Greetings again friends! Let’s continue with God’s story about man. Again, may I wish you all the joys of Christmas, and a reward-filled New Year, 2014.

We have seen the Why, What, and How of God’s story of man that began with Christmas in parts 1 and 2. Let’s answer the final question, When? 

The account of Jesus birth was recorded by Luke in this way, “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) This is the most beautiful and inspiring part of God’s story about man. For in it we witness the humblest manner God chose for His Son to enter our human world through the virgin Mary, in a manger, in the little town called Bethlehem.

Birth of Jesus. Painting by Lorenzo Lotto (1527/28) (Wiki Commons)

Let’s now answer the final question When …

Faith
When…does all this happen in man? When…does this activity of God in making man into His own “image and likeness” become reality? It takes place when a human believes in the Messiah God has provided to make it possible. We take faith for granted. But for God faith is the turning point in human life and in our relationship with Him. How… because every time a human believes in the Messiah God offers for his/her deliverance, a true miracle takes place. Listen to what this miracle does, Paul says, “WHEN YOU BELIEVED, YOU WERE MARKED IN HIM WITH A SEAL, THE PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT, … (Eph.1:13-14). You and I were specially and personally marked by God our Father as His own CHILDREN with His own seal of adoption in His Spirit – that is what faith in Jesus does. Faith in His Son is what moves God to do miracles – this one, all-important miracle of all man can ever want. You see, when it comes to matters about the spiritual realm of God and the physical realm of man, the only bridge that connects the two realities is faith. Faith is the only thing that bridges this wide divide between God and man. This passage goes on to say what the seal of the Spirit does, “who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory” – yes, we are guaranteed immortality, for eternal life is the “likeness” of God. He is Spirit-composed. Do you believe?

Seal

We know what a seal is, right – Paul said God set His seal upon believers. We place our seal of approval on a legal document to confirm ownership of something, or whatever the legal transaction may be. The seal of God is the seal of His Person in the Holy Spirit. By receiving the seal of the Holy Spirit man receives the image of God, in the very Person of God, which is the Love of God, and the Life and immortality of God. The Spirit breathes and vitalizes the Triune life of God in man. That is the way God our Father had planned for man to take on the “image and likeness” of God. By implanting and unifying Himself to humans, man takes on the “image and likeness” of God. There is no other way. Paul confirms this born again experience and its resulting life, “What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in Love.” (Gal.5:6, MSG)

Dove – Symbolic of Holy Spirit (Wiki Commons)

The Pew Research Group says, and I quote, “Nearly half (47% of Christians) says that one’s actions are the key to determining eternal fate, with nearly one-third (29%) saying that being a good, moral person is the key to everlasting life.” So what do you think? Is it about man straying from a moral code? Or is it something much deeper – that we have strayed, that we are removed from Him?

A Barna survey says most Christian don’t believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit, neither do they believe in the existence of the devil, Satan. (www.pewresearch.org /www.barna.org) A person may claim to believe in the death of a man called Jesus. He can go so far as believe in His resurrection, and salvation by grace alone. But if he does not believe in the God who is Triune in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he is not a Christian. If you believe in Jesus, you cannot not believe in the Trinity, for He is the Trinity and homoousiosly part of it. The Tri-Personal God is the governing center of all Christian belief – it is the image of Triune Love man is made to take on. (see part 1)

Holy Spirit – Image and Likeness of God

Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63). Isaiah said all our good human acts are like filthy rags to God. (Isa.64:6) The human effort to be morally good springing from the fruit of ‘good and evil’ (because that’s all it is), cannot and will not conform man to the “image and likeness” of God. Only a rebirth and the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit does that. Notice how the image of God, the likeness of God takes shape, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1John 4:7-8). There is human effort, don’t be mistaken, but Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live,” but we live by faith and that’s supplied by the Holy Spirit… “the life I now live, I Iive by the faith of Jesus.” (Gal. 2:20). It takes the faith of Jesus to live like that, not our faith. Our human faith was crucified on the cross. Speaking of the purpose and role of the Spirit in human life, Jesus said, “He (Spirit) will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’” (John 16:15). The purpose of the Spirit is conform man to the image of Christ’s Person through faith the Spirit supplies.

Jesus has to take on the likeness of man, and man has to take on the likeness of God. Jesus can’t live the ‘Immanuel life’ in heaven – He has to take on His own humanity through Mary. Likewise, we cannot live the Triune Life of God’s Love, God’s very “image and likeness,” unless we are born again and the Spirit unifies Himself with us. Just as Jesus became fully God and fully man, we become a new species of humanity who is given a rebirth with divine life through the Holy Spirit. We have to be born again in the power of the Spirit. So, it’s not about human effort, no matter how noble our intentions, it is about God literally unifying Himself through the birthing of the Holy Spirit in man – it’s a new birth into the Triune Life of God.

Freedom

God’s Love will always give man the freedom to choose which way to go. God in His Love, will never exercise His authority whether by coercion, physical force, or even psychological means, to enforce obedience on anyone. But through the Spirit we are given true liberty to understand who we are destined to be as a person within the Triune Godhead in Christ. Peter said your are like ‘living stones’ being built into a spiritual house for God and for mankind. (1Pet.2:5) Paul said you are the temple of God and the Spirit dwells in you. (1Cor.3:16; 6:19) Through our calling and gifts and destinies, we obey willingly and lovingly. There’s a saying that says find what you love doing, your gift, and you’ll never “work” the rest of your life. That would be God’s own story He writes in your personal life. But that’s another subject, suffice to say, your gift and calling, whatever it may be, is essentially from Jesus and is Jesus for the Bible says “this secret of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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.” Col.1:16-17; 2:3) Our gift is our charge and mandate in life, isn’t it? It is our personal place in life where Jesus gives us authority, which is our destiny in Him.

The Relevance of Christmas – “Born Again”

Let’s see how this divine purpose takes place exactly. Here’s where the relevance of Jesus’ birth, and the message Christmas should convey to us. The process of making man into the “image and likeness” of God takes place in man in the same identical manner as the birth of Jesus in becoming human. What does the Scripture tell us of the birth of Jesus? It tells us that He is the child of the Holy Spirit. He is the Son of God. (Matt.1:18-24) The angel told Joseph, “The baby inside her (Mary) is from the Holy Spirit.” (V.20, emphasis mine) He is to be called Immanuel, God with us. (V.23) This is how God took on the image of our humanity and joined it to the Triune image and Person of God – by being born a human through Mary in the power of the Spirit. He became the prophesied Immanuel – fully God and fully man, “God with us.”

“Von Neuem Geboren” or “Born Again” Sculpture by Michael Printschler (Wiki Common)

Now with humans, taking on the image of the Tri-Personal God is the exact birthing process, the exact copy of Jesus birth, but in reverse. Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). He said, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Man must undergo a new birth. That’s the relevance of Christmas for the believer. We say it’s Jesus’ birthday, but we ought to ask what does it mean? Think about this, God cannot take on the image of Immanuel unless He is born a human, in the same way, man cannot take on God’s divine “image and likeness” unless he is born of the Spirit. In both instances, there is a birthing process. So we see the salvation offered to us is very much a Tri-personal activity of God in His interactive Love through and through.

Christmas is as much about Jesus human birth as it is about man’s spiritual birth. It’s hard to believe that most Christians do not believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s power makes this new birth in God’s spiritual Kingdom possible for man, just as the Spirit made Jesus birth in our human world possible. The new birth fundamentally means the Spirit’s power will take man eventually into immortality as John 3:16 affirms, “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.”

“To Fulfill ALL Righteousness”

So, I would like to put across to you that Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, is not only a time of celebration of Christ birth by itself, but His birth made possible our birth into the divine image of God in the Spirit’s power. Jesus became the first human to receive the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant when He was baptized in the Jordan. Remember, He did not need to be baptized because he had no sin to repent of. When John first refused to baptize Jesus, He told John it must be done “to fulfill ALL righteousness.” What does that mean? He was being baptized for us, so when the Spirit hovered upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and the Father declared, “You are My dearly loved Son, and you bring Me great joy,” Jesus inaugurated the new birth in man which brings the God-life which is the only way that ALL God’s righteousness can be brought to man. (Matt.3:13-17) John told the people, “I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8)

Man’s Future Hope – “Born Again” Resurrection to Immortality (Wiki Commons)

Conclusion

So, next time you hear a middle-of-the-story message of Jesus dying to save us from our sins (redemption) always see it as a jigsaw piece of a bigger picture we have covered today about God’s purpose to make man in His image (incarnation). It tells us why Jesus’ birth as Messiah by the Holy Spirit made possible our spiritual birth into the Triune Life of God. He came, was born in Bethlehem, baptized by John in the Jordan, overcame the devil, lived perfectly doing good, died as a worthy sacrifice for human sins, was resurrected and ascended into the Triune Being of God, taking our humanity with and in Him and is our Mediator and High Priest today. He sent the Spirit who gives us a new birth to live the Triune Life in Christ, and so fulfill the original purpose – the purpose God has never deviated from, to make man into His “image and likeness” and complete ALL righteousness in man.

To view the complete write-up on these subject of Christmas, you may read parts 1 and 2 below, posted on December 4^th and 12^th respectively.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com. 

Blessing

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you in this Christmas season of the birth of Jesus the Messiah. May the Spirit enliven you and make all things concerning you possible in Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “Bula man-river” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you c(Your Servant in Christ)an order a copy of my Book.

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

Note: 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

Greetings again friends! Let’s continue with God’s story about man. Again, may I wish you all the joys of Christmas, and a reward-filled New Year 2014.

The Prophet Isaiah foretold the birth of the Messiah in this way, 

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.” (Isa.9:6 NASB).

The Birth of Jesus & Visit by Shepherds (Wiki Commons)

By mentioning “government” more than once we are given an emphatic message about a Messiah whose influence is universal embracing all peoples. The New Testament echo this same thought in this manner, “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.” (John 3:16, NLT) It is not a message about a narrow religious sect, but a worldwide Government or Kingdom which has jurisdiction over territory and people. The Kingdom of God is God’s Government that has reign over political and spiritual boundaries. Hence, the world is given a Messiah who carries the title of “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” (Rev.20:4-6) God’s ultimate purpose of recreating His Loving nature in man is so people from all nations will become His Kingdom of kings, lords, and priests. So, the birth of the child Jesus, the giving of a Son, the provision of a Messiah, is not just for a religious sect one calls Christianity, He is given to unite all people and impact all mankind beyond borders, beyond religion, beyond any political persuasion, racial differences, and any wall of division. God gave Him for a universal purpose in which His Love unifies the whole world as He himself is One in His Triune Being.

Answering ‘Why’ and ‘What”

But let’s come back and continue from where we left off in part one on this message of the purpose of Christmas, and the Messiah’s birth. The essential prerequisite to the Messiah’s universal impact is the fulfilment of God’s underlying purpose of recreating His people in “His image and likeness.” Nothing happens until that change takes place in the heart and being of humans. We have seen His image is Love, when we answered the question, Why? And we have seen His likeness is Trinitarian, when we answered the question, What? All of the above is predicated on mankind being transformed from his fallen, fearful, and corrupt existence inherited from Adam, and freely adopting the image of God’s Triune Love in His Son, whose birthday we celebrate at Christmas. So, now we answer the question, How will God make this transformation possible in man?

How?

How…. will God make possible man’s transformation into His image of Love and the likeness of His Triune nature? Think of who God IS for a moment. He is the most holy God, all righteous, sovereign, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, Loving Triune Being. He is the most awesome Spirit Being who have existed eternally without beginning, without end, whose sovereign Being occupies all space and time. There is no other god besides Him. Our limited, inadequate, imperfect, physical mind will never be able to grasp nor comprehend Him. What we know about God is what He has revealed Himself to us and given us minds to comprehend. Without His revelation and the mind and faith to comprehend and be convicted, we would remain ignorant of His attributes and purpose. When we look into the living universe with our mighty telescopes, the creation we see and the feel of this earth, awesome as they are, yet it all still remain utter mysteries to man. Even with the human mind, we are at a loss to explain how it works. We don’t know if we are the result of untold years of evolutionary process, or we are created beings. The question of human origin still baffles us. As we think more and more deeply about all of creation we come up with more questions than answers. Yet, there is a God who is the creative first cause of the universe we can’t explain. And He did all that out of His Love.

Man – Made in The Likeness of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)

Now, this is the God, who, in all His unfathomable mystery, said from the beginning, He wanted to make man into the image and likeness of His Love in His Tri-Personal Being. How does man become like someone who exists in all His unknowable mystery, let alone comprehend and have some semblance of communication and relationship with which to begin? The Scriptures tell us He is utterly holy, and conversely, we are utterly depraved and unholy. Despite His mystery, He has given us minds to comprehend the essentials to sustain a relationship with Him. We were made with that potential in our minds. And it is not as hard as we assume all the mystery about Him suggests. We will go to our death beds never knowing all the answers to the mysteries of this world, but He has ensured humans can have a complete, fulfilling, and lasting Loving relationship with Him and with each other.

How will God’s “likeness mandate” be made a reality in man? How does He do it in this seeming impossible situation in man? Man has no alternative but to seek His answers. What is His answer? It has to take Someone from within the Tri-Personal Godhead who is a co-equal Being with the Father and the Spirit, to become human, and glorify our humanity in Himself, and forever unify man to the Triune God for eternity. When you think about it, it cannot be any other way. It is simple, it is awe-inspiring, it is something the prophets of old had wanted to peek into the wisdom of God. Man is helpless, so God Himself has to provide answer. Hence, we read of another passage about Christmas and the birth of Jesus in this way,

“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa.7:14).

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring froth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, ‘God with us’” (Matt.1.:23).

That Someone from the divine Trinity is Jesus, God’s own Son. He is the Immanuel who has fulfilled God’s purpose in the divine mandate of unifying God’s image with man. Jesus became man, so man can take upon himself God’s Loving Triune image. Man is transformed from his “solitary” image in himself, to the “Triune” likeness of God in Christ. Jesus becomes man’s Mediator and High Priest inside the Triune Life of God having taken our humanity, perfected and glorified it in Himself, and took us with Him into the heavenly abode of the Triune God. By expressing this impossible and unimaginably Love for man,  through Jesus man can now miraculously respond adequately, perfectly, and completely in Love to a God who is all-holy in his Being.

Depiction of Resurrection of Jesus (Wiki Commons)

How did Jesus do it? a) He was born to Mary as the prophesied Messiah in Bethlehem. b) He lived a perfect sinless life teaching the Gospel. c) He overcame the devil in the temptations. d) He was crucified to cleanse man from all sins past, present, and future. e) He resurrected in His glorified human body. f) He ascended and unified man’s humanity to the Triune God forever. That is the greatest story told about man – it is God’s story about man. Let’s now answer the question When? When does all this happen in man? When does this all this start for man?  We’ll answer the When in God’s story of man in our next segment.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

 

* The “Bula man-river” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.

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

Note: 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

Greetings once more friends the world over! May the joys of Christmas be yours, and a reward-filled New Year await you!

It is that time of year which believers with genuine hearts, apart from all the distractions, celebrate with true rejoicing hearts. It is a story which carries such deep spiritual meaning with equally transcendent impact beyond any story man could have written. Why, because the story of Christmas, or the birth of the Messiah, is God’s own story about mankind. It’s time we read the whole story as God tells us, and celebrate it as a gift from God as we enter this season of rejoicing.

Glad Tidings

God had His prophet Micah predict the birth of Jesus this way, “As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, even though you remain least among the clans of Judah, nevertheless, the One who rules in Israel for Me will emerge from you. His existence has been from antiquity, even from eternity” (Micah 5:2). It is clear the Messiah’s progeny is key to His role as Savior – He exists from eternity, He is the Son of God.

Angel Announces Birth of Jesus to Shepherds (Wiki Commons)

The Ambiguous Story of Jesus

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let’s go back to the beginning to recap God’s story for man. For too long the message of Jesus Christ as the Savior has been cloaked in ambiguity because it is being told from the middle of God’s own story about man. There is one message millions have heard about Christ – Jesus died for your sins to save you. (John 3:16) Important as that is, it does not tell the full story. Not even half the story. When you read a book from the middle, you’re always left with many ‘whys’ as you go along because you don’t know what had gone on before. It’s so vital to understand that the incarnation comes before the redemption. So the onus is upon story-tellers to tell the full account of God’s story of man so hearers understand the fundamental imperative for a Messiah. So, many a non-believer has asked, why must my sins be forgiven? Why must it be Jesus and not someone else? Why must He die? The predictable reply is Jesus is God’s own Son, and He died to save man from his sins. Yet again, the person snaps back, but why – to what end? Right here, we have a coin-toss for the many answers that Christians give. Take your pick! We will see at the end of of the three-part write-up, there is only one answer God gives us when we understand the full story.

Reasons to Believe

One reason given is, so you can go to heaven when you die – but why is that so important? By obtaining a ticket into heaven, you obviously exchanged it for your ticket to hell because of your sins. Why heaven, what’s in there for me? What is hell anyway, has anyone been there to tell its horrific tale as the claim suggests? How does God’s Love reconcile with such a place as hell?

Take the prosperity gospel, it seems the proponents of this belief care just for the here and now. Perhaps heaven and hell is too far-fetched for them. Then, there are those who believe in Jesus because of one’s tradition, as it were a family or village custom to become a believer. It’s just rubber-stamping, but does it mean anything to the person? There are those who believe Jesus is a great moral teacher who came to make this a better world – much like Buddha, nothing more or less. 

The Pew Research group says, “A majority of all American Christians (52%) think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.” (www.pewresearch.org) So, Jesus’ birth as man’s only Savior is now snubbed by His own followers. “Nearly half (47%) says that one’s actions are the key to determining eternal fate, with nearly one-third (29%) saying that being a good, moral person is the key to everlasting life.” So your moral compass means more to your eternal fate than Jesus.  A Barna survey says that most Christians don’t believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit exists. (www.barna.org)     So, one may adopt his/her brand of faith before a smorgasbord of beliefs. Sadly, this is the upshot of religion dictating a relationship which God intended from the beginning to be personal and one-on-one. What do we believe? Why this confusion? Because the Christian message is unclear and ambiguous.

The Full Story

Let’s take God’s story from the beginning so we are not left with many ‘whys’ about God’s call to His purpose for providing a Messiah. The only reason God made man is revealed in these words He uttered from the beginning, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness, so they may have dominion over the earth.” (Gen.1:26-30) It’s plain, it’s simple. You can say it bears the title of the God’s book about man. I will share the story of God about man in three parts, with God’s Son as the central part of its theme.

History

Now, from Adam to this day, God has never deviated from His story line for mankind with His Son as central to its theme. The story of man’s own history upon this earth has been a mixture of experiences of “good and evil.” There have been many horrendous stories of man as there are helpful ones. In modern times many have not forgotten the atrocities perpetrated in the death camps of World War Two. We can go further back and recount many equally horrific acts of man’s inhumanity to man. There have been good done also, like what we have witnessed in recent history in the field of education, the sciences, technology, medical advancement, transportation, and so forth. Yet, despite the ‘good’ man has witnessed, his knowledge has also been used to create weapons of mass destruction that’s capable of wiping man from the face of the earth. Akin to Winston Churchill words, man’s own story has been “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

God had warned Adam, if he went down this path and write his own story about man, he would live a life of “good and evil” that was depicted in the forbidden fruit he and his wife Eve were deviously led to partake. Though there was ‘good,’ it was not God’s goodness, but man’s duplicitous good. (Isa.64:6; Jer.17:9; Rom.3:23) God’s goodness produces an authentic good that’s represented in the “Tree of life,” which was also in the Eden. (Gen.2:9)

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life was man’s salvation. It represented all the goodness and graces of God to man. Adam botched it, plain and simple. And mankind have been recipients of Adam’s story humans have been writing and rewriting for six thousand years of history. It’s the story of man’s stamp of good and evil in the world that’s leading to a certain dark future. Not unless, Someone steps in to stop this tide of ‘madness’ at its tracks. This is where the birth of the Messiah is ushered in which we celebrate today. Very simply, He came to take us to the Tree of Life which Adam failed to do. For in the Tree of life, God’s story about man can be written, and is being rewritten. The Tree of Life is the metaphor for the Holy Spirit who brings God’s Love to flow in us like a river of living waters. (Rom. 5:5; John 7:37-39)

A Depiction of The Tree of Life (Wiki Commons)

I would like to present God’s story about man in 3 broad parts. In this piece we will cover part one, and parts two and three before we come to Christmas, 2013.

Part One

When God said He created man for the purpose of irrevocably fashioning man in His own image and likeness, we have to ask why, what, how, and when about His story as it relates to you and me. His story about man has always been a personal story about you and me, just as it was personal with Adam and Eve. His work of fashioning man in His image can only be done on a personal, one-on-one basis. There was no religion around to dictate Adam and Eve’s relationship with God. Maybe there was, in the form of the intruder, the devil himself. He’s not asking you to join a religion which dictates your relationship with Him.

Our relationship with God is not based upon a system of beliefs but a relationship of Love with the Person whose birthday we honor at this time of year. He is the central theme in God’s story about man. We encounter Him in His Word, the Bible. Jesus is the Personified Word of God, and we have the Bible as the literal Word of God. We find our place in the world through His Word (Jesus). No religion can lead us to our destiny in Christ. Only God can do lead us through each of our gifts He  bequeaths upon us on a personal, one-on-one basis. Our gifts is our personality embodied the Tripersonal Loving Being of God. Religion cannot do for God what only God can do for and by Himself. Nothing must and stand between you and God. He desires a personal relationship with you, directly. Jesus was born for that very purpose. That’s the important criterion to understand about the story of man God has written in the past, is doing now, and into the future. It is a story penned in the heart of each individual on the basis of a personal relationship with each man, woman, and child that’s ever been born. (Heb.8:10)

Why?

Why… should I be conformed to His image and likeness, we ask? Because of His Love, and because He is Love! It’s plain and it’s simple, yet mind-boggling in its scope. God wanted man to share in everything that He Is, and who He Is – His image is His Love – because He can never deviate from doing things out of the magnanimity of His Love. We are told in Scripture, “God is Love” (1John 4:8). He is not made of Love – His IS Love! God is forever “giving,” that’s what Love does. From eternity, God exist in their Tripersonal life through the power of their Love for each other. Man’s very existence is the result of the ongoing flow of God’s Love within His Triune Being flowing out to man. Were it not so, we would cease to exist altogether. God’s Love is like a river which flows and enriches everything and everyone in its path and never takes back. (John 7:37-39) It is hard to comprehend God’s ever-giving Love, when we have for six thousand years lived in the story line of self-centeredness Adam has penned for man. Man has always been about himself. He is fallen, depraved and corrupt. Even the good he does is done with an ulterior motive. (Jer.17:9) Jesus was born to unify mankind to the Tripersonal Being and Love of God. God seeks a relationship of Love with man as His very own children as Jesus is His Son. God’s story of man tells us how he plans to do just that.

What?

What… is His image and likeness? Love cannot exist in isolation. So, when He said “Let Us…make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” in the Genesis creation account of man, He was revealing Himself as existing in 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 “Elohim” describes a uniplural God. God is Trinitarian in His nature. Love by its nature is relational. Is it possible for God who is Love to exist in isolation, in solitude – unaccompanied, secluded, alone in self-absorbed existence? If God were one solitary person, with no one to love and share His divine Being, then His affirmation that “God is Love” (1John 4:8) would be meaningless. And we know God is Tripersonal and spirit-composed, and we are solitary, self-absorbed humans made of flesh and blood. “Likeness” means to become ONE and alike. It is to be natured in the Love of God which binds us as ONE. God’s purpose is to make His people become ONE where they are of a single identity or image of Love in Him, not apart from Him. He seeks to make us His very own children so He can shower all His Love upon us.

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

God is composed of three Love Personalities, as Father, Son, and Spirit, in ONE Triune Being. And so is mankind composed of many different gifts and personalities God has conferred upon us through the Spirit. We are united in our diverse personalities in His Triune Being of Love. Our numerous and distinct personalities and gifts reveal the greatness of God who created and Loves us as His children. To conform to that image of the Tripersonal God composed in Love is what salvation is to mankind. We may have different ways to explain salvation, but its essence is to conform as One in the image of God who is Love. Hence, we are told, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of (of LOVE of) his Son” (Rom.8:29, emphasis added). As I said earlier, this is the basis of how God’s story of man is written. It is based upon the Triune Love relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit, where we are brought into a personal relationship with each other within the Triune Being of God Himself in Christ. Jesus unified our humanity to the Trinitarian God as the prophesied Emmanuel. (Isa. 7:14; Matt.1;23)

Our mentality and psyche for living ought always to be that we are walking the very midst of the Tri-Personal Being of God in the all sufficiency and expectation of His Triune Love.

How… yes, how is God possibly going to make this “Triune likeness” mandate happen? How will God go about making man, whom He has made of flesh and blood, into a spirit-composed person, and a Love-composed person as He IS?

The answer… We’ll answer the How question more in-depth in part two, but suffice to say now that only Someone from within the Triune Godhead can take man and change man into the Trinitarian likeness and Life of God (Love). That’s the only way, there is no other way. It’s much like trying to domesticate a beast from the wild. We train it to give the animal, say a chimpanzee, some semblance of our humanity in order to live among us. We remove its wild instincts and to some degree instill the human spirit in it. Most times it’s to reflect our humorous spirit in the animal. Why is the dog call man’s best friend? We have seen and continue to see many animated movies that have been produced along this theme. Man trains the chimpanzee to project the image he wants the chimpanzee to adopt. When the beast cannot be domesticated and continues to be untameable, it is let back into the wild. That’s why certain animals, like a lion, cannot be domesticated because it is untameable.

So in like manner, only Jesus, who is God as the Father and the Spirit, and who comes from the Triune Godhead, is man’s doorway into the Tri-Personal Love-Being of God. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Now we can understand why Jesus was emphatic about what He said about Himself – why He had to come, be born a human, be fully God and fully human, live, die, and be resurrected so man can be unified to God forever – through no other way, but in and through Jesus. 

That is why the Messiah came. That is why it had to be Jesus. That is why Jesus was born. That is why, in the true spirit of Christmas, we have much more than we realize to rejoice over. As I intimated, the message of His death seems to dominate the airwaves, that is ‘redemption’ – but the ‘incarnation’ is the doorway to ‘redemption.’ If there is no ‘incarnation’ (image and likeness, Immanuel), there is no ‘redemption.’

The Popularized ‘Nativity Scene’ – But Do We Know Its True Meaning? (Wiki Commons)

We will answer the how and when of God’s story about man as it’s seen through the birth of Christ in parts two and three. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

* The “Bulaman-river” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book.

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

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