It is available on Amazon as an e-book here. The paperback edition will be available soon, probably by July 2 or 3.
In 2023 and 2024, I wrote a series of posts on this website on The Image of God. The book is based on those articles, expanding and adding to their content. I enjoyed the further research and study and learned a lot beyond where I was in my understanding of the what it means that we were created in God’s image.
I invite you to read the book, and share it with others if you think it’s worthwhile. Also, if you want, you can leave any remarks or questions about it by commenting on this post. It also helps for people to write a review on Amazon.
P.S. Thank you to my wife, Connie, for your encouragement, support, and patience.
The cover of the book is a photograph taken and enhanced by my granddaughter Megan Heady (Shuttercraft with Megan facebook). Thank you, Megan!
It was my oldest sister Yvonne Shields who first mentioned that the posts I wrote should be made into a book. Thanks, Yvonne!
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The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness
did not,
has not,
does not,
will not
overcome it.
John 1:5
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The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus.
Then Satan entered Judas.
This is my body given for you… This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed.
I am among you as one who serves.
I confer on you a kingdom.
Peter, you will deny three times that you know me.
Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.
Judas approached Jesus. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?
The chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders had come for him.
But this is your hour – when darkness reigns.
I don’t know him. I am not. I don’t know what you are talking about. Peter remembered and he went outside and wept bitterly.
The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him.
Are you then the Son of God? You are right in saying I am.
Off to Pilate. We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.
Are you the king of the Jews? Yes.
Herod hoped to see him perform some miracle. Jesus gave no answer.
The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were vehemently accusing him. Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.
He has done nothing to deserve death.
Away with him! Crucify him! Crucify him!
Pilate surrendered Jesus to their will.
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him.
Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
About the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land.
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Joseph took Jesus’ body down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb. The women followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. But they rested on the Sabbath.
“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
When darkness reigns.
Scripture quotes
Luke 22:2 Luke 22:70
Luke 22:3 Luke 23:1-2
Luke 22:19-20 Luke 23:3
Luke 22:22 Luke 23:8-9
Luke 22:27 Luke 23:10-11
Luke 22:29 Luke 23:15
Luke 22:34 Luke 23:18, 21
Luke 22:37 Luke 23:25
Luke 22:42 Luke 23:33
Luke 22:47-48 Luke 23:34
Luke 22:52 Luke 23:44
Luke 22:53 Luke 23:46 (see Psalm 31)
Luke 22:56-62 Luke 23:50-56
Luke 22:63 Luke 9:23
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Easter draws us. By the compelling Spirit of God, the Cross/Resurrection of Jesus pulls us in. We may resist and go on our way to the bunnies and eggs. We may yield and converge with people and powers, with angels and demons, with sacrifice and suffering, with sin and death at the Cross – more precisely: at Jesus nailed on the Cross.
The last statement in Psalm 22, which Jesus expressed while on the Cross (see my previous article “My God, my God…”), is “They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” What did he do? What is his righteousness that gets proclaimed? All the internet articles and all the books at Amazon can’t contain the full answer. So we can dig into only a portion of what God did with Jesus on the Cross.
Let’s look at Romans 8:3-4. This is the English Standard Version:
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
What God has done is deal with Sin. Sin: the choice of humanity to live in a way that is wide of the mark. We missed the target. We went astray. Our desires, principles, and actions and the societies that are built on them are misguided, unreliable, and downright dodgy, and therefore cursed and corrupted. Sin is essentially the exercise of pro-self and anti-God, which turns out to actually be anti-self.
So Jesus came in the flesh, a real human. He looked like all other humans; he was “in the likeness of sinful flesh;” he looked like a sinful human. But he came “for sin.” He came to do something about humanity’s faulty choice.
As Jesus hung nailed on the Cross, God “condemned sin.” He didn’t condemn sinners. He didn’t condemn Jesus. He “condemned sin in the flesh,” that is, in Jesus’ flesh. The Contemporary English Version makes it clear: “God used Christ’s body to condemn sin.” The exercise of pro-self, anti-God was condemned. Sin was judged and the appropriate sentence carried out.
Our sin sent Jesus to the Cross. Our sin held him there while the hatred, mockery, abuse, and evil attacked him. In that process, I think something happened, something unexpected. If you will let me use my imagination, I will personify Sin – give it form, feeling, and consciousness. I can imagine a point when Sin felt a change happening, a turning of the tide. With Sin doing its worst to Jesus – assaulting him, bludgeoning him, killing him (“the wages of sin is death”) – there comes a turning point. Sin realizes that it is no longer doing the condemning and killing. God is. Sin and its lord Satan can’t stop the swing in momentum and can’t escape. Sin is going down. Jesus held our sin on the Cross until it was done in. He died with it, took it to the grave and left it there. “He has done it!”
So, the Scripture says, “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.”
When God gave the Law to Israel he told them,
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5-6
Simon Peter applied that to followers of Jesus:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10
We are now God’s people, his Kingdom people, equipped to live as his true images.
Sin has been condemned. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). No judgment and sentence on missing the mark, failing to live up to expectations, and straying from the set path. No curse and corruption on darkened minds, rebellious hearts, deadened spirits, and broken lives. Jesus leads us to the Cross into righteousness as we deny self, take up the cross, and follow.
Proclaim his righteousness and declare his praises because he has done it.
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We are moving toward Easter – converging with people, powers, and God at the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is leading the way for us his disciples and others who may want to be his disciples. We go the way he is going – self-denial, surrender, giving up control, laying down life, burying the old, and rising to live in God’s Kingdom.
Arrested and put through a mock trial, handed over to Roman authorities, beaten viciously, Jesus was nailed on the cross through his hands and feet. Insulted, goaded, jeered, he hung vulnerable for about six hours. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark tell us one thing that Jesus spoke. It was “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)
That anguished question is the first line of a song which David wrote: Psalm 22. It is important to understand that this is not merely a pithy saying by Jesus. It’s not a proverb or principle or formula or slogan that we are left with needing to figure out what is the meaning for him and for us. Most if not all of the Jewish people who heard him would have understood what he meant. They would have known that Jesus was focusing on and directing them to the entire psalm.
Here is the psalm. Please read it carefully.
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
Look back through the psalm and note the statements that clearly describe something that happened as Jesus was hanging on the cross for those six hours.
All of Psalm 22 applies to the entire crucifixion of Jesus. All of it is what he was praying and revealing. To the crowd, passersby, mockers, soldiers, and disciples it looked like God was forsaking him. The prayer says no he wasn’t. Very specifically, it states, The LORD…has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. His Father did not forsake him, did not turn his face away, did not abandon him, did not pull away from him, and Jesus knew that. God was there the whole time, personally involved in the entire crucifixion. By that I mean not just the physical aspects but all that was happening beyond what could be seen. God – Father, Son, and Spirit – was making something happen. Paul said, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus knew what he was doing. He was still working with his Father (John 5:19) bringing the Kingdom to the world (Luke 11:20). In Psalm 22 he announces,
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
Jesus knew what he was doing – pouring himself out for the Kingdom to come and for humanity and all creation to be restored to our Creator and be able live as his children. “For he has done it.” The Father, Son, and Spirit accomplished what they were after.
As we converge on Easter, we are coming to Holy God. We are entering into his righteousness. We are taking our place in his glory. We are interacting with his wisdom and power. We are engaging with his love and mercy. We are receiving his Kingdom.
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]]>For now, for this year, for me, I’m going to call this time the Convergence. One definition of convergence is the action of focusing or amassing onto a central point or location. The period before Jesus’ arrest and execution was such a time. God’s redemptive plan, Jesus’ message and ministry, the hatred and rejection by the religious leaders, the curiosity and expectations of the crowds, the hope mixed with fear of the disciples, the authoritarian intolerance of the Romans, the evil hostility of the dark powers, and sin and death were all relentlessly moving toward a central location: the man Jesus of Nazareth nailed on a cross. Everything that we read in the Gospels, especially what happened during the week before the crucifixion, can be understood only by taking into account this Convergence. Let’s be moving toward The Hour (Matthew 26:45, Mark 14:41, Luke 22:53) with Scripture, prayer, worship, and seeking.
One day, Jesus was with his twelve apostles and began talking with them about his own identity. Luke 9:20-23 says,
And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day.”
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Peter correctly identified Jesus as the promised Messiah from God – the ultimate deliverer and leader of Israel. Jesus “warned” them that being Messiah would not be what they expected. He would be rejected by the religious and political leaders of Israel and they would kill him, then he would be resurrected. The Messiah would willingly suffer and sacrifice to deliver and lead Israel (and, we find out, all humanity – Ephesians 2:11-18).
What Jesus said next to the disciples is connected to what he just said. It’s not a separate “saying” that has its own meaning. He said, “If anyone wants to come after me” – if anyone wants to be with the Messiah and have his deliverance and leadership – he can. Here’s how: deny yourself, lift up your cross, and follow the Messiah.
The disciples, all being Jewish, had heard about “deny yourself” before. It’s in the Law of Moses, which was the preparation for the Messiah to come and deliver. God commanded the Jews to observe the Day of Atonement each year. I won’t go into detail about it, but it was the day when all the people’s sins were atoned for – were removed. The high priest made several animal sacrifices, then
he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:20-21)
The deliberate rebellion and evil of the people was carried away and they could live as God’s holy people.
Here’s what the people did on that day:
The Lord said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. (Leviticus 23:26-32)
“Deny yourselves.” In order to experience the release from a rebellious life, the people needed to deny themselves. That’s explained as “do not do any work on that day.” Their work was not sinful or bad, so denying wasn’t about merely stopping sinful actions. It was about coming to God in surrender, trusting him, and not depending on what they could do themselves to make life work out. They presented a food offering to the Lord. That represented the products of their daily work – it was offered up to God and not kept for themselves. All of this is a complete surrender, sacrifice, giving up any claim to being able to make it on their own and trusting God to be their deliverer and leader.
So, the disciples knew something about what Jesus was saying. But remember, it is connected to what he said that he would experience: rejection, suffering, death, and resurrection. They would come after him, follow him into surrender and sacrifice then true life. They would give up any claim to self-importance, self-ability, self-will, let the old self die on the cross, and accept God’s new life.
Jesus pioneered the way for us to go. He denied himself, he took up his cross, he followed in obedience to death, and he was raised to life. We go that way, too, by faith in him as our Messiah, our deliverer and leader, our giver of new life.
You see, Jesus being Messiah is about more than forgiving our sins so we can go to heaven. If all that was needed was to have our sins forgiven, there wouldn’t be any talk from Jesus about denial and cross and following. He would just say, “Now you’re forgiven. Come on up.” What Jesus is doing is fitting us to live in his kingdom now and forever. He is restoring us to God’s original design for us – to be his children and partners. He is bringing about a new creation that will be our dwelling with him forever. He is making us into new people. So, we must go through the continual process of denying ourselves, giving up control of ourselves, emptying ourselves of “ME-ME-ME,” offering all to die and be buried with Jesus. Then all the old can be carried away into the wilderness, never to be seen again.
As we observe all that converges in Jesus on the cross, let’s be converging with all that. Let’s be fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith and follow him into the atonement which can be ours by denying self and taking up the cross.
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]]>The Coming
R.S. Thomas
And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.
Gospel of John, Chapter 3
In his one-on-one conversation with Jesus, in the dark of night and spirit, Nicodemus the Law-keeper has heard the astonishing news that seeing the Kingdom of God will not be achieved by more obedience to regulations. Starting over with a new heart will not be accomplished by more compliance to the elders’ traditions. Obtaining God’s blessing will not be earned by more Law-keeping. Jesus has told him that his (and everyone’s) need to be born again happens simply by believing: “that everyone who believes may have eternal life” (verse 15).
Believe is the word from the Word. Faith.1 Accepting that it is true. Relying on. Depending on. Trusting.
Believing has several layers of intensity. We may believe that the sun will rise in the morning, but that is not something that makes much difference within our hearts. We work with it by a pattern of sleeping and waking. It is true, we accept it, and that is just the way it is; we take it for granted. We may believe that actually the earth revolves around the sun, giving the appearance of rising and setting so that is just the language we use, and that the sun is approximately 93 million miles away from the earth, and that its surface temperature is about 9,900oF while its core is 28,000,000oF. Yes, that is all true, we believe it, but most of us do not get too caught up in those facts. Some people do – the specialists – the astronomers and astrophysicists . They find such data very motivating and spend much time and effort on them. The rest of us simply remember some of the interesting information about the sun – yes, we believe it – and go on with daily living and continue to talk about the sun rising and setting.
The believing to which Jesus called Nicodemus has more depth, more force to it, I think. I will have to change my analogy: instead of the sun, an 18-wheeler. If I approach an intersection in my car and see the 18-wheeler also approaching from my right at high speed, I believe I had better slam on the brakes; it will make a difference, a life-or-death difference. The believing that will take Nicodemus back to start is more like that than our belief that the sun will rise: grabbing hold of life-changing truth – completely relying on, utterly depending on, intensely trusting.
Nicodemus was already believing that way. He was not a faithless man. Remember, he was a Law-keeper. He was believing in the Law. He was trusting that obeying the Law and the traditions would get him into the Kingdom of God and make him a good, righteous person worthy of God’s favor and blessing. So he was trying very hard to keep the Law. Jesus was obviously pointing him in a different direction. Nic’s problem was not the lack of faith, but what he had his faith in, what he was believing in. It makes a difference who/what you believe.
“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). Nic, you can stop trying to earn your way into the Kingdom by obeying the Law. Simply believe in the Son of God. Trust him to love you. Trust him for your start over. Whoever believes in Jesus will be born again.
Now, do not stop there. Jesus didn’t. Don’t stop before you get to the end of the conversation. There is more, and it is vitally important.
Many people think that there is not much to it: Jesus comes, dies on the cross and rises from the dead, and all we have to do is believe – so simple, so easy. But wait. Jesus tells Nicodemus what really happens: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19-20 NIV).
See that word “verdict.” Other English translations have “condemnation” or “judgment” – the root word meaning is “decision.” It is our word “crisis.” One meaning of crisis is “a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.”2
When Jesus comes into the world and dies on the cross and offers to take you into his kingdom and give you a new heart, you face a crisis, a crucial decision. You have to decide on something that will be a turning point and make the difference for your future.
Jesus the Messiah the Son of God is the light that came into the dark world (John 1:9; 3:19). To be born again, to start over and be part of God’s kingdom, you have to come out of the darkness into the light. But, no, we don’t want to do that because we know what will happen: our evil deeds will be exposed. In the light someone will see our failure and shame; worse: God will see. And we are so afraid of that. We are afraid for the things that are wrong with us to be brought out in the open. Afraid of the guilt, afraid of the defeat, afraid of disapproval and condemnation. So people hate the light; they stay in the dark where you cannot see how bad your old heart is, cannot see how much you are hurting, cannot see how desperate you are to be free and become better. People think if believing in Jesus means exposing my wrongness and weakness, then I just won’t do it. Some people just continue to carry a heavy load of guilt and remain in the dark. Some people assert there is nothing much wrong with them and stay in the dark. Some people persist in the attempt to fix themselves with Law-keeping and keep on in the dark. And some people try to believe without coming out of the dark. They try to believe in the Son of God (but it is just like believing the sun rises) so they can go to Heaven without turning their lives over to him. People want to keep the bad stuff in the dark, hidden, unseen. They will not come into the light to start over.
But, in the dark, we can hear. We hear something else. Jesus tells us how it can be: “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (verse 21). When you live by what is true, when you act on the basis of reality, you come into the light with your evil. Truth: you know the evil is there in you, but you need to come out of the dark. So, you come to Jesus with everything that is wrong with you. You come to Jesus with all the ways you have been hurt and all the ways you have been trying to maintain yourself. You bring it all into the light, offer it to the Son of God.
I bring him my evil, everything that is hurting me – my anger, my self-centeredness, my pride, my fear – and I know he hates it; I know he despises my evil. I bring it all to him. He hates it, yet he takes it as his own. That is what Jesus being lifted up on the cross (verse 14) is all about. He takes my evil. He does not merely take the punishment for my evil. He takes my evil as his own (Isaiah 53:6)! He hates it, he despises it, it repulses him, yet my old heart becomes his old heart. Whatever I am willing to bring into the light, whatever I am willing to bring to Jesus, he takes it as his own and kills it on the cross.
So, when I am in the light instead of the darkness, I can see, but I don’t see my wrongness and weakness; I don’t see my failure and guilt. All of that is dead. I see what “has been done through God.” I see life. I see grace and truth. I see love and blessing. I see forgiveness and acceptance. I see rightness and wholeness. I see power and wisdom. I see freedom and joy. Finally, I begin to see the Kingdom of God.
When you come into the light with your wrongness and weakness, you become born again. Jesus takes away the evil, so you go back to nothing. You start over. Only this time you have the Spirit of God working in you. This time you are in God’s Kingdom. This time you know God. You start over and this time you have a new, good heart. You are like a newborn baby, ready and able to grow and learn.
So, we have hope. If there is a chance to start over, then we are not stuck with what we’ve got. We are not stuck with our wrongs and failures. We are not stuck with our weaknesses and limitations. We are not stuck with our addictions and routines. We are not stuck with trying to make it on our own or with the boring and senseless ways of a world still in the dark. We have hope. We have promise. We have confidence. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is the glory of the Kingdom of Jesus the Messiah. When you start over by faith in Christ, you start to live in his Kingdom, in God’s culture. So you have the possibility for shedding your guilt and condemnation and becoming the person God created you to be – his image, his child, his partner. You have the possibility for letting go of your self-centeredness and taking up a life of genuine love. You can break out of your fear and self-protection and live in freedom and joy. When you start over in the Kingdom of God your marriage and family can be shaped by God’s kind of goodness and rightness and most of all by God’s kind of love. Even your job and your school and your daily responsibilities can have holy, transcendent purposes. Your decisions can be chances to receive God’s wisdom and guidance. In the Kingdom, your struggles and challenges and needs can be opportunities to experience God’s presence, love, power, provision, and blessing. There is hope.
Not by obeying the Law and the traditions of the previous (and current) generations. You will not see the Kingdom in a religion that bases God’s relationship with humanity on Law. You cannot become more acceptable and pleasing to God by keeping commandments. You cannot become qualified or stay qualified for God’s favor by living up to anyone’s moral or religious expectations. I hope that lets you breathe easy, relax, be still, rest. God already loves you to the point that he sent his Son in the flesh into the world to die for you with your evil so you can start over in his Kingdom. That is yours now and forever. You just need to believe in the Son – trust him, depend on him, rely on him, lean into him. Believe enough to come out of the dark into his light.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a monk who tried desperately to be good enough for God. He confessed his sins repeatedly, taught theology, and diligently followed the rules. Yet he lived in terror and despair and had begun to hate the God who seemed to demand the impossible. Finally, one day, reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, specifically chapter 1, verse 17, Luther’s whole world changed. He explained what happened: “I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”
Footnotes
1 Our English words “believe” and “faith” are used to translate different forms of the same word in the Greek language in which the New Testament was written. Basically, “believe” is the verb form and “faith” is the noun form. (In the Gospel of John, only the verb is used; believing is something you do.) There is no difference in meaning. “Faith” equals “believe.” If you get on an airplane and believe that it will actually fly through the air and arrive safely at your destination, you are boarding the plane by faith.
2 Dictionary.com
]]>Gospel of John, Chapter 3
Dwelling among us, the Word met and interacted with real people. Often, Jesus spoke with individuals one-on-one and communicated the message each needed to hear. John tells about one of those conversations in chapter 3, verses 1-21. A man named Nicodemus sought Jesus out to talk with him.
I suppose this is one of the most well-known sections in the Bible, parts of it anyway. Everyone knows John 3:16. Everyone has heard about being “born again.” Consider that you have not actually heard everything that is in this conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. You may not have heard enough.
The first thing John tells us about Nicodemus: he was a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Over a couple of centuries the Pharisees had developed into the most influential sect in the Jewish way of life. They were looked upon as the most accurate interpreters of the Law of God, the Torah, so they wielded great authority over the people’s beliefs and behaviors. The Pharisees were so concerned about meticulously obeying the Law that they added the traditions of the elders to the Law itself. This was a body of interpretations and applications of the Law of God that had been handed down from generation to generation. These add-on traditions served as a hedge around the actual Scriptural Law, so if you obeyed the traditions you would have no trouble adhering to the Law. It would be something like parents today requiring their teenage son to drive the car never faster than 20 miles per hour so he would never break the state speeding laws. If you adhere to the tradition you will obey the Law for sure. Every area of daily life was regulated. The Pharisees believed that a person who successfully obeyed the traditions and the Law would be a good person, so would be blessed by God and would experience “resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24).
The Pharisees, I think, would agree with the idea that the relationship of God and humanity is built on Law. It is the idea, as stated by one Christian theologian, that Law is the backbone, the framework, the granite foundation of the spiritual world. This would mean that God’s primary expectation of us is that we obey his commandments, with the result being we merit his favor. “Perform correctly,” the God of Law would say, “and I am pleased.” But, I contend, Law is not the primary way God relates to us. It is not the foundation of life as God conceived it in the beginning. Obedience is important but it’s not the principal way for humans to deserve God’s blessing. In Eden the Lord gave only one directive to the first humans (Genesis 2:16-17). It was not actually a moral or ethical or even religious command. My paraphrase: the LORD God told the man, “See that one tree. It’s dangerous. Don’t eat its fruit.” In Eden we do not see a Lawgiver handing down a litany of strict behavioral requirements for his subjects. We see a Father caring enough for his children to instruct them about safe limits for their behavior. But by the time the Word became flesh, the most influential worldview in Israel was the necessity of keeping the Law and following the traditions of previous Law-keepers.
Nicodemus saw life that way. He was a Pharisee. Most likely for his entire life he had been meticulously adhering to the Law and the traditions. He believed he qualified as a good person. He believed he was earning God’s favor. He believed he was acceptable. He believed he was an insider. Because he was a Law-keeper. But now, he must have been questioning, to some extent, that way of life. He heard about Jesus and went to him – alone, one on one, face to face.
John tells us that Nicodemus went to see Jesus “at night.” That little tidbit is important. In fact, sixteen chapters later John still described Nicodemus as the man who visited Jesus at night (John 19:39). You might say this is another “sign.” I think John is telling us that Nicodemus was in the dark. There are things he cannot see. Things he cannot understand. Things he cannot bring into focus. He must have been sensing, to some degree at least, that there was more than Law and traditions to this God and life stuff, but he did not know what they were or how he could access them. Maybe he was feeling that he did not have that connection with God, that assurance of being right with God, which the Law was supposed to provide, but he could not see how to get past all the regulations and customs. In the dark. No doubt about that.
Look how he begins the conversation that night: “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him” (verse 2). Nicodemus is aware that Jesus in some way hails from God. He knows something about Jesus’ work – his teaching and working miracles – but he does not really understand it; he has not been able to make a personal connection with it. He sounds very official – after all, he is a member of the ruling council. See how he speaks: “we know” this and that – not “I know” – it is not personal for him. He is being very logical – Jesus’ miracles are obviously signs that he is doing God’s work. Nicodemus knows the right things about Jesus, but it is all very shallow. He has knowledge without experience and understanding. He still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. Nicodemus is in the dark, but he is searching for the light. He seems to be willing for a light to shine.
He does not fully understand it, but he has approached the one who is the light of the world (John 8:12). Nicodemus has come to the one who is teeming with grace and truth. Grace, not Law. Truth, not darkness.
Jesus interrupts Nicodemus’ speech. The Word has something to say. It’s time to get real. Jesus butts in and tells him, “Let’s cut to the chase, Nic. Here’s the bottom line: you’re not going to see the kingdom of God unless you’re born again.”
The kingdom of God. That means God’s work in you and your part in his work; it means God ruling over your life and changing it; it means living in a faith and love relationship with God. The kingdom is the culture consisting of the things of God which influence, motivate, and support new life and new living. It is the system of God’s Spirit and God’s word and God’s purposes and God’s mission and God’s resources shaping how you live. It is where corrupted and killed images of God get restored. It is where disease gets healed, suffering gets mastered, death gets overcome, and Satan gets defeated. The kingdom is where greatness is measured in terms of humility, reconciliation, mercy, and forgiveness. It is the environment of righteousness, peace, joy, and power. It is where morality and ethics and justice and goodness and beauty thrive. It is where the royal law is love. It is where all things are possible with God. It is the system that will replace all other systems and there will be no end to it. The kingdom is God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven forever.
And the kingdom of God is intense. It is an invasion against everything our self-centered nature holds precious. It is an attack on our idolatry and paganism. It is an assault on our failure to love God and our unwillingness to trust him completely. It is a raid against how we waste our lives on petty projects and irrelevant activities. It is a ransacking of our using and abusing other people for our benefit. When you see God’s Kingdom, be ready for his love to be so passionate that he will not be satisfied until he burns away everything that keeps your heart from being meshed with his, and you become whole and holy.
Sounds exactly like what you need, Nic. But you’re not going to see that kingdom, you’re not going to experience any of that unless you’re born again. You have to go back to the drawing board. You have to reboot. You have to start life all over.
Nicodemus – still in the dark – does not get it. It does not make sense to him. He knows enough biology to understand that a person cannot be physically born all over again. So Jesus explains. He is not talking about a physical rebirth; no, you do not become a baby in your mom’s womb again. This is not biological. This is not something that science can discover or explain or make happen. This is a spiritual thing. You start over inside, within yourself, in your heart, in your spirit. You reboot your beliefs and ideas and feelings and values. The core of it is that God’s Spirit does something in you. The Spirit makes the rebirth happen. The Spirit takes you back so you can start over; you get a do-over but this time you are part of God’s Kingdom.
You do not do it yourself. You don’t obey the Law of God better. You don’t get more education or exercise more willpower or go through more therapy. You don’t meditate or medicate to make it happen. You don’t add something to what you already have. You don’t add religion to your current way of living. You don’t add faith onto all your present characteristics and interests. You don’t add Christianity to the beliefs and values that you are already living by. No, you don’t do more or add more to what you have. You become born again; you start over. The Holy Spirit takes you back to nothing and makes you a new person in God’s kingdom. God put it this way, speaking through his prophet, in Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you…”
Nicodemus wants that. He has spent his whole life trying to get it through Law-keeping. It does not seem to be working. He wants it but does not know how to get it. “How can this be?” he asks Jesus. How can I be born again? What does it take for me to start over? What button do I push to reboot? Yes, he is in the dark. He sees something of God’s kingdom, but he does not know how to get there.
Ever been there? You can see something of what God wants, but you do not know how to make it happen. Oh, yeah, still in the dark. I have been there many times.
All I can say is do what Nicodemus did – ask. Ask for help. Ask for direction. Ask for clarity. Ask for light. Ask God. Then listen. You can’t see in the dark but you can hear if you listen. I have noticed that in the gospels people do not go on and on telling Jesus what is wrong and what they need and what he should do for them. They do not beg, sweet-talk, plead, and reason with him. By far, Jesus the Word does most of the talking. People ask then Jesus answers – sometimes very long and detailed answers. So we have to listen – more listening than discussing; more paying attention than figuring it out. Ask, listen, then wait, for as long as it takes, for the answer.
Jesus told Nicodemus the answer. How can you be born again, start over? Here’s how.
Jesus came from Heaven and was “lifted up” (verses 13-14). He is talking about the cross. Jesus was lifted up on the cross and died with the sin of the world – all people in all places at all times. Anyone who believes in him will have eternal life. Please understand that eternal life is more than existing forever. It is more than dwelling in a far-off Heaven forevermore. As the time was approaching for Jesus to be put on that cross and die, he prayed extensively. He began with this: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:1-3). Eternal life is the gift of knowing God, living in fellowship – in connection – in relationship – with your Creator, the way it was in the beginning. To be sure, that can look different for different people. There are many features of that relationship which all believers have in common, but there are differences as well. Some persons seem to have a more intimate fellowship with God than others. I do not really know how to explain that except to say we are all different; individuals are not all the same, and God relates to us the way we actually are and with his own understanding and purpose for us. That is okay. The point is that each person can be born again, can start over because Jesus died with the sin of the world and so made it possible for the relationship with God to be restored.
God sent his Son in love for that to happen. Through Jesus, God pulls us to himself instead of pushing us away. If you believe in Jesus, he will give you eternal life: take you into his kingdom, put a new heart in you, bring you into fellowship with God. John also wrote about this in his first letter, saying, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…” (1 John 5:1).
“For God so loved the world” (verse 16). The relationship of God and humanity is not built on Law, but on Love. God’s primary way of relating to humans is Love. Going back to the beginning, to the first humans, everything God did provided some kind of benefit, some kind of blessing for them. He brought them into existence – he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). He put them in an environment that was “pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). He assigned to them a meaningful purpose – he “put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). He created them male and female as loving and supportive partners to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Here is the caring, compassionate Father looking out for his children in everything.
And after his children rebelled against him and joined the ranks of the enemy and corrupted the Lord’s good creation (Genesis 3:4-6) God kept on loving. He loved to the point that he “gave his Son.” John wants us to know for certain that God’s action has never been against us. He explains: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (verse 17). The Word became flesh and lived among us, not to pronounce God’s disapproval and punishment, but to rescue and set free his wayward children and, in fact, his entire creation. God’s mind-set toward and his approach to relating with humanity is predicated on Love. Always has been, always will be.
TO BE CONTINUED
]]>When I was one of the boys
I needed to make a choice
Scared of Hell, I didn’t want to burn
I made the choice, said yes to the Savior
Got my ticket out and felt much safer
So did others and the pastor assembled us to learn
He said we should be baptized the Biblical way
Be assured immersion doesn’t save
But shows we believe Jesus is the way
The rite expresses doing right, following the order
Advised, authorized, mesmerized I was baptized
I was just a kid, pint-sized, undersized
So I was baptized in shallow water
I heard there is a current powerfully flowing
Deep, wide, sound, profound
Prophet Zeke at the temple
Saw the river flowing, growing
Trickle swelling to a mighty stream ungentle
Where that river courses life abounds
Messiah Jesus teaching in a boat
Rocking gently in the shoal
He commanded put out into the deep
Caught so many fish the net began to breach
His followers astounded, feeling drowned
You’ll do more – in the deep life abounds
Big river, deep lake, my faith so much smaller
Minimized, capsulized, bite-sized
My understanding was strictly standardized
Like I was baptized in shallow water
Now I must tell you what I mean
This I’ve heard, not sure I’ve seen
There were some people, first to believe
When Jesus invited, come follow me
Baptism was more, deeper within
Repent, forgiven
Holy Spirit, Kingdom
Healed, new like the wineskin
Wider than a rite
Deeper than a sign
Diving into the undertow of Christ’s dying
Buried, buried, pulled to the bottom with him
Rising, rising, emerging into new life in him
Wholly, totally engulfed in Christ, self-denying
Wider than following a regulation
Deeper than keeping an obligation
Calling, faith, surrender, hope
Immersed in God the one…
…Over all
…Through all
…In all
Plunged into his completeness
Carried down the river to their wholeness
Transformed into his image, identifying
This they lived, taught, lay on the altar
Spiritized, revolutionized
Their souls inwardly radicalized
Like they were baptized in deeper water
Their Teacher spoke with authority and depth
Realities from God astonishingly epic
Then he said the Spirit will come to you
He’ll guide you into all the truth
It happened, beyond anything they had imagined
The Spirit flooded in like a fiery tidal wave
Hearts and minds filled with Holy God, inundated
Not incinerated
Irrigated, invigorated, generated
With Living Water rushing to their stifled brains
Willing to hear, adjusting, coming wide awake
In years following truth emerged in a deluge
Refining, replacing things they knew
Doctrines, prophecies, and commands
Breaking through temporary dams
They studied Scripture and prayed
Listened to the Spirit and obeyed
Truth, knowledge, wisdom cascade
Revelation, explanation, comprehension
Out of the shadows into reality
Living daily in God’s certainty
Knowing the Kingdom has made its entrance
Seeing clearly his eternal intention
They learned to live by a power intense
Compassion for enemies and friends
Love deep as the Mariana Trench
Believing was not a little matter
Everything by the Master reordered
Till they had the mind of Christ
Vitalized, energized, synergized
They were baptized in deeper water
Heard something and think it may be true
“Most people have not escaped high school”
Thirty, ninety years alive
Saying “teens were the best years of life”
I get it, I know what’s up
Teen fun, teen dreams, teen lust, teen schemes
Teen angst, teen screams, teen fear, teen memes
Never growing up
I look around – out there, in here
We Christians cruise in the same gear
Not hearing the words of the apostle
He didn’t pour syrup, didn’t waffle
He said it clear
“You’re slow to learn” –
Still sucking on a bottle
Understanding nursery terms
Can’t take solid food
Still babies in a wading pool
Playing on a teeter-totter
Minimized, infantized, moisturized
Like you got baptized in shallow water
Ignoring millennia of God’s oceanic operation
Like the Bible was written four days ago
And a few miles down the road
What it says brings relaxation
Promises heavenly destination
Sticks with my denomination
Sunday School stories
Quick Bible inventories
Repetition, affirmation
Of previous information
Vaccination, inoculation
Preventing serious revelation
Pause a few precious moments
On the verse of the day
Got a spiritual quotient
Going out to play
Wading the shallows couldn’t be nicer
Things go wrong, turn to specializers
Master plumbers, expert crafters
Consultants, technicians, finance advisors
But if it’s divine and holy truth –
God’s mystery shown in history
Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew
Eden, Israel, New Creation, Kingdom
ANE cultures, Egypt, Babylon, Rome
Angels, gods, forces in the heavenly realm
Creation, Corruption, Incarnation, Redemption
Anthropology, Christology, Pneumatology
Deny self, take up your cross, follow
God’s images, his progeny, generating synergy
Yet the world’s burning in abuse, suffering, death –
Plain, simple, easy to swallow
I know this stuff all by myself
Don’t need historian, theologian, scholar
Childlike faith, pure and simple
Smooth religion without a wrinkle
Bible sayings for inspiration
Scripture is my magic incantation
“Growing in the knowledge of God” – don’t bother
Trivialized, sentimentalized, emotionalized
We got baptized in shallow water
Please don’t take what I’ve said as put down
I don’t mean it to be a knockdown
Well, maybe I’m throwing cold water
In your face, just hoping we all awake
And feel our desert squalor
Because there’s a lot at stake
We’re happy with wading-pool lifeguards
Making discipleship safe and secure
In place of scuba instructors
Taking us on deep-water adventure
We’ve been told not to leave known water
If you do you’re gonna falter
Sharks, rays, ocean predator
Hunting for you in the deep water
So stay here where we know for sure
Reformers distilled our doctrine pure
End-timers charted our final grand tour
And God’s children stay immature
Don’t make waves, God will get you through
But, teachers, recall James’ principle:
You are accountable, responsible,
What you say when you instruct
Will be carefully, strictly judged
And Paul reveals your mission possible:
Prepare the people, build them up
In faith and knowledge fill them up
They must attain the fullness of Christ
So search and uncover the unfathomed truth
More than slogans picked up in youth
Infants need to grow up
To be full-fledged adults in Christ
So here’s my challenge to all of us:
Receive the Spirit’s offer to us
He reveals what God is giving us
Shows us the depth of life with our Father
Maximized, full-sized, God-sized
Maybe surprised and scandalized
Push out of the shallow water
Dive right out of the boat
It’s okay if you can’t float
Be a disciple, apprentice, explorer
Discover knowledge and wisdom broader
In hearts and spirits and minds
Let’s get baptized in deeper water
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