Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life

You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, How have we wearied him? By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them. Or by asking, Where is the God of justice?  -- Malachi 2:17

We have set ourselves up as gods.  Our technology is impressive.  We believe this makes us capable of judging right and wrong.  As humans, we are not called to judge but to discern.  Judging is a function of the soul, which, in the Fall, was exalted over the spirit.  It’s what we would call, in more modern parlance, ego driven.  You will have noticed that those who scream mostly loudly that no one has a right to judge them are the most judgmental, and the intolerant cry loudest for tolerance while the greedy and envious denounce greed and envy.   In order to maintain the illusion of being god-like in our souls, we judge and we condemn those around us.

Most people seem to think this attitude of judging and condemning is restricted to the religious.  In that both religion and resentment are natural to the sons of Adam, this is true.  It is only through Christ, the revelation of the Trinity and the God Who Is Love that we may be delivered from the prison of self-consciousness.  The God who dwelt complete, isolated and alone, who delivered the Law to Moses inscribed on unbending, unyielding stone could not be selfless.  He demanded compliance and submission.  We see him today in the stringent requirements of Islam. 

Moses and the Law could reveal only the Absolute One.  To know grace and truth, we needed God Incarnate, Jesus Christ who showed us the Father, the Son, and, at the end, the Holy Spirit.  He enabled us to know that the Father thought not of Himself but of the Son, that the Son did not His own will but always the will of the Father, and that, through the Spirit poured out when the Son was glorified, we might be as one even as the Godhead is one. 

We are now free to renounce the judgments, resentments, and offenses of the soul with its intellect and emotions.  Right and wrong are plain to the spirit within each of us.  We can perceive the truth and recognize virtue directly by our spirit.  We need live no longer by rule and formula, rationalization and folly.  Now we know that God is love, and the law of Christ is to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself.  Now we no longer need bear the burden of self-consciousness for on the Cross, it was crucified with Christ.    

Going to the Ground

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: The Lord knows those who are his, and, Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.  -- 2 Timothy 2:19

All of Christian faith stands and turns upon one fact:  the historical and theological reality of the Incarnation -- of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of one Jesus the Christ.

We believe, quite literally, that One who was and is God laid aside His deity to the extent that He was able to take on our nature and our weaknesses, that He lived a perfect, sinless life and died a vicarious, atoning death in our place.  God in Christ identified with us and became our substitute.  In turn, He is able to offer us something that is beyond comprehension.  Because He stood in my place of shame, rejection, and death, He gives me the opportunity to stand in His place of righteousness, acceptance, and everlasting life. 

That’s it.  

If that is taken away, no matter what else we might have, no matter what else we believe or what we are able to do, we cannot be Christians, we cannot experience salvation, we cannot belong to the Lord. 

Did Jesus live?  Certainly there was such a man who lived.  The historical record is sound and solid and constantly being reinforced by new discoveries.  Was Jesus God as He and His followers claimed?  That one is harder.  I believe it.  I can present rational and logic arguments as to why I believe it is true.  For example, there are His miracles, the fact that His disciples suffered persecution and death rather than deny Him, the impact His life has had on history, the fulfillment of prophecies, and more.  Yet, any rational argument I make is based on some axioms, e.g., that there is a God, that God is good, that He wants us to know Him, that the universe itself is part of His revelation and makes sense.

For those who reject those axioms, none of the logical arguments apologists present will be sufficient.  In the end, I am left with my faith and the fact that my faith has altered my life so completely and dramatically that it is not the same as the one with which I was born the first time.  Yet the foundation is firm, and it still stands and will stand forever. 

A House of Rest

Then King David rose to his feet and said: Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. -- 1 Chronicles 28:2

David was a man after God's own heart, yet he was not allowed to build the temple for the Lord.  It fell to the son, the man of peace, Solomon, to give the ark a place to rest. 

Much like the ineffable, sometimes enigmatic God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David could rain wrath upon his enemies.  At one point, he was going to wipe out the entire household of Nabal because the man had refused to requite the assistance of David's followers.  He was merciful, but it could seem a severe mercy.  He was just, and, despite his own stumbling, he had little patience for the unjust and the unrighteous.  David was a man after the heart of God the Father.  The Father alone cannot give us peace and rest. 

We take nothing from the infinite power, mercy, love, and grace of our Father.  Yet through earthly leaders, God could not give His people rest.  The humble yet mighty prophet Moses who spoke with God face to face could not do it.  The great warrior and conqueror Joshua could not.  The good shepherd and giant-killer, David, could not.  Not even the wisest man of his day, Solomon, could bring God's people to Him.  They could typify and foreshadow what was to come, but that was all.

The Father needed the Son to be the House of Rest.  In taking on flesh, the Son of God became the Son of man, and, though they destroyed that temple, in three days, He raised it back up.  In the risen Savior, at last the presence of God could rest and remain with man.  And not only can He be with us, we can rest in Him. 

That's the Christmas Story.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (Hebrews 4:9-10).

Unthought

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. – Isaiah 55:8-11

Rain was always something we welcomed. It was life to us. Our old farm was mostly rocks and clay with a little topsoil sprinkled on. Rain water runs off, mostly, and that thin, rocky dirt dries out quickly. We had a prolonged dry spell during a summer of my childhood. Our hay wasn’t doing well. The pastures were burnt, and milk production was suffering. I asked Dad if we were doing something wrong that kept God from sending the rain we needed. Maybe, I thought, we needed to pray. Dad replied, “No, it rains on the just and the unjust.” Though he trusted God to get him through, he never begged Him to do so.

I suppose that incidental lesson on theology and prayer has colored my approach to God ever since. I certainly don’t believe it is wrong to pray for rain or for protection from a storm or any other blessing, need, or even a ‘mere’ desire. Our Father asks only that we recognize the nature of His life-giving rain.

We might think that Isaiah was wrong in saying that rain and snow do not return to the atmosphere, but that isn’t the case. I’ve seen it rain and snow sideways but never up. Scripture acknowledges the cycle but emphasizes the change in state as moisture rises from transpiration and evaporation. Vapor that passes back to the heavens via the exhalations of life-forms has accomplished its purpose of nourishing and sustaining life.

The thoughts of God fall upon our souls as rain falls upon the earth. The soul is like a deer lapping from a brook or a tree drawing water through its roots. (How often I wish I were a poet instead of an engineer.) The word that is beyond our comprehending is nonetheless taken in and does its work in transforming us. Our exhalation of thanksgiving, of laughter, of singing, of pure, joyous utterance returns that word to God. That is the cycle of a living and healthy soul.

Rain makes sense when it nourishes an apple tree or refreshes a spotted fawn, but it also prospers the thistle and the slacks the thirst of the fanged pursuer. His ways, it is said, are past finding out, for there is only One who thinks all these thoughts and knows the bramble that troubles the plowman shelters the hare. It is too much for us, and, at our best, we can play an adequate game only on a flat board. We stagger and step back as from a precipice at the many dimensions and the billions of billions of pieces constantly in motion in space and time and God alone knows where else.

We see again why Christ had to come that we might know Him and be reconciled to God in Him. Apart from the Son of Man, God is more than a little frighteningly alien and genuinely incomprehensible. So the Word does His work, and we live.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

Return to Sender

God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. – 1 John 4:9-12

Humanity is an ugly mess, and we do well to recognize it. As the old saying goes, you aren’t paranoid if they really are out to get you, so, too, you aren’t being cynical when you question the motives of your fellow man – especially if there is money involved, or he’s a politician. Yet in spite of all our craziness, God, who knows us best, loves us. Knowing we could not come to Him, He came down to us.

We could only hope and work, struggle and sacrifice. We could build temples and altars, give our best, do our best to play by the rules, and repent in sorrow when we failed. We could only hope but never know that we had done enough and been good enough for God as we understood Him to accept us. We only knew that He was sometimes angry with us and punished us for our sins. When the rains did not come or the locusts did, when the crops failed or our enemies succeeded, we knew we had failed to appease the god we served. Is it any wonder that some of us have done horrible, stupid things in the name of some god, from Moloch to Marx, made in our own image? Darkness was the standard state. Light came only in brief, prophetic flashes like bolts in the blackest of storms.

Then came Jesus, and, slowly, we began to understand God as Father, as One who cared for us, wanted the best for us. We saw the Light. At last we could know that we were truly loved and accepted. Now we know the God who loves us so much that He Himself was willing to submit to our death that He might give us His life. He identified with us – not just in a figurative sense. He took on the restrictions of human existence, and, in the end, in some way that is beyond our comprehension, He even took on our sins.

We did not love God first. We did not pursue Him and win Him over. No, like the good shepherd that He is, He came looking for the lost sheep, found us, and carried us back to fold, rejoicing all the way. Now in joy and gratitude we return that love to Him, or we would if we could. We can’t buy God flowers or a cool watch. We can offer Him praise and thanksgiving, and we need to do that – it is the foundation of a good attitude in a sometimes confusing world. But love needs more of an outlet than words.

Love is like electricity. It must have a circuit to be complete. It must have a place to go to be perfected. How is the love of God perfected in us? God says we close the circuit by loving one another. When I love you, the love I have received from the Father flows back to Him.