"....He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom 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. 1:2-3
Walking with Jesus through His finished work, I will be looking at different scriptures and know I need to see them in a proper perspective. So what is that perspective? There is something deeper to understand than just words on a page. The Word isn't a book, really, is it? The Bible itself tells us that Jesus is the Word! What does that mean? What does it mean to see the scriptures through the lens of Jesus BEING the Word? I think it means He reveals Himself through the Bible, that He is the ultimate and original Word or thought of God! Jesus is the perfect expression of God and God's thoughts, "the exact representation of His being!" We can read the words of scripture and encounter THE Word of God, Jesus, there!
I feel like there is so much about the scriptures I don’t understand. I seem to have interpreted so much of the scriptures through ‘performance’ lenses for so long, that some parts I just have to set aside for now and realize that eventually God will make all clear and show me how to see those passages through His ‘grace’ lenses, which really means seeing all of scripture through Jesus and His finished work! Wow, that gets me excited! Just thinking of how we began, not in our mother’s womb, but in God, in His thoughts, in His mind, in the Word or logic of God, in Christ Himself! We are of Him, and so we are like Him! These truths are so new to me that I can barely grasp them…but how wonderful to rest in His knowledge about me..
A couple of days ago I shared the quote from Francois du Toit with a friend, that it’s all about Jesus, and Jesus is all about us. My friend replied, ‘But that makes us God!’ I didn’t know how to answer at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I realize the powerful truth behind my friend’s reaction, for the statement shows, not that we are God Himself, but at least God-like, for we are in the image of the very God of the universe, and Christ is like a mirror showing us how very God-like we are! It makes my heart sing to think of it!
All my life I have struggled with low self-esteem, feeling unworthy as a person, dealing with lots of shame. But now, I find that the deepest part of me is not bad and sinful as I had learned all my life, but instead in God’s image, like Christ, and thus very good and beautiful, pleasing to God and of infinite worth! Who can put a value on Christ? And yet, the scriptures are all pointing to Him, and to the fact that not only is He IN us but that He is an example OF us! So we, too, are of infinite value…We too are lovely and whole and good…We too are a delight to the Father…We too are wrapped in beauty eternal, wrapped in love, wrapped in God Himself, intertwined with Him in union down in the depths of our being, for that is how we were actually existing long ‘before’ time began, existing as love dreams in the Father’s heart!
That’s my true home, that’s my true essence, and even though I don’t fully understand many scripture passages, He is showing me that the written words point to a much greater reality than I ever imagined: Christ in me, representing me, mirroring my true, good, perfect, in-union-with God identity! It is such a relief to see myself and everyone else as basically good people, children of God who have simply believed a lie about themselves for far too long! The scriptures address that, too, for they not only point to Christ and our beginning in Him, but also to the wonderful way He freed us from the lies of the enemy that have confused us for too long and kept us trapped in a belief that we were inferior, shameful, sinful, ugly and far from God.
I am so glad to wake up in the morning and know that I am complete in Him, I am His very good girl, I am loved and close to Him and don’t need to ‘do’ a thing to make all that so, for it is already so. It has always been so, and Christ came to free my mind to see and believe and live in that reality. (Just writing those words almost seems heretical, because it seems too good to be true, and yet I am finding my heart leaping forth and believing these new ideas!)
So that is my understanding of how to read the scriptures – not as a book of ‘how to’ get to perfection before God but as a book revealing Christ, the perfection of God, who shows me who I am and where I come from and makes me able to live in that reality – that I am His perfect child already, originating in His thoughts of love, ready to share this love with the world so they too can awaken to the truth!
Walking with Jesus through His finished work, I will be looking at different scriptures and know I need to see them in a proper perspective. So what is that perspective? There is something deeper to understand than just words on a page. The Word isn't a book, really, is it? The Bible itself tells us that Jesus is the Word! What does that mean? What does it mean to see the scriptures through the lens of Jesus BEING the Word? I think it means He reveals Himself through the Bible, that He is the ultimate and original Word or thought of God! Jesus is the perfect expression of God and God's thoughts, "the exact representation of His being!" We can read the words of scripture and encounter THE Word of God, Jesus, there!
I feel like there is so much about the scriptures I don’t understand. I seem to have interpreted so much of the scriptures through ‘performance’ lenses for so long, that some parts I just have to set aside for now and realize that eventually God will make all clear and show me how to see those passages through His ‘grace’ lenses, which really means seeing all of scripture through Jesus and His finished work! Wow, that gets me excited! Just thinking of how we began, not in our mother’s womb, but in God, in His thoughts, in His mind, in the Word or logic of God, in Christ Himself! We are of Him, and so we are like Him! These truths are so new to me that I can barely grasp them…but how wonderful to rest in His knowledge about me..
A couple of days ago I shared the quote from Francois du Toit with a friend, that it’s all about Jesus, and Jesus is all about us. My friend replied, ‘But that makes us God!’ I didn’t know how to answer at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I realize the powerful truth behind my friend’s reaction, for the statement shows, not that we are God Himself, but at least God-like, for we are in the image of the very God of the universe, and Christ is like a mirror showing us how very God-like we are! It makes my heart sing to think of it!
All my life I have struggled with low self-esteem, feeling unworthy as a person, dealing with lots of shame. But now, I find that the deepest part of me is not bad and sinful as I had learned all my life, but instead in God’s image, like Christ, and thus very good and beautiful, pleasing to God and of infinite worth! Who can put a value on Christ? And yet, the scriptures are all pointing to Him, and to the fact that not only is He IN us but that He is an example OF us! So we, too, are of infinite value…We too are lovely and whole and good…We too are a delight to the Father…We too are wrapped in beauty eternal, wrapped in love, wrapped in God Himself, intertwined with Him in union down in the depths of our being, for that is how we were actually existing long ‘before’ time began, existing as love dreams in the Father’s heart!
That’s my true home, that’s my true essence, and even though I don’t fully understand many scripture passages, He is showing me that the written words point to a much greater reality than I ever imagined: Christ in me, representing me, mirroring my true, good, perfect, in-union-with God identity! It is such a relief to see myself and everyone else as basically good people, children of God who have simply believed a lie about themselves for far too long! The scriptures address that, too, for they not only point to Christ and our beginning in Him, but also to the wonderful way He freed us from the lies of the enemy that have confused us for too long and kept us trapped in a belief that we were inferior, shameful, sinful, ugly and far from God.
I am so glad to wake up in the morning and know that I am complete in Him, I am His very good girl, I am loved and close to Him and don’t need to ‘do’ a thing to make all that so, for it is already so. It has always been so, and Christ came to free my mind to see and believe and live in that reality. (Just writing those words almost seems heretical, because it seems too good to be true, and yet I am finding my heart leaping forth and believing these new ideas!)
So that is my understanding of how to read the scriptures – not as a book of ‘how to’ get to perfection before God but as a book revealing Christ, the perfection of God, who shows me who I am and where I come from and makes me able to live in that reality – that I am His perfect child already, originating in His thoughts of love, ready to share this love with the world so they too can awaken to the truth!
Hello Sparrow,
ReplyDeleteI will be making a two part comment.
"...for the statement shows, not that we are God Himself, but at least God-like, for we are in the image of the very God of the universe, and Christ is like a mirror showing us how very God-like we are! It makes my heart sing to think of it!...But now, I find that the deepest part of me is not bad and sinful as I had learned all my life, but instead in God’s image, like Christ, and thus very good and beautiful, pleasing to God and of infinite worth! Who can put a value on Christ?"
That was wonderful!
Our perception of God was skewed. For years, I thought that when Paul said that he was "chief of sinners" was referring to him seeing so many sinful practices as he compared himself to the Mosaic Law. I used that verse to see everything sinful in me and would weep before God constantly thinking that He could never love a good for nothing sinner like myself. I actually thought that a person had to literally feel and see themselves as putrid in the sight of God before God might possibly have mercy upon them.
I finally realized that the more religious we become the more sinful we are (come short of the glory of God). We have fallen short of the glory of God simply because we were the ones that keep erecting targets to hopefully hit that bulls-eye of the glory of God. The more religious we become the further our attempts to hit the glory of God falls short. This was why Jesus said that there was more hope for Sodom and Gomorrah, and that publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before the religious leaders (Matthew 21:31).
Self-righteousness hardens the heart as that is why so many religious people are critical and judgmental as I was once myself. Religious leaders failed to see that they were "chief of sinners" even though they sought to keep the law. Their behavioral modification left them as white washed tombs full of dead men bones. This described us as former religious people. We looked good on the outside and religion patted us on our backs for hard efforts but inwardly was where we felt cold, dead, and distant from God.
Sinful in the eyes of Paul was not a person who was seeking to satisfy every dictate of the flesh but one plagued with religion. This was why Paul elsewhere went on to share his many qualifications about how according to law he was blameless. I realized that the "chief of sinners" was not talking about his personal acts of sin as religion defines them but his great success as a religious person that was behind the comment, "chief of sinners." This also was why Paul said elsewhere, "I count my RIGHTEOUSNESS as but dung." Paul's religious zeal "my righteousness" was behind the "chief of sinners" comment as it had nothing to do with diving headfirst into a life of wanton sin.
I shared that because of your comment, "the universe, and Christ is like a mirror showing us how very God-like we are! It makes my heart sing to think of it!...But now, I find that the deepest part of me is not bad and sinful as I had learned all my life."
You came to see as did I that our true image was shattered through our religious beliefs. We do originate in Him and we are not identified by our behavior but by the glorious family we have been with in eternity past and are forever a part of. Once we start judging ourselves by what it is we do or not do then we become "chief of sinners" because we have bought into the religious lie.
Part two of two
ReplyDeleteUnbelievers are only said to be "ignorant of truth." Paul simply said that people alienate themselves from the life of God THROUGH ignorance. Ignorance of what? That they have to walk an aisle and pray some so-called sinners prayer? No, ignorance of what is already theirs in Christ Jesus. We no longer have to go about and establish our own righteousness through the Law as we have righteousness and enjoy it through faith. Either one enjoys the life of God that is already theirs or they remain ignorant of it and continue life with a "darkened understanding" (Ephesians 4:17-18)
We have been made holy once for all. We have been perfected forever. Our sins and our iniquities He remembers no more. We are justified. We have been reconciled. There is nothing in those statement where we are to go sin searching in our lives because that religious thinking will only cause us to hide from God as did Adam and Eve and we would only seek to sow on fig leaves to cover our shame (self-righteousness).
We truly are the sons and daughters God always wanted.
"So that is my understanding of how to read the scriptures – not as a book of ‘how to’ get to perfection before God but as a book revealing Christ, the perfection of God, who shows me who I am and where I come from and makes me able to live in that reality – that I am His perfect child already, originating in His thoughts of love, ready to share this love with the world so they too can awaken to the truth!"
Thanks for sharing as your writings once again blessed my heart!
Dave
Dave, I always love to hear your thoughts, because you are so thorough and explain everything in an in-depth way, really unpacking the truth! This really stood out for me: "We do originate in Him and we are not identified by our behavior but by the glorious family we have been with in eternity past and are forever a part of. Once we start judging ourselves by what it is we do or not do then we become "chief of sinners" because we have bought into the religious lie." Wow! To think we truly originate in Him and have always been - and always will be - part of His family! It is so beautiful and amazing! And then how you state that the problem is judging ourselves by what we do/don't do...God has just been showing me this, how important it is not to pass judgment on myself (or others) - that is really the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, isn't it?? The tree of Life, just soaking in Him and His NONjudgmental love and grace and acceptance - THAT is real life, THAT is what truly frees and nourishes and fulfills, isn't it! I am so thankful He doesn't judge me and doesn't want me to judge myself..and that I can truly relax in His gentle acceptance, knowing, as you said, that I'm the child He always wanted.. What relief and rest it brings, don't you agree? Thank you for all you shared, it's always so rich and helpful, my brother!
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