GOD IS IS NOT CAPTURED IN CHURCHES. HE IS WITH YOU AND LIVES IN YOU
24/11/24 13:55
“Theosis is the belief that Christians can experience a union with God and become like him so much that they participate in the divine nature.” This is a workable definition of theosis. This is what Paul meant by Christ our life and what John meant when wrote of Christ come in our flesh. The reason why we are not living the Old Testament in the post cross age is that Christ has woven you into God and God into you in His Person. It is Jesus who is our participation in the divine nature. Not your adherence to a list or your earing it by law-keeping/ merit.
Spirituality is not a mental construct. It’s Christ as you.
JOHN 14.20
‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’ For many this can be this day. Realising this, is the start of the born again life in which one leaves behind the old adamic/mosaic self to live in the real self which is you as you and us in Christ. We are talking the incarnated life – an infinite advance over life in the law. Contained in the. Law, we may be part of the Christian Church, but we do not represent the Kingdom Jesus began. Galatians 2.21 defines whether we are part of the Christian Church or an off-shoot.
COMMON RELIGIOSITY
In My childhood and youth, we were taught that we can participate in the divine nature by adhering to the law. Sadly, this is akin to teaching that we find union with God in the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. It negates the cross and prevents life in the Spirit. Law-moralism – religion insulates us from that which is ours: Union with God. To get the fruits of the Spirit we do not start with them. We agree with Christ that we are one with Him and we manifest them – because He is our life.
GOD IS NOT POSITIONS/WORDS
The law is not the expression of God. Trinity is God. God is not an abstraction, and the Word is the Person of Christ. A careful reading of the scriptures reveals that it is Jesus Christ who is the expression of God. Also, Jesus is the expression of who you and I actually are. It is Jesus and not the law who is the mirror of us and Jesus who is woven into us by the Spirit who is becoming us. “Christ defines the goodness of humanity, and he also delimits the evil and brokenness of humanity. The implications are somewhat startling: every single human being exists in the human being of Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God.” (1) This is how Christ is your life and how you are becoming the true you of your creation and redemption.
INCARNATION
It is Jesus and not the law who becomes us. The meaning of the Lord’s Table where the bread and wine become our very person is the metaphor of the reality that is the incarnation. We have become one with Christ and He is manifesting in our spirit, soul and body in daily life.
THE WAY
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life because He is fully God and the expression of who God is to human beings. Jesus is the true expression of you. Briefly speaking the trinity may be described as the communion of love, life, individuality and community. Because Christ is our life as Paul says, He imbues us with this life and more. In Jesus the trinity make their home in us so that we really do participate as sons of God in the divine nature.
Our union with God is direct – mediated by Christ who weaves Himself into our being. This is life in the Spirit.*
AT HOME IN US
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them John 14.23 NIV. There is an advantage in adhering to Jesus’ teaching and not amending it to suit our personal notions or cultural beliefs.
It may appear that theosis is akin to sanctification. Not if we think of sanctification as bringing ourselves into harmony with God by stint of effort and pious discipline. Yet if our discipline is the practice of ‘being incarnated,’ in other words, living in the gift of Christ’s indwelling by the Spirit, then we will be maintaining our salvation with fear and trembling. Law-basd Christianity is religion. But it is not spirituality.
MEDIATED
Myk Habets observes that, “Torrance sees a direct communion [with God] without mediating causes. The same idea is presented or reclaimed by Calvin when he writes that ‘all nature, and the gifts and endowments of man, depend for their being upon the immediate agency of God through His Spirit and His Word.”
DIRECTLY
Healing, wholeness and holiness are mediated directly to our being by the ‘immediate agency’ of Christ in us. This is life in the Spirit which is life in God and ultimately God’s life as us – theosis. The spirit of sonship manifests in our flesh in everyday life. Don’t stifle it by enclosing it in religious boxes.
* It’s difficult to get a grip on life in the Spirit when your law-based epistemology defines godliness as the behaviours of the law.
(1) McSwain, Jeff. Simul Sanctification: Barth’s Hidden Vision for Human Transformation (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 232) (p. 4). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Spirituality is not a mental construct. It’s Christ as you.
JOHN 14.20
‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’ For many this can be this day. Realising this, is the start of the born again life in which one leaves behind the old adamic/mosaic self to live in the real self which is you as you and us in Christ. We are talking the incarnated life – an infinite advance over life in the law. Contained in the. Law, we may be part of the Christian Church, but we do not represent the Kingdom Jesus began. Galatians 2.21 defines whether we are part of the Christian Church or an off-shoot.
COMMON RELIGIOSITY
In My childhood and youth, we were taught that we can participate in the divine nature by adhering to the law. Sadly, this is akin to teaching that we find union with God in the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. It negates the cross and prevents life in the Spirit. Law-moralism – religion insulates us from that which is ours: Union with God. To get the fruits of the Spirit we do not start with them. We agree with Christ that we are one with Him and we manifest them – because He is our life.
GOD IS NOT POSITIONS/WORDS
The law is not the expression of God. Trinity is God. God is not an abstraction, and the Word is the Person of Christ. A careful reading of the scriptures reveals that it is Jesus Christ who is the expression of God. Also, Jesus is the expression of who you and I actually are. It is Jesus and not the law who is the mirror of us and Jesus who is woven into us by the Spirit who is becoming us. “Christ defines the goodness of humanity, and he also delimits the evil and brokenness of humanity. The implications are somewhat startling: every single human being exists in the human being of Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God.” (1) This is how Christ is your life and how you are becoming the true you of your creation and redemption.
INCARNATION
It is Jesus and not the law who becomes us. The meaning of the Lord’s Table where the bread and wine become our very person is the metaphor of the reality that is the incarnation. We have become one with Christ and He is manifesting in our spirit, soul and body in daily life.
THE WAY
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life because He is fully God and the expression of who God is to human beings. Jesus is the true expression of you. Briefly speaking the trinity may be described as the communion of love, life, individuality and community. Because Christ is our life as Paul says, He imbues us with this life and more. In Jesus the trinity make their home in us so that we really do participate as sons of God in the divine nature.
Our union with God is direct – mediated by Christ who weaves Himself into our being. This is life in the Spirit.*
AT HOME IN US
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them John 14.23 NIV. There is an advantage in adhering to Jesus’ teaching and not amending it to suit our personal notions or cultural beliefs.
It may appear that theosis is akin to sanctification. Not if we think of sanctification as bringing ourselves into harmony with God by stint of effort and pious discipline. Yet if our discipline is the practice of ‘being incarnated,’ in other words, living in the gift of Christ’s indwelling by the Spirit, then we will be maintaining our salvation with fear and trembling. Law-basd Christianity is religion. But it is not spirituality.
MEDIATED
Myk Habets observes that, “Torrance sees a direct communion [with God] without mediating causes. The same idea is presented or reclaimed by Calvin when he writes that ‘all nature, and the gifts and endowments of man, depend for their being upon the immediate agency of God through His Spirit and His Word.”
DIRECTLY
Healing, wholeness and holiness are mediated directly to our being by the ‘immediate agency’ of Christ in us. This is life in the Spirit which is life in God and ultimately God’s life as us – theosis. The spirit of sonship manifests in our flesh in everyday life. Don’t stifle it by enclosing it in religious boxes.
* It’s difficult to get a grip on life in the Spirit when your law-based epistemology defines godliness as the behaviours of the law.
(1) McSwain, Jeff. Simul Sanctification: Barth’s Hidden Vision for Human Transformation (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 232) (p. 4). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
