride, but in this world the layman makes a parade of the fact that he's a layman, and the Gentiles need to be warned that their non-Jewishness, their unworthiness which has brought them to a place of faith, is precisely what would cause them to think that they are something significant in themselves, and what will sever them from the vine.

Leverage is ironic. You push down to create an upward force. Manipulation is ironic. Instead of an explicit imperative, you fake a "poor me" sort of self pity (push down), and you get what you want (upward force).

Batman is ironic. He is a bat-man, a man of the night, yet he will fight for justice in the face of enemies like the joker, who wear goodness and cheer on their face as they blow up hospitals.

Pornography exists. It is like a spider, like a snake, like a tape worm, like cancer, like leprosy, like disease in general, or any such thing which amounts to perversion, evil, lie, and nonexistence which somehow creeps into life as a tangible, concrete manifestation. Pornography is like an evil clown that wears a smile from ear to ear called marriage and purity. A thing is only as evil as it ought to be good, right, just, and beautiful.

And music exists. There is rhythm. There is harmony. There is many, and there is one. There is tension, and there is resolve. And i-pods and MP3 players exist. We like taking these little stories with us.

In the early 20th century, guitar amplifiers would create a clean sound. But rebellious rockers pushed their amps, cut them, dipped them in water - they were literally breaking their amplifiers to get the distorted sound they wanted. Now amplifiers are designed to have such a broken sound, and nobody would think twice when they heard the tone on the radio.

I wait in the rain for my friend to climb in his car and unlock my door. Again, I wait in a dark hallway as he struggles to get his keys out of his pocket. I wait in line for coffee. I wait in traffic. I wait until the bell rings at 330 and my shift ends. I wait until my teacher finishes his lecture so I can talk with the girl sitting in front of me. I wait until I get my test back. I wait for my food to cook. I wait for Josh to finish his shower so that I can take my own. I wait until I get my license, until I graduate high school, until I get a girlfriend, until I get married, have kids, get my Masters. I wait for this movie to get over, so I can more politely tell my friends goodnight.

We hate waiting because we aren't wise or observant, and the thought just never occurs to us why the sovereign Father would create such a world. And the truth is, we are just really idolatrous people who think that these things will satisfy us. We are pragmatic, impatient people trying to make do in a world of signs and images; these signs and images actually do mean something more real than themselves.

We hold dear these little pictures, much more than the real thing.

"All things with which we deal, preach to us." - Emerson

The Trinity and the Covenant

The Trinity

Trinity is the word theologians have used to express the "threeness" of the one God, that God is one being and that he is three persons. These three persons are the Father, Son, and Spirit. Each of these persons are distinct from one another; they relate to one another. It is precisely their distinction and relationship to one another as separate persons that brings the unity of the one God.

The implication of this doctrine that sets the Christian God infinitely apart from the gods of false religion is that God, when he exists apart from anything that he has created, is in his essence a loving Father. A father is only a father if he has a son. So if the Son of God was not fully God and did not exist with God the Father eternally, the Father would not be the Father; he would depend on a thing which he created to be who he is most essentially, viz., the Father, and this ruins his self-sufficiency. 

Likewise, if the Father and Son ever existed apart from the Holy Spirit of love, some standard outside of these two persons - outside of God himself - would determine their essence. In other words, they would be loving only because they conform to a standard or law of love which exists outside of their relationship. God himself would not be who he is in and of himself; he must look to and depend on something that exists outside of himself to be God. Once again, this ruins his self-sufficiency. 

But the standard or law which declares that the relationship between Father and Son is holy, loving, and good is God himself, yet he is a person distinct from the two; he is the Holy Spirit of Love. So God is completely self-sufficient in the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. He is a loving Father in his very essence as he exists in and of himself apart from what he has created, apart from anything that exists outside of himself. There was a time, in fact, when he did exist apart from everything else, and Christ declares that then the Father loved him (John 17:24). 

In this way Jesus is the Truth. The Truth is that God is a loving Father. Jesus is the Truth because he is the Beloved Son. When Jesus is revealed, the world sees that God indeed has a Son and that this Son is loved by the Father. The Gospel writers make this central to the revelation of Jesus: "This is my Beloved Son; listen to him."

Jesus is what is true about this universe, because Jesus is what is true about God; God is the fountain from which reality proceeds; he is the Creator; he is the loving Father from whom all things good and beautiful shine forth (James 1:17).

What is real about life is therefore a person, namely, the Eternal Son of God. Jesus is the Truth. Truth is a Person. Knowing Jesus is knowing what is true and real about life, because knowing Jesus is knowing that God is a loving Father; and this is the essence of God himself. 

Two types of knowing should be distinguished. A chemist, philosopher, or historian may know a vast amount of facts about this universe, but if he does not know Jesus he does not know anything about reality. He is on the outside looking in. In this way God has turned the wisdom of the world on its head. The most simple-minded person who does know and love Jesus (to be greatly distinguished from the discipline and science of theology) is infinitely more wise than Socrates.

The one type of knowing is only a model of the other kind. In other words, when a scientist learns a fact about the universe, that action is an image, a little picture of Trinitarian knowing, of relational knowing. When a scientist conducts an experiment and discovers a thing that is "true" about the universe - some rule or law - that is like a little dramatization of the human being who is filled with the power of the Spirit and brought into the knowledge of their Creator. This scientist experiences only an imitation of the real thing, namely, knowledge of the Creator, knowledge of the Father, Son, Spirit. Because the simple minded believer knows Jesus, he is infinitely more aware of what is real about the world than the most brilliant scientist.

Epistemology is therefore relational. Everything humanity can know calls them into relationship with their Father through the revelation of Jesus Christ his Son. 

The Covenant

As God the Father is the sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Guider of all Creation, History, and specifically what is called "salvation history," it seems to me absolutely nonsense to develop a Christian theology which does not relate to the doctrine of the Trinity. If a theologian's system cannot answer the question of how it relates to the Triune God, then they have gone about their work upside down.

I have noticed that much of the recent discussion of dispensationalism, new covenant, and covenant theology has almost nothing to do with the Triune God. I am convicted that theologians would benefit greatly if we took a few steps back in this discussion and understood how the only possibility of covenant is grounded in the Truth and Reality of the Triune God. The most obvious thing about a covenant is that it is relational, that it exists between two parties as an agreement. The Hebrew Bible reveals Trinity by teaching that God is the Father of humanity (Gen 5:1-2) and then more specifically after the fall he reveals himself as the Father of Israel (Deut 32:6; Hos 11:1; Mal 2:10). God has revealed himself as a Father. This means that his very identity and essence is wrapped up in humanity who are the sons and daughters of God. Thus, when humanity fails to live in faith and obedience and to trust their Father, his very identity and essence is blasphemed. That is why there is such strong language of wrath throughout the Hebrew Bible, especially the Pentateuch and the Prophets. When humanity has rejected their Father and looked to other means for their satisfaction and joy, they become living proclamations that God is not a loving Father, that he will not do, that humanity ought to look elsewhere for true joy and satisfaction; these are the messages that human beings proclaim when they fail to live in the covenant (as I will show) relationship between God the Father and humanity his sons and daughters.


"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; [the covenant witnesses from Deut 4:26]
    for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
    but they have rebelled against me." (Is 1:2)

Israel is often rebuked as the Son of God (Deut 32:6; Hos 11:1; Mal 2:10). Their failure in the covenant is not merely a failure of walking through "do"s and "dont"s. Their failure is a relational failure involving their identity as the Son of God. In fact, the Israelites often do walk through the tasks and ceremonies of the law, and still Yahweh rebukes them strongly in their failure to live as his sons and daughters; he rebukes them because this law has become a wearisome task for them (e.g. Isaiah 1).

Further, Hosea mentions that Israel, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. This means the moral failure to live under the Mosaic law is precisely the same failure which Adam had made in the garden. Now, there are certainly several concrete covenants between specific individuals (Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, etc.) and between the nation of Israel, but these are to be understood theologically as demonstrative of God's relationship with every human being. That is why Hosea can speak theologically and say that Adam transgressed the covenant. The covenant is this special relationship between God the Father and humanity, his sons and daughters. All humanity is called to live in his grace and goodness, yet humanity looks inward to themselves and throws away his love in their pride. All humanity is guilty of transgressing this covenant, because all humanity are created as the sons and daughters of God; that is their fundamental essence.

We speak theologically of the covenant like we speak theologically of idolatry (and New Testament writers did this too). As there are several concrete instances in "salvation history" where God makes a covenant between himself and humanity, so there are concrete instances of humanity literal bowing down and worshiping idols. But these concrete instances are demonstrative of something theologically true about humanity, viz., covenant and idolatry. The covenant between these individuals is revelatory of something pervasively true about humanity, viz., covenant; between God the Father and every human being who has ever existed there is an agreement: if they live in faith and obedience and look to their sovereign, gracious Father for their identity and worth they will experience infinite blessing; he will follow through faithfully; and if they reject the grace of the Father and build their identity and worth in their pride and selfish ambition (Gen 11:1-9) they will experience the infinite wrath of God. Covenant is pervasive. Covenant is a Trinitarian reality. It is the relationship between God and humanity which reveals God to be a Father. If humanity obeys the covenant they will experience the blessing of the infinite love of the Father; if they reject their very identity as sons and daughters, the misery of life separated from the Father will likewise reveal the reality of his goodness; the misery of those who go their own way will reveal the life that is found in the Father.

All humanity has rejected their Father. The biblical text consists of zooming in on specific groups of people who one after another fail to live as sons and daughters of God. 

New Covenant

In a very real sense, the New Covenant is precisely the same as the Old Covenant. What is different about the New Covenant is that the divine Son of God has become a human being. God, instead of wiping out humanity who lives in this covenant with him, has sent his Son to become a human being and live as the Son of God. Since the meaning of the universe culminates in humanity living as the sons and daughters of God, the Incarnation of the Son of God to make this a reality must not be overlooked. If this had not happened, the meaning of the universe would be hell and utter misery.

The relationship of God and humanity is a covenant relationship between the Father and his children. The new covenant is only new in the sense that God himself has become a human being and upheld man's obligation in the covenant. This is what Jesus means when he says he did not come to abolition the law, but to fulfill it.

1 John 2:7-9 is even more precise:

"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining."

Human beings are called into the life of God through union with Jesus. God is the infinite Love between the Father and Son. Jesus prays, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24)

Creation and history tell the story of sinful, treacherous humanity being brought back into the eternal joy of their Father through union with the Son; it is the story of the covenant Love of a Father for his children. 

Aggressive Truth

Aggression in the corner

And on a paper

It's color, sight, and sound

Around a planet of pain

Let it burn

Let it rain

Let reality constrain

Scholars, athletes

Let me see you learn

Let me hear you sing

Sing, love,

And live the Truth

The Truth is Aggression

The Truth is Passion

The Truth is One

The Truth will not bow

The Truth is Above

It is in the corner

It is on the train

Under bridges

To hide from the rain

The Truth is Aggressive

It is pain

And it cannot be stopped

He won't be changed

A Bit of Irony From Mark

14:65 "And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, "Prophecy!" And the guards received him with blows."

The irony in this verse is that Jesus is prophesying in and through receiving these blows and mockery. It is in this moment when he is rejected by men that he becomes the cornerstone (12:10-11). It is this moment when he speaks the Word of God most clearly to the world.  No prophet has ever spoken the Word of God more clearly than Christ speaks it here precisely while he is mocked. The cross is the event where God is most clearly revealed; he is a God who loves human beings and is willing to be crucified by them, receiving the punishment for their sin, so that he could bring about forgiveness and reconciliation. Jesus is the Prophet. He is the Word.

Euthyphro and the Holy Spirit of Love

Euthyphro's dilemma goes like this: ""Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?""

This has been a problem for theists in general.

In other words, is God good because he follows a moral system of good higher than himself? Or does he not follow a moral system of good, and is therefore not good?

Euthyphro's dilemma really is a problem if your God is Allah or the Unmoved Mover. But if your God is Yahweh who is Father, Son, and Spirit, then this question reveals an incredible answer.

The Hebrew Bible reveals Yahweh as a Father who loves his children (Gen 5:1-3; Deut 32:6; Mal 2:10; etc.).

Yahweh is a good Father. He is not evil. So the second horn of the dilemma is denied by Scripture; Yahweh is good. He is not capricious. He is consistently good. He is a loving Father.

But does this mean that he submits to a law higher than himself? Are we caught on the second horn of the dilemma? If he is a loving Father, doesn't this mean that he submits to some sort of standard above himself?

The Scriptures are also clear that God is self-sufficient. It was not necessary for him to create heaven and earth or humanity for God to be God. God has been a loving Father for all eternity. God himself is the relationship between the Father and Son.

For God the Father to be God the Father he must have a Son. For a father to be a father there must be another person who qualifies him as a father, namely, his son. So God is a Father and he is a Son. These two persons are one God, yet they are distinct from one another.

But this relationship between Father and Son is a good, loving relationship. It is not an abusive or neglectful relationship. So doesn't this mean that God still appeals to a higher standard, some source outside of himself which qualifies this relationship as a good relationship?

No, because the Holy Spirit is God. The goodness of the relationship between Father and Son - this standard, this thing which qualifies the nature of their relationship - is himself God; it is not something outside of God which must exist with God for God to be God; he is a person distinct from Father and Son, and yet he is God, and God is one.

Theologians have always recognized this.

Jonathan Edwards says, "This [The Spirit] is the eternal and most perfect and essential act of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite degree and in the most perfect manner possible. The Deity becomes all act, the Divine essence itself flows out and is as it were breathed forth in love and joy. So that the Godhead therein stands forth in yet another manner of subsistence, and there proceeds the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, viz., the Deity in act, for there is no other act but the act of the will."

C.S. Lewis describes the Spirit like this in Mere Christianity: "The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person.  I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at it thus.  You know that among human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk about the ‘spirit’ of that family, club, or trade union.  The talk about its ‘spirit’ because the individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and behaving which they would not have if they were apart (this corporate behavior may, of course, be either better or worse than their private behavior).  It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence.  Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person.  But that is just one of the differences between God and us.  What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, this Person is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God."

Barth says the same thing: "This relationship between Father and Son does not yet exhaust the reality, the nature of God... it is the Father and Son together who clinch the unity of God a third time in the Holy Spirit."

The three persons within the Godhead are distinct from each other and qualify each other so that God is who he is most essentially, namely, a loving Father. If these three were three different gods who just hangout together, none of them would be a self-sufficient god.

But Yahweh is self-sufficient and he is one. The Trinity is really the only possibility here.

Lies

With spectacles I see

Spring won't be what I think.

I'm less than I seem to me

An American dream

All in flux

The creation of a king

Ruthless, insecure

Cruel, unsure

It isn't me

Not who I am

Something I become

Whenever I begin

To make the mistake

Over again

And shape the world

Under my skin

The Bible in a Biblical Context

The Bible is one book. It is not an anthology of books.

The individual books within the Bible are put together in a coherent way, so that they compliment each other and develop "intratextual" themes.

When we read a letter from Paul to the Church at Rome, we need not pull this work out of the context of Scriptures and try to rebuild its historical context from archeology or extra-biblical history. The best way to understand this work is to feel it in the flow of Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture.

When we read the Book of Psalms we need not pull individual psalms outside of their biblical context to rebuild the historical background of a "psalm of ascent," for instance. There is already a context and theme of ascension within the Bible which will help us understand the psalms of ascent:

Deuteronomy 30:11-14

11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

(Also, do a word study for the Hebrew word for "go up" or "ascend")

If we attempt to rebuild the historical context of these Psalms we miss out on precisely what the biblical author had in mind; he was intending to connect these Psalms to the biblical theme of ascension, which is fulfilled in Christ.

I am not saying there is absolutely no use for historical, extra-biblical context. I am just saying that before we try to dig up info from a culture that has been dead for 2000 years - info that is constantly changing - and before we use this info to determine the meaning of the Scriptures, let's just know our Bibles better like the biblical authors themselves did.

As Brevard Childs argues, the Bible was set up for the "future actualization of subsequent generations." In other words, the Bible was composed and arranged precisely to take original texts out of their historical context and fit them within the flow of the biblical context so that folks down the line could understand it. So to try to force these texts back into their historical context would be to go against the minds and method of the biblical authors themselves.

Trinity

I thought I would write out and share some of the info from my forum on the Trinity at ETV. His Truth is precious, especially in the midst of tragedy, confusion, and trial. Cling to Jesus. He is our joy. 

Love you all.

- Jesse.

"I wanna live, I wanna breathe, to search out your heart and all of your mysteries" - Phil Wickham

God the Father and Humanity

The God revealed in Scriptures is a Father who loves humanity, his sons and daughters (Gen 5:1-3; 6:1-6; Deut 32:6; Is 1:2; Mal 2:10, etc.).

The signicance and purpose of human beings is relationship to this Father. Humanity was created to enjoy the Father through receiving the creation in thanksgiving and joy.

This relationship between God and human beings was meant to glorify God by proclaiming his Truth. When the sons and daughters of God flourish in their relationship with their Father we are living proclamations that he is a good Father of love and holiness. That is part of what it means that we are created in his image. It means that we are testimonies, witnesses, words, messages; our lives are designed to be living sermons with one message, "God is our Father and he loves us, satisfies us, gives us joy, etc." And this is the Truth.

But humanity has indulged in pride. We have believed the lie that we could in ourselves achieve some sort of happiness outside of relationship to the Father who gives and loves. We believed that we could build a tower to heaven in our own strength rather than in the infinite strength of God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Instead of receiving creation in thankfulness so that our relationship with the Father might flourish, we have "exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" (Rom 1:25).

Sin is relational. The significance, meaning, or purpose of rules and law is the opportunity to be in relationship with God. We must not understand sin as merely breaking rules, but as severing relationship with the Father and as finding our joy, satisfaction, or security outside of him and his will and wisdom.

We must understand the weight of our sin. When we backbite, gossip, believe the lies of our insecurity, indulge in dehumanizing activities like pornography or sex-trafficking, lie, deceive, murder, steal, etc., we are declaring "this is what God is like." 

But God is not like that. We have becoming walking lies.

That is why the Scriptures are filled with so much talk about the wrath of God.

"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the Truth" (Rom 1:18) 

God the Son

But God's Truth still remains. He is still a loving Father.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). 

Even though his identity is wrapped up in the actions and lives of human beings who have rejected him as their Father, he still remains a Father.

In fact, he was a loving Father even before he created human beings.

When Jesus prays in John 17:24, he says, "Father... you loved me before the creation of the world."

Before God created anything, the Father and Son loved each other. The Beloved Son has always existed with the Father as the Proof, the Message, the Truth, the Word; he speaks the message, "God is a loving Father, here is the proof, here is the Beloved Son!"

When only Yahweh existed, he was still love and relationship for all eternity.

If Allah existed apart from creation he would be alone. That is why Yahweh is an entirely different God than Allah.

God the Spirit

And God is not simply a Father and a Son. There are many father-son relationships that are broken and awful.

But God the Father and the Son have eternally existed together in the Spirit of Love. God is love. That is part of his essence.

The Spirit exists as a third person, distinct from the Father and the Son. 

The Father, Son, and Spirit have forever existed in perfect love and union. If any one of these three persons did not exist, God would cease to be who he is most essentially, namely, a loving Father. Each of these three persons finds their identity in the others. If God were not a Son he would not be a Father. If God were not the Spirit of Love he would not be a Beloved Son. If God were not a loving Father he would not be a Beloved Son.

God's holiness, his faithfulness, his glory, his beauty, his compassion, his goodness, and all of his attributes are the fruit of this relationship of Love.

The Cross

Human beings become walking lies. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). In our sin we trample on the image of God. 

But "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

The Eternal Truth of God which forever existed in the Beloved Son of God has become a human being. Now there is a human being who does uphold the Truth that God is a loving Father. He trusted in his Father. He submitted to the Father's will in obedience and endured the cross "for the joy set before him" (Heb 12:2). 

Jesus demonstrates the love of God most clearly on the cross.

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

Jesus' cross was not a business exchange; he did not endure the torcher and pain of the cross because we did something nice for him, or because we loved him so much, or because we offered him something in exchange for what he did; he simply did it because he loved us.

When we do something nice for another person simply because we will get something in return, this is not love. But when we love someone simply because we love them and enjoy seeing their well-being, this is love. That is what the love of God is like. And that is why the cross is the most clear, perfect demonstration of the love of God.

That is why Paul says "far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6:14). 

The New Testament writers were adament. They are essentially saying, "You want to know what God is like? Look to the cross of Christ, look at his love poured out for sinful human beings who have rejected him. This is the only way to know God."

The cross reveals the Truth of God. And human beings are helplessly seperated from knowledge of the True God without this revelation.

"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:20-21).

Aristotle figured out that there was a God without the Scriptures which pointed to Christ. He figured out that everything has a cause, and every cause has a preceding cause, and since there must be a First Cause, this must be God. He called this the Unmoved Mover.

But how do we know that the Unmoved Mover is a God of Love? 

Reason cannot teach us these things. We must look to the Revelation of God at the cross of Christ to know that God is certainly the infinite God of Love.

Do not be deceived. Reject the idols. Look to Jesus. He is the True, Living God. Cling to the Scriptures because they point to Jesus. Cling to Jesus.

Sanctification

God is my Father who loves me. I believe that my sin amounts to a failure to live in the Assurance of this Truth. If at all times I believed this Truth I would be freed from my sin forever, because sin is defined by unbelief in this Truth, this Word. 

This is the Truth that human beings were designed to be as the sons and daughters of God; it is the Truth which we have stepped outside of in our sin and disbelief in the Word of God. In our failure to live in our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God we have declared that the statement that God is a loving Father is a false statement.

But this is the Truth which Jesus has redeemed as the divine Son of God who became a human being and saved the world.

This is the New Commandment, which "is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

The "passing away" of the darkness is the process of sanctification. It is the process of human beings learning to believe that God is their Father who loves them freely in his Son Jesus Christ. It is the process of realizing that we have totally and certainly received his righteousness. It is the process of receiving the free grace of God. It is the process of letting go of our own righteousness and holding on to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is the righteous deeds with which the saints are clothed. The righteousness of the saints is their joyful response to their righteousness in Christ, even as they are sinners. 

This is the great paradox of sanctification. When Paul says he is the chief of sinners, this is both a legitimate statement and precisely the reason he is a holy man. Paul has no confidence in himself, and that is why the man Paul was a great man. The pharisees were not great men because they thought they were great. The righteousness of God has turned the righteousness of humanity on its head.

But the layman makes a parade of the fact that he is a layman. The human heart is so deceptive that we take pride even in lowness.

But this only reinforces the truth that the love of Jesus is the only possible source of a human being's righteousness. My righteousness is only ever because Jesus loves me. 

In the moment that a human being truly says, "Yes, Jesus, you alone are my righteousness," there is a substance or fruit within him or her that is legitimate righteousness. That is the paradox. The legitimacy of our justification by faith alone produces the certainty of this sort of righteousness and fruit which pleases God. 

Those who reject the love of God in Jesus Christ can never please God. No action performed by a human being that is not a response of thankfulness to the Love of God the Father in Jesus Christ is righteous. Righteousness is defined by thankfulness. Thankfulness purifies our actions. Thankfulness is holiness. And thankfulness is an aspect of receiving. Thankfulness has nothing to do with ourselves, but everything to do with the Father who gives his Son.

The essence of faith is nothingness. Faith in Jesus is only substance in its nothingness. We look to Jesus and accept his righteousness. That is faith, and it is a reality. Yet the moment we become introspective it disappears and is nothing. It is only a reality when it is ignored. 

The righteous will live by this faith. We always become less as Jesus becomes more. Once this process becomes introspective, once the saint realizes he is effectively looking away from himself to Jesus, this faith is ruined and corrupted. But the Spirit works this corruption as yet one more reason to look away from self back to Jesus. 

The new life in Christ - the new birth - is the growing up of this nothingness, the substance that only exists when it is ignored. The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the believer to glory in the cross and in weakness.

How does this process work itself out practically and tangibly?

It does not work out practically by Christians wallowing in foolish habits their whole life. This process is a process. The Christian who keeps looking at pornography their whole life really has no idea how unrighteous they are and how much they need Jesus. This person is a hard-hearted person who manages their sin and believes the lie that they have their life under control, that they really are no worse than many of their peers. This is nothing short of self-righteous.

This works itself out practically as the Spirit removes these blinders and gives us a true vision of the wretchedness of our sin and of Jesus' love for us in spite of that sin. Sin looks ugly in the light, but it also dies in the light, because it shows the depth of the love of Jesus as it is revealed more and more. And as it dies the light shines more, then deeper and uglier sins are revealed, and the reality of the love of Jesus increases. Here the Christian has no choice but to cling to the unconditional love of the Father in spite of their wicked sin. That is righteousness. That is faith. That glorifies the love of the Son of God.

I don't think that the resurrected body is a body with a sort of super-power ability to resist drunkenness or pornography. I don't think that will be an issue. The resurrected body is a body which belongs to a soul that has walked through death and experienced total weakness and learned total dependence and faith in Jesus, and is forever united to him in the infinite joy of faith.

I am looking forward to authentic righteousness.

The Infinite Bridge of Everything

"All things with which we deal, preach to us."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson


Awake
Awake my soul, like the morning
Like the sun
Each day
Over the horizon at dawn
Even through the rain
An angel
A light
He sings each day
Speaks each day
So up, out of my bed
Rising from death
Yes, each day
That first moment speaks
Awake, my soul,
And sing like the morning

And every morning
A baptism
Warm water, and soap
The dirt from the day before
The dirt, the earth
Coming up from the ground
From cars, sawdust, and hurt
From a summer night sleep
The sweat
Like self-righteousness
Self-love
Covered in stuff
Yes, each shower speaks
Don't forget the dirt
I need to be cleaned
Baptize my heart, mind, soul, body
All of me

Every morning
Down a dark hall with doors
Past sleeping roommates
A passageway
A little tale
From death to life
To a morning meal
Awake with the Father at the feast
A small parable
Infinitesimal to the reality
But an image to enjoy
And I prepare a meal
Each flavor hits this tongue
Each a type of your Son
He is like cinnamon
Like bacon, eggs, bread
Yes, a profound reason
I must be fed

Into a car
With a friend
Suspended on a highway
Each morning commute
A risk worth the price
Of faith, of life
No certainty
Just probability
Just like everything
The price of each movement
Of motion
Each morning commute
Each 40 minute drive
I risk my life
Just like the hundreds beside

At work I create
Like the King, I make
Cabinets, each day
Each cabinet
Many parts to a whole
Put together by a craftsman
Not as skilled as he
Who has built me
My body
A part of his body
Joining ligaments
Joining boards with fasteners
And each cabinet comes together
Many parts make up one
A pervasive principle
Giving life and love

At the end a sense of release
Fills my blood
Like when you come
A time of rest
The day of Yahweh
To take a breath
Ripped away
Freed from idolatry
From these slave-traders
My wicked gods
Freedom indeed
Release

And at home, a good meal again
Wash it down like living water

All these hints
Preachers
Warnings
Their code not cryptic
Stories
Stories with morals
With subject matter
One mosaic
One Meaning
Pictures
Paintings
But each is aging
Each is moving away
Each a note, all a chord, each day

Read, story in a story in a story
Then sleep
Into a rest again
Like his rest
After the work day

Each of these
Each a lesson -
My day speaks
Proclaims, preaches, screams
"We are not the Son of God
But, 'Behold the lamb.'"
But I am numb
I am blind
I stifle their call
I interrupt their song
It is discord to me
I am content
I am free
And I walk in my sleep