I want to give an overview of what I believe as a Christian. Like flying high over a land I love for a moment, instead of walking through the park. Whether this is your first time hearing, or you’ve known for years, it’s good to hear these reminders. (I’d usually prefer a walk through the park.)
We believe God created all things, and humanity was created to exist fully in a trusting relationship with God, abiding in all God provides as we walk with Him. Just as when a child forms a healthy attachment to their parents, we were created to trust in God to meet our needs and offer us our place of belonging. Our identity, even in how we relate vulnerably to one another, was fully resting in Him.
We became deceived, though, choosing not to trust in God as we’d heard whispers that maybe He was withholding something from us. We ate from the only fruit He had commanded us to avoid, which brought the doubt and distrust of our hearts out to tangibly impact the order and balance of His good physical creation. Not trusting Him fully, we lost a healthy sense of attachment and began to wander in our identities, inviting insecurity and a death of what God intended wherever we chose something against His ways. Often we use the word “Holy” to describe His ways, which is a very churchy way of saying “otherly” or “set apart”. His ways were uniquely different from ours, because they were rooted in fully trusting His Lordship and provision. In the book of Genesis, we see this as Adam and Eve realizing they were naked, and being ashamed. Our relationship with God, and with one another experienced a disconnection from the source of our life, and we’ve been struggling as humanity ever since. We believe God intended the fullness of life, and so choosing the death of what He intended often actually means “death” itself.
But God loves us too much to let us remain separated from Him, separated from the life and flourishing of creation He’d created us to enjoy. Even though His ways were “otherly” and “set apart” or “Holy”, these were the ways we were originally created for. Right away, he offered “coverings” to Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, which foreshadowed the way His New Creation Life would provide an everlasting covering over all that separated us from Him and from one another. Viewing the Old Testament covenant relationship between God & Israel as “parent/children”, humanity began to understand what it all meant. All the Old Testament points to the coming fulfillment of His redemption for all people/nations, which we see finally arriving in Jesus. Scripture calls Jesus “Immanuel”, which means “God with us.” Just like an adopted child building a new healthy attachment with their parents by spending time with them, God was redeeming us from living without a secure divine attachment. By entering into our lives tangibly, He was offering all of us a healing path of reconciled relationship that would undo all the separation caused by our past.
We believe that Jesus came and lived among us to reveal the Father’s Love, and to show us what it looked like when humanity was fully in relationship with the Triune God. Even though He was without sin (which is living in a way that denies our relationship with God), Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice – being put to death on the cross for being a threat against the Roman Empire (and ultimately against evil forces of empire in all realms). But His life was not only from this world, He was alive by the Holy Spirit, and so He was resurrected – the first “being” from a future New Creation where/when we believe God will bring complete healing and shalom to all things. Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the chains of death caused by sin, and invite us right now into an ongoing relationship that transforms everything. Jesus is a physically resurrected being, but when He went to be where the Father exists fully, He sent us the Holy Spirit to continue the work He had begun. The Holy Spirit brings the same life seen in Christ, and forms us together globally as a family who enters into New Creation Life together. Becoming fully attached in His Love, we are literally “born again” into a new identity that is discovered as we live out His redemptive purposes together. We are fully restored in relationship with God and one another, set free from the unhealthy patterns that came when others or we chose our own way instead of His. By the power of His Spirit which dwells in us, we literally join His Kingdom arriving/being revealed on earth as it is in heaven. As this happens, healing salvation arrives. We are “being saved/healed”, and we “will be saved” as it all comes together fully one day.
In the book of Revelation, we see mostly the current reality (not future predictions) revealed. (Apocalypse literally means “a revealing”.) Jesus (the resurrected crucified lamb) is on the throne already, worthy to unveil the will/purposes of God. Death/sin have been defeated and the forces of dis-ordered (evil, as God created all “order”) empire & death are in the midst of being cast out forever, which is a painful process at times. Even more painful at others, because there will be those who do not desire His ways of Life. His Love allows us this freedom. Some have built their entire identities as those opposed to the ways of God, so when presented with the full realities of His Lordship, they are “undone”, which can be intense suffering. Yet God’s children are faithful and preserved/encouraged through it all, in order to join His Spirit in bringing healing to the nations until all has been brought to completion. Toward the end of Revelation, we see a New Heaven and New Earth, which have been united like never before, and the place/point of their uniting has already begun wherever the Lordship of Jesus is revealed. As we enter further into eternity, we see our physical realm made even more “real/substantial” by the full unveiling of His spiritual realities.
As Christians, we do not wait to celebrate/live within such realities. By the Holy Spirit, we are made New Creations even now – living testimonies to the full reality that is to come.
Amen. (See Bible for more details.)
words from wick 