Greetings Friends around the world. I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and favorable new year, 2024.
What is the baffling “mystery” of God’s Gospel of Jesus Christ? It was so vital to God that after Jesus had ascended back to God, the Scripture tells us, in two passages of Scripture I will quote:
1) “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the One we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me” (Col.1:24-29).
2) The second is taken from Ephesians: “To make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His (God’s) intent was that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He (God the Father) accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him (Christ) we may approach God with confidence” (Eph.3:7-12).
And what was this perplexing mystery that God announced first to the Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly realms, then to the Church, and the whole world. Paul gives his unambiguous utterance to this perplexing mystery in Col.3:3: “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3). In other words, every saved human life is now hidden with Christ within God’s very Trinitarian Being. That is the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who transports humanity into the very Being of God’s holy Loving triune nature. Paul told the Ephesians, “For He (Father) chose us in Him (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph.1:4).
How does God make this possible – to unite a God who is entirely holy unite Himself with humanity? You see, with God true life in found in His Spirit – it is the Spirit-Life. He tells us, “Give ear and come to Me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you…Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa.55:3, 6-9).
God, by declaring His Almighty, holy and all-righteous Divine Self as follows, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,” He was revealing indirectly that true life exudes from His Spirit. (Isa.55:8-9). Physical man became a living human life when God created Adam from the dust of the earth. (Gen.2:7) Although made from the dust of the earth, Adam was created in God’s image and likeness. That is, he was created with all the necessary genes and DNA to maintain the divine specimen having the revered attributes of God. God’s purpose was to clothe humanity in His Spirit, and make mankind His children forever. (John 3:16)
Humans may live to 120 years if God so permits. (Gen.6:3) When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Garden of Eden and ate the forbidden fruit, they sinned against God and instantly brought the death penalty upon all their children and all humanity. Paul told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23). Yes, sin brings true death upon humanity. But at the same time, the verse continues with God’s promise to impart immortality through Jesus Christ. Immortality means to possess divine Spirit-Life in Jesus. This is the exact copy of the promise God made to Adam and Eve in Eden after the fall when they disobeyed. After our first parent’s fall into sin, God promised the coming of the Messiah to save us from our sins and fallen being. After questioning Adam and Eve about their sinful act, Eve told God, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Listen, this is the promise made to our first parents, God told Satan, “Because you have done this… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel” (Gen.3:14-15). Thus, the promise of the Messiah was uttered by God to our first parents and to Satan, humanity’s archdeceiver. Satan’s fate was sealed at the beginning when he dared to step into God’s divine plan for humanity. The principle of the victory of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness was established from the beginning.
When Adam and Eve failed to obey God, He did not exterminate them (which would have served justice), but instead revealed His covenant of grace to them by promising a Savior (Gen. 3:15).
Remember this remarkable truth of God’s nature, “For everyone belongs to Me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to Me. The one who sins is the one who will die” (Ezek.18:4). God asks, “Will such a man live? (read the detestable ways this man lived in Ezekiel Verses 10-13) He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he is to be put to death; his blood will be on his own head” (Ezek.18:13; Rom.6:23).
Yes, God promised the coming Messiah. And what would be the role of the Messiah? The apostle John answers, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Yes, it was out of the depth the Father’s overwhelming Love for humanity that God surrendered His Son Jesus to give us His true Spirit-Life -eternal life- in God’s Spirit which was lost in Eden.
As history has recorded in the Gospels, the Messiah came and lived the perfect human life. Jesus voluntarily surrendered His life in Love for our restitution and restoration. Then on the third day He was resurrected to divine/human immortality. He paved the way for human immortality in and through Himself. Before His ascension to the Father’s right hand, Jesus reminded the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift (of the Holy Spirit) My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about” (Act.1:4). With the gift of the Spirit, God now unites Himself in His whole Triune Being with humanity in Love. (Matt.28:18-20)
Pentecost – The Birthday Of The Church When God’s Spirit-Life Was Given
When the day of Pentecost came, God poured the Holy Spirit upon those who were gathered as Jesus instructed. (Act.2:1-4) On that day, Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, spoke to the people and essentially gave them the divine mechanics by which humans are made holy through the Spirit-Life God promised long ago in Eden. (Gen.3:14-15). Peter told his listeners, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act.2:38).
Thus, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the very Personification of God’s spiritual nature of Love, came and brought true Spirit-Life upon all humanity who followed Peter’s instruction. Thus, we see the activity of the Triune God through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together to bring humanity to true salvation. (Matt.28:18-20).
Paul reminded the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor.3:16). God’s temple, the human body and mind, is the very temple where God comes and fellowship with His people. Again, Paul reminded the people of Corinth, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own” (1 Cor.6:19). Yes, it is this very essence of God’s nature in the Holy Spirit which sows the true Life of God Himself in humanity.
The Human Body and Mind – God’s Temple Where His Spirit Dwells
Paul, speaking of this divine mystery of God, said, “I, Paul, have become its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the Word of God, the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me” (Col.1:25-29).
For it is the Spirit who gives us the power of this divine joy to rejoice despite the circumstances and environment which depresses people to no end. The Spirit is the deposit of God’s Love and its fruits in humans. (Rom.5:5)
Paul, The Apostle of God’s Mystery in Christ
Blessing:
Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you and your loved ones always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”** Be strong in the Lord’s joy.
Kiang (Your Servant in Christ)
Appendix: *The “Love-Fruits of the Holy Spirit:” *the fruit of patience, *the fruit of kindness, *the fruit of contentedness, *the fruit of modesty (unboastful), *the fruit of humility, *the fruit of honor, *the fruit of unselfishness, *the fruit of calmness and dignity, *the fruit of forgiveness and compassion, *the fruit of delighting in good and shunning evil, *the fruit of tolerance, *the fruit of responsibility, *the fruit of enduring hope, *the fruit of steadfast perseverance, *the fruit of joy, *the fruit of peace, *the fruit of goodness, *the fruit of faith, *the fruit of gentleness, *the fruit of self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. (1 Cor.13; also Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:9-21). These attributes may seem ordinary and mundane, but when empowered and propelled in the Spirit’s power, they are transformed into divine elements of transformation.
**”Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God in His plurality, as the Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. He is also clothed in Freedom. For the three Persons of the Trinity are three distinct and free Persons in the triune Godhead. Love and Freedom by nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being possessing freedom.
Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting divine relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.
It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam, like God is in His Tri-Personal Being of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity, as God is in His divine triunity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23) God created humanity to reflect Himself in His unified Tri-Personal Being (Trinity).
Rublev’s Icon of The Trinity (Wiki Commons)
Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness (Trinity), not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God through Christ once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God through Christ, just as humanity is one with Adam.
Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the one Triunity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. (Matt.28:18-20) They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam, for she came out of Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine triune existence forever.
The three-dimensional Triune Life/Love is opposed to living the one-dimensional solitary life of the fallen humanity inherited from Satan through Adam’s rebellion. For additional information about the Triune Life: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036. Also at: http://bulamanriver.net/9092.
**Bulamanriver: To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, you may obtain a copy of my book, “Bula” Man-River, from Amazon.com; xulonpress.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online book stores. All proceeds will go towards furthering the work of Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
Bulamanriver Book Cover
Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664
All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.
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