The Household of God (7)

Us – here and now

Where are we humans in this drama?  We were dreamed of by God as the uni-plural Bride for God the Son and as a new breed of citizens of His new household who will rule, reign and judge with Jesus in the new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem.  Despite the temptations of Satan and our fall into them, God is restoring us.  We become ‘sons’ of God the Father by siding completely with God the Son and submitting to the power and work of God the Spirit (just as Jesus did on earth).  And we are being transformed into his likeness: all of life’s experiences – including our gifts talents and abilities – are training, discipline, judgement for the place we have as sons in His eternal kingdom.  It is preparation for our part in ruling, reigning, judging the world and angels in that zone where love, light and truth (righteousness) makes their home.

And like in the coil of rope, it is already present in the purview of God, but for us time-space-matter limited humans, we see it as future and can only experience a foretaste of that new order.

Remember how Jesus used to say, ‘the kingdom of God is here, now, in me’?  Wherever he goes, the kingdom of His Father is present.  And as we join him, it becomes increasingly true that, when we abide in him and live according to the Spirit, there in that place and time is the kingdom of our Father.

And remember the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 1: “you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the  praise of His glory”.

Our scriptures give us a wonderful picture and analogy for us.  It is one many men and women reject because it seems to kill off the idea that we are masters of our own destiny.  It is the image of the potter and the clay and the vessels he makes.

Let me share with you two pieces of poetry.  The first, Invictus, lends its title to the film of the same name starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon concerning the story of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa.  William Ernest Henley wrote:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

The second, Hold Thou My Hand, is undated but appears to come from around a century and a half ago.  It is most often set to music and sung.  Winifred A. Iverson wrote:

The Lord will perfect that which doth concern me,

His way is perfect, so His goal must be;

All life’s events in harmony are working

For those clear issues which I yet shall see.

The Lord will perfect that which doth concern me,

And will complete each half-formed thing He sends:

His rich designs most carefully are woven

There are with Him no loose or broken ends.

The Lord will perfect that which doth concern me,

And finish what His grace has here begun;

He gathers up life’s fragments losing nothing,

And turns to good account each single one.

The Lord will perfect that which doth concern me,

Will do it in so many different ways;

By loss or gain, by high success or failure,

By steady course or unexpected phase

The Lord will perfect that which doth concern me,

Expecting me to show Him on my part

A trust intelligent and full of interest

In all these purposes of His great heart.

I was moved when I watched Invictus the movie, but more so when I read the poem.  It is a noble work of literature.  But for me, it goes half-way on the journey God is taking us humans on.  I believe we need to get to Invictus by Henley – and then go on and take the next step.  I believe we need to move from I am the master of my fate | I am the captain of my soul to surrendering the mastery of my fate and the captaincy of my soul to Jesus.  This comes by realising that, in this life, we are in transition, under restoration and under new management.  Invictus is the human story of the eternal kingdom, but it is part of the process God uses to move us from seeing ourselves as pawns and captives to seeing ourselves as sons and princes.

Through the combined work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, since before I was formed in my mother’s womb, He has been drawing and wooing me out from captivity and death and destruction, through Invictus to Hold Thou My Hand.  As master of my fate and captain of my soul, I surrender both to Him who died for me and lives for me, now and forever.  Like Nelson Mandela: from captivity, through personal sovereignty, to the Presidency.

So … we’ve done the looking.  Next post we will begin the process of reconsidering Righteousness, Salvation, Redemption and Justification.

Cheers,

Kevin.

The Household of God (6)

Restoration

In my last post, I talked about positioning ourselves with a view to eternity past and to eternity future - and waiting on God for His enlightenment concerning what He is doing in eternity and what He is doing on earth today.  This is one of my favourite pictures: alone with God hearing and seeing.

Last post I talked most about eternity past.  If we turn our eyes away from eternity past and look towards eternity future, what do we see?  Apostle Peter put it this way, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)

But note, as scripture says, prophets have seen it.  Long before Jesus, Isaiah saw it.  “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).  And what he prophesied for ancient Jerusalem is also true for the New Jerusalem: “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.” (Isaiah 66:22)

John saw it prophetically in his vision: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband”  (Revelation 21:1-2)

God’s ‘future’ for us is not for Him to come and live with us in a time-space-matter limited world, but for us to inhabit eternity with Him, ruling and regulating a new heaven and a new earth – with a “new Jerusalem”.  The idea of future is for our benefit; God doesn’t have a future as we think of it.  He has eternity; and He has His Kingdom, His household and His family.  But to get there, there is some restoration work to do.

God’s Activity in Between: Restoration

Take note of Peter preaching as recorded in Acts 3:

And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance [in putting Jesus to death], just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

Jesus remains ‘in heaven’ until God has restored all things necessary for His purposes – things which even the Hebrew prophets of old spoke about.  As far as I can tell, we are still in that period of restoration, and the principal element of that restoration is no longer Israel but “spiritual Israel”, the ecclesia.  And the ecclesia itself needs to be restored.  Hence the scripture that says, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)

The judgement brings the restoration, as God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – work in unison, by means of love, light and truth, to cleanse the Bride in preparation for the wedding.  What we live with on earth in the present time is the training, the discipline and the judgement that completes the work God began in us before the foundation of the world – and which we gave assent to when we turned to Jesus in love and faith.  As Paul says in Ephesians 1:

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the  praise of His glory. [italics added]

What a stupendous account.  Paul got it!  Paul was given the revelation of the mystery and he gave it to those who would listen.  Thanks to God, to Paul and to some hard-working scribes down through the years, we have it!

And this passage provides the link between the two parts I referred to earlier: the looking towards eternity past and eternity future, and the taking time to reconsider, (with the help of our Teacher, the Holy Spirit) the central truths of Righteousness, Salvation, Redemption and Justification.

What is God doing in eternity past?  Ruling and regulating His household and His kingdom.  What is God doing in eternity future?  Ruling and regulating His household and His kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth with a new Jerusalem.  In between the two, what is God doing?  Ruling and regulating His household and His kingdom as He restores all that was lost in the rebellion of Satan and the subsequent fall of man, and, in addition, binds to Himself a vast array of ‘sons’.

Cheers,

Kevin.

The Household of God (5)

‘Come, let us reason together’,says the Lord

On the way through this series, we are discovering that there is more we can know and understand of God’s eternal kingdom than we have been lead to believe – much more.  And discovering it is not just run-of-the-mill information; it is life-changing.  It gives reason and purpose to many of the things we do.  To go back to the analogy of the museum in an earlier post, we will see many of the artefacts differently as a result of seeing and understanding the elements of the background and the little windows.

So … find an uncomfortable chair and let’s position ourselves with a view to eternity past and to eternity future; to the time before God made the first Adam and to the time after the second Adam is married and getting on with his new LIFE.  And let’s tell God we are settled and quiet and ready for Him to join us and enlighten our spirits with His truth.

What was God doing before He created the world and set man in his place?  One part of the answer to that question lies in a re-statement of His character and attributes.

A. Household of Love, Light and Truth

In my opinion, the first of these comes from the very first verse in the bible.  God is Himself a “household”; a family; a “community”.  In Restoration Theology, Kevin J Conner says:

Verse one simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.  Who can find “the beginning”?  There is no “time element” given here.  Simply, it is “in the beginning”.  No human being can find that beginning.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Hebrew word for “God” is “Elohim”.  It is a Hebrew uni-plural word, denoting plurality of Divine Persons without stating the number.  Subsequent Scripture shows the word to be significant of the Godhead, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Genesis 1:1-5 may be compared with John 1:1-3 and Job 26:13.  In the Scriptures we find that the eternal Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, were each active in creation – the original creation of the heavens and the earth.  God is the creator of all things whether seen or unseen, visible or invisible. (Italics added)

And this is not just about some kind of “peaceful co-existence”; there is a unity between them that leads some to refer to it as a communion.  Note how Jesus talks of his union with the Father in his prayer in John 17: just about every verse says something about a deep and abiding love connection.

If you read Luke 4, you will see how Jesus’ life on earth was characterised by submission to and dependence on the Holy Spirit.  Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and led about by the Spirit in the wilderness.” (4:1)  Verse 14 says, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.”  And in verse 18, Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are down-trodden, to proclaim the favourable year of the Lord.”

In John 16:7-15, Jesus teaches his disciples that it is to their advantage that he leave, “for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you…  When He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify me; for He shall take of Mine and shall disclose it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine…”

When Peter is preaching at Caesarea, he reminds his listeners that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power. (Acts 10:38)  And according to John the Baptist, he was able to identify Jesus because God had told him “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

In eternity past, the Godhead entirely functions by means of a deep and abiding love connection: a communion, a household, a family.  It comes as no surprise, then, to note that God’s household-building activity extends into the time-space-matter continuum of our life here on earth.

We know from Apostle John some of the defining features and activities of God’s household: “We have come to know and have believed 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)  “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)  John the Baptist said, “He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. (John 3:33)

Love, light and the real, ideal, genuine, manifest reality are the defining features and over-arching activities of God’s household: love, with no darkness and no falseness at all.

B. Ruling / Regulating

Sometimes when I need a reality check, I go back to the book of Job, as I did recently.  What thoughts might have been going through God’s mind as He heard the discussions and debates between Job and Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar – and the young man, Elihu?  At some point, God has had enough and speaks for Himself.  It kind of put everything in perspective, and, in the end, Job makes this profound and liberating statement: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eyes see You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)

Among the many things God said to Job was this, “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth?” (Job 38:33)  By implication, God is not only well able to do so, He actually does so – with ease and grace.  Translators of this verse have had trouble finding adequate words to put it into simple English.  Ordinances is sometimes translated rules or statutes or laws or simply order.  It is literally ‘the limits’ of the heavens.  Rule is sometimes translated dominion or regulate or establish or simply reason.  What is God telling Job?

God knows the limits of the universe, the rules by which it runs and the order which it requires for continuous functioning.  He knows them because He made them; He wrote the specifications, the rule books and the manuals.  He is reminding Job – and reminding us, I believe – that we neither know nor understand these limits; we know few of the laws by which things run; and we understand little of the order required for the universe.

Now, given that Isaiah confirms that God “inhabits eternity” (as well as making His home among the bruised and broken), we need to see if we can find a way to conceptualise this aspect of what God was doing before He created the world.

I have found it helpful to think along these lines.  Imagine all of history as a multi-strand rope that goes all the way back to “in the beginning” when God created the world, whenever that was.  For us humans, restricted as we are to the passing of time, we conceptualise these events as a time sequence – like a long line of rope.  Imagine now that rope tightly coiled up so it forms a circle or disk that makes all the events of history present and visible at once.

With our limited years of life, our limited memory, our limited sight and so forth, history is not just a huge challenge for us, we can only conceive of it as standing in a present moment of time, looking back into the past.  It is extremely difficult for us humans to conceive of history as a perpetual present, but that is, I believe, one way of expressing how God sees the events and happenings in His world.

I believe He sees it all laid out before Him as we might see a vast rope coil.  Nothing is missing, nothing is forgotten, nothing is obscured.  According to W.E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary, this is the core or root idea of the Greek word we translate ‘true’ or ‘truth’.  We could say ‘God is true’ (as John the Baptist said) and mean God is accurate to the finest possible detail: never missing anything, never forgetting anything, never hiding anything, never being deceived.

Consequently, He is not only able to rule, to regulate, to exercise dominion – He actually does it; for the whole universe; for all of what we call time.  It is laid out before Him as His ever-present Kingdom, and His household is ‘Administration Central’ in that Kingdom.  The household began with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then they added angels (household servants, if you like) and a Bride for the Son.  Thus, to me, history is His Story.

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.  Where then is a house you could build for me?  And where is a place that I may rest?  For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord.  But to this one I will look: to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word.”  (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Summary

I believe God always has been, is now and always will be building a household whose defining features and activities are love, light and truth.  And He is establishing His Kingdom in which love, light and truth (righteousness) reside and prevail perpetually.  From this base, He is making a future for us humans out of love, light and truth.  The genesis of this project is located deep within the spirit of the Godhead in eternity past, as “the Spirit of God was moving gently over the face of the waters.”

Cheers,
Kevin.

The Household of God (4)

God’s Will; Our ‘Future’
In the last post, I looked at various scriptures that say these things about the new covenant people of God:

They will reign with Christ
They will judge the world
They will judge angels
They will reign on earth [the ‘new earth’ maybe]
They will be priests of Christ and reign with Him
They will reign for ever and ever

These things are like fascinating little doors or hatches to me.  I can’t resist.  I want to explore and find out what is on the other side.  What do I find when I open them?  What do I experience when I enter into them?

According to John in his Revelation, there is to be a new heaven and a new earth:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. (Revelation 21:1-5)

Apostle Peter also refers to this: “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)  In this future that God is making for His people, righteousness is at home – it abides there.

If eternal life is a reality; if God has in His plan a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness lives; if God adopts many sons into His family; if these ‘many sons’ share God’s entire inheritance along with Jesus; if those ‘many sons’ are, in God’s eyes, the bride of Christ; if there is a marriage supper of the Lamb; THEN I HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

After the wedding breakfast – when the celebrations are done and everybody returns to their ‘usual occupation’ – what will that usual occupation look like?  What will we all be doing?  What is the on-going work of the Kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth?

If we are reigning, reigning over what?  Reining over whom?  If this is eternity – no longer subject to time, space, matter restrictions – is it an eternal reign?  John did say ‘for ever’.

In all my years of listening to sermons and preachers, I have never heard anybody preach on this.  In all the hundreds of books I have read, I have never read any significant rendition of this aspect of the Christian life.

Frank Viola, in From Eternity to Here, makes a powerful point when he asserts that most believers live, think, preach and teach as if the story of God runs from Genesis 3 (the fall of man) to Revelation 20 (the judgement of man).  He powerfully reminds us there are two chapters (and a vast story) before the fall of man and there are two chapters (and another vast story) after the judgement.  For me, From Eternity to Here goes part of the way to revealing the vastness of God’s love and will for us – and leaves us still more to discover, I believe.

Obviously, there is no biblical text that states clearly what the answer to my question might look like, but there are – as I said – little doors or hatches to explore.  There are hints and glimpses of the occupation of eternity, but no definitive account.  And I believe we can understand some of the things in eternity future by revisiting eternity past.  I think Viola also makes this point well in his work.

I also believe we can begin to really fill out our understanding when we position ourselves with a view of eternity past and a view of eternity future, and then spend some time with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) going over the central and defining words of the faith: Righteousness, Salvation, Redemption and Justification.

Behind the back of the wardrobe

When I did this some years ago – prompted and lead by the Holy Spirit – I found myself running and falling headlong into a vast and glorious panorama that still leaves me almost speechless.  At that point in my life, I decided to watch the video version of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe in the NARNIA series by C.S. Lewis.

A small child hides in a wardrobe as part of a game, for what is really only a few minutes of time.  But on the other side of the back of the wardrobe is a whole world and a whole other life – called NARNIA.  The King of NARNIA is the lion Aslan who, in the entire series, is the Christ character.  He is Jesus, ‘the Lion of the Tribe of Judah’.

I mention this because for me, the adventure of opening and going through these little hatches I mentioned is a story akin to what lies on the other side of the wardrobe door.  However, in my experience, few people actually notice the little hatches and windows in the walls behind the artefacts on display, let alone open them and then explore behind them.

One thing I have learned about myself over recent years is that, on my ‘fight or flight’ gauge, my natural setting is towards ‘fight’, not ‘flight’.  Put another way, when I am presented with something weird, new or strange, I am drawn towards it, not away from it.  As far back as I can remember, I tend towards investigation, not disgust or trepidation.

So, when Paul says we will ‘judge the world’, I want to know what that means; what that involves.  When he says we will ‘judge angels’, I want to investigate and know more.  When John says we will ‘reign with Christ’ and ‘reign on earth’, you can’t stop me from opening the hatch and going headlong into it to see where it takes me.

Why do I mention this here?  Because this is the story of the Household of God.  In the “Chronicles of Narnia”, the children who are innocently playing a family household game together find themselves ruling and reigning in Aslan’s Kingdom of Narnia.  The Kingdom of God belongs to ‘little children’ according to Jesus!

As we go through this series, we will discover together that there is more we can know and understand of God’s eternal kingdom than we have been lead to believe – much more.  And we will discover it is not just run-of-the-mill information; it is life-changing.  It gives reason and purpose to many of the things we do.  To go back to the analogy of the museum, we will see many of the artefacts differently as a result of seeing and understanding the elements of the background and the little windows.

Cheers,

Kevin.

The Household of God (3)

What in the world is God doing?

I find there are three themes running consistently throughout the documents of the new covenant – what we call the New Testament.  These are like three different ‘background’ elements.  He is establishing His Kingdom; He is building a household; He is making a future.

Establishing His Kingdom

In relation to establishing His kingdom, I noted a number of important things.  God is establishing His kingdom because He is King!  Indeed, He is King over all kings.  And while His kingdom is ‘not of this world’, as Jesus noted, it is an eternal kingdom of an “other-worldly” type.  These are some of the characteristics of God and His kingdom:

• God’s essential nature is Father (attested to throughout our bible)
• He inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15)
• He invented time, space, matter, motion, the world, the natural order – and people (the book of Job is as good as any to get this message)
• The human race is the crowning glory of His creation (see Genesis story)
• His heart-beat is to bring into existence a new race of people – with His DNA (1 John 1:13)
• He is capable of doing this because He calls into existence that which does not exist (Romans 4:17)
• He is calling into existence “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [they] may declare the praises of him who called [them] out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Building a Household

In relation to building a household, I noted a number of important things:

In the household, God is Father

Jesus is, first in relation to the Father, the first-born and the once-born Son whose inheritance is the “double portion”.  And, second, in relation to us, he is the elder brother, with whom we share the Father’s inheritance.  Jesus made it quite clear that he is not ashamed to call those who put their trust entirely in him his ‘brothers’.

[Old versions of the bible use the term “only-begotten son” in reference to Jesus.  Begotten simply means born.  And since God, according to other parts of the bible, has many sons by new birth, Jesus cannot be the only-born son.  The word translated ‘only’ can also be translated ‘once’ and I suggest that is what it should be in our English bibles.  That way, Jesus is the once-born son of the Father; the rest of us are twice-born sons, as Jesus made quite plain when he spoke to Nicodemus.  And historically in the story of God in relation to man noted in the Old Testament, the first-born son always received a “double inheritance” – that is, he is entitled to two shares of the Father’s estate.]

The Holy Spirit is the life-source and the DNA of the household.  I believe the Holy Spirit is to the Godhead what the human spirit is to the human, only on a much grander scale, in every conceivable way and more besides.

The angels are the household servants.  But, while they too are created beings, they are of a completely different order from humans – and they never become sons.  I contend that this may even be what lies behind the rebellion of that angel Satan and his followers.  The whole idea of grubby humans becoming not just sons, but rulers in God’s household may have appeared quite scandalous to some of the angels.  We know from scripture that angels do look into matters relating to us humans and do have their unique responses to what they see.  While not human, they are not what we humans call robots.

And then of course, there are the many sons whom God is bringing to glory by means of the finished work of Jesus.  And be careful to note here: sons don’t become angels.  Angels will never be sons and sons will never be angels.  Sons receive His life and act out of their understanding of the Father and their position in Him through Jesus;  angels do what they are told.

Note also that I don’t say ‘sons and daughters’.  Under the terms and conditions of the Old Covenant, sons inherited but daughters usually didn’t.  A special case could be made for daughters to inherit when a father had no sons.

Under the terms and conditions of the New Covenant however, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)  In the New Testament, the Greek word used for son (huios) loses its emphasis on maleness and becomes a term that indicates relationship, inheritance and name.  The huios is the one in whom “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” and the one who has “received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15&16)

The very next verse of Romans 8 says, “And if children, then heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ – if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”  All who have this witness within them are ‘sons’ (whether male or female) and all likewise co-inherit with each other and with Jesus the elder brother (whether male or female).  This is the true meaning of being a ‘son’ of God in His household: relationship and inheritance and name.

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Now if these two things (establishing His kingdom and building a household) are like subtle backgrounds to the artefacts on display, the third point is more like a series of little unobvious windows or hatches, almost invisible in among the collections on display.  He is making what for us is a future:

Take a look at these scripture verses from apostle Paul and apostle John.

2 timothy 2:11-13

It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

 1 Corinthians 6:1-3

Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbour, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?  Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent in the smallest law courts?  Do you not know that we shall judge angels?  How much more, matters of this life?

Revelation 5:10

And they sang a new song … You have made them a kingdom of priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.

[Bear in mind that the Revelation also says there is to be a new heaven and new earth.]

Revelation 20:6 and 22:5

Blessed and hold is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him.

And there shall no longer be night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord shall illumine them; and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Pull out the italicised phrases and have a good look.  This is what is in store for those who have died with Christ, who endure to the end, who do not deny him and who prove faithful.  And if we stand in Christ and live according to the Spirit (Romans 8 again), all these things are worked in us by the Spirit who is given to us as the guarantee of our inheritance with Christ.

• We will reign with Christ
• We will judge the world
• We will judge angels
• We will reign on earth [the ‘new earth’ maybe]
• We will be priests of Christ and reign with Him
• We will reign for ever and ever

Next post, I examine these six thing more cosely.  To me, they are like fascinating little doors or hatches.  I can’t resist; I want to explore and find out what is on the other side.  What do I find when I open them?  What do I experience when I enter into them?

Cheers,
Kevin.

The Household of God (2)

When Paul wrote to Timothy, one of his purposes in writing was “…so that [Timothy] may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the ecclesia of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)

Three different expressions are used here to describe one thing.  The household of God = the ecclesia of the living God = the pillar and support of the truth.  Note that the word ‘church’ does not appear in the Greek text at all here.

According to Paul in this reference, God’s household is also His governmental assembly and also the superstructure and the fixed seat of the truth.

An Ecclesia in the life and times of the New Testament era was a governmental assembly of chosen citizens, called together to administer the realm and make the arrangements necessary for a fair, just, safe society.  The Ecclesia of God is God’s governmental assembly of saints, called together to administer His kingdom ‘on earth, as it is in heaven’.

Some say “the house of God”, but the word used here refers to an inhabited house or the household that inhabits the house.  Today, we often distinguish between an empty house and an inhabited house by calling one a house and the other a household or a home.  This shifts the emphasis from the building to the people.

The second idea is the pillar (Greek stulos).  This refers to the vertical superstructure of a building that is tied to the foundation and supports the walls and roof structures so that the building will stay standing and will house and protect its occupants.

The third idea is the support – or ‘ground’ in some older versions (Greek hedraioma).  The root meaning of this word is a) steadfast, firm, solid and b) seat.  We express this meaning in English today when we talk about a monarch’s throne or a professorial chair in a University, or (in Australia for example) the Speaker’s Chair in Parliament.  It refers to a fixed, solid, steadfast seat of truth.

This one thing that Paul is talking about is, at the same time, God’s kingdom governmental assembly, His household, and the superstructure and fixed solid seat of the truth.

1 Peter 4:17 also uses the expression ‘household of God’.  Here Peter is explaining that God’s judgement begins with His own household.  It contains a similar idea to Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 10:6 – and one many of us are familiar with in the West today.  “Charity begins at home”, “get your own house in order”, “clean up your own act” – expressions like this speak of the principle that we have little authority to preach at or judge others if our own lives or households are chaotic or dysfunctional.  God is applying this principle to Himself.  He disciplines His own household – for their good and for the good of His kingdom and ultimately for the good of the world.

The remainder of the times ‘household of God’ is used in the New Testament are references back to historic events recorded in the Old Testament – Matthew 12:4 for example.

Quite some years ago now, I set some time aside to listen, think, study and pray around a question I was grappling with: what – on earth – is God doing?  Does He have a plan?  Is everything that happens just a response to the previous thing that happened?  Is there a meta-narrative – a big-picture story that is being worked out in the world?  If God is timeless and ageless, does He have an eternal purpose for our time-trapped earth and the people on it?

While I am the first to admit that what I learnt in that time is clearly not the whole story, I found it does go a long way towards some answers for our life here.

I first broke down my thoughts into three foundational questions: What is God doing?  What is God’s idea of ‘church’ or ecclesia?  Where is it all headed?  I then searched the scriptures for themes, ideas and direct answers to these three questions.  What I found was small in terms of volume or words, but huge in terms of the implications and applications of those things I did find.

I often explain what I found as a bit like being in a vast art gallery or museum and finding a few tiny little windows that almost disappear in amongst the mass of artifacts on display.  This has been part of my personality and make-up since boyhood.  I like to look into the un-obvious things.  My reasoning is, I can always come back again later and look at the things on display – the obvious; I am much more interested in what might be behind an obscure little hatch.  I also notice subtle changes in the backgrounds where the artifacts are displayed.  For obvious reasons, backgrounds are important when displaying artifacts, but they will inevitably be overlooked or unnoticed by many.

So … the questions:

What is God doing?

I found three themes running consistently throughout the documents of the new covenant – what we call the New Testament.  These are like three different ‘background’ elements.

He is establishing His Kingdom; He is building a household; He is making a future.

Obviously, when I speak of God ‘making a future’, it is future only in relation to us time-bound humans, not to God Himself.  This implies that God does indeed have a kind of ‘mind-map’ or a spirit-map that is being played out here in our time-space-matter world.

Following that, there are two more questions: What is God's Idea of "Church"? and Where is it all Headed?

See you next time,

Kevin.