“For the child within her (Mary) was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20)

Greetings friends!

In my last post I explained the term protocol as it relates to human personal affiliation and our relationship with God. We saw protocol as a code of conduct which gives one the right of passage, so to speak, to something or someone. We saw that the protocol between God and man is His divine Love. Love gives us right of passage to the conviction that all His actions are done for our ultimate good and welfare in mind. It began with human creation when He made man in His own image of Love and likeness in immortality. (Gen.1:26-27) We must never doubt His Love for us. So we read, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is (Love), and that He is a rewarder (of immortality to) those who diligently seek Him” (Heb.11:6).

We saw that man was given a mind capable of expressing faith and making choices one way or another between two divergent pathways: the “tree of life” (Love/other-centeredness); the “tree of of the knowledge of good and evil” (fear/self-centeredness). We read that man was given the freedom to choose. This was necessary for Love to grow between man and his God – through choices based upon Love or fear and sin. God desires that we freely Love Him as He has chosen to do likewise toward man. God did not have to create man. Man was not made to complete God in any way, shape, and form. God could have lived well alone in His Triune Being as He has from eternity. But it was simply out of His overflowing and unfathomable Love that He freely chose to create humans after His likeness. Do you think God relishes in witnessing all the aggravation, suffering and pain man has upon this earth? But He knows His Love will ultimately triumph over all, and our God-given freedom plays an all-important part in the human state of affairs. 

In the previous post, we read this passage of scripture which reveals how God plans to bring us into His eternal family forever, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:16, NASB; also John 3:16-17). In other words, we see the depth of His Love by the way He sacrificed His Son so He can fulfill His purpose of making us into His likeness, which is the likeness of His Son.

Let’s continue from where we left off.  We ended asking…why Jesus? Why is He central in God’s purpose of bringing humans into His divine family and imbuing man with Love and the gift of immortality? Is Jesus the only Savior of mankind? Is He the only one capable of undertaking the act of atonement for the sin of the world? Let’s dissect this…

First, God is offering something to man which only He can give: Love, immortality, and reign (Gen.1: 26-27). These are divine attributes which only God can confer upon another. And amazingly, that was God’s singular purpose for making man. He created man for the purpose of being vessels of His Love, to inherit immortality, and to reign with His Son. Man cannot achieve his God-given destiny without God Himself being part and parcel of it. Thereby, only He knows the way to man’s destiny, and has made it abundantly clear to us in His word, the Bible.

Now, consider that Jesus was the only human to ever have been begotten by the Holy Spirit. There is an obvious reason why God did this, and it has everything to do with His Love for mankind. I will quote from Dr. Bruce Ware, an esteemed theologian and author in the evangelical tradition, “Christ alone was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38), and as such, he alone qualifies to be Savior. Why does this matter? Only as the Holy Spirit takes the place of the human father in Jesus’ conception can it be true that the one conceived is both fully God and fully man. Christ must be both God and man to atone for sin, but for this to occur, he must be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a human virgin. No one else in the history of the world is conceived by the Spirit and born of a virgin mother. Therefore, Jesus alone qualifies to be Savior.” (www.jesus.org)

Jesus, who proceeded from the Triune Godhead of the Father, the Logos (Son), and the Spirit, became a human without ceasing to be God. (John 1:14; 1 John 5:7) Because Jesus is eternally of one indivisible substance with the Triune Godhead, He could not stop being God when He took upon Himself His human form through Mary His human mother. He was fully God and fully man. In other words, God and man are made one in Christ. Hence, the prophet Isaiah was inspired to state a unique name: Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23). 

It is logical to conclude that the Spirit, who is of and from the same hypostatic union with the Son in the Triune Godhead, was instrumental and responsible for the human conception of Jesus. Micah spoke of Jesus’ coming and origin, saying, “His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Mic.5:2, NASB). As a man, Jesus voluntarily abandoned the exercise of certain prerogatives of His divine attributes in order to assume our humanity through Mary. (Phi.2:7; Heb.4:15)

Jesus proceeded from the Triune Godhead of the Father, the Logos, and the Spirit (Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity, Wiki Commons)

He lived a perfect life, was crucified as mankind’s Savior, was resurrected and ascended back to God and back to the glory He had with His Father in the Triune Godhead. By His bodily resurrection, He glorified our humanity in Himself and joined it to the Triune Life of God forever. He is the true and worthy human substitute doing the work of humanity’s High Priest from within the Triune Being of God for man’s physical and spiritual salvation.

So we saw that divine Love is God’s protocol which man must receive and accept in order to relate with God. That Love is expressed to man through His Son, Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the protocol man assumes which gives him the right of passage to enter into Loving relationship with God the Father. This is made possible through the power of the Spirit. Jesus told the disciples, “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). 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). In this we see man living the “Triune Life” in Christ instead of the “solitary life” in himself.

Paul said this, “He (God) predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom.8:29). God has conformed Himself to us by becoming human, now man must conform himself to God by becoming like Jesus through faith. Remember, faith is an attribute which only a human can activate through his decisions and actions. No other living species has this ability to express the attribute of faith. Even and atheist lives by faith believing there is no God. By conforming to the image of His Son through faith, we receive the protocol to enter into the very presence of the Almighty Father.

What this says is we are made children of God only by conforming to Jesus’ likeness, who is God’s Son, and we are made brothers and sisters of Jesus. The mold of God’s “image and likeness” which man must conform is seen plainly and unmistakably in His Son. The scriptures tell us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (“image and likeness”), sustaining all things by His powerful word” (Heb.1:3; Gen.1:26-27).

Listen, unless we see and believe Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God who existed with Him in His Triune Being from eternity, and that He is the expression of God’s Love to man, yes, Jesus the Love protocol we must utilize to enter into relationship with God, we have not taken the first step of faith in life’s journey of transformation to God’s “image and likeness” by becoming Love as He is Love, and inheriting immortality as He is immortal. Jesus has eternally existed in the Triune Godhead with the Father and the Spirit. Before His death on Calvary, Jesus prayed to the Father these words, “And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began” (John 17:5: also see Micah 5:2; Heb.7:3). So, Jesus was fully aware of His own deity while in His human form.  

Paul said to the Colossians that Jesus is the only One who makes us complete before Almighty God, the Father. (Col.2:10) You may Go to our “Mission Statement” at this link and find out more about the meaning of “Triune Life”: http://bulamanriver.net/?page_id=3381

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

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, 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: All information is copy-write. 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.

“God is Love. Whoever lives in Love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 John 4:16, 8)

Greetings again Friends!

Whoever we are, and wherever we come from, we all observe a basic conduct or etiquette of behavior we would expect from people which governs our relationship with them. From a personal level where we develop friendships to a complex level between people and nations, this custom or conduct is called “protocol.” The dictionary defines the word as a code of correct conduct. You might say, it’s a right of passage to something or someone. On a personal level, it may not be so legalistic, but on a level involving organizations, companies, and nations, protocols are more detailed and procedural.

On a personal relationship level, the basic protocol would be a person’s basis for association with another. That’s to say, the next person regards you as a person with the inviolable right to life, self-determination, the pursuit of happiness, and you are an individual worthy of love, respect, and honor. This is the basis for genuine protocol for person-to-person relationships. You can say they are sacrosanct. If a person does not believe you are unquestionably entitled to these qualities of life, or thinks you do not deserve one or more of them, then your relationship with such a person will be problematic. Every wrongdoing or criminal act committed on a person is a violation against one or more of these human values and rights.   

Many people are not what you may think they are, and you’ll find genuine friends through experience and observation as it relates to these basic personal values (protocol). For Americans, these are values enshrined in the nation’s constitution. That’s not to say the constitution is perfect. There’s more to God’s purpose than what any human hand can pen.

(For example, those who hate and despise others for whatever assumed reasoning or bias, think happiness is reserved only for those who merit such a state of existence. Yet, the abiding principle of ‘golden rule’ applies to all, both to friend and foe alike. If one sows the seeds of unhappiness and discord in others (hatred and division), it is because he already has it first before he can sow it in others – what goes around, comes around! Jesus clarifies this, saying, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”)

This is no different from our relationship with God. There is a basic protocol to be observed if our relationship with God is to be genuine and true, so the divine can respond to our plea for interfacing with it. There is a vital difference though, in human relationships we are relating with people who are all God’s human creation, whereas with God there is a divine/human, Creator/created, Father/child, relationship.

So what is this protocol which governs our relationship with God? The protocol answers the question of why God made humans in the first place, and to never deviate from His express divine purpose for human existence. What is that purpose? The Genesis account of creation says God made humans to reflect Himself in character and composition: “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” (Gen1:27). That means man’s destiny is to become Love as “God is Love,” and to inherit immortality and rule the earth forever. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 John 4:8, 16; John 3:16) God Himself is the mold and purpose for human creation. Humans were created to become God’s children. Yes, He deals with each one of us as His own child with whom He can have personal, individual, relationship. 

The protocol calls upon man to respond to His divine purpose in faith, and express a living faith through our actions. First, it requires we look to God as a Father who has begotten us because of His deep, abiding Love for us, and is in the process of bringing us into His eternal reigning family. He expects us to live expressing His Love for all humans. Paul said it like this, “Owe nothing to anyone–except for your obligation to Love one another. If you Love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law (or, to conform to His purpose for human life)” (Rom.13:8, NLT).

It sounds simplistic, but it is not as easy as it seems. It is difficult to “Love neighbor as you Love yourself” (Mark 12:31). And I will share with you why and how it is possible to make His Love a way of life, and how we can know we have eternal life in us.

Let’s begin with immortality. This is what the Bible says about it, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:16, NASB). When you will have taken on immortality, you naturally would have Love as an intrinsic part of your being. In other words, they are one and the same life and can’t be separated.

This passage asks man to believe in simple faith in Jesus who has Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:26). You see, central to the issue of immortality is the prerequisite of faith… “do you believe this?” we are asked. That’s all… it is quite straight forward and is as simple as a child can know.

Do you think when God made mankind to become His immortal children, He would make it as difficult as possible (as some believers postulate), or as easy as possible, to become His children? Yes, God has said it is as easy as believing in His Son, period! John can’t be more clear and simple when God inspired him to write, “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).

But we know that simple believing has become just as hard because of confusion. Confusion breeds doubt, the reverse of faith. When you think about it, doubt means you have a choice. And choice means you have to choose between two opposites. This is not altogether a bad thing. Since having an option means you are living freely – you have FREEDOM! Why is this important? Because Love and freedom originate from the same place – God’s very divine Being. You cannot have Love without freedom, nor freedom without Love. In other words, God wants for man to freely choose to Love Him. Love and freedom is an intrinsic part of His nature. “God is Love” (John 3:16). Paul said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal.5:1).

God could well have made us like the other life forms so that we will respond to His purpose instinctively and automatically. But then, we would not be children, we would be like beasts, fowls, marine life, and other kinds of life. So God gave His human children minds, which other life forms don’t have, to freely choose to Love Him.

However, when I said “confusion” it means there is a deliberate force at work which exists to derail God’s purpose in mankind. Why, so man may not reach his destiny of becoming God’s children inheriting His Love and immortality. So, it is not as simplistic as a choice between two opposites, but we are speaking of two “ways of life.” One is based upon Love and freedom, while the other is centered on fear and captivity (slavery).

So, God’s offer to be part of His eternal divine family is open to all mankind regardless of race, nationality, color, language, or whatever barrier we like to conjure. It is as simple as believing in what God has designed to accomplish in us through His own Son.

In my next segment, I will explain Jesus, and why He is central in God’s purpose to bring humans into His divine family.

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

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, 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: All information is copy-write. 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.

 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor.1:30)

Greetings Friends!

You may have read me mention this term, victorious life in Jesus, or, living victoriously in Jesus. What does the term mean? I will answer that in this post.

Victorious life in Christ means the righteous, sinless, conquering, life He lived when He was in His human form, which He continues to now live in the life of the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. But one may say, how is that possible, I live a sinful life. Even when I try my best to live uprightly, I still sin. I sin inadvertently, and the Bible speaks of secret sins I am not even aware I have. (Psa.19:12) How then is it possible for the victorious life of Jesus to become reality in me? Yet, the very contradictory circumstance of Jesus’ perfect life and man’s imperfect existence, is the very rationale for a worthy substitute to stand in our defense – that, gives credence to our argument.

One reason we fail to see the truth of the victorious life of Jesus is because we place Jesus into the mold of our fallen, depraved, and evil existence looking out, instead of the other way round. We are seeing Jesus through the pair of eyes of our human frailties and shortcomings instead of the eyes of the Holy Spirit whose purpose is to sanctify man. We ought to be exchanging His life for ours. And the power of the Holy Spirit makes this happen, Jesus said, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father–He will testify about Me. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you” (John 15:26; 16:14). The role of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify the believer by realizing the victorious life of Jesus in the believer. Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20).

Another reason we cannot see the reality of living the victorious life of Jesus is because we fail to understand the full effect of what the saving role and work of Savior entails in its scope and meaning. It means Jesus not only saves believers from past sins, but from present and future sins as well. In order to do that, Jesus is not a Savior who remains dead on the cross, but was resurrected and ascended to God the Father’s right hand, and lives as man’s High Priest in order to mediate continuously in every second of man’s existence to make His victorious life possible. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor.15:14). Jesus’ mediation for sinful man in heaven “completes” man. (Col.2:10)

Yet another reason is we fail to fully grasp the victorious life is because we fail to fully grasp the truth of Jesus existence and Being. When Jesus became human, He was also God in the human flesh. This makes Him the only human qualified to be Savior and Mediator of man. In other words, it has to take God Himself to save man, for man is a fallen being, and cannot save himself. Jesus came forth from His eternal existence in the Triune Godhead – the Trinity, as it is commonly called. He was no ordinary human, yet, He was human in every way, shape, and form, and knew what it was like to be a human. The Bible tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet He did not sin” (Heb.4;5). Man cannot say God does not know what it is like to be human. He was human like us, yet sinless. As God, He took our imperfect humanity, warts and all, and sanctified us in Himself, and brought humanity into God’s presence forever.

The Bible gives a unique name to reflect Jesus’ existence as God who took our human form: Immanuel, which means “God with us.” (Matt.1:23: Isa.7:14). This unique name reveals where He came from and that He existed eternally in the Triune Godhead. By taking man’s fallen, sinful, immoral and corrupt humanity into Himself, He effectively cancelled all human failings, sins, and depravity, in Himself through His perfect life and death on the cross. And by His resurrection and ascension, He glorified our humanity and took it into the very Being of God the Father. So, in a genuine vicarious sense, in Jesus man now exists in the perfect life within the divine Godhead in heaven in Christ. He is our elder Brother. It is from this vantage point that the victorious life is lived and experienced by the believer. It is a life of faith which gives us the confidence to live victoriously in Jesus through the divine Spirit.

The final reason I would like to share is we fail to understand the work of the Spirit in bringing about the victorious life of Jesus in the believer. Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63). By “flesh” it means the fallen “condition” of man, not the human body per se. Jesus glorified His, and by extension our human body, in His resurrection from the dead. The Spirit proceeds from Jesus in heaven and brings the victorious life into the life of the believer. Paul said man becomes God’s temple where the Holy Spirit dwells, “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).

Imagine this for a moment, if the Spirit dwells in you, while He simultaneously dwells in the Triune Godhead in heaven (for He cannot be separate from but is one substance in the Triune Godhead) then in reality the believer dwells in heaven with God through the Spirit, although bodily he walks the earth. In effect, this means the believer is in a saved “condition” in the Spirit, as opposed to an unsaved condition in his fallen flesh. As we read, the flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit who saves. If the Spirit lives in man as a temple, then no sin can enter the life of man, for the Spirit is Holy and sinless. The Spirit is applying the eternal sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf through the surrendered life to keep us in the Father’s presence forever. Yes, sometimes we overtly give the body more credence than it deserves, when we ought to afford much more credit to the work of the Spirit in sanctifying us in Christ.

If we were to re-read the above quote of Jesus, it would say, “The Spirit brings the victorious life, the flesh counts for nothing.” What you experience in your fleshly life amounts to nothing, it’s the life we live in the Spirit in heaven that counts, and He now lives on earth in His temple – the life of the believer. Paul’s words sums up the victorious life, “But by His (the Father) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor.1:30-31). Effectively it means if we do not have a complete Savior in Jesus, then He is no Savior. That is the essence of the victorious life we have in Christ. (Col.2:10)

When our faith is founded upon the “Triune Life” we will better understand the victorious life of Jesus because all three Persons of the Triune Godhead are involved in human salvation. Hence, this ministry has adamantly advocated the “Triune Life” so we’ll always have our spiritual bearings right. Go to our “Mission Statement” at this link and find out more about the meaning of “Triune Life”: http://bulamanriver.net/?page_id=3381

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

Blessing:

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life” as a  Bulamanriver.*  Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,  

* Bulamanriver” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bulamanriver, 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: All information is copy-write. 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.