Greetings Friends! At the creation of humanity, God uttered these irrevocable wondrous words about mankind and his destiny upon the earth, and in the universe ultimately, “Let us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness…So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so” (Gen.1:26-30).

What would we say was the supremely vital piece of information from this creation passage of humanity? It is this, when God created humanity we were made “In God’s image and likeness.” What is God’s image? That image is Jesus Christ, God’s own Son whose image we are given to appropriate so humans may live the “Triune Life.” Paul said this to the Romans, “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). Recall what Jesus told Philip we read earlier, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The book of Hebrews makes this abundantly clear, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being (image)” (Heb.1:3).

Paul tells believers, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Gal.3:27, NLT). Baptism is the titual a beliver undertakes to symbolize burial of the fallen Adamic humanity inherited from Eden in the watery grave of the baptismal waters, and to rise in resurrected new life in Jesus just as He was resurrected from the dead after His crucifixion and death.

Paul told the Colossians, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him 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. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” (Col.1:15-20). Paul would later tell the Colossians, “You have been made complete in Christ” (Col.2:10, BSB).

Why is it imperative upon us that in true spiritual life we take on the image of Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit? Because Paul told the Corinthians this: “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam (Jesus), a life-giving spirit… The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven…For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor.15:45-49; 21-22).

What we saw in the book of Hebrews and read Paul’s words to the Romans and Colossians is the vital subject of transformation whereby humanity experiences the process of human deification – away from the fallen deathly state of existence in the first Adam to the glorified state of immortality through and in Christ Jesus. (John 3:16-18; Gal.2:20) This is the incarnation, but in reverse. Just as we witness how Jesus was God incarnated into our fallen humanity in order to save us, He now saves mankind ultimately by incarnating fallen humans into eternal life through Him. (Rom.6:23; Isa.7:14; Rom.8:29)

Deification or human spiritual incarnation is made possible because Jesus is God in the Triune Godhead and has the power to impart immmortality – “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). This act of God of deifying humanity through Jesus Christ spells out the Christocentric view of mankind’s future potential in God’s eternal realm and everlasting Kingdom. It is through the light and life of His Son into a life of immortality in the Father’s eternal presence forever.

Human deification is primarily about humans being deified in the very primordial divine nature of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead of LOVE! God’s primordial “LOVE-NATURE” and immortality in Christ are the IMAGE of God humanity was created to replicate and thereby sealed and locked in Adam’s human genome mankind has inherited from creation. LOVE (God’s eternsl nature) is what makes us human and thereby connected to the divine seal of regency and governance over earth authorised by Almighty God, the Creator. (Gen.1:26-30; 1 Cor.13) The earth is the birthright for the human species by divine edict. (Psa.115:16)

If God’s divine Love-nature is what defines our humanity (for humans were cast in His Love-image), then anything that is opposed to, or antithesis of, God’s Love is inhumane and therefore not cast in God’s likeness – like fear, rebellion, lust, and might I add all works of the flesh (Gal.5:19-20; Col.3:5-11). Then Paul is emphatic about living a life with God’s Love leading the way. (Gal.5.22-25; see the fruits of Love as shown by Paul to Corinthians 1 Cor.13:1-12).

Paul told the Colossians about this new resurrected life we now have, saying, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ…you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your (true) life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.”

When Paul said, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory,” what and how is the actual mechanics and process of immortality made reality in human life? Again, Paul answers by telling the Romans, “If he Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, then just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (Rom.8:11). Yes, the Holy Spirit is the One who raised Christ’ mortal body to immortality will likewise raise us from the dead to immortality. So, here we see the Triune activity of the Godhead at comprehensive activity in the process of human immortality.

On account of this new eternal life we received by token of faith from God through Christ in the power of the Spirit, Paul tells us how we ought to be living today, in anticipation of the glory that will be revealed in us, “Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming” (Col.3:1-6).

In my post, titled “Living The Triune Life” I shared a parable about this process of human immortality. Please go to: http://bulamanriver.net/31262 to read my post. I sincerely hope you  will find it beneficial to you personal journey as a believer.

Before you leave this post, 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but into the glorious humanity that Christ is preparing as the holy temple for God’s dwelling:

Prayer Petition: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, forgive me of all my sins for I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where fullness of joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

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 singular triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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.

Greetings Friends! I would like to share an interesting topic with you in this post. There is a mantra offered by people who say there is more than one way to God. That there is no one established way through religions or other modes to the divine Deity. People seem to assert there is but one God, not many. So, some may maintain there are many routes, others proclaim there is only one, which they appropriate. They are agreed on one basic tenet, there is one true God. Let us begin here.

When it comes to Christianity though, believers may proclaim the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the one true way to God. However, many who espouse the multi-faceted route don’t support the Christian’s tenet. Jesus Christ is the founder of the Christian religion. But as we shall see, Jesus Christ is a Person, not a religion. As a Person, there is a way of life that’s associated with Him which He espouses. It is a misnomer to call Him a religion, that is the label of human hands and mind.

  

The most vital point for the case for Jesus proceeds from the nature of Jesus as a Person. I hope to present the case for Jesus as inviolable and undeniable, upon which the Christian faith rests. As Christians we all know the immortal passage of the Bible which 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. 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).

There are few important points to take away from this passage, which makes us wonder who Jesus was by nature, and what this passage claims and proclaims, leading to His preeminence in the Christian faith. First, Jesus is given as a gift from God to humanity to redeem humanity from his fallen (sinful) state of existence: “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish” (John 3:16). Second God has made Jesus as the Doorway to immortality: “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16; 10:9; 14:6).

Prior to Jesus’ coming, because of sin, all humanity was on a one-way track to oblivion, or death. The Bible states clearly, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). But here is the third point this passage reveals, and this ought to be the preeminent point about the passage, for it is about who Jesus is – who is this Jesus who has the power to deliver humans from sin, and impart immortality upon humanity? God Himself answers by saying, He is “His One and Only Son” (John 3:16).

What John writes here is essentially the truth of the incarnation. What is the incarnation? The incarnation is to be understood as God really become man. Theologian Thomas Torrance said “the incarnation was not the bringing into being a created intermediary between God and man, but the incarnating of God in such a way that in Jesus Christ He is both God and man in the fullest and most proper sense.” Jesus Christ is not man participating in God but Himself essential Deity.

John opens his gospel with the words, “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). John goes on to say, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of Jesus and recorded His messianic title, saying, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”)” (Matt.1:23). That’s to say, in Jesus Christ God came to dwell among us. That is, “In the fullness of His Deity He became man in the undiminished reality of human and creaturely being, without ceasing of course to be the Son of God.”

The Apostle Paul elaborated on this point in Romans 8. The Book of Hebrews tell us, “Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb.2:14; also, Rom.8:1-4,9).

Thus, only through the fullness of Jesus’ Deity as a Person, He is able to perform the role of Savior of mankind by redeeming fallen human beings, and conferring immortality upon them. (John 3:16-18) This is the work of one who by nature is in every sense of the word, Deity, not human. If Jesus Christ the incarnate Son is not true God from true God, then we are not saved, for it is only God who can save. But if Jesus Christ is not truly human, then salvation does not touch our human existence and condition. As humans, we are fallen and in need redemption.

But as God the Father had intended and purposed in His divine grace, Jesus in Loving obedience took upon Himself human form for the purposes of redeeming and glorifying fallen humans. (John 3:16-19) When the time of His death was near, He told His disciples, “I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over Me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I Love the Father and do exactly what My Father has commanded Me” (John 14:30-31). The message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ embodies in His human actuality the Personal presence and activity of God.

Paul said this about about Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phi.2:6-8).

And so John states Jesus’ exclusive uniqueness of purpose as the only way to God, saying, “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 3:18). The Scripture, by stating that a human being can either be condemned or not condemned simply by believing in Jesus the Son of God, for all practical purposes, tells us there is but one way to God.

Let me elaborate further, shortly before His suffering and death, one of the disciples, Philip, asked Jesus this question, 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 14:8-11).  It is vital to understand the undercurrent of what exactly Jesus was trying to convey to Philip and all the disciples.

Jesus was revealing His Deity as a Person being One with the Father in the primordial level of the Triunity of God in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Later, Jesus would tell His disciples, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven” (Luk.24:29). Then after His death and resurrection, and shortly before He ascended back to His Father in heaven, He reminded them, thus, “And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss” (Act.1:4).

Matthew quotes Jesus, “All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matt.11:27). Further, Jesus was emphatic and precise when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

T.F. Torrance says, “The three divine Persons, completely mutually indwelling in each Person, while remaining what He is by Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is wholly in the Others as the Others are wholly in Him (Triune Godhead).” Jesus revealed this primordial truth to the world which Matthew records, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “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.28:18-21). The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are indivisibly One, eternally co-inhering in One Another as the Blessed Trinity.

Torrance goes on, “Just as we take on our knowledge of the Father from the Son, so we must take on our knowledge of the Spirit from our knowledge of the Son, and in Him from our knowledge of the Father: that is, from the inner relations which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have with One Another in the indivisible Being of the Holy Trinity.” (see, John 14:8-11; John 16:12-15).

The precise knowledge and functions of the Trinity was unknown to humanity until Jesus fulfilled His Almighty Father’s mission of making this knowledge known to mankind. Hebrews tell us, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being, sustaining all things by His powerful word” (Heb.1:1-3). By saying “ancestors” in this passage, it may well be applying a broad brush stroke encompassing all humanity through sages, ancient and otherwise, by way of belief systems, philosophies, religious inclinations and practices, etc.

At the creation of humanity, God said, “Let us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness…So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so” (Gen.1:26-30).

What would we say was the supremely vital piece of information from this creation passage of humanity? It is this, when God created humanity we were made “In God’s image and likeness.” What is God’s image? That image is Jesus Christ, God’s own Son whose image we are given to appropriate so humans may live the “Triune Life.” Paul said this to the Romans, “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). Recall what Jesus told Philip we read earlier, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The book of Hebrews makes this abundantly clear, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being (image)” (Heb.1:3).

Paul tells believers, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Gal.3:27, NLT). Paul told the Colossians, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him 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. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” (Col.1:15-20). Paul would later tell the Colossians, “You have been made complete in Christ” (Col.2:10, BSB).

Why is it imperative upon us that in true spiritual life we take on the image of Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit? Because Paul told the Corinthians this: “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam (Jesus), a life-giving spirit… The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven…For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor.15:45-49; 21-22).

What we saw in the book of Hebrews and read Paul’s words to the Romans and Colossians is the vital subject of transformation whereby humanity experiences the process of human deification – away from the fallen deathly state of existence in the first Adam to the glorified state of immortality through and in Christ Jesus. (John 3:16-18; Gal.2:20) This is the incarnation, but in reverse. Just as we witness how Jesus was God incarnated into our fallen humanity in order to save us, He now saves mankind ultimately by incarnating fallen humans into eternal life through Him. (Rom.6:23; Isa.7:14; Rom.8:29)

Deification or human spiritual incarnation is made possible because Jesus is God in the Triune Godhead and has the power to impart immmortality – “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). This act of God of deification of humanity through Jesus Christ spells out the Christocentric view of mankind’s future through the light of His Son and live eternally in the Father’s presence forever.

You can read about human deification in my previous instalment titled “Living The Triune Life,” where I shared a parable to explain this miraculously awe-inspiring subject. Got to: http://bulamanriver.net/31262

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

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 singular triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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Greetings Friends! Welcome to all our visitors and readers, both old and new! The name of this Web Site or Blog Post Site is called “Triune Life” or “Triune Living.”  I would like to devote this post in explaining what it means by way of a parable. I call it the parable of the ocean of God’s Love! It depicts to us what living “Living The Triune Life” means. In brief, “Living The Triune life” conveys a life of immortality in Christ. (Col.3:3; Rom.8:11) But before that, what is the Triune Life?

Briefly, the Christian belief of the “Triune Life” conveys the relationship between the physical and material realm of humanity with the spiritual metaphysical realm, particularly with Triune God of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:19-20). As physical human beings we experience our material world with the five human senses of sight (eyes), smell, (nose), hear (ear), taste (mouth), touch (feel/sensation), and I might add a sixth – human thought. The six basic human senses are tools mankind utilize to develope family goals and dreams, education and careers, ideologies, philosophies, and even religion and belief systems.

However, the spiritual realm cannot be detected by these human senses. The “Triune Life” is the Christian’s way of explaining how the physical world of mankind interconnect with the divine world which is undetected by human senses. People have called this phenomenon by the terms faith and hope, which are tools of the mind Christians use to define spiritual matters which are undetected by the human senses. Christians use their Bible, or Word of God, as basis for these and other spiritual tools. (Heb.11:1; Rom.8:24).

From time immemorial humans have always been fascinated by and possessed inclination for the spiritual and unknown. Mankind was always been conscious of the metaphysical aspects of how human life is constituted. Because of this realization and awareness, humanity has given birth to all forms of ways and means to explain the unknown metaphysiical aspect of his psyche. That has given birth to all forms of belief system and religion through human history. Look at the graph below:

This graph is taken from Wikipedia and shows the various major religious symbols in clock-wise form from top: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), Italo-Roman neopaganism. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, which at some point in the future will be countless. However, adherents.com shows a growing collection of over 23,500 adherent statistics and religious geography citations — references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 2,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, movements, ultimate concerns, etc. A person may be an adherent to one’s unique beliefs although the person claims to belong to a major mainline religious sect. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions)

So, what we see from the commentary above is obvious endorsement that humans have the spiritual proclivity for the supernatural. A pagan may claim to be enlightened and not trapped by religiosity or ancient superstition. Yet, by claiming to be so-called ‘enlightened’ he/she inadvertently admits to a belief system just like other belief system, whether pagan, religious or otherwise. Atheism, the disbelief in God, evolves into the religious belief of apotheotheism, the belief that man can become a god himself. So, we are all drawn and bound to this spiritual proclivity we were all born with that can’t be denied or dismissed.

“Triune Life”

By using the term, “Triune Life,” I am explaining the Christian thought and belief about the physical realm and its interconnection and association with the divine realm, and vise versa. Of course, other religions have their own understanding and beliefs. In the final analysis, every religion and belief system will be tried for its authenticity through its beliefs and practices whether it stands to benefit mankind’s universal welfare and good in this life and the next (if there is such a thing) regardless of our station in life. Obviously, all religions and biefs will lay claim about its own authenticity and validity. As I attempt to explain the Christian world view, I am assuming most of my audience have some basic background knowledge of the Christian Scriptures, the holy Bible.

Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity, and the Christian religion. In the final commission He gave His disciples, and thereby all His followers, He said, “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). He gave this commission on the basis that He is God’s only Son who existed with God His Father in the Tri-Personal Being and Godhead of God Alimighty with the Holy Spirit from eternity.

So, in Christian thought, the mention of God always convey His Tri-Personal Being of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are indivisibly One, eternally co-inhering in One Another as the Trinity. The “Triune Life” or Triune Living” finds its basis upon this eternal truth of the divine Godhead uttered by Jesus Himself in His commission to the disciples and believers.

Recall, this commission was given to His disciples by Jesus when He was about to ascend back to the spiritual realm of His Father in heaven. He had taken up human life and human existence, emptying Himself without denying His divinity. Paul, as author of many New Testament books was inspired to say this about Jesus, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phi.2:5-8). Hence, when the prophet Isaiah spoke about His coming as the Messiah, he was inspired to utter the messianic name Immanuel, which means, “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Jesus was actually “God with us” as His name “Immanuel” conveys.

When we read this passage in the book of Philippians about Jesus “emptying Himself” (V.7), what does this mean, and what did Jesus empty Himself of? It is essential to understand what this statement means so that we know the true nature of Jesus as He lived on earth as a man and as God (Immanuel). When we fail to interpret this verse correctly, then it can lead us to understand who Jesus is incorrectly. Jesus is divine as part of God’s Tri-Personal Being, but He took on the form of a man and became a human being without ceasing to be God, hence, the name Immanuel or “God with us.” (Matt.1:23) As a human being, He lived the perfect human life and died upon His cross so humanity can be redeemed from sin and death, be reconciled to the Creator God and live a life of immortality through Jesus as Savior and Mediator. (John 3:16; 2 Tim.1:10; 1 Cor.15:53-54)

The Bible records the very first Gentile (non Christian) who was called into the Christian faith. His name was Cornelius, a Roman officer. (Act.15:7, 14) Peter had journeyed to Caesarea to baptize (initiate faith and hope in Christ’s finished work of redemption symbolized by the act of baptism) Cornelius, and everyone in his household into the Christian faith, following the original commission given to the disciples we read earlier in Matthew. (Matt.28:18-19) Peter gave the first message to the Gentiles through Cornelius and those present as representing His message of God’s calling of Gentiles into His fellowship as true spiritual Israelites, and those who would follow Cornelius and his family thereafter.

Peter was inspired by the Spirit and spoke, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation He accepts those who fear Him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching His message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

“And we apostles are witnesses of all He did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him to life on the third day. Then God allowed Him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be His witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in Him will have their sins forgiven through His name. Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.” (Act.10:34-44).

That is the record of how the Gentiles (unbelievers) were grafted into and made God’s own people. It is a story of spiritual rebirth into a new species of human beings, “Immanuel humans,” who have Jesus living in them.

So Jesus, as the human Immanuel lived the perfect sinless human life in the Spirit’s power. He was baptized for our forgiveness in the Jordan, and opened the path for the Holy Spirit to enter and fellowship with mankind. (Matt.3:13-17) Jesus defeated Satan in the temptation for us to save us from the devil’s cunning, sin and death. (Matt.4:1-12) He lived a sinless life in our place. (1 Pet.2:22; 2 Cor.5:21) He was crucified and died for us in our stead. And God resurrected Jesus to immortality for us, so we may follow Him into a life of immortality by a resurrection from the dead. (1 Cor.15:53-58; Rom.8:29) And now, let us get back to our story.

As He was about to ascend back to His Father, He uttered these final words to His followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19). To baptize means to immerse and initiate into something, as Jesus was baptized or immersed in the Jordan River under John’s hand. (Mar.1:9-11) To be baptized or immersed into the “Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” means to be initiated into the very life and power of the Tri-Personal Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To be immersed into the very Being of God who is Triune by nature means we are given to live the “Triune Life” through human and spiritual experience.

“Triune Life” means to be immersed into, to inaugurate and initiate into, to enrol in, to be sponsored and recruited by, the very power and life of the supreme Triune Godhead who is Creator and Sustainer of life, both seen and unseen. The Triune Life is the Christian process by which physical humanity is made to interact and experience the spiritual realm of God. In lay person’s term, what does it mean to be immersed into and to live the “Triune Life?”

Let me expound its meaning through a parable. It is by no means perfect, however, Jesus spoke in parables about the spiritual realm of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the spiritual domain of God. Humans are physical and material, subject to decay and ultimately death due to Adam’s sin-condition we have inherited. The kingdom of God is the domain of God’s holiness, righteousness, Love, and His eminent grace. God consists primarily of the three Persons of the Triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and countless number of holy angels. Humans cannot comprehend spiritual matters, so to make spiritual elements relatable to our physical life and material existence, Jesus taught spiritual priniciples and truths through parables. The Scripture reveals, “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; He did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Matt.13:34).

Parables are stories and illustrations about spiritual concepts to help our limited human minds understand spiritual principles. So, Jesus gave many parables to depict God’s spiritual kingdom and its reality. The parables depicts how human destiny and God’s kingdom are forever bound by destiny through His Love and grace. There’s the parable of the Sower. There’s one about The Weeds Among the Wheat. The Mustard Seed. Pearl of Great Price. The Ten Virgins. The Friend at Midnight. The Good Samaritan; to name some of them. A good Bible concordance will give you the list of parables Jesus taught the people in His day.

Today I’m going to share the parable of the Ocean of God’s Love to explain the “Triune Life” whereby we have been inducted and immersed into the life and power of the Triune God. We are speaking of being immersed (baptized) into their Names, as if to take up life in the life and power of the divine in our physical human existence. And now think about the parable of the Ocean and the Marine Life that populate it. The waters in the ocean is the ‘enabling condition’ which empowers marine life to go about living with other marine life, each fulfilling their individual role in the overall marine ecosystem. The Waters of the ocean is likened to God in His all-comprehensive, sweeping, and unfathomable Love.

The marine life in it represent all of humanity from whatever background, color, or station in life. And the title, “Bulamanriver” on the website is my term for the spiritual (marine) life representing humans. The title, “Bulamanriver,” literally means “a human being who possesses true life (“Bula” in Fijian language) through the river of living waters (of the Spirit – “Man-River”). Or, more precisely we are given the new birth through baptism, identified by the new human species, “Immanuel human,” which means, “Christ in us.” Baptism is the symbol and ritual signifying faith and hope in the salvation offered by God our Father through Jesus as Savior, Redeemer and eternal Mediator. (For more, you can read my blog post titled, “Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value Statements” at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664“)

Or, as Paul affirmed, saying, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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; Matt.1:23). Yes, through baptism, humans are given a new birth, the old self has been crucified with Christ. The old life is gone; the new life in Christ has begun! (2 Cor.5:17)

When Jesus instructed His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—it’s worth pointing out that the Greek noun (ὄνομα) translated “name” is singular in Matthew 28:19. (https://www.logosapostolic.org/greek-word-studies/3686-onoma-name.htm) Therefore, the three distinct co-equal and co-eternal Persons of the Triune Godhead are not three different deities, but three distinct Persons who make up the One true God who is Love and saves sinners. (1 John 3:8, 16; John 3:16) The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are indivisibly One, eternally co-inhering in One Another in the Trinitarian Godhead.

The name of Jesus (Immanuel) into which we are baptized identifies us with the Godhead through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, our Savior. Paul said, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom.6:4). We now belong to One Triune God the Father, saved by the Son and through the indwelling life and power of His Spirit.

God’s divine Love-force is likened to the ocean in which mankind exist and find meaning to life. The ocean of God’s Love-force enables humans to be sustained in His spiritual ecosystem and live out their divinely conferred gifts and purposes for the eternal destiny of God’s spiritual oceanic Kingdom. The ‘ocean’ is the life-force of God’s Love which empowers and enables humans to live under God’s purpose for all its spitual oceanic inhabitants.

The spiritual 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; 1 John 4:16) So, since the ocean symbolizes God’s Love, then it represents the role of the Holy Spirit, for Paul said this, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). John affirms further, saying, “And so we know and rely on the Love God has for us. God is Love. Whoever lives in Love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). Yes, through baptism human beings are immersed into the very Love of God.

Yes, in the Bible water is one of the symbols used for the Holy Spirit, His power and presence. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38-39). Here, Jesus uses water to help our limited human minds conceptualize the work and activity of the third Person of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is likened to the cleansing waters which flows in human life to cleanse and save humanity from sin and death through Christ. (John 4:14; 1 Cor.12:13; Rev.21:6; 22:1-2, 17; Rom.6:23) At the scientifical level water has proven as an effective agent which enact change with whatever it touches.

To the Corinthians Paul taught them the role and purpose of the Spirit, and how the life-force of the Spirit is energized and manifested in their lives. But how is that Love-force manifested in human life? Paul reveals that answer by explaining the fruits of the Holy Spirit to the Corinthian Church. These fruits, which Paul reveal the spiritual fruits to us as: *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 Love-fruits are not part of God’s Person like accessories. It’s not like one day God decides ‘let Me try the fruit of ‘gentleness’ today? Or, the next day, ‘Let me be ‘patient,’ or ‘kind.’ No, they tell us who God IS. The Love-fruits tell us who God is organically and naturally in His Love-Being. (1 John 4:8, 16) They tell us how the three Persons in One triune Godhead live and relate with each other from eternity. They reveal God’s holy emotions. They explain who He is in His Tri-Personal Being. The Love-fruits keep them One Being united in Love. And God invites humans into His Love fellowship, for we cannot live the surrendered life in His Love without the Love-fruits of the Spirit. We witness this divine/human interaction in the parable of the ocean of God’s Love.

So, we see the role and empowerment by the Spirit in the ocean of God’s Love and the fruits portrayed in it, and by which we the inhabitants exist and live as Immanuel humans (Christ in us). What is the role of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity or Triune God. Consider, Jesus said this about the role of the Spirit, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). In other words, this ocean of God’s Love in which we have been immersed and made to swim and abide in cannot exist without Jesus prior mediation as our Savior who redeems us from sin, so the Holy Spirit can enter and give us the ocean of God’s holy Love to live, swim, and fulfill our divine purpose in life.

Recall what had cut humanity off from the Holy Spirit and the divine ocean of Love. In Eden, God gave Adam and Eve the following instruction, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen.2:17).

This verse gives us a vital clue to consider which many have improperly read to highlight the reverse of the rendition – the passage ought to emphasize life not death! When we accentuate God’s primordial nature as the reflection of eternity in His complete essence, we realize God has to uphold the identical likeness with our first parents and conferred upon them a form of human extrinsic immortality to reflect God’s eternal image in the Garden of Eden. God posseses intrinsic immortality in Himself, the Psalmist extols God’s everlasting nature, “From everlasting to everlasting, You are God…You are from all eternity” (Psa.90:2; 93:2). God gives immortality to whom He chooses, saying, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

Adam’s extrinsic immortality was conditional upon what we read earlier, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen.2:17). So, it was impossible for God to subject them to death at creation as long as they were empowered by the Holy Spirit while living in God’s presence, imbibing of the Tree of Life “which you are free to eat from,” which God directed and our first parents fully obeyed.

It was only after they disobeyed and sinned that God uttered the fateful words, “Unto dust you shall return,” not before then. (Gen.3:19). They were created in God’s likeness and an important aspect of that likeness was immortality, and equally importantly, Love, God’s divine nature! Our first parents were free to eat from the Tree of Life, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, and that is how they related with God in Eden, by imbibing and eating of the fruits of the Tree of Life thus empowered by the Love of the Holy Spirit. (Rom.5:5; 1 Cor.13)

How long did our first parents lived in harmonious Love with their Creator before their fall? No one knows and the Bible does not specify the timing, especially since time is meaningless and irrelevant when considering immortality is timeless and perpetual. Bible commentators have said that there once existed an antediluvian (prior to Noah’s flood) civilisation before Adam’s creation which lasted for thousands of years and longer. (Gen.1:1-2; Gen.6:1-13)

Adam lived 930 years which had to be computed from the day he disobeyed God for eating the forbidden fruit, and given the death sentence discharge, “Unto dust thou shall return,” not before. Paul tell us, “The wages of sin is death.” (Gen.3:17; Gen.5:5; Rom.6:23). But because of God’s Love, it is safe and logical to assume that before Adam and Eve sinned, they lived faithfully and happily in Eden for a very long while (much longer than 930 years for Adam) empowered by God’s Love (Tree of Life). We must admit the Genesis creation account was brief and short on details.

Many believe and assert that our first parents disobeyed God and sinned immediately after their creation. If that were true, it would be tantamount to admitting the inadequacy of the spiritual energy of God’s unfathamable Love, and that the enemy is mightier. Of course, that would be impossible to even contemplate, to say the least. Nothing could be further from the truth. God tells us, “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God” (Isa.45:5). He tells us, “I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish’” (Isa.46:10). But our first parents had freewill which they exercised reasonably responsibly, and lived joyfully and fully with God while it lasted in Eden.

But we know that with the passage of time, while in Eden, and in their moment of weakness, they obeyed the devil and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. (Gen.3:1-6) Our first parents were banished from Eden, and notice what God did, He put a mighty angel to block all access to the “Three of Life” which symbolized the Holy Spirit. So, as humanity was banished from Eden, the pathway to the “Tree of Life” (Spirit) was barricaded and blocked off from human reach. Participation with the Spirit was lost forever for mankind due to our first parent’s sin and rebellion which all humanity inherited by birth.

It was not until, and only after the sin-condition mankind inherited from Adam’s fallen Adamic humanity was removed through the second Adam, Jesus the Mediator and Redeemer, that the Spirit was reunited with humanity again. This all important event in human history first occured as Jesus inaugurated the Holy Spirit at His baptism at the hands of John the Baptist in the Jordan River. John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matt.3:11).

Earlier we saw that there are two forms of immortality proposed by ancient commentators – intrinsic and extrinsic immortality. In their human form and existence in Eden, Adam and Eve possessed extrinsic immortality, until their fall which precipitated human suffering and death which overwhelmed all mankind. (Gen.3:17, 19) Only God possesess intrinsic immortality in Himself. God promises to confer intrinsic immortality to His human children who have taken on the glorious image of His Son as true Savior when Jesus returns in the Second Coming. (1 John 3:2; Rom.2:7; 2 Tim.1:10; 1 Cor.15:26)

Paul articulated on 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 (immortal) life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:11). When human beings will have been fully born of God (intrinsic immortality) in His divine Love-nature in the resurrection, it will be immpossible for humans to sin. (1 John 3:6, 9) Paul makes it clear how when he said, “Christ in you is our hope of glory” (Col.1:27). Jesus once answered the lawyers who questioned Him, “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 (John 10:34-35). Jesus was speaking of the fulfillment of this prophesy in the resurrection when humanity will have become immortal like ‘gods.’

Subsequently, after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River where He inaugurated the Spirit’s return to humanity, then following His suffering, death, ressurection, and ascension, the same Spirit was poured out upon all mankind on the day of Pentecost. (Matt.3:16-17; Act.2:1-4) The Spirit was poured out and it became a spiritual ocean of God’s Love wherein humanity can now exist and indwell as it was in Eden. The “Tree of Life” with its fruits we are ibibe today symbolizes God’s Word, the Bible.

The Spirit guides and directs our understanding of His Word and reveals Jesus, the Personified Word, to us on a daily basis. Jesus is the both the Word of God on its Personal and literal (scriptural/biblical) meaning. John tells us about the role of the Holy Spirit, when Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own…He will bring Me glory by telling you whatever He receives from Me. All that belongs to the Father is Mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from Me’” (John 16:13-15).

Jesus was baptized and repented for us in the Jordan and subsequently died upon His cross for our forgiveness and salvation. When He stepped out from the Jordan, the heavens opened and a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, descended and shone upon Jesus, the Father’s voice from heaven gracefully said, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased and delighted!” (Mar.1:11).

The pathway to the Holy Spirit (tree of life) through Jesus’ saving mediation was once more opened to humanity. Recall, as Jesus was about to be taken away to heaven at His ascension, He told His disciples, “I am going to send you what My Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luk.24:49). What was that promise? The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon mankind beginning with the 120 gathered that day. (Act.1:15; 2:1, NLB) It was poured out and it filled humanity with God’s ocean of divine Love.

The Book of Acts records this momentous occasion, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues a as the Spirit enabled them” (Act.2:1-4). The Bible says, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luk.11:13). Our heavenly Father waits upon us with Loving open arms to give us His Spirit and enter His oceanic kingdom of Love in His Son.

Let’s take this analogy, this oceanic parable of God’s Love, a step further to broaden our concept of the parable of the ocean of God’s Love. Only marine life can live and survive in this oceanic environment. But there is another environment, another world, another kingdom, outside it. It is the land environment above the ocean where all kinds of animal, beasts, birds, insects, etc. you name it, and they are up there, which are not adapted or naturalized to living in oceans. All lifeforms above the ocean exists under a different atmosphere and spirit. It is opposite from the world in God’s oceanic Love. Above, all life is ruled by the atmophere of rebellion, sin, and are conditioned to do evil and live ungodly lives – opposite to living God’s way of Love. Can a dog or cat, or a sheep or horse, a monkey or gorilla, a bird, live in the ocean? No, of course not, they would suffer asphyxiation, drown and die!

Why? Because they were not created nor habituated to live and exist in a oceanic environment. They would drown and die, just as a sinner would be instantly overpowered and decimated in God’s holy presence. Hence, Jesus said unless as sinners we are reborn and remade to adapt to God’s spiritual oceanic environment, we cannot live nor survive in His holy presence. He said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3).

The Bible quotes God as saying, “You must be holy because I am holy” (1 Pet.1:16; Lev.11:44). John said this of Jesus, “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). God is saying, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will I, your Father in heaven, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Me!” (Luk.11:13).

And speaking to humanity today in our enduring fallen condition, Paul says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor.6:11). That’s to say, we were once part of the fallen existence and world we inherited from Adam’s fall who exist outside of the world made of God’s Love in His oceanic Kingdom. But now we are given the gift of rebirth in Christ through the Spirit and made Immanuel humans immersed in the Ocean of the Spirit’s Love so humanity may dwell in His Loving grace and presence.

You have been made holy through Christ, just as Paul said, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21). Did you get what this passage has said? In and through Christ, human beings can be made holy as God is holy. Holiness is not something we do for ourselves or for God with human effort, it is a condition of existing in the Loving power of the Holy Spirit of Love through Jesus’ mediation as our High Priest before the Father in heaven. (Heb.4:14-16) Holiness is the perfect condition in God’s presence which only God can prepare and create for us. And this He has done through His Son and His Holy Spirit.

We have been given a new life to live and swim in the Ocean of God’s Kingdom in His holy presence. So, we are to come to Jesus…He is the doorway to this new life in God’s sacred Love and life of holiness in the Spirit. (John 10:9) What is Jesus’ role, and what is His part in the triune life we have been given the privilege and honor to live and experience?

Jesus’ role was and continues today as revealed by Jesus Himself when He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture…Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 10:9; 3:3). He continues, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit b gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:5-7). Jesus role is to redeem humananity from sin, and by that very act becomes the ever present Door who brings us to experience the rebirth by the Spirit’s power which gives us new life to enter and live in the ocean of God’s holy presence and Love .

And we know how this glorious new birth happens in human life. It takes shape when a person confesses and receives Jesus as Savior, who is the Door that gives passage for the Spirit to enter human life through baptism. (Act.2:37-38; John 16:7; Gal.3:27) As stated earlier, baptism is the symbol and ritual signifying a rebirth through faith and hope in the salvation offered by God our Father through Jesus as Savior, Redeemer and eternal Mediator. We recall John’s immortal verse, “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).

The initial transition of rebirth occurs at baptism, as Paul said, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal.3:27). How do we put on Christ? When we were baptized, we were immersed into God’s ocean of Love through the power of God’s Spirit. Only after a person is saved by receiving Jesus and God’s Spirit can they be given to enter this oceanic kingdom of God.

Notice how Jesus identifies the process of this miraculous rebirth, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). Jesus, at His baptism of repentance and forgiveness for mankind at the Jordan, received the Spirit from the Father. (Matt.3:16-17) His baptism had set the model and stage as to how humanity receives the Spirit as a gift from the Father at every corresponding act of baptism.

Note what the passage says at baptism, human beings are made offspring of God: hence, the Father’s words to Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I Love”, now becomes, “You are my children whom I Love” to all humans who receive His Son (Matt.3:17). Having received Jesus as personal Savior and Mediator, believers undergo the spiritual baptismal rebirth into divine familial fellowship with the God as depicted in the life within the spiritual ocean of God’s Triune Love.

Paul explained this beautiful truth, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh (you are not part of the fallen realm up there influenced by Satan) but are in the realm of the Spirit (Love-oceanic condition), 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” (Rom.8:9).

Jesus explained the Holy Spirit’s role so we are clear in our understanding. He said, “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).

The Spirit plays His role in the background and does not take center stage, for His sole purpose is to glorify Jesus, for Christ said, “He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears” as existing as one in the Tri-Personal Godhead, but indivisible from the Son and the Father, the Spirit does not magnify Himself to us, His role is to magnify Jesus Christ to us. His role is to make Jesus real to us at every turn through His enabling oceanic Loving power. So, we see here the Triune God working in our lives: the role of the Spirit is to magnify Jesus and make Him known; and in turn Jesus’ role is to reveal and magnify the Father to us. (John 14:11) And this is the Triune activity that is always happening in human life we live in this ocean of God’s Love.

Remember the Scripture when Philip asked Jesus, “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; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” (John 14:8-11).

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, existing in the singularity of the Triune Godhead in one co-indwelling and interpenetrating relationship. So, we see Jesus role of declaring and magnifying the Father of mankind to all humanity. Jesus came and revealed and make known the Father and the Spirit to humanity, which until then remain ‘hidden’ to human understanding. (Col.1:26; Rom.16:25; Eph.3:9; Col.2:2; 2 Cor.13:14)

The book of Hebrews informs us when God chose to let us in on the secret mystery of the ages, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb.1:1-4). Yes, the passage is clear about Jesus’ role of revealing the Father, and thereby the triune Godhead, to humanity.

The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy for calling God His Father, and crucified Him for it. (Mar.14:61-64) The Jews never belived a word Jesus uttered, much less Jesus’ claim as Messiah. (Mar.14:61-62) It is totally farfetched to claim the Jews killed Jesus as Redeemer, no, they accused and killled Him for the false trumped-up charge of blashemy for claiming to be the Messiah God’s own Son.

Through trumped-up charges the Jews condemned Jesus to death without realizing their treacherous act actually heralded mankind’s ultimate redemption, inasmuch as He had truthfully testified of His Father’s Love for humanity through Him as the Messiah. (Matt.26:63-64; Mar.14:61-62) In testifying of God’s Love, Jesus magnified the Father. As believers we magnify Jesus as the Spirit empowers us through His Love. In magnifying Jesus we magnify the Father. (John 14:8-10)

Why is this Triune life – life in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – so important? Because we can only  live the surrendered life to and in the Love of God through Christ in the enabling power of the Spirit. Jesus is the only human who has lived the Love-enabling surrendered life perfectly. We can live the same Love-enabling surrendered life because He has already done it for us, not because we can do it on our own human power, no.

Remember this jewel of truth about the Loving act of God our Father: He imputes His Son’s perfect and holy life upon us which no human power can do. When God freely assigns, attributes, and imputes Christ’s life upon us, only then we ‘re given to live the Love-enabling surrendered life in His oceanic environment. (2 Cor.5:21) That is how we are made to live holy lives just as God is holy. (1 Pet.1:16) It is a life lived by and through the living faith of Jesus supplied in the Spirit’s power. As Paul told the Galatians, “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 the faith of the Son of God, who Loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20, KJV).

In true trinitarian mode the Father’s role is to provide overall care through His Loving Judgements for all His human children. His most immediate and all-important judgement was to give His Son and His Spirit as His ultimate gifts to enable humanity to live the gift of the surrendered life we are made to live through the oceanic environment of God’s Love. We pray daily to the Father in the model prayer Jesus taught us to pray in the “Our Father” prayer. So, here again we see Jesus magnifying the Father to us by teaching to pray to the Father in this prayer model.

In the prayer we call upon the Father to daily sanction His Loving judgements in every aspect of our lives we live upon this earth, providing sustenance both spiritual and material, His mercy and forgiveness through His compassionate heart, and daily protection and security from trials and tests and from the evil one. All our gratitude must end with praise for the Father’s overall Loving care, as the model prayer conclude.

So, as we see this life we live in this REALITY of the oceanic Love of God, the surrendered life come as organic progression of living the “Triune Life” through the power and energy of the Tri-Personal Being of God as each play their respective role in our lives. This is the awesome truth about living the Godly triune life.

Jesus gave an interesting parable to depict the “Triune Life” wherewith we exist daily in their presence. And the parable of the ocean of God’s Love we just saw is a replica of His parable of the Gardener and the Vine and Branches in John 15 Jesus taught the disciples. He said, “I am the true Grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the Vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me.”

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father” (John 15:1-8).

Now, just to be clear, what can be compared to the ‘ocean’ which we read in Jesus’ parable of the Vine and Branches? This was not clearly narrated in His parable. The answer is the ‘ocean’ in my parable is the ‘sap’ flowing in the Vine and Branches in Jesus’ parable. We see the ‘sap’s’ power by the fruits produced in the Branches. The ‘sap’ is the Spirit’s enabling Love and power (much like the ‘ocean’) flowing in the Vine (Jesus) and Branches (humanity) and provides the spiritual nutrients that bring out fruits in abundance, and seen and eaten by all that come to you, now the ‘tree of life’ – that is, Jesus in you, and the Branch (you) in the Vine (Jesus).

The reason this aspect of the ‘sap’ was not narrated or articulated in Jesus’ parable, even though the fruit-bearing potential was powerfully apparent, it would seem because the Spirit’s role is not to magnify Himself, but to promote and amplify Jesus (Vine) to and in humanity (Branches) because of His role of Savior and Redeemer of mankind to bring the Spirit’s power to bear upon mankind. (Isa.43:11; 44:6) Jesus is our High Priest in heaven who mediates for humanity today. (Heb.4:14) The coming King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev.19:16) Jesus’ parable shows us the role of the Father and the Son upon the Branches (humanity) and the fruits produced in the Branches. The Spirit is functioning resolutely behind the scenes, but nonetheless exercising a powerful role of providing the all-important sap (ocean) which produces the fruits which are seen and admired by all in the Branches (humanity) throughout the seven seas (earth).

A final word on the new life in the oceanic Love-Kingdom of God. In this new spiritual life we have been given the form of extrinsic immortality in Christ with which to exist in God’s ocean of Love, as our first parents did in Eden. Humanity has come full circle, from the Garden of God’s Love in Eden to the Oceanic Kingdom of God’s Love. Through our human extrinsic immortality in Christ we are given to have eternal relationship with the triune God who ordinarily lives forever in intrinsic immortality. Only through this enabling divine fellowship we are given to draw on God’s spiritual resources for our own spiritual well-being and purpose within His oceanic world, and ultimately for eternity in His eternal Kingdom. Humanly speaking, it’s the only way of connection between the divine domain of God and the human domain of man. However, we cannot escape our fallen Adamic humanity inherited from Adam’s sin that Paul calls this “body of death” (Rom.7:24).

Paul states that this “body of sin and death” has been crucified to the cross with Christ once for all at repentance and conversion; and buried in the underwater grave of baptism in the Spirit’s power. (Gal.2:20) Paul reminds us, “Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? 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” (Rom.6:3-4). Yes, we were raised with Christ, but only now in the form of extrinsic immortality in bodily form in God’s aquatic Love-Kingdom, awaiting our complete change in the resurrection at Jesus’ return.

We still exist in our primordial human body from Adam’s creation encoded with the unique genome and DNA which identifies humanity in the original image fashioned in God’s likeness before our parent’s fall. (Gen.1:26-27). This primordial human shell, now existing in extrinsic immortality in Christ remains as Paul affirms, “Christ in you the hope of glory,” ultimately will be conferred intrinsic immortality just as Jesus was at His own bodily resurrection, only more supreme manifestation at a yet future appointed time at Jesus’ Second Coming. (1 John 3:2; Rom.2:7; 2 Tim.1:10; 1 Cor.15:26) Paul makes this attainment of human intrinsic immortality plain, when he said, “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).

So, from both parables we see the context within which the Triune Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, function within the life of saved humanity within His oceanic kingdom. I hope this makes clear what Jesus’ commission was meant to convey when at first He was born humble upon earth the Immanuel (“God with us”), and at last before He departed the earth by ascending back to His Father in glory. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19).

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where fullness of joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

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 singular triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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This entry was posted in Uncategorized on November 28, 2022 by bulamanadmin. Edit.

Greetings Friends! It is the time of year when we celebrate with true rejoicing hearts about the birth of the baby Jesus, humanity’s Redeemer and Savior. It is a story which carries such deep spiritual and equally transcendent meaning and impact beyond some story any human could have told – for Christmas is God’s own story about mankind.

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.

Let us begin with the why of Christmas. But before we do, let us rehearse the most beautiful and inspiring story of the birth of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospel of Luke. After all, the Christmas story today has centered around His birth, although we will see the larger story today. Here is the account from Luke,

“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.”  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 account by Luke.

Christmas today has been so heavily commercialized and transformed from its actual purpose that its true meaning has been lost because it has been watered down to a commodity that can be traded. It is unfortunate, but in the end, it is the man for whom this day is devoted and honored who has suffered most. I hope we can recapture the true meaning of Jesus’ birth and God’s purpose for humanity.

The Why? Why was Jesus born? The why question of Christmas takes us back to God’s own story of humanity. When God our Father first created humanity, He did so with these beautiful words, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will have dominion on earth. So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it” (Gen.1:26-28, NLB)

So, let us rehearse the why in God’s purpose of creating human beings. He said He created humans for the irrevocable purpose of fashioning human beings in His own image and likeness, so they may govern all He created upon the earth. There were two main motives and reasons God revealed about why human beings were created. First, there is the motives about God’s image and likeness. Second, there was the reason of governing and ruling His creation, the earth and all in it. Both go hand in hand, both can’t be separated. ‘Image’ and ‘rule’ is one and the same, you cannot have one without the other. In other words, if you deny His ‘image,’ then you disqualify yourself from ‘rule.’ So, the one who rule and govern must carry his/her person in God’s image and likeness.  

The two points naturally dovetails into the next question. It answers the what question of Jesus’ coming and His birth. What is God’s image and likeness. This is vital because human rule hinges and pivots upon it. The center of gravity of human rulership is God’s image. What then is God’s image and likeness? The Scripture answers, “God is Love” (1 Joh 4:8, 16) Once the word Love is mentioned, then that defines relationship, for Love cannot exist by itself. Love is relational. God is relational in His Tri-Personal Being. God is composed of three Love Personalities, as Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in ONE Triune Being and Godhead. (Matt.28:19) So, rulership is done out of Love, for God is Love in His Triune Being. He created the earth and all in it from His abundant Love, and decrees that human beings rule likewise – out of Love. We can see Love explained in detail In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. (1 Cor.13:1-12)

So, the why question about Christmas takes us to the immortal passage from John’s Gospel, “For God so Loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We realize that He gave His Son by being born a human. Also, we know the passage means that Jesus would give His life to die upon His cross to redeem human beings from sin and death (“should not perish”) and impart immortality as His gift.

By speaking of human redemption, God is recounting a sad chapter in human history about mankind’s fall from grace which made human redemption a vital equation in the why question about Christmas. God first created Adam and Eve perfect in His likeness until the day they decided to follow Satan the devil into disobedience and sin. (Gen.3:1-6) By forsaking God’s way of Love Adam and Eve inherited the sin-image and condition from the evil one and all humanity inherited the same sin-image from our first parents. The Love-image of God was gone and no more as symbolized by God cutting them off from access to the ‘Tree of Life’ representing the Holy Spirit and God’s Love. (Gen.3:24; Rom.5:5) Humanity had to wait until Jesus appeared as the Second Adam, bearing the name Immanuel, born in Bethlehem to restore God’s Love-image and conditioning which Adam and Eve forsook for the devil’s false promises in Eden. (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23; Gen.3:1-6) So, Christmas is about rescuing fallen humanity from sin and death and imparting the gift of Love and immortality. (John 3:16-17)

Let’s answer the how question, since human beings are fallen and exists in the devil’s sin-image and likeness from Adam’s fall. The essential purpose of Jesus’ role as the Messiah is the restoration of humanity where human beings are restored back to the Love-image and likeness of the Creator God, as it was from the beginning. (Gen.1:26-27) All of God’s plan and purpose for humanity, no matter how grand and glorious, can’t be realized until that change takes place in the heart and being of human beings.

Let us now see the how question concerning Christmas. How will God make it possible for humanity’s transformation from the sin-image or condition inherited from Adam’s fall into the Love-image which Adam possessed when he was first created? (Gen.1:26-27) Jesus gives us the answer. God the Father sent His Son to be born through His mother Mary, to give us His plan on how humanity will be restored. Jesus had taken on the likeness of weak humanity as Immanuel, so in turn humans can take on the likeness of God through Jesus. In due time, Jesus announced the Father’s plan through Jesus’ interaction and conversation with a Jewish rabbi named Nicodemus.

The Bible records their interaction, “He (Nicodemus) came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent You to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with You.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:2-3). The Kingdom of God is God’s spiritual realm which cannot be detected physically through the five human senses.

Continuing with their interaction, we read, “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again? Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life” (John 3:4-6). So, the purpose of Jesus birth was to show God’s plan about how human beings undergo the transformation from the sin-image of the devil which Adam conferred upon mankind, to the Love-image of God Adam had from his creation. (Gen.1:26-27)

Yes, Jesus proclaims the how question about Christmas: ‘”You must be born again’” (John 3:7). It is a noteworthy observation that just as Christmas tells us the story of Jesus’ human birth, it also speaks of mankind’s spiritual birth. But what is the process of rebirth, how exactly does this happen and become reality in a human person? Jesus said, a human being must be “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). What does that mean? Jesus was not talking of physical rebirth as Nicodemus assumed, He is metaphorically reflecting upon the reality of humanity’s spiritual birth. Humans cannot live the life of God’s Love, His very “image and likeness,” unless we are born again of the Spirit who unifies Himself with us.

Water symbolizes the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Triune God. Jesus made an interesting remark to His hearers, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). Here, the Scripture compares the Spirit to the cleansing activity of water. Jesus own example of His baptism in the Jordan, makes this clearer.

Recall, when Jesus was baptized in the ‘waters’ of the Jordan He underwent a type of watery burial and as He rose from the baptismal watery grave, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” (Matt.3:17). What we are witnessing through Jesus’ example is the process of spiritual rebirth a human being undergoes. This spiritual rebirth happens and takes place when a person is baptized.

At baptism a spiritual rebirth takes hold where the sin-image symbolically dies through Jesus act of redemption and is buried in the watery grave by divine authority through the Spirit’s power in the ritual of baptism. Then the believing person is given to rise from the symbolic watery grave in newness of life in Christ’s Love-image whereupon humans are made God’s children, following the Father’s pronouncement at Jesus’ baptism, “You are My beloved children, I am well pleased.”

Paul told the Roman believers, “We were therefore buried with Him (Jesus) through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom.6:3-11). The “new life” is a life lived in God’s Love-image as His children. Yes, after baptism humans exist in a new life in the Love-image and conditioning of God just as He has predestined mankind to inherit.

Jesus was the first human to undergo this rebirth, and in so doing He did it on humanity’s behalf through His own baptism. He was baptized for us, just as He died for us upon His cross. In entering the Jordan He underwent John the Baptist’s “message of the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mar.1:4). So, Jesus repented for humanity’s forgiveness at His baptism in the act of burying mankind’s sinful past as symbolized by burial in the watery grave of the Jordan. In doing so, He opens the way for human repentance and forgiveness through His baptism and death upon His cross, and thereby spiritual rebirth through the Spirit’s power.

Therefore, we follow in Jesus’ footsteps when we undergo our individual baptism. We cannot repent and obtain forgiveness on our own volition, Jesus has to do it for us, just as He died and redeemed us upon His cross, for this was the mission given Him by His Father to accomplish. (John 3:16-17) That’s to say, we can do it only because Jesus has already done it for us. This act of Jesus on humanity’s behalf is called the principle of substitution in the Bible. It essentially means Jesus takes our place and took the fall for us. Paul explained the principle to the Corinthians this way, “God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21)

This is identical with John’s immortal passage, “For this is how God Loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18, NLB).

The apostle Peter explains how we are made to enter the ceremony of baptism and undergo the spiritual rebirth. Peter told the people of his day, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38, NLT). To “repent of your sins and turn to God” means to recognize the sin-image we have inherited from the first Adam, and now turn to the Second Adam in Jesus who will redeem and change us over into God’s Love-image in the Spirit’s power. (Rom.5:5) The prerequisite for baptism and the new birth is repentance and forgiveness which Jesus has already done in the Jordan for humanity. All we have to do to is receive and accept what Jesus has already done in and by faith.

Faith is the all-important ingredient which makes the spiritual rebirth possible. Paul said this about faith, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom.1:17). Listen, we all have faith. There’s human faith which operates and relies upon the five human senses of sight, smell, hear, taste, and touch..and might I add human thoughts. Then there is the spiritual faith which the Bible describes as, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb.11:1). In other words, it is not detectable nor does it work through the five human senses and human thoughts. (2 Cor.10:5; Isa.55:8-9)

Basically, the spiritual faith is the Personal faith of Jesus. It comes to us through the Spirit’s power, not human power. Paul said, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20). So, it is not our limited human faith, but the limitless Personal faith of Jesus. Though human faith is inadequate in spiritual matters, it is not redundant nor needless, for as humans we have a part to play through our faith. Human faith can be made to merge with the spiritual faith of Jesus so both complement one another rather than oppose each other. (You may want to read about The Faith of Jesus on my blog post titled, http://bulamanriver.net/30348)

I will close with this inspiring passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “When you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him” (Eph.1:13-14). Were it not for Jesus’ saving redemptive work, the Holy Spirit could not enter human life because of sin. Hence, Jesus said, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away (to the Father). Unless I go away, the Advocate (Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).

Jesus’ saving work has given access for the Spirit to enter and make human life a temple to dwell in and furnish the power of God’s Love-image. (1 Cor.3:16; 6:19; Gen.1:26-27) Paul said, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you…God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (1 Cor.6:19; Rom.5:5). Now, human beings can live according the likeness of God’s Love-image as intended from creation. (Gen.1:26-27) The purpose of Christ birth has found a home in the very heart and soul of humanity.

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds. May the joys of Christmas bring you and your loved ones peace and blessings.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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.

Greetings Friends! Happy New Year to all our visitors and readers. The name of this Web Site or Blog Post Site is called “Triune Life” or “Triune Living.”  I would like to devote this post in explaining what it means. So, I have called this post, “Living The Triune Life.” But before that, what is the Triune Life?

Briefly, the Christian belief of the “Triune Life” conveys the relationship between the physical and material realm of humanity with the spiritual metaphysical realm, particularly with spiritual entities. As physical human beings we experience our material world with the five human senses of sight (eyes), smell, (nose), hear (ear), taste (mouth), touch (feel/sensation), and I might add a sixth – human thought. The six basic human senses are tools mankind utilize to develope ideologies, philosophies, and even religion, or belief systems. However, the spiritual realm cannot be detected by these human senses. The “Triune Life” is the Christian’s way of explaning about how the physical world of mankind interconnect with the divine world which is undetected by human senses. People have called this phenomenon by the terms faith and hope, which are tools of the mind Christian’s use to define spiritual matters which are undetected by the human senses. Christians use their Bible, or Word of God, as basis for these and other spiritual tools. (Heb.11:1; Rom.8:24).

From time immemorial humans have always been fascinated by and possessed inclination for the spiritual and unknown. Mankind was always been conscious of the metaphysical aspects of how human life is constituted. Because of this realization and awareness, humanity has given birth to all forms of ways and means to explain the unknown metaphysiical aspect of his psyche. That has given birth to all forms of belief system and religion through human history. Look at the graph below:

This graph is taken from Wikipedia and shows the various major religious symbols in clock-wise form from top: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), Italo-Roman neopaganism. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, which at some point in the future will be countless. However, adherents.com shows a growing collection of over 23,500 adherent statistics and religious geography citations — references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 2,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, movements, ultimate concerns, etc. A person may be an adherent to one’s unique beliefs although the person claims to belong to a major mainline religious sect. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions)

So, what we see from the commentary above is obvious endorsement that humans have the spiritual proclivity for the supernatural. A pagan may claim to be enlightened and not trapped by religiosity or ancient superstition. Yet, by claiming to be so-called ‘enlightened’ he/she inadvertently admits to a belief system just like other belief system, whether pagan, religious or otherwise. So, we are all drawn and bound to this spiritual proclivity we were all born with that can’t be denied or dismissed.

“Triune Life”

By using the term, “Triune Life,” I am explaining the Christian thought and belief about the physical realm and its interconnection and association with the divine realm, and vise versa. Of course, other religions have their own understanding and beliefs. In the final analysis, every religion and belief system will be tried for its authenticity through its beliefs and practices whether it stands to benefit mankind’s universal welfare and good in this life and the next (if there is such a thing) regardless of our station in life. Obviously, all religions and biefs will lay claim about its own authenticity and validity. As I attempt to explain the Christian world view, I am assuming most of my audience have some basic background knowledge of the Christian Scriptures, the holy Bible.

Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity, and the Christian religion. In the final commission He gave His disciples, and thereby all His followers, He said, “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). He gave this commission on the basis that He is God’s only Son who existed with God His Father in the Tri-Personal Being of God with the Holy Spirit from eternity. So, in christianity, the mention of God always convey His Tri-Personal Being of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as existing as One within the Holy Trinity.

Recall, this commission was given to His disciples by Jesus when He was about to ascend back to the spiritual realm of His Father in heaven. He had taken up human life and human existence, emptying Himself from His divine existence in the trinitarian existence. Paul, as author of many New Testament books was inspired to say this about Jesus, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phi.2:5-8). Hence, when the prophet Isaiah spoke about His coming as the Messiah, he was inspired to utter the messianic name Immanuel, which means, “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Jesus was actually “God with us” as His name “Immanuel” conveys.

When we read this passage in the book of Philippians about Jesus “emptying Himself” (V.7), what does this mean, and what did Jesus empty Himself of? It is essential to understand what this statement means so that we know the true nature of Jesus as He lived on earth as a man and as God (Immanuel). When we fail to interpret this verse correctly, then it can lead us to understand who Jesus is incorrectly. Jesus is divine as part of God’s Tri-Personal Being, but He took on the form of a man and became a human being without ceasing to be God, hence, the name Immanuel or “God with us.” (Matt.1:23) As a human being, He lived the perfect human life and died upon His cross so humanity can be redeemed from sin and death, be reconciled to the Creator God and live a life of immortality through Jesus as Savior and Mediator. (John 3:16; 2 Tim.1:10; 1 Cor.15:53-54)

The Bible records the very first Gentile (non Christian) who was called into the Christian faith. His name was Cornelius, a Roman officer. (Act.15:7, 14) Peter had journeyed to Caesarea to baptize (initiate through baptism) Cornelius, and everyone in his household into the Christian faith, following the original commission given to the disciples we read earlier in Matthew. (Matt.28:18-19) Peter gave the first message to the Gentiles through Cornelius and those present as representing His message of God’s calling of Gentiles into His fellowship as true spiritual Israelites, and those who would follow Cornelius and his family thereafter.

Peter was inspired by the Spirit and spoke, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation He accepts those who fear Him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching His message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

“And we apostles are witnesses of all He did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him to life on the third day. Then God allowed Him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be His witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in Him will have their sins forgiven through His name. Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.” (Act.10:34-44).

That is the record of how the Gentiles (unbelievers) were grafted into and made God’s own people. It is a story of spiritual rebirth into a new species of human beings, “Immanuel humans,” who have Jesus living in them.

So, Jesus lived the perfect sinless human life. He was baptized for our forgiveness in the Jordan, and opened the path for the Holy Spirit to enter and fellowship with mankind. (Matt.3:13-17) Jesus defeated Satan in the temptation for us to save us from the devil’s cunning, sin and death. (Matt.4:1-12) He lived a sinless life in our place. (1 Pet.2:22; 2 Cor.5:21) He was crucified and died for us in our stead. And God resurrected Jesus to immortality for us, so we may follow Him into a life of immortality by a resurrection from the dead. (1 Cor.15:53-58) And now, let us get back to our story.

As He was about to ascend back to His Father, He uttered these final words to His followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19). To baptize means to immerse and initiate into something, as Jesus was baptized or immersed in the Jordan River under John’s hand. (Mar.1:9-11) To be baptized or immersed into the “Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” means to be initiated into the very life and power of the Tri-Personal Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To be immersed into the very Being of God who is Triune by nature means we are given to live the “Triune Life” through human and spiritual experience.

“Triune Life” means to be immersed into, to inaugurate and initiate into, to enrol in, to be sponsored and recruited by, the very power and life of the supreme Triune Godhead who is Creator and Sustainer of life, both seen and unseen. The Triune Life is the Christian process by which physical humanity is made to interact and experience the spiritual realm of God. In lay person’s term, what does it mean to be immersed into and to live the “Triune Life?”

Let me expound its meaning through a parable. It is by no means perfect, however, Jesus spoke in parables about the spiritual realm of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the spiritual domain of God. Humans are physical and material, subject to decay and ultimately death due to Adam’s sin we have inherited. The kingdom of God is the domain of God’s holiness, righteousness, Love, and His eminent grace. God consists primarily of the three Persons of the Triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and countless number of holy angels. Humans cannot comprehend spiritual matters, so to make spiritual elements relatable to our physical life and material existence, Jesus taught spiritual priniciples and truths through parables. The Scripture reveals, “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; He did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Matt.13:34).

Parables are stories and illustrations about spiritual concepts to help our limited human minds understand spiritual principles. So, Jesus gave many parables to depict God’s spiritual kingdom and its reality. The parables depicts how human destiny and God’s kingdom are forever bound by destiny through His Love and grace. There’s the parable of the Sower. There’s one about The Weeds Among the Wheat. The Mustard Seed. Pearl of Great Price. The Ten Virgins. The Friend at Midnight. The Good Samaritan; to name some of them. A good Bible concordance will give you the list of parables Jesus taught the people in His day.

Today I’m going to share the parable of the Ocean of God’s Love to explain the “Triune Life” whereby we have been inducted and immersed into the life and power of the Triune God. We are speaking of being immersed (baptized) into their Names, as if to take up life in the life and power of the divine in our physical human existence. And now think about the parable of the Ocean and the Marine Life that populate it. The waters in the ocean is the ‘enabling condition’ which empowers marine life to go about living with other marine life, each fulfilling their individual role in the overall marine ecosystem. The waters of the ocean is likened to God in His all-comprehensive, sweeping, and unfathomable Love.

The marine life in it represent all of humanity. And the title, “Bulamanriver” on the website is my term for the spiritual (marine) life representing humans. The title, “Bulamanriver,” literally means “a human being who possesses true life through the river of living waters (Spirit).” Or, more precisely we are given the new birth through baptism, identified by the new human species, “Immanuel human.” It means, “Christ in us.” Or, as Paul affirmed saying, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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; Matt.1:23). Yes, through baptism, humans are given a new birth, the old self has been crucified with Christ. The old life is gone; the new life in Christ has begun!

When Jesus instructs His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—it’s worth pointing out that the Greek noun (ὄνομα) translated “name” is singular in Matthew 28:19. (https://www.logosapostolic.org/greek-word-studies/3686-onoma-name.htm) Therefore, the three distinct co-equal and co-eternal Persons of the Triune Godhead are not three different deities, but three distinct Persons who make up the one true God who is Love and saves sinners. (1 John 3:8, 16; John 3:16)

The name of Jesus (Immanuel) into which we are baptized identifies us with the Godhead through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, our Savior. Paul said, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom.6:4). We now belong to One Triune God the Father, saved by the Son and through the indwelling life and power of His Spirit.

God’s divine Love-force is likened to the ocean in which mankind exist and find meaning to life. The ocean of God’s Love-force enables humans to be sustained in His spiritual ecosystem and live out their divinely conferred gifts and purposes for the eternal destiny of God’s oceanic Kingdom. The ‘ocean’ is the life-force of God’s Love which empowers and enables humans to live under God’s purpose for all its oceanic inhabitants.

The spiritual 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; 1 John 4:16) So, since the ocean symbolizes God’s Love, then it represents the role of the Holy Spirit, for Paul said this, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). John affirms further, saying, “And so we know and rely on the Love God has for us. God is Love. Whoever lives in Love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). Yes, through baptism human beings are immersed into the very Love of God.

Yes, in the Bible water is one of the symbols used for the Holy Spirit, His power and presence. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38-39). Here, Jesus uses water to help our limited human minds conceptualize the work and activity of the third Person of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is likened to the cleansing waters which flows in human life to cleanse and save humanity from sin and death through Christ. (John 4:14; 1 Cor.12:13; Rev.21:6; 22:1-2, 17; Rom.6:23)

To the Corinthians Paul taught them the role and purpose of the Spirit, and how the life-force of the Spirit is energized and manifested in their lives. But how is that Love-force manifested in human life? Paul reveals that answer by explaining the fruits of the Holy Spirit to the Corinthian Church. These fruits, which Paul reveal the spiritual fruits to us as: *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 Love-fruits are not part of God’s Person like accessories. It’s not like one day God decides ‘let Me try the fruit of ‘gentleness’ today? Or, the next day, ‘Let me be ‘patient,’ or ‘kind.’ No, they tell us who God IS. The Love-fruits tell us who God is organically and naturally in His Love-Being. (1 John 4:8, 16) They tell us how the three Persons in One triune Godhead live and relate with each other from eternity. They reveal God’s holy emotions. They explain who He is in His Tri-Personal Being. The Love-fruits keep them One Being united in Love. And God invites humans into His Love fellowship, for we cannot live the surrendered life without the Love-fruits of the Spirit. We witness this divine/human interaction in the parable of the ocean.

So, we see the role and empowerment by the Spirit in the ocean of God’s Love and the fruits portrayed in it, and by which we the inhabitants exist and live as Immanuel humans (Christ in us). What is the role of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity or Triune God. Consider, Jesus said this about the role of the Spirit, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). In other words, this ocean of God’s Love in which we have been immersed and made to swim and abide in cannot exist without Jesus prior mediation as our Savior who redeems us from sin, so the Holy Spirit can enter and give us the ocean of God’s holy Love to live, swim, and fulfill our divine purpose in life.

Recall what had cut humanity off from the Holy Spirit and the divine ocean of Love. In Eden, God gave Adam and Eve the following instruction, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen.2:17). Our first parents were free to eat from the Tree of Life, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. That is how our first parents related with God in Eden, by imbibing and eating of the fruits of the Tree of Life thus empowered by the Holy Spirit.

But we know that with the passage of time, while in Eden, and in their moment of weakness, they obeyed the devil and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit. (Gen.3:1-6) Our first parents were banished from Eden, and notice what God did, He put a mighty angel to block all access to the “Three of Life” which symbolized the Holy Spirit. So, as humanity was banished from Eden, the pathway to the “Tree of Life” (Spirit) was barricaded and blocked off from human reach. Participation with the Spirit was lost forever for mankind due to our first parent’s sin and rebellion.

It was not until, and only after the sin-condition mankind inherited from Adam’s fallen Adamic humanity was removed through the second Adam, Jesus the Mediator and Redeemer, that the Spirit was reunited with humanity again. This all important event in human history first occured as Jesus inaugurated the Holy Spirit at His baptism at the hands of John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and then later upon all mankind on Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out and mankind was immersed with His presence and power. (Matt.3:16-17; Act.2:1-4) The Spirit was poured out and it became a spiritual ocean of God’s Love wherein humanity can now exist and indwell.

Jesus was baptized and repented for us in the Jordan and subsequently died upon His cross for our forgiveness and salvation. When He stepped out from the Jordan, the heavens opened and a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, descended and shone upon Jesus, the Father’s voice from heaven gracefully said, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased and delighted!” (Mar.1:11). The pathway to the Holy Spirit (tree of life) through Jesus’ saving mediation was once more opened to humanity. Recall, as Jesus was about to be taken away before His ascension, He told His disciples, “I am going to send you what My Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luk.24:49). What was that promise? The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon mankind beginning with the 120 gathered that day. (Act.1:15; 2:1, NLB) It was poured out and it filled humanity with God’s ocean of Love.

The Book of Acts records this momentous occasion, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues a as the Spirit enabled them. (Act.2:1-4).

Let’s take this analogy, this oceanic parable of the ocean, a step further. Only marine life can live and survive in this oceanic environment. But there is another environment, another world, another kingdom, outside it. It is the land environment above the ocean where all kinds of animal, beasts, birds, insects, etc. you name it, and they are up there, which are not adapted or naturalized to living in oceans. All lifeforms above the ocean exists under a different atmosphere and spirit. It is opposite from the world in God’s oceanic Love. Above, all life is ruled by the atmophere of rebellion, sin, and are conditioned to do evil and live ungodly lives – opposite to living God’s way of Love. Can a dog or cat, or a sheep or horse, a monkey or gorilla, live in the ocean? No, of course not, they would suffer asphyxiation, drown and die!

Why? Because they were not created nor habituated to live and exist in a oceanic environment. They would drown and die, just as a sinner would be instantly overpowered and decimated in God’s holy presence. Hence, Jesus said unless as sinners we are reborn and remade to adapt to God’s spiritual oceanic environment, we cannot live nor survive in His holy presence. He said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). The Bible quotes God as saying, “You must be holy because I am holy” (1 Pet.1:16; Lev.11:44).

And speaking to humanity today in our enduring fallen condition, Paul says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor.6:11). That’s to say, we were once part of the fallen existence and world we inherited from Adam’s fall who exist outside of the world made of God’s Love in His oceanic Kingdom. But now are given the gift of rebirth in Christ through the Spirit and made Immanuel humans to dwell in His oceanic (Loving) presence.

You have been made holy through Christ, just as Paul said, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.5:21). Did you get what this passage has said? In and through Christ, human beings can be made holy as God is holy. So, we are to come to Jesus…He is the doorway to this new life in God’s sacred Love and life of holiness. (John 10:9) What is Jesus’ role, and what is His part in the triune life we have been given to privilege to live and experience?

Jesus’ role was and continues today as revealed by Jesus Himself when He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture…Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 10:9; 3:3). He continues, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit b gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:5-7). Jesus role is to redeem humananity from sin, and by that very act becomes the ever present Door who brings us to experience the rebirth by the Spirit’s power which gives us new life to enter and live in the ocean of God’s holy presence and Love .

And we know how this glorious new birth happens in human life. It takes shape when a person confesses and receives Jesus as Savior, who is the Door that gives passage for the Spirit to enter human life through baptism. (Act.2:37-38; John 16:7) We recall John’s immortal verse, “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). The initial transition of rebirth occurs at baptism, as Paul said, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal.3:27). How do we put on Christ? When we were baptized, we were immersed into God’s ocean of Love through the power of God’s Spirit. Only after a person is saved by receiving Jesus and God’s Spirit can they be given to enter this oceanic kingdom of God.

Notice how Jesus identifies the process of this miraculous rebirth, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). Jesus, at His baptism of repentance and forgiveness for mankind at the Jordan, received the Spirit from the Father. (Matt.3:16-17) His baptism had set the model and stage as to how humanity receives the Spirit as a gift from the Father at every corresponding act of baptism. Note what the passage says at baptism, human beings are made offspring of God: the Father’s words to Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I Love”, now becomes, “You are my children whom I Love” to all humans who receive His Son (Matt.3:17). Having received Jesus as personal Savior and Mediator, believers undergo the spiritual baptismal rebirth into divine familial fellowship with the God as depicted in the life within the spiritual ocean of God’s Triune Love.

Paul explained this beautiful truth, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh (you are not part of the fallen realm up there influenced by Satan) but are in the realm of the Spirit (Love-oceanic condition), 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” (Rom.8:9).

Jesus explained the Holy Spirit’s role so we are clear in our understanding. He said, “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).

The Spirit plays His role in the background and does not take center stage, as its says for His sole purpose is, “He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears” as existing as one in the Tri-Personal Godhead, but indivisible from the Son and the Father, the Spirit does not magnify Himself to us, His role is to magnify Jesus Christ to us. His role is to make Jesus real to us at every turn through His enabling oceanic Loving power. So, we see here the Triune God working in our lives: the role of the Spirit is to magnify Jesus and make Him known; and in turn Jesus’ role is to reveal and magnify the Father to us. (John 14:11) And this is the Triune activity that is always happening in human life we live in this ocean of God’s Love.

Remember the Scripture when Philip asked Jesus, “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; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” (John 14:8-11).

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, existing in the singularity of the Godhead in one co-indwelling and interpenetrating relationship. So, we see Jesus role of declaring and magnifying the Father of mankind to all humanity. Jesus came and revealed and make known the Father and the Spirit to humanity, which until then remain ‘hidden’ to human understanding. (Col.1:26; Rom.16:25; Eph.3:9; Col.2:2)

The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy for calling God His Father, and crucified Him for it. (Mar.14:61-64) Through trumped-up charge the Jews condemned Jesus without realizing His death heralded mankind’s ultimate redemption, inasmuch as He truthfully testified of His Father’s Love for humanity through Him as the Messiah. (Matt.26:63-64; Mar.14:61-62) In testifying of God’s Love, Jesus magnified the Father. As believers we magnify Jesus as the Spirit empowers us through His Love. In magnifying Jesus we magnify the Father. (John 14:8-10)

Why is this Triune life important? Because we can only  live the surrendered life to and in the Love of God through Christ in the enabling power of the Spirit. Jesus is the only human who has lived the Love-enabling surrendered life perfectly. We can live the same Love-enabling surrendered life because He has already done it for us. When Christ lives in us, only then can we live the Love-enabling surrendered life. It is a life lived by and through the living faith of Jesus. As Paul told the Galatians, “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 the faith of the Son of God, who Loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20, KJV).

In true trinitarian mode the Father’s role is to provide overall care through His Loving Judgements for all His children. His most vital judgement was to give His Son and His Spirit as His ultimate gifts to make humanity through the gift of the surrendered life we are made to live through the oceanic environment of God’s Love. We pray daily to the Father in the model prayer Jesus taught us to pray in the “Our Father” prayer. So, here again we see Jesus magnifying the Father to us by teaching to pray to the Father in this prayer model.

In the prayer we call upon the Father to daily sanction His Loving judgements in every aspect of our lives we live upon this earth, providing sustenance both spiritual and material, His mercy and forgiveness through His compassionate heart, and daily protection and security from trials and tests and from the evil one. All our gratitude must end with praise for the Father’s overall Loving care, as the model prayer conclude.

So, as we see this life we live in this REALITY of the oceanic Love of God, the surrendered life come as organic progression of living the “Triune Life” through the power and energy of the Tri-Personal Being of God as each play their respective role in our lives. This is the awesome truth about living the Godly triune life.

Jesus gave an interesting parable to depict the “Triune Life” wherewith we exist daily in their presence. And the parable of the ocean of God’s Love we just saw is a replica of His parable of the Gardener and the Vine and Branches in John 15 Jesus taught the disciples. He said, “I am the true Grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the Vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me.”

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father” (John 15:1-8).

Now, just to be clear, what can be compared to the ‘ocean’ which we read in Jesus’ parable of the Vine and Branches? This was not clearly narrated in His parable. The answer is the ‘ocean’ in my parable is the ‘sap’ flowing in the Vine and Branches in Jesus’ parable. We see the ‘sap’s’ power by the fruits produced in the Branches. The ‘sap’ is the Spirit’s enabling Love and power (much like the ‘ocean’) flowing in the Vine (Jesus) and Branches (humanity) and provides the spiritual nutrients that bring out fruits in abundance, and seen and eaten by all that come to you, now the ‘tree of life’ – that is, Jesus in you, and the Branch (you) in the Vine (Jesus).

The reason this aspect of the ‘sap’ was not narrated or articulated in Jesus’ parable, even though the fruit-bearing potential was powerfully apparent, is because the Spirit’s role is not to magnify Himself, but to promote and amplify Jesus (Vine) to and in humanity (Branches) because of His role of Savior and Redeemer of mankind. (Isa.43:11; 44:6) He is our High Priest in heaven who mediates for humanity today. (Heb.4:14) The coming King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev.19:16) Jesus’ parable shows us the role of the Father and the Son upon the Branches (humanity) and the fruits produced in the Branches. The Spirit is functioning resolutely behind the scenes, but nonetheless exercising a powerful role of providing the all-important sap which produces the fruits which are seen and admired by all in the Branches (humanity).

So, from both parables we see the context within which the Triune Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, function within the life of saved humanity. I hope this makes clear what Jesus’ commission was meant to convey when at first He was born humble upon earth the Immanuel (“God with us”), and at last before He depart the earth by ascending back to His Father in glory. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19).

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

Kiang P. Lee (Your Servant in Christ)

*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 Being and plural existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God as a Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. Love by its nature unveils a God who is relational and multifaceted in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational Love-being.

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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.

Greeting again Friends! God has made abundant promises in His Word (Bible) for humans whom He created in His likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) As a noun, a promise is a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. As a verb, a promise is to undertake or proclaim that something will happen. God’s promises are assurances for mankind which paves the way for a blessed, predictable, and less worrying but miraculous life, in His Fatherly Love for His human children.

However, from the outset we must understand how they are fulfilled and made reality in our lives. Paul told the Corinthians, “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” ascends to God for His glory” (2 Cor.1:20). We must understand without question that all God’s plans for humanity is fulfilled in Christ alone. All God’s promises are made known through the holy Scriptures and received through faith. So the Scripture tell us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Heb.11:6).

The Bible tell us what faith does, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Heb.11:1, NLB). Even to have such faith and believing, Scripture tell us that Christ alone supplies such living faith. As Paul affirms, “Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom.3:22, NKJV).

Through the book of Hebrews, we read this, “Now in these final days, He (God) has spoken to us through His Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son He created the universe” (Heb.1:2, NLB). John proclaims Jesus preeminence in God’s plan, “God created everything through Him (Jesus Christ), and nothing was created except through Him“ (John 1:3, NLB). Jesus is the Father’s own revelation to mankind. He said, “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’?” (John 14:9).

So, you can say that all God’s promises are funneled through Jesus. It is pointless picking up your Bible and reading about God’s promises in isolation. And it is equally inconsequential if we don’t have a clue about how to open the door to their fulfillment. And Jesus is the only Door to Gdo’s promises, He said, “I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). To imagine God will bring His promises to pass in isolation by themselves is folly and will end in disappointment and futility.

Hence, when we believe this vital truth about Jesus preeminence and paramountcy in God’s will and plan for humanity, Paul affirms our status in Him this way, “In Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority” (Col.2:10). Being “brought to fullness” in Christ simply means that “All God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!”” in us. (2 Cor.1:20).

The first and most consequential promise of God is to bring His human children into His eternal Loving presence. To make this a reality, He made His Son the pivotal part of that plan, from beginning to end. Hence, He declared Himself this way, “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev.1:8, ESV) So, He gave His only Son to redeem us from sin and rebellion to make His magnificent plan a reality. John utters the immortal verse of the Bible, “For God Loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (immortality)” (John 3:16, italics mine).

There is no other reason given for Jesus’ role as Savior other than to bring humans to immortality in the Father’s Loving presence. God is immortal, and He desires to confer upon His human children an immortal inheritance. This was the same objective God uttered in the beginning when He created mankind. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female he created them. (Gen.1:26-27). God’s likeness is eternal, thereby He gave humanity the inheritance of immortal children and live eternally in His presence. (John 3:16; 3:36; 11:25)

Immortality means everlasting life, and to possess divine unity with the Triune God, the Creator. God made many promises in His Word (Bible), but we are to recognize what is ancillary and supporting and what are primary and pillar promises like immortality and Love. (John 3:16-17; 1 John 4:16). There are God’s promise which bring material benefits, and it can be tempting to place our focus upon them and forget the primary promise which is the foundation upon which all ancillary promises find meaning. Immortality is the cornerstone of the New Covenant Promise that is ratified in Jesus’ blood. He is Mediator of the Covenant Promise. (Heb.9:14-15) The central premise of the Covenant (promise) states, “I will be their God, and they will be My people” – in other words, humans cannot become God’s eternal children without the gift of immortality. (Heb.8:10, 6-13).

We can remain His physical children and nothing more, but that endures for the life-expectancy of human life, which is around 70 years, or more, as God determines. (Psa.90:10; Deut.32:39) Human destiny is to become God’s immortal children. How do we rationally compare 70 years with eternity? It can’t be done. Peter gave our limited human mind a window into immortality when he said, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Pet.3:8). It’s intended to help with our comprehension of immortality.

If we took 70 years with ‘a thousand years for a day’ as reference and baseline (70x365x1000), that would give us 25,550,000 days/years. Can we imagine living as long as 25,550,000 million years? It’s just a prop to help us conceptualize immortality, even though eternity is infinite and uncountable. Numbers mean nothing with immortality – there is no past nor future to count, just the present. With immortality, time and keeping count has no meaning. Though God made us mortal for His purpose, He relates with us in our mortality, with the goal of human immortality as His ultimate destiny for us.

In addition to immortality God has given humanity a destiny to be conformed to the Love-image of His Son, as Paul asserts, “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom.8:29, NLB). What is Jesus’ image like. Jesus is God, being the second Person of the triune Godhead. The Bible reveals God’s nature to us, saying, “God is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16). So, we expect our change to come whereby we will be made immortal by nature and Love in character as Triune God is eternally Love. God’s kingdom is about immortality and where Love reigns supreme.

However, God created humanity to be mortal first before conferring immortality through Christ. (John 3:16; 6:40) As humans physical and material survival plays a prominent role in human life. We inherited Adam’s fallen Adamic humanity, subject to death, until Christ the second Adam came and redeemed us from sin and death, and brough the promise of immortality. (John 3:16) In fact, our temporary human life plays a huge role in our ultimate destiny, so much so that human beings have certain basic and pressing needs. We must have food, water, air, and shelter to survive. We have dreams, ambitions, and all kinds of hopes and desires. If any one of these basic needs is not met, then humans are unfulfilled and may not survive.

The graph below shows Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Chart. It reveals the five areas in psychology that Abraham Maslow proposed in 1943. And it shows the natural progression for human needs and aspirations. However, to prioritize any one of them above all else, so much so thy are venerated intensely to the degree of worship, then we mistakenly and sadly, fall into a form of idol worship. In doing so, we displace God as supreme above all else in our lives, which leads to sin and death, the ultimate roadblock to eternal life. (Exo.20:3-4) The Bible says “He (God) alone is worthy of our worship” (Matt.4:10). Jesus repeated this commandment to Satan when he tempted Jesus to worship him for Almighty God, His Father. (Matt.4:8-11)

These needs are human and are real and impactful in many different ways which compels us to rise ambitiously to achieve them. These needs are not evil by any means just as money is not evil except when used for evil purposes. In fact, all our human needs and aspirations can be choreographed to the extent of divine inspiration so as to live a life with meaning and purpose upon this earth. Yes, when we maintain all human ancillary needs and wants within the divine framework, we will experience a life of genuine harmony and fulfilment. Most of all, and here is the key to a blessed life – Jesus shows us the way to receive these needs as foreordained individually by applying a vital promise.

As Maslow’s diagram above shows, humans can demontrate and possess a myriad of human needs in life’s journey. However, it can be a challenge to keep them in check so none is idolized and become a hostile life force and negative asset in the human ethos. Fortunately, Jesus gave us a promise that will turn every need into a positive asset. It is a promise which acts like a ‘Midas touch’ effect, so to speak. By keeping this promise, we are assured that every proper and pertinent need will find its way into our lives and supplied – I call this living the ‘miraculous live’ in God’s Loving judgement by the power of His Spirit in Christ.

This is the ‘Midas touch’ promise Jesus gave us, “But seek you first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt.6:33). The Kingdom of God acts like a personalized filter which miraculously allows only the needs which are ancillary and subordinate to God’s overall purpose for you, indualized and personalized. Our Creator Father wants nothing less than a life customized and suited for our gift and personality

For such is the life lived with purpose and eternal destiny. As Paul assured the Corinthians, “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who Love Him—these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit” (1 Cor.2:9-10). This is God our Father’s Loving judgement at work in our behalf to bring humanity to His eternal kingdom of Love and immortality.

And we saw how the Kingdom of God is constituted – Immortality and Love! Listen, God knows our needs even before we ask. In fact, He knows our true needs which we may not realize for He knows us better than we know ourselves. Our mission in life is to discover how and who we are gifted to be, and fulfill His purpose for our lives. Gifts are divinely bestowed in humanity to glorify the greater good and the great God we serve, not us. When we serve Him truly, then we serve ourselves authentically, for we reflect Him from our creation. (Gen.1:26-27). We will find unspeakable joy we never knew possible when we keep and apply this ‘Midas touch’ promise authentically.  

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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.

                                                       

Greetings Friends!

Just as there are two faiths humanity live by (see http://bulamanriver.net/30348), correspondingly, mankind is created from two human species which will determine his eternal destiny.  

Many don’t realize this basic truth about human existence as shown in Scripture. As Creator, God only made two forms of humans that has ever existed and walked upon this earth. We are all God’s human creation, but what many don’t understand is you can be born into one of two human forms, two species of humanity God created. By ‘species’ I speak of the inner spiritual person, not the outer physical material human. It is the inner man that rules and controls the outer physical man.

They are both distinct by their respective natures. Let me explain. First, Adam was created from the dust of the earth. (Gen.1:26-27; 3:19) He was perfect and sinless until his fall in Eden by disobeying God. Instead, he obeyed Satan, the devil, by eating the forbidden fruit. (Gen.2:15-17; 3:1-24) As a result, Adam and Eve were stripped off the Love-nature of God in whose likeness they were first created. (see Gen.3:7; 1:26-27) Thus, mankind was consigned to a life of spiritual imprisonment under the now rebellious sin-nature of Adam who inherited the same from Satan. The second Adam was created by God to atone for the sin of the first Adam. (1 Cor.15:45-47; 1 John 2:2; 3:5)

As a consequence of the first Adam’s fall (sin), mankind was cut-off from access to God, as symbolized by his banishment from Eden, while at the same instant barred from access to the Tree of Life. (Gen.3:24) On account of Adam’s fall, we have inherited his sin-nature as his human descendants. We are fallen beings just as he was. We are “infected by sin,” as the prophet Isaiah affirms, just as he was. (Isa.6:4). The prophet said further, “When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isa.64:6, NLB).

Do we find that life at times hands us bad breaks, so to speak? Or perhaps we have an inherent unease that things may not turn out favorably despite our best intentions? It is highly likely our activity is the by product of a life that’s propped up by our fallen sin-nature from Adam. Recall what the Bible says about the nature or spirit of the “first Adam,” “When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isa.64:6). Is it possible to abort our own good intentions before we commit to them without realizing?

We are mindful of Eve’s example in Eden. Satan tempted her and she “saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Gen.3:1-4). But her desires set in motion by Satan’s lies concerning the forbidden fruit did not materialize. Instead it led to failure…to sin. (Gen.3:6; John 8:44) Can we expect genuine success when even the good we imagine carries with it the seeds of failure by way of the sin-nature? Are the gains we think we have achieved in this life that’s molded in the spirit of the fallen “first Adam” be actually genuine success? How do we measure authentic success?

The Bible states, “God’s blessing (Love) makes life a success; nothing we do can improve on God (Love)” (Prov.10:22, MSG; 1 John 4:8). In other words, success or failure is a conditional response, it is not based upon effort alone; but strickly speaking upon one’s belief and moral values. Albert Eisntein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” That’s to say, God’s Love creates a conditional response which brings an outcome to life where “all things do work together for good” (Rom.8:28), while sin is the conditional response for rebellion and failure. Isaiah says, “We have “become like something unclean..our iniquities carry us away like the wind” (Isa.64:6). So, we’ll call the “first Adam,” the fallen “Adamic humanity.”

Can we be saved? The answer comes through the second new humanity, the new human species, which God created through Jesus Christ, His Son. He was born to atone for Adam’s sin, and the sin-nature every human being inherited from him at birth. (John 3:16; Psa.51:5; 58:3; Job 15:14) God used the prophet Isaiah to announce this beautiful truth about the magnanimous heart of God to redeem mankind, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:22-23, KJV). Further, “She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Matt.1:21). So, here we see the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ the Immanuel, who emerges forth from God’s Triune Being as the Second Person of the Godhead. (Matt.28:18-20)

He was given a unique name, Immanuel. It means “God is with us” (Matt.1:23). The name reflects God’s Love and plan to be with and among humans and fulfill His redeeming plan for us. Therefore, we will call the “second Adam” (human), Jesus, by His prophetic name, “Immanuel humanity.” Or the “God With Us” humanity. Everything done by the “second Adam” produces good for it is done out of the Love-nature of the Spirit. Paul said, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5; 8:28; 1 John 4:16) Recall, we had identified the fallen and corrupt “first Adam” (human) the name “Adamic humanity.” He acts out of the sin-nature.

The sin-nature and Love-nature of the two human species reveals the determinative consciousness which precede and follow their actions. Paul identified them both this way, saying, ““Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven” (1 Cor.15:47). Before the fall, Adam and Eve existed in God’s perfect likeness. (Gen.1:26-27) However, after they disobeyed by eating the forbidden fruit, God declared to Adam, “For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen.3:19). What happened? Adam and Eve had sinned and brought about their own demise – for Scripture says, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23). Paul said further, “The first man Adam became a living being. But the last Adam, that is Christ – is a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor.15:45, NLT).

Both human species originate from the Creator God, and given to mankind to identify two pathways, two realities of life. One leads to extinction, while the other leads to God’s everlasting Kingdom. The “first Adam” became “infected with sin” through Satan as the prophet proclaimed, and Paul tell us where this pathway leads, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23; Isa.64:6). Yes, the pathway and destiny of the “first Adam” (human) leads to death. Now, John informs us about the pathway the “second Adam,” “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, the pathway and destiny of the “second Adam” (human) whom we will identify as the “Immanuel humanity” is Love and immortality.

Let’s face the most important question. How does this new humanity, called the “Immanuel Human,” is given birth and come into human existence? Jesus Himself answers, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John3:5). The ‘Kingdom of God’ is reference to immortality we are promised to inherit in Christ. (John 3:16). It is vital to bear in mind that this new birth would not be possible if God had not first chosen to be assimilated with humanity through His Son, and born as “Immanuel human.” (John 3:16; Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14; 1 Cor.15:50-56)

Let us see how God joined Himself to humanity in order to save us. God declares, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14). Through Jesus’ mother, Mary, God assimilated Himself with and into mankind through His Son in order to redeem us. In doing so, He took our sinful humanity (“first Adam”) and nailed him to His Son’s cross together with his sinful life once for all. Scripture tell us that Jesus as our eternal High Priest by “one offering He forever made perfect those who are being made holy” (Heb10:12-14). Consequently, God initiated the human rebirth, commonly called “born again,” whereby mankind as many as believe in Jesus can be reborn into the new “Immanuel humanity” reflecting Jesus’own resurrection (rebirth) from the dead.

This divine miracle is God’s awesome mystery which any human being can enter and experience through faith by receiving Jesus as personal Savior. (John 3:16-17; Col.1:27) The “first Adam” with his sin-nature faces his demise upon the cross of Jesus through faith in Jesus as Messiah, and the “second Adam” is born to substitute and supersede the now deceased and lifeless fallen “first Adam” upon Jesus’ cross. Paul said, “Know this, that our old man (“first Adam”) is crucified with Him (Jesus), that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom.6:6).

Writing to the Galatians, he said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal.3:27). What Paul says is the ritual of baptism we partook in as believers demontrates our commitment to change from one species of humanity and “put on” another. Essentially, we are burying the first fallen “Adamic humanity” in the watery grave of baptism. Then just as Jesus was resurrected from the dead by the Spirit’s power, we rise from the baptismal waters by the same Spirit which God our heavenly Father confers upon us as His abiding gift. (Rom.8:14-16)

Recall, mankind was denied access to the Holy Spirit as symbolized by the Tree of Life after Adam’s fall in Eden. (Gen.3:24) Now, Jesus clears the way by inaugurating the gift of the Spirit through His own baptism in the Jordan and likewise opens the path for the Spirit to embrace humans through the meaning of baptism. (Matt.3:16-17; Rom.8:11) Later, the Spirit was poured out upon the the disciples, believers, and mankind on Pentecost. From that momentous occasion, the new “Immanuel humanity” was born universally in humans. (Act.2:1-4)

Paul continues to elaborate on this new life in Christ through the Spirit’s power, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 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” (Rom.5, 14-16).

It’s hard to fathom humanity’s epochal past under the sway of Adam’s “sin-nature” which brought on all the evil, suffering and pain, in the self-inflicted corruption and self-centeredness which mankind endured, up until the coming of Jesus and the Spirit that ushered in the new human species of Jesus with the “Love-nature” on Pentecost.

Paul, undeniably and clearly, speaks of how this change in the new birth become reality in life when he wrote to the Galatians, “My old self (“Adamic humanity”) has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ (“Immanuel humanity”) lives in me” (Gal.2:20). Yes, in baptism we have “put on” this new “Immanuel humanity” in Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul expounds the birth of the new “Immanuel human” this way, “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). Paul said further, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom.13:14).

What was God doing? God was showing His unfailing Love for us and reconciling fallen humans back to Himself through His Son, Jesus. (John 3:16; 2 Cor.5:18-19) By giving a new birth into the new humanity of Jesus, “Immanuel humanity,” mankind has joined himself with God, just as God had first assimilated Himself with mankind through Jesus His Son. The Divine will is for humans to be “…conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom.8:29). “Conforming to Jesus’ image” is to be clothed in His new “Immanuel humanity” and become a people who live by God’s Love in every way, shape, and form. (1 John 4:16; 1 Cor.13) This is the foundation and essence of the new redeemed humanity we have in Jesus.

Paul speaks further of this new human birth and said, “You have taken off your old self (“Adamic humanity”) with its practices and have put on the new self, (“Immanuel humanity”) which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Col.3:9-10, my emphasis, also Gen.1:26-27). Taking on Jesus’ new “Immanuel humanity” is the essence of the New Covenant, listen, “I will put a new Spirit (“Immanuel human”) within you; and I will take the stony heart (“Adamic human”) out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek.36:22-29; 1 Cor.15:45-47).

From being part of mankind born into the deathly fallen sin-nature of the “Adamic humanity,” there is nothing more astounding to the human imagination yet wondrously beautiful beyond compare, than to realize we have within our grasp the divine inheritance of the new birth wherein humans can through faith choose to be clothed in the glorious garment of Jesus’ resurrected life, the new “Immanuel humanity,” as a ‘Love gift’ from the Creator God our eternal Father. Amen.

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Love-Being. (1 John 4:16) The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Love-Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all of humanity is inseparably one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from and in 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. Jesus was given the prophetic name Immanuel which means “God with us”, or God with humanity. (Matt.1:23; Isa.7:14) As the prophecy foretold and fulfilled, God assimillated Himself with mankind through Mary who bore His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt.1:20; 18-25; 2:1-2)

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.

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

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

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.

Greetings once more dear Friends!

Faith is a vital component of the Christian’s life. As a noun it describes one’s belief system. As a verb faith is the lifeblood of the believer’s way of life. One describes who the believer is, and the other describes how he lives. Both elements work in unison to form a singular focus in life. The Bible states categorically, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.11:6). Before one can please someone, it assumes that the same faith believes in the existence of that someone, hence, the passage follows with the following, “Because anyone who approaches Him (God) must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Not only does the person believes in the reality of God but there’s an expectancy of a positive outcome from the relationship of trust.

In the same way Love describes God, faith describes man’s spiritual life. Love (God) is a noun because it describes who He is, and as a verb it describes how He lives and acts. (1 John 4:8; 1 Cor.13) We were created to become His image of Love, as Genesis says, “God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” (Gen.1:26-27).

Human Faith

There is a faith that’s entirely human and is unrelated to a faith that is spiritual. Physical humans display human faith. Spiritual faith is not human and therefore exists externally from human faith. Human faith deals with human life in the physical realm, while spiritual faith deals with humans in the spiritual realm. Although both operate on separate sphere and orientation, one physical and the other spiritual, both are not unlike since both use the human mind to operate. While the human faith is constrained to the physical realm of reasoning and activity, the spiritual faith does not require physical considerations. One is mainly seen, while the other is unseen. The Bible says, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Heb.11:1).

The cogs and elements which turn the wheel of human faith are man’s five senses, whereby a person says, “I have to see, smell, taste, touch, or hear, to believe.” This is human faith. This is not the case with spiritual faith. As I said although both are oriented differently due to their nature, yet both are needed in the life of the Christian. God’s work of salvation in humanity requires our mutual participation, hence, human faith is needed. The reason is simple because Christianity is a belief system based upon spiritual faith. So, human faith is made to merge with the spiritual faith so both complement one another rather than oppose each other. God reveals Himself as Tri-Personal in His trinitarian Being and thereby a Loving participatory God. That’s how He desires His Love to work with humans He made in His image. So, we use our limited human faith to believe and trust in the spiritually all-competent spiritual faith to do His Loving will in our lives.

Spiritual Faith

But exactly what is this spiritual faith we speak of? Paul makes this abundantly clear in the following passage from Romans, “The righteousness of God which comes by the faith of Jesus to all and on all that believe” (Rom.3:22, AKJV). Humanity was not born with this saving faith. But note, the are two faiths stated in this passage, the “faith of Jesus,” and “on all that believe (human faith).” The spiritual faith is “Jesus’ Personal Faith” and exists outside of human life. It enters human life when Christ comes and indwells a believer through the power of the Spirit.

Paul told the Galatians, “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, we live, walk, and have our being in the faith of Jesus. (Act.17:28). To the Colossians, Paul said, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col.3:16).

How does Christ dwells in us richly? Through His Word. There is the written Word of God, the Bible, and there is the Personified Word who is Jesus, He is the Personal Word of God. Paul gives us the connection between the Word of God, Jesus, and faith, “So faith is from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Rom.10:17). When Jesus dwells in each of us His Word is part of us, and thereby His faith through hearing and living by them. Thus, Jesus’ faith comes from the hearing ear, and the hearing ear comes from the Word of God.

So, here we see the human and spiritual faiths are fused into one expression of life. As Jesus’ faith grows, we’ll find our human faith-scale begin to tip in favor of the spiritual faith of Jesus. Our limited human faith will have less and less of a role and impact, as John said, “He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30). Why, because the place where Jesus is taking us, our narrow human faith has no scope of reference to maneuver this unknown spiritual landscape. We are now traversing in the Spirit’s territory which requires the faith of Jesus to pioneer and forge on forward. Its inclusive effect is we will grow to become a whole person because we are not limited by what our human faith allows. The two faiths, walking side by side, form one life of man that’s complete in Christ. (Amos 3:3)

Petition: Dear 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 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 to heart, and faith to faith, you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, 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, or any division one may espouse – but 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 I believe and 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being with His Son, Jesus, and His Spirit. (Mat..28:18-20)

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost being and 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).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as humanity is one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine triune existence forever.

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.

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

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

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.

Greetings Friends!

“Christ Alone” – The spoken word of the heart, and other articulation, like simply, “Praise God,” “Thank You Lord!” we may say silently, speaks of a heart that is greater than our own that’s at work behind the scenes: unbeknown to us, invisible yet resolute for its wonder, the heart can only voice the power of God’s grace in our lives. 

Let me try to do justice to this topic of such awe, wonder, and admiration. It begins with one simple word: TEMPLE! The Temple is the environment within which God’s grace exist and abound. It’s like Eden, as long as Adam and Eve existed in Eden, they existed within the bounds of God’s abounding grace and Love.

And we know that our first parents were evicted from Eden because of Adam’s fall. Outside of Eden our first parents were outside of the temple environment (Eden), you can say. And mankind has existed in that environment away from God’s presence ever since. Does that Temple environment exist today, we ask? If so, where is that Temple today?

After Adam’s fall, God promised to send the second Adam, Jesus Christ His Son, to open the way to His Temple and humanity and enter and commune with God once more, as Adam and Eve did before the fall. (1 Cor.15:45; Gen.3:14-15)

What is a Temple?

Many today think that God dwells in physical temples like impressive Christian cathedrals, elaborate Islamic mosques, ornate Hindu temples, and ancient monolithic structures of bygone eras as in the Aztec empire. Let us look at a few examples:

God is not mortal like humans to dwell in physical structures, He is a spirit Being and dwells in a spiritual temple. God declares, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is the house you will build for Me? Where will My resting place be? Has not My hand made all these things, and so they came into being? I, the Lord, have spoken!”

“Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool!” (Isa.66:1-2). What does that mean? God is making an awesome declaration of truth about His temple. God is proclaiming He already has a physical temple – the whole of creation and the universe is His temple. Elsewhere God asks, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD” (Jer.23:24). The Scriptures says how God is adorned in His temple, “You are dressed in a robe of light.” It tells us what His temple looks like, “You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; You lay the rafters of Your home in the rain clouds; You ride upon the wings of the wind. The winds are your messengers; flames of fire are your servants” (Psa.104:104).

God is asking, could you build Me a temple as good as that? Could you build Me such a resting place? My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are Mine. We only have to look at the marvelous beauty of this earth and the awesome expanse of the heavens to witness His magnificent temple. You may have seen NASA’s recent pictures of very deep space from the Webb telescope with fresh eyes and sharpest images of the stars, galaxies of the unlimited universe, never been observed before. What are we seeing? We’re still discovering His awesome material temple in all its vastness and beauty. 

Hence, each time our eyes gaze upon the many wonders of His creation we are actually looking into the face of God in His physical temple. As we stand upon this earth, we are standing in and gazing at His physical temple.

No cathedral, mosque, temple, or any structure imaginable built by human hands can compare to the physical temple He has already built. Hence, we are given the mandate in the Genesis creation account to look after this earth He has handed to humanity as dominion and to be steward with a fiduciary responsibility of care over God’s temple, the earth. So, the obligation is upon us to discover the true temple God seeks for Himself.

God asks the question, “Where will my resting place be?” God Himself answers at the end of the same verse, “But on this man will I look, Even on him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembles at My word.” So, God is associating His resting place to a person with a humble, contrite spirit who seeks God by Loving and Obeying His Word. God is not likening His temple to an inanimate material like a building, with all its grandeur, no, he is associating it with a living spirit, a living being that has a contrite heart.

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “For we are the temple of the living God.” We are now looking at the living temple – we have seen His physical temple. The temple is living, vibrant, it has a heart that is capable of being contrite or otherwise. But let’s not jump the gun here, Paul was speaking to Christians who have God’s Spirit, remember he said, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16, NASB). The human body is just an empty vessel, and it is the Holy Spirit that makes it become God’s temple. Or, it may possess another spirit of rebellion inherited from Adam’s fall, which is true of all mankind.

Let’s pick up the story in Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem and found the people selling livestock and exchanging money. He was not happy and made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and told the people, “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:16) The Jews were upset about what He did, and enquired, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Then Jesus gave them an answer that shocked them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple He had spoken of was His body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (john 2:21-22). So, Jesus is the true temple of God. So, when Paul said, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” he meant Christ was alive in you through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is what makes a person the temple of God. Otherwise, he or she is just an empty human vessel. Only Jesus makes a person become a true temple of God with the Spirit’s indwelling.

Now, I said earlier that the Temple is the environment within which God’s grace exist and abound. It’s like Eden, as long as Adam and Eve existed in Eden, and they imbibed from the Tree of Life which symbolized the Holy Spirit, they existed within the bounds of God’s abounding grace and Love. The moment they were evicted from Eden, everything changed, they realized they were unclothed and naked. What was their clothing – it’s metaphorical? Remember the parable about the King who invited people to the wedding of His Son. It was the custom that the host would send out appropriate clothing for the guests to wear to the wedding feast.

Then during the celebration the King mingle among the guests and found someone without a proper clothing, and asked how he came into the wedding. He was silent, and the King ordered he be thrown out. The clothing is just a metaphor, it represented Jesus Christ. Paul said, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom.13:14). To the Galatians he said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal.3:27). If we were to leave and exist outside of Christ, then we exist outside the temple environment and deprived and unclothed of God’s grace and Love.

Now, I want us to go through this temple environment and realize how blessed we are, more than blessed in truth, to live this constant miraculous life within the temple of the Person of Jesus Christ Himself. To do that we have to go way back to when God summoned Moses upon Mt. Sinai he was given the plans to construct this temple in the middle of the people of Israel who had just came out of Egypt through a great miraculous activity by God upon Egypt.

The Book of Hebrews tell us this about what God told Moses upon Mt. Sinai. “This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Heb.8:1:1, 5; Exo.25:9). The architect of the temple was God. Moses could not do anything extraneous and say I will place a couch for me to rest during the hot desert sun, no. Hebrews further tell us, “They (Israel) serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven” (Heb.8:5, NLT). When Moses built the temple and its artifacts and fixtures he was making a copy of the heavenly sanctuary and the shadow of what is happening in heaven.

What is in heaven? Is there another temple like the one Moses built in the wilderness or later much improved one built by King Solomon in the nation of Israel? No, the temple is just a metaphor, a symbol, for some reality God wants us to see physically and understand the spiritual reality. God is Spirit, not fleshly or material like us. And that temple, that reality, is none other than Jesus Christ Himself, God’s very temple. The temple and its environment is the very Person of Jesus Christ. He is the Temple, its High Priest, humanity’s Savior and eternal Mediator. We always meet Christ in the temple of His Person where He constantly mediates for us, through the various artifacts Moses built and what they represent.

There were seven artifacts Moses was instructed to build that’s part of the temple furnishing and environment, and they depict the seven High Priestly functions that is entirely necessary for humanity’s salvation. These seven divine works Jesus has already done upon earth as Immanuel the Messiah, and continues to do in the Temple of His Person, now glorified by His resurrection and ascension in heaven before the Father – and on earth in the human temple of the believer’s body and life, collectively the Church, as Christ lives and walks in each of us. Let me repeat, on earth, not in the physical structures built with human hands, no matter how majestic and extraordinary they may appear, but in the surrendered lives of the people who are given to His Word and His Love.

The earthly temple of God is not a physical structure, but a spiritual one in Christ and of the human being in mind, heart, and spirit, as Paul said, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor.6:19; also, 1 Cor.12:27-31) God’s spiritual temple is the inner sanctum of the hearts and minds of humanity that is surrendered and given to Christ, and in which He lives and walks.

Now, let us see these seven functions quickly, which He performs before the Father in heaven, and in the earthly temple of the lives and hearts and minds of His people. As Paul and the prophet Ezekiel quotes God, “My dwelling place will be with them and will walk among them; I will be their God, and they will be My people” (Ezek.37:27; 2 Cor.6:16).

1)     Altar of Burnt Offering (Exodus 27:1)

2)     Laver (Exodus 30:18)

3)     Table of Showbread (Exodus 25:23)

4)     Lampstand (Exodus 25:31)

5)     Altar of Incense (Exodus 30:1)

6)     Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10)

7)     Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:17

First, Altar of Burnt Offering – brings to our mind the Lord Jesus who was slain and offered as sacrifice for human sins. Redemption always works through the atoning blood of Christ. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) God meets man only at the foot of the cross, where sins past, present, and future receive absolution through the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. (John 3:16-17; 1 Cor.11:26)

Here, we see the everlasting sacrifice of Jesus as Savior done once for all time for the forgiveness of sins and atonement of the whole of the human community since Adam and into the future. This function is for our spiritual health and well-being in holy and righteous condition before the Father.

Second, The Laver was a large bowl filled with water used for cleansing before the priest enter the Holy Place. We are still human and subject to sin in the sin-condition of rebellion in this world, not willfully but through the devil’s deception, human weakness, mistakes, and ignorance. The Laver and the cleansing represent our separation from sin and the world through baptism.

In this function, we are reminded of what Jesus did for us when He entered the Jordan to be baptized for us and repent of and for our sins by the hand of John the Baptist. Jesus had no sin to repent of, John said, “But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Paull said, “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). So, He bore our sins by repenting for humanity, and subsequently died for us on His cross. Recall what Jesus told John when He first hesitated baptizing Him, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus and John were actively working the divine plan of making humans right with God. In other words, they must carry out God’s will, so humans can repent by imputing what Jesus’ has done for us. He has made it possible for us to repent, not because we can do it on our own. God ascribes His Son’s finished work upon us. (Phi.3:9; Rom.4:5; 5:19)

Then, to finish this wonderful act of Jesus, He inaugurated the gift of the Spirit from the Father to mankind prior to Pentecost. (Matt.3:13-17; Act.2:1-4) The Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, then led Jesus into the wilderness to face and defeat Satan in the temptations for us, lived a perfect life, and then later died on the cross for us. He brought redemption to Adam’s fall and humanity’s sin once for all time, thus, ending the cycle of death through sin and rebellion. (Heb.9:28; Gal.3:13; 2 Cor.5:21)

Only after receiving Jesus and the gift of the Spirit, remember what Jesus said, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). So the two, Jesus and the Spirit, go lockstep one following the other in God’s move of Love for humanity. Unless and until sin is removed, the Spirit cannot enter the human heart. (like Eden, when sin entered, our parents were cut off from the Spirit, as symbolized by the ‘Tree of Life’ – a mighty angel stood guard in the path to the tree).

Paul said, “And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes” (Gal.3:27; Rom.13:14).

Third, Table of Showbread – Now, we enter the inner confines of the temple in the presence of the Father through the mediation of Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus said “I am the bread of life.” This typifies the continual presentation of the living Word of God, Christ. The Bible is the written Word of God. Jesus is the Personified Word of God. When we partake in the communion by eating the bread (representing His Body/flesh) and drinking the wine (representing His blood for life is in the blood) we are born again and take up the new life of Jesus living spiritually in His glorious human/divine heavenly life on earth through God’s Word (Jesus).

We remember our own or group Bible Studies to ingest of His Word. In this function, we are reminded the source of our confidence in living upon this earth as we rely upon the Word of God, both the literal (Bible) and personified Christ (High Priest).

Fourth, The Golden Lampstand had a central shaft which represents Christ, with six branches. The Body of Christ (believers/church) is represented by the six-side branches, three and each side. (see picture below) The believer is to be a branch of the Lampstand, a member of Christ who is the light of the world. (John 8:12) The Holy Spirit is the oil that gives light or gifts to each believer and represents the baptism with the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ, the church. (Zech.4:1-6) This began at Pentecost.

In John, Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5).

In this function light represents Jesus Christ. (John 8:12) For humans, light symbolize one’s gift and defines who he/she is in Christ. Jesus confers gifts upon His followers to keep them in purposeful and focused communion with the Father throughout their sojourn on earth under the Spirit’s direction and protection. (Eph.4:7-8) This gives us our true purpose to life, and inspires confidence in all we do. As God told Zerubbabel, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zech.4:6).

Fifth, The Altar of Incense.  What does this portray? It speaks of the believer’s prayers and worship empowered by Jesus and the Spirit bringing the fragrance of the beloved Son before the face of the Father in Heaven. (Eph.5:1-2) Jesus and the Spirit prays for us. (see Rom.8:34 and Rom.8:26, also Isa.53:12b) We do not know how to pray perfectly, but Jesus and the Spirit does. We do not know how to Love the Father perfectly in our sinful and depraved beings, but Jesus through the Spirit does. (Rom.5:5) Never for a moment must we imagine we can do this on our own. That is the reason the Father gave us His Son and His Spirit to help us.

Here, we live in a time/space setting/posture in our prayer life where death to self-love and self-will takes center stage and endures and we are alive in the Spirit through prayers of supplication, we travail in spirit (in time of trial), intercessory prayers, battles against evil forces, petition, praise, adoration, giving of thanks, Love, Faith, and Hope. The incense signifies Jesus taking our prayers, our worship, our gratitude, and perfecting them in Himself before the Father and transforming them into a sweet-smelling aroma before God (as pictured by the sweet-smelling incense).

Sixth, The Ark of the Covenant held three artifacts in it and they typify the Lord Jesus Christ and His High Priestly function on behalf of believers in whom Christ new life in the Spirit’s power is being formed. They represent the values and code by which God’s people live in this world that is at enmity with God. These are:

Ø  The Ten Commandments Exo.16:34; Heb.9:4—God’s Love revealed in His Law and wrought in our minds through His Spirit. (Rom.5:5) We are empowered in a life of Love for God and our fellow humans in this life.  Paul told the Romans, “The one who Loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom.13:8, ESV). 

Ø  The Gold Jar of Manna Exo.16:34; Heb.9:4—daily strength from the Spirit and dependability on Christ in matters great and small. The miraculous manna symbolized the miraculous life in the Spirit. The manna portrays the miraculous life of God we are empowered to live in this life.

Ø  Aaron’s Rod Heb.9:4—the Rod represents Jesus’ High Priestly sovereign power of Kingship and the power to impart immortality to His people. We live in this world under the sovereign rulership of Jesus as our Lord and master, who will return as King of kings and Lord of lords.

In this function, Jesus guides us to live life in our earthly journey through these three pillar values: Love, the miraculous life in the Spirit’s power, and under the sovereignty of our Savior and King, Jesus Christ. We live a life of confidence in God’s promises through miraculous interventions, and the realization we are part of His sovereignty as His family and citizens of His Kingdom.

Seventh, The Mercy Seat served as a covering lid for the Ark of the Covenant where God Almighty is seated. It is made of solid-gold and portrays the fullness of the Glory of God and our unity with the Father through Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is the place of God’s Mercy for all humans, no one is precluded. But He has set out the path for humanity to follow through His Son. All that Christ has done in the six functions prior to this, is to unite us with the Father as His children, caressed in His Love forever.

Recall what Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me. If you had really known Me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him! Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father! So why are you asking Me to show Him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The Words I speak are not My own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me” (John 14:6-10).

Here, we have our place of rest and assurance in the life of God in His Tri-Personal Being. This was the plan of the Father right from the start about how to bring humanity into His Loving arms for all eternity through His Son and Spirit. This is the place we appear before Him, before the Mercy Seat. This is the place of grace unbound in the Father’s Mercy Seat..

Hebrews mentions our reality in Christ this way, “This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells]” (Heb.6:19).

In Rev.21 we read, “He who was seated on the throne (Mercy Seat) said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be My children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (Rev.21:1-8).

Conclusion: So, when we speak from our hearts the words “Christ Alone,” we always imagine Him as the very Temple of God in whom we live and walk and have our being. (Act.17:28) Wherever we may be, whether we are throughout the far reaches of the world, we exist, live, and walk in the same temple of the glorious life and Person of Jesus Christ, where we live our lives in Him doing His many works He has done and continues to do in us. Peter said, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Pet.2:9).

We are alive in the Spirit in the Temple performing all kinds of activities within the confines of His Being and Temple, some are consuming showbread, others are offering sweet-smelling incense, others are showing forth the light and Love of Jesus in their lives through their gifts, even others are just receiving Jesus and the Spirit into their lives as we travel in this awesome journey together. We’re all flourishing in Christ’s Person and Temple, and always appear before the Mercy Seat of the Father, for this is the place of unbound grace, mercy, and Love.

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 has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious humanity made children 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 any division one may espouse – but 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 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.”

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.

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 Temple where joy abounds.

Farewell for now!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as humanity is one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine triune existence forever.

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.

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

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

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.

Greetings Friends! The tragedy of Uvalde, Texas has left the nation and the world stunned and shocked in disbelief. In the aftermath, President Biden has signed into law a bipartisan gun bill intended to prevent access to powerful firearms by dangerous people. But the search for answers continues for a nation which has seen its share of gun violence tragedies. What is the answer? In fact, it may not be as farfetched as we have been led to believe, nor complex as we first imagined. The Bible gives us the answer eloquently and precisely in Jesus’ parable of the bags of gold.

You’ll read the parable in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, Verses 14-30. The ‘bags of gold’ is simply a metaphor for God’s Love as reflection of its utterly valuable divine commodity. The parable speaks of the Master apportioning His wealth, the bags of gold or God’s Love, to the three servants. One was given 5 bags, the second 2 bags, and the third 1 bag of gold.

The parable tells us that the servants were apportioned their respective bags of gold commensurate with their inborn gifts and talents. The Creator has blessed every human being He made in His image with gifts and abilities from the womb.

The Psalmist said, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psa.139:13-14). The gifts in the parable depict all humanity that are categorized into three groupings with different talents and abilities as God our Creator has blessed each and every human being.

So, there are two aspects to the Parable, there is the Master’s gold or God’s Love (wealth), and there is the servant’s inborn gifts or abilities the Creator has conferred upon each human being from birth. Each of our gifts does not make one inferior or superior, but rather we all complement each other so together we reflect God in His all-embracing Love.   

The grand scheme of the Master was for the servants to go out and multiply and increase the Master’s Love. His wealth (gold) is His Love. The servants were to utilize God’s Love (wealth/gold) like it was spiritual money and currency to trade with. But how were the servants to do this? The servants were to trade and multiply God’s gold (Love) on the platform of their gifts and abilities. So, the Parable of the bags of gold reveals to humanity the grand purpose of life of the Creator and Master. The purpose of life is to multiply His Love (wealth/gold) by using our gifts and talents as  the platform for trading the currencies of God’s Love. The currency of God’s Love was expounded by Paul in His letter to the Corinthians in Chapter 13.

Paul tell us what the Love currency are: *the fruit of patience, *the fruit of kindness, *the fruit of contentedness,  *the fruit of modesty (unboastful), *the fruit of humility, *the fruit of honor, *the fruit of unselfishness, *the fruit of calmness and dignity, *the fruit of forgiveness and compassion, *the fruit of delighting in good and shunning evil, *the fruit of tolerance, *the fruit of responsibility, *the fruit of enduring hope, *the fruit of steadfast perseverance, *the fruit of joy, *the fruit of peace, *the fruit of goodness, *the fruit of faith, *the fruit of gentleness, *the fruit of self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. These are the currencies of God’s Love. (1 Cor.13; also Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:9-21).

The person who took the precious lives of the innocent school children of Uvalde was given gifts by the Creator. No human can be said to be without abilities, it’s only a question of how, when, and with what we use them? Humans are always living in the spiritual marketplace dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. What is the spiritual marketplace? It is incumbent upon us to recognize its existence and realize this is the place we encounter God at work with all humans. Primarily, it is wherever and whenever we find ourselves in situations encountering circumstances where Love is made to grow and mature, and not allowed to retrogress and decline in our relationships with God first and our fellow humans. (Matt.22:37-40)

Satan creates fear, Jesus brings God’s Love. This is the marketplace dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. Love and fear compels us to make a choice. This is where we are given the unparallel prospect to multiply and increase the Master’s wealth…or decrease and weaken God’s wealth (Love) in our lives, and turn to the spirit of fear instaed. We must choose our paths, what will it be? The first Adam chose for us in Eden and mankind have been consigned to a life based upon the spirit of fear of the evil one. Then God sent the second Adam, His Son Jesus Christ, and He has made it possible to walk and live in the Spirit’s power of Love. (1 Cor.13; John 16:7; Luk.24:49; 2 Cor.15:45)

For a more complete articulation of this beautiful parable of Jesus, please go to my post at:  http://bulamanriver.net/30033, titled, “What Did The One-Talent Servant Do Wrong?”

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 has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious humanity made children 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 God’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.”

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.

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!

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

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as humanity is one with Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine triune existence forever.

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.

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

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

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.