My pastor, taking a cue from A.W. Tozer, always said how my view of God is of utmost importance. I held to his beliefs that all of God’s attributes were equally held as 100% concurrently (wrath, justice, mercy, love, etc.). It was forbidden to elevate one attribute above another. As I scratched my head, he added that it is a mystery our finite minds could not comprehend. The appeal to mystery hadn’t bothered me much being raised a Catholic (that I am much grateful for) because much of God’s ways were higher than ours and accepted as mystery.
When I read 1 John 4:8, and specifically reflected on the Parable of the Lost Son and viewing God through Jesus colored lenses- my doubts started. My doubts grew as I discovered this did not reflect an understanding of God, our Father, as the Ultimate Good. My thought process held to the tenet that God is, indeed, love. His essential characteristic is so evident in the Triune cosmic dance of self-giving Love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Before creation, it is this perfect union that existed. Wrath and justice were logically absent in this circular flow of love in the Trinitarian kenosis. I bring this point up not to abolish the justice, wrath, and holiness attributes but rather to highlight God’s essential attribute of love as evidenced in the God-man. All other attributes flow out of His divine attribute of love.
I uphold a God of restoration, and in the end, the God of consuming fire, lovingly (for, however “eons” it takes) to burn away the dross in all His creation so as to be “All in All.” Our Father shall bring all through this refining fire to and through His Son. A time, indeterminate on the degree of refinement needed, so as all shall bow their knee joyfully to Jesus Christ.
Can an earthly father love his children more than a Father of Love? If God is the ultimate Good how could He let even one of His be lost forever?
It is through this great revelation of our Father through Jesus Christ that I came to understand my impartial understanding of free will. Is the grace of God stronger to usurp my free choice to reject God? I see through a dark glass without full knowledge of the Truth. Does anyone, logically, know ALL truth entirely? If we did wouldn’t that put us in the realm of the Ultimate? But I have come to see, even if incompletely, the Truth ever so incrementally clearer that I have been set, also in stages, free.
“God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy, there may be opportunity to win it in the future.” – Martin Luther, Letter to Hanseu Von Rechenberg, 1522
Romans 11:29: For the gifts and calling of God are without attrition.
Romans 6:23: For the incomes of sin is fatality, yet the gift of God is immortality via Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8: For by poise are ye conserved with belief; which not of yourselves: it is the presence of God.
The Bible tells us that the gifts, as well as the calls of God, are without repentance. This is to say, that the presents and calling of God are not drawn away, withdrawn, or reversed towards himself who gave it – and also below I will certainly express that without attrition the ways of God are also “without a deadline, or expiration, or discontinuing to be, or canceled”. Fundamentally, God’s phone call never falls quiet, and neither are his grace-gifts withdrawn.
In Romans 6:23 we are informed that the gift of God is immortality, or “zoe aionios”, a “charisma” or grace-gift which is never ever withdrawn, and certainly, the word for a gift in Greek is “χάρισμα” which indicates “grace-gift” – this coincided word utilized for gifts in Romans 11:29 – these “grace-gifts” God will not revoke, nor repent of, neither terminate.
There is an extremely vital message in this knowable that we have to surely see, and that is that not only are the gifts of God not repented of, or terminated, however, the extreme calling of God is not repented of. The Greek word for “calling” is “klesis” which according to the Strong’s Concordance implies an invitation – Glory to the Highest in his infinite mercy, just as the gifts of God are not revoked neither is the invite to participate in His kingdom ever terminated!
It is below that we locate a Biblically defendable position for the concept that the possibility to get Salvation does not finish at death, as we are wont to think – due to the fact that the invitation to join the banquet, to take part in the grace-gift of eternal life, which comes only by salvation in Jesus Christ is never, ever, ever repented!
What is evangelicalism? The term has become so ubiquitous and opaque. The term connotates a universal distaste for many people and has rightly confused the many adherents to this religious movement. Evangelicals have become a mishmash of every Protestant denomination to include a straight ambiguous smattering of circular dogma to fit a square rendering of sacred Scriptures. The time is ripe for a counter-movement to right this drifting ship of dogmatic meanderings through inspired text. Remember, the Bible is an ancient, ambiguous, and diverse collection of texts pointing to Jesus Christ. Here, the Son upsets the apple cart of our view of God. God is Love. The Bible is a progressive revelation of our Father fully culminated in the person Jesus and fully revealed in the resurrection of the Universal Christ. Here, I would like to delineate from the sacred written text, which we call the leather-bound Bible to the original Bible of Creation we have had for billions of years. Jesus Christ is the Logos and the Word has been eternally present before Creation. Rooted in self-giving, the kenotic invitation to the Trinitarian divine dance has been unleashed for Creation to join the celebration. The eternal, Universal Christ present in all Creation was our original Bible- the Word ever-present in all creation. The written Word came after ages and in many circles has led to biblicism- a sacred book- held higher than the One it proclaims! On Mount Tabor (Transfiguration) there present was Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets) and Jesus (the God-Man). The Bible was conspicuously absent. And a loud voice (God) thundered, “Listen to Him!”. My Evangelical friends, woefully, have listened to only their “inerrant” Scripture. Jesus spoke, “You search the Scriptures for eternal life, but they testify to the one standing right in front of you”. Lest you believe I do not hold a high view of Scripture you would be incorrect. I hold, in totality, the Bible that has pointed to Christ before Creation existed. I am saddened by the distractions of hierarchy, politics, and power that have taken our eyes off the eternal Love that hounds and woos us to join the Cosmic Divine dance.
We begin a wonderful adventure. We start something brand-new. The promise is upon us. God will provide us something new. All we have to feature is cravings. We need to come anticipating as well as wanting something greater than what we have currently. We get what we anticipate from God. When we have new ears to hear with, God can talk a new word to us. When we no more anticipate anything brand-new or anything even more from God, for all practical objectives, we do not truly count on God. God currently intends to talk something new to us.
When we have an understanding of the fantastic styles of Scripture, the entire publication from Genesis to Revelation, we see it as interacting a magnificent pattern to humanity. One basic message finally interacts with all Spirit-filled individuals that enter this faith dialogue with the Scriptures. The message of “Good News” is this: You are enjoyed. You are distinct. You are totally free. You get on the means. You are going someplace. Your life has significance. That is all based on the experience and the expertise and the truth of the genuine love of God. This is what we indicate by being “saved.”
When we have new ears to hear with, God can speak a brand-new word to us. When we no longer anticipate anything new or anything more from God, for all practical objectives, we do not truly think in God. God, right now, desires to speak something brand-new to us. And we have the ears to hear merely by listening.
I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects…. To return to God means to return to God with all that I am and all that I have. I cannot return to God with just half of my being. As I reflected this morning again on the story of the prodigal son and tried to experience the embrace of the father myself, I suddenly felt a certain resistance to being embraced so fully and totally. I experienced not only a desire to be embraced but also a fear of losing my independence. I realized that God’s love is a jealous love. God wants not just a part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.
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