One In Jesus

We are familiar with the countless passages that urge Christians to be one with each other, but we’re uncomfortable when the text urges us to become one with God. After all, God is just too big, too powerful, too other …

And yet there is clearly a sense in which such unity is urged as one of God’s purposes in saving us through Jesus.

The thought is implicit in more familiar images. We Christians are the body of Christ — making us, in some sense, one person. The church is the bride of Christ — which surely implies a unity comparable to the “one flesh” unity of husbands and wives described in Genesis 2. Continue reading →

The word sin means literally “missing the mark.” It means the failure to be what one should be and to do what one should do.

Originally man was made to be the created image of God, to live in union with God’s divine life, and to rule over all creation. Man’s failure in this task is his sin which has also been called his fall.

Notice the subtle distinction. In Western theology, Adam and Eve sinned because they broke a law. The Orthodox, however, say they sinned because they failed to be like God. All agree that sin is to miss the mark. It’s just a question of what the mark is.

Of course, there is much common ground here if the law is that we should be like God. However, if we see sin as being about obedience to arbitrary commands issued to test our willingness to obey, we are very far apart indeed.

What does the Bible say?

(Rom 8:29-30 ESV) ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God cosmic purpose in Creation and redemption, Paul says, is that Christians “be conformed to the image of his Son.” “Image” translates eikon, the same word used in Genesis 1 of God’s image, and it’s unmistakable that Paul is referring to Genesis in this passage.

Indeed, God, through his Spirit, works to transform us into his image —

(2Co 3:18 ESV) ¹⁸ And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

(Col 3:9-10 ESV)  ⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices  ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The same theme is sometimes expressed in terms of union with God —

(John 17:20-23 ESV)  ²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

(1Co 6:17 NAS)  ¹⁷ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

(2Pe 1:2-4 NAS)  ² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;  ³ seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  ⁴ For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

(1Jo 3:2-3 ESV)  ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

There is a sense in which Christians are to become united with God.

However, we have to also consider such verses as —

(1Jo 3:4 ESV) Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

The verse has a bit more punch in the KJV —

(1Jo 3:4 KJV) Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

(The ESV is truer to the Greek.) In the KJV, John seems to be defining “sin” as violating “the law.” The translators of the NET Bible explain the Greek well —

The Greek word (anomia) is often translated “iniquity” or “lawlessness” and in the LXX refers particularly to transgression of the law of Moses. In Jewish thought the ideas of sin (hamartia) and lawlessness or iniquity (anomia) were often equated because sin involved a violation of the Mosaic law and hence lawlessness. For example, Psa 51:5 LXX sets the two in parallel, and Paul in Rom 4:7 (quoting Psa 32:1) does the same. For the author, it is not violation of the Mosaic law that results in lawlessness, since he is writing to Christians. The ‘law’ for the author is the law of love, as given by Jesus in the new commandment of John 13:34-35. This is the command to love one’s brother, a major theme of 1 John and the one specific sin in the entire letter which the opponents are charged with (1Jo 3:17). Since the author has already labeled the opponents “antichrists” in 1Jo 2:18, it may well be that he sees in their iniquitous behavior of withdrawing from the community and refusing to love the brethren a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic iniquity of the end times (cf. 2Th 2:3-8). In Mat 24:11-12 Jesus foretold that false prophets would arise in the end times (cf. 1Jo 4:1), that lawlessness (anomia) would increase, and that “the love of many will grow cold” (which would certainly fit the author’s portrait of the opponents here).

Hence, John is not saying that sin is violating a set of arbitrary rules or an elaborately constructed ecclesiology. Rather, he is saying that sin is a failure to love as should, and he later explains that we should love as Jesus loves. We see John’s theology clearly in such verses as —

(1Jo 3:2-3 ESV)  ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

This hits the theme exactly. We are called to become more and more like God, and we’ll become very much like him in the afterlife because “we shall see him as he is.” But the process begins long before the Second Coming because we are to purify ourselves as we commit to become like God.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that we are to love as Jesus loved —

(1Jo 3:16 ESV)  ¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Jesus is our example and hence the exemplar of the “law” that defines what is and isn’t sin. And this conclusion is well supported by such passages as —

(1Jo 4:16-17 ESV)  ¹⁶ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  ¹⁷ By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

If God is love, then to become like God is to love as God loves — which is to love as Jesus loves. It all fits together.

(Rom 13:8-10 ESV)  ⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

(Gal 5:6 ESV)  ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

(Gal 5:14 ESV)  ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We refuse to accept these simple truths because, well, we want Christianity to be complicated. We want lots and lots of rules that we can master and that will separate us from other Christians. We want to feel superior thanks to our superior knowledge of and obedience to rules.

You see, no one can feel justified by a standard that says “imitate God” or “love as Jesus loves.” It’s too high and too hard. Such rules force us to rely on grace and prevent us from feeling holier than thou — and we love to feel holier than thou.

In fact, one reason Christianity so struggles to be attractive to the lost is our legalism — arising both from those who seek to impose arbitrary rules as tests of salvation and those who seek to do acts of righteousness to be lauded for their holiness. Both are forms of Pharisaism and both are extraordinarily unattractive — proving how very un-Christlike both attitudes can be.

But to seek to imitate God by following the example of Jesus, well, that would change the world.

As I mentioned several posts ago, I want to reflect on an understanding of the Creation found in Orthodoxy that sheds light on the nature of our atonement — that is, which sheds light on the gospel.

My primary source is Orthodox Handbook Series Vol 1 by Thomas Hopko, posted at the Orthodox Church of America website.

He reflects on the fact that man is made in God’s image —

As the image of God, ruler over creation and co-creator with the Uncreated Maker, man has the task to “reflect” God in creation; to make His presence, His will and His powers spread throughout the universe; to transform all that exists into the paradise of God. In this sense man is definitely created for a destiny higher than the bodiless powers of heaven, the angels. …

[T]o bear the image of God is to be like Christ, the uncreated Image of God, and to share in all of the spiritual attributes of divinity. It is, in the words of the holy fathers, to become by divine grace all that God Himself is by nature. If God is a free, spiritual, personal Being, so human beings, male and female, are to be the same. If God is so powerful and creative, having dominion over all creation, so human creatures, made in His image and according to His likeness, are also to exercise dominion in the world. If God exercises dominion and authority not by tyranny and oppression, but by loving kindness and service, so are His creatures to do likewise. If God Himself is love, mercy, compassion and care in all things, so must His creatures, made to be like Him, also be the same. And finally, if God lives forever in eternal life, never dying, but always existing in perfectly joyful and harmonious beauty and happiness with all of creation, so too are human beings made for everlasting life in joyful and harmonious communion with God and the whole of creation.

Powerful stuff. We Protestants aren’t accustomed to speak of man as being like God. We usually think of God as too holy, too distant, too powerful for this. We cannot imagine trying to be like God. And, of course, there’s some real truth to how very far above mere man God is.

However, we are taught —

(Eph 5:1-2 ESV) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

V. 1 is pretty plain. We Christians are to imitate God. And I think Hopko expresses it well. We obviously don’t imitate God by being omnipotent or omnipresent, but we do imitate his character and even, in a sense, his role in the universe. After all, we are his emissaries
— his representatives — his priests to represent him to those in the world who don’t know him.

Human nature, therefore, is created by God to grow and develop through participation in the nature of God for all eternity. Man is made to become ever more Godlike forever, even in the Kingdom of God at the end of this age, when Christ will come again in glory to raise the dead and give life to those who love Him.

At first glance, this seems a little much — over-reading the evidence, even. But we know from the Revelation that in the afterlife our role will be to worship and serve God. And we become like what we worship.

Those who worship a legalistic God who is stingy with his forgiveness and unloving in his judgments tend to become just like that. Those who worship a God of grace who gives of himself without regard to merit become like that as well. Therefore, it’s easy to imagine that when we’re with God in the new heavens and new earth, seeing him face to face, we’ll know him far better than we do now and so be drawn to become more and more like him in eternity.

And all this especially makes sense when we recall that we’re made in the image and likeness of God. Of course, we are to imitate God! How else could we be his image?

And if the Creation is God’s temple, and we are God’s image in that temple, what could be more central to our purpose than for others to be able to look at us and see God?

(1Co 11:1 ESV) Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

(1Th 1:6-7 ESV)  ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,  ⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

It’s an unfamiliar doctrine, but one plainly taught in the Scriptures: Christians are called to serve God as priest-kings of the Creation.

In so doing, we take on the role originally given Adam and Eve and lost to them through sin. And so we help draw heaven and earth, man and God closer to together. We help bring the Kingdom to its fullness. Continue reading →

We’ve referenced science a few times in the previous posts. Even though this isn’t a series on Christian evidences, it’s still important that we place science in the right framework in light of the Creation.

Here are a couple of verses to ponder –

(Rom 1:20)  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Continue reading →

If we think of the Creation as God’s temple — a temple polluted by sin that’s in the process of being restored — we can’t help but see implications for environmentalism.

Now, it’s a sad, sad commentary on the contemporary church that our views on the environment — on God’s handiwork
— are often set more by the political platforms of the Republican and Democratic Parties than the Bible.

Therefore, as we enter this study, you have to set aside all thoughts of Rush Limbaugh, Al Gore, and such. This simply isn’t about which party is right. Indeed, American Christians are all too ready to sell their churches into slavery, to become a special interest group within one party or the other, all in hopes that the next presidential election will bring redemption and salvation. Continue reading →

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense is a marvelous book by N. T. Wright. He introduces the idea that the Bible can be read as God’s work to unite heaven and earth.

In Eden, the two were very close together indeed — so close that God himself walked among men and that death itself was banished from the Garden.

But sin entered the world and not only separated God from man, it separated heaven from earth. Continue reading →

The Revelation picks up these Creation themes of Adam and Eve as priests and kings. Of course, at the end of time, it will be God’s children who serve in their place.

(Rev 1:4-6 ESV) ⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Continue reading →

Among Protestant churches, the idea of Christians as God’s priests is a very undeveloped idea. In fact, about the only conclusion we generally draw from the idea is that we are free to read the Bible for ourselves.

And while that’s certainly true, that’s surely not the primary thought God had when he taught his children to be priests.

Let’s look a little deeper. Continue reading →

(Gen 1:26-27 NAS) 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in  Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of  the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all  the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  27  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;  male and female He created them.

(Gen 1:28 ESV) And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28 ESV)

The word translated “rule” and “have dominion” is radah, and it’s the word used for the rule of king or of a nation over another.  Continue reading →