Intimacy With God
It seems to me that, while our interest seems to be focused largely on matters of 'Heaven and Hell' - almost to the point of obsession - God's interest is on relationship: His relationship with us and our relationship with Him. And that brings me to one other book: Let’s Start With Jesus, by Dennis F. Kinlaw; Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 2005.
Chapter 2 in this book is titled “The Level of Intimacy
God Desires: Three Metaphors Illustrate
God’s Purposes for Us. Those three
metaphors are: the Royal/Legal metaphor (the ‘forensic’); the Familial metaphor
(the concept of family); the Nuptial metaphor (husband-wife; bride-groom).
The Royal / Legal Metaphor
In most modern Western societies – even those with
monarchies – the royal courts where the sovereigns reign, the legislative
assemblies where laws are made and the courts where judicial decisions are made
are separate things and there exists what we call a “separation of powers”. In times past, this was not usually the
case. As Kinlaw points out, “... in the
Old Testament, the world in which Israel existed, the sovereign was the supreme
judge. God was seen as both King and
Judge. He was the giver of the law and
the guarantor of its execution.” (p. 47)
In old Israel, Yahweh was king; He was also
shepherd. As shepherd, God assumes
responsibility for the welfare of his subjects.
He invites his subjects to dine at his table and be at home in his
dwelling-place. And Kinlaw goes on to
say, “But Yahweh as king is also the eternal judge. He is the guarantor that righteousness and
justice will ultimately prevail in his cosmos.” (p. 49) You may recall I mentioned Genesis 18:25
earlier: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?”
This theme emerges throughout the New Testament in the
expression “the kingdom of God”, not least in the teaching of Jesus of
Nazareth. And although a latecomer to
the mantle of apostleship, Paul well understood and declared the kingdom of God. Everywhere he went, his first impulse was to
declare, to the Jews, the kingdom of God (in Jesus the Christ).
This metaphor gives us the background and the context for
understanding the teaching of justification by faith – a major emphasis of
Paul. God can and does reach out across
the “gulf too far” to satisfy the just requirements of the law and His own
standards of righteousness. And He does
so by sending forth, from his eternal presence, His own son to be born of a
woman and born under the law in order to redeem those under the law – us
humans.
In the New Testament, basileia (Greek for kingdom) is primarily an abstract
noun speaking of dominion; regal power; sovereignty. Secondarily, it is used as a concrete noun
speaking of the territory or the people over whom the king has dominion and
authority. This is what Jesus was
talking about when he said, “All dominion, rule and power has been given unto
me” in his commissioning of the first apostles.
A person’s kingdom is that which the person has dominion, power and
authority over.
By
definition, God’s kingdom is that which God has dominion, power and authority
over. But don’t blindly jump in and
conclude that, therefore, everything is God’s kingdom. Note what Jesus said: ‘my kingdom is not of
this world’. The kingdom of God is an
eternal kingdom, not a temporal kingdom.
For a moment, think
back to the story of the temptation of Jesus as recorded in Luke 4:5-8:
And he [Satan] led Him [Jesus]
up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give you
all this domain and its glory; for it
has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if
you worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is
written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’
The whole point of
Jesus’ coming; the whole point of the proclamation of the good news of the
kingdom of God; the whole point of the existence of ecclesia; is for Jesus’ victory over death and the power of the
devil to be realised and then enforced.
Jesus won the victory and set that process in motion; his body on earth
now (ekklesia) continues and
completes it under the dominion (the kingdom) of God the Father, the headship
of Jesus the first-born Son, and the power and encouragement of the Holy
Spirit.
Satan
thought that in the death of Jesus (which was his ultimate objective) he had won,
but the opposite was true; Satan thought he had untouchable control over the
kingdoms of the world, but Jesus stole them from him. Until the resurrection, Jesus couldn’t say
“all dominion, power and authority has been given to me”, but the victory of
the resurrection is that the kingdoms of the world are now ripe for a transfer
of allegiance from Satan to Jesus, and thereby to the Father and His family and
household.
In
between Jesus’ resurrection and ours, the kingdom of God grows almost
imperceptibly – as a mustard seed. But
the final victory is after our resurrection when, according to John’s
revelation, “... the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven,
saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and
ever’.”
Paul
notes a profound truth in his introduction to the Romans (1:1-4):
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the good news of God, which He promised
beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who
was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead, according to the
Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.
How much clearer does anybody need to be? God revealed to Paul (who has so clearly
revealed to us) that the good news of God is that Jesus Christ our Lord is
powerfully declared to be God’s unique Son by his resurrection from the dead
through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit. That resurrection absolutely changed
everything – forever! How different is
God’s story (Romans 1) from Satan’s story (Luke 4)?
And what makes this so profoundly important is that which
John foresaw and recorded early in his gospel.
He notes that the life that was in Jesus was “the light of men” and that
light would shine in the darkness and the darkness would neither comprehend nor
apprehend that light. For all his best
intentions and his best efforts, Satan could neither comprehend the light of
Jesus nor was he able to make it his own!
As a result, in every sense of the word, the groundwork
for the redemption and reconciliation and justification (and hence the
salvation) of us humans had been irreversibly laid. This is why Paul could write to the Romans
(10:8-15):
But what does it [the righteousness that comes from faith] say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth,
and in your heart’ [refer Deuteronomy 30:14]; that is, the story of faith, which we preach: that if you will
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and trust in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. For with the
heart, one trusts unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever trusts in him will not be
disappointed.’ [refer Isaiah 28:16]
For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of
all, and is rich to all who call on him.
For, ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ [refer Joel 2:32] How
then will they call on him in whom they have not trusted? How will they trust in him whom they have not
heard? How will they hear without a
herald? And how will the heralds
proclaim unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news of peace, who bring glad tidings of good
things!’ [refer Isaiah 52:7]
And to the Corinthians he could write (1:1-2):
Paul,
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our
brother Sosthenes, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In terms of the royal / legal metaphor, the job
is done! Everything necessary has been
established once and for all. It only requires
that we humans come to grips with the reality and the gravity of our situation
– and the amazing grace of God in establishing it all for us – and trust Him
alone (not priest or pastor or parent or spouse or friend or system or
institution or code or rite or any other person or thing) for our right
standing in His presence. And even the
ability, the will, the motivation to do that is stirred up within us by the
Spirit of God himself.
Coming back to my
earlier illustration: through the completed work of Jesus of Nazareth (by which
he is powerfully declared to be The Son of God), the four legal pillars of
God’s justice are established and man is free to be who he ‘ought to be’ and to
achieve all God our Father ever planned and hoped for.
Salvation – in the
fullest possible sense of the word – is established through redemption,
justification and righteousness. And
with that (as we note in Paul above) we are, in God’s sight, ‘saints’;
‘sanctified in Christ Jesus’.
God’s standard of justice and righteousness and sanctification have all been achieved in Jesus and established for all people for all time. Try as he might, Satan cannot win. We as humans can lose if we reject what God has done on our behalf and do what Paul describes the Jews of his day of doing: “But Israel, chasing after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by trust, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling block.”
Whereas the non-Jew, “[the Gentiles], who didn’t chase after
righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is through
trust.” (see Romans 9:30-32)
Righteousness before God comes via trust in God our Father, the finished
work of Jesus and the daily, on-going work of the Holy Spirit. His intention never was and isn’t now one of
punishment and censoriously watching over humankind with a big stick. His intention always was and ever is what we
would call today a healthy, functional family based on honour, respect and
trust (my definition of love): harmonious, reconciled and productive.
The only thing that stands in the way of that is our
obstinacy. Like the prodigal son in Luke
15, we need to fess-up, own-up and man-up and return to our father, who is waiting
with open arms. But when we return, we
need to do so on the basis of a clear understanding of who is God and who is
the ratbag mortal. Pride will keep us
from righteousness; but true righteousness will keep us from pride.
Can I recommend you
take a little time to meditate on the artwork “Divine Embrace” following.
It’s not about ‘going to heaven when you die’ (or hell for
that matter); it’s about being reconciled with God our creator and father. And everything we need has been done.
The Familial Metaphor
After 50 years of walking the disciple life with Jesus, and
after countless hours of study – both formal and informal – I have come to the
conclusion that the essential nature of God is ‘Father’. Sure, He’s creator and ruler and judge and so
on, but as I’ve studied these other facets of God, that study, over and over
again, takes me to the ‘fatherhood’ of God.
It seems to me that the way God works as creator, ruler, judge, etc. is
that of active fathering. It also seems
to be that His motivation for His other works is His fatherly care. And certainly, His own expressed wish,
articulated by the Old Testament prophets, was repeatedly something to the
effect of ‘I will be a father to you and you will be a son to me’ (e.g. Hosea
1:10) – reiterated by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (6:18).
And over those years, many times I have heard a
particular response to the idea of God as Father and His people as family that
goes roughly like this: ‘I really struggle with the concept of the fatherhood
of God because I had a lousy father myself’.
Now I can certainly sympathise with the idea – one could fairly say that
modern Western societies have had great struggles with “absent fathers” and
dysfunctional families. Having said
that, it is not an argument that ever crossed my mind in relation to my own
father.
I remember in the week following the death of my father
having important discussions with two of my older brothers about our dad and
what kind of father he was and what kind of life we had had. It seemed to me, listening to my older
siblings, that we had two dads; the dad I knew seemed to me to be quite
different from the dad they knew. But
one of those brothers said to me, ‘actually we had three dads: the dad the two
eldest children knew; the dad the middle two children knew; and the dad the
youngest three children knew.’ I am
among the youngest three. I was born in
1952; the firstborn was born in 1943.
I sometimes say to people that God ‘arrested me with His
love’ love’ and they look at me strangely and as if I have said something
unintelligible. But Paul used this
concept in describing himself in his letter to the Philippians (3:12). For me, from that moment on, God has always
been a very dear father to me.
My dad was small, wiry, very strong, very fast and a
coalminer with a reputation that nobody messed with and a temper to match. His knick-name was ‘hell-fire Jack’. When I was seven, Billy Graham came to
Australia and my dad was swept up in the move that saw many Australians turn to
face God and deal with their lives. Dad
gave his life to God – I knew that. Dad
had issues – I knew that. And we three
younger children came to know a dad that the older ones hadn’t really known as
young children.
In 1959, God ‘arrested’ my dad: the Divine Father was now
his Father. God arrested me four years
later and attached me to Himself with a bond of love that cannot be
broken. Dad’s Father had become my
Father too. Dad knew that; I knew that;
and dad knew that I knew that. And the
Father knew us both – each named, called and arrested in his own way in his own
time.
I don’t dispute that we have bad fathers, absent fathers and
dysfunctional families; but it seems to me that we often come at the subject
from the wrong end – back-to-front, if you like. Often what we are doing is measuring and
assessing the fatherhood of God by the standard of earthly fathers we
know. And this is to be expected, given
that so much of human life is so very self-centred. For many of us, our concept of ‘god’ is that
he is a different version of ourselves: better in some respects; but not beyond
caprice and what appear to us as ‘random acts of violence’.
To arrive at the judgement that God is capricious and prone
to random acts of violence is to do precisely what I am saying here: measuring
God by our standards. Capriciousness and
a tendency for random violence are traits of the human race, fallen as it is
far from what it ‘ought to be’, what it sometimes genuinely wishes to be, and
what it was originally created to be.
And often, the reason for this vast discrepancy is that our perception
of our own self-importance – our own self-centredness – drives us inexorably to
the conclusion that we are not creations of God nor accountable to God in any
way. We conclude that if there were a
God, He would have to act in ways that fit with our ideas of what God ‘ought to
be’.
In which case, He is not God but, as I said, a different
version of ourselves – a god made in the image of man. And for that, we need a different version of
the bible; or maybe no bible at all, but our own personal philosophy. This is precisely why some people spend a lot
of time re-jigging the bible to fit their personal philosophy. But what if that is a fundamental error and
the central flaw of the human race? We
don’t understand the history, so we sneer at the idea of the fatherhood of God
because, in our arrogance, we judge God by our own failures and weaknesses. “If God were a good father, He would not do
certain things and would definitely do other things.”
I am a father of three daughters; and as a father, more than
anything else what I want from my children is trust. They are full humans in their own right and I
do not control them; but a parent’s real longing so often is that their
children – now as responsible adults – trust them. I believe I am like that because I am a man
made in the image of God; this is a divine standard of fatherhood. Take a look at Hebrews 11:6. Properly translated, it says, “Without trust it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must trust
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Hubris is when we take the position that, today, I am going
to believe (note I didn’t write trust)
that there is a God because I need something from Him. So I try to remember some things I was taught
about God and about prayer. I expect God
to perform according to my wishes, and if He doesn’t, He’s capricious and I
won’t believe in Him anymore – until the next time I need something to go my
way. It’s embarrassing I know, but this
is actually how vast numbers of people view the relationship.
How do I know? 1)
Because I listen to how people talk and how they pray and how they describe
their experiences to other people; 2) because, at the human level, that is
exactly how many of us live from day to day in our family relationships. Reflect a little: can you hear the child
yelling abuse at the father because the child didn’t get what he/she
wanted? Life’s not fair because my
wishes were not met as I expected; things are not as they ‘ought to be’
according to my scheme. And of course it
is the father’s fault; he hates me; he doesn’t understand me; he wants me to
suffer; I must be a terrible person (or he must be).
As far as I can tell, the most common way we try to relate
to God is like that of our human relationships: He ‘ought to be’ as I wish Him
to be. We spare little thought for
whether or not the father has his own ‘ought to be’ or whether his ‘ought to
be’ is perhaps preferable, and what in fact ought to be. We are ever so
focussed on ourselves; we don’t truly understand the nature of the
relationship; we don’t put our trust in that relationship or in the fact that
he has our best interests at heart. We
just come – and we want everything our own way.
I hate to be the one to break it to you – or maybe I don’t –
but God can’t be manipulated like that, precisely because He is God and He is
our one true Father. And if He allowed
Himself to be manipulated and behaved consistent with what we think He ‘ought
to be’, He would not be true to Himself and, therefore, not God at all.
Me and my dad: we were OK – not because he was “the best dad
ever”; clearly he wasn’t. We were OK
because he came to know and trust
that God was his one true Father – his primary
Father. And we were OK because he also
understood that, for me to be in the right place, I needed to also know and trust God as my one true Father – my primary Father. He would always be my dad, and he would
always remember his own dad; but God is Father to both of us. We all grow up; we never cease to be sons,
but we do stop being children; we become, equally, sons of God. And, as far as I can tell, that is precisely
how God thinks things ‘ought to be’. And
when they are, we are ‘right’ before Him – righteous.
I know I can bring a smile to God’s face – I can “bless” Him
– when I live the reality of Hebrews 11:6.
I come before my Father trusting in Him and trusting that He has my best
interests at heart because that’s what Fathers do; and I trust that my seeking
Him will be rewarded according to His good intentions for me – even if his
intentions include discipline, advice and withholding, along with all the resources
that come with being His son and heir.
I don’t make my dad a lesser father when God becomes my primary Father; in fact, I appreciate my
dad more, especially since I came to learn that he understood this too. What it in fact does is elevate fatherhood to
what it ‘ought to be’ and I can be a better human father (and grandfather)
because of the relationship my primary
Father God has carried me into.
And I believe that it is from this that our entire life as
brothers in ekklesia (as sons of God together) receives its motivation and
vitality. Our primary (heavenly) Father
is the Father of a new breed, and, for me, there is one particular reason this
is unique and so special: Jesus. Jesus
is the first-born, the prototype, of the new breed. And that new breed is both empowered and
destined for eternity and immortality. According to Old Testament prophet
Isaiah (chapter 57), God says of Himself that He inhabits eternity: eternity is
His zone; His living-space; His domain and kingdom. Paul wrote about it to the ekklesia in Corinth
in these terms:
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. Behold, I tell you a
mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the
dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the
imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the
imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come
about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH,
WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians
15:50-57)
Part of our destiny is, via our own resurrection, to take on
imperishability, incorruptibility and immortality – as Jesus our prototype did
via his resurrection. And even though we
are not there yet, Jesus’ apostle John wrote that when we see him as he now is
– in the time of our resurrection – we shall be transformed into his likeness
(as Paul discusses here).
So, since we are sons of God and brothers and co-heirs with
Jesus, Jesus is, in effect, our elder brother, and we know from scripture that
Jesus is “not ashamed to call them brothers” who, like Him, fully put their
trust in the Father (Hebrews 2:11). And
likewise, God our Father is “not ashamed to be called their God; for He has
prepared a city for them”.
Our old English bibles sometimes refer to Jesus as “the only
begotten Son of God”. Given that ‘begotten’ means born, the text is
saying that Jesus is the only born son – which is patent nonsense. In Greek, the word translated ‘only’ can also
be translated ‘first’ and ‘once’. Why
either or both of these options was not chosen by the English bible translators
I can only guess, but both these alternatives work. Jesus is the first-born son of the new breed.
But Jesus is also –
and I stress this is absolutely unique – the once-born son of this breed.
The uniqueness of Jesus is that he only needed to be born once. But when he is talking to Nicodemus (John 3),
it becomes clear that all the sons to follow have to be born twice: a natural
birth and a spiritual or ‘second’ birth.
In other words, being born again (the second birth) is necessary. Nicodemus was like many of us today – he scoffed
at the thought, asking ‘how can this be?’
“Can a man enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” Of course not. So Jesus told Nicodemus how it happens. And today, we need to be told how it happens
– and that it is necessary! For without it (note Nicodemus again) one
cannot see the kingdom of God.
And what did Jesus
tell Nicodemus? “Except one receive
birth from above, he is not able to see
and perceive the kingdom of God.” [literal translation] And the second time he said, “except one
receive birth out of water and spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God.” [literal translation].
That God is our
father is a metaphor to help us understand important truth. It is equally important that we realise it is
much more than just a metaphor: it is a
relationship of more importance than our human relationships because it links
us back to where we were detached from and places us in the condition we ‘ought
to be’ – right with God: back where we belong; ‘accepted in the beloved’ (Ephesians
1:6). In fact, when this relationship is
right, all our other human relationships function better.
But it does contain
some surprises. One day (see Mark 3 and
Matthew 12) Jesus was out and about and his disciples delivered him a message
that his ‘family’ wanted to see him. He
replied to his disciples, “‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ Looking about at those who were sitting
around Him, He said, ‘Behold My mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother
and sister and mother.’”
As the prodigal son story Jesus told is intended to teach
us, life as we know it here on earth is the small stuff; we were built for much
bigger things – for eternity and the kingdom of God – and we will be reunited
with our one true Father through trust in Him and in the completed work of His
Son, Jesus of Nazareth, our eternal elder brother.
No-one fathers more
or better than God our eternal Father.
The crucial question is whether we stay living far away from His
presence (as the prodigal son did until he came to his senses) or whether we
“draw near” as true sons via trust in His presence, His Fatherhood and the
inheritance we are part of when we, as Jesus said, “do the will of my Father”.
For what it’s worth, I consider that there is only one
relationship more intimate than the relationship between father and son (or
parent and child if you like) and that is husband and wife. This leads us to the third metaphor of
intimacy we are considering.
The Nuptial Metaphor
The Old Testament scriptures contain much about God as king
over His people and the Righteous Judge among them; it also contains much
around the familial metaphor of God as Father with His sons. But of no less significance is the nuptial
metaphor – of God as Husband and His people as His bride and wife.
The whole of the Song of Solomon is an allegory (a bit like
a metaphor) for the kind of intimacy God seeks with His people and has made
provision for. And the nuptial metaphor
is common in the writings of the Old Testament prophets: Jeremiah, Ezekiel and
Hosea to name a few.
In Jeremiah 2, the prophet writes of God remembering the
early days of the formation of Israel as the people followed Moses through the
wilderness. Their statements of devotion
and even ‘betrothal’ (what we call ‘engagement’ in Western countries today) are
remembered but they are contrasted with the flirtations and ‘affairs’ or
prostitutions of Israel. They said they
were His and even had their ‘wedding’, but they still acted like a donkey on
heat (Jeremiah 2:24) or a Bedouin prostitute (Jeremiah 3:2).
It is worth noting that, as Kinlaw points out in chapter 2
of his book, “The ancient world tended to see marriage as a means to secure an
heir, and it valued a woman by her success in producing an heir. However, it is highly significant that the
Song of Songs with its canticles of love never mentions children anywhere. Children do not seem at all necessary to
justify the validity and sanctity of nuptial love; they are not to be the
purpose of love but its marvelous by-product.” (page 63) How that contrasts with much traditional
christian thinking and teaching!
And, as Kinlaw goes on to point out, there is the
“perpetually perplexing” matter of the location of the mark of the covenant God
had with Israel: the penis. Kinlaw: “The
female carried no such mark, but the fact that the sign was at the point where
bride and groom meet may have something to say theologically. Human sexuality’s biblical origin does not
seem to lie in biology.” Kinlaw suggests
that the biblical origin or human sexuality has a ‘pedagogical’ (or
‘teaching/learning’) purpose with God who made us either male or female.
For Kinlaw, the thought of the teaching/learning purpose of
God in human sexuality goes invariably to the Old Testament concept of “holy” (qadesh in the Old Testament). He notes, “Holy is particularly and uniquely
Yahweh’s word. His claim on the word seems
to have implications for his claim on human sexuality as well. God’s purpose for coming to us in Jesus is to
restore true sanctity to those holy things that humanity has corrupted,
sexuality among them.” (page 63)
With that in mind, consider apostle Paul: in his teaching in
Ephesians 5, human sexuality – the nuptial relationship of bride and groom –
becomes the metaphor for communicating the truth about the ekklesia, the “Body
of Christ”. Keep in mind that Paul was
the apostle chosen by God to deliver what we know as the core Christian truths
of justification, righteousness and the ekklesia into the new covenant
era. He bore that burden, so he knew
what he was talking about.
The relationship of love between the Groom (Christ) and the
Bride (the ekklesia) is portrayed as a metaphor for how a husband ought to love
his wife. But it not a love with
offspring as its primary focus; it is a love about intimacy, purity and chaste
monogamy – for intimacy’s sake. The
offspring – the children – are a “marvelous by-product” of the relationship,
not its purpose.
The cross of Christ (and of course the resurrection)
expresses the profound love of the Father, the magnificent sacrifice of the Son
and the perpetual grace of the Holy Spirit first in justification, redemption
and righteousness. But it likewise
expresses the love of God in greeting aliens, strangers, foreigners – ‘sinners’
– as sons and heirs, co-inheriting with His own first-born, once-born Son
Jesus. And Kinlaw picks up the third
aspect when he writes, “He [Paul] insists that Christ has given the supreme
example in the cross: the love expressed in his self-sacrifice is God’s picture
of the love a husband should have for his wife.
The cross is the great expression of Christ’s love for his Bride.”
Then Paul extends the metaphor to say that the Bride of
Christ is also the “Body of Christ”. The
universal ekklesia – the ‘family’ by the
new or ‘second’ birth of repentance and faith; “those who do the will of my
Father” as Jesus said – is the Body
of Christ, is the Bride of
Christ. Hence Paul, quoting Genesis 2,
says “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
When I married my wife Lesleigh, I left my father and mother
and was united with her, becoming one flesh.
The sign of the covenant is on the penis and husband and wife share that
member when they ‘become one flesh’.
It’s about the intimacy and the connection, not about the offspring that
may or may not come to be.
Likewise in new birth, I ‘left’ my father and mother to be
joined to Christ – as also did my father and mother if they were truly born
again. My union with Christ is not a
mechanical or perfunctory union in order to produce ‘legitimate’ offspring; it
is intimacy for intimacy’s sake.
Offspring will be a ‘marvellous by-product’.
To understand God’s
work in salvation, justification, redemption and righteousness, we think of a
king, a ruler, a judge – albeit a just and wise and compassionate one. By this means, I stand ‘righted’ before God
because Jesus completed his work and secured my redemption. I am now in the position and condition I
‘ought to be’ and, by the power of the Spirit, I am able to do all I was
created to do. Imagine facing your king,
ruler and judge and knowing that there is nothing between you separating you,
causing anxiety, and making either of you want to avoid the relationship. Instead, you seek each other out, knowing
that you both understand the nature and the depth of the relationship and you
know how important it is to keep the relationship transparent, honest,
respectful and full of trust. This is
truly a wonderful place to be, but allow me, if you will, to point out that
while it begins here, it doesn’t end here – there is so much more in store.
To understand God’s work in reconciliation and welcome
forgiveness and sharing all He is and has with the people He created, we think
of a father – albeit a sincere, integrative and understanding one. And despite the protests of the religious
clans demanding greater reward for their self-satisfied superiority, by His
grace I am honoured, respected and trusted as a twice-born son who will one day
reign in His kingdom with Jesus His first-born, once-born Son – not because I
have worked hard to be a better person, but because He has chosen to accept my
repentance and trust in good faith and welcome me to His table: “He brings me
to His banqueting table and His banner over me is love.” (Song of Solomon
2:4) Imagine yourself like the ‘prodigal
son’ in the Luke 15 story: you have come to your senses and realised how
estranged and far away from your father you are, so you persuade yourself to
“get up and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son;
make me as one of your hired servants’.”
Imagine yourself actually doing this [don’t just imagine it, live it]:
So he
got up and came to his father. But while
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and
embraced him and kissed him. And the son
said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no
longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and
put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring
the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine
was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
And to understand God’s work of intimate union; of
self-giving love (as Jesus described so tenderly in John’s gospel record
chapter 17 for example) we think of a husband – albeit the kind of husband just
about every woman ever born dreams of being married to. Kinlaw continues: “Biblically, marriage is
the union of two persons in such self-giving love that they share a name, their
bodies, their possessions, their vocation, their common life – their total
selves.” (page 67)
[I add that they also share the one mark or sign of the covenant as
discussed earlier. The mark or sign of
the covenant of Israel was male circumcision.
In marriage, this sign is shared equally by husband and wife in the most
intimate act of all. The sign or seal of
the new covenant, according to Ephesians
1:13, is “the Holy Spirit of promise”.
This sign was placed on Jesus at His baptism. (see Luke 3:21-22): “Now
when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was
praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily
form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in
You I am well-pleased.’ Paul, in
Ephesians 1:13 recounts the events of that first new covenant Pentecost when he
writes: “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.” The possession being redeemed here is the ekklesia, the new covenant
children of the Lord; the reference point for this is Psalm 127:3 – ‘Children
are a heritage from the Lord – a reward from Him’. As the ‘Bride’ of Christ, we the twice-born
sons, the ekklesia, are the heritage of the Lord and the pledge of that
inheritance is the gift of the Holy Spirit which we share with our Groom in the
most intimate union of all – we are joined to Christ: “Therefore, my brothers,
you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you
might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that
we might bear fruit for God.” (Romans
7:4)]
And Kinlaw adds, “This is supposed to be a picture of the
relationship that every believer may have with Christ.” Imagine that!
And Kinlaw goes on:
“For a married person to share his or her body with any other than one’s spouse
is to violate the covenant that has been established between them. But for true
lovers, keeping a covenant with each other is no restriction.” Likewise, imagine that! My body is not my own, it belongs to my
Groom, my Husband – and to share it with anyone or anything else is to violate
the covenant we have between us, sealed with “the Holy Spirit of promise”. And in like manner, being true to that
covenant is a true pleasure, not a chore.
In summary: not an enemy but a friend; not just a friend,
but a son [and ‘son’ is not restricted to male]; not just a son, but a spouse –
with the God who created us and the cherished first-born, once-born Son of His
love; at His banqueting table; with a huge ‘LOVE’ banner over us all. And so begins the dance of eternity future.
So – how did we manage to trash all of this, call it
religion, and insist on subjecting ourselves and others to it?
For me, religion – ‘Christian’ or any other – is a gigantic
act of treason, rebellion and insubordination, and prostitution – and I have
the backing of the scriptures to view it as such. The intimacy God seeks (friend, son and
spouse) will kill religion; or religion will kill the intimacy God seeks.
Conclusion
Here we are, imagining that the most important question in
the world is “are you going to heaven when you die?” We get all flustered and deeply irritated
when people suggest, on the one hand, that they’re not interested in God or
heaven or what happens when we die and, on the other hand, that it’s not a
question God ever asked or condoned us asking.
In truth, it is a dumbed-down triviality of our self-centred
Westernised culture christianity; and it looks absolutely ridiculous when
compared with the intimacy God seeks with us humans and the incredible depths
of passion God has gone to – and continues to go to – to have us turn our eyes
and our hearts towards Him and home.
For me, the three-pronged question – are you righteous (i.e.
as you ‘ought to be’) before God by trusting Jesus, justified freely by His
grace; are you reconciled with God by trusting Jesus, known by God as a son of
His grace; are you doing the bridal waltz with your Groom by trusting Jesus,
honoured as the Bride by His grace at the ‘marriage supper of the Lamb’? ...
this question makes “are you going to heaven when you die?” look and sound like
the babble of a first-day kindergarten child who really does think he knows it
all.
Seriously – when are we going to grow up? When are going to stop pretending? When are we going to come to our senses? When
are we going to get off our ‘me’ merry-go-round carousel? When are we going to at least start acting
like we understand that God is God and that we are His creation, not the other
way round? And when are we going to
start doing things God’s way, and doing so for the sheer pleasure and joy of
it?
As I walk in those three levels and types of
intimacy with God, the question ‘are you going to heaven when you die?’ never
comes up. He doesn’t mention it and
neither do I. When you walk with God in
intimate union as we’ve discussed here, the question is an absurdity. And thank God for that!
- ENDS -
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