A glorious Christmas greetings to all my Friends everywhere!
The Scriptures reveal that God’s Spirit is the “Giver of life.” (Psa.104:30; Job 27:3) It was God’s Spirit who breathed life into a shapeless and uninhabitable world, and vitalized creation with life, form and character. (Gen.1:1-3; 2:1-3) It was the same Spirit who breathed the “breathe of life” into Adam and gave humanity physical existence with the power of the human mind to make choices. (Gen.2:7) Later, Jesus would say this self-same Spirit would bring us another life-form, the divine life of God. He said, “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to (divine) spiritual life” (John 3:6, NLT, also John 7:37-39, my emphasis)
Much Like our Uninhabitable Universe, God’s Spirit Made Earth the Blue Marble we See Today Giving It Life, Form, and Character. Thus, God declares, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Isa. 23:24)
This divine life consists of the essence of God’s very Being for the Holy Spirit springs from the singular identical nature of the One Triune Godhead of the Father, the Son (Logos/The Word), and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19; 1 Cor.12:13).
John was inspired to reveal what this essence of God intrinsically is: “God is LOVE” (1 John 4:8,16). So, the apostle Paul tells us what the Spirit brings and infuses us with through our spiritual birth, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5).
It was, and continually is, God’s purpose today. This is the central purpose of Christmas: “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness, so that they He created them; male and female He created them” (Gen.1:26-27).
It is vital to realize this divine Love was what inspired and kept the relationship between God and our first parents in perfect personal union in the Garden of Eden. Humans were made in God’s Love likeness, that is what it means when the Bible says humans were created in His “image and likeness” (Gen.1:27; 1 Joh 4:8). Created with the freedom of choice (mind), Adam and Eve had to continuously eat from the “tree of life” (Holy Spirit) God gave them, much like we would turn to the holy Scriptures (Bible) today to receive guidance and continuous inspiration. (Gen.2:9; Psa.119:105)
The “tree of life” represented the work and move of the Spirit in Adam and Eve. They were supernaturally fed with God’s Love from the fruits of the “tree of life” which kept their relationship with God aglow and responsive. They were made humans with spiritual awareness, however not innately fully Spirit as God is the uncreated triune Spirit Being from eternity (Matt.28:19). So, as humans they needed to feed on the Love God had planted deep in the essence of their beings and hearts (God’s Love-likeness) through the fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit).
As humans, they also had physical and material proclivities, like human interests and stimulations, worldly and sensual desires as every humans have. They were made to Love God above all else, that was the purpose why humans were created in God’s Love-likeness. And in turn God Loved humans unreservedly as seen in all His creative works, both seen and unseen, physical and spiritual.
But as personal and individual freedoms cannot be divorced from Love, but is necessarily part and parcel of Love, humans had to make the constant decision to Love God above everything and everyone until at such time when humans are given immortality and become fully and completely Love like He is. Until then, fallen humans were subjected to wrong choices to contend with as they both responded to God and other humans.
A Depiction of the “Tree of Life” which Is Symbolic of the Move of the Holy Spirit
God planted another tree in Eden called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen.2:9). God told our first parents, “Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die” (Gen.3:3, The Message). Together with the “tree of life,” the two trees represented the freedom of choice humans possess throughout life: humanity had to choose God’s purpose for them, or to turn from Him and choose their own purpose. You can say the two trees has always depicted which way humanity will choose in his heart and being through the freedom of human will given them by God.
So, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit it was not so much “sin” as it was “turning” their Love away from God to the themselves. For what is sin but an act of separation. To turn means to be separated from God’s Love. That’s all sin was: it was an act of “turning” away from God’s Love. In other words, we have not stopped Loving as we ought to. We have “turned” from Loving God to love of the self, or selfishness and self-centeredness.
We can get all legalistic about sin, and we miss the point about Love and why we are made in His Love-likeness – to Love Him above all else. The term “sin” in its legalistic sense entered human consciousness after the law was given. While sin is legalistic with “do’s and don’ts,” Love is relational and familial. So, obedience is about Loving God, and disobedience is an act of turning away from Love for God. Lovers we may remain, because we are made in God’s Love-image.
No human was made in the image of a sinner, but in the likeness of the Love of God. No one was created in the similitude of sin, not even the devil. The devil was created the archangel Lucifer, a ‘light bringer.’ (Isa.14:12) God is Love and nothing but Love in all its gregarious majesty and magnanimity exuding from His Person and holy presence. But man has “turned” Love from Loving God to loving self.
Love has been reduced to a mere humanistic expression without the Holy Spirit (divine Love). Note the Genesis account after Eve succumbed to the temptation of Satan, “When the woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate” (Gen.3:6).
Sin Is Separation From God
Having turned their love from God, from here on it was human earthly desires and interests that inspired and drove human love. A lover humanity remained, but no longer a lover of God but the self. What was good or evil, what was right or wrong, how Adam and Eve and subsequently mankind would live life, was now all a matter of self-determination as seen through the lens of Love – is it Love for God, or self-centered love for the himself/herself.
From the fall of Adam, God had no input in human life because of the nonexistence of the Spirit (tree of life) in mankind. Humanity was cutoff from the way to the “Tree of Life” (Gen.3:24) That was man’s choice, not God’s. Mankind was cut off from access to His Spirit, however, His Love remain intact and unquestionable for “God is Love” and humanity’s future is to inherit God’s Love-image through Christ. (1 John 4:8; Gen.1:26-27; Gal.2:20).
We must understand without a shadow of doubt that humanity was given God’s Love so man will Love God first and above all else. (see Mark 12:28-31) Genesis records the account after our first parents turned their Love from God, “After He drove the man out, (after Adam ate the forbidden fruit) He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen.3:24, my emphasis). The spiritual Love of God in His Spirit stopped flowing to Adam and Eve because they had turned away from God and from His Love (Spirit).
The Gentle Dove, Symbol of Holy Spirit and Content Of God’s Divine Love
Adam and Eve had turned their Love for God to self-centered love. Hence, we read Paul say, “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim.3:2, EST; 2 Tim.3:4; Phi.2:21). Lovers we remain for we were made in His Love-Image, but love has been turned inward and became a mere human expression, no longer divine but humanistic.
God’s indictment upon humanity is clear-cut, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psa.14:2-3). Yes, we all have “turned” our love away from God to love of the self.
God will not force His Spirit (Love) upon humans since His Love comes with free will or the freedom of choice. We have chosen to reject His Spirit in Eden. God says to Israel and mankind, “You have abandoned Me and turned your back on Me’ says the LORD” (Jer.15:6). But God promised to rectify the situation by sending His Son as the Messiah and restore His Spirit and so turn our hearts back to Him and His Love (Gen.3:15; Heb.8:10-12).
Jesus was abundantly clear about His role as Savior,.. “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Holy Spirit/Love) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7; also Rom.5:5). At last, since Adam’s sin in Eden, the Holy Spirit can now be made available to mankind once again.
And this is the essence of the story about Christmas. It is about God the Father freely giving His Son so we can be redeemed and saved from sin and death, and be given the gift of immortality in God’s presence. When Jesus gave His followers the new ‘Love command’ saying, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” it was ‘new’ in its literal sense. The ‘new Love’ enters the human life only through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who has not been present with humanity since Adam’s fall. (Gen.3:23-24; Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.6:19-20)
By saying, “As I have Loved you,” Jesus speaks of the Spirit as the prime mover of the ‘new divine Love.’ Jesus gave us the model by which the Spirit enters humans life when He Himself was baptized in the Jordan River, then the heavens opened and the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. (Matt.3:16-17) Jesus inaugurated the arrival of the gift of the Spirit to mankind in the post-Adamic era and later poured out upon all believers on Pentecost. (Act.2:1-4) John the Baptist baptized Jesus under his ministry of repentance and forgiveness to prepare the way for the Messiah. (Mar.1:1-4) John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes One who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt.3:11).
“As I Have Loved You…”
We do not become true children of God until the Spirit indwells us as His temple where He does the work of manifesting God’s Love in and through us. (1 Cor.3:16) The Spirit is the seed of the divine Love nature conceived in humanity much like Mary was supernaturally conceived by the Spirit’s power to carry the baby Jesus in her womb. (Matt.1:18; Eph.1:13; 4:30) In effect, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the life of the Triune God (Trinity) through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, was united to the life of humanity again. (Matt.28:19)
Sin, by its simplest definition, means separation from God and His Spirit, and Jesus came to give Himself as a ransom to remove the wall of separation through His blood and provide access to the Spirit and restore man’s relationship with the Triune God and His Tri-Personal Love. The Holy Spirit sanctifies man by living in humans as His very own temple, and conforms us to be like Jesus. (1 Cor.3:16-17; Rom.8:29). A temple is a place where God and man meet and fellowship in Love. The temple is your human body. The Spirit inhales and exhales the divine Love in a moment by moment nourishing of the body-temple He now indwells.
Some have asked if God is self-centered even narcissistic because He commands us to Love Him first before all else, even ourselves? But how can Love, a giving and outgoing medium and way of life, be narcissistic? The two contradict each other and cannot go together. Think about this, to Love an Entity that is made in your own likeness is in reality an expression of Love for yourself. (Gen.1:27) It is like family, you can’t deny your flesh and blood, you are part of them. It is in your DNA. We don’t think of it like that. When God commands us to Love Him with all our heart, mind, and soul, He is commanding us to Love ourselves for we reflect Him. (Matt.22:37)
To Love the Triune God above everything, is the only way to Love ourselves best. Only the Spirit can open our hearts to surrender to God’s Love just as He has yielded Himself to us by giving us His eternal Son to be sacrificed as our Savior. Theologian Thomas Torrance said, “…For in refusing to spare His Son whom He delivered up for us all, God has revealed that He Loves us more than He Loves Himself.” (The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons by T. F. Torrance).
So, there is a legitimate ‘love for self’ in God’s purpose, but it is not done through man’s rebellious mode of ‘loving the self first,’ but by Loving God first. The way to Love the self perfectly is to Love God our Father perfectly which humans can do only through the Holy Spirit’s Love in them. When God sees you, it’s like looking at Himself in the mirror because He made you in His likeness. With the Father, each of us is His child as His eternal Son, for Jesus lives in us: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’” (Act.17:28).
“Where Love Is, God Is”
Though we have turned from Him, He remains faithful, and the Scriptures affirm His Love like this, “If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is (in us)” (2Tim.2:13, my emphasis). God is Love, thereby, by Loving Him first we are truly Loving our self in the most exceptional and divine way. We are living the “Triune Life” in Christ by the Spirit’s power, not the “solitary life” in the self under the devil’s influence. So, when God commands us to Love Him above everything and everyone He is placing the focus of attention on us, not Him, because we are one with Him in His Triune Being. (Deut.6:5)
The Scriptures say that “Every generous act of giving and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father who made the heavenly lights, in whom there is no inconsistency or shifting shadow” (Jam.1:17). It says every perfect gift is from above, there is nothing imperfect with God, why is this so? Because God is Love and He oozes Love with noble generosity. Are we seeing this? We will never know in a million lifetimes all that is truly good for us – only God can manifest them because we are made of Love as He is Love. We are in our place of superabundance in His Love from which every good and perfect gift flows.
But Adam took us down the path of self-love and self-determination in place of the Spirit and His divine outflowing Love, and look what it has brought us – the pages of history is full of human suffering, pain, and man’s unimaginable inhumanity to man with one deathly act of atrocity after another.
The Spirit will give us eyes to see and the heart to believe that every desirable and beneficial gift that’s tailored for our personal and individual wholeness of being in His Love, comes from no other source but our heavenly Father. These gifts, according to James, are like rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. (John 7:38-39) Light means there is no deceitfulness with God (Love), He is never two-faced, never fickle or untrustworthy but consistently dependable and steadfast. The Bible then encourages believers to “live as children of light” (Eph.5:8). Walk, knowing fully His Love and grace never leaves our side.
As we step into another year, we have the choice to make in 2025 and beyond, a truly refreshing and memorable one. Let us consider that since God created us in His Love-image, He did so primarily for the purpose of Loving Him above anything and everything so we can learn to Love ourselves in the best possible way in the process. We must be aware that we can only live life fully, totally, and perfectly when we share in the life of the Tri-Personal Being of God (Love) by living it ourselves.
That is what living the “Triune Life”* means. It means to allow the Spirit to sanctify us, by uniting us to Jesus in heaven who in turn mediates all our inadequate human responses so we may obtain mercy and divine unity (Love) with the Father. (Heb.4:14-16) This is the heart and soul of what living the “Triune life”* and what living in His Love-image and likeness entails.
I end with an assuring passage from the Bible about God’s Love which He has locked into our human DNA. This ought to guide us into the future God has prepared for us in His Son, Jesus, in the Spirit’s empowerment and inspiration. His “Love will never fail” us if we focus on Loving Him first through and in His Son. (1Cor.13:8).
In closing,
As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us be pragmatically astute about the transparent purpose of His coming. We are told, “We Love because He first Loved us” (1 John 4:19). If God had not first Loved us, we would not know how to Love God and our neighbors in return. Yet again John spoke about God’s Love, “This is Love: not that we Loved God, but that He Loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
The principle of substitution and exchange commanded by God through Moses in the first Passover ceremony is obvious and clear (Exo.12:12-13). It tells us that whenever God looks at believers, He sees us through the eyes of Jesus His Son, our Passover, not as fallen humanity through Adam’s sin. Paul said, “Just as one trespass (first Adam) resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous (last Adam/Christ) act resulted in justification and life for all people” (Rom.5:18).
Prayer: Let us end this post in contemplative prayer to our great triune God: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, Father of Lights, thank You for Your infinite mercy for humanity, that though death has been our tragic lot because of Adam’s fall in Eden, You prepared the Second Adam in Your Son Jesus Christ, to enter our temporary existence as the Immanuel and Savior and redeemed and saved us from sin and death. (Rom.6:23).
Prayer is A Solemn One-On-One Spiritual Love Dialogue Between a Person and God the Father.
“Thank You most mighty God of Lights that through Your Son, Jesus, You have shone Your divine Light through Him upon humanity. Thank You that in Jesus You have brought humanity out of our darkened and deathly world into your marvelous “Light of Life” (John 8:12).
“Grant Your promised celestial life in Your Son through Your Holy Spirit, and open our eyes to the wondrous gifts You have divinely conferred upon us all so we may serve one another in Your Love. We praise and glorify You in your Son, Amen.”
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or you may email me on bulamanriver.com. Thank you for visiting.
Blessing:
Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always (Matt.28:19). May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you and your loved ones be an ever shiny success. Be strong in the Lord’s joy. Have a happy Christmas and a great New Year.
Kiang, (Your Servant In Christ)
*Triune Life: “Triune Life” speaks of the process of theosis or deification of humanity. What is theosis or deification? “It refers to apotheosis, meaning “making divine.” Theosis or deification is a transformative process whose aim is likeness to or union with God (as taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Church).” (Wikipedia.org)
The belief in the process of ‘deification’ is understood in accordance with Jesus’ teaching, when He said, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? If He called them ‘gods,’ to whom the Word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside (cannot be broken)” (John 10:34-35; Psa.82:6). (You can read about the Triune Life at: http://bulamanriver.net/9199, and other posts)
The Human Resurrection to Immortality Through Jesus
“The Empty Tomb” – Persuasive Imagery of Jesus’ Own Resurrection to Immortality and the Promised Deification of Humanity in Christ Who Directly Reflects the “Image of God” (Col.1:15; Rom.8:29; Gen.1:27; John 11:25)
Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting divine relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.
It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam, like God is in His Tri-Personal Being of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity, as God is in His divine triunity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23) God created humanity to reflect Himself in His unified Tri-Personal Being (Trinity)
Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)
Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness (Trinity), not solitary separateness.
When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God through Christ once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, and gave Him the prophetic name, Immanuel (Isa.7:14). The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God through Christ, just as humanity is one with Adam who was created in God’s image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27)
Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the one Triunity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. (Matt.28:18-20) They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam, for she came out of Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine Light of God in His triune Being forever.
The three-dimensional Triune Light/Life/Love is opposed to living the one-dimensional solitary life of the fallen humanity inherited from Satan through Adam’s rebellion. For additional information about the Triune Life: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036. Also at: http://bulamanriver.net/9092.
**Bulamanriver: is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love and Light of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, you may obtain a copy of my book, “Bula Man-River,” from Amazon.com; xulonpress.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online book stores. All proceeds will go towards furthering the work of Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
“Bulamanriver” Book Cover
***Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664.
Mission, Vision, Value, Statements
(Our Home address: www.//bulamanriver@gmail.net).
****The “Love-Fruits of the Holy Spirit:” *the fruit of patience, *the fruit of kindness, *the fruit of contentedness, *the fruit of modesty (unboastful), *the fruit of humility, *the fruit of honor, *the fruit of unselfishness, *the fruit of calmness and dignity, *the fruit of forgiveness and compassion, *the fruit of delighting in good and shunning evil, *the fruit of tolerance, *the fruit of responsibility, *the fruit of enduring hope, *the fruit of steadfast perseverance, *the fruit of joy, *the fruit of peace, *the fruit of goodness, *the fruit of faith, *the fruit of gentleness, *the fruit of self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. (1 Cor.13; also Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:9-21).
God is never without His Love activity through the Love-Fruits in the Spirit, for His activity and His triune Being are essentially and eternally one through Love (1 John 4:16). The act of God is not one thing, and His Being another, for they coinhere mutually and indivisibly in one another. God can never be anything but Love. These Love-Fruits may seem ordinary and mundane, but when empowered and propelled in the Spirit’s power, they are transformed into divine elements of growth and maturity.
The “Love-Fruits” of the Holy Spirit:
These Love-fruits speaks volumes and gives us a peek into the different tones of God’s Love. They are not rules to live by as if they are legalistic requirements to follow. They tell us how God in His Tri-Personal Being in the Father, Son, and Spirit, have lived in One unified shared Love-experience from eternity as God, and desires to share His “Triune Life” with believers. They reveal the holy emotions of the Tri-Personal Being of God. These are not human emotions, they reveal the divine passion and desire of how God lives “naturally” in an intuitive and spontaneous fashion together as One God who is Love.
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