What is a Christian?
By Glenn
Miller
As far as I can tell, after twenty years of experiencing God and life as a "Christian" and after thinking about this experience from several perspectives, a Christian is...
a person who has a personal
heart-to-heart relationship with the living God, characterized by warm and
active acceptance on God's part, and our honesty and dependence on the
activities of Jesus Christ.
Let's look at this a
little more closely.
"A
personal heart-to-heart relationship":
The
point of this is to exclude 'religious' relationships, in which an 'object' is
revered 'from afar' but not approached in a personal way. God is indeed an
'awesome entity' but he is nonetheless a Person. A personal relationship is a
reciprocal relationship, not a one-way deal. There is real interaction, real
disclosure, real closeness that develops. The 'heart-to-heart' aspect intends
to convey the honesty and openness of this relationship. There are no 'games'
that can be played with an all-knowing God(!), no secrets withheld, no area of
life concealed. (The interesting thing about this is that, even though God
knows all about an area of our life, we might NEVER open it up to Him in
discussion, in our efforts to 'hide' from His feedback!)
I cannot emphasize
strongly enough the personal character of this relationship. I see so many aberrations
and stunted-growth versions of it. It is not a formal relationship, a primarily
legal one, or even simply a 'creature-Creator' relationship. (I find the human
tendency to relegate God into a religious icon or image or object to
depersonalize the relationship and short-change the possibilities of such a
relationship--much as we do in other significant personal relationships in our
lives.)
"The
living God":
The
subject of God is quite a vast one, but the main point here is that He is
LIVING. There are feelings, and thoughts, and decisions, and actions, and
initiatives, and responses, and values, and commitments... all the aspects of
personal existence. He is not a force or an attitude or a "perspective on
the universe". We walk around our lives 'face to face' with this One--
even if we ignore Him.
"Characterized
by warm and active acceptance on God's part":
From
God's side, He accepts us. But this is not merely a 'political' acceptance--it
has a warmth and joy to it. He 'smiles' upon us. He delights in us(!). This is
more than simply the very important 'peace with God'; it is an active
relationship. He gets involved in our lives for good--for our growth, our
development, our character, our fulfillment, our stability, our significance in
the lives and futures of others. He is always 'glad to see us'.
"Characterized
by our honesty and dependence on":
From our
side, the relationship is one of honesty about who He is and who we are. We are
not 'gods', and as such need our Maker for the realization of the
purposes for which we appear in this universe. We are a people dependent on the
universe He has produced, and we are people whose goodness has been severely
compromised by our regular moral failures and pervasive spiritual apathy.
The main thing in the
universe that God the Father loves...is God the Son. When we are honest with
the Father about who his Son is, and what he did in history for us, God
welcomes us into this warm relationship...We simply have to be honest with Him
about his dearly-loved Son.
The second part of this
is dependence. We depend on Him for the 'repair' of our relationship
WITH Him. He is the active one, coming in history to earth and taking upon
Himself the consequences of our moral failure. We simply are honest about those
actions/events to the extent that we rely
upon those actions/events as an adequate basis for God's warm
acceptance of us. In other words, we agree with God that his Son's life and
work are sufficient grounds to accept us into this special relationship. It's
that simple.
"The
activities of Jesus Christ":
The
basic 'core' truth of Who he was/is and what he did are simple. He was God the
Son, who took on human flesh, lived among us, suffered at the hands of His
Father (on the cross) as our substitute, came back to life after his execution,
and transported himself 'outside' space-time to 'heaven'. He will return to
earth visibly in the future, but for now, He is involved invisibly in the
macro-forces of history, and the micro-events of our lives. His death satisfied
God the Father's just moral demands upon us, and 'freed' God to lavish his warm
acceptance upon us.
This is the beautiful
truth of what a Christian is...a beloved child of the living and loving God...and
it starts with a simple conversation with God...telling Him that you accept
"His version" of who his Son was, and what He did for you...
LET ME PUT IT
THIS WAY………This is my second try at describing the most wonderful
person I have ever met. The first one ending up sounding like a religious
textbook--a little stilted, and probably harsh.
But I've learned a lot
in the year since then...and now I know to focus on simply letting you get a
glimpse of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ--and not 'hit' you with
a lot of religious dogma.
It will still sound
"religious" of course, but maybe this time it won't offend you or
drive you away or convince you to stop reading this (thinking I'm just another
crazy religious fool--Lord knows we have enough of those already!).
Well, here goes...This
person Jesus Christ is probably one of the oddest characters in history. This
common Jewish carpenter went about his short 33 years of life confronting the
religious authorities, calling people to a personal relationship with God
(instead of to a religion), even claiming to be God(!), doing good, and doing
feats that were remembered as miracles. He was executed as a criminal by the
Roman government. His followers claimed that he 'rose from the dead and went to
heaven' and the hostile authorities of the day were never able to find his dead
body to refute the claim.
His teachings were a
strange mix of forgiveness /acceptance for the honest and humble, condemnation for
the arrogant and indifferent, and almost outrageous claims about himself and
His Father. He brilliantly summarized the entire sacred writings of his nation
and extended them to new areas of life and heart. His message centered around
God's radical love for mankind, mankind's general failure to respond
appropriately to this love, and the actions in history that God undertook to
lovingly bring people back to Himself. The most important and strangest act of
love was in God sending his Son Jesus to earth.
Jesus Christ was God
in human form, and deserved to be worshipped and honored and served above all
kings. But he didn't come to earth to be worshipped--he came to help! Listen to
his words: "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full"
(John 10.10) "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10.45) "For the
Son of Man came to seek and to reclaim what was lost" (Luke 19.10)
"Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his
friends." (John 15.13)
My favorite text shows
his incredibly beautiful heart, and at the same time offers us some serious
relief--Matthew 11.28-30: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden is light." This is a love we can trust--one that
demonstrates its commitment by the way it lives and dies. In love, Jesus shared
with us the important truths about our world, our God, and ourselves: There is
a God and He has a personality. He loves His universe and people intensely; He
chooses how He works within history; He grieves over death, pain, and
wrongdoing; He gets angry at injustice and evil; He desires to make His
creation joyful and fulfilled. He has communicated to man through nature,
conscience, moral notions, and especially in a collection of uniquely-produced
writings, known as the Bible. "The Lord is a God who knows" (I Samuel
2:3) "The Lord lives" (II Samuel 22:47) "God so loved the
world..." (John 3:16) "For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made..." (Romans 1:20) "The Lord was grieved because of the
calamity..." (II Samuel 24:17) "In the past God spoke through the
prophets at different times and in different ways" (Hebrews 1:1) "You
have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in Your
presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" (Psalm 16.11)
"The Lord takes the upright into His confidence" (Proverbs 3.32)
"I am the Lord your God. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it"
(Psalm 81.10) "The fruit of doing and being right will be peace; and its effects
will be quietness and confidence" (Isaiah 32.17)
He created mankind for
friendship in an enjoyable and vibrant relationship, but our moral failures,
wrongdoing, apathy toward Him have basically separated us from a relationship
with Him (and from all the benefits that flow from a healthy, active, and
respectful friendship with our Maker -- the very author of true life and joy).
"Your wrongdoings have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2)
"Evil inevitably produces death-in all its forms" (Romans 6:23)
"evil, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15)
He desired to re-new
the relationship with us, but He had to deal with this wrongdoing issue. His
perfect character is such that He has to be both loving and just, which means
that moral failure cannot be just "over-looked." He must deal with it
according to its seriousness (it is the very source of death in our
universe--both in relationships, physically, and with eternal dimensions). On
the other hand, His love sought a way to deal moral failure its serious
consequences (i.e. separation from Him now and after death) and somehow remove
us from this stream of consequences. "He has set a day when He will judge
the world with justice" (Acts 17:31) "Man is destined to die once,
and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27) "Then they will go
away to eternal punishment, but those right with God into eternal life"
(Matthew 25:46) "For we know that God's judgment is based on truth"
(Romans 2:2) "I will sing of Your love and justice" (Psalm 101:1)
He made a way to do
this. He sent His Son to earth 2,000 years ago. He was God (perfect, loving,
powerful, authoritative, just), took on a human body, lived a perfect life,
claimed to be God, and then engineered His own death -- during which He took on
Himself the consequences of our moral failure! He basically traded places with
us, while His Father poured out on him the just penalty for evil. The
"net" is this: He took the penalty for our moral failures, so we
wouldn't have to! "God made Christ, who lived a morally perfect life, to
'be' evil for us, so that we might 'be' moral 'right-ness' in Him" (2
Corinthians 5.21) "And He himself bore our wrongdoings in His body on the
Cross" (I Peter 2.24) "For Christ died for sins once for all, the
just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us back to God" (I Peter
3.18) "This is really love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,
and sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our wrongdoing" (I John 4.10)
He didn't stay dead,
but is alive now and offers us a new relationship, a new freedom from guilt, a
total pardon from sin's horrible after-death consequences, a new start toward
fulfillment and significance, and a new source of positive influence/input into
our life. The best part is -- it's free. All He expects of us is to trust
Him to do this! (By the way, "trusting Christ" is not another way of
saying 'Join a church' or 'become a holy-type person.' It's not a matter of
doing good deeds, working in a religion, following rules, etc.--these are
simply means to enjoy this free relationship to the full--they don't establish
that relationship in any way.) We simply tell Him we believe Him: that He was
God-in-flesh who was punished in-our-place. "To everyone who welcomed Him
by trusting in who He was and what He did, he granted the right to relate to
God as intimate children [and not just creatures or citizens or whatever]"
(John 1.12) "I [Jesus] tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting
life to the full" (John 6:47) "For God loved this world so much that
He gave His unique Son, that whoever trusted in that Son would not experience
the final consummation of death in all its forms and degrees, but rather have
that life which is characterized by stability, fullness, and eternity"
(John 3.16)
(You can let this love
into your life right now. You can express that trust in him by simply telling
him. Maybe a simple prayer like "Lord Jesus, it's still all a little fuzzy
to me, but I get the basic idea that because of your love for me, You were
punished in my place so I wouldn't have to be--thank You for doing that for
me." Do it now--it will have some seriously positive implications in your
life--on both sides of physical death.)
Once the relationship
is established, you have access to an incredible Person -- who can do for and
with you what He is doing for/with others. Talk to him about your challenges
(while reading the Psalms, I suggest!), about the limitations you feel (be
honest and humble), pay attention to His practical advice (read Proverbs and
the New Testament epistles). "Through faith in Him [Jesus] we may approach
God with freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3.12) "These things I
have written to you that have put your confidence in the Person and Work of the
Son of God, in order that you may have full assurance that you have began a new
life that will grow and deepen for all eternity." (I John 5.13)
"Therefore, since we have been declared guiltless through faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1) "Taste
and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34.8) "For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, so great is his love to those who honor and relate
to Him as God" (Psalm 103.11) "You will know that I am the Lord;
those who hope in Me will not be disappointed" (Isaiah 49.23) "Cast
all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you" (I Peter 5:7)
If you
postponed doing this due to procrastination, go back and re-read this until you
do it! If you postponed doing this, because of intellectual-type questions
("How can I trust the Bible?", "What about other
religions?", etc.), believe me, there are
solid and satisfying answers -- the God of truth is not afraid of our
questions. I hope the best for you as you go forward and I hope to meet you in
eternity, if not before.
When
you're ready to take your first step toward God...
This little article is
for those, who for one reason or another, feel ready to take their first step
toward God, and its simple purpose is to give you some "fellow traveler's
advice" about this step and this journey...There are no arguments here for
the existence of God or for the basic reliability of the bible or for the
uniqueness of this message--these can be found at http://www.christian-thinktank.com/.
This is rather for those who have somehow arrived at an overall sense that
there is a God who is worth approaching...
People come to this
"I think I am ready" step for many, many different reasons...
Some are hurting
inside, from fear, anxiety, loneliness,
alienation, betrayal, and this suffering has somehow convinced them that life
is 'deeper' than first appears, and that the spiritual dimension is very, very
real. They have become convinced that God is somehow 'out there' and can
therefore be approached for help.
Some are facing
difficult
crises in their lives--illness, family troubles, difficult choices,
bereavement--and have somehow sensed their deep need to ask for help, inner
strength, and insight. This awareness has somehow brought them to a conviction
that the spiritual dimension of life, although often only faintly recognized
and more often generally downplayed, is in fact deep and significant. And this
awareness has led them to a belief that God is also real, and somehow has
resources and wisdom that might be of immense value to them in their crisis.
Some are
struggling
with guilt or shame, over some act or pattern of moral failure. They have a
deep sense of psychological guilt, eating them alive from the inside. This
internal urgency has drove them to seek out the spiritual side of life, and has
awoken in them an attitude of honesty over both the problem/act itself, and
their need for personal acceptance and forgiveness from God and from others.
Some face challenges
of addiction to destructive patterns, habits, lifestyles. They have
discovered that their "innocent" habit has destructively disturbed
their lives, their minds, their families, their careers, and their lives. But,
they have also discovered that their attempts to break this slavery have been
failures, due to inadequate personal resources. They simply do not have the
personal strength, adequate focus/motivation, or perseverance of will to
overcome this. The habit has already damaged their abilities to recover, to the
point of despair. The depths of the human soul and condition has led them to
believe in a deeper reality, and thus they are now open to the reality of God,
and the hope of approaching God for help.
Some have been
pondering the 'tough' questions of life and history that we explore on the
Thinktank (www.Christian-thinktank.com). They have reviewed the arguments,
looked at the data, heard both sides of the interpretation, and have
decided
that the Christian understanding of the life of Jesus, the reality of the
spiritual, and the basic historical trustworthiness of the message of the bible
is (at least slightly) better supported by the evidence. They
don't have all the answers to all the questions, but the answers
they DO have are adequate enough for them to feel justified in believing in the
God who revealed himself in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. Given
this, they feel that they can take this step in personal and intellectual
integrity (not requiring the certitude of basic mathematics, but only the
practical peace of mind about decisions in personal relationships), and in
fact, anticipate getting to know the God who "stooped to earth" to
establish a warm and robust relationship with us.
Some have seen and
known
those extraordinary people who are true followers of Jesus Christ. They
have been up close to lives that exude the qualities that Jesus seems to grow
in His more humble followers throughout the ages--selfless love, gentleness,
vibrancy, peace and stability in the midst of life's challenges, enduring
commitments to others, patience in dealing with people, honest work habits,
warmth and joy. They now want those qualities in THEIR lives. That want what
those others 'have'--and the others all point them to Jesus, and to taking this
first step...
Some were raised in
other religious traditions, and have finally made an independent study of
the person of Jesus Christ. They have looked at his life and words, and have
come away with a sense of his uniqueness in history. They have seen the blend
of strong personal integrity and forgiveness of others, the mix of compassion
for the needy and rebuke for the self-righteous, the combination of human
humility and divine authority--all in this one Person. They have come to
believe that he was truly one of us, yet that he also claimed to be uniquely
the very presence of God in human form. They have sensed his 'Other-ness'
and come seeking a relationship with the One who embraced suffering and yet
promised freedom of spirit to others--through the very act of His suffering.
Some come with
a
sense of danger about what might happen to them after death. Through
circumstances, reading, or simply some inner warning sense, they perceive that
the nature of life after death may indeed have elements of moral justice in it.
They are honest enough about the details and motivations of their past choices
(and non-choices) to have some anxiety about their particular future, and seek
to respectfully approach God for a 'pardon'--a hope for a clean slate in the
moral universe.
And some
have heard
about Jesus all their lives (maybe even raised in a Christian home or
school), but only recently have decided to approach him
as an individual,
and as a personal relationship--regardless of environment or
situation. They have sensed His reality all their lives, but only now has the
issue of starting a heart-to-heart relationship with Him become urgent in their
thinking.
Many of us, of course,
come with more than one of the above, and often these various elements have
come in and out of our lives like the strains in a tapestry, bringing us to
this point.
...But so much
of our mind-set is similar among us at this point:
We all (that is, those
of us who think we are ready for this step) somehow sense that God is
"there", and even "close", and that He is open to our
approaching Him;
We all sense that God
has enough resources to somehow "change things" in our lives and in
our futures, all toward good goals of wellness, renewal, significance, freedom
of spirit, peace of mind, growth, love, and joy;
We all sense that our
lives are a mixture of good and bad choices, habits, and attitudes, and that
even though God is much more morally aware than we humans are, this somehow
doesn't stop God from letting us approach;
We all seem to
understand that somehow Jesus' coming to earth, living among us, and dying as a
criminal is central and focal to our approach to God--indeed, it
seems that God insists that we approach Him through Jesus. [But we are a
little confused about why this is important, and the details of it may escape
us entirely];
We all are generally
somewhat confused about what God 'requires of us'. We have likely been somehow
conditioned to believe that He would make excessive demands on our lives,
relative to behavior, associations, habits, religious activities, and the like,
but we are altogether unsure of our preconceptions in this area.
We all have some level
of confidence that the basic message about God's view of Jesus' life and death
in the bible is a reliable enough guide to follow, as we try to clearly
understand what God would have us do.
So, what
does this message in the bible tell us about how God sees this?
Probably the clearest
expression comes from the lips of Jesus' himself:
"For even the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many." (Mark 10.45)
And this was an
allusion to something said by a prophet in the bible centuries earlier, who
foretold of Jesus:
"All we, like
sheep, have wandered away from our Good Shepherd; we have each acted selfishly
on the basis of 'convenient morals' of our own choosing at times, and the Lord
God has transferred to Him (the foretold One) these moral failures and these
destructive acts...He (the Foretold One) deliberately accepted responsibility
and the just consequences for our moral crimes, both large and small, and He
appealed to God on our behalf." (Isaiah 53.6,12b expanded paraphrase)
Purely and simply,
what this means for you at this point is that Jesus became a 'substitute' for
you, standing in your place before God for the moral wrong you have done in
your life (and bearing the spiritual consequences of that for you), and then
clearing the way to God for you. This removes the obstacles to approaching God.
The judicial issues were resolved by Christ's self-sacrifice to God on the
Cross. His moral integrity insured that it was acceptable to God, and his
incredible love insured that you were included its scope. [Jesus' body did not
stay in the grave, but was transformed into a more advanced one, and He lives
today in the spiritual dimension called 'heaven', and interacts with us from
there.]
One very practical
(and for many of us, comforting) implication of this is that our past is no
longer an issue with Him...The issue now is whether you will agree with Him
about this act of love by His Son Jesus...
So, where do you
go from here?
If our past is no
longer an issue, then what is?
Nothing.
Literally nothing
stands between you and Jesus Christ.
Access to the Father
is through Him:
Jesus answered,
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. (John 14.6)
And welcoming Him into
your life as the answer for your past, and as a kind mentor, intimate friend,
and wise director concerning your future, creates a permanent and intimate
relationship with the God of the universe:
Yet to all who
welcomed Him for who He was, to those who trusted His credentials, character,
and achievements, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1.12)
The Father wants us to
simply trust His Son...to depend on Him for our ultimate well-being in the
future, to trust in His work on the Cross for our past, to be open to His
good-hearted and wise input in our present...to respect His authority, to count
on His forgiveness, and to relax in His warm-hearted acceptance of us...
The Father loves
the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever trusts in the Son
enters into a relationship with God that lasts forever and is characterized by
wellness, growth, love, and loyalty, but whoever rejects the Son will not
experience this at all..." (John
3.35f)
And so, the
"First step" is simply a heart-to-heart with Jesus...
The simple beauty of
the awesome work of Jesus on the Cross is that your step toward God can
be so "un-awesome"...a simple opening your life up to Jesus in
confidence of His goodness and His efforts on your behalf...
A simple admission to
Him (heart-to-heart) of welcome and confidence is all it takes:
"Jesus, I don't
understand all of the depths of this now, but it IS clear to me that You love
me, that you were my substitute on the Cross, that you cleared the way to
spiritual life for me, and that you are willing to take an active, intimate,
and gentle role in my life going forward. In recognition of your proven love
for me, and of your authority and power evidenced in your words, life, and in
your resurrection, I welcome you into my life. I trust your abilities and your
love for me to help me with my future. Thank you for what you have done and for
Who you are. And guide me to realize what I can do now to begin seeing progress
in the areas of dysfunction, insensitivity, or difficulty in my life."
That's it. That's the
first (and only) step to God...You can't skip that one, for every exploration
of this new relationship with Christ is based on this simple act of trust and
this simple recognition of His smiling and warm love for you...Look at the
paragraph above a couple of times, and then simply read it to Him aloud...or
say it in your own words to Him in quietness...but go ahead and take that step,
friend...[I'll wait for you here...(smile)]
Did you hear the
explosion or see the fireworks when you took that step?
Probably not. [If you
didn't take the step, go back to the previous topic... (smile).]
Some people do,
though. Some have emotional sensations of guilt-release. Some feel a sense of
un-burdening. Some sense a loss of appetite for an addiction. A few get the
giggles. Some get a new sense of internal strength for a challenge they are
facing. Quite a number feel nothing, but sense somehow that something has
changed...They cannot put their finger on that intuition, but they sense
something is different.
But most 'feel' nothing,
to the extent that many think "It didn't take", like it was a
vaccination or something! Some doubt that they were 'sincere enough' and they
repeat the paragraph out loud over and over (never realizing that their
sincerity was probably obvious to God from their repeated attempts!).
But this first step is
not an emotional transaction--it is the establishment of a personal
relationship with the living God. [We normally don't want to just "feel
better"--we want to actually "GET better"!] And, as
with many personal relationships, it takes time and interaction and shared
experiences to grow the emotional consequences of a relationship. So don't let
a "I didn't feel anything" lead you to make the illogical jump to
"therefore, nothing happened" or "therefore, God did not pay
attention" or "therefore, God did not accept me"...Believe me,
the God who went to the painful lengths of the Cross will not let your step
toward Him be ineffective...
Hey, I did feel
something, but it was negative!
That's pretty normal.
As soon as you take
this step, your whole person gets involved--and I do mean your
"whole" person! Part of our human condition is that we have
conflicting tendencies within us. For example, when you make a tough moral
choice, part of you says 'good job', part of you says 'you idiot', part of you
says 'you could have done better', part of you says 'you should have waited',
etc.
It's no different with
this choice...You can expect the "you finally became insane", the
"you just became a brainless religious fanatic", the "this story
simply cannot be true", and the "you need to think this over a bit
more carefully"...etc., etc., etc. Don't take the mixed responses of the
"peanut gallery" too seriously. If you came to this personal decision
with a sense that you were doing the right thing, leave it at that. The reasons
you arrived at the "I think I am ready" step (above) are still
just as valid as they were when you begin this process....
So, now that I
have taken that step, what's next?
I might suggest four
things:
1. Relax in the
freedom of knowing you are welcome with God and can draw upon His resources and
wisdom as His child;
2. Reflect upon
the fact that the step you just took will have deep and positive consequences
for the rest of your life...
3. And obviously, read
on....
4. Start looking
for small changes in attitudes, situations, insights, relationships,
perspectives, values...they will come.
As a business
executive, I travel over 200,000 miles per year and stay in a lot of different
places but I probably don't know you, have probably never met you, and will
probably never meet you, unless...
Unless you hunt me
down sometime in the next million years or so because this little pamphlet helped
you in some small way in that strange area of our lives we call 'spiritual.'
This 'spiritual area'
is incredibly confusing for modern man. I am consistently amazed at the foggy
notions of "God" and "Heaven" and "Salvation"
that people have today, not to mention the 'weirdness' of the cults, religious
fanatics, some TV preachers, "get-rich-through-religion" movements,
etc.
You, like most people,
probably have a sense that "there's probably something to all this
stuff," but also probably don't have a clue as to how to cut through all
the clutter, fog, denominations, bizarre terminology to get at "what's
real". Not only this, but you probably know people who have been deeply
enriched by it, and people who have negatively "mutated" due to it as
well! Indeed, you, like me, may even have had bad experiences yourself, with
religious militants or high-pressure religious 'salesmen' or early church
rituals or obnoxious holier-than-thou associates. Coupled with the obvious time
pressures placed on us by 20th century life, chances are good that you have
never had the opportunity to consider this in a non-threatening, clear, 'net,'
and balanced way.
Another obvious problem is that it's sometimes hard
to tell the quacks from those who really have significant experience and wisdom
in this area. And even when we do find a sincere
and knowledgeable person in this area, often they are not able to explain what
the real issues and options are in everyday terms. Instead they use terms like
'redemption' and 'Savior' and 'heaven' and 'Ask Jesus into your heart' and 'open
the door of your life to God'...and expect us to know what they mean (and then
to believe it).
Now don't get me
wrong--many of these people are right on target--they have established a
relationship with God, He is quietly at work in their lives, they generally
have the right perspectives, they struggle with moral issues daily, and they
really care deeply for others--but often they do not know how to
communicate--to people like us--the 'what, why, and how' of their worldview
/experience, as wonderful as it is.
In fact, I am one of
these people (as if you hadn't already guessed that by now!) but I came into
this 'too late.' I didn't discover this option and take advantage of the
opportunity until a senior in college, over 25 years ago. I didn't have a
religious background that used those terms, so I was confused for the first few
years until I learned the new 'language.'
The result was that I
had to work extra hard to understand what I began to experience in my daily
life. And, fortunately or unfortunately, I just could not learn the lingo
blindly; I was too 'intellectual' back in those days.
Again, don't get me
wrong. I'm not any more "dumb" now than I was then (although the
older I get, the less prepared I often feel for life's complexity and
challenges).
In all honesty, I've
had to read and study and agonize (and even pray!) over questions of
philosophy, history, science, archeology, world religions, etc.--to make sure I
could trust (and enjoy) my God with a clear heart and conscience.
I discovered, soon
after I set out on this quest for truth, that the God of truth was not afraid
of my questions. (I often was afraid of the 'tough questions', and to make sure
I faced up to those, "by coincidence" a steady stream of people over
the years would pop into my life, ask me those questions, and then
disappear--no escape for me!) I don't have all the answers, to be sure, but I
have satisfying (intellectually and emotionally) answers to most of them. I get
new ones every year (and many good ones from my kids and business associates)
and maybe you will even send me a tough one!
I've run at the mouth
(or keyboard) enough about my background and motives, I guess, so let me get on
with it. What I would like to do for you, my friend, is to try to capsulize
what I've learned--in ordinary terms--so you can evaluate its truth-claims and
use that data in your search for significance and fulfillment. But let me warn
you--as you probably know by now, with every opportunity comes a challenge. If
you do come 'face-to-face' with a truth here, your challenge will be to deal
with it honestly and in some cases, humbly. Truth and reality have a strange
way of holding us accountable for how we deal with it...in our personal,
professional, and social lives.
What I learned
in the second twenty-five years of my life:
1. There is something
'beyond' the physical universe -- something that 'caused' this one.
The vast, vast
majority of the human race has believed this since our beginnings. Since the
day we began to write down our thoughts some six to eight millennia ago, we
have shown that two things have dominated our thinking from Day One: God and
money! Our earliest records of civilization document extensive economic systems
and elaborate and well-developed religious beliefs. Long before religion was
discovered by the power elite to be useful for social control, kings
quailed before the gods and spirits of their lands and the lands of others. The
concept of a god was not the invention of the powerful, to control the weak--it
was somehow embedded in our thinking from our inception. Even what little data
we have before the invention of writing shows depictions of
'supernatural' creatures and pre-historic burial practices evidence a belief in
a 'life beyond this one' for our companions. The earliest records we have of
religious systems show varied, robust, fanciful and often vain concepts of this
'beyond', but they uniformly point out that we have always believed in
something powerful 'beyond' this physical universe.
The situation at the
close of the twentieth century is not radically different. The vast majority of
humans believe in some 'beyond' reality, which is somehow involved in the
events or character of the physical universe. The vast majority of the western
world is theistic or supernaturalistic, as are the basic majority of scientists
and a sizable portion of philosophers (as shown by polls and membership in
related professional organizations). The conceptions of this "beyond"
vary widely, of course, but the fact of 'beyondness' is quite widely accepted.
And, I might add, the statistical trend toward belief in a 'beyond' is increasing. While some speculated fifty years ago that "science" would somehow remove all the 'gaps' and mysteries out of the universe (somehow assuming that belief in God's existence was somehow dependent on His/Her/Its/Their usefulness as a premise in a scientific theory!), the reverse has actually happened. Science has actually found some 'beyondness' right under our noses, some very real 'holes' in our physical universe! As
I write this, the science of human
consciousness has essentially called for a new paradigm of reality, to allow
for the 'beyond' elements of consciousness; particle and quantum physicists
have become convinced that a few types of elemental physical particles pop in
and out of existence, from some virtual universe 'below the threshold of
existence' (!), mathematicians and philosophers are talking about the
non-physical "existence" of 'abstract entities' and 'ideals', and the
astrophysicists of the Big Bang camp are staring "creation out of
nothing" and "intelligent design" in the face and waxing
mystical...
Now, I know that you
don't normally arrive at truth by counting noses, and I can already hear in my
head my mother, saying the familiar "Well, if everyone jumped off a
cliff, Glenn..." Yet when faced with this almost uniform collective belief
(of the entire human race) in a 'beyond', I also remember my dad offering the
wisdom of "If you find yourself driving facing heavy traffic coming
your way on both sides of your car--you are probably on a one-way
street, headed the wrong direction!"
At a minimum, this
argues that it would be very unwise to dismiss belief in some type of
"beyond" out of hand. This is certainly enough data to make the
reality of some "beyond" at least possible and maybe even
probable.
But even my own simple
experience supports the notion of some causal "beyond". As an
executive, I know you don't make quality products out of nothing and without
massive forethought, labor, and oversight. I know products don't create
themselves and that manufacturing plants do not unfold smoothly by themselves
from the basic laws of physics(!). Every tangible thing I have ever seen has
been an 'effect' which was somehow distinct from, yet a result of, a 'cause'.
Even these cause and effect relationships show the core meaning of
"beyond" because a cause is somehow 'beyond' its effect, and the
effect is somehow 'dependent' on its cause. "Beyondness" could simply
be some kind of causal priority, causal 'distance', or even separateness. So,
this notion seems reasonably intuitive to me.
And, as problematic as
it might seem at first philosophically, the notion of a First Cause (to start
the whole thing) that is itself "un-caused" seems much less
problematic than some "infinite regress" chain of causes
extending infinitely backward--but never having something to actually start
it (entirely apart from the implications of Big Bang cosmology of an actual
beginning of the universe).
As I write this at the
keyboard, I may even be an analog of this notion. According to much current
thinking in consciousness studies, my consciousness has elements in it that are
'beyond' the physical universe as we have historically considered it. And this
'beyond' agency is somehow influencing the physical nexus of my brain, and then
my fingers, and then these keys, to produce this sentence. This seems
reasonable enough and clear enough of a notion for me.
T
he level of precision
of this concept of "beyondness" is somewhat lacking, but doesn't seem
to be any worse that everyday concepts like "person,"
"volition," "cause," "despair,"
"logic," "wisdom," "good,"
"individual," "force," "field,"
"light," and so on. The fact that I cannot give really precise
definitions for many, many of the basic elements of life, science, and
experience in no way counts against their reality! And most 'important' words
are almost impossible to define precisely without apparent contradictions (e.g.
"light," "existence," "life") or circularity
(e.g., "force" and "matter," "essence" and
"attributes").
Accordingly, even
before I get to any possible historical evidences of this 'beyond' and the
scores of philosophical arguments for the existence of a "beyond"(and
the endless debates about these!), it seems that a simple belief in some kind
of 'beyond' is quite reasonable. This belief seems to be part of our thinking
(evidenced by its trans-cultural ubiquity in human history), one that is still
growing in influence, and one with concepts that find general illustration and
practical support within our experience (i.e., "beyondness," First
Cause, causality, dependency).
2. This 'cause' has to
be at-least-as-complex as this universe. The most complex unit that appears in
this universe is the human personality. The 'cause' must therefore be
at-least-as-personal as we are.
3. This 'person'
[hereafter referred to as "Person" -- since this One is obviously superior to us
in created power (and, to use a philosophical term, in "non-derivative
existence"--see, aren't my word choices infinitely clearer than the religious
guy?!!)] created a universe/reality that has an incredible amount of diversity
and beauty in it. This Person could have made a world without color, without
music, without the explosive variety of tastes, of flowers, of life forms, and
of people (imagine New York City with only one type of face!).
4. This Person created
us to have hopes, dreams, fears, and to constantly question "why am I here?",
"what's the point of it all?", "how can I be happy?", "how can I make a
difference?", etc.
5. Correspondingly, this
Person made humanity with the ability to impact his world--for good or ill. So,
we have the works of mankind in such far reaching extremes as Charlemagne,
Albert Schweitzer, Adolf Hitler, Shakespeare, De Sade, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln,
Michelangelo, Florence Nightengale, Lenin, Joan of Arc,
Beethoven, Torquemada, Augustine, Genghis Khan, Booker T. Washington, Mao. Man
has left his marks on the world-- both good and bad.
6. We have left these
marks -- both good and bad -- on everything. We have left them on ourselves (we
are able to grow and develop, but we never seem to reach our true potential), on
our relationships (we are able to start, maintain, and enjoy personal
relationships generally, but they never seem to reach their true potential --
and they take an incredible amount of work just to keep them healthy at all!),
on our world (do we need to talk about pollution here?!), and on our
relationship to this 'Person' (we often experience estrangement, indifference,
or even hostility toward this One--we certainly don't naturally have an
enjoyable and vibrant relation with Him, to say the least!).
7. The result of this
'mixed character' of our universe becomes apparent as soon as we try to find
some "How Do I get Out of This Mess" data. All we can glean from it about this
'Person' is 1) that there 'is' One; 2) that this Person is complex and
at-least-as-personal as we are; and 3) that we are somehow restless and
wondering about our place in the universe and in history. It quickly becomes
clear that we are not able to 'figure out' how to repair all the relationships,
as well as our own characters, to an optimal state.
8. So we need one thing
for sure, and one other thing, possibly. We definitely need reliable, clear, and
sufficient information on 'what to do.' And...we may need assistance on 'doing
it'--whatever 'it' is-- to complete the repair process.
9. Let's start with the
information requirements--"reliable, clear, and sufficient." We cannot figure it
out from the scant data by ourselves--either individually or in groups. We can
form guesses, universities can form 'educated' guesses, and religious groups can
come up with 'pious' guesses. The problem is that the opinions come in all
sizes, flavors, persuasions, and conclusions! (The history of philosophy, by the
way, has shown us repeatedly that starting with the finite, we never get to the
infinite!).
10. We are therefore
critically dependent on some communication/instruction from the "Person
Outside." Socrates put this need quite clearly on his deathbed: "All the wisdom
of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this
earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some
divine word."
Or more recently,
Sigmund Freud... "The meager satisfaction that man can extract from
reality leaves him starving."
11. What would this
communication 'look like'? It would have to be in history (for us to have access
to it at all), recorded (for us to have access to it regardless of our place in
time), linguistic and translatable (for us to have access to it regardless of
our language), and in 'everyday' language (for it to have 'more objectivity'
than, say, art and for it to be able to talk about global issues--like death,
despair, hope, faith, peace, alienation, lack of purpose, self-limitations,
forgiveness--as opposed to more 'precise' languages like math or logic with
their more restricted vocabularies). It would probably NOT be trusted to simple
oral transmission but would be written down and archived as it was communicated.
Since it would deal with the 'tough' issues like our moral failures or our
post-death experiences, it would probably show up in those areas of life
typically called 'religious.' Additionally, it would probably make some bizarre
and incredible claims ("this writing is from the Person 'outside' the
universe"--as opposed to the wisdom from some meditating monk or something) and
would probably offer some evidence or data to support these unusual (to say the
least!) claims. If it were motivated by a real concern to communicate important
and/or 'urgent' information, it would probably bear an authoritative tone
(perhaps even an exclusive one). Finally, a true 'message from this Person'
might affect us strongly -- quotations from it may anger our pride, make us very
uncomfortable and nervous, or calm our fears.
12. My studies and
experiences over the past 25+ years have led me to the inescapable conclusion
that just such a communication has occurred--and not just at one point in time
but over a period of thousands of years. This Person interfaced into history at
a number of points of time and in many varied ways. Much of this communication
was written down and we have it in a 'religious' book called the Judeo-
Christian Scriptures.
(By the way, it has
always fascinated me how people 'evaluate' that Book. The vast majority of
people have almost no first-hand knowledge of where it came from, how its
transmission was protected, how its historical accuracy has been consistently
verified, how alleged 'errors and contradictions' have evaporated over the last
six decades of research, and what its basic teachings are. But...too many of
these people do not consider it accurate, relevant, in-date, or of value to
their search for meaning! It's the old "No, I've never evaluated it
carefully or first-hand, but I know it cannot possibly be right!").
13. In rummaging through
the many and varied religious "classics" that were candidates for being this
communication, I have found this very strange book to differ from the others in
numerous ways. First, it claims hundreds and hundreds of times to be the "Word
of God." It doesn't soft- pedal this bizarre claim at all. It never claims to be
'a consensus of humanity's most noble and sublime thoughts.' It never claims to
be the 'insights' of a religiously privileged character or race. This book is
either totally deceptive, totally deranged, or totally divine--there is no third
option like 'a very good and insightful book'!
Second, it strikes
fear into most people's hearts! Quotations from the Bible abound in great
literature, but taken into a religious conversation with a friend, makes us
nervous! (Even later in this document, when I cite some data from it, chances
are that you, the reader, will respond emotionally to it with either
nervousness, nausea, or both--you watch.)
Third, it manifests
and offers unique evidence for its 'Other-worldy' origin. This book has
hundreds and hundreds of predictions of future events--some general in
terms, but many very detailed with places and dates. To the best of scholarly
knowledge today, not a single one of these has failed to happen. This is just
not your basic human accuracy! It has survived the many major attempts to
eradicate it, from the repressive attempts of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes)
before the times of Jesus to the imperial decrees to burn all copies under
Roman emperors. In spite of cultural, economic, and political pressures toward
polytheism and syncretism during its writing and collection over centuries and
centuries, it maintains a common theme of strict monotheism. It also has
an almost confrontational character to it--what you might expect from a perfect
'Person.' It does not 'coddle' us--it calls us to accept responsibility for our
personal failures. But it does not overwhelm us with them either. It
communicates care and concern for our plight (without being overly melodramatic
or compromising its ethical standards), and documents both its provisions for
this plight and the steps necessary to 'repair' the situation.
Fourth, and most
important of all, its message is radically different than all other literature
(including most 'Christian' literature). It agrees, of course, with most other
literature on basic tenets of good living (Ten Commandments and Golden Rule
kind of stuff), but takes an unique position on the central problem -- our
moral failures and their consequences. Other religious classics assert that the
basic method of overcoming our moral failures and their consequences in our
relationships (with ourselves, other people, the universe, and this 'Person')
is by living better lives, doing good deeds, "walking the religious
way", keeping some set of rules, doing your best, thinking positively etc.
The main message of the Judeo-Christian Scripture is diametrically opposed to
this solution (but not opposed to doing those good things, of course.)
14. Given that I have
now found a source of data on the problem, what does this Communication say
about the issues? (Get the Maalox/Dramamine ready - I'm going to have to cite
some passages from this Book!)
15. There is one other
issue that comes up here - the old "you can interpret the Bible anyway you want
to" issue. -- Sorry to drag you through so much stuff to get to the results, but
as my mother would say "you'll thank me for this later." Without minimizing the
difficulty of understanding every point, and every subtlety, and every reference
in this very substantial book, the basic themes are really easy to access.
(This, of course, would probably fit with the entire notion of why this Person
would communicate with us -- it certainly wouldn't be communication if it
couldn't be understood.) There are a few points to keep in mind on this issue.
FIRST, there are some
passages that totally escape me, and there are some passages that are as clear
as the nose on my face. There is a world of difference between trying to
understand Ezekiel 1:6-10: Each of them had four faces and four wings. And their
legs were straight and their feet were like a calf's hoof, and they gleamed like
burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands, As for
the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another; their
faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. As for the form
of their faces, each had the face of a man, all four had the face of a lion on
the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an
eagle-- compared to John 10:10: I (Jesus) have come that people might have life,
and have it to the fullest..
Conclusion: It's a
simple exercise in self-discipline to stay with the more obvious passages!
SECOND, there are almost
always clues in the passage as to what each piece means (this is true for all
great literature as well). Parables are explained later, references to earlier
figures are amplified, principles are modeled.
THIRD, the science of
interpretation of literature (hermeneutics) has a special area for sacred
literature. One of the main principles is to note how the original audience
responded. For example, if the people of his day wanted to kill Jesus because he
claimed to be the "Son of God", that phrase could not just mean "good man" or
"Prophet" or "creature of God" or something else -- it had to be 'blasphemous'
by their standards, it had to mean something "more than man".
FOURTH, it has been my
experience that some people try to 'hide behind' this issue to avoid confronting
some important life-issues. This Work is not transparently clear (no serious
world-class literature is), but it is much simpler in the basic areas than most
people think.]
16. What information can
thus be obtained from the 'more obvious' passages dealing with our situation? (I
will state the major point as a thesis and cite some of the more direct textual
passages from the Bible. Some of the paraphrases and translations are mine.)
Thesis One:
This Person has always desired fulfillment, significance,
joy, and the real 'meaty' life for us. It is not a life without some pain or
without some challenges, but one in which those occur in the context of growth,
development, and achievement--leading to fulfillment. We only realize and enjoy
these "benefits" when we are in proper relationships with this
Person, with ourselves, and with other persons. You have filled my heart with
greater joy (Psalm 4.7) You have made known to me the paths of life; you will
fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand
(Psalm 16.11) The Lord takes the upright into His confidence (Proverbs 3.32) I
am the Lord your God. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it (Psalm 81.10) The
fruit of doing and being right will be peace; and its effects will be quietness
and confidence (Isaiah 32.17) I have loved you with an everlasting love
(Jeremiah 31:3)
Thesis Two:
Due to moral failures and shortcomings, all of us have
separated ourselves from these relationships and their consequent benefits. For
all have done wrong and fall short of God's perfection (Romans 3:23) But your
wrongdoing and moral failures have separated you from your God (Isaiah 59.2)
For there is no one who does no evil (2 Chronicles 6.36) No one who has a
haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure (Psalm 101.5) Your eyes are
too pure to accept evil (Habakkuk 1.13)
Thesis Three: This separation is experienced now (e.g. broken
relationships, hopelessness, disillusionment) and intensifies through time,
before and after physical death. In fact, this separation is itself a kind of
'death.' For the inevitable consequence of wrongdoing is death (Romans 6.23)
They 'wasted away' in their failures to do right (Psalm 106.43) Evil results in
death (Romans 6.16) The one who sows to his 'bad side' shall reap decay and
disintegration (Galatians 6.8) Death spread to all men, because all men did
wrong (Romans 5.12) The "Second Death" (the Book of Revelation) You
have brought harm to yourselves (Jeremiah 24.7)
Thesis Four:
This separation has become part of who we are, and what we
do. Any efforts of ours to 'repair' these relationships cannot succeed in
restoring the original relationships. We are just not 'big enough' and 'good
enough' to undo the damage. The trouble he causes recoils upon himself (Proverbs
7.16) Neither can you perform perfectly pure acts, you who are accustomed to
doing wrong or omitting to do right (Jeremiah 13.23) The arrogance of your
heart has deceived you (Jeremiah 49.16) Their deeds do not permit them to
return to their God (Hosea 5.4)
Thesis Five:
If these relationships, especially the foundational one
with the Person, is to be 'repaired/restored' it must be done by Him. There are
no other options. No man can buy back from death the life of another or give to
God a ransom for him--the ransom of a life is costly, no payment is ever enough
(Psalm 49.7) When we were completely powerless due to our moral failures...
(Ephesians 2.5) Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men!
(Isaiah 29.13) It is the gift from God (Ephesians 2.9)
Thesis Six:
He doesn't have to intervene at all, but chooses to (this
reveals something of His character in the process, by the way). He gave us
life, to show the splendor of His gentle kindness (Ephesians 2.5,7) But God,
being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us
(Ephesians 2.4) We are not consumed, because of His compassion (Lamentations
3.22) For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son...(John 3.16)
Thesis Seven:
This 'bridging' between God and Man must do just that--it
must join together in significant relationship two complete parties: God and
man. In other words, the integrity of three things must be maintained in the
transaction (who God is, who man is, what the separation is).
Thesis Eight:
His 'solution' to this is take the 'separation' onto
Himself, and graft us into another pre-existing 'relationship.'
Thesis Nine:
The way this worked out in history is a bit strange
(logical, but strange).
A. God the Father has
an eternal son, outside of space and time, who shares His nature. Father, honor
me in Your presence with the honor I had with you before the world began (John
17.5) Jesus answered "Before Abraham was, I am." (John 8.58)
B. This Son has an
eternal relationship with the Father that cannot be severed (due to the shared
nature). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God...and the Word became flesh and lived among us (John 1.1,14) I and the
Father are one (John 10.30) The Father is in me, and I am in the Father (John
10.38; 14.10)
. This Son volunteers
(and the Father allows it) to enter the universe and take on the nature and
form of a human (in addition to his Other nature) and took the name Jesus, in
order to re-unite us with 'life'. I have come that they may have life, and they
may have it to the fullest (John 10.10) The Son came to give his life as a
ransom for many (Matthew 20.28) Christ existed in the form of God, took on the
nature of a servant, and was made into the likeness of man (Philippians 2.5-8)
The Son came to find and reclaim that which was lost (Luke 19.10)
D. This Son
demonstrates a 'strangeness' similar to that of the Bible. He made exorbitant
claims (the natives tried to kill him on numerous occasions), echoed the
perspectives of the Communication, showed compassion but did not excuse
wrongdoing, and demonstrated a life well 'beyond Man.' (For example, his
closest friends lived with Him day and night for 3 years, yet testified that He
lived a morally perfect life in every detail!--Imagine what our friends would
say about us.) Like the Scripture, we do not have the option of labeling him
simply a Prophet or 'good man' or a 'great teacher.' He was either Liar,
Lunatic, or Lord! For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the
more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath [by healing
people!], but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with
God (John 5.18)
E. This Son-on-earth
takes upon Himself our 'separation' (in a public execution known as
crucifixion). God made Christ, who lived a morally perfect life, to 'be' evil
for us, so that we might 'be' moral 'right-ness' in Him (2 Corinthians 5.21)
And He himself bore our wrongdoings in His body on the Cross... (I Peter 2.24)
For Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that
He might bring us back to God (I Peter 3.18) This is really love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our
wrongdoing (I John 4.10)
F. He did not stay dead
(His eternal relationship with the Father produced a resurrection) and He
opened up the possibility of 'grafting' us into His eternal relationship with
the Father. God raised Him from the dead, because it was impossible for death
to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2.24) You killed the Author of life, but God
raised him from the dead (Acts 3.15)
G. This allows the
Father to not compromise His integrity concerning the separation, and delivers
the full consequences of the separation in history (on His Son). He did it
[separated Himself from His Son on the Cross] to demonstrate his justice , so
as to be just even when announcing that those who have a trust relationship
with His Son are now morally correct before Him (Romans 3.26) My God, My God,
why have You forsaken Me? (Mark 15.34)
[By the way, all of
this was promised and described in detail over a 3,000-4,000 year period, just
so we wouldn't miss it! There were between 100-200 predictions about the
entrance of the Son into History--His birthplace, time, circumstances, early
residences, characteristics, death, purpose, etc.]
Thesis Ten: The last piece of the puzzle is us. We must enter this
relationship as persons, with the first personal act of any positive
relationship -- trust. He may get the information to us through literature like
this, 'harass' us by sending others of His followers, or drive us to Himself
through emptiness or pain, but we must make a personal choice to trust him. We
must affirm Who-He-was (the God who took on human flesh) and What-He-did (bore
the full consequences our our moral failures in our place).
Give ear and come to
me; hear me, that your soul shall live (Isaiah 55.3)
Through faith in Him
[Jesus] we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3.12)
To everyone who
welcomed Him by trusting in who He was and what He did, he granted the right to
relate to God as intimate children [and not just creatures or citizens or
whatever] (John 1.12)
For God loved this
world so much that He gave His unique Son, that whoever trusted in that Son
would not experience the final consummation of death in all its forms and
degrees, but rather have that life which is characterized by stability,
fullness, and eternity (John 3.16)
Thesis Eleven: Once we have understood this and made a conscious choice
to depend upon His work to 'bridge the gap,' He then fulfills His commitment by
grafting us into His relation with the Father, and beginning the 'benefit
stream' to us.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good! (Psalm 34.8)
For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, so great is his love to those who honor and relate
to Him as God (Psalm 103.11)
You will know that I
am the Lord; those who hope in Me will not be disappointed (Isaiah 49.23)
He who has the Son has
real life and he who doesn't have the Son doesn't have real life (I John 5.12)
Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation--the old is gone, the new is here! (II
Corinthians 5.17)
(It is critically
important to understand that this is a personal relationship of trust that we
enter into. We trust a Person, because of who He is and what He did. We do not
trust an "im-person"--we do not trust our 'trust' or our 'church
involvement' or our 'good deeds' or 'good intentions' or volunteer work or
donations or 'prayers' or 'positive thinking' or anything less than the
God-who-did-His-work-on-earth.' Remember, it is not our 'trust' that grafts us
into a new relationship, but the Son.)
Thesis Twelve: You must stop reading this, and make your decision now!
(Get nervous now-- I'm going for the close!) If this makes sense to you, it
should make even more sense for you to overcome all natural hesitancies and
reluctance and uncertainties (they will always be around) and DO IT NOW! It's
pitifully simple to do. Simply tell God in your own words that you choose to
trust in His Son and in His work to repair the relationship. Don't worry about
'feeling sincere enough' -- we never do. (That's part of our separation from
ourselves.) Just tell Him something like this: "God, I am not sure of what
all I am doing, but I do choose to trust your Son Jesus to heal our
relationship. I believe that He was God who took on flesh like mine, and that
He took my guilt and its consequence upon Himself, so I would not have to in
the future. Thanks for making it so simple and easy."
(Go ahead, do it now,
I'll wait for you...Dum, dum, dum, de dum...Finished? No? Trust me, do it now,
I'll wait a little longer--look back at the prayer...Dum, dum, dum, de dum...)
If you did that just then,
remember again it's not a prayer or these remarks that graft, it's the Person
to whom the remarks are made.
If you have taken this
'step' and made this movement toward God, starting a relationship with Him
based upon His efforts, then His favorable attention is upon you as you read
this. Consider I John 5.13: These things I have written to you that have put
your confidence in the Person and Work of the Son of God, in order that you may
have full assurance that you have began a new life that will grow and deepen
for all eternity.
So, relax...that issue
is now settled--the relationship is created, is eternal, based on that simple
act of personal trust (simple, wasn't it?). You have just changed the universe
somewhat. The issue now is how to develop this relationship, in order to reach
the full potential of your life.
What can you expect
now? Like beginning most other personal relationships, you will probably not
feel a rush of ecstasy or an emotional "high." God is very quiet in
His dealings with man but He is very thorough...He will pursue your good in
every area of your life. You will also probably experience a chaos of feelings,
thoughts, impressions, doubts, etc. The Scripture uses that peculiar phrase
'new birth' to describe the change that occurred in your life a moment ago. As
a 'new life' is generally unfocused, inarticulate, and confused (like infants)
so it will take a little while for 'it all to make sense' or for the patterns
to become recognizable. And the obvious next step is not even a step at
all--it's simply slow growth, as the benefits of this new relationship begin to
show up in various areas of your life. You will see some new influences,
perspectives, feelings and thoughts in some areas almost immediately--others
may take years or even decades.
But, as in all new
relationships, you will need two things: information and interaction. You can
get a tremendous amount of information about Him from His Communication,
obviously, but there are other sources of data that are important as well. This
'other data' basically comes from interaction with Him and with His 'social
circle.'
You will want to make
a habit of talking about everything to Him. (It will seem very strange at
first, but will become the richest personal experience of your life later!) Ask
about this, complain about that, thank Him for these, admit ignorance about
whatever, beg Him for that, cry to Him about the pain, pour out your
frustrations, open up your fears--everything and anything makes sense in that
relationship. As God (in all that this name really means), He knows you so much
better than you could ever know yourself--and He knows what will fill your life
with richness and fulness and joy and contentment.
Also, please, please,
please...remember, relationships require investments of time. (This one takes
less, due to the simple fact that He never, ever misunderstands you--He is
always patient, firm, wise, kind, gentle, smiling, accepting, and 'on your
side' -- but it is impossible to manipulate Him!)
Just as you need to
discuss your interests, ambitions, concerns, etc. with Him, you should begin to
ask Him about His: what does He care about most in the Universe, what is His
view on this event or movement or person? I probably don't need to tell you to
not expect an audible reply to such questions, but believe me, He is more that
competent enough to make His answers known in your life and experience.
You can also learn a
lot about Him from His 'social circles.' Others that have had this relationship
for longer than you can function as 'older brothers or sisters' in sharing what
they know. Leverage this! (Make sure you get the right crowd, though. You want
people who are into 'the relationship,' not into 'religion.' Christianity, not
Church-anity.
The next 72 hours will
probably be seriously strange! You may feel very silly, very stupid, wonder
where your sanity went while you read this booklet(!). You may have negative
emotional, personal, or professional experiences that you will be tempted to
'blame' on your decision!
The basic reason for
this is our mixed character and how 'both sides' are responding to this
decision. What I recommend is to take your feelings with a 'grain of salt' for
72 hours, while reading certain Scripture (not religious literature) as much as
possible. I suggest you borrow or buy a modern translation Bible (New
International Version or New American Standard) and read the books of
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, and
Titus. (You can find the page numbers in the Table of Contents -- all Bibles
have one.) Read them over and over until the 'strangeness' wears off. (Again,
if you cannot find one, write me and I will send you a paperback one.)
I know it must seem a
bit bizarre for me to assert that your life is beginning to change even as you
read this. You will start to see new influences, see old things in a new light,
have a heightened sense of moral struggle, notice things you never noticed
before, find new strength and vision in your life. Friend, it goes on forever
like this--forever growing, getting better, stronger, kinder, more gentle,
firmer, wiser--more like Him with each new experience (even failures will now
play their part in sculpting our characters and destiny--previous failures may
have served only to open us up to considering this relationship with God).
I know it sounds
terribly trite, but it is the most subtle of wild adventures you can imagine.
Write me, if you will, so I can mark the date down...and I'll call you in ten
years and you tell me if I wasn't right!
Also, if you do have
any questions or need to know of special resources, please feel free to write
me and I will respond, by post or phone. There will be a lifetime of questions
ahead, many of which are discussed at http://www.christian-thinktank.com/. And
after the 72 hours are up, make a copy of this little paper and give it to a
friend...and maybe change the universe again.
(September 1999)
What's Next...
If you
are reading this, then I'm going to assume that you have put your confidence in
Jesus Christ as the God who took on flesh and who traded places with us (during
His death on the Cross) when God judged and punished our wrongdoings...and
that, accordingly, you are related to God in a new way--not as creatures, or as
merely citizens---but as "children" (we'll see what that means as we
go along).
What we need to do now is to look at four things: