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TWO FAITHS – 1) FATHER/OFFSPRING 2) MASTER/SERVANT

Greetings Friends where you are! My hope is my post will find you filled with the Lord’s joy!

The Christian faith is founded upon our God who is a Trinity, not a solitary God. God is One hypostatic (unified) Godhead in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:18-20) As a verb, faith speaks of articulating our statement of beliefs in our daily lives. As a noun faith identifies who God is, for scripture tell us, “God is Love” (1 john 4:8, 16). So, faith as a verb can be utilized various ways, in this post I would like to share two fundamental meanings of faith and its application. There’s an interesting point about faith that’s worthy of note in Luke 17. Let’s read it…

“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (verb) He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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.17:5-10). The parable of the mustard seed appears in parallel passages in other Gospels, but Luke’s account is unique in that it interfaces the disciples’ question about faith with the account of the master and the servant.

Faith as a Grain – Quality not Quantity

The disciples asked for faith in the sense of quantifying faith! By saying, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,” Jesus is talking about the quality of faith, rather than the quantity of faith. We will see what I mean by “quality” a little later. In this passage from Luke, your Bible has a pause between Verse 5-6 and Verse 7-10 to indicate two unrelated topics. Verse 5-6 is about faith, and Verse 7-10 tells us about the parable about the Master and Servant. But the Bible in its original format had no verse or chapter breaks we see in today’s version. Verses and chapters were introduced to help readers navigate through different parts of the Bible.

But it has its pros and cons, and one weakness is we can be blinded by missing the context. Reading a small part is not always helpful when the author intended a book to be read through to the end. So, this passage speaks about a single topic, not two unrelated issues. It is about faith and reads from verse 5 to 10. The parable was simply Jesus way of explaining the meaning of the “mustard seed faith.” So, what has faith to do with the “master/servant” relationship?

Jesus Teaching Disciples the Mustard Seed Faith (By James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum, Wiki Commons)

Two Faiths:

Jesus explains the ‘mustard seed faith’ in the context of the “Master/Servant” faith (verb), because it is distinct from but essentially part of the believer’s “Father/Offspring” (Son/Daughter) faith. The faith we express in terms of the “Father/Offspring” relationship has to do with our adoption into God’s eternal family through Jesus. One is foundational and unmoved (“Father/Child”), while the other is functional and mobile (“Master/Servant”). By ‘functional’ I mean something that is mobile and changes with time according to God’s move in the believer’s life, yet it has eternal ramification. (Matt.25:23) In one, God is our Father, while He is Master in the other.

What we see in our lives is identical with Jesus own life where His faith is applied in two contextual realities: the foundational “Father/Son” relationship He had with His Father from eternity, and the functional “Master/Servant” relationship in His role as Savior and Redeemer. So, Jesus possessed both faiths: the foundational “Father/Son relationship” in His role as the only Son of God; and in a “Master/Servant relationship” in His role as the Savior and Redeemer of humanity.

From here I will attempt to share the two faiths as Jesus stated in His parable about the important subject of faith in Luke 17:5-10. Firstly, the “Father/Offspring Faith,” and secondly, the “Master/Servant Faith.”

  1. Father/Offspring Faith “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith! He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (Luke 17:5-6).  
  2. Master/Servant Faith “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 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’” (Luke 17:7-10).  

Following are the explanatory notes:

1) Father/Offspring faith: The commonly quoted passage from John says, “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). This is the foundation upon which the “Father/Offspring Faith” is grounded.

2) Master/Servant faith: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth… because of His reverent submission. A Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (Heb.5:7-10).

Note the words, “He (Jesus) learned obedience from what He suffered and once made perfect” are words assigned to a servant. And because of Jesus’ obedience and loyalty He was designated to be humanity’s High Priest of God in heaven.

For us as humans, the faith we express in the “Master/Servant” relationship is no different, but this time it has to do with God’s Work, principally as it relates to the work of the Gospel. (Mat.28:18-20) God’s Work involves His labor of Love to save humanity from sin and eternal death called the ministry of reconciliation which we are given. (2 Cor.5:18)

Jesus Christ possessed both faiths. So, as followers of Jesus, we too must take on both faiths as He did. Jesus said, “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt.28:20).

In this passage from Luke 17, your Bible has a pause between Verses 5-6, and Verses 7-10, presumably indicating two unrelated topics. Verses 5-6 speaks about faith as a mustard seed, and Verses 7-10 is a parable about the Master and Servant. But the Bible in its original format had no verse or chapter breaks we see in today’s Bible version. Verses and chapters were introduced to help readers navigate through different parts of the Bible. But it has its pros and cons, and one weakness is we can be blinded by missing the subject or context of the passage in question altogether. Reading a small part is not always helpful when the author intended a passage to be read through to the end as one subject. So, this passage speaks about a single topic, not two unrelated issues. It is all about faith and reads from Luke 17 Verse 5 to 10. The parable was simply Jesus’ way of explaining the meaning of the faith from two aspects.

2 Cor. 5:18

So, let’s start with the second point of Jesus’ teaching about faith – what has faith to do with the “Master/Servant” relationship as shown in Luke 17:7-10? Jesus explains the faith in the context of the “Master/Servant faith” is distinct from but essentially part of the believer’s “Father/Offspring faith.” The faith we express in terms of the “Father/Offspring faith” is the relationship has to do with our adoption into God’s eternal family through Jesus. John wrote the memorable test, “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. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16-18).

One faith is foundational and unmoved (“Father/Offspring Faith”), while the other is functional and mobile (“Master/Servant Faith”). By ‘functional’ I mean something that is mobile and can change according to circumstance and time in line with God’s move in the believer’s life, yet it has eternal ramification. (Matt.25:23) In one, God is our Father, while He is Master in the other.

What we see in our lives is identical with Jesus own life where His faith is applied in two contextual realities: the foundational “Father/Son Faith” (relationship) He had with His Father from eternity, and the functional “Master/Servant Faith” (relationship) in His role as Savior and Redeemer. The faith we express in the “Master/Servant Faith” or relationship is no different and has to do with God’s Work, principally as it relates to the work of the dispensation of the Gospel of Jesus as Redeemer of humanity. (Mat.28:18-20)

The Great Commission

God’s Work involves His labor of Love to save humanity from sin and eternal death called the ministry of reconciliation which we are given. (2 Cor.5:18) The oft-quoted passage from John we read earlier from John 3:16-19 says everything we desire to know about the Father’s Love for humanity as a whole. That in a nutshell, is the very heart and soul of God’s Work. So, there are two faiths working interchangeably where one is built on top of the other and mutually dependent. One is expressed in form of a noun (“Father/Son” relationship), and the other is a verb (“Master/Servant” relationship).

Life As Seen Through The Triune Lense of The Trinity

As we dig deeper into this passage in Luke 17, we do so wearing God’s Triune lens and perspective. God exists in three Personal realities in “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:18-20). By looking at human life through God’s Triune lens and perspective we can arrive at the right explanation of faith, or for that matter any other topic in the Bible. Jesus brings each of us into the picture of this “Master/Servant Faith”: God is Master and we are His servants. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always interweaving and interpenetrating each other, are pure oneness in thought, purpose, and action, and are perfection and beauty-one God in three Persons eternally in Loving relationship.

Then Jesus asks, if we had a hired house servant, would we regard him as master and treat him with all the courtesies of a master in a role reversal? Is it okay that the master perform the work he has paid a servant to do? Is that how this faith works? Of course not! But what was Jesus getting at?

He desired to know if we are we true servants, or do we sometimes regard God like a servant and we are masters? That would be an unthinkable thought to consider let alone believe. In the “Father/Offspring Faith” (relationship) we know our place as offspring and children and don’t have an identity crisis here. But not so with the “Master/Servant Faith” (relationship) where the tendency to switch the roles are real. If we have initiated a role reversal in our relationship with God, whether inadvertently or ignorantly, then the faith which keeps the “Master/Servant Faith” (relationship) functioning properly has been compromised and made powerless and vulnerable if not incapacitated. But if this “Master/Servant Faith” is functioning correctly, even though it is small as a mustard seed, it will be powerful. And Jesus lived both faiths as a Son (offspring), and as a servant.

It is vital that we understand how we apply the two faiths – intuitively, we tend to overemphasize God’s role as a caring Father who provides for His children, and much less as our Master who wants us to participate in His saving and redemptive Work. Humans are creatures of comfort and habit with the tendency to follow the path of least resistance. So, we are more inclined towards His Fatherly qualities, than His Masterly attributes and values. As a Father we tend to ask Him for our many mundane needs, but do we express the same enthusiasm for His role as Master and faithfully responding as servants in His Work of the Gospel. We mistakenly assume we are entitled to a life without obstacles and setbacks as children, and we become perplexed not understanding the ground (faith) we are standing upon in life’s calling and circumstance.

The modern-day so-called prosperity gospel is one such instance of regarding God as servant who is the source for all our wants and desires, minimizing or entirely failing at the servanthood role. Do we see the Christian life like a vacation cruise and God’s part is to indulge us with the blessed life of plenty? We exploit passages out of context like, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen,” where the “unseen things” are cravings for the material and sensual? (Heb.11:1). We just made God a servant for our selfish appetites and ambitions, and have become masters in the process.

The Prosperity Gospel

When that happens, what we are seeing is the human version of faith which makes this role reversal a reality. But as we keep our pair of “Triune Life” lens firmly in place, we’ll find that it is an altogether different faith which keeps the “Master/Servant” relationship healthy between God and the Christian. But though this role reversal may convey the outward appearance of the material and sensual, its underlying stimulus is spiritual self-righteousness (“solitary life”) due to deficiency of the Holy Spirit by living God’s whole Tri-Personal Being as the Triune God. (Eph.5:18; 2 Thess.2:13).

Servanthood Faith   

The “Master/Servant” faith starts small like a mustard seed because servanthood is something which grows from a seed to a fruitful tree for the benefit of others. In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus taught, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matt.13:31-32).

The “Master/Servant Faith” seed maybe minuscule, but as long as it is a genuine article, the seed has the quality and character in its nature to do great things. Yes, Jesus was the greatest Servant of all even though He was a Son. He is called the “Suffering Servant” (Isa.53). As a servant, Paul said of Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience (servanthood) from the things which He suffered (as the Messiah)” (Heb.5:8, NASB, emphasis mine).

Jesus – The “Suffering Servant”

A servant’s life usually takes effort, production, and results. At times, coupled with courage, humility, and unshakable determination, so different by comparison to living the sheltered life of a son or daughter (“Father/Offspring Faith”). We live the abundant life as children enveloped in God’s incomprehensible Love. In response, children take responsibility for their Father’s Love by becoming Love themselves as He is Love. John makes this point clear for God’s children, “But anyone who does not Love does not know God, for God is Love…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 4:8,16; also 1 Cor.13; Gal.5:16-26). This speaks of our faith as children in the “Father/Offspring Faith” relationship.

God Is Love

However, as a servant in the “Master/Servant Faith” (relationship), we may suffer hardships in the moment, but is considered negligible when compared to the glorious future our Father and Master has in store  for us. (Rom.8:18) Jesus came as a “Suffering Servant,” and in His final moments at the cross, He cried to His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt.27:46). Yes, as a servant we may feel seemingly forsaken at times, but we have His sure promise, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb.13:5b).

Before His death, Jesus taught His disciples the attitude of a servant by washing the disciples’ feet. On the third day after His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead and forever secured our destiny and faith for all eternity. (1 Cor.15:17) As a servant Jesus fulfilled His Father’s work of redeeming mankind from sin, and endowing humanity with His Spirit of Love to assure immortality in His eternal kingdom. (John 3:16; Tit.2:13-14; Rom.8:11)

The faith based upon the “Father/Offspring” relationship is the rock foundation upon which the “Master/Servant” relationship is built. (Matt.7:24-27) However, the major portion of our lives will be lived out in the “Master/Servant” environment – the structure above ground which rests upon the foundation of the “Father/Offspring Faith.” The foundation is “unseen” but sure, and the structure upon it gives meaning, purpose, and destiny, is clearly “seen” in the believer’s life. This structure through the “Master/Servant Faith” relationship puts substance and structure to the family responsibility by which we will be judged and rewarded as this passage show at a future time of judgment, “His Master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness!’” (Matt.25:23).

Life’s Strong Foundation

So, it goes without saying how vital this faith will be for us all, minuscule it may be from the outset (“mustard seed”). Our occupations and professions come under the umbrella of the “Master/Servant” relationship, based upon the foundation of the “Father/Offspring Faith.” Paul said, “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were Working for the Lord rather than for people” (Eph.6:7). Your whole life is a platform for the Work of the Lord and His Gospel. You are the living, walking, talking, Gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter tells us how to use our platform, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord (Master)” (1 Pet.3:15).

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet.3:15). So, we see how God takes our every-day reality and weave it into His plan for us to be both loving offspring (children) and loyal servants. A cautionary note, we ought to be careful about not turning our profession (servants with unique gifts) for mere material/financial benefits solely for this mundane human life and all its reciprocal appendages. Jesus said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need (for this physical life)” (Mat.6:33, also 1 Cor.15:19).

Jesus – Still Serving Man as High Priest

For the most part, while we are God’s children, the greater and best chunk of life is about being a servant. Therefore, it is imperative we have the prerequisite faith to help us live the role of a servant. The servanthood life is the extension of Jesus’ own life. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus’ role as Savior did not end at the cross, that was just the beginning. He continues to perform His role as Savior today as High Priest in heaven interceding on man’s behalf for all his faults and transgressions. So, He continues to serve mankind from heaven and through us as His servants on earth, as a Servant of God. (Heb.4:14-15; Eph.3:16-19) Servanthood begins with faith – the servanthood faith is the engine of the “Master/Servant Faith” and relationship. It is initially given in its minutest form (mustard seed) upon our conversion and grows into a fruitful tree where people come to it for rest and nourishment. (John 15:16; Gal.5:22-23; Tit.3:14)

Growing the “Mustard Seed Faith” in “Good Soil”

How do we deal with our “mustard seed faith” and make it grow? With our “Triune Life” lens and focus firmly in place, let’s see the first and most worthy thing we can do: we sow our “mustard seed faith” on good soil so it will bring forth a bountiful harvest. What is the good soil? Jesus gave another parable about the sower where the seeds fell on four different soil types (Matt.13:1-23). Jesus explains the sower is God the Father, the seed is God’s Word (Jesus), the four soil types represent people and how they respond to God’s Word represent the fruits of God’s Love or Holy Spirit. (1 Cor.13:1-12)

Three seed types (humans) did not have it in them to sustain any growth, so the seeds perished. But it is only the “good seed” which fell upon and received by the “good soil” which brought forth fruit as Matthew records, “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop–a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matt.13:8). The “good soil” represents the work of the Holy Spirit in preparing the soil to receive the “good seed” (God’s Word, Jesus Christ).

Now, according to this parable, your “faith seed” (Jesus/Word of God) is actually Jesus’ own personal faith, not our weak human faith. He is the personification of God’s Word – the “mustard seed faith.” That explains why it can move a mountain, despite the fact it is small as a mustard seed. (Matt.17:20) Paul affirms how we take ownership of the only workable faith a servant can have to do his Master’s work, saying, “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). In another passage Paul reminds us, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe.” (Rom.3:22, AKJV)

There is a difference between the faith in Jesus, and the faith of Jesus. When you say you have faith in Jesus it speaks of the use of a person’s weak human faith in someone. However, when a person speaks of the faith of Jesus it refers to a faith of Someone else – in this case, Jesus’ living, dynamic faith. It is important to keep this important difference of the use of prepositions in mind that indicate relationships between words.

Mustard Seed – The Faith of Jesus

So, the “mustard seed faith” in Luke 17 is the faith of Jesus sown in you, the “good soil” prepared by the Holy Spirit. A pertinent word about perception and mindset, the “good soil” is not conveying the goodness of the human heart – that is what a person wearing the devil’s “solitary life” lens would see and like to believe. If anything, the human heart is rotten to the core through and through. (see Jer.17:9; Mar.7:20-23) Why is that? Because humanity has been ‘dead’ in sin since the fall of Adam in Eden, awaiting the coming of the ‘second Adam.’ (1 Cor.15:45; Rom.6:23). But rather the “good soil” (you) is the work of preparation done by the Holy Spirit since He was given on Pentecost. (Act.2:38) He supplies the “living waters,” and prepares the “good soil” (you) to receive the “good seed” (Jesus’ Word) from the Father. (John 7: 37-39; Gal.2:20). If there is any “good” in humanity, it is the fact that God made man in His image with a divine destiny. (Gen.1:26-27). God’s plan is to bring to reality His destiny in humanity, and the “good soil,” the Spirit in you, is an intrinsic part of it. (1 Cor.3:16).   

The Human Heart is Desperately Wicked- Jer.17:9

By having the “Triune Life” lens (mindset), we are always asking how each individual Person of the Tri-Personal God is involved with our lives and salvation. The Father and Son cannot work on their own without the Spirit for the Three act as One substance and act as One Being in the Godhead. The “Master/Servant Faith” (mustard seed) is always Jesus own living faith. The “good soil” (man) is always showing the work of sanctification of the Spirit. Therefore, only the Spirit (good soil/man) can receive Jesus’ faith (mustard seed) and give growth and true life. For there is no other way for the “Master/Servant” relationship to germinate and grow in humans except within God’s “Triune Life.”

So, rather than quantifying faith as it relates to the disciples’ question, Luke qualifies faith by personifying it as Jesus’ own powerful living faith existing in you through the Spirit’s life. In all of this, we see God’s “Triune Life” in motion: The Father sows the seed of His Son’s faith in the good soil (humanity) which the Spirit has prepared through spiritual watering or sanctification. (1 Pet.1:2,5; 2 Thes.2:13)

Human Faith Vs Jesus’ Faith

Many Christians today do not know how to live “Master/Servant Faith” and relationship. If they are, they are trying to do it on their terms with their human faith, and it can never be done. And this is the crux of the problem as to why many believers say their faith is weak. It is weak because it is still our human faith and unsuited for the task of a true offspring and loyal servant of God. The believer is still viewing life through the lens of his human “solitary life.” He must replace his “solitary life” lens with God’s “Triune Life” lens. (Read more about Jesus’ faith and the human faith at http://bulamanriver.net/?p=2811).

This is what Jesus meant when He commissioned His followers to make disciples, “Baptize (induct) them in (into the life of) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19, emphasis mine). This is foundational truth of our understanding of God who exists in His Love as the Trinity! Being baptized means to be “immersed” into God’s “Triune Life” in a literal and real spiritual sense. If we do not get it right at this elementary level, then the “Master/Servant Faith” structure being built on the foundation of the “Father/Offspring Faith” is flawed and will be found wanting. (Matt.7:24)

We will find out soon enough our human faith is inadequate to do God’s Work. It is going to be the faith of Jesus, and nothing more or less. It must be remembered that it is the human faith which inverts the priority and regards God as servant and humans as master. (Luke 17:7-10) It is man’s self-centered ego that is trying to execute what only the Holy Spirit can do in humanity.

The Faith of Jesus

Faith Turns to Gift and Calling

Jesus’ own faith (mustard seed) is made reality in man by the gift of the Holy Spirit, who in turn makes us His dwelling (temple) so He can always keep us as “good soil” for Jesus’ living faith/seed. (John 16:13-15; 1 Cor.3:16; 6:19) The Spirit empowers each believer to embrace his/her calling with the accompanying gift to do the Work of God. Paul clarifies the connection between grace, faith and gift, saying, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to each of us…in proportion to our faith, let us use them” (Rom. 12:6). You can read more about man’s calling (gift/faith) to do God’s Work in a post I wrote at: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=3145   

On the eve of Jesus’ departure from the earth as He was about to be taken into heaven by an angelic host, He commissioned His followers the highest work they will do in their “Master/Servant” relationship with Jesus, His Father, and the Spirit, “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). Always be cognizant of God’s sovereignty and take hope that His purpose is absolute.  

At the end of the day, Luke tells us to reflect upon God’s grace of gifting us with the faith of His Son, and respond with humility, “I have done everything I was told to do, I am an unworthy servant, and I have only done my duty” (Luk.17:10).

Just as God is faithful to go out from Himself in Love, may the church in its communion and reliance on the Triune God, go out in Love as well, fully cognizant of its role as offspring and servant in the work of God.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to write to me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting.

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may God bless you with the faith of Jesus His Son and 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” as a Bulamanriver.*  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. (Gen.1:26-27)

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the one Triunity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. (Matt.28:18-20) They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam, for she came out of Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine 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: is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, you may obtain a copy of my book, “Bula” Man-River, from Amazon.com; xulonpress.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online book stores. All proceeds will go towards furthering the work of Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world

                                            “Bulamanriver” Book Cover

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

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

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

LIVING IN THE “LOVE-FORCE” OF GOD’S DIVINE “LOVE NATURE”, BY KIANG P LEE

Greetings Friends! Jesus used many parables to try to make His listeners understand God’s Kingdom of Love. Today, I would like to share a parable of God’s Love as represented by the ocean of earth’s seven seas.

Let me elaborate. The water in the ocean is the ‘enabling condition’ which empowers marine life to go about living with other marine species, each fulfilling their individual role in the overall marine ecosystem. So likewise, the waters of the ocean is analogized as God’s Love which enables humans (marine life) to be sustained in His spiritual ecosystem and live out their divinely conferred gifts and purposes for the eternal destiny of God’s Kingdom.

I likened the ‘ocean’ to the life-force of God’s Love as ‘condition’ because inherent in its oceanic makeup is the power which enables humans to live under God’s purpose for all its inhabitants. The ocean of God’s Love-force immerses humans in the way of life that’s monopolized by God’s Love, and the fruits of His Love. (1 Cor.13)

There is another ocean, one of fear and trepidation, that exists in contrast to God’s Love. This is the ocean where the enemy of God, Satan, is its master. Its waters are murky and therefore hard people must be wary and watchful when we navigate. As Peter said, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet.5:8). Yes, it has many predatory marine species which lay in wait to devour helpless marine life – see picture below.

The Ocean of Fear and Sin of the Enemy of God, Satan, Who Seeks to Destroy Humanity with Predatory Species. Sharks and seemingly dangerous creatures of the deep are not usually menacing as they appear unless threatened (Unsplash).

The people who now live in the ocean of God’s Love were once inhabitants of this fearful and dreadful ocean. In fact, because of Adam’s fall when he and his wife succumbed to the Satan’s temptation in Eden, all humanity were fated to become unfortunate and inescapable inhabitants of this dreadful and destructive ocean. (Gen.3:1-6, 21-24) Just as our fist parents were banished from Eden, so humanity has grown in the fearful and destructive ocean. (Gen.3:21-24) We were born and raised in it. We see its effects upon humanity every day are caught “in the snare of the devil” (2 Tim.2:26). But for those who respond to God’s call, they have been given to be extracted out of and saved from this ocean’s deathly and deadly waters and now placed in and inhabit and swim in the ocean of God’s divine Love-force. Here is God’s promise to those who respond positively to His call: “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes” (Jer.29:12-13; Psa.40:5). It is the fear-generating spirit of the enemy’s “sin-condition” that is the living force of Satan’s ocean which ensnares people to the way of rebellion and “sin-force” waters of the evil one.

Sin-Generating Fear -“The Snare of the Devil”- The Evil Force in the Ocean of the Enemy Who Seeks to destroy Humanity

How do people enter into and live in the peaceful, productive, and fulfilling life in the ocean of God’s Love? And how do humans find the way to extract themselves out of the ocean of fear and sin? It is obvious the marine life like fish, turtles, and other species cannot extract themselves out from one ocean into the next. So, it has to take the owner of the respective oceans to let their inhabitants or citizenry in and out at their voluntary free will. God is the owner of the ocean of Love. The devil is the owner of the ocean of fear and sin.

God is calling out to all of humanity to come swim with everlasting joy in the river of His Love – eat freely from the food He has prepared for our true well-being.” Listen…

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods” (Isa.55:1-2). God is freely reaching out to lavish upon humanity His food that will last for eternity. Take it and be ever grateful for His Love.

Jesus openly declared, “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” (John 7:37-39). Yes, the Holy Spirit is freely available for those who desires to follow God and has an open invitation for all humanity.

God is the Creator who rules supreme over all, including Satan. (Isa.45:5; Deut.32:39) The devil exists under His divine sovereign rule. Therefore, only God can rescue the people imperiled in the hazardous ocean of fear and sin. And God can execute a rescue plan for humanity, so to speak. And this He has already done by appointing and sending His Son, Jesus Christ, as master and owner of the ocean of Love. (John 3:16; Heb.1:2; 2:8) This is the ‘miraculous life’ that is our human heritage and preordained to live because mankind was created in God’s Love image – you can read more about the ‘miraculous life’ at: http://bulamanriver.net/22961, where I share my own personal miraculous story as testimony.

Yes, the enemy must first be defeated, so he is made powerless to hold people captive in his ocean of sin-generating fear and rebellion. Through Jesus’ victory, people are released from their captivity so they may enter the ocean of Love in the Spirit. Jesus has done exactly that by defeating Satan in His temptation, lived a perfect sinless life, was crucified upon His cross for human sins, resurrected and ascended to heaven and made humanity’s High Priest, forever mediating for mankind. (Matt.4:1-11; 27:32-56; 1 Pet.1:3; Act.1:6-11; Heb.4:14-16) The Bible attests through Paul, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery” (Gal.6:1). Yes, Jesus has set humanity free from the “sin-force” waters of fear and rebellion of the enemy.

God Unites Himself With Humanity Through His Heart, Mind, and Human Life

Paul further states “For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness (sin-generating Ocean) and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son (Love-generating Ocean)” (Col.1:13, italics mine). John said, “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). Here, we see the Bible disclose to us the identity of the two metaphysical oceanic conditions: Love and sin (fear).      

Paul explains and makes plain for us what God did through His Son, and provides the answer between the distinction of the two supernatural oceanic conditions as the “law of sin and death,” and the “law of the Spirit (Love)”: “For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rom.8:2). Note, the “law of the Spirit of life” frees us from the “law of sin.”  The “law of sin” is the ocean that empowers the “sin-force” from which the destructive way of life of the enemy emanates. And the “law of the Spirit” is the power that inspires the Love-condition” and Love-force in the ocean of God’s Love, and generates righteous and uplifting living.

Jesus Gave Himself as the Sacrificial Lamb to Save Humanity From The deathly Waters of the Ocean of fear and Sin, and Bring Humanity Home into The Ocean of God’s Love (Holy Spirit).

Jesus gives us the mechanics of how a person is taken out of the murky deadly waters of the devil, and be installed and live in the Love-force (waters) of the Holy Spirit. He said, “You must be born again of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5-8). Let me paraphrase the passage as it relates to our topic today, “You must be born again into the waters of the Spirit’s Love-condition.” This is a spiritual birth, as Jesus made plain to Nicodemus. (John 3:3-7) You see, the waters which flow in the ocean of Love is empowered by the Holy Spirit Himself. He is the very personification of the Love-force in God’s oceanic environment.

Jesus made this clear when the Bible states, “On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When He said “living water,” He was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in Him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into His glory.)” (John 7:37-39).

So, we see that the waters of the ocean of Love is the Spirit of God, the third Person of the Triune Godhead, empowering and enabling humans to swim in God’s ocean of Love. Paul said this to 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). Yes, the Holy Spirit is likened to the cleansing waters which flows in humanity. (John 4:14; 1 Cor.12:13; Rev.21:6; 22:1-2, 17)

So, all the various life forms that exist in the ocean of the devil’s “sin-force” waters, has to depend upon God who overpowers its evil owner, pluck humanity out, and resettle them in the life-giving ocean of Love. This is mankind’s true home, it is the home of their birthright. (Gen.1:226-27; Eph.4:20-24; Gen.5:1) It is the ocean where the words of the Psalms is brought to life where human live the celestial life in the Spirit, “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling” (Psa.27:4-5).

Yes, in God’s ocean humans are in God’s Love-temple, and vice versa. Let us be clear, the ‘house of the Lord,’ ‘His temple,’ is very much the life and heart of humanity, for Paul affirms this, saying, “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Cor.3:16). Yes, the Psalmist is referring to the true temple of God – the very heart and innermost being of believers who now swim and exist in the ocean of God’s Love.

Paul asserted that the Father chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight in Love. We are the focus of the Father’s Love, and it is in the environment of the Spirit’s transcendent oceanic Love-force where we are renewed, transformed, and abundantly blessed. (Eph.1:3-4) We recall and remind ourselves of God’s trinitarian divine nature of Love in the Father, Son, and Spirit, into which humanity has been inducted. (Matt.28:18-20; 2 Cor.13:14) In their Loving union, they act as one for they are indivisibly One Triune God – so, the act of one is always the act of all three, and the act of three is always the act of one. Since God is a Tri-Personal divine Being, thereby Jesus is very much part and personification of the spiritual oceanic Love-condition in which humans exist and swim.

Jesus said, the Spirit’s role in our lives is to manifest Christ in each of us. Jesus said, “He (Holy Spirit) 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 16:14-15). Paul makes this plain, “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor.3:17). In the supernatural ocean of God’s Love-force, humanity is always existing in the inner sanctum of God’s Love-Being, for John affirms, “All who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16).

Paul goes further, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3). By saying, “For you died in this life,” Paul means the old life we lived in the enemy’s deathly ocean is gone forever, for Christ has paid the ransom to free humanity from the devil’s deathly waters and bring us to God’s living waters. (1 Tim.2:6; John 4:14; Rev.21:6) Yes, the ocean of God’s Love-force in the Spirit immerses and embrace us so that Jesus through the Spirit is by our side, He is over us and in us, so our every action and impulse are wrapped in the mysteries of God’s Love by which the Triune God reveals Himself to and in humanity. Yes, the scriptures reveal God’s triune nature in the Father, Son, and Spirit, acting as One in their Love for humanity. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14)

Rublev’s Icon of the Trinitarian God (Wiki Commons)

The ceremony of baptism was inaugurated in the Christian faith to show in a visible form how humans are inducted into the new life in the ocean of God’s Love – notice, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body–whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor.12:13; Matt.28:18-20). Yes, we are drinking from the same Spirit of God’s Love who unites us to Christ and the Father. Peter affirms this process where God, through His Son, brings humanity out of the prison of fear and sin, and inducts them into the ocean of God’s Love, “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.2:37-38).

Depiction of Jesus’ Baptism by John in the Jordan River

In short, living in the ocean of God’s Love (Spirit) in Christ is what the whole purpose of life means. Paul goes further, saying, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph.4:22-24).

Let us not forget, that in addition to saving humanity from the raging waters of death of the devil, Jesus also handed people gifts so they may live their lives with genuine divine purpose. Note, “That is why the Scriptures say, “When He (Jesus) ascended to the heights, He led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to His people” (Eph.4:8, also, Eph.4:10-13, NLB). Yes, Jesus opened the eyes of the people He saved with the gifts God conferred in His living ocean of Love.

It is within the sovereignty of His empowering Love veiled within His spiritual oceanic environment that all the good, both spiritual and physical, that God has promised in His Word is made possible and brought to reality for all humanity. The inherent and substantive value of human life is all about living a free-flowing metamorphized life through the oceanic currents of the Spirit’s Love-force, so through our gifts He may carry each of us to our respective divine destinies. (You can read of the Promises God gave mankind out of His great Love at: http://bulamanriver.net/15209).

On the other hand, the enemy’s ocean of fear and sin exists for the purpose of establishing false and damaging motivations and activities which opposes God and neutralize His awesome Promises. The entrapped people in this destructive ocean live a life of deception where they are given the false and the dubious aspirations by following self-made promises influenced by the devil. It is a life where people aspire and pursue their own brand of success and are blinded from seeing and realizing their divinely-ordained gift and dream-life intended for them.

Human Baptism – The Sign of Rebirth Into God’s Ocean Of Grace and Love

First and foremost, among God’s numerous awesome Promises is the promise of eternal life, while the devil’s lot has been determined as the very harbinger of destruction and death. (John 3:16; Rom.3:23, 6:23; Rev.20:10). Then, this is what He Promised concerning our human sojourn upon this earth, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer.29:11, NLB). The context of this verse means that God’s plans are always good for us, provided we do not seek our own plans that’s really influenced by the enemy. The Psalmist tell us, “Those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing” (Psa.34:20). Also, we are admonished to, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord” (Psa.27:14, NLB). Those who willingly follow the devil in his “sin-forced” oceanic environment, will finally meet God’s judgement, as the Bible states, “Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev.20:10, 15).

Dove, Symbol of The Holy Spirit and The Source of the Life-Giving Divine Love-Force, Rom.5:5.

The Peaceful and Hopeful Environment of God’s Love-Force (Unsplash)

To read more about God’s Promise or Covenant of Love for humanity, and how a person is taken from the spiritually deathly oceanic environment to the Loving environment of God’s Love, go to: http://bulamanriver.net/17484.

Petition: Friends, the month of February is considered the month of Love. As I close my post, I customarily give our readers the opportunity to give their lives to our Maker, who has declared Himself as, “God is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16). 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* through Tripersonal God or Trinity. 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 Love, and be part of living this glorious 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 – into the glorious humanity that Christ is preparing as the holy temple for God’s dwelling:

Prayer: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, forgive me of all my sins for forsaking your precious Love. I receive Your Son, Jesus, as my personal Savior. In Your incalculable grace, thank you for recuing me and my loved ones, and all humanity, from the enemy’s fearful and destructive waters, and bringing us home into the life-giving waters of your Ocean of Love. Grant Your promised celestial life in Your Son through Your Holy Spirit, and open my eyes to the wondrous gifts you have conferred upon us all so we may serve one another in your Love. 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 (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.

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” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

In Love, farewell for now!

Kiang,  (Your Servant in Christ)                                                                                                                         

*Triune Life: “Triune Life” speaks of the process of theosis or deification of humanity. What is theosis or deification? “It refers to apotheosis, meaning “making divine.” Theosis or deification is a transformative process whose aim is likeness to or union with God (as taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Church).” (Wikipedia.org) The belief in the process of ‘deification’ is understood in accordance with Jesus’ teaching, when He said, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? If He called them ‘gods,’ to whom the Word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside (cannot be broken)” (John 10:34-35; Psa.82:6). (You can read about the Triune Life at: http://bulamanriver.net/9199, and other posts)

The Resurrection to Immortality and Deification of Humanity

Created In God’s Image (Wiki Commons)

I have written about this subject of ‘deification’ in my blogs under the theme ‘substitution’ and ‘attribution’ (see, http://bulamanriver.net/564), where I showed how Jesus came as God incarnate (Immanuel) to assume our sinful humanity in order to save mankind from sin and death for the express purpose of human deification. (Matt.1:23; Rom.3:10-12, 18, 23; John 3:16; 1 Cor.15:50-55; Rom.8:29) Further, we read the following, “As a process of transformation, theosis is brought about by the effects of catharsis (purification of mind and body) and theoria (‘illumination’ with the ‘vision’ of God). According to Eastern Christian teaching, theosis is very much the purpose of human life. It is considered achievable only through a synergy (or cooperation) between human activity and God’s uncreated energies.” (Wikipedia.org)

So, the “Triune Life” reveals the intersection of human life and activity and the uncreated divine energy flowing from the Tri-Personal Being of God of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a way of life which explains that process of theosis whereby humans are transformed in body, mind, and spirit by the Love of God. God’s uncreated energy is His Love. So, the foundational tenet of the “Triune Life” is based upon the Love of God, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Thereby, it can also be called aptly, the “Triune Love.”

Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity (Wiki Commons)

I had coined the term “Triune Love” and “Triune Life,” to refer to a person who lives the three-dimensional life within the Tri-Personal Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:19) This is opposed to the one-dimensional human way of life influenced by the devil. We see God’s Tri-Personal Love move in an inward, outward, and upward trajectory, in this process of theosis which I have called the ‘three ascents.’ The three ascents are three steps which dovetails into one another showing how all three Persons of the Godhead are in the relationship of Love with humanity – where God reveals the fullness of Himself to humanity, both individually and collectively. (2 Cor.13:14; 1 Pet.1:1-2) That’s to say, the act of one is the act of all three, and the act of three is the act of one, making them unified in Love. (Mar.12:29; Deut.6:4)

Every aspect of human living follows this three-step format revealing the three-dimensional aspect of how the Tri-Personal Being of God in the Father, Son, and Spirit, directly and collectively involved in the life of human believers, individually and collectively to bring humanity to salvation. These three steps move in an ascending order, so I will call them ‘ascents.’ Each ‘ascent’ dovetails into the next and finally reveals the ‘manifestation’ of the topic, which we will call the fourth step, in this case, Love!

Hence, all my articles are framed within this three-step format, or ascents. The subject of the article dovetails into each ascent and spontaneously lead to the manifestation of the divine Love and reveals how humanity is enlightened by God, and cleansed in mind, body, and spirit. The ascents reveal three doors one must enter to attain the manifestation of God’s Love relationship with humanity. The ascents are not to be misconstrued as some ‘secret knowledge’ or mystical activity. Rather, each ascent represents the relationship of Love a human enjoys with the Triune God in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, throughout a person’s life. In fact, the ascents are actually three Love relationships the believer encounters with the Tri-Personal God. This three-way relationship is what I have called by the term, “Triune Life” or “Triune Love.” These ascents represent the movement of God’s Love in an inward, outward, and upward, trajectory to bring God’s enlightenment in a person. The fourth step reveals how the article is made to manifest in the life of the person, both individually and then collectively in humanity.

Man’s union with the Triune God, or “Triune Living/Loving,” is made possible by Jesus, who Himself, is one in substance and reality with the Triune Godhead. (John 1:1-2) He took our humanity into the very Being of the Triune Godhead by cleansing it of all sin and rebellion. To live the “Triune Love (Life)” is the miraculous expression of the Spirit (Love) in humans. (Rom.5:5) The miraculous life is the promise of the New Covenant, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances, and do them” (Ezek.36:27).

The Bible states, “He (God) does great things that we cannot understand and miracles that we cannot count” (Job 5:9; 37:5). If God acts in ways that cannot be fathomed and is beyond human comprehension, then the miraculous life where humans are privileged recipients, cannot be deciphered by the human mind to its grandest manifestation. But we understand its meaning through divine revelation in that God reveals Himself as Love, and His miraculous activities are enveloped in His Love. (Jer.29:11)

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.

Book Cover of Living The “Triune Life” By Author

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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

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!

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) 

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. 5:22-23Rom. 12:9-21).

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).

**”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.1:26Matt.28:19John 14:101616:7) 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.28:18-201 Pet.1:22 Thess.2:132 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.11:2Eph.5:23-2732Rev.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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

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

“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) 

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. 5:22-23Rom. 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.1:26Matt.28:19John 14:101616:7) 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.28:18-201 Pet.1:22 Thess.2:132 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.11:2Eph.5:23-2732Rev.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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

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

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)

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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

LIVING THE SURRENDERED LIFE, BY KIANG P LEE

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.

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)

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. 5:22-23Rom. 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.1:26Matt.28:19John 14:101616:7) 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.28:18-201 Pet.1:22 Thess.2:132 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.11:2Eph.5:23-2732Rev.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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

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

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.

John 14:17-18

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.

1 Cor.3:16

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!

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)

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 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).

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

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.

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

EXPERIENCING THE NEW CREATION, BY KIANG P LEE

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.

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)

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. 5:22-23Rom. 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.1:26Matt.28:19John 14:101616:7) 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.28:18-201 Pet.1:22 Thess.2:132 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.11:2Eph.5:23-2732Rev.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 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).

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

The Christian Faith As Spoken In the Nicene Creed

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

Note: All information is copy-write material. Any information obtained from this website that is used for publication should be acknowledged by citing the website address, date of acquisition and information pertinent to original authorship. For general guidelines regarding web citations see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information. Thank you.

HOW TO LOVE GOD COMPLETELY, BY KIANG P LEE

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).

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)

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 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).

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

The Christian Faith As Spoken In the Nicene Creed

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

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