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WHAT IS THE INTRIGUING “MYSTERY’ OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

Greetings Friends around the world. I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and favorable new year, 2024.

What is the baffling “mystery” of God’s Gospel of Jesus Christ? It was so vital to God that after Jesus had ascended back to God, the Scripture tells us, in two passages of Scripture I will quote:

1) “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the One we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me” (Col.1:24-29).

2) The second is taken from Ephesians: “To make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His (God’s) intent was that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He (God the Father) accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him (Christ) we may approach God with confidence” (Eph.3:7-12).

And what was this perplexing mystery that God announced first to the Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly realms, then to the Church, and the whole world. Paul gives his unambiguous utterance to this perplexing mystery in Col.3:3: “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3). In other words, every saved human life is now hidden with Christ within God’s very Trinitarian Being. That is the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who transports humanity into the very Being of God’s holy Loving triune nature. Paul told the Ephesians, “For He (Father) chose us in Him (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph.1:4).

How does God make this possible – to unite a God who is entirely holy unite Himself with humanity? You see, with God true life in found in His Spirit – it is the Spirit-Life. He tells us, “Give ear and come to Me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you…Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa.55:3, 6-9).

God, by declaring His Almighty, holy and all-righteous Divine Self as follows, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,” He was revealing indirectly that true life exudes from His Spirit. (Isa.55:8-9). Physical man became a living human life when God created Adam from the dust of the earth. (Gen.2:7) Although made from the dust of the earth, Adam was created in God’s image and likeness. That is, he was created with all the necessary genes and DNA to maintain the divine specimen having the revered attributes of God. God’s purpose was to clothe humanity in His Spirit, and make mankind His children forever. (John 3:16)

Humans may live to 120 years if God so permits. (Gen.6:3) When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Garden of Eden and ate the forbidden fruit, they sinned against God and instantly brought the death penalty upon all their children and all humanity. Paul told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). Yes, sin brings true death upon humanity. But at the same time, the verse continues with God’s promise to impart immortality through Jesus Christ. Immortality means to possess divine Spirit-Life in Jesus. This is the exact copy of the promise God made to Adam and Eve in Eden after the fall when they disobeyed. After our first parent’s fall into sin, God promised the coming of the Messiah to save us from our sins and fallen being. After questioning Adam and Eve about their sinful act, Eve told God, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Listen, this is the promise made to our first parents, God told Satan, “Because you have done this… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel” (Gen.3:14-15). Thus, the promise of the Messiah was uttered by God to our first parents and to Satan, humanity’s archdeceiver. Satan’s fate was sealed at the beginning when he dared to step into God’s divine plan for humanity. The principle of the victory of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness was established from the beginning.

When Adam and Eve failed to obey God, He did not exterminate them (which would have served justice), but instead revealed His covenant of grace to them by promising a Savior (Gen. 3:15).

Remember this remarkable truth of God’s nature, “For everyone belongs to Me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to Me. The one who sins is the one who will die” (Ezek.18:4). God asks, “Will such a man live? (read the detestable ways this man lived in Ezekiel Verses 10-13) He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he is to be put to death; his blood will be on his own head” (Ezek.18:13; Rom.6:23).

Yes, God promised the coming Messiah. And what would be the role of the Messiah? The apostle John answers, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Yes, it was out of the depth the Father’s overwhelming Love for humanity that God surrendered His Son Jesus to give us His true Spirit-Life -eternal life- in God’s Spirit which was lost in Eden.

As history has recorded in the Gospels, the Messiah came and lived the perfect human life. Jesus voluntarily surrendered His life in Love for our restitution and restoration. Then on the third day He was resurrected to divine/human immortality. He paved the way for human immortality in and through Himself. Before His ascension to the Father’s right hand, Jesus reminded the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift (of the Holy Spirit) My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about” (Act.1:4). With the gift of the Spirit, God now unites Himself in His whole Triune Being with humanity in Love. (Matt.28:18-20)

Pentecost – The Birthday Of The Church When God’s Spirit-Life Was Given

When the day of Pentecost came, God poured the Holy Spirit upon those who were gathered as Jesus instructed. (Act.2:1-4) On that day, Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, spoke to the people and essentially gave them the divine mechanics by which humans are made holy through the Spirit-Life God promised long ago in Eden. (Gen.3:14-15). Peter told his listeners, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38).

Thus, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the very Personification of God’s spiritual nature of Love, came and brought true Spirit-Life upon all humanity who followed Peter’s instruction. Thus, we see the activity of the Triune God through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together to bring humanity to true salvation. (Matt.28:18-20).

Paul reminded the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16). God’s temple, the human body and mind, is the very temple where God comes and fellowship with His people. Again, Paul reminded the people of Corinth, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own” (1 Cor.6:19). Yes, it is this very essence of God’s nature in the Holy Spirit which sows the true Life of God Himself in humanity.

The Human Body and Mind – God’s Temple Where His Spirit Dwells

Paul, speaking of this divine mystery of God, said, “I, Paul, have become its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the Word of God, the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me” (Col.1:25-29).

For it is the Spirit who gives us the power of this divine joy to rejoice despite the circumstances and environment which depresses people to no end. The Spirit is the deposit of God’s Love and its fruits in humans. (Rom.5:5)

Paul, The Apostle of God’s Mystery in Christ

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 and your loved ones always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”** Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang (Your Servant in Christ)

Appendix: *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). These attributes may seem ordinary and mundane, but when empowered and propelled in the Spirit’s power, they are transformed into divine elements of transformation.

**”Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God in His plurality, as the Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. He is also clothed in Freedom. For the three Persons of the Trinity are three distinct and free Persons in the triune Godhead. Love and Freedom by nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being possessing freedom.

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, He was given 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.

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 triune existence forever.

The three-dimensional Triune 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: 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

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

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CHRISTMAS 2023 AND WHAT IT MEANS TO HUMANITY!

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Greetings friends around the world! A very happy Christmas and a blessed New Year!

I would like to share scriptural references about the ultimate purpose of Jesus, which gives us the whole reason for His birth. We would not properly understand the story of Christmas if we are oblivious to the story of man itself! So the beautiful story of humanity comes to us by answering the questions of why, what, and how, of the story of Christmas. The story of Christmas is God’s own story about all humanity.

First, let us begin with this passage from John 14.

Thomas had inquired about the Father’s presence, and Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:6-11).

Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity

Now, this passage obtains its origin from Matt.28:18-20, when Jesus uttered the most important passage of God’s trinitarian nature when He said, “Then all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt.28:18-20).

Here, Jesus reveals His true identity – Jesus is the Second Person in the Triune Godhead. Jesus is repeating His prior statement, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The Words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me” (John 14:10). So, Jesus’ finds His origin in the Triune God. He emanates from God and is Himself God. As John stated, “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5). This passage tells us that Jesus was the very Creator who brought the universe into existence, material and otherwise.

Paul affirms this wonderous truth, saying this, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him (Jesus Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col.1:15-17, also 1 Cor.8:6).

Here, we have established two facts about God Himself. He is trinitarian in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:18-20) Second, that Jesus’ own roots is founded in God Himself as the Second Person of the Triune Godhead. On His human side, when Jesus was born, His familial ancestry finds its roots through David and Abraham to reveal His human origin, as the Scripture states through Isaiah the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) (Matt.1:23; 1-17). The two facts unite to reveal both of Jesus paternal (or Fatherly) and maternal (or motherly) origins, hence, He is called, Immanuel which means “God with us” (Matt.1:23; Matt.1:20-25).

In John we read God the Father’s purpose of giving Jesus as the human Savior, “For God (Father) so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16; also, John 1:18; John 3:18). So, the Father’s reason for surrendering His Son was motivated by Love and eternal life in God’s spiritual realm. All through Scripture we will read about God’s Love for His human children and their celestial destiny.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, He said something marvelous about God’s Love for humanity, “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3). Then Paul reiterates what the Father decreed earlier, “When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (resurrection)” (Col.3:4; John 3:16). Yes, God’s Love dictates that your life is now hidden in Christ. The Psalmist expounds this further, “You (Christ) are my hiding place; You (Christ) will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My Loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you” (Psa.32:7-8). Here, we see the Father further expounds about His Love for humanity. (John 3:16)

But let’s not stop here, for the Scripture promotes God’s Love to a more acute sense of human realization with these awe-inspiring words. You see, we’re living in the in the divine Love-force of Almighty God, our Father and His Son. Listen carefully, “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin” (1 Cor.1:30). God has made Christ become our “divine wisdom.” What does that mean? Paul answers as follows, “Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin” (1 Cor.1:30). That is the “divine wisdom” of God, the divine Love-force conferred upon us in and through Christ.

Yes, finally in the end we can justly conclude, “‘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). We “live and move and have our being” in Him.” Can you live without Him, can you move without Him, can you exist (have our being) without Him? In that one verse we have said everything that needs to be said about human life – to live, move, and exist as a human being is to do so in Christ. It is on the basis of these Scriptures and many more I have not shared with you today, that we turn to the Bible to read of Jesus’ birth.

One final word, “For every child of God defeats this evil world (of Satan), and we achieve this victory through our faith” (1 John 5:4). Satan has always been at work to defeat God’s work in you and me – but his evil deeds cannot defeat the “faith of Jesus” residing in us. Just as Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20, KJV). Yes, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Paul told the Ephesians, “I pray that Christ will make His home in your hearts through faith” (Eph.3:17). You have heard some of the beautiful truths about why God gave up His Son for us. Do you believe? Faith is like a plant you have to water and look after to make it grow.

There is no other way to come before the presence of the holy God, our heavenly Father, except through the faith of Jesus. Faith is the very lifeblood of the Christian life. Each of our place in God’s presence was initiated by Jesus Himself when He took our fallen humanity upon Himself as the Immanuel, rescued it by living the perfect human life, then sacrificing Himself for our redemption and restitution.

Finally, now turn with me to Luke 2:1-20 in respect of the Birth of Jesus: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.”

The Birth Of Jesus in Bethlehem

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:1-20) What a marvelous record of Jesus’ birth through the Gospel of Luke.

Jesus lived the perfect human life, was called to surrender His life for our restitution, and on the third day was resurrected to divine/human immortality. Before His ascension to the Father’s right hand, Jesus reminded the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift (of the Holy Spirit) my Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about” (Act.1:4, italics mine). With the gift of the Spirit, God now unites Himself in His whole Triune Being with humanity.

Then the day of Pentecost came, God poured the Holy Spirit upon those who were gathered as Jesus instructed. (Act.2:1-4) On that day, Peter was empowered by the Holy Spirit, spoke to the people and essentially gave them the divine mechanics by which humans are made holy, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38). Thus, we see the activity of the Triune God through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together to bring humanity to salvation.

Finally, I will conclude with this passage from Revelation, (Rev.21:3) “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, (recall where this loud booming voice was coming from? The throne of God) “Look God’s dwelling place is now among the people (with humanity), and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev.21:3).

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of Christmas be with you and your loved ones. Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang (Your Servant in Christ)

These attributes may seem ordinary and mundane, but when empowered and propelled in the Spirit’s power, they are transformative elements of divine change in human life. As Paul affirms, “And this is my prayer: that your Love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phi.1:9-11).

Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)

Bulamanriver Book Cover

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2023 – THE CALL TO THE JOYOUS LIFE, BY KIANG P LEE

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“Always be Full of Joy in the Lord. I say it again–Be Thankful!” Phil.4:4

Greetings Friends! To be Thankful is the essence of the human spirit which stands infallible and knows no borders. It is the spirit which undergirds human existence and relationships. It is the epitome for good in all people. Sometimes gratitude does not come easily because of our biases and prejudices. To say “thank you” is to express the dignity and decency of our common humanity replicated in the Creator’s likeness. “Thank you,” (English) “Danke” (German), “Mahalo” (Hawaiian), “Merci” (French), “xiexie” (Chinese), “Terima Kasih” (Malay), “Takk” (Norwegian), “Kamasahamnida” (Korean), “Paldies” (Latvian), “Gracias” (Spanish), “Spasibo” (Russian), “Dhayavad” (Hindi), “Dziekuje,” (Polish), “Obrigado” (Portuguese), “Vinaka” (Fijian), and hundreds and thousands of languages and dialects all speak the language of this larger-than-life divine attribute. Let’s find reason to be “Thankful” today.

The First Thanksgiving:

Joy and gratitude go hand in hand. They are both human emotions that only humans created in God’s image can respond to, live by, and appreciate. We experience joy because humans are made in God’s likeness. (Gen.1:26-27; Neh.8:10) Yes, the Bible states, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.8:10). The Bible states, “But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy” (among) others. (Gal.5:22) Joy is a shared fruit, it can only be experienced in a communal setting, that is one of the basis how we explain God is Tri-Personal (three in one), and not solitary as many believe. God is three Persons unified in One Triune Godhead. When you examine every one of the fruits of Love in the Holy Spirit, you will find one common denominator – they can only be lived out through a shared communal experience. I take you to 1 Corinthians 13 and other passages –

The fruits of Love are: *patience, *kindness, *contentedness, *the fruit of being modest and unboastful, *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, *joy, *peace, *goodness, *faith, *gentleness, *self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of gratitude and thankfulness, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. (1 Cor.13; Gal.5:22-23; Rom.12:9-2)

“Rest and Be Thankful”

All these fruits spell one common attribute, they can only be shared in a communal setting and thereby God reveals Himself in all His Trinitarian Love and glory. These Love-fruits speaks volumes and gives us a peek into the different tones of God’s Love. They are not rules or codes to live by as legalistic requirements. Rather they tell us who God is, and how God in His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Spirit have lived in One unified shared Love-experience from eternity. That was and continues to be His purpose for creating humanity. And God desires to share His “Triune Love”* with humanity. They reveal the holy emotions of the Triune God. These are not human emotions, they reveal the divine emotions of God. And high on top of the list is joy and thankfulness.

“Joy”

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we understand that Thankfulness is a fruit which springs from God’s Love nature, and it can be experienced only in a mutually co-dependent setting as He is the same in His Tri-Personal Godhead as Father, Son, and Spirit. Thankfulness springs from joy, for without it we can’t experience gratitude genuinely and completely.

I referred to human joy earlier. They remind us that humanity is intrinsically part of God’s Love image, but we are not entirely like Him because we live as fallen humans. Hence, human joy is predisposed to fade away and not last. But there’s a divine joy that humans can receive which brings sustained emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. It is a joy that brings lasting happiness, inner peace, a state of grace, and all things good in life. For it is the Spirit who gives us the power of this divine joy to rejoice despite the circumstances and environment which depresses people to no end. The Spirit is the deposit of God’s Love and its fruits in humans.(Rom.5:5)

Recall, man once lived in complete joy with his Maker, but the enemy took that away and severed that Loving relationship. (Gen.3:1-6) Through Adam’s fall at the hands of the devil, that fullness of life in God’s presence was taken from humans. But Jesus restored it by reconciling alienated man back to God. (John 1:1-4; John 3:16-17; 1 Cor.1:30, NLT) Now we have this God-given ability to experience and share this beautiful fruit of joy which springs from God Himself through His Spirit.

Peter outlines how this is made possible in humans, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38). Genuine thankfulness can only spring from a joyful heart where the Spirit is made to indwell human life. (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19) The presence of God is made to enter humanity through the presence of the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16-17; 26)

The only thing that can steal our joy is sin, just as it did with Adam and Eve in Eden. Therefore, when we follow God’s Love, joy is multiplied spontaneously and we become more gratuitous in our hearts because we are genetically wired to the Triune God as part of His Love-kind and likeness. Because we live in Satan’s world which promotes depression and misery through sin, we get affected by it because of our fallen nature environmentally and through association. God knows this. So, He made a way of escape through His Son to forgive past, present, and future transgressions. Jesus died for us on the cross not only for past sins, but also for present and future transgressions through His High Priestly role today. Since Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He ascended back to His Father to continue to mediate for mankind as High Priest. (You can read more about this aspect of human restoration by clicking, http://bulamanriver.net/17978. Also, http://bulamanriver.net/15813, and http://bulamanriver.net/11230).

God lives in joy and thankfulness and shares His way of life with us through His Son. Jesus’ role as man’s High Priest in heaven today makes our spiritual wholeness possible, and shows us we are brought into divine completeness with the Father always. There is every reason to rejoice and be filled with joy when we realize the enemy has no power over us through sin, but we exist in the Spirit in righteous living: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.14:17).

Probably one of the shortest verses of the Bible says simply, “Rejoice always!” because God is that way Himself. (1 Thess.5:16) When we are filled with joy we are thankful. Paul’s encouraging word to us is, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit (Love)” (1 Thess.5:16-19). Joy, prayer, and thanksgiving should characterize the life of humans. We are warned to not quench Love, for these are the fruits of “Love deposited in our hearts through the Spirit” (Rom.5:5).

The original pilgrims had come to a new world we have come to call America today. They escaped Europe to seek freedom from religious and political persecution and repression. Since the arrival of the pilgrims, people have never ceased to come to America’s shores escaping tyranny of all forms and seeking the freedom the new world offered. Today America is known as the melting pot of diverse cultures and peoples. And whether we realize it or not, we are all on the same pilgrimage of our own in the pursuit of our freedoms, but a different kind of voyage. There is one word which defines the freedom the original pilgrims sought and the freedom we seek today. That word is joy! To live in a world free from persecutions where one can live in personal freedoms and the right to choose one’s beliefs whether religious, political, etc. To have the freedom to live and do as one sees fit for his/her loved ones is the basis of happiness and well-being.

Our pilgrimage today seeks a freedom from all kinds of personal, societal, and other forms of bondage which has been brought to bear upon us because of sin. Like the pilgrims of old, removing ourselves from this persecution and prison of sin will bring us joy, meaning, and the human divine destiny. For no matter where we live, if we are still bound up in the sin-condition of the devil, we are not free, but tormented still. Freedom from sin is true freedom and joy and every reason for humanity to celebrate and be thankful. Only Jesus brings humanity true freedom, as Paul affirms, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal.5:1). (To read more about truly ‘living free’ go to: http://bulamanriver.net/16956)

The Landing of The Pilgrims Escaping Persecution and Thankful for Freedom in the New World

The Statue of Liberty in New York.

Thanksgiving Day always bring immense joy and gratitude to families gathered for turkey dinner, especially if we have family members we have not met or seen for some time. Family fellowship and bonding is about one of the highest human joys that can be experienced. So, let us be truly thankful this Thanksgiving season for each other and always aware that gratitude has been made possible because we have been given the privilege to live in a place of joy in the “Triune Love”* with the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit.”

“God Is Love”

May you all have a happy and joyous Thanksgiving celebration with those you love and cherish.

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 this Thanksgiving and always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”** as a Bulamanriver.** Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang (Your Servant in Christ)

Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)

Bulamanriver Book Cover

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

THE FALLEN ADAMIC HUMANITY VS THE NEW CREATION (HUMANITY) IN CHRIST, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings Friends the world over! Conversion, as a word and concept, is central to the Christian faith. There are many terms which are used to explain when a person receives Jesus Christ and become a Christian. The common one is ‘conversion.’ Conversion as a concept ought to convey movement from something to something. It is commonly explained as a ‘change.’ But what exactly is it? Is the change intellectual, social, psychological, moral, or some combination? Is it an event or a process? What or who defines conversion? In Christian history the meaning of the word and the concept itself varies from person to person, from group to group, and from setting to setting.

Conversion looks different under different historical circumstances, even within the same historical context. For example, millions of people experienced so-called conversion through forceful efforts, whether physical or verbal, for reason of “religious change.” Other have viewed conversion as a form of colonization and imperialism. Yet, millions of people today have embraced the Christian faith not through threat or coercion, nor because a colonial power, but because of a variety of inducements and motivations. Perhaps they conclude that the Christian God is a good God that is capable of helping and saving them, both in this temporal life and in the next life to come.

However, if we are to trust the words of the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ Himself, then it is more, much more than what history or what any one group of people may have espoused and stated in the matter. Jesus stated, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Further He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In these two passages of the Bible, we can say that all we can surmise about life in all its human manifestation and more has been answered. There is nothing in His statements we can insinuate deprivation of any human aspiration in terms of the holistic destiny of mankind as a whole, both in this mortal human life, and the next one in immortality.

The Scriptures tell us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom.10:13; Acts 2:21). So, “everyone who calls” implies a willing and voluntary participant. He is not coerced, forced, manipulated, in any way, shape, or form. Paul said, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim.2:3-6).

The Scriptures lays out the process by which a person can be saved which entails conversion. But what exactly is it? The message of the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost gives us more detail. When the Holy Spirit was given to mankind on Pentecost as promised by Jesus and the Father, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Act.2:38-39). So, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Here, we read the process of conversion.

Note the four steps in the conversion process, a) repent, b) be baptized, c) obtain forgiveness of sins, d) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Each step dovetails into the next and entails conversion wholistically. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luk. 5:32). Another word for conversion is surrender. Jesus’ call of absolute surrender goes out to all people: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luk. 13:5). Let us see the answers to conversion in the four steps Peter announced.

First, What is repentance?

1) True repentance involves a sense of awareness of one’s own guilt, sinfulness, and helplessness (Psa. 51:4–10; 109:21–22).

2) True repentance apprehends or takes hold of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ (Psa. 51:1; 130:4).

3) True repentance means a change of attitude and action regarding sin. Hatred of sin turns the repentant person away from his or her sin to God (Psa. 119:128; Job 42:5–6; 2 Cor. 7:10).

4) True repentance results in a radical and persistent pursuit of holy living, walking with God in obedience to His Love and commands (2 Tim. 2:19–22; 1 Pet. 1:16).

Second, what and why is baptism? The Bible tells us clearly that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (John 1:12; John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Rom. 3:21-30; Rom. 4:5; Rom. 10:9-10; Eph. 2:8-10; Phi. 3:9; Gal. 2:16). Our baptism is the outward sign of our faith in all of the divine gifts and attributes above.

Third, forgiveness is an integral part of salvation. When Jesus forgives us, our sins, trespasses, iniquities, and transgressions are wiped off the record. The forgiveness we have in Christ involves the release of sinners from God’s just penalty and the complete dismissal of all charges against us (Rom. 8:1). Paul says that in God’s beloved Son “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col.1:14).

Fourth, The Holy Spirit is the third divine Person of the Trinity. (Matt.28:18-20) The Bible teaches that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. The Spirit has been gifted to humanity from the Father and the Son. (John 14:26; 15:26) The Bible also teaches that there is only one God. The Holy Spiri possesses a mind, emotions, and a will. He thinks and knows (1 Cor. 2:10). The Holy Spirit can be grieved (Eph. 4:30). The Spirit intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27). He makes decisions according to God’s will (1 Cor. 12:7-11). As God, the Holy Spirit can truly function as the Comforter and Counselor that Jesus promised He would be (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). (https://www.gotquestions.org.)

The greatest meaning of conversion must always convey the act of NEW CREATION by God in human life. At times the word conversion conveys a picture of tentativeness, an impression of disconnected, fragmentary experience, instead of a committed and unshakable ordeal. Is conversion a halfway point between two extremes. Whereas, the NEW CREATION communicates a completed breakaway, a secession, a parting-of-ways, as Paul stated, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor.5:17; also Rom.6:4).

Here, Paul uses the term “a NEW CREATION” to mean conversion. It is not a passing transition as if patching old clothing with a new patch. By saying, “the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new,” conveys a completed NEW CREATION. God is not doing an overhaul of you. He is not repairing you, like taking a vehicle that’s badly damaged from a collision for restoration. No, it says, “the old things have passed away.” The ‘damaged vehicle’ (you) has been discarded altogether. You have gone to the dump – for good! God is not repairing you and I like a smashed vehicle. He has nailed the old dead you (Rom.6:23)upon His Son’s cross permanently – never to return! And in its place God has recreated a totally new you through the power of His Spirit.

Paul says this, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit” (Gal.5:16, 25). Jesus said, “That which is born (anew) of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 3:3). Paul goes on to say, “We worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus” (Phi.3:3). So, the NEW CREATION is housed in the very Person of the Holy Spirit. Notice what Paul said, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Cor.3:16).

Paul said this, when speaking of the believer’s reality in Christ, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal.2:20). The passage was not speaking of crucifixion in the physical, bodily sense, but the spiritual – that is to say, the inner spiritual person who, due to sin (death), must be resurrected a NEW CREATION from a place of sin and death. This was God’s wisdom and plan of salvation for humanity through Christ. (1 Cor.1:30; Rom.6:23). God is not in the business of restoration; He is not rehabilitating you. He is making you into a profoundly and wholly NEW CREATION in Christ by the Spirit’s power. Remember, you were dead to sin, and that is what makes the NEW CREATION absolutely necessary. (Rom.6:23; 2 Cor.5:17; Rom.6:4, 8; Rom.5:5).

For in considering our human potential as creatures made in God’s image, God is in the business of creation. (Gen.1:26-27; 5:1). I repeat, He is making an entirely NEW CREATION out of you through His Spirit. How does God make a NEW CREATION of you possible? John tells us, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). The term “born again” of itself conveys a NEW CREATION. This is not a restoration, repair, overhaul, or rehabilitation, of you. This is the COMPLETED NEW CREATION of you in Christ as Paul stated, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor.5:17). Paul roundly affirms the absolute wonder of this future NEW CREATURE of humanity in Christ, saying, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom.8:29).

For in considering the human potential, the NEW CREATION “confirmed in the Image of His Son” tells us all that we are to become and must adopt Christ and His likeness as Creator – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION” (2 Cor.5:17). The Scriptures speaks of the creation of the earth and the material universe with the laws which govern and keeps all thing in an orderly existence was done by Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Jesus is called by other names, He is called The Word, for He is God’s Spokesman who spoke all of creation into existence.

John was inspired to write this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome a it” (John 1:1-5). God the Father had assigned to the Son as The Word and Spokesman, the work of creation, and thereby the title of Creator. Therefore, Jesus, as Creator, is the One who spoke all of creation into existence.

If humanity was recreated to embrace and take on Christ’s image, and all that means, what is that image? First and foremost, it is the image of Jesus, the Creator – “Through Him (Jesus) all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:3-4). Of course, we do not undervalue by any degree His role as humanity’s Messiah and High Priest. Yes, our potential as human beings is to assume and embody Christ as the Loving Creator.

In concert with the Holy Spirit, God brought all creation into existence. (Gen.1) The Psalm states, “When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth” (Psa.104:30). God the Father, through the Son and the Spirit’s power brought all creation into being through the Spokesman, Jesus Christ. Recall the Genesis creation account we read earlier, “…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen.1:1). Yes, the earth after going through a time of destruction (that’s a subject of another topic by itself), needed to be RECREATED. The Holy Spirit is the means, through which God’s creative prowess in Christ manifested in creation. We must visualize and capture that vision God our Father holds out concerning humanity’s eternal destiny in His Son as Creator. (Rom.8:29)

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are” (1 John 3:1). Reading the remaining passage from the Message Bible, “And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see Him—and in seeing Him, become like Him. All of us who look forward to His Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own” (1 John 3:2-3, MSG). Yes, at the resurrection of humanity at Christ’s second coming, “we will see Him and become like Him.” What God has in store for us is beyond the human mind can know, but it will be magnificent beyond words.

This future is beyond human comprehension and extreme to imagine possible. Yet, we must receive and accept this divine process of NEW CREATION through an act of sheer, unmitigated, faith. Paul said this, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom.1:17). Again, Paul says, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith” (Gal.3:11).

That being the case, God informs us about the believer’s faith, its vitality, and what it is in human life, “BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith for the safekeeping of the soul” (Heb.10:38-39). The living faith we are to profess is Christ’s very personal faith, listen, “The righteousness of God which comes by the faith of Jesus to all and on all that believe” (Rom.3:22, AKJV). Did you get that? It specifically states, “The Faith of Jesus.” It is not our weak, powerless, doubt-filled human faith. Without this faith we cannot stand before God…“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.11:6). From there two passages, Scriptures affirm that only Christ’s living faith in us keeps our soul secure, and preserves us from spiritual destruction.

Most appropriately, let me add that conversion is more than all we have covered above, but more so for it is also a process. However, that process cannot begin until the first aspect of conversion we have covered so far is done authentically – that we have experienced the new birth, the NEW CREATION, through the miraculous act of God by the power of His Spirit (“what is born of the Spirit is Spirit”). Only then, a person can follow the wholistic path of conversion which includes the act of conversion as a procession. We will cover this second aspect of conversion in a separate post in future. Sufficient to say, that the act of conversion which ends in divination (NEW CREATION) is one thing as we have seen, then there is one other vital component of God’s activity of the process of conversion. Both are mutually dependent so that one cannot do without the other. That is important to remember.

Suffice to say that God goes further by recreating humanity into His very Love-nature, listen, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). If God’s spiritual image and nature is Love (1 John 4:16), and we have been made a NEW CREATION by birth through His Spirit of Love through Christ’s messiahship, then we too will have been created in His divine likeness for the Spirit is the image of God’s Love-nature even now and at the resurrection. (1 Cor.15:53-55) Listen, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:9-11).

As eternal children of God, made in God’s divine Love-nature, humanity will not be capable of committing sin anymore. Speaking of that future scenario, the Scripture says, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9, KJV). Further, the Bible states, “There will be no more death” (Rev.21:4). There is only one way death enters human life, through sin “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23). So, without sin death have no place in human existence. Paul speaking of humanity’s eternal future, said, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor.15:26). In other words, to exist in God’s Kingdom is live in God’s holy existence where sin and rebellion cannot exist.

This second process of conversion where humanity is created in the divine “Love-nature,” will be covered in detail in a future post.

Petition: Friends, as I have closed my post in the past, I customarily give our readers the opportunity to give their lives to our Maker. I thank you for investing your precious time with me in the sharing of the good news of Jesus who is our hope and has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious Immanuel humanity made children of God forever.

You can privately and quietly pray the prayer below in your heart. I am asking you to pray this prayer as a human being Christ died for, regardless of your background. All are inducted into the one mankind Jesus saved, not into any religious sect or denomination, or divisions one may espouse – but into the glorious humanity that Christ is preparing as the holy temple for the holy God, the Creator’s dwelling:

Prayer: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, forgive me of all my sins for I receive Your Son, Jesus, as my personal Savior. In Your incalculable grace, grant Your promised celestial life in Your Son through Your Holy Spirit, and open my eyes to the wondrous gifts you have conferred upon me and all humanity. May Your Love guide and protect me and my Loved ones always, and bring us all into Your beloved and divine Kingdom. I praise and thank You, Amen.”

Prayer is A Solemn One-On-One Spiritual Love Dialogue Between a Person and God the Father

Welcome to the celestial life of Love in God’s holy, eternal Family. (1 Tim.6:19) Then keep in touch with God’s Word for you by reading and studying your Bible, and visiting this blog and website and look at various subjects listed in our archives that may be relevant for your situation – go to: http://bulamanriver.net. You can email me with your questions at the address shown below.

Personal 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. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”* Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Farewell for now,

Kiang P. Lee (Your Servant In Christ)

Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)

Bulamanriver Book Cover

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

LIVING THE SURRENDERED LIFE, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings Friends! This month I would like us to touch upon and discuss the topic of the Surrendered Life. God’s activity in humanity is redemptive by nature through the process of human regeneration as alluded in Paul’s divinely stated objective which he passionately espoused to the Romans, “For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom.8:29). The surrendered life is the lifeblood of the life of regeneration. For that matter, the surrendered life is what energizes the believer’s life. It is a journey in regenerative Christianity. It is the journey which all humanity must come to embrace.

I will outline four conditions we experience when living the surrendered life.

What is the surrendered life? Essentially, it is about cultivating a pliable heart and attitude towards God so as to allow Him to have His way and plan of Love for and in our life as believers. And what would that plan be? Paul gave us the answer which we read earlier, God our Father “predestined us (humanity) to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom.8:29). And essentially what is the result that conveys to us and our future destiny as humans? In truth, everything – both in the physical and spiritual matter!

For Scriptures tell us about Jesus and what adopting His likeness means with God and His purpose for humanity, “In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed Heir of all things, and through whom He created the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb.1:2-3). There you have it in a nutshell – a nutshell with two memorably impactful verses.

His call of absolute surrender goes out to all people: “But unless you repent (change), you too will all perish.” (Luk.13:5). Let us break this passage down into their constituent parts, so we may understand as to what we are surrendering our lives in God’s plan for us. First and foremost, God Almighty has laid out His chosen method of communicating with fallen humanity – through His Son, “In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son.”

In other words, in respect of you as an individual human being, born in sin through the fallen Adamic humanity, God has revealed His Love for you by saying He will relate and connect with humanity only through His Son as His and our sole intermediary. (John 3:16-17) Paul tells us, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim.2:5-6).

Consider, God is absolutely holy in His Love-nature, and He can only be approached through the manner of His chosen mediatory process and formula. And we know why God has made His choice, because elsewhere in Scripture God tells us He sent His Son Jesus to redeem and save humanity from sin and death, “He had provided purification for sins.” Because of sin we are spiritually dead which in turn promotes and is the root cause of all negative consequences in life. It must be understood that Life and not Death produces good in human life. Love and adoration, not fear and rebellion.

Many don’t understand that everything good we desire in life, most especially for you and your loved ones, will to a large extent depends upon the immutable law which produces life and good in the ’cause and effect’ dynamic of human existence. What exactly is that law which produces life and good? Sin produces death for Scripture tell us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). The law which triggers and leads to life is the unseen law of God’s divine Love. (1 John 4:8) The world is unaware, if not disbelieve altogether, the existence of such an unseen law. It is the law which acts much like the natural law of gravity, that is how real and potent it is. People ignore it to their own peril.

Natural gravity is physical and unseen, conversely spiritual gravity is God’s Love-nature that fills time and space, and unseen. Both are true and exists in our human reality. There is an opposite contradictory spirit which opposes Love – it is fear and must be avoided and resisted at every turn. John tell us this, “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in Love” (1 John 4:18). Punishment has to do with sin which foreshadows guilt and torment. (Later, you may want to read my post, “God’s Love Is The Human Spiritual Gravity” at: http://bulamanriver.net/24628).

When God created the earth and put humanity upon it, and because He fills all of time and space, His Love and thereby His spiritual gravity was established through fiat (as a matter of course). Because His Love gravity was established automatically by fiat, then it’s natural if you violate it, then it does the same to you much like physical gravity would – akin to someone pulling a chair from under you that triggers a sudden fall. Here’s the difference, we don’t learn to live within Love’s spiritual gravity, as we do within our physical gravity. The reason is because the spiritual gravitational force (Love) does not immediately penalize us like physical gravity. Nonetheless, it’s reality is absolute notwithstanding the deferred aftereffect. (Eccl.8:11)

Why did God create this immutable law of Love, whose effect acts like physical gravity? The reason goes back to human creation and God’s purpose for creating humanity, listen, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Gen.1:26).

As Creator, God Himself fills all of time and space. (Eph.1:23, 3:19). Since He is unreservedly Love by nature, as a result His Love is the spiritual, infallible, and real unseen gravitational force (law) which exists for the purpose of compelling humanity to conform to God’s Love image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 John 4:16; Eph.1:23; Rom.8:29) We ignore this all-embracing law at our own peril. On the other hand mankind would be fulfilling the purpose of human creation, should they live within its bounds.

Paul told the Ephesians this, God’s Love “is too great to understand fully” (Eph.3:19). Yet, God has not left humanity unaware nor ignorant of His spiritual gravitational Love-force. God has communicated in detail about His Love-gravity so that we’re without excuse. (Rom.1:20) This divine force is expressed, experienced, and seen through God’s Commandments in motion. Recall, His laws were given to humanity through Moses upon Mount Sinai in great fanfare and glorious ceremonial grandeur and splendor. (read Exo. Chap.19 & 20). God’s laws can be surmised and proclaimed in one indispensable, all-embracing, word – Love! It reveals God in all His marvelous, encyclopedic, infinite divine nature. His Love expressed through His laws teaches mankind how to Love God and our human neighbor. (Matt.22:36-40)

Yes, God’s Love is greater than our minds can apprehend. So, as fallen humans we must be willing to admit to our total lack of comprehension of His profound boundless Love. We stand as fallen beings totally barren of understanding and imploring His grace to teach, and allow His light to shine upon us. Hence, the hallmark of the surrendered life can be seen and articulated through humanity’s compliance with and obedience to His divine Love through His laws and commandments of Love.

The divine laws can be applied legalistically and spiritually. It is vital to know the difference, because Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt.5:27-28). So, we see that all God’s laws carries a two-pronged application. The law about covetousness states, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exo.20:17). Sin’s corruptive two-pronged fang attacks a person first in the heart through a covetous desire (spiritual), which leads to the act of sin (legality/lawlessness).

Thankfully, God has not left us defenseless to, nor be incapacitated by the corruptive nature of sin in transgressing His laws of Love. He has supplied the fruits of His Love through His powerful Spirit to enable us to live within His gravitational force and stay grounded in His Love. (1 Cor.13; Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.3:16, 6:19). He gives us His Love-fruits just you would physically use a chair or ladder to break and prevent your fall which could hurt and possibly be fatal when you sit or climb. (You can read the Fruits of the Spirit in the appendix below).

Another analogy I have used before is that God’s divine Love-force or gravity is likened to the vast Ocean in which mankind is represented by the marine life which populate and find meaning in it. The spiritual ocean of God’s gravitational Love-force immerses humans (marine life) in the way of life that’s monopolized by God’s Love (ocean), and the fruits of His Love. (1 Cor.13). The marine life exists and live within the reality of its oceanic environment and they do not swim against it.

The Vast Ocean Likened to God’s Love and Humanity (Marine Life)

Paul said this, “May you experience the Love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Eph.3:19, NLT). And since all of mankind was created in God’s Love likeness, Love’s gravitational influence works mainly in human relationships. Hence, we read Paul’s words, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to Love one another” (Rom.13:8).

The essential meaning of human dignity must always be seen and understood through the eyes of our heritage as creatures fashioned in God’s Love-likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) Any other portrayal devalues mankind to mere animal status. Since God Himself fills all of time and space, unequivocally His Love envelopes and caresses us so that we are intuitively and absolutely wrapped in His spiritual Love gravity. (Eph.1:23, 3:19; Rom.8:29; 1 John 4:8,16; 1 Cor.13:1-12; see Love-Fruits in appendix below).

God’s Love, Like Gravity Is Immutable and Infallible, For “God Is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16)

Just as we compensate our actions in order to counterweigh and neutralize the potential negative effect of the physical gravitational energy, we do so likewise in our spiritual environment with God’s gravitational Love energy through His Commandments. Love is life and creates good results in the way we live, whereas death (sin) creates evil and brings bad consequences. (Rom.6:23) Recall, what Jesus tells us about life, “O you of little faith? Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt.6:30-34).

Think about what this passage tells us, essentially Jesus was indirectly encouraging His listeners to live within the bounds of Love’s gravitational force (seek first the kingdom) which will intuitively produce life’s positive outcomes (all these things will be given to you as well). Now, who are the people who do not believe in this spiritual gravitational force? Yes, Jesus said “pagans.” A pagan means an unbeliever.

That being said, despite our fallen state of existence, and owing to God’s holy Love, He extends His invitation to humanity to commune and fellowship with Him – the God of life and the living through Jesus His Son. Paul was inspired to tell the Romans, “But God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). God goes a step further, while we are dead in our sins, through Jesus He gives us the gift of His Love through His Spirit of Love. Listen to Paul’s words, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.3:16). We see here that God has given us the very Love through His Spirit to enable us to live within the spiritual gravitational Love-force which instinctively rules us all.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6; also Rom.6:23). We cannot fellowship with the Father without His Son, Jesus. Thereby, through human purification (purging) in Christ, mankind is given the capacity (true life in Christ) to approach our eternal holy and Almighty God and Father. But also, in saving us He affirms His promise of human immortality. (John 3:16-17; Rom.6:23b) Again, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). So, in the first instance, we surrender to God and His Love so as to be saved and granted the gift of immortal life through Christ thus becoming God’s children in His eternal spiritual family. (Gen.1:26-27)

Second, God has made Jesus Heir of all things, for the “creation the whole universe” was done through His Son. (John 1:1-4) The word ‘universe’ means more than the physical creation, for the passage goes on to say, “He upholds all things by His powerful Word.” By using the words “uphold all things,” the passage speaks of maintenance and continuity (upholding) of something by His powerful Word. What is that something? It is God’s Kingdom in which Christ is its King. (1 Tim.6:14-15; Rev.17:14) God’s Kingdom is where God rules by His power. What is God’s Kingdom? It is His whole domain consisting of both the physical and spiritual realms. (Eph.6:12) Second, we surrender to His whole Kingdom and sovereign power.

The Universe Brought into Existence by Jesus as Creator – John 1:1-4

Third, in giving up His Son for us, He shows He Loves us more than He Loves Himself. (Rom.8:32; 5:8; John 15:13) This action of Love is shocking to express to such degree to say the least. It is hard to even imagine. Yet God’s nature and way of life is defined with one word, LOVE! The Bible states categorically, “God is Love,” nothing more and nothing less. (1 John 4:16). We may speak of its breadth, height, width, and length. (Eph.3:18) His Love is never quantifiable for its infinity. Job asked, “Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?”

Since God is Love, it is impossible for Him to harbor let alone conjure any evil intent towards humans because it would be against His intrinsic Love-nature to do so. However, God will never accommodate nor give shelter to sin and self-centeredness, and exacts punishment and retribution for perpetrators. (Psa.78:10; Jer.32:23) Through the prophet Jeremiah, God declares His Love for humanity with this promise, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jer.29:11-12). His motive toward us is pure and perfect beyond description.

Is it possible that such a God exists – whose plan for us is totally and absolutely positive without negativity? The Scriptures tell us, “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy” (1 Pet.1:15). Paul said, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to Love one another. If you Love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law (spiritual gravity/Love)” (Rom.13:8). Through Christ’s mediation as humanity’s Savior and High Priest, we become the righteousness of God through the Spirit living within us who empowers us for a life of holy Love. (2 Cor.5:21; Rom.8:1-2; 1 Cor.3:16) Yes, it is to our Loving God and Father that we surrender our lives to His care and providence in confidence.

Fourth and finally, in Jesus we see “the express radiance of God’s glorious nature.” And He has been made to “sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” In other words, Jesus is God, as the Father and the Spirit is God, being intrinsically part of the Triune Godhead. (Matt.28:19-20) That’s to say, there is no higher Being than the One Creator God Himself to whom we have been asked to surrender our lives and future destiny.

Why is the surrendered life necessary for human salvation? It is necessary because the fallen Adamic Humanity from which all mankind have descended and born and thereby have inherited the sin-condition with its satanic rebellious heart and mind. It’s from our fallen existence that we incorrigibly cannot submit to the Loving will of God, and much worst act as a barrier to all the good blessings God has promised through His Son we have covered above. (Heb.1:2-3; Rom.8:29)

The rebellious spirit was inherited from Satan when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command in the Garden of Eden by eating of the forbidden fruit. They fell to the devil’s temptation and deception. (Gen.3:1-6) It was and is Satan’s way of trying to stop the divine blessing that is ours through inheritance in Christ, which we have seen above. The surrendered life is empowered by God’s Spirit who changes the status quo and defeat the power which energizes rebellion and sin with the divine Love and all God’s blessing! Paul was inspired to write this about Love, the opposite of rebellion, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). He says further, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Cor.3:16).

Having covered the four reasons and purpose for the surrendered life above, here is the take-away and wonder of God’s Love for us as it concerns the surrendered life: God imputes and assigns the saving work Jesus has already done for humanity upon us, thus, enabling believers to live the surrendered life in Christ. This spells out the doctrine of substitution, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21). Scriptures tell us further, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom.8:1). Yes, in Jesus’ new “Immanuel humanity,” a person is enabled through the Spirit (Love) and made to live the surrendered life. That is to say, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col.1:27).

The surrendered human life was inaugurated by Jesus Himself when He appeared as the Immanuel (“God with us”) to carry out His Father’s purpose for Him, “I’m here to do Your will, O God, the way it’s described in your Book” (Heb.10:7, The Message). To do God’s will and live the surrendered life – it is a life of miraculous proportion where we become recipient in the divine sanctuary of Christ’s Person: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col.1:27; 1 Cor.3:16; Heb.4:14-16)).

As fallen humans we will never be capable of living the surrendered life alone through human effort. Even our human desire and aspiration cannot measure up, let alone perform the task required. Scriptures tell us this, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zech.4:6). Yes, Jesus has taken our place and lived the surrendered life for us – just as He underwent the incarnation in order to take upon Himself our fallen humanity and die in our place and redeem us. (Isa.7:14; John 3:16)

That is the only way to live the surrendered life – “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col.1:27). Human believers must come to exist in the light of Christ’s life. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Paul said, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (human might and power)” (Gal.5:18). Paul said as true believers and authentic Christians we are led by the Spirit, not the flesh. (Rom.8:9)

For many people today, the word ‘surrender’ conveys a negative inference and meaning. For them it indicates the negative portrayal of “giving up” one’s rights and freedoms, like the freedom of expression, worship, and human civil rights. Many people who live in nations that have authoritarian systems of governance see surrender as a form of subjugation where the people’s rights are trampled upon. Sadly and painfully, it is a life lived in constant fear and intimidation.

However, we are not referring to surrender in the context of human relationships, but the spiritual relationship with the Triune God who said, “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for” (Jer.29:11). Yes, truly the Godly surrendered life is the doorway to the life of true freedom in Christ we have covered in the four points above.

*Prayer is A Solemn One-On-One Spiritual Love Dialogue Between a Person and God the Father*

Farewell for now,

**Kiang P. Lee** (Your Servant In Christ)

*Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)*

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN HUMAN LIFE, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings Friends! In celebrating the season of Pentecost, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the role of the Holy Spirit, since it was on the Day of Pentecost when Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit was given to humanity. Jesus promised His followers, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-18).

There are a couple of important points to be mindful about Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will remain with Jesus’ followers ‘forever.’ Therefore, they will not feel empty or abandoned even if He (Jesus) left them physically. For Jesus had earlier intimated about His impending death to His disciples. (Matt.16:21) His followers would be aware of the Spirit’s presence in their lives for He will guide them in the truth and true path of life.

That being said, to say that the work of the Holy Spirit is an indispensable part of the Christian life, is a gross understatement to say the least. For the Christian life has no legs to stand on without the Holy Spirit, plain and simple. (Rom.8:9) Yet, about half (49%) of all who say they are Christian do not believe the Holy Spirit is real, according to the research group called “Barna Group” (https://www.barna.org). It also found that “Americans are constantly trying to figure out how to make sense of biblical teachings in light of their daily experiences,” without realizing it’s the absence of the Holy Spirit which leaves this vacuum in their Christian life. Yet, the realization of the Spirit’s presence was one of the signs Jesus gave His followers: “…the world cannot receive (Him), because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17-18). In other words, Jesus will never leave them for Jesus and the Spirit are One in the Triune Godhead.

Let’s discuss this vital aspect and see what exactly is the role and work of the Spirit in the Christian’s daily journey. There are many facets of His work, but we’ll discuss His basic foundational role in this post.

The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe and receive in Jesus as their personal Savior sent by the Father to be mankind’s eternal Mediator. (Act.2:38-39; John 3:16) Jesus is the One who opens the door for the Holy Spirit to enter human life once more. For since the fall of Adam about four thousand years before, the way to the Spirit’s presence was sealed off as pictured by the mighty angel who stopped them from gaining access to the Tree of Life which symbolized and represented the Holy Spirit. We read this utterly despondent time for Adam and Eve, “The LORD God therefore banished him (Adam) from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the Garden of Eden, to guard the way to the Tree of Life” (Gen.3:23-24).

Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given as a gift, which Jesus as the Immanuel, inaugurated at His baptism at the hands of John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Here, we see Jesus was baptized for humanity’s forgiveness and repentance. Recall, after Jesus’ baptism the heavens had opened signifying the open door which the Spirit was given to join humanity again beginning with Jesus, when the Father uttered those welcoming words for all humanity, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I Love; with Him I am well pleased.” (Matt.3:17). Yes, and the Father makes the same pronouncement to all who receive Jesus as Savior and are baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

Paul gives us this beautiful picture of what the Spirit does as He enters the door Jesus opened for humanity: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16; also John 7:37-39; 1 John 4:13; 1 Cor.6:19, NLT). What does the Spirit do as He dwells in the life of a believer? The role and work of the Spirit is to make “Holy” by sanctifying and bring the Love and life of God to human beings.

Note what Paul said, believing human beings are made temples for the indwelling Holy Spirit. A temple is a place of worship where God and humans meet. The Bible says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Rom.8:9). Yes, Jesus is our heavenly temple where He is High Priest who mediates for us, and on earth He is also High Priest of the earthly temple of the human hearts of His people (the Church). This tells us that God is Trinitarian, so, you cannot have the Holy Spirit without Christ, and you cannot have Christ without the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of the Spirit is to unify believing humans to Jesus, who in turn unifies us to the Father.

*Dove – Symbol of The Holy Spirit (Wiki Commons)*

Jesus told the disciples about the role of the Spirit, “I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you” (John 16:12-15).

Yes, the Spirit’s sole purpose is to reveal Jesus, for Jesus is the revelation of God’s glory in humans. The Spirit does not glorify Himself to humans (“He will not speak on His own”), instead, He glorifies Jesus to humans. His purpose is to reveal all that Jesus means to a person in as far as God’s purpose and destiny for every single person.

The role of the Spirit is to guide and support human beings to become true believers of Jesus and becoming like Him in our earthly sojourn and journey. Paul said, “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor.11:1). Jesus said, “The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace!” (John 14:26-27, MSG). The operative words are to “make everything plain to you.” So, the Holy Spirit is our Mentor who counsels us in the Loving ways of Jesus and the Father.

Recall what one of the New Covenant provisions affords us, “And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already” (Heb.8:11, NLT). John reinforces the work of the Spirit in this regard, “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and He lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what He teaches is true–it is not a lie. So just as He has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ” (1 John 2:27, NLT). Look, can another human reveal what your personal calling in God’s plan for you? No human can do that, only the Spirit can and will do it, for it is His work to reveal your gift that’s tied to your individual calling in Christ.

*The Tri-Personal God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Always at Work to Bring Man to Immortality. Rublev’s Famous Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)*

Let us ask, who is Jesus fundamentally and effectively to those who believe and receive Him? He is the first human ever who lived a sinless life, and now exists in His resurrected, glorified, immortalized human/divine form. When Jesus lived, and was crucified, resurrected, and ascended back to be with the Father in heaven, He took our humanity with Him, and glorified it and made it part of God’s divine species made immortal children forever. Jesus made this possible because He was and is always homoousiosly part of the Triune Godhead in heaven.

Jesus was the prophesied Immanuel, God in the flesh, for the purpose of rescuing and making humanity into the divine image of Jesus in the Triune Godhead. (Gen.1:26-27; Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23; Rom.8:29) He is the example the Father want for humans to emulate so humans may enter into His Loving presence by becoming glorious and immortal themselves like His Son. Hence, we read Paul saying, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom.8:29-30, NASB). Yes, Jesus is the first human being to be made immortal among the many who will follow Him to eternal life.

The Son stands first in the line of humanity God restored and fashioned in His image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) Jesus is the only human who was glorified and made immortal, and the role of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus’ reality happen across the board in all of humanity. Paul affirms this, saying, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:11).

God reveals how He will make this reality we see in Jesus happen, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor.6:16; Lev.26:12). What this says is God will Himself guide and walk us to the reality we have in Jesus. And how does He do it, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bibles reveals “We are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16a). Paul says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?” (1 Cor.6:19, NLT; also, 1 Cor.3:16).

But here is the crossover many cannot and have not fathomed, including Christians: If God walks in us, and He is holy and sinless, then it stands to reason that the believer is also holy and sinless. You see, God and sin cannot co-exist. Can virtue live alongside sin? Can righteousness and wickedness live together under the same roof? Can light and darkness be bedfellows? The two conditions are poles apart. Nothing could be more diametrically opposite from each other, and the exact antithesis of each other. So, either one has to go! You cannot have both, it’s not tenable. Paul’s closing words in his discourse with the Romans is, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else?” (Rom.8:31-32). Can the sin condition stand against us? No!

If the Spirit is “Holy” and lives in man as His temple, then it’s logical to conclude that man is also “holy.” The light of God’s divine Love snuffs out all darkness. This is the role of the Holy Spirit – He is called “Holy” because that is what He is and does. All He touches, He makes “Holy.” Paul tells us this, “I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit” (Rom.15:16, NLB). Yes, He is the “sanctifier” of human life.

Let me give you a metaphor to help explain this. It’s not perfect, but I hope it serves the purpose. Think of a dark room in your home. You enter the room and close the door behind you. You can’t see a thing, because it’s as dark as black can be. You move and feel your hand along the wall to the light switch, and turned the lights on. What just happened? Electricity turned the bulb on, and now you can see in the dark. Yes, but more than that, what really happened was light swallowed up darkness and made darkness disappear and became ineffectual and powerless. Darkness disappeared in the face of light. Light is virtue, while sin is darkness.

In the same way, as saved humanity who have received Jesus as Savior, whenever we come into God’s presence through Christ by the Spirit’s power, we come before the light of God where there’s absolutely no darkness or sin. Sin has been taken care of once for all time through Christ who took and glorified our humanity within Himself. Jesus is the true Light. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:13). We appear before God’s light, clothed with the light of Christ’s glorious life.

*Light Swallows the Darkness of Space and Unveils the Earth in Ever Increasing Brightness of the Rays of the Sun (Wiki Commons)*

What is the spiritual mechanics whereby this reality is made to happen in the believer who is made forever “holy” in the Father’s presence? Think about this, if the Spirit is intrinsically of one substance and nature with the Father and the Son in heaven (existing as One Godhead of the Trinity from eternity), and He (Spirit) also lives and walks in the believer as His temple, then it’s logical to conclude that wherever the Spirit is the believer is with Him – vice-versa in heaven or upon earth – in God’s holy presence in heaven and the human heart on earth. Yes, God’s earthly temple is the heart of mankind. (1 Cor.6:19) It is not some ornate bulding or church cathedral. If sin can never prevail with God, then man also is holy and is in a sinless state in Jesus.

There’s something else that we may not have realized, since Jesus has glorified our humanity in Himself and brought us into the life of the Trinity, then the Spirit automatically becomes part of mankind by this inherent union. Man was spiritually birthed into the divine by Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, and through the doctrine of substitution, when we express faith in the Messiah we are likewise reborn spiritually just as Jesus explained to Nicodemus. (John 3:5-8; Eph.1:13) Paul said, The ultimate expression of this spiritual birth will occur in the future resurrection from mortal to immortality at Jesus’ second coming.

Paul shows us, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies” (1 Cor.15:51-53).

Therefore, the role of the Spirit is to constantly and forever transport the human believer to the heavenly courts before Jesus and our heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer by bringing him or her before Jesus as High Priest, the very Personified Temple of His glorious body, in heaven. In turn, Jesus mediates all the inadequate human responses and shortcomings of the believer, and presents us before the Father perfect and acceptable every time, and forever! (Rom.8:26, 34; 2 Cor.5:17)

This is the ongoing process of salvation that never stops until God’s purpose in mankind is completed when we are resurrected to immortality like Jesus at His second coming. All of this is encapsulated in the words of Paul, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness (sinless) of God in Him” (2 Cor.5:21, NASB). This is the process of salvation we are forever experiencing in Jesus through the Spirit’s power.

One might say, “But I am human and I sin all the time.” Yes, that’s exactly the point of the Spirit’s role, we live in sin always because of our human nature inherited from fallen Adam, as a result “unholy.” If we have been made perfect at any point, then we won’t need the Holy Spirit, for the responsibility of the Spirit is for the very purpose of sanctifying, making “holy,” fallen (“unholy”) human beings. (John 16:8-11) And sanctification takes place only where trespasses exist. That’s why the Holy Spirit is given to man for the purpose of leading us to Jesus – because we are trespassers, period.

David said we have “secret sins” we cannot see and don’t know about, let alone repent of. (Psa.19:12) The point is not that we become perfect in this life, but that we trust in and are brought into the “Light” of Jesus’ glorified life where all darkness is extinguished instantly. If God should enlighten us to deal with something wrong about us, He will do so and grant us the repentance to confront, and forgiveness to resolve it. (2 Tim.2:25; Act.11:18) Man’s propensity to sin is no excuse to live licentiously, but to enlighten man of his need for a permanent Mediator in Jesus who has repented for us and died in our place, and through His Spirit sanctify us.

Trespasses are snuffed out like darkness is swallowed up by the light. Of course, this doesn’t give us license to do what we like and live irresponsibly (sin) – we do not commit sin because we know we are going to be forgiven anyway. Those who live like that are still living in darkness. No, the key is to maintain an ongoing attitude of repentance, realizing that we still sin even with our best efforts to live morally good lives. Recall that we are kept safe in Jesus’ prayer to daily seek the Father’s forgiveness because we live in our fallen and depraved humanity still, but daily making amends to our ways as repentant believers ought to. (Matt.6:12) If it were not for the Holy Spirit we would remain in our spiritually corrupt condition. Paul said, “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you” (Rom.8:9, NLT). This is the miraculous life believers are given the privilege to live in the Spirit’s move and power.

What a wonderful and beautiful life God our Father has brought to live in His Son Jesus empowered in the Holy Spirit. Be ever grateful and praise Him always!

Farewell for now,

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 Triunity. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. 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).

The Christian Faith As Spoken In the Nicene Creed

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

EXPERIENCING THE NEW CREATION, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings Friends! What is the most consequential and indispensable experience a human being can encounter? An experience which unmistakably generates a powerful, evocative, and determinative outcome for the profound and unequalled good towards the person affected by such an experience? The answer? Experiencing the New Creation. I do I mean?

Many believe that creation as we know it, (if we are to take the creation account of the Bible as reference) started and ended in the creation account outlined and recorded in the Book of Genesis. However, that may not be entirely true, since the Scripture tells us that God’s creation has not stopped since the creation of Adam and the earth and the whole universe. Rather, since God is the fountain of life, creation is an ongoing act of the Creator and continues to this day. You can say His occupation is to create. How wonderful to know that. It is wonderful to know that the crowning pinnacle of God’s physical creation is the human creature as outlined in the Genesis creation account. Humans were made in God’s likeness, endowed with freedom and responsibility. As such humans were allowed to enter into a relationship to conform to the divine will through the divine Love nature.

The episode of the human journey in Eden started well with Adam and Eve until the fall. (Gen.3:1-6) The disastrous act of disobedience brought the death sentence, not just for Adam, but all his descendants, the whole of mankind. Through Adam the human race died and cease to exist before God. Scripture tells us plainly, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23a). However, God is the God of the living, not the dead. Eden was a place that was entirely wrapped up in life because of God’s presence in it. Also, true life for God is not physical but spiritual. When Adam was created to carry God’s likeness, the Creator’s plan was that he and humans would be divinized in His spiritual image. (Gen.1:26-27) Hence, we read in the second part the verse from Romans, Paul was inspired to say, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23b). So, here we read the divinization of humanity, God’s true likeness. But divinization or immortalization of humanity is not possible where death has reigned in humanity from Adam’s fall. And Paul said, “Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam” (Rom.5:14).

Scripture tells us about this curse of death and what it does to God, “For there is no mention of You (God) in death; who can praise You from the grave” (Psa.6:5). A fallen human being cloaked in sin from Adam’s disobedience, is as good as dead and not part of the living before God. Again we read, “Do You (God) work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise You?” (Psa.88:10). Obviously, there’s a stark day and night contrast in the context of the dead and the living. The prophet Isaiah seals this obvious fate which humanity faces, “For the dead cannot praise You; they cannot raise their voices in praise. Those who go down to the grave can no longer hope in Your faithfulness” (Isa.38:18).

By speaking of the grave and death, it actually refers to a person’s spiritual demise, not physical. The physical body is the vessel which houses the true spiritual person who is accountable to freely and personally assume and embrace God’s very image and likeness. (Gen.1:27-28) Human beings live a life of freedom and responsibility before the Creator. We see what prompted God to plan to create a new spiritual humanity through a second Adam, one that is alive not dead, full of life and capable of Loving. Who is the Second Adam? He is none other than the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.

So, what has come of God’s purpose for humanity? Through the prophet Isaiah, God is quoted as saying this, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’” (Isa.46:10). So, God’s primary purpose for creating humans in His likeness must go on for God’s purpose cannot be thwarted as we read from Scripture. (Gen.1:26-27) Because the Creator is the God of the living, His creation cannot end with Adam and his fateful decision of rebellion and mankind’s ensuing demise. So, God as the fountain of life finds a way for a fresh start. What is that way? God as Creator has to perform the second act of the creation of mankind, and to commit back on course His purpose of creating humanity in His image, which essentially is to impart life, and ultimately immortal life as God’s supreme gift. (John 3:16)

He planned to create the Second Adam through the gifting of His Son who would personify the Second Adam. For who will reverse the effects of what the first Adam had done by bringing death to humanity as a whole. This second act of creation saw God assigning His own Son to personify the Second Adam by being born a human being through Mary His human mother. An angel had spoken to Joseph, Jesus’ earthly foster father, and explained that Jesus would be conceived through Mary by the Spirit’s power. It was God’s doing, listen, “But as he (Joseph) considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt.1:20-21). So, Jesus’ true Father was God the Father.

We read this beautiful prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel” (Isa.7:14). And this speaks of the Incarnation of Jesus in the second act of creation of human beings. The Incarnation is the coming of the second Person of the Godhead, the Son of God, to earth to assume His humanity as Jesus Christ. He is the Second ‘Immanuel’ (“God with us”) Adam. (Matt.1:23) Thus, God as our Creator and Father initiates a new beginning by creating the new humanity through the Incarnation of His Son. Thus, Jesus retained His full deity and became the perfect human, and worthy of being mankind’s Savior, Redeemer, and High Priest in heaven.

This Incarnation process does not stop with Jesus, for the new species of human beings was the Father’s plan of rescuing humanity from death and recreate the new humanity through Jesus His Son. How does this awe-inspiring event of experiencing this second creation take place in humanity? This miraculous event happens whenever a person comes to Christ and believes and receives Him as personal Savior. A new creation comes into existence every time a human being receives Jesus as Redeemer of life. A person undergoes a miracle from God in a brand new creation and the person is created all over again in Christ. Jesus is now the person’s new life, we have been recreated in Him.

Paul said, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Cor.5:17). Human beings still have self awareness, so still maintain their individuality as a human personality with unique gifts, but clothed and fashioned in Christ’s likeness, in the light of His life. Paul said of humanity, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (‘it’ as referring figuratively to the ‘church’ or saved humanity as a whole). (1 Cor.12:27).

Imagine how Adam was created in an instant from the dust of the earth as the Genesis creation account lays out. In like manner, God newly creates humans instantly by being formed not from dust but from the Spirit. Paul said it this way, “The first man Adam became a living (human) being;” the last Adam (Jesus) a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor.15:45, Italics mine). In Christ a person becomes a true newly created spiritual human in Christ. In the Gospel of John, the Scripture refers to this creative activity of God through the term, “born again of the Spirit” (John 3:6). The person is no longer dead, but living and alive in the Spirit’s power and work.

Our physical body from the first Adam that is fallen in spirit and will end in the grave due to sin, and there’s the newly created human formed from the Spirit of Christ who lives forever. Let’s read what Paul said, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:9-11).

Many have the mistaken perception that our physical body is the ‘person.’ It is not. The physical body is the vessel, the receptacle, the vehicle, which houses the newly created person formed from God’s Spirit as we read earlier from Paul. (1 Cor.15:45)

What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the triune Godhead? (Matt.28:18-19) The role of the Holy Spirit is to reveal and make Christ real and tangible in the newly created human being who has given his/her life to Jesus. Jesus explained the Spirit’s role as follows, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you” (John 16:12-15).

It is vital to correctly understand the role of the Holy Spirit. His sole purpose in the newly created human being is to “glorify Jesus,” that is to reveal and make known all that Christ is and can become to the believer, that is all. Paul affirms this truth by saying, “For those (human beings) God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom.8:29). The Spirit will not promote Himself (John 16:13), rather His role is to ensure Jesus is glorified and worshipped in the newly created human so that one’s personhood is founded in Christ alone. At times we personally but erroneously assign roles for the Spirit in our lives and ends in disappointing outcomes. This is due to our misunderstanding of the Spirit’s role. The passage shows that His only and sole purpose is to receive revelation from Jesus and the Father and make them known to humanity (John 16:15).

This second and new act of creation is symbolized through the ritual of baptism where after being nailed with Jesus upon His cross (Gal.2:20), the believer’s dead past is metaphorically buried in the watery grave of baptism. Then the believer upon rising from the watery grave of baptism, picturing Jesus’ own resurrection, figuratively rise as a newly created species of humanity having our existence in Christ empowered by the Spirit’s presence. Paul said this, “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was” (Rom.6:4-5).

Recall, immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit descended and shone upon Jesus. (Matt.3:13, 16-17). Note V.17, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” This is the voice of the Father from heaven to Jesus, and by extension to every new human creation arising from a person’s faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection as depicted in the ritual of baptism.

Paul told the Galatians what ought to be our experience as Jesus’ followers, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal.2:20; 1Pet.2:24).

This is a new creation altogether. In Christ a human being enters into a creative process of the new humanity made in Christ’s image. Just as God miraculously formed the first Adam from the dust of the earth, God creates the new human in Christ into Christ’s very image. We read inspiring passage from Paul, “For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom.8:29). Just as the Son took humanity’s sinful nature upon Himself in order to destroy sin, so humans take on the Son’s new and perfect humanity to form the newly created human species. We can call the new human, the “Immanuel humanity.” Jesus’ messianic name was “Immanuel” which means “God with us” (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14). So, Christ’s new humanity can be called the “Immanuel (‘God with us’) humanity.”

Hence, if you were to answer the question posed to us at the beginning of this post about the most consequential and indispensable experience a human being can encounter, what would be your answer? I hope you will answer with me that it is experiencing the second new creation of God which He is performing through His Son, Jesus, the Second Adam.

Listen to the revelation of our Savior’s position in God’s order of creation. Before Jesus’ ascended back to His Father in heaven, He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matt.28:18). Are you wrestling with authority in whatever form in your life? In Paul’s final words of thanksgiving and prayer to the Ephesians, Paul said this about Jesus and the awesome future which awaits those of the new humanity created in Him:

“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church (new ‘Immanuel’ humanity), which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Eph.1:15-23).

Paul’s admonishment is that we “may know Him (Jesus) better…His authority, power, and dominion, and to know the hope of our calling and the glorious inheritance” that awaits us.

From the above passage we can surmise that there is so much to know and get to know about Jesus and the meaning of life in the new humanity in Christ’s image that God is creating in us. (Rom.8:29). So, let us not take Jesus’ position in God’s order of the universe and all power for granted. But meditate on Paul’s prayer and get to know our elder Brother and our High Priest Jesus better and better every day.

Farewell for now,

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 Triunity. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. 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).

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

*The Christian Faith As Spoken In the Nicene Creed*

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

HOW TO LOVE GOD COMPLETELY, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings once more, Friends! The most important command in the Bible is about the human Love for God. God gave humanity the most important command when Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mar.12:30). In the book of Exodus, God told Israel, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exo.20:3). In other words, we are to be Loving God unquestionably above all else.

Let us get one thing straight right off the bat, without giving a second thought, in our fallen state of existence in sin, it is not possible for humans to keep this command. The Bible states, “Can anyone really say that his conscience is clear, that he has gotten rid of his sin?” (Pro.20:9, GNT). For emphasis, “No one in this world always does right” (Eccl.7:20, CEV) The prophet Hosea in indicting Israel and by extension all humanity said, “Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel,for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land” (Hos.4:1, NLB). Yes, the indictment is clear: “there is no faithfulness or steadfast love” for God.

Realizing we are living through devastating times with the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the threat of a wider escalation, the Covid-19 pandemic, the unprecedented insurrection in the US Capitol, the extraordinary effect of climate change and warming of the planet, the loss of arctic ice and glacial melt, the rising sea levels and its effect upon the most vulnerable peoples and nations, the increase in droughts and natural disasters like hurricanes and flooding, higher wildlife extinction rates, human conflicts over political aspirations, the rich getting richer and the poor poorer, racial animosity and hatred, violence and abuse in society, the disintegration of the family unit as the backbone of a healthy social order, and we could go on and fill a book about all the pressing issues facing humanity today.

Yet, the answer to all our human dilemma may not be as far-fetched as we imagine. This is what the Bible quotes God as saying, or more precisely promising, His human creation, “The Lord says, “I will rescue those who Love Me. I will protect those who trust in My Name. When they call on Me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them My salvation” (Psa.91:14-16, NLT). Here, we read about God promising to rescue humanity, and He tells us where it must begin: LOVE! The passage states, “I will rescue those who Love Me. I will protect those who trust in My Name. When they call on Me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.” Yes, it is about Love. But do we Love God enough to move Him to come to our aid?

*“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”*

The Love command states, “Love Him with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength?” Is this possible at all? We can live pretentious or fake lives, but God knows our motives and heart, saying, “But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve” (Jer.17:10, NLT).

“I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve…” That is sensational, that just squash all our hopes, for who can be justified before God? Paul said this about all mankind, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). The “glory of God” simply means who and what God is in His holy divine Being of Love. (Luk.1:49) God’s holiness is immeasurable because His Love is unfathomable. (1 John 4:8; Psa.111:9) So, if in our depraved state of existence, we fall short of His glory and Love, how can we possibly Love God who is all holy in His Love?

Yes, why did God give mankind a command that humans could not possibly follow in the first instance? But that is exactly the point, the command was given to be followed, not disobeyed. Doesn’t anyone realize, most of all God Himself, that as long as humans exist in their fallen state of existence inherited from Adam it is not possible for humans to Love God as He would expect?

Or, is it possible that God was echoing a harmonious relationship which once existed with humanity from the beginning in Eden at the creation of man before the fall of Adam? Adam and Eve were created in God’s likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) That means, to exist in God’s Love likeness and image. So, from the start, our first parents lived in an environment of Love, freedom, grace and harmony in the Garden of Eden. So, what happened to that Loving existence between God and our first parents (humanity)?

Yes, why would God issue the Love commandment which once was? In a previous post, entitled “The Cross” (http://bulamanriver.net/29118), I mentioned that according to ancient patristic writings, in creating Adam from the dust of the ground, God clothed them in a ‘glorious garments’ which gave them a form of extrinsic immortality. Eden was the celestial garden God planted for our first parents (humanity), to have an ongoing Love relationship. As such God could not have subjected our first parents to death in any way, shape, and form, because God created them according to His likeness, and that likeness is life…in truth, everlasting life or immortality. (Gen.1:26-27; Gen.5:1)

Death was alien to and never part of God’s image. Our God is the God of the living, not the dead. Death is synonymous with sin, and God is all holy and without sin. (Rom.6:23) God declares, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet.1:16; Lev.11:44). God alone possesses intrinsic immortal life in Himself and has the power to impart the same to whomever He chooses. And God has promised to confer intrinsic immortality to humanity through His Son, Jesus Christ. (John 3:16-17; 36). Paul indicates to the Corinthians that there can exists different kinds of bodies for various life-giving organisms, whether physical or metaphysical, as determined by God the Creator of all life. (1 Cor.15:38)

Paul Asserts We will be Clothed in the Garment of Intrinsic Immortality in Jesus Christ Some day in Future, For No Sin Has power over Him, Unlike Adam’s Garment in Eden. For Jesus Is God’s Eternal High Priest who Forever Consecrates Us Before the Father (Gal.3:27; Rom.13:14; Heb.4:14-16; 5:1, 6).

The verbal evidence and undertone from the Genesis creation account show that Adam was created to reflect God in every sense of His divine substance (eternity), and nature (Love) (Gen.1:26-27; Isa.40:28-31; Job 9:32; 1 John 4:8) God nowhere states that He created our first parents and subjected them to death, in truth the opposite was true. Adam was created in God’s eternal likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) But they were warned about death, but never knew its reality for they never saw nor had ever experienced it. They never had the notion of what death was, much less its deteriorating impact in their universal physical reality. (Gen.2:17)

It was not until they disobeyed and sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit that death suddenly appeared and came into play. For Scriptures tell us, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). So, in the second part of that passage, the Scripture holds out hope for humanity in Christ, despite our state of alienation through Adam’s fall.

The glorious garment also gave them the power of the divine Love to exist with God in Eden, the Garden of God. However, the glorious garment had a inherent shortcoming, it became powerless and vanishes instantly when sin is committed by the person adorned in it. Consequently, when our parents disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, their garment vanished instantly. They were left powerless and unable to relate with God in Eden. What happened next was they saw and realized they were ‘naked.’ (Gen.3:7) So, true nakedness is spiritual, not physical. They were emptied of their extrinsic eternity which allowed them to exist in God’s presence in Eden. General Douglas McArthur insightfully said, “It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”

The garment that gave them a form of extrinsic immortality disappeared and was no more. They were now mere mortals, at which point God uttered those most foreboding words, not before, “For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen.3:19). In other words, death has now become part of the human reality. It was then that ‘time’ as we know it, with its natural movement and mobility, began its countdown for our now mortal parents. Today, we are six to seven thousand years removed from that fateful day of Adam’s disobedience when his glorious garment had vanished due to sin, and he started living life as a pure mortal human being with his wife Eve, subject to death because of sin. (Rom.6:23)

*1 John 4:16-19 “God is love! Whoever lives in love lives in God. And God in them.*“

Not only did they lose their ‘glorious garment’ but most importantly they lost the ‘miraculous life’ they had known and experienced in Eden since their creation. To exist in the midst of God’s Love is to experience life in the innermost being of the divine grace which erupts in miraculous celestial manifestation. But now, God says, “By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made” (Gen.3:19)

Yes, the miraculous life was no more for they were expelled from Eden, and had to labor for a living, and by extension all humanity has been doing so ever since. In the previous life in Eden, they were given to manage the Garden estate of Eden which God had planted for them. (Gen.2:15) It had wild life and many other livestock and life forms with ‘helpers’ to maintain the estate. (Gen.2:19) So, it was no ordinary backyard garden or orchard.

Before their banishment from Eden, God had to first perform a most vital act of Love. God clothed Adam and Eve in cloaks of animal skin to cover the shame of their nakedness. The animal skin depicted animal life which were slain for ‘sacrificial’ reasons in atonement for sin, as appeasement for their betrayal of God’s Love. Prior to this, death was unknown and non-existent in Eden, for the eternal God was the life of Eden. Eden was the picture of life in the pure everlasting sense of the word. This sacrificial act saw the first death known to humanity enacted and recorded in Eden to picture God’s act of human restitution at a point in time in future.

Death was and still is anathema to God. Death stands as affront to God, and complete contrast with who God is and what He stands for. However, this death through the demise of animals pictured what God sadly had to, and with heavy but faithful heart, in anticipation of a future eventuality – the offering of His only Son, the promised Messiah, who would sacrifice Himself in order to atone for and cover the spiritual nakedness (sins) of mankind as a whole. (1 Cor.15:45-49; John 3:16-17).

Later, through Moses and the Levitical priesthood, God enacted the sacrificial system in Israel. The system was an ongoing narrative in Israel’s history to picture God’s future redemptive work through the coming Messiah, His only Son, Jesus Christ. God, beyond everything, in condoning the death of His Son, spells the grandeur of God’s immense Love for humanity.

“For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17).

So, we see that a Loving divine relationship with God was very much part of human life and experience through our first parents. To assume the fall of Adam and Eve occurred immediately after their creation, as commonly postulated, and they never did tasted nor experienced God’s deepest, wholesome and wholehearted Love, would presume the enemy (Satan) is mightier than the Creator, which would be absurd and sacrileges to say the least. (Isa.45:21-24; Isa.44:8)

No, nothing could be further from the truth, for our first parents were sustained in God’s immeasurable Love and affectionate care for an indeterminable while living the miraculous life in Eden. Then eternity later (for ‘time’ was meaningless and irrelevant), in that fateful moment of weakness through Satanic deception, they sinned. (Gen.3:1-6, 11, 23)

Since they had a form of extrinsic immortality through their God-given glorious garment, time was immaterial in their Edenic existence. Only after sinning, and the subsequent vanishing of the celestial garment, did they fully realized the consequence of their action, and their now susceptible mortality. For now, they experienced how time and space had suddenly compressed upon them like some strange bodily sensation. They now could feel grief, pain, and even bleed to death. For now, the miraculous life of Eden was all but lost and would await the fulfillment of God’s promise of the Messiah, the second Adam, to bring restitution. (1 Cor.15:45-49; 1 Thess.4:16-17) Banishment from Eden was to be their cursed future existing under satanic influence, in the world outside the confines of Eden. (Gen.3:1-6, 22-23; 2 Cor.4:4)

*Adam & Eve Departing Eden Unclothed of Their Glorious Garment, But Now Clothed In Animal Skin to Hide The Shame of Their Nakedness*

When Jesus, the Second Adam, appeared on the scene about four millennia later, His mission was to reconstitute something important which was part of humanity in the Garden of Eden before the fall – the Love relationship which existed between God and humanity which He authored in Eden initially through our first parents. To restore this Love relationship, Jesus mission was to restore God’s Love and immortality in humanity – only this time Jesus’ intrinsic and not the Adamic extrinsic immortality of Eden, and the power of the Spirit who manifest God’s Love in the human heart! (1 Cor.15:45; 1 Cor.3:16)

Here, we see how Jesus began His mission and the first thing He did was give passage for the Holy Spirit to reenter human life once more since Adam in Eden. He did this when He was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, then He inaugurated the gift of the Holy Spirit, the very Personification of divine Love. (Matt.3:13-17) Jesus said a person has to be reborn of the Spirit if he/she is to be saved. (John 3:5-7) The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Tri-Personal God (Trinity) and is the power and presence of God’s Love in humanity. (Matt.28:18-20; Rom.5:5) Through the Holy Spirit, humanity will be given the gift of intrinsic immortality in Christ at His second coming. (Rom.8:11)

In Eden, Adam and Eve were empowered by the Holy Spirit, and God’s Love, as symbolized through the “Tree of Life.” They ate of the fruits of the Tree of Life which empowered them with God’s Love and the glorious garment which clothed and covered them with a form of extrinsic immortality. The fruits as revealed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, were actions empowered by the Love of God through the Spirit. It was God’s Spirit in them that gave them the power to Love God through the application of the Spirit’s fruits. (2 Tim.1:7) The fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit) is available to humanity today: you can read about it at my post: “Gifts Are Magnets of the Love Personality” at: http://bulamanriver.net/27435).

In the post you will read about the fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit) which we feed upon every day in life’s human journey upon earth. (You can read about the fruits of God’s Spirit (Love) in the appendix below). Humans must feed and feast upon the Spirit’s Love-fruits who resides in the hearts of humans to give them spiritual energy to defeat sin and be empowered to relate with the Creator and our fellow humans in Love. (1 Cor.13:1-13; 1 Cor.3:16; Mar.12:30-31)

If we are not being sustained in the Spirit by imbibing of the fruits of the Tree of Life, it could be said as a situation of dereliction on our part. And sadly, this was so with our parents in Eden. Our parent’s wrong was more a sin of omission than we realize. They stood under and fed off the tree of the forbidden fruit, and failed to eat of the fruits of the Tree of Life. The sin of omission leads to the sin of commission. The devil will deceive and tempt us to abstain from feeding ourselves of the Love-fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit), and feed upon the tree of human knowledge of good and evil which promotes the life of autonomy from God. So, Love is not just God’s name (noun), it defines His activity in His creation as seen through the Spirit’s Love-fruits (verb), and be empowered to relate with God in Love.

*The Tree of Life, Metaphor for The Holy Spirit and God’s Love-Fruits (Rom.5:5)*

Paul said this about what Jesus our Savior did for humanity, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal.3:27). Paul is saying that when we affirm our belief in Jesus as personal Savior and are baptized (a ritual ceremony of an outward sign of inward belief and change), we are actually putting on and being clothed in a spiritual garment, and that Garment is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Paul added, “Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom.13:14).

Yes, note the new Glorious Garment is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. If we are clothed in Christ Himself, then we already possess immortality in us, for He is the eternal Son within the Tri-Personal Godhead (Trinity), and He immortalized our humanity through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The fuller intrinsic immortality will become humanity’s reality at Jesus’ second coming. (1 Cor.15) Paul uttered the most profound truth of this mystery and our reality in Christ, saying, “For He (God) raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus” (Eph.2:6, NLT). Isaiah prophesied saying, “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isa.61:10; also Rev.21:1-5).

This is not the garment in which Adam and Eve were robed in Eden which gave them extrinsic immortality but was powerless in the face of sin, but the true Glorious Garment of Jesus Himself who has defeated sin and death and brought true immortality to humanity. (Gen.3:6-7; John 5:21; Rom.8:11; Act.2:24; Rev.3:18; Rom.6:4) Yes, and side by side with the Garment of Jesus, the miraculous life is again the privilege to live as saved humans because of the Holy Spirit He has inaugurated on Pentecost. (Act.2:1, 38)

Yes, today in this mortal existence we have eternal life in each of us living the miraculous life because we are clothed in Christ. That’s to say, Christ lives and walks in us, as Paul assures the Galaltians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who Loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20). Thereby, we are empowered by Love through the Spirit (Love) to commune with God. Daily, Jesus mediates for mankind as our High Priest before the Almighty Father in the prayer of praise, grace, blessing and invocation. He taught us to pray for conciliation, “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matt.6:12, NLT).

The Scriptures tell us, “The Father Loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36; 6:47). The Garment of Jesus Himself can’t be compared to Adam’s glorious garment which was powerless and vanished in the face of sin. (Gen.3:6-7; Rev.3:18; Gal.2:20; Rom.6:4; Heb.4:15)

It is relevant to recount the parable of the wedding banquet as told by Jesus, “The kingdom of heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for His Son.” The custom in those days was for the one hosting the wedding feast—in this case, the king—to provide garments for the wedding guests. The King had “noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. Then the King told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness” (Matt.22:11-13). The wedding garment is metaphor for being clothed in the Garment of Jesus Christ, supplied by the Father. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and wellspring of Love and immortality. (John 3:36)

*Adam & Eve Banished from Eden in Coats of Animal Skin Garment (Gen.3:21)*

When Adam was banished from Eden, he was cut-off from the Holy Spirit (third Person of the Tri-Personal Godhead – Trinity) who was symbolized in the Tree of Life. (Gen.3:21-24) Without the Holy Spirit (Tree of Life) they were barren of the divine Love which fueled and empowered their relationship with God. It was not until the second Adam, Jesus Christ, appeared almost four thousand years later, that He reintroduced the Holy Spirit to humanity at His baptism in the Jordan. (Luk.24:49)

The Bible records Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in this way, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I Love; with Him I am well pleased.” (Matt.3:16-17). Then on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out upon the disciples and all of believing mankind as a whole. (Act.2:1-4; 38)

Today, humans can receive the divine Love which will give them the power to Love God. But they must receive Jesus as Savior to cleanse them spiritually of all sin, thus giving the Spirit (Love) passage to enter the human heart through Jesus’ mediation thus making His (Spirit’s) abode in human life possible. (1 Cor.6:19) This is a life of living faith in Jesus finished work of saving mankind.

*Jesus’ Resurrection Inaugurated Immortal Life For Humanity. Humans Are Adorned in His Glorious Garment Through His own Resurrection and Ascension*

Yes, the Holy Spirit is the very life of God Himself for He proceeds from the inner communion of the Father and the Son. He is the bond of Love in the Tri-Personal Being of God (Trinity). The last time when the Spirit communed with mankind in a real sense was in Eden with our first parents. Now, the Father reintroduces Him to mankind through His Son. It is in the Holy Spirit that humans have communion with the Father through Jesus Christ, the Messiah and second Adam. (1 Cor. 15:45-49) It is in the empowerment of this triune movement of God’s Tri-Personal Being that humans are given the power of Love, and the power to Love. We partake of the very life and light and Love which God is. That is what Christians believe and live by. (1 John 1:3; John 17:3, 21)

And this is where the relationship of Love with the divine Godhead (Trinity) starts. Some may imagine that God’s Love Command tells them God is self-absorbed and egomaniacal. Nothing could be further from the truth. For by giving us the Command to Love Him completely and totally, He was setting His sight upon us, not Himself. God, in His Love, lacks nothing. He does not need humanity to exist or fill any need, but mankind needs Him to restore us as a species with Love and immortality and dwell eternally in His Love.

Love is wholeness of and in itself and is never wanting nor incomplete, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). Love only knows how to give for He is the reservoir of bounty and abundance as the Creator of all life both seen and unseen. The vast universe, the earth and everything in it, proceeded from the utterance of His words. He says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it” (Psa.50:12). He goes on, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (Hag.2:8).

He is infinitely generous, and wants nothing less for mankind. The Love Command was God’s way of enabling humans to Love themselves impartially and not love with the human self-centered and egotistical heart. When we Love God completely and unreservedly in the Spirit’s power, He infuses and envelopes us in His unspeakable joy. Joy comes from a place of discovery of a person’s true celestial identity with and in the divine will and Love. So, my friends, let us take His Love command in its truest and purest form, as John attests, “And we have come to know and to believe the Love that God has for us. God is Love, and the one who remains in Love remains in God, and God remains in him” (1 John 4:16).

*Holy Spirit Inaugurated Into Humanity Through Jesus at His Baptism* *By John The Baptist*

Now that the Holy Spirit is made to reenter and reside in the saved heart of mankind made possible through Jesus’ messianic mediation. Paul tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself” (1 Cor.6:19, NLT). Paul said, “You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body” 1 Cor.6:20, Amplified Bible). Through the Holy Spirit, God says of humanity, “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people” (2 Cor.6:16). This is how the Love relationship (rather than the ‘Love Command’ in its ineffectual legalistic form) with the divine will is forged and made to move ahead in human reality.

Now, let us come back to the question which bears the title of this post, “How Do Humans Completely Love God?” Here is the plain answer, Jesus is the first human being who has Loved God completely without reservation. And because He has done so, humans can Love God in the identical completeness vicariously through Jesus. We cannot Love God completely on our own, for we are fallen human beings, but we do so because Jesus took and redeemed our humanity in Himself and has already made the Love relationship possible for us.

As Paul affirmed to the Corinthians, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made the righteousness of God through Christ” (1 Cor.5:21, NLB). How can human beings be made “the righteousness of God” unless it is possible for humans to Love God completely? Yes, both Love and righteousness are mutually inclusive attributes. You cannot have one without the other. God made it possible by attributing and assigning Jesus’ perfect life upon us so we can be clothed in Him and His Love and righteousness. This is the life of living faith by which we exist before God Almighty. God has given up His Son for humanity, so that through Him we can be redeemed from sin, and be reconciled to God. And that is how we are made to Love God completely – through Christ’s vicarious glorious life. Today, Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand in heaven as humanity’s High Priest ceaselessly mediating for us so that through Him a complete Love relationship between God and humanity may exist forever.

O how marvelously beautiful is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the finished work of salvation He has complete for humanity in Himself. All our praises must go to the great God Almighty, our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and our Helper the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever.

I will close with a word of encouragement from John, “God is Love. Whoever lives in Love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). Keep in mind, this is a life of faith, faith in the miraculous life where the Spirit manifests the divine Love in humanity. The Scripture says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose” (Phi.2:13).

Farewell for now,

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 Triunity. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. 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).

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

PENTECOST AND THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (GOLD) BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings Friends! As we approach the season of Pentecost we commemorate the birth of the New Testament church through the arrival of the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Act.1:1-4, 36-38) I would like to share the parable of Jesus which make Pentecost so meaningful to the Church as it embarks on its journey through the new dispensation of the Church as the Body of Christ. (Eph.1:22-23; Col.1:18) That parable is called the parable of the Bags of Gold. Elsewhere, it is called the parable the talents. Jesus’ parable of the “Bags of Gold” is found in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25:14-30.

Here we see Jesus’ parable likens God metaphorically to “a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of Gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability (inborn gift). Then he went on his journey” (Matt.25:14-15). This conveys the fact that people are grouped into three categories commensurate with the varied gifts that God their Creator has placed in them. The first servant represent people God has conferred the greater ability and talent than the second category. And the second group was more gifted than the third category. And the third had the least, but not unimportant or inconsequential.

*Parable of Gold Representing God’s Wealth or Love*

Whatever the gift or talent does not make a person inferior or superior in God’s sight. What matters is we are using the gift as a platform to enhance and multiply the Master’s wealth (Gold/Love) we are given. What does the Bags of Gold mean and represent? The Bags of Gold, or God’s wealth, represent His divine Love-nature, which we receive through the presence of the Holy Spirit, as expounded in the fruits of Love in the Spirit. (1 Cor.3:16; 1 Cor.13:1-12; Rom.5:5) He is the third Person of the Tri-Personal God (Trinity), and personifies God’s divine Love-nature in humanity. (Matt.28:18-19)

So, there are three aspects about human life that Jesus presents in His Parable of the Bags of Gold (Matt.25). The first aspect is about the human gifts every person alive has been conferred at birth. Gifts are the natural human abilities, talents, and skills we are intrinsically born with. The second aspect is the Gold of God’s wealth which represents God’s Love. God’s Love is His divine nature that every human can acquire and possesses to complement their natural gifts and abilities. The third aspect is the ‘Spiritual Market Place’ where humans are given to trade with the divine wealth (Gold/Love) upon the human gifts and abilities. The ‘Spiritual Market Place’ represents wherever human interaction take place and happen where relationships are engendered.

The Spiritual Market Place is where as humans we utilize our gifts and abilities as platforms upon which to trade in the divine wealth (Love/Gold) we are given, so as multiply the Master’s wealth which is the purpose of Jesus’ Parable of the Bags of Gold. So, each servant (human being) was apportioned God’s Love (wealth) was determined by the Master. We are given the Holy Spirit (Love) by measure. Only Jesus possesses the Holy Spirit without measure.

The Scripture speaks about Jesus in this way, “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but He has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. He testifies about what He has seen and heard…For He who is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives Him the Spirit without limit. The Father Loves His Son and has put everything into His hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life.” (John 3:31, 34-36, NLT).

The reason Jesus was “given the Sprit without measure (without limit)” is because He is God in the human flesh or the Immanuel. (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23) Jesus has always been one with the Father and the Spirit from eternity in the triune Godhead (Trinity) (Matt.28:18-19). Yes, “God gives Him the Spirit without limit” (John 3:34). Jesus is God’s Son and therefore have the full measure of the Spirit for they are One with the Father in the trinitarian Godhead. (Matt.28:18-19)

We recall the origin of humanity, created perfect in God’s Love image, but subsequently fell due to Adam’s disobedience. Thus, due to Adam’s sin mankind was cut off from access to the Holy Spirit in Eden, as represented by the Tree of Life. (Gen.3:24) Yes, since the fall, mankind has drifted so further and far away from God and His Love (Spirit), and closer to the enemy Adam chosen to obey, Satan. (Gen.3:1-6; 11)

We are fallen human beings from Adam’s disobedience and sin. However, upon repentance and conversion humans are conferred the Spirit proportionately by measure in three divisions metaphorically speaking in 5, 2, and 1 consistent with their inborn gifts and abilities as the parable lays out. (Matt.25:15; Act.2:38) The Holy Spirit is the personification of God’s Love and wealth in mankind which humans receive through repentance and accepting Jesus as Savior. (Act.2:38; 1 Cor.3:16; Rom.5:5) Although proportionate, it represents the full undiluted measure of God’s Love-nature, i.e. 100% of 5, 2, or 1, as the case may be.

However, the parable goes on to say that God’s Love can be multiplied and made to increase, if we know how, and the parable shows how humans are given the task to multiply His Love/wealth through trade in the Spiritual Market Place. And in the parable Jesus gave earlier (Parable of the 10 Virgins), we are responsible for replenishing God’s Love (Spirit) and make it grow. (Matt.25:1-13)

*God’s Divine Love-Nature is His Wealth We are Given Proportionally Consistent with Our Inborn Abilities to Invest and Make Returns* *For the Master*

The first two servants returned one hundred percent of the Master’s investment rationed to them. One hundred percent is one hundred percent regardless of the amount rationed, whether 5, 2, or 1. It is the end result which counts. This can be likened to athletes competing in a race like the Olympic Games. We can’t expect an athlete to win gold medals in every contest, but in the particular ones they are gifted. A gold medal in the marathon race, is no different with the gold medal in the high jump, except that it is a separate skill category. Each athlete possesses different gift and ability to win a medal (wealth/Love). They are rationed with different amount of the Master’s wealth based upon their gift and capability. (Matt.25:15) Jesus said, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven” (John 3:27). No one can produce more than his/her gift can allow and sustain. That’s to say, whatever “is given them from above” (John 3:27).

Human gifts are allotted and dispersed by determination of the Creator. The Psalmist speaks of this truth beautifully, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works (gifts) are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God” (Psa.139:13-17).

In fact, the Bible says that we “may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col.2:2-3). So, the Father has determined that all human gifts and talents are spawned, apportioned, and appropriated through Jesus Christ. Through His Son, the second Person in the triune Godhead, human gifts and abilities are “mysteries hidden in Him (Christ) carrying all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” The “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” speaks of human gifts and capabilities. Yes, James tells us, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (Jam.1:17).

Peter wrote to Christians, “Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One (Jesus) who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!” (2 Pet.1:2-3, MSG). So, the human access to God and everything good and sublime (gifts and abilities) arise from the divine grace made possible by Jesus Christ’s mediation as Savior and Mediator for mankind.

The Scripture by saying in Hebrews, “Through Christ;s mediation we offer sacrifices pleasing

In my previous post (http://bulamanriver.net/27435), I had dwelt at some length about the first two servant who had returned 100% of the investment apportioned to them by the Master. (Matt.25:21, 23). However, the third servant returned his one bag of Gold and said, “Here is what belongs to you” (Matt.25:25). The Master was not happy, and said, “‘You wicked, lazy servant! Take the bag of Gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags” (Matt.25:26, 28). Jesus told the unprofitable servant who buried his one bag of Gold the very least he could have done, “You should have put My money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I return I would have received it back with interest” (Matt.25:27). However, even such a simple act as that he did not have the foresight to see, let alone perform. But is there more than meets the eye, perhaps, there were considerations he failed to take into account, much less appreciated?

Let me elaborate on the dynamic between a person’s gift and the true wealth (Love/Gold) from the perspective of stewardship. There is a servanthood mindset and disposition we are called upon to uphold and embrace. In particular we are examining this from the point of view of the third servant in Jesus’ parable of the “Bags of Gold.” What made him/her hide the one talent and did nothing with it? (Luk.19:20) Yet, the preceding two servants were faithful and did what was expected of them. They made 100% increase on the Master’s apportioned investment (Love/Gold). (Luk.19:15-19, NLT)

*Your Gift and Ability is Your God-Given Platform Given to Every Human At Birth Upon Which to Trade God’s Love, His Wealth.*

God doesn’t want us to compare ourselves with others, He said people who do such things are unwise. Paul said this, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance” (2 Cor.10:12, Bereans T.). The point is, He wants us to make the most of increasing what we are given, whether it is 5, 2, or 1 bags of Gold, and doing so by utilizing our gifts and abilities. And we earlier read what Jesus said that no one can do more than what he or she is given. (John 3:27) That doesn’t mean you don’t try your best, it simply means your best is all you can do. And when we have done our best, we have the humility to say, we have simply done our duty, for we can do only what we are given. (Luk.17:10; John 3:27)

Why did the person with the one bag of Gold acted the way he did, and not follow the previous two faithful servants? Perhaps by hiding the Master’s Gold, he imagined the Gold would be safe and sound. Perhaps, he thought that just by giving back what he received, the Master would be happy. Or, he bluntly refused and disobeyed the Master and did something completely unrelated and different. The Master said he was wicked and lazy. But the Master wanted the servants to trade and make a return, a profit, from His investment. That is the purpose of the Master’s investment plan and why the Gold coins (Love) were entrusted to them. That was the purpose of life itself. Life is all about Love, and Love is all about life. They must be traded and by using their gift as the driving force, and bring back a return.

By hiding the Gold (Love) and doing nothing with it resulted in the exact opposite of what the Master had in mind for His servants, he lost it. (Matt.25:28-30) For the Master said, “Take the bag of Gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them” (Matt.25:28-29). In other words, God is a God of abundance not lack, and He wants His children to reflect Him in every way. God said, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness (abundance) thereof, the world and those who live in it” (Psa.24:1). Love, like the fruits of the Tree of Life, has seeds which reproduces and multiplies itself.

He desires that we be industrious in utilizing His Love in Loving works in order for Love to grow and multiply. (Eph.2:10) The answer to the dilemma to the servant who did nothing can be attributed to not understanding the underlying relationship dynamic which exist between the Master and the servants.

We have seen that we are blessed with gifts and abilities we are born with as the Creator determines. Then He allots to us His wealth (Love) that is commensurate with, that is proportional to, our abilities. If a person is in the first category, he or she is given more bags of the Master’s Gold (Love). Sometimes we wish we were given one, so we don’t have to work so hard. Then you have a lot of idle time, and that can be unhelpful for many a people. Remember, the Scripture tell us God looks at the heart, not your output necessarily. Scripture tells us, “The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam.16:7). We must not invert the priority and think that life all about output with no heart. The opposite is true, General McArthur said, “It must be of the spirit (heart) if we are to save the flesh (human output).” The heart is where the gift resides. And He already knows what is expected from your gift, for He knows you better than you know yourself. (Psa.139:13)

I said the servants refer to all humanity who are grouped into three categories of people according to their inborn gifts and abilities the Creator has conferred upon them. Besides the gift, humans are given God’s wealth or God’s Love by utilizing their gits as the platform to trade in the Spiritual Market Place. The first is given 5 bags of Gold, the second is given 2 bags of Gold, and the third is given 1 bag of Gold. (Matt.25:14-15; 1 John 4:8).

*The Spiritual Market Place Where Human Gifts Are Utilized as Platforms for Trading God’s Love (Wealth/Gold) for Spiritual Profit*

What is the spiritual Market Place? It is incumbent upon us to recognize its existence and realize this is the place we encounter God at work with humans. Primarily, it is wherever and whenever we are encountering situations with people from different walks of life and circumstances where Love comes into play and is made to grow and mature on the platform of our God-given gifts and abilities. In our relationships with God and our fellow humans, Love must be made to grow and increase and not retrogress and suffer loss through fear and evil. (Matt.22:37-40) God’s wealth (Love), like any wealth-accruing system, have currencies by which it is valued, appraised, and calculated, as we shall see.

Scriptures affirm, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (Jam.1:17). Paul says, “In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well… If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to Love others. Really Love them” (Rom.12:6-9).

The currency of Love was expounded by Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church. What exactly is this ‘Love currency’ or spiritual value system we utilize and trade upon the platform of our gifts and abilities? It behooves us to be intelligibly concsious of the divine currency system for without knowledge and recognition of God’s Love currency, how would we trade in God’s Spiritual Market Place? It begins with the Holy Spirit, as Paul told the Romans, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). Paul said further, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16). So, without the Spirit we have no spiritual currency to begin with, let alone be involved in trading with God’s spiritual currency and wealth-building system (Love).

Peter, in his memorable message on Pentecost, informs us about how the Spirit is able to come and make His abode in the life of humans, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38). (You can read about the “New Spiritual Birth” at: http://bulamanriver.net/17978) So, humans were created to be a temple, a repository, of God’s Love through the Spirit’s presence, individually and collectively as a Church. (Rom.5:5) Consequently, each and every believer is given spiritual money and currency of Love, in amounts of five, two, one, bags of Gold, “each according to his ability,” as the case may be, with which to trade in the Spiritual Market Place. (Matt.25:15)

There is one vital truth about life we must not overlook, and that is, no one is an island to himself or herself, where he or she can survive alone. Therefore, there is someone who need your inborn gift because he lacks what you have. The same is true the other way around. Sometimes we try to do too much, or perform a task we don’t have the ability to do, so we accomplish less or next to nothing. We can’t be everything to everyone for no one is a super multi-gifted human being. But we can be something to someone with our specific gift and ability which the Creator has blessed us with.

We must stay narrowly and close to what we are good at through our talents. This was God’s plan in the story of the parable all along. In this way, we live the life of co-dependance rather than trying to do everything which is next to impossible. God is by nature the same way in His collaborative Triune nature (Trinity). We are not to live a life of autonomy from God, but co-dependance upon His promises for us. Our promise to our fellow humans is our gift and what it offers them.

Peter said this, “Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises (gifts), so that through them you may participate in the divine nature (Love), having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Pet.1:4). Yes, in living the Master/servant relationship, God’s many precious promises (gifts) form the backbone of that relationship. Humans cannot survive without the divine promises of the Creator, and we cannot survive on our own without dependence on each other’s promise as expressed and communicated and acted out through our gifts, talents, and capabilities.

It’s almost like God is saying that your inborn gift is your ‘life-promise’ to help your fellow humans, much like God’s Love-promises to us. (You can read my post, “Standing On The Promises” at: http://bulamanriver.net/15209) Right here, we are standing upon the platform of our gifts, trading our talents in the power of God’s Love, to help those in need of our gifts and abilitites. Paul said, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph.2:10).

*Dove, Symbol of Holy Spirit and God’s Love*

God’s ‘Love currency’ are the fruits of the Spirit’s Love which Paul communicated to the Corinthian Christians. (1 Cor.13:1-13). Paul begins by saying “without Love I am nothing.” Paul stated the ‘Love currency’ are actually the Love-fruits of the Holy Spirit, and Paul tell us what they are: *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).

These fruits may look ordinary, commonplace, and even cliche or stereotype, but in all seriousness they shine through and reflect the very nature of God’s Love. We are warned to not despise small beginnings, for like the minuscule mustard seed, the seedlings from of the fruits of Love will prove to become enormously influential trees with abundance beyond description and surpassing natural human effort. Every fruit of the Spirit is played out upon the platform of our gifts is an exercise in the unseen but miraculous divine Love-force. It may seem negligible by human reckoning, but when your gift is lived out in living faith, it can and will move mountains. (Matt.17:20-21)

What we see above in the Love-fruits represent the currency of Love through the Spirit’s presence in human life. Both Jesus and the Spirit co-exist in the heart of God’s children, for Paul said, “Christ lives in me;” and “You are God’s temple that God’s Spirit dwells in” (Gal.2:20; 1 Cor.3:16; Act.17:28). What we see above are the fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit) which we feed upon every day in life’s human journey upon earth. They represent the currencies of God’s wealth (Love/Gold) with which we trade upon the platform of our gifts, talents, and capabilities. They may not seem grandiose by human standard, or so it seems, but we must not ignore them for their weight in gold, particularly not to our own detriment or loss.

The important question from the parable remains, why did the servant who was given one bag of Gold failed to do as the prior two who were given 5 and 2 bags of Gold and returned 100% returns by investing the Master’s wealth/Love? The reason is he did not appreciate the Master/servant dynamic which is necessary to make the relationship work. I would like to share 8 principles of stewardship any servant must observe and always keep at the forefront of their thoughts if he or she desires to be a faithful servant who can wisely and diligenyly invest the Master’s wealth (Love) entrusted in his/her care.

*Fruits of Love of God’s Spirit – Currency of God’s Wealth. 1 Cor.1*3

Firstly, we must gain an utter and complete appreciation of the identity of the Master we are called to serve, with the wealth assigned by Him to each of us. Who is He truly? He is God’s eternal Son through whom God created all things. So, He is the Creator. (John 1:1-3) He is the Messiah, God’s emissary sent to save us as our Savior and redeem humanity from sin and death. He is the Immanuel who brings the promise of immortality. (John 3:16) Jesus holds the key to human immortality. (John 3:36) He is the Personification of bounty and everything good and rejuvenating humans have ever sought and desired. (John 1:4; 14:6)

He is the pathway to the Holy Spirit who is the Personification of God’s Love, wealth, and bounty in humanity. (John 14:26; 16:7) He is the Master about whom we speak. His messianic name is “Immanuel” – the God who became human to become one of us. (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23) This is the Master we have been called to serve by investing His wealth (Love) in out lives and in the lives of our neighbors and community.

Secondly, Love is God’s divine nature and is pictured as the wealth of Gold in Jesus’ Parable of the Gold. And just as the Scripture conveys, Love is like the fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit), with each and every fruit holding in itself the seeds which reproduces and multiplies itself. (1 Cor.13:1-12) Servants must fully appreciate this intrinsic nature of God’s Love-fruits which holds in itself the seeds of multiplication and growth.

Understand, at creation God emphatically states He created the human species in order to reproduce or multiply Himself, “Let Us make human beings in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26, NLB). So, the work and principle of multplying and increasing springs from His divine Love-nature and played out for our understanding in Jesus’ Parable of the Gold. Just as God is multiplying and increasing His spiritual children to be fashioned in His likeness and image (Love), humanity finds meaning and associates this divine underlying nature of God with investing and increasing the Master’s wealth (Gold/Love) in each of us as we seek out opportunities to do so in the Spiritual Market Place.

As God’s spiritual children we emulate our heavenly Father’s motivation by adopting His magnifying Love-nature as the parable lays out. John makes this beautiful truth plain to us when he said, “God is Love, and all who live in Love lives in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16). Yes, the overall purpose of multiplying God’s divine Love-nature is so we adopt His Loving nature through Christ and His Spirit. (Rom.8:29; Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.3:16; Gen.1:26-27)

Thirdly, humility. We need to understand the importance of humility in the Master/servant relationship dynamic. Earlier Jesus gave a master/servant scenario and said, “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’” (Luk.17:7-10). Do we sometimes invert the servanthood mindset and through a seditious conviction adopt the attitude of a master, and forget our place by shrinking from the responsibility of a servant?

Why did the servant imagined he/she could invert the master/servant relationship? A servant may think he is doing so much and increasing wealth for the Master that he thinks he ought to be the beneficiary, and not the other way round. Remember, in Luke’s account of the parable, it says, “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king’” (Luk.19:14). But he was made king anyway and sought an accounting of his investment from the servants. (Luk.19:15) Rebellion is insubordination against the Master.

So, when a servant fails to appreciate the Master/servant relationship, for insubordination or whatever reason of dissention, we become unprofitable servants. So, the old adage ‘know your purpose and place’ in life rings true for all of us. If you’re still wondering who is this Master we are called to serve, then review point 1 above.

Paradoxically, this second aspect indicatively points us back to the true source of the ‘original sin’ that was committed by insurbordinate Lucifer, not Adam. With his rebellion he led a third of the angels to sin against Almighty God, the Creator. Lucifer then became Satan with the errand fallen angels. (Isa.14:12-15) Lucifer, because of pride and arrogance, was the first who attempted to invert the Master/servant relationship by saying, “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa14:14). Lucifer, in his pride and arrogance forgot that the source of his brightness was the inborn gift conferred upon him by the Creator God. (Deut.8:18; Pro.10:22)

Lucifer, now Satan the devil, rebelled against God’s created order, and Adam would later follow him through his fall in the Garden of Eden. (Gen.3:1-6) In doing so, Adam passed on the same satanic rebellious spirit upon all humanity that remains today, except for all who freely receive God’s path of rescue and salvation through Christ, the Messiah. So, in true humility there is no place for pride and arrogance, and least of all insubordination in the Master/servant relationship.

*Lucifer’s pride and arrogance inverted the Master/Servant relationship which changed him from a bright Archangel to the insubordinate and defiant Satan the Devil*

Fourthly, a genuine and Loving worship and adoration of God and eternal Father. Understand what our services as a servant really means. No matter the degree and magnitude of the service, substantially they do not add to God’s completeness in His divine triune Being. (Matt.28:19-20) Unquestionably, from eternity God has been and is already whole and limitless in Himself as God Almighty through His divine Love-nature. (1 John 4:8) The Scriptures asserts through Job, “Can a man be of benefit to God?” (Job 22:2). Yes, can even a wise person be helpful to Him? The prophet Isaiah inquires, “Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to give Him advice or teach Him?” (Isa.40:13, NLB).

Paul warns us to not have a false sense of security in our self worth, saying, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith (gift/talent) God has distributed to each of you” (Rom.12:3). God does not need our aid in any way, shape, and form. His loftiest ideal, happiness and joy, will not be increased through our efforts. God is utterly complete and self-sustaining in Himself and we cannot add to His all-encompassing fullness in Himself as Creator.

Be that as it may, Scriptures affirms, “Love the LORD, all His saints. The LORD preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant” (Psa.31:23, NLB). Yet again, we see His Fatherly Love for those who are faithful, “For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right” (Psa.84:11, NLB).

In truth, it is us, humans, who are in need of His Fatherly Love – every minute, every moment of every day. This fourth principle teaches us God’s awesome greatnes and the importance of our loving worship and adoration of His eternal Deity as God Almighty and Father of all minkind. James tells us, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor” (Jam.4:10, NLT).

When God handed us His Love, His wealth, His riches, to go out and invest upon the platform of our God-given gifts and abilities, He had us in mind, not Him. He wanted us to become genuine “Love Personalities” in our own right and reality as He is Love in Himself. He is the supreme Love Personality who “Fills the entire universe with Himself” (Eph.4:10).

*Jesus Humbles Himself and Vicariously Dies for All Humanity John 3:16*

And God’s plan from the start was to create a human species in His Love image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) This is the God’s masterplan which is analogized and explained in the Parable of the Bags of Gold, that we have been called to be part of and to accomplish. For the parable reveals our human potential in God’s divine plan. And the path to this awesome goal springs from our total worship and adoration of His Fatherhood and Love for each and every human being He desires to make His spiritual children through Christ and His Spirit. (Matt.28:18-19; John 3:16; Rom.5:5)

Fifthly, God’s Spiritual Market Place is where we invest His wealth (Gold/Love) and cultivate and plant the Love of God through our relationship with God and our neighbors (fellow humans) as the command states. (Mar.12:30-31). What is your gift? What is your ability? Paul said, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Rom.12:6). You may be proficient with your gift physically and naturally, but Scripture tell us emphatically, “Without Love, I am nothing” (1 Cor.13:1-3).

Are you a doctor, a nurse, perhaps a plumber, a motor mechanic, or investment banker. You may even be a football player, or architect, or taxi driver. You may be a wood carver, a fisherman, a salesman, even an electrician. You may be a surveyor, or pilot, even a scientist, or dentist. Whatever capability one possesses, this unique God-given gift is the trading platform in the ‘Spiritual Market Place’ where the currency of Love is traded and made to grow and multiply.

On the other hand, we may do the opposite and trade with Satan’s fruits through the spirit of fear instead of God’s Love. Paul calls the enemy’s fruits the ‘works of the flesh.’ He told the Galatians, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal.5:19-21).

So, this is where and how we invest God’s wealth (Gold/Love) or the devil’s riches (fool’s gold/fear) in our interaction with God first and second with our fellow humans. (Matt.22:37-40) Earlier, we saw the actual currency of Love from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. (1 Cor.13:1-13) Any act which opposes the fruits of Love, constitute the fruits of evil which belongs to the devil.

*Collage of Different Ocuupations Identifying Platform of People’s Gift Upon Which God’s Love (wealth) is Traded and Made to Grow* *in The Spiritual Market Place*

Sixthly. Stewardship. It is vital to keep in mind that it is not so much the amount of Gold (Love) the Master has invested in us that makes the determining difference, it is actually accountability through stewardship and servanthood. It is the act of exchanging spiritual goods and services through the Love fruits that is applied and garnered upon the platform of the person’s gift and ability in the spiritual Market Place. Paul said, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.210).

Satan manufactures fear in people to keep them trapped and enslaved in sin. God sent Jesus to bring His Love so the Spirit will empower freedom in our hearts and minds through Jesus ongoing mediation as humanity’s High Priest in heaven. (Heb.4:15; 2 Cor.5:21). Paul said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal.5:1). This is the Spiritual Market Place dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. Love and fear compels us to make a choice. This is where we are given the unparallel prospect to multiply and increase the master’s wealth…or decrease and weaken God’s wealth (Love) in our lives and humanity as a whole. What will it be?

This means that whatever circumstance we face in life, there are two manifestations to every given situation where our gifts come into play. There is a purely physical/temporary aspect propelled by fear to a person’s gift, then there is a spiritual/eternal aspect inspired by Love. When applying our gifts and abilities, this mindset that there are always two manifestations to our abilities and gifts, must always be clearly understood at the forefront of our minds.

In true stewardship, the servant does not allow pride or arrogance get in the way of his/her work, but says as the Scriptures affirms, “But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power (through the inborn creative gifts of God who made us) to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day” (Deut.8:18, Italics my emphasis). This is the mindset of what and how genuine stewardship must look like.

Seventhly, according to the parable of the ten virgins Jesus gave earlier, there is a way of replenishing the power of God’s Spirit and Love in the human heart and mind. (Matt.25:1-13) Jesus likens it to the metaphor of virgins filling their lamps with oil so the flame of the divine Love is constantly burning bright and not extinguised.

We keep the light of God’s Love burning bright by eating from and sharing with others the Love-fruits of the Tree of Life (Holy Spirit). That is to say, the more we practice and act out the Love-fruits Paul cataloged and listed in his letter to the Corinthians, the more we are filling our lamps with oil. (1 Cor.13) The act of Love itself through its many fruits is the only practical way to fill our lamps with oil to keep Love burning brightly.

The oil is not some metaphysical substance we imagine fills our heart and head with Love, no, the act of living out the Love-fruits through the acts of our gifts and abilities is what produces the oil which keeps the lamp burning. The Love-fruits have the seeds of Love which produces more ‘Love-oil.’ We are to trade with the wealth of God’s Love upon the platform of our God-given inborn gifts and abilities, and in the process fill our oil (Love) and make a return in Gold (Love) for the Master’s investment.

That return from the Love activities through our inborn gifts is the very ‘black gold’ or ‘oil’ we make which keeps the light of God’s Love burning brightly. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Yes, with God’s light in Jesus, we are given the sight to see how to increase and wisely invest the Master’s wealth (Love).

The Metaphor of God’s Love to the Oil the 10 Virgins Constanly Kept the Light Of God’s Love Aflame and Burning

And eigthly, the servants need to always keep the right mindset and disposition as to the principles outlined above by investing time in prayer, meditation, grace and discernment, in the Lord’s presence. We offfer the Lord’s Prayer of divine salutation; petition and forgiveness; divine protection from trials and security from the enemy; and always paying honor, homage, and praise to God the Almighty our Father for the unique gifts and abilities He has conferred upon us, and for Christ’s unceasing mediation as humanity’s High Priest.

Having considered the eight points mentioned above, namely: 1) Recognition of who our Master is; 2) Appreciation of the Love-nature of God and its inherent motivation for growth and multiplication. 3) Understanding the Master/servant relationship and not allowing insubordination to invert its priority; 4) The essential humility in servanthood; 5) Understanding the Spiritual Market Place; 6) Stewardship – displaying accountability by responsibly and consistently investing the Master’s wealth (Love/Gold); 7) Being resolute and not weary in keeping the oil and flame of Love burning by applying the Love-fruits diligently. 8) The faithful servants invest their time in thoughtful prayer, meditation, praise and homage, before Christ (High Priest) in the Father’s presence.

Let me ask a pertinent and all together important question for the servants to consider, and especially for the servant with one bag of Gold (Love) who did nothing with His Master’s investment. Have you properly considered the eight points outlined above which are vital to the Master/servant relationship?

Most especially, on entering the sixth point of stewardship, where ‘the rubber meets the road’ so to speak, in which they are to directly invest their Master’s wealth (Love/gold), are they in a right mindset? Do the servants have a plan on how to weigh and consider their activity in the Spiritual Market Place as they are about to trade with the Master’s wealth (Love-fruits)? Now, they are to trade by utilizing the divine currency of God’s Love-fruits in their interaction and relations with the divine and human entities. (Mar.12:30-31)

From the account of Jesus’ parable, it was obvious only the two servants did, but not the third. Why? Recall, the three servants are representative of three categories of people and how they respond to the the Master’s call and command to invest His wealth (Love/Spirit’s Fruits), and doing it through the eight principles we covered about Master/servant relationship we have covered above. The parable representing human response to the Master’s wish and command are not foregone conclusions. They constitute people who understand and follow the 8 Master/servant principles above, thus making successful outcomes and servants.

Parable of Gold, Symbol for God’s Love and Wealth

We saw earlier that all human gifts and abilities originate from God through Christ, “In whom (Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col.2:2-3). The apostle Peter reveals God’s ultimate plan for bestowing human gifts and abilities in humanity, “And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (1 Pet.2:5). What Peter is saying is each person as identified and personified by their gifts and abilities, energized by God’s Love, constitute the very ‘bricks’ which Jesus utilizes to erect God’s temple and sanctuary. So, all of saved humanity will become a holy temple and sanctuary where God Himself will dwell with His human children for all eternity.

The Scripture above, by saying, “…Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (1 Pet.2:5), this directly relates to God’s Love activity in humanity, and as servants in Jesus’ Parable of the Bags of Gold, we are offering the sacrifice of Love in the Market Place interaction with all we are given opportunity to invest God’s wealth and Gold called Love.

Nobody is born without divinely conferred abilities to live a purposeful life as a human being as the Creator has preordained. That is the reality of His divine sovereignty which we accept without question. Therefore, every person is metaphorically a ‘brick’ in God’s temple. As Creator God, by whose power humans and all living things draw breadth, everything is the expression of His Love, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16; Job 12:10).

If God is the ultimate Love Personality who fills the whole of creation, then we too as ‘bricks’ in His temple form the same divine Love likeness within His sanctuary wherein He dwells. (Gen.1:26-27) Hence, we see this played out in the reality of the Parable of Bags of Gold (Love).

We cannot debate the issue about our gifts and abilities with the Creator. That is His prerogative as Creator who created all humanity out of His Love and confer gifts for His divine purpose and goal. The Scripture declare, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psa.139:13-14) So, here we see God creating you and me upon the live human platform of the gifts and talents He has bestowed in us, which He the Master, and faithful servants, will disseminate His wealth through His Love to all humanity.

From Jesus’ parable, two of the three servant-types responded properly to the eight points outlined above. In so doing, they faced the fifth point in the right frame of mind and spirit, where they live and operate in the divine/human Market Place knowing how to utilize the currency of Love to trade and multiply the Master’s wealth (Love). The first two understood that life is always lived on two levels, two tiers, one is physical/temporal, while the other if spiritual/eternal. Based upon them, we then make choices in life.

For example, when Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51), it tells us that bread is not merely what we buy at the local bakery. There is another bread which is spiritual bread, and it is understood and personified in His Person as our Savior. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna (physical bread) in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (John 6:48-50, italic my emphasis).

Bread, otherwise called ‘the staff of life,’ is metaphor for a person’s occupation. It is a person’s gift which is now his/her profession which he/she has spent most of life learning and honing and with which he/she has become well-versed. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). Yes, Jesus’ whole purpose in life, His profession, His nourishment, the food that keeps Him going is to see that the purpose for which God sent Him, is accomplished.

Humans in turn accomplish God’s purpose for their lives by receiving Jesus as Savior and Master, and through the gifts and talents conferred by divine edict trade in God’s Love. The Scripture tell about Jesus in this way, “‘The stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

The same goes with water. There is physical water which quenches our thirst physically, and there is spiritual water which quenches our spiritual thirst. Regarding spiritual water, Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). So, the Holy Spirit is spiritual water we drink to satisfy our spiritual thirst.

Two of the most basic elements in life by which humans survive and not perish, food and water (drink), carries physical and spiritual connotation and meaning. This teaches us that for just about everything in life there is always this dual expression that calls us to consider our actions, and the repercussions that precipitate them, based upon our choices and activities. We must not be myopic as to think that bread simply means getting your share of carbohydrates from the bakery and nothing more. And quenching your thirst means more than finding a river or tap with running water.

‘Bread’ (sustenance) means the primary purpose of human life is to do God’s will for us through the gifts and abilities He bestowed upon us. (1 Pet.4:10) ‘Water’ (drink) means to live by the divine Love empowered through the Spirit’s presence in us. (1 Cor.3:16) By wearing the new garment of Jesus’ resurrected life we become new personalities ourselves inspired by the Holy Spirit who supplies God’s Love. (Gal.2:20) The Spirit is the Personification of God’s Love and wealth we receive from Jesus, the Master as stated in the parable we read earlier.

*John 7:37-39 (ESV) 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink*.”

Let us take a real live situation. What is a person’s occupation? We saw a list of gifts in the fourth principle we covered above. There are always two manifestations to our abilities of which we must always be cognizant. This mindset must be at the forefront of our thinking process. However, because of our fallen state on being, we almost always look at life from a purely physical/material perspective inspired by fear, and ignore or are ignorant of the spiritual point of view inspired by Love and follow through with our actions. In truth, because the command we must Love God first above all else, than what ought to be at the forefront of our minds, our attitude ought to be, the spiritual perspective ought to and must lead the way, then the physical/material. What then is our motive for doing what we do?

This is why humans are blessed with gifts and talents in the first place. We ought always to ask why am I doing this, what am I doing it for? This is the main point of the parable. You may be very proficient with your gift physically and materially, but that is not the sole meaning of the parable. It was about what your gift will produce spiritually. The Bible states that “Without Love I am nothing” (1 Cor.13:2). So, for every activity we do with our gifts, there is a material manifestation based upon fear, and there is a spiritual action based on Love. If we place the spiritual deeds first, then the material will fall into its proper place by divine providence. (Matt.6:33)

Paul told Titus, “There are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception… for they overthrow the faith of whole families, teaching what they ought not, just for the sake of making money.” (Tit.1:10-11). Yes, these people spurn authority, teaching principles which contravene God’s foundation for living based upon Love, for the sake of dishonest gain through the spirit of fear. A person may be a surveyor, pilot, scientist, or dentist, botanist or nurse. But what is the purpose of your gift?

Is it just a profession so you could get a salary at the end of the day or week? It is not wrong to charge for the service of your talent, as long as you do not leave the vital first objective and aim undone. (1 Cor.13:1) We ought to be careful not to put the cart before the horse, so to speak. (Mat.6:33) A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is a biblically sound fiscal principle. Paul tell Timothy, “The worker is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim.5:18).

Your gift is to be lifted up above the mundane, above the physical/material level, above the spirit of fear, way up to the spiritual and divine plane beyond where it is performed for God’s Love, and out of God’s Love. It is the expectation of Love in our hearts, our motives, which counts. And when done out of Love, we are shining the light of His glory (Love). Listen to John’s arresting statement, “We know how much God Loves us, and we have put our trust in His Love. God is Love, and all who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16, NLT).

*Human Gifts and Talents Divinely Conferred By the Creator as the Human Platform for Trading in the Spiritual Market Place to Grow and Multiply God’s Investment (Gold/Love) In Humanity.*

Yes, we have known and tasted God’s Love through His Son, who has saved and redeemed us from sin and death, while at the same time given passage for the Holy Spirit, the power of God’s Love, to come and reside in our hearts. (Act.2:38) Paul points out clearly, ”Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Paul asked pointedly (1 Cor.3:16). We have seen the currency of God’s Love through the fruits of the Spirit with which to trade upon the platform of our gifts in the Spiritual Market Place. (1 Cor.13).

As long as we live in this fallen age of Satan’s dominion, we will encounter the spirit and fruits of fear, the enemy of God’s Love and fruits of the Spirit. For every fruit of Love there is a fruit of fear the devil utilizes to deceive and keep humans in sin. Since the fruits of Love and the fruits of fear are opposing spiritual forces, it creates friction and dynamism whereby human life comes with its tests and trials in all seasons.

Today it is a sad tragedy to see misguided people arm themselves with potentially deadly firearms and turn it into weapons of destruction in schools and public and other places. The answer to such a situation, or for that matter, all different kinds of such negative and deadly situation and circumstance, can be found in Jesus’ Parable of the Bags of Gold. Through trials and tests we are given to choose between the physical and mundane and the spiritual and divine upon the platform of our gifts and talents. This is the Market Place dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. This is where we are given the unparallel prospect to multiply and increase the Master’s wealth…or the enemy’s riches, and decrease and weaken God’s wealth (Love) in our lives. What will it be?

*What Will You Do With The Master’s Wealth (Love)?*

Listen, our works no matter the magnitude or importance does not multiply to, nor is profitable for God. “Can a man be of benefit to God?” Job asked (Job 22:2). God does not need our help, and His happiness and wellbeing will not be increased by our efforts. In truth, the reverse is true for Paul told the Greeks, “‘For in Him we live and move and have our being’” (Act.17:28). But God is pleased with His human children who are faithful, trusting, and obedient. The fact is by increasing His wealth (Love) He had us in mind, not Him. He lacks nothing, for He is complete in Himself through His infinite Love.

As we saw earlier, He wanted His human children to become “Love Personalities” in their own reality as He is in Himself. He is the supreme Love Personality who “Fills the entire universe with Himself” (Eph.4:10). That is the purpose and aim of the parable, as Genesis informs us, He created humanity to become like Him in His likeness (Love). (Gen.1:26-27) The grace to do God’s will for our lives comes from Him only, and all the praise of that will be due to Him. If He rewards us, it will be a matter of unmerited favor on His part.

*In Place of Love, Satan Sows the Seeds and Fruits of Fear*

Our best services and efforts are always mingled with faults and imperfections. We come short of His glory. (Rom.3:23) We do not serve Him as sincerely, and cheerfully, and faithfully as we ought; we are far, very far from the example of our Savior; and if we are saved and rewarded, it will be because God will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and will not avenge our iniquities but will pardon and remember them no more. (Heb. 8:12)

However, God our Father does something so wonderfully magnificent beyond words, He imputes His Son’s perfect messianic life upon us for our justification and salvation. Listen, Paul said, “God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21). Yes, through Jesus’ glorious vicarious life God has made it possible for humanity to appear before the ‘mercy seat’ of the Almighty God and Father to make our pleas and suppication in time of needs and failings, and have a blessed life.

*Humility a Vital Character of Faithful Servants*

What ought our attitude be towards our work as servants? Jesus said, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” (Luk.17:10). Yes, the servants who made one hundred percent return on the Master’s wealth simply say, “We have done that which is our duty.” Humans perform their tasks as servants in the spirit of humility, fully convicted of God’s promise, “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who Love Him” (1 Cor.2:9).

However, the person given the one bag of Gold did nothing …Can we see that gifts are conferred foremost for the purpose of building the Master’s spiritual wealth (Love/Gold)? As human beings, we ought not to forget the lesson in point #2 above about God’s motivational Love to increase and multiply. Apparently, the third servant who was given one bag of Gold did not appreciate this all-important aspect of his/her life. He did not appreciate the Master/servant dynamic, much less the eight principles of stewardship and servanthood. There is another kind of mineral which looks like gold, but is not. It is call “fool’s gold.” The one-talent servant told his Master, “Here is what belongs to you” and found no time to invest the Master’s Gold (Love) apportioned him. (Matt.25:25).

*The Unprofitable Servant Returned the Mater’s Investment with No profit.*

Instead, he invested in “fools gold.” “Fool’s gold” is reaped from the fruit of fear and selfishness, not God’s outgoing Love (true Gold). “Fool’s gold” is reaped from the fruit of human self-centeredness, pride, arrogance, greed, laziness, rebellion and sin. It will serve us well to recognize the difference, and not live foolishly but as true profitable servants of our Master. May God give us the wisdom so life will not become a wasted opportunity to enter His Kingdom.

Petition: Friends, as I have closed my post in the past, I customarily give our readers the opportunity to give their lives to our Maker and Savior. I thank you for investing your precious time with me in the sharing of the good news of Jesus who has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious humanity made children in God’s Love forever.

*Prayer: A Solemn One-On-One Spiritual Dialogue Between A Person and God (Wiki Commons)*

Welcome to the celestial life of Love in God’s holy, eternal Family. (1 Tim.6:19) Then keep in touch with God’s Word for you by reading and studying your Bible, and visiting this blog and website and look at various subjects that may be relevant for your situation – go to: http://bulamanriver.net You can email me with your questions at the address shown below.

Farewell for now!

*”Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God as a Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. Love by its nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being to reflect God in His Tri-Personal Being. Thereby, the human family is comprised of the father, mother, and offspring. Many believe God is solitary, but in truth He is One trinitarian Being in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:19-20)

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 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. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. 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).

*Rublev’s Icon of The Triune God (Trinity) – One in Three, Three in One (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, 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 once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as humanity is one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. 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. 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 triune existence forever.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664.

THE CROSS, BY KIANG P LEE

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Greetings again Friends! Wherever you are in the far-flung corners of the world, may the peace of Easter be with you and your loved ones. Our heart goes out to the many men, women, and especially children, who are experiencing terrible suffering in central Europe, most especially in Ukraine, and other less known parts of the world.

“He isn’t here! He has risen from the dead, just as He said would happen. Come, see where His body was lying.” (Matthew 28:6). Those are the most impactful words in the Christian faith, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. Even though Jesus told His disciples of His impending death and resurrection, they found it too incredulous to be believed. The Gospel of Luke tells us Jesus’ conversation with the disciples, “Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him and spit on Him; they will flog Him and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again. The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about” (Luk.18:31-34). Jesus predicted His death three times as the Gospel of Mark attests. (Mar. 8:31; 9:31; and 10:32–34).

On another occasion He spoke about it metaphorically, comparing His life to a temple, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19; Matt.26:61; 27:40; Mar.14:58) His hearers thought He was talking of the physical temple, not realizing He was making reference to Himself. (1 Cor.3:16) Yet again, He said this about His life, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father” (John 10:18). As the second Person of the Tri-Personal God (Trinity), Jesus possessed both human/divine nature in Himself upon His human birth. Athanasius of Alexandria said, “Nothing except the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a greater miracle or wonder in human history. God becoming flesh in human history is the greatest marvel.”

The prophet Isaiah gave His messianic name, Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isa 7:14; Matt.1:23). By taking our fallen humanity upon Himself in the incarnation, He crucified our once sin-conditioned and rebellious humanity upon His cross, and glorified it in His resurrection and ascension once for all time.

*“He Is Risen!” Artist Impression of Resurrection of Jesus (Wiki Commons)*

When they heard from others that Jesus had indeed risen, it left them speechless. When He miraculously appeared before them, they were left gasping for breath. Jesus told one doubting disciple, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (John 20:29). You can read the inspiring account of Jesus’ resurrection at Matthew 28:1-10. The resurrection responds to the ancient quest for answers to the question of life, death, and the afterlife. Ancient philosophers, theologians, and sages have long sought to unlock the answers to the afterlife.

Yes, the Christian life is a life of living faith. Paul stated the anchor upon which the Christian faith is centered and upon which it revolves: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor.15:17). Indeed, powerful words concerning the Christian faith. The Cross would be meaningless if Jesus had not risen. The resurrection is the foundation upon which the Christian faith is built. Therefore, the very essence of freedom is founded upon faith in Christ and His work of Messiah. We cannot believe the Cross (death of Jesus Christ) and deny His resurrection. They are both one and the same expression of His Messiahship.

His life and all the prophecies concerning His calling as the Messiah would have all been fiction, a fabrication, if His resurrection from the dead had not happened for real. If it were not for the resurrection, mankind’s fate would have ended in the grave and no further. Mankind’s future of receiving the divine gift of immortality and continue as an everlasting species created in God’s eternal likeness would not be possible. (Gen.1:26-27, 5:1; Eph.4:24; John 3:16)

And to comprehensively secure the work of His Messiahship, we see the final act of Jesus’ ascension into heaven where He returns to the Father and is made to sit at His right hand as humanity’s High Priest forever. (Act.1:9-10; Heb.4.14-16) As our glorified human/divine High Priest, what Jesus did as Messiah as the Immanuel in His earthly life and ministry had not stopped at the Cross when He died.

In truth, He continues the work of Messiah, but now in His resurrected/ascended High Priestly role in heaven today where He forever mediates on humanity’s behalf before Almighty God, our heavenly Father. And Paul expresses this mind blowing truth of our reality in Christ, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph.2:6).

*Jesus Christ, Our High Priest in heaven today where He forever Mediates on Humanity’s behalf Before Almighty God, our Heavenly Father*

Did you see that? Paul says when humans are baptized, we affirm a certain reality to our faith in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, that is, we have been made to also ascend with Him when He ascended back to His Father in heaven. (Eph.2:6-7) Human believers are always present with Jesus in His never-ending mediation as our eternal High Priest keeping mankind in right standing with God forever. For the Scriptures say, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb.4:15-16).

God tells us He is the source of life – life originates and exudes from His divine Trinitarian Being. He is the fountain and spring of life. (Gen.2:7; 1 Sam.2:6; Act.17:25) If that is so, how and where did death originate and enter human existence which made the resurrection to immortal life necessary? The answer is the subject of our post today, “The Cross.” The Cross is the symbol of reconciliation and peace with the holy God from whom eternal life is received as a gift. (John 3:16-17)

Death was imposed upon humanity as a penalty for sin which began in the Garden of Eden. (Gen.3:1-6; 11) The Bible categorically states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). When Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, sin entered our human existence, and death followed. God told our first parents, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen.2:17). Satan deceived them and they disobeyed. Then God asked our first parents, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Gen.3:11).

Since death could result only from sin, God said to our first parents, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen.3:19). This could not have been uttered before they sinned, but only after sin entered their lives. If death followed Adam’s disobedience, then what was Adams’s makeup and composition before he sinned? It is clear God made him from the dust of the earth. (Gen.2:7) But was he subject to death from his creation, before he sinned?

*Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, Covered in ‘Garment’ God Had Adorned Them Which Gave Them a Form of Human ‘Extrinsic Immortality’*

When God created Adam, it would have been contrary to His Love nature and who He is to have subjected him and his wife to death in any way, shape, and form. The Scripture tell us God created humanity in His image and likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) God’s likeness and image is eternal life…death is anathema to the everlasting God and non-existent in His divine realm. (Lam.5:19; Psa.9:7; Exo.15:18; Psa.66:7) The totality of the environment in Eden was wrapped up in one element which defines who God IS: life, life, and life without end! Everlasting life that’s manifested in His divine nature of Love and Freedom. Death is the exact antithesis of who God is in substance and reality in His divine nature.

Adam had life to its fullest and broadest divine expression that a human can experience at the highest physical level ever possible! Adam existed in God’s presence, the Source of both spiritual and physical life. Adam did not know what death was, it had no meaning with him, although he was warned of it. (Gen.2:17)

It is said of the patristic writers that Eve and Adam lost “something physically real” namely, the ‘glorious garment’ with which God had clothed them. Adam and Eve possessed a human form of ‘extrinsic immortality’ in Paradise whereby they could fellowship with their Creator who existed in ‘intrinsic immortality.’ After their fall, they were unrobed of their ‘glorious garment’ (‘extrinsic immortality’) and realized their “nakedness.” (Gen.3:7) Although Adam was created from the earth, the ‘glorious garment’ or ‘extrinsic immortality’ gave them a form of human immortality reflecting God’s eternal image, for it was impossible for the Everlasting Creator to have fellowship with them as pure physical humans otherwise.

God alone possesesses ‘intrinsic immortality’ in Himself, and He alone has the power to confer ‘intrinsic immortality’ to humanity. This, He has promised to mankind through His Son. For the Scripture tell us, “Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (‘intrinsic immortality’) (John 3:16; Rom.6:23; Rom.8:11). (Jesus is the total embodiment of life in its fullest expression, without a hint of death, even on a physical mortal level as Adam existed in Eden.

*God Our Father Promises ‘Intrinsic’ Immortality to Humanity Through His Son*

Nevertheless, Adam’s ‘glorious garment’ (human ‘extrinsic immortality’) contained an imbedded weakness – it was powerless in the face of sin which brought death. For the immortality Adam and Eve possessesed was ‘extrinsic’ not ‘intrinsic’ immortality. When confronted with sin, Adam’s garment vanished. (Gen.3:7) It was a human form of ‘extrinsic immortality’ nonetheless, with a vital caveat they were warned about – death. (Gen.2:17) But as we shall see, God has promised to bless and clothe humanity in another garment which will bring true ‘intrinsic’ immortality which no sin has power over.

So, with sin having entered Eden through disobedience, the dark cloud of death had cast its long shadow over them and manind as a whole, and it was not possible for death (sin) to co-exist with life (God) in Eden. So, it was only after sin entered and severed the divine/human Love relationship, that God uttered, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return,” not before, for “the wages of sin is death” (Gen.3:19; also Rom.6:23). Paul echos this original Adamic decree, saying, “It is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment” (Heb.9:27).

Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373) contends Eve and Adam were not created either immortal or perfect. They needed to prove themselves – this is part of what many of the church fathers understood as having free will to mean. We are left to postulate as to what exactly was the pre-fallen state of existence of Adam and Eve? How long did this pre-fallen condition last – how long did they live in Paradise before their banishment from Eden?

The Genesis account of creation and the fall of man was very brief and dearth of detail, thereby patristic writers have made expositions and perspectives which convey vital aspects of the creation account and the fall of man. By inference, nuance and undertone, we can conclude assuredly that since our first parents was created to reflect God’s eternal likeness in His divine Love from the start, that they did remain true to their divine Love image for some extended period of ‘time’ prior to the fall. (Gen.1:26-27)

It is relevant to keep in mind that ‘time’ was immaterial as long as they were adorned in their ‘glorious garment’ of ‘extrinsic immortality’ which equipped and sustained them with the Almighty Eternal God. It was only after they sinned that their ‘glorious garment’ vanished and realized they were ‘naked.’ They became mere mortals and the clock of time began its countdown for them and humanity. (Gen.3:7) Today, according to the passage of ‘time,’ historical and documentary records, archeology and other evidence, we are about six to seven thousand years removed from that world-shattering and calamitous event of Adam’s fall.

Prior to this, they ate from the Tree of Life which sustained them in God’s Love and the ‘glorious garment’ with which God covered them. If we assume the fall occurred immediately after their creation, as is commonly postulated, that would presume the enemy (Satan) is mightier than the Creator, which would be absurd and sacrileges to say the least. (Isa.45:21-24; Isa.44:8) No, our first parents were sustained in God’s image and Love-likeness for a very long while before their eventual fall.

Eden was God’s paradisal garden empowered in the Spirit’s energized cocoon-like shielded environment where our first parents lived sheltered lives in God’s Love and safeguarded them from the inhospitable external physical world. Later, due to their sin of disobedience, they were banished to live in it. Eden was no backyard orchard, but was God’s gift to and His place of dwelling with Adam and Eve and humanity. In it, God taught them right from wrong through ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,’ and guided and sustained them in His Love and way of life through ‘the tree of life.’ (Gen.2:8-9)

Over a long period of ‘time’ they had assumed enormous ‘human knowledge and intellect’ through the ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ The ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ was not an evil, sinful tree. It increased our parents fund of knowledge of good and evil. Be that as it may, it was human knowledge and basically emboldens the human spirit of self-reliance instead of divine-reliance, which the devil exploited. (Prov.14:12; Gen.3:1, 6-7) Then there was the ‘tree of life’ which taught them God’s way of life, and where they received the Spirit’s (Love) energy and true life, most importantly divine-reliance. God tested their freewill (freedom) to choose between the two trees.

In fact, there was only one tree they were commanded to stay away and not eat. They had liberty to eat from many other trees. (Gen.2:16-17) The tree of good and evil represented human knowledge, much like how humans acquire knowledge today, then through experience and experimentation receive and increase human understanding. The drawback was and still is, it stoked the spirit of self-reliance as harbinger of the autonomous life independent from God. (Prov.16:25) And that is exactly how the devil tempted our first parents in Eden.

On the other hand, the ‘tree of life,’ represented the Love of God, and life of interdependence and relationship with the divine will. We must understand all forms of bondage and slavery results from living automously apart from God promoted by Satan by way of his catastrophic original sin. (Isa.14:12-14)

The wisdom we draw from the two trees is we can make our human plans, but in the end it is God who determines our steps towards genuine freedom and success. So, we yield to the divine will in all our human efforts, rather than the human self-will as end in itself that becomes a god we submit to in place of God’s Loving will. God’s Love, as represented in the ‘tree of life,’ leads to freedom, interrelationships, goodwill, and will never promote slavery and bondage in any shape or form. (Isa.61:1-2; Luk.4:18)

We saw that the ‘glorious garment’ with which God had clothed our first parents was the source of the form of human immortality they possessed in Eden. After they disobeyed and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, their celestial garment by way of their human ‘extrinsic immortality’ spontaneously vanished. Suddenly they saw and realized their nakedness. Yes, their “nakedness” revealed a change they never knew nor experienced before, now they were mere mortals and subject to deterioration and eventual death as God had warned. (Gen.2:17, 3:19)

The ‘glorious garment’ which sustained them with a form of ‘extrinsic immortality’ had disappearedon by reason of sin’s power over it. In the divine Edenic enviroment where God’s everlasting presence existed with our first parents, “nakedness” means to be stripped off the ‘glorious garment’ which sustained them in God’s presence. All their needs and wants, both spiritual and mortal, were supplied through the tree of life and the ‘glorious garment’ which sustained them immortally, which was subject to the mercy of sin’s power.

God clothed them with the garment of Animal Skin in place of the ‘Glorious Garment’ of ‘Extrinsic Immortality.’ This Animal Skin was to Depict the Substitutional sacrifice which Moses Instituted in Israel to Picture Jesus’ ultimate Sacrifice so Humanity is Spared from the Penalty of Sin and Death.

Then God shared the promise of the Messiah’s coming with our first parents, but directed it as a prophetic statement of intent of good over evil, right over wrong, uprightness over wickedness, at the serpent (Satan) saying, “I’m declaring war between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound His heel” (Gen.3:15, MSG). This was the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah and Savior. Not only is this a prophecy of Jesus’ birth, but it is a prophecy of His work, His life, His Cross, His resurrection and ascension.

By saying, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel,” God is declaring and proclaiming the good news of the defeat of Satan’s evil plan for mankind at the hands of Jesus His Son, our Savior, and Redeemer, and embrace us as His Loving children. This was the first mention to our first parents and humanity of God’s plan of redemption. The mission of Jesus as humanity’s Savior was to restore mankind to his predestined and celestially ordained place in God’s divine plan that was lost in Eden, and much, much more, as we shall see the role of the Messiah, the second Adam played out. (1 Cor.15:45-49)

In promising the coming of the Messiah and prior to their banishment from Eden, God clothed them with the garment of animal skin to cover the shame of their nakedness. (Gen.3:21) So, the Cross and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was first preached to Adam and Eve, humanity’s first parents. Up to now, Eden had never known death, for God’s divine existence was the life and environment of Eden. Death is anathema to God. However, after their fall (sin/nakedness) the garment of animal skin tells of the death of an animal or two in order to make garments to cover our parent’s nakedness.

*Artist Impression of Jesus Defeating Satan in the Temptation and Bring Redemption to Adam’s Fall, and Dying Upon His Cross as Final Act of Victory and Freedom*

We realize that Eden was the most beautiful and miraculous place upon earth. Eden was no ordinary backyard garden, all kinds of life forms existed in it. God had brought the animals and life forms before Adam so he would name them, “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name” (Gen.2:19). It showed that these life forms possessed a pet-like existence with Adam and Eve in Eden. These life forms in Eden were neither wild nor ferocious, but were gentle, benign, and responsive to human touch and cognizance.

The animal skin conveys to us that the life of animals were slained and ‘sacrificed’ to symbolize the future work of restitution of the prophesied Messiah necessary to save and cover the sin (nakedness) of all mankind. It was to picture the substitutional sacrificial system Moses would later institute in Israel to picture the future Messiah and His sacrificial death to atone for humanity’s sins and be spared from the ensuing death penalty and be adorned with godly life. (Rom.6:23; Gen.2:17)

Their ‘extrinsic immortality’ (‘glorious garment’) that had furnished their every need and want both spiritual and mortal in divine Eden, was no more. Now, God said, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Gen.3:19). They were banished to live outside Eden where the miraculous life they had always known and experienced had disappeared along with the sheltered life in Eden. (Gen.3:24) Beyond Eden they now had to work and earn their living. The miraculous life of Eden was lost forever.

*The Birth of The Savior & Redeemer, The Second Adam*

Yes, this symbolic substitutional death of animals in Eden foreshadowed the substitutional death of our Savior Jesus Christ as Redeemer upon the Cross to cover and protect humanity from sin and death. (John 3:16-17) Paul would say much later, “These things (sacrificial system) are a shadow of the things to come; the reality, however, is found (fulfilled) in Christ” (Col.2:17, italics my emphasis). What happened was symbolic, this first substitutional sacrifice in Eden was the first prophetic and symbolic act of the Messiah to come who would give His life as a sacrifice to cover human sin (nakedness). And this was fulfilled by Jesus’ death upon His Cross.

Paul would say, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom.5:12, 17). Then, Paul goes on, “For if we have been united with [Jesus] in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Rom.6:5). Yes, humanity’s destiny is to inherit the identical resurrection to human immortality Jesus initiated through His own resurrection. (Rom.8:11, 29; John 5:21)

Yes, God gave us His Son so that through His death on the Cross we will not have to face death, and through His resurrection we will receive immortal life. (John 3:16-17) Let us turn to the Cross.

This is where we pick up the story of Adam’s fall in Eden, and the transition to the Second Adam’s (Jesus’) story of restitution, redemption, Love and Freedom. (1 Cor.15:45) The primary meaning of the Cross of Jesus is to inherit the gift of freedom from the power of death which came through Adam’s fall. The Cross is about forgiveness and freedom from the imprisonment of sin, wickedness, rebellion through autonomy from God, the devil had established and consigned humanity since the fall of Adam in Eden.

It was upon the Cross that Jesus, the Son of God in human/divine form, was crucified and shed His blood and died for the atonement of all human sin in perpetuity. Athanasius affirms in his treatise, “On The Incarnation”: “If Jesus was only a man His death would not cover the sins of the world nor would He return to life.” Jesus Christ was no ordinary human being, He was the prophesied ‘Immanuel’ (meaning, “God with us”). (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23) He is the second Person of the Tri-Personal Godhead (Trinity). (Matt.28:18-20)

The Bible speaks of Christians “carrying your Cross daily.” (Luk.14:27) This act conveys the message to humanity that by “carrying Jesus’ Cross daily” we may exist in a state of ongoing forgiveness and renewal so peace with God is attained and maintained continuously. Jesus said, “Anyone who does not carry his Cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple” (Luk.14:27). It is at the foot of the Cross that the journey to ultimate immortality begins. He said, “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” (Matt.11:29). Yes, there is the yoke of Jesus’ Love, freedom and eternal life, or the devil’s yoke of sin, injustice, captivity and death. (John 3:16)

However, the immortality Jesus brings is not going to be the ‘extrinsic’ form of immortality the first Adam had by way of the ‘glorious garment’ which was powerless in the face of sin, but the true ‘intrinsic’ human/divine immortality instituted by Jesus Himself by His own resurrection and ascension, thus clothing us with the New Garment of Himself. (John 6:47, 3:36; 5:24) Note, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal.3:27). Paul added, “Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom.13:14). Yes, note the new Glorious Garment is none other than Jesus Christ Himself who has lifted mankind to eternal life.

So, in the Father’s glorious presence, humans undergo this deathlike experience of disrobing the sin-conditioned old self from Adam, and stepping into the new life of being robed in the glorified life and garment of His Son, Jesus. (Rom.8:29) “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies” Paul asserts. (1 Cor.15:53).

Adam’s ‘glorious garment’ was powerless in the face of sin and vanished instanly when our parent’s disobeyed God. (Gen.3:7, 17,19) However, the Garment of Jesus Christ’s Person possesses power over sin and will never vanish away for He is the Messiah. He has been appointed High Priest so He would forever mediate and consecrate mankind before God Almighty in perpetuity. (Heb.4.14-16; 2:14-18) Paul made an inspiring conclusion about our destiny in Christ as the human species, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Cor.5:21, NLT).

I draw our attention to the parable of the wedding banquet Jesus told His listeners. “The kingdom of heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for His Son.” The King “noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. Then the King told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness” (Matt.22:11-13). The wedding clothes is metaphor for being clothed in the Garment of Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and wellspring of immortality.

*The Resurrection to Human/Divine Immortality, Humanity’s Ultimate Glorious Garment in Christ, Establishing True Freedom and Success*

Paul gives us insight into this, saying, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:11; 1 Cor.15:51-53). Let us continue our journey with the Second Adam and His work to bring humanity out of Satanic incarceration and into true liberty and eternal life.

The ultimate purpose of Jesus and His Cross is aimed at one gaol – divine Freedom in Love. True freedom is the flipside of God’s divine nature of Love. The two are the same divine substance and indivisibly one. There is another word for freedom: success! Freedom and success are flipsides of one coin. Today, we hear so much about freedom and freedom fighters because of the conflict in central Europe between Russia and Ukraine. Today, we hear of the war erupting in Europe, and this is the picture of freedom lost.

We need to understand where this concept and natural urge for freedom originates. It is humanly inherent and instinctive because mankind assumed the likeness of our Maker who is both Love and Freedom in nature and substance. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 John 4:8; Gal.5:1; John 8:32; Rom.8:15) We treasure freedom because God made us to be like Him in His divine substance.

Be that as it may, freedom is not free but it took the life of Jesus, God’s own Son, to purchase our freedom by dying for us upon His Cross at the hands of fallen humans inspired by Satan. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free,” Paul asserts. (Gal.5:1, 13). However, freedom as a divine commodity from which a way of life is fostered and lived can be subjective based upon personal free will and preference. Today, there are 7.9 billion human beings that populate our earth, and counting. There are historical, emotional, cultural, and other societal inclinations in play which conspire to shape our freedom perspectives one way or another. Our free choice and perspective does not have to stand alone from others, there can be groupings of individuals with the identical points of view.

Although freedom is divinely endowed in humans, free will and free choice (freedom) has to be authenticated for its integrity and impartiality. To a person who is egomaniacal, freedom is viewed through a totally different lens compared to another person’s view of freedom.

Yet, over and above all that, freedom has to ring true and tested, before we can give subjective judgements as to its weight and import in relation to life’s journey for its integrity or deficiency, its success or emptiness. Recall, freedom and success are the flipsides of the coin of truth. Why is this vital? Because the Bible says, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). To be free is synonymous with success, as freedom answers to truth.

*God is Both Love and Freedom in Eternal Substance and Reality.*

So, our freedoms and successes has to be tested for its authenticity through the gauge of truth. Truth is the scale by which the freedoms we espouse are weighed and substantiated. Only then, we can be certain our freedom and success is true and worth its weight in whatever significance we like to assign it. Yes, freedom and truth go hand in hand. I said earlier another word for freedom is success, and that they are flip sides of one coin. Now, we see the coin is the coin of truth!

Whatever activity we experience and encounter, the one aim of life is to achieve freedom and success. However, if we fail the test of truth then freedom and success will be elusive and unattainable. We may have the appearance of self-assurance and so-called success, unwittingly though we remain in bondage still. Things may seem robust and favorable, but it still must sustain the burden of truth. Life must stand the crucible of truth so freedom and success can be achieved and life becomes a joy to live.

Whether it is the freedom of religion, or one’s political persuasion, personal fiscal/financial freedom, freedom of expression/speech, the personal freewill to choose, the freedom to assembly without fear, the right to petition, a system of liberty to pursue and receive justice, the freedom to live in peace and prosperity, the individual’s freedom to marry for love, etc. However subjective these perspectives to freedoms may be, they must stand the burden of truth. And truth, in turn, will always stand the test of time itself. In other words, truth is eternal just as Love is and will endure forever, and so does the freedoms which have been validated by truth and Love.

*Truth is The Scale by Which Our Freedoms Are Weighed*. *Jesus said, “I Am the Truth…”*

Then, that leaves us with the predominant question of all, what is truth? The answer is crucial and just as impactful because it clears any doubts about whether our freedom perspectives, subjective though they may be, do indeed ring true and bring about the liberty and success we hope it articulates. Or, is it just a ‘false flag’ which leads us down a blind alley and ends nowhere? The devil has always deceived humans and led them down blind alleys and only come to realize too late we never did move, let alone advance, from where they were in the first place – being incarceration and held in bondage to Satan. Sadly, the freedoms we may have assumed we acquired had just turned out to be another side of the picture of our captivity, and like a puzzle we have yet to work out. Regrettably, there we remain in bondage still. But take heart, the Cross of Jesus is our Creator’s answer to the quest for life, freedom and truth.

When God gave His Son to become humanity’s Savior, Jesus came with a message from the Father which settles this question about truth once for all. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6, italicized for emphasis). Here, we see the Bible tell us that truth is grounded and consolidated in the Person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. God has not hidden truth in some philosophical idea which humanity is supposed to seek out like some buried treasure. We are not to pursue truth like a Juan Ponce de Leon personality who sought the fountain of youth.

God has made it simple and easy for humanity to comprehend truth – God has gift-wrapped truth for us in the Person of His Son. Truth is absolute, it is reposed in Jesus. (John 14:6, 1:14) Truth is not some abstract notion we juggle in the mind and imagine it will materialize from nothing. No one can deny that God is the ultimate embodiment and repository of truth, and Jesus is the second Person of the Tri-Personal Godhead (Trinity) where truth is housed and abides from eternity. (Matt.28:18-19)

John further attest to this wonderful revelation, “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17, italicized for emphasis). How would humans come to determine and find the truth if God had not revealed it to us in such a plain and straightforward manner? We would be lost in a sea of concepts, conjectures, and ensuing confusion in our never-ending search. And sadly, peoples the world over, in bygone epochs and eras, have ended up with superstitious beliefs and weird and bizarre conclusions, as many have done so. We are grateful beyond measure for God’s extravagant grace and revelation in His only Son.

Like a beautiful rose with its equally exquisite petals, we see truth’s unfolding wonder and move in the path of the next petal in truth’s evolution and revelation: faith! We have seen that the aim of the Cross is singular and unique – freedom! It means freedom from all forms of bondage we can imagine, principally freedom from death – and since death is the end-all, it means perfect liberty. The Scriptures had foretold of humanity’s restoration from death to life through Jesus Christ. (Psa.49:15; Hos.13:14; John 3:16; Heb.2:14-18)

Paul reiterates this wonderful future for mankind, and writes, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.15:55-56). We see here how Jesus is the truth for He answers to the human nemesis, death, then brings about the opposite of death – immortality. (John 3:16-17) That, in a nutshell is the ultimate meaning of truth, freedom, and success!

Although freedom is subjective for every human being, we can determine if each of our ideas of freedom is truly genuine and does bring true liberty. To know that, we are required to weigh it on the scale of truth. We have seen truth is defined as the personification of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. (John 14:6) Each petal of the truth (Jesus) unfolds into the path and act of sanctification of Jesus’ faith in our person, our existence as humans. (Rom.3:22; Gal.2:20, KJV) What would be the meaning of life in all its manifestation if the final answer would always going to be the grave (death) and no further. So, we see why Jesus is the truth. Through His Cross He frees us from death and brings humanity true life. And it’s faith that brings all the pieces in God’s truth together in Christ. (Heb.11:1, 6)

Jesus came to reveal the Father to all mankind, who is the ultimate repository of truth. He said, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Luk.10:22). Here, Jesus is making known His eternal trinitarian existence with the Father in the one triune Godhead.

But how does truth (Jesus) reveal itself to us, so we may test the integrity of our perceptions of freedom and success? The simple answer is through faith! We are to place our trust and faith in a Person who said He is the repository and Personification of truth. (John 14:6) Jesus alone has to answer to our cause for freedom and true success, He alone is the test and scale upon which our freedoms are weighed, tested, and sanctified in Him alone. (John 14:6)

Jesus Christ Conveyed God’s Gift Of Human/Divine Immortality to Mankind Through His Own Resurrection. Thus, He Is the Ultimate Answer to Truth, Freedom, and Love. (John 3:16; Rom.8:11, 29; 1 John 4:16)

The prophet Isaiah quotes the Messiah as fulfilling His divine purpose in this manner, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isa.61:1). Yes, “To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” – in short, Jesus and His Cross is the path to complete liberty! This speaks of freedom first from the spiritual prison and captivity Satan has incarcerated humanity since the fall of Adam, which unravels into every manifestation of freedoms humans can possibly imagine. (Gal.5:1, 13) In short, we’ll be living the ‘miraculous life’ Adam lived on an ongoing basis in Eden in God’s presence before the fall, only now in a much more holistic and sense of eternity, no longer temporal, nor subject to sin and death.

Paul said this about freedom, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” echoing Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus we saw above (Gal.5:1). But what kind of freedom is it, what yoke slavery are we delivered from? Jesus said this about Himself, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Freedom from what? Paul asserts, “Jesus the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Rom.8:2).

So, the freedom Jesus brings is total liberty which deliver us from all forms of bondage, both spiritual and physical, arising from sin and rebellion under the devil’s influence. Recall, this is the same punishment and curse for sin decreed upon Adam’s fall in Eden, and passed down to mankind as a whole. (Gen.3:19; Rom.5:12, 17) All forms of bondage we experience as humans results from the fact that we are incarcerated as Satan’s slaves to living autonomously without God in sin and obstinacy.

We are abject failures, more so deceived, at comprehending the far reaching and devastating effects of sin. Sin has become so routine and normalized it has become a way of life. This is the most devastating form of slavery into which humans are presently incarcerated. It is a spiritual prison with human repercussion and consequence akin to being trapped in a curse we have unwittingly come to embrace which only Jesus’ Cross possesess the power to free us.

Paul explains the interplay of faith and its role in the truth which frees humans from bondage, “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal.3:23-29).

What is the purpose of faith? It gives you and I the conviction to trust God’s testimony about His Son Jesus as mankind’s Savior and Liberator and who is the very Spring from whom freedom flows to humanity. The Bible states clearly, “For this is how God Loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Immortality is the ultimate answer to freedom and success. Faith gives us the assurance about Jesus’ role as the prophesied Messiah. Paul tells us, “We are to walk by faith, and not by sight.” (2 Cor.5:7) Further the Scriptures says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.11:6).

There are many people who do not believe and have yet to receive Jesus Christ and remain lost. The Scriptures declare, “For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:9-10). So here, Paul lays out how we confess with our mouths our faith and conviction in Jesus as the very Son of God and Messiah. Faith is the lifeblood of the Christian life.

*The Human Faith, inadequate it may be in the spiritual realm, Is used to trust in the all-powerful “Faith of Jesus,” that’s Living and Miraculous*.

I want to share a parable of Jesus with you. Try to imagine a tree so bounteous which brings forth all kinds of fruits hanging from its leafy branches. Let us call it the ‘tree of freedom.’ The tree is a metaphor for liberty in all its glory. This is a unique tree because it bears all manner of fruits, not just a single variety. It bears apples, oranges, mangoes, plums, apricots, even pineapples, grapes, bananas, and as many variety as one can imagine. People from all walks of life flock to feed from the delicious, highly beneficial and tasteful fruits.

The variety of fruits represent all the many different perspectives of freedoms and successes to which humans espouse and pursue. The trunk of the tree (vine) can be likened to the main ‘conduit of freedom’ that represents Jesus, who is the truth. Recall, without truth freedom and success is unattainable, for Scripture says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

The sap flowing in the Vine (Jesus) which provides the life-giving nutrients enabling the tree to produce all variety and abundance of fruits is the power of God’s Spirit flowing through Christ, the Vine. (John 16:12-15) Jesus said, “I am the vine (primary tree trunk); you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, italics my emphasis). He said further, “I am the Real Vine and My Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of Me that doesn’t bear grapes (fruits). And every branch that is grape-bearing He prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken” (John 15:1-3, italics for emphasis).

This tree, its branches and fruits, represents humanity with all the dreams and successes made possible through the divine Freedom and Love. What would be the meaning of the fruits of our lives in all its expression if the final answer for them is in the graveyard of the dead. What would have been the point of life itself if the epitaphs on our gravestones is the only picture we see throughout life. So, we see why Jesus is the truth. We have seen people build monuments to perpetuate and protect their legacies, however, nothing escapes death.

We see Jesus is the answer to genuine freedom and true success. Through His Cross He frees us from death and brings humanity true life. And it’s His faith that brings all the pieces in God’s truth together in Christ. (Heb.11:1, 6) I repeat Paul’s declaration, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.15:55-56).

Fruit of the Spirit Tree Scripture Art based on Galatians 5 image 1

All the matured, ripened, and delicious fruits on each of the branches received the life-giving nutrients and vitality from the tree trunk or vine. The tree trunk (Vine/Jesus) is the primary conduit for the nutrient-rich sap (Holy Spirit) enabling the branches to bear fruits signifying freedom in its all-inclusiveness. The Vine/Jesus (tree trunk) and the sap were nourished by and in the soil which the Farmer (God the Father) had tended to and fertilized through the Spirit’s power, drive, and inspiration. As we saw, these fruits symbolize each of the freedoms and successes of life we espouse and treasure in totality and perfection. And since they have ripened and become a source for nourishment for us and our neighbors, it proves they have been tested by the truth, namely, the Vine or tree trunk which represent Jesus Christ, the truth! (John 14:6)

Paul explained to us the meaning and magnitude of the ‘sap’ within the tree which provides the necessary nutrients enabling the branches to bear much fruits. Paul taught the Corinthians about the Love-fruits of the Spirit which represent the ‘sap’ of the tree of freedom. (1 Cor.13:1-13) He said, “So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without Love” (1 Cor.13:3, MSG). In other words, as humans we amount to nothing if our lives are not inspired and controlled by Love and Freedom.

The Holy Spirit is the personification of God’s Love in humans. So, the ‘sap’ of the freedom tree is God’s divine Love, flowing in the Vine and personified in the branches (humans) by the presence of the Holy Spirit through the ‘fruits of freedom’ Paul taught the Corinthians. Paul further said, “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16). (To read about the Love-fruits of the Spirit which represent the ‘sap’ in the Vine (Jesus), you may go to my post, titled, “Gifts Are Magnets of the Love Personality” at: http://bulamanriver.net/27435).

The life we live as Christians is a life of living faith. Yet, even the faith we need is a gift from God, not our human faith that’s inadequate in spiritual matters where it’s constrained by our limited human senses. What is needed is the very personal “faith of Jesus.” Note, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no distinction among people” (Rom.3:22, KJV). Did you notice, there are two faiths mentioned here, the “faith of Jesus,” and the human faith – “unto all and upon all them that believe.” We utilize our human faith, inadequate it may be in the spiritual realm, to trust in the all-powerful “faith of Jesus,” that’s living and miraculous. As we receive Jesus as Savior, we inherit His living Personal faith empowered in the Holy Spirit. (Rom.10:9-10; Act.2:38)

(The “Love-Fruits of the Holy Spirit” are shown in detail below in the appendix. You may read my Post titled, “The Saving Living Faith of Jesus” at: http://bulamanriver.net/21946.)

It is this ‘tree of freedom’ that was hewn down to make and erect the Cross upon which wicked humans impersonating the hands of the evil one, took and nailed Jesus’ upon it. So, we see the Cross of Jesus, hewn from the ‘tree of freedom.’ Upon this Cross Jesus took all mankind’s sins and acts of rebellion and nailed them and put them to death, so we may experience true Freedom and Love.

*Dove, Symbolof The Holy Spirit of Love*

Let me recap the subject of of this post, “The Cross.” The Scriptures say that the purpose of humanity’s creation is to attain and inherit the “image of God.” (Gen.1:26-27). But what is that image? The Bible says it is the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Listen to Paul’s words, “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom.8:29). Jesus is the new Glorious Garment in which humans will be clothed. (Gal.3:27; 1 Cor.15:53)

By saying, “His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters,” it is affirming Christ took our fallan humanity, redeemed it through His Cross, and inaugurated (firstborn) human immortality through His resurrection so we become God’s children forever. The Scriptures tell us, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36). Mankind will exist in God’s very substance of Love and Freedom for eternity. This is the ultimate purpose of The Cross.

We earlier read the parable of the wedding banquet. It is the wedding of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to His bride, comprising all humanity who have been made immortal. In the scene from the book of Revelation, we see the Father’s wedding gift for the marriage of His Son. This is what John saw in his vision, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Rev.21:1-5).

Yes, a new heaven and new earth, and the most astounding city whose streets are marvelously paved in gold. Truly, what a gift, what an awesome sight to behold, what a fantastical future awaits humanity. (Rev.21:21; 9-27)

*Praying Hands – Albrecht Durer.pngPrayer:* *A Solemn One-On-One Spiritual Dialogue Between A Person and God (Wiki Commons) – Wikimedia Commons*

Welcome to the celestial life of Love in God’s holy, eternal Family. (1 Tim.6:19) Then keep in touch with God’s Word for you by reading and studying your Bible, and visiting this blog and website and look at various subjects listed in our ‘archives’ that may be relevant for your situation – go to: http://bulamanriver.net. You can email me with your questions at the address shown below.

May I take this occasion to wish you and you families and loved ones a solemn and joy-filled Passover and Easter.

Farewell for now!

*The Holy Spirit as Symbolized By The Dove Is the Nutrient-Rich “Sap” of the Tree of Freedom and Love*

*”Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God in His plurality, as the Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. He is also clothed in Freedom. For the three Persons of the Trinity are three distinct and free Persons in the triune Godhead. Love and Freedom by nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being.

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 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. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. 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).

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. 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 triune existence forever.

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

*The Christian Faith As Recorded In the Nicene Creed*

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

Triune Life – Miracle of Triune Living

"Live the Triune Life… Change the World"

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