The Unorginate Father and the Begotten Son

For over 1,500 years the Church has spoken of the Father as “unorginate”, the Son as “begotten”, and the Holy Spirit as “proceeding” from the Father.

The meaning and use of these terms to describe the persons of the Trinity recently came up in an online class called “The Practice of Ministry” that I am teaching for Grace Communion Seminary. The questions about these terms came from our use of the book Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service by Stephen Seamands. In the book Seamands uses these terms to talk about who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and what that has to do with our ministries.

I thought many of you might be interested in peaking into our class discussion, so I decided to post some of what I had to say in today’s blog post.

Perhaps it will even whet your appetite to take one of the classes. For the spring semester, starting this January, I will be teaching Church History from 70 A.D. – 1054 A.D.

To understand how theology uses these words such as “unorginate” and “begotten” we have to go back to the early Church’s effort to remain faithful to the Bible and the teaching of the apostles regarding who Jesus is. The Bible describes Jesus as the “Word” who is God and was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2) now living in the flesh as a man (John 1:14). The teaching of the apostles, handed down along with the Biblical books, established that this language means that the Son (the Word) has no beginning in time. He is fully God and therefore eternal, without beginning or end.

This means that the Son has always been the Father’s Son.

The Father did not exist first and then bring the Son into existence. God has eternally, without a beginning point in time, been Triune. This was the issue that was settled at the Council of Nicea in 325.

The early Christians were searching for language to describe this eternal relationship between the persons of the Triune God. In their struggle they settled on the words “unorginate” and “begotten.” Perhaps we can even have faith to say that the Holy Spirit helped them choose these words.

To understand how these words were used we might think of this analogy:

Suppose three books are sitting on my desk: Book A, Book B, and Book C. If I wanted to I could describe the position of each book based on where it is in relation to the other two books. I could say “Book A is to the left of Book B.” Or I could say “Book B is between Book A and Book C.”

In describing who the persons of the Trinity are, the early Church took an approach that is similar to what I have just described with the books. They chose to describe each person of the Trinity in terms of who he is in relationship to the other persons. Why? Because there is nothing outside of, greater than, or other than God by which we can describe him. Since God is loving relationship as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the best way to describe each of the three persons is by describing who they are in relationship to each other.

So, who is God the Father? He is the person of God from whom the Son is beggotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds. Since the Father is not begotten of another person of the Trinity, nor does he proceed from another person of the Trinity, we can also describe him as the person of God who is “unbegotten” or “unoriginate.” Who is God the Son? He is the person of God who is begotten of the Father and through whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. Who is God the Holy Spirit? He is the person of God who proceeds from the Father through the Son. As Semands points out (p. 119), these two words (begotten and proceed) were taken by the early Christians directly from the Bible (John 1:14, 18, 15:26.)

Can you also see how these descriptions of the persons of the Trinity are relational?

The definition of the Father is based on his relationship to the Son and Spirit. The Son is defined in terms of his relationship to the Father and Spirit and the Spirit is defined in terms of his relationship the Father and Son.

In the same way that I might describe Book B based on its relationship to Book A by saying “Book B is to the right of Book A” so also I define the Son based on his relationship to the Father and the Spirit by saying that “the Son is begotten of the Father and the one through whom the Holy Spirit proceeds.”

But there is one very important difference between my analogy of the books and the Trinity.

We all know that there was a time when Books A, B, and C were not next to one another. First came the desk, then I acquired the books, and then I placed them on the desk in the order A, B, C. With regard to the Trinity there is no point in time in which the three persons began to relate to each other in the way they do. They have always been in this relationship with each other.

The Son has always, without a beginning in time, been begotten of the Father. The Father has always been the unbegotten one who begets the Son and the unorginate one from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. Understanding this “timelessness” is vital to understanding what the early Church meant when they said the Son is begotten and the Father is unbegotten. Orginally, in Greek, the word for “begotten” just meant “born at a particular time” the way a baby is born. But when the early Church took the word “begotten” and began to use it in theology to describe the Son they gave it a particular, technical, theological meaning. In Trinitarian theology “begotten” means “always born of the Father without a beginning point in time.”

So, when theologians use the word “begotten” they are not saying “the Father pre-existed the Son.” They are using the term in its theological sense. They are saying “the Son has always been the begotten Son of the Father and the Father has always been the one who has no begetter, that is, the Father has always been the unbegotten one or the unorginate one.” The Father and Son have always existed in a relationship with each other in which the Father begets the Son. And the Holy Spirit has always existed in a relationship in which he proceeds from the Father through the Son.

At this point you may be thinking “who cares?”

Well, if there was a time when the Father existed and then he brought the Son and Spirit into existence then the Son and Spirit are not fully God. They are creations of God. But the Bible makes it clear that the Son and Spirit are God. Also, if we say that there is no difference between the Father, Son, and Spirit – if we say, for example, that those are just three different ways God acts – then that is not Biblical either because the Bible says that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct. For example, the Son is distinctly and uniquely the one begotten of the Father and the Spirit is distinctly and uniquely the one who proceeds from the Father through the Son. These distinct differences must be taken into account in our description of God just as much as the communion that the three persons have as One God.

So, to have a Biblical description of God we need a description that says that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all One God together without losing the distinctive nature of each person of God. God is One because the Father, Son, and Spirit, never exist apart from each other. In fact, you cannot define who they are apart from each other. The only way we know the Father’s identity is by defining him in relationship to the Son and the Spirit. But the Oneness of God does not destroy the distinct character of the Three persons. The Father is not Son because the Son is begotten and the Father is unbegotten. So, the three persons of God live in an inseparable communion as One God. Yet there is no loss of distinction in this communion because each person still remains distinctly himself.

For the last 1,700 years Christians have accepted that the Holy Spirit inspired the early Christians to choose correctly which books would be in the Bible. In a similar way we have accepted that the Holy Spirit inspired the early Christians to take words from the Bible like “begotten” and “proceed,” give those words technical definitions in the context of theology, and correctly hand those words on to us as the best way for our human language to talk about God’s Triune Life.

Knowing the theological use of these words helps us understand who the Trinity is.

The Trinity is the unorginate Father who begets the Son, and the Son who is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father through the Son. The Trinity is these three persons living in their eternal relationship to each other as One God.

~ Jonathan Stepp

Who is on Team Jesus?

A Trinitarian Christ-centered paraphrase of Galatians 3

(3.1) I cannot BELIEVE the way you have so quickly forgotten all of this.  Please tell me some wizard has put a “dumb-ass” spell on you, because then all this would start to make a little sense!  Have you forgotten that you saw the crucified Jesus with your own eyes? (2) Answer me this:  How is it that the Holy Spirit’s peace and confidence started to fill your life?  Did it happen as a result of jumping through religious hoops, or as a result of believing the truth about Papa and about yourself? (3) Are you so deluded that you think your religious accomplishments can improve on what the Spirit has already done? (4) Have you forgotten all that we experienced together? (5) Does the strength of the risen Jesus flow through your body because you’ve earned it, or because you’ve opened your mind to Reality?

(6) You know the answer as well as I do:  “By trusting Papa, Abraham entered into what he had been given – a right relationship with Papa and the world.” (7) Abraham’s true descendants are those who take Papa at his word. (8) And his word says that by faith, ALL peoples will be put right with Papa and with the world. This word was spoken plainly to Abraham: “As you are blessed, all people will be blessed through you.” (9) All people who (like Abraham) open their minds to Papa will (like Abraham) be filled with what Papa has given.

(10) If you are hoping to get a good life by obeying the rules in Torah, then I have bad news for you, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not obey every single rule perfectly.”  (11) So imperfect rule-keeping (the only kind of rule-keeping you and I are capable of) isn’t going to do you any good.  “The good life results from faithfully knowing reality.” (12) If good life were to come from rule-keeping, then none of us would qualify for a good life anyway. (13) Because of our inability to do good, Torah has become just a curse to us.  But Master Jesus rescued us by taking that curse upon himself, “the curse of hanging on a cross.” (14) By enduring the curse, he destroyed it, so that ALL peoples could (through faith) receive the inheritance promised to Abraham – the honor of carrying the Spirit’s blessings into the world.

(15) Okay guys, here’s an example from everyday life:  Let’s say you get together with your lawyer so you can write a will.  Once you die, your descendants cannot re-write your will if they don’t like what it says.  Your will says what it says, and that’s that. (16) Well, Papa was sort of writing a will when he made the promise to Abraham and his heir (a.k.a., Jesus). (17) Now listen to this: The will that was written and signed that day never got changed or replaced!  The promise still stands today, regardless of what Torah said 430 years later.  Torah had its purpose, and it did its job perfectly.  But it had nothing to do with changing or nullifying the promise already made to Abraham. (18) Think about it!  If our inheritance is conditional on our rule-keeping, then it’s no longer a promise.  But as we all know, it IS a promise, promised to Abraham without condition.

(19) So if Torah doesn’t save us, then what was it good for?  Simple: Papa gave us the clear boundaries of Torah to restrain our behavior just enough to keep us from destroying ourselves before the Heir arrives.  With Torah (which came to us through Papa’s own messengers), Moses mediated the relationship between Papa and us. (20) As humanity’s ambassador to Papa, Moses did a pretty okay job.  He was, after all, human.  But because he was not also divine, Moses could not be a very effective ambassador from Papa to humanity.  After all, a real ambassador ought to be a citizen of the country he represents.  But as we all know, “God is one,” and that One’s name is definitely not “Moses.”

(21) Please understand, I’m not bashing Torah.  Torah is the servant of the promise, not its enemy.  If Papa had given us rules that could have healed the world, then the rules certainly would have accomplished exactly that.  (22) But that was never Papa’s intent for Torah.  He gave us Torah to break us of this idea that by our own efforts we can make a good life for ourselves.  Our utter failure to follow Torah has made it painfully obvious to us that we are STUCK, imprisoned by our inability to live a fully good life on our own.  When we come to this realization, when we acknowledge and accept our own powerlessness, we become able to receive the gift of Jesus’ life.  When Papa gave us his Son, he was fulfilling his promise to Abraham.  When the Son of Papa united himself with humanity, he united humanity forever with the Triune Life of blessing and being blessed!

(23) Torah’s rules protected us by restraining our most destructive behaviors. But Torah also gave us the bad news that Death is the result of violating those boundaries.  Torah protected us but also imprisoned us.  THAT WAS ITS JOB.  Torah did its job UNTIL the time came for us to take the next step – To experience the transformation that comes from the renewing of our minds through FAITH.

(24) Think of it this way:  We’re Papa’s kids.  When we were little, he gave us a nanny/tutor called Torah.  And we had this nanny/tutor until Master Jesus came to turn us into grown-ups whose lives are being put right by faith. (25)  But now that we are grown-ups who live by faith, we no longer need our nanny/tutor to run our lives. (26) For as we learn to believe and rely upon what Master Jesus has done to unite us with our Papa, we are beginning to experience abundant life for the first time as kids who know their Papa adores them.

(27) Think back to when you were baptized. On that day you experienced how completely immersed you are in Jesus’ relationship with Papa in the Spirit.  Your life is forever surrounded and supported by His glorious risen alive-ness.  His life fits you perfectly, like a tailor-made set of clothes.  Jesus himself is the uniform that signifies that we are on his team. (28) The old team rosters have zero significance for us now.  The game is not about the rivalry between the Jewish team and the Greek team.  Nor is it about Slave versus Free, or Boys versus Girls.  I don’t care what team you used to play for.  Because today, ALL of us are Team Jesus.  Period.  Deal with it.  Together we belong to Jesus, and together with him we are the heirs of the promise — the promise that we would be blessed to be a blessing.

~ John Stonecypher

 

God Wanted to be Like You!

Now that is a unique twist on things, isn’t it!?

However, it really is TRUE! Because the Father, Son and Spirit were determined to share their life and love with all of humanity, YOU included, He was determined to be like you!

Think about it! In the Light of Who God the Trinity is, and who we are in Him, it MUST be true that God wants to be like you, like me, like us!

1.) The Revelation of Jesus Christ declares that God the Trinity is unique and there is no other like Him. Specifically, he is uncreated and has always existed. This means that no matter who or what the Triune God brings forth in His creative imagination, it cannot be uncreated as he is! Therefore, whatever is created is forever less than God (to some unfathomable degree), and distinct and “other than” God also.

2.) The Father, Son and Spirit declared in the Person of Jesus that their purpose was not only to create, but to adopt humanity into their relationship through Him. Jesus is the 2^nd Person of the Trinity made human without ceasing to be God (Christianity’s greatest truth and mystery!)

3.) With these two basic truths giving us a fundamentally Trinitarian lens on the “why’s” of relationship, creation and the cosmos, and the purpose of life, it should be a little more clear that:

a. To share in God’s life and love CAN’T meant that we become uncreated as God is. Impossible!

b. We are each distinct but also in union with God! (The Father IS and creates and sustains us gracefully in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, therefore we are!)

c. If we are to share in God’s actual life and love forever he MUST become like us, and remain as one of us forever!

d. BECAUSE GOD WANTS US ADOPTED, AND WAS DETERMINED TO DO SO IN CHRIST, (AND ACTUALLY DID SO IN CHRIST!), IT CAN BE STATED WITHOUT ERROR THAT GOD MOST DEFINITELY WANTED TO BE LIKE US!!! WOWSA AND GOOD GRAVY!!!

What greater compliment could you be given about your worth and specialness as a human being than to know that it is not so much about you becoming like God, but his becoming LIKE YOU that makes all of the difference?!

How could that not transform your present human job, vocation and work, positively? Your human play, vacations and sleep, positively? Your human life and relationships, positively…if you were to take time to embrace and rehearse this truth moment by moment with Jesus????

When the 2^nd Person of the Trinity became human forever in Jesus, God the Father, Son and Spirit was validating the Good of YOUR human culture, Unique Expression, Music, Dancing, Food/s, Nationality, Eye Color/s, and even the Good of YOUR uniquely shaped ears, eyes, nose, mouth, body shape AND GENDER! Men AND Women forever!!!! Ha-Ha!!

The Son becoming human was the highest compliment you could have ever been paid by anyone, anywhere! It means your share in the actual life and love of God as an adopted and glorified human being, forever! Humanity (You Included!), is so fantabulous, God the Trinity gave himself to us, to YOU, as one of us, forever!

In the modern and positive street vernacular of my children, THAT’S SIC!!!

~Timothy Brassell

Taking Care of Each Other

I’ve been thinking lately about how and why we take care of each other.

Some people, like the chronically ill, children, the elderly, and the mentally ill, need more care than others. Some people can’t take care of themselves at all. Others are really good at taking care of themselves. In fact, they’re so good at it that their hard work and planning makes them rich. Some people never seem to be able to even balance their check book.

I believe that our thinking about how and why we care for each other should reflect the truth of humanity’s union with the Trinity in Jesus Christ.

The life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a life of mutual care. For all eternity these three Divine Persons have lived in a communion through which they share all things and take care of one another. The Father has never, and will never, say to the Son “Hey, I’ve got mine – you go get your own!”

It is that life in which Jesus includes humanity. He has included us in a life of taking care of each other and sharing what we have. We take care of each other because that is who we are. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of the Father, anointed by Jesus in the Holy Spirit to participate in this communal life of care for one another.

It’s interesting to see how this Triune Life of taking care of each other is reflected in the law of Moses. The law of Moses gives some idea of what society looks like when it is being influenced by the Triune Life.

And what we see there is sometimes shocking. At least I find it shocking.

It goes against a lot of what I’ve been taught in our individualistic  American culture. Here are a few examples of how the Son of God told the Israelites to take care of each that I find shocking:

• The law of Moses endorsed wealth redistribution by telling Israelites who had wealth to, every third year, share their wealth with those who didn’t have it: orphans, Levites, widows, and the aliens among them. (Deut. 26:12)

• While we’re on the subject of aliens, the law of Moses never distinguishes between legal and illegal aliens. It simply says to give part of the third tithe to non-Israelites living among them. Who were these aliens? Were they refugees from famine and political disorders (like the sons of Jacob, the Israelites’ ancestors, had once been in Egypt?) Were they economic immigrants looking for “better work” in Israel? The scripture doesn’t say, it just says to take care of them.

• The law of Moses also endorsed a kind of communal ownership of land. Every 50 years all the land was to revert back to the possession of the family to whom it had originally been given when they entered Canaan (Lev. 25:13-23.) The law even tells the Israelites to base the sale price of land on how many years of use the buyer will get out of it before the next Jubilee year rolls around.

I’m obviously not arguing that we should impose third tithe on people or try to institute a Jubilee year. (Although Social Security is kind of like third tithe.) However, it is striking to me how different that society was in many respects from our society here in America.

And it makes me wonder, how would our society look different if we sought a way of life more reflective of our inclusion in the way the Father, Son, and Spirit, take  care of each other and all of us?

~ Jonathan Stepp

When Pete Stopped Hanging With Nerds

A Trinitarian  Christ-centered paraphrase of Galatians 2

(2.1) Then, 14 years after that, I took another trip up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. The Holy Spirit told me to go, so I went.  In a private meeting with the elders there, I told them about my message to the non-Jewish ‘outsiders.’  We just wanted to verify that we were all on the same team. (3) Anyway, Titus and his non-surgically-altered wang were right there with me the whole time, and of course nobody had the slightest problem with it. (4) But some religion-nazi spies had snuck into the meeting to scope out the wide-open life we live with Master Jesus, so that they could find some way to make us join them in their tedious religion (Yeah, like THAT’S gonna happen). (5) Anyway, I didn’t give in to them one bit, so that our message would not get tainted with a single drop of their poison. (6) They didn’t influence my message AT ALL. For that matter, NO ONE at that meeting did.

(7) It was clear to the Jerusalem elders that Papa had sent me to the non-Jews, just like he sent Peter to the Jews. (8) The One Triune God has embraced the insiders AND the outsiders.  And it is this God who has sent me and Peter with the One gospel to these two different groups of people. (9) When James and Peter and John recognized the Triune Life at work in me, they welcomed Barnabas and me as valued members of Team Jesus.  They agreed completely that we should go to the non-religious while they go to the religious. (10) They asked only that I continue taking care of the poor, which of course I was going to do anyway.

(11) But when Peter came to Antioch and slipped into hypocrisy, I immediately got all up in his face about it. (12) See, he had been hanging out with the whole gang in Antioch, having a great time with everyone, regardless of whether or not they had undergone ritual wang surgery.  But that stopped when the respectable religious-types dropped in to visit.  In junior high terms, you can say Peter stopped hanging with the nerds, because he was afraid of what the cool kids might think of him. (13) The others – even Barnabas! – followed his lead. (14) When I saw them acting in this reality-contradicting way, I confronted Peter in front of everybody:

“Look, Peter…You’re not a religion-snob anymore. You know you’re no better than anybody else.  You’re just a regular guy now.  So how come, all of a sudden, people have to pass your ‘religion-test’ before they’re good enough to hang out with you?  Who the hell do you think you are?!?”

(15) So that’s how it happened.  I hope my story helps you see where I’m coming from.  Yes, I’m proud to be Jewish.  Being a Jew is a very special thing, (16) but we all know that following our religion is NOT what sets right our relationship with God and with each other.  That happens only as we rely on Master Jesus to put all things right as the gospel changes us from the inside-out.  NO religious act can do that. (17) As we seek to live out the good life Jesus has given to us, it quickly becomes obvious that we haven’t become perfect yet.  Does that mean Jesus is to blame for our brokenness?  Of course not. (18) But when I seek reconciliation for relationships that I myself destroyed, I’m putting myself on public display as the flawed and struggling human being I am.

(19) And I’m totally okay with that.  Pious Paul died so that Real Paul could authentically live life in the fellowship of the Triune God. Think of it this way: Jesus is the One in whom we live and move and have our being, right?  Therefore, in some mysterious way, whatever happens to him happens to ALL of us.  So when Jesus died, I DIED. (20) I’m not living my own life anymore!  It is Jesus’ life, and he’s living it IN me and THROUGH me, and it is a life beyond anything I have ever dared to dream. The Son is faithful to his Papa, always and in every way.  It is through reliance on HIS faithfulness that I now live this life of adventure.  My unsteady faith is upheld by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (21) THAT is the power of grace; it is the only thing that can put things right in us and in the world.  If religion could have accomplished that, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die.

~ John Stonecypher

 

The Devastation of Myths, Stereotypes, and Misrepresentations

Recently I took the opportunity to watch a documentary on my culture, the African American culture, entitled What Black Men Think.

It was a winner of the Best Black Documentary of 2007 and Best Black Documentary Director of 2007 by the African American Film Critics Association

And just like my experience of hearing the Gospel of our Adoption roughly 7 years ago, it was similarly one of the most devastating and liberating things I have ever heard or seen, as lie, after lie was exposed by the truth.

For instance, did you know that there are more African American men in school than in jail, and that African American men in school outnumber the men in jail? In 2005, in pure numbers, there were 801, 995 African American men in prison and in jail combined, but the number of African American men in college that year was 864,000. If you only count actual college age students, age 18-24, there were 106,000 in prison that same year and a whopping 473,000 in college! That means that African American college aged men actually going to college outweigh the men in prison by a ratio of 4:1!!

The director and producer of the film, Janks Morton, revealed the truth by asking African Americans of all ages what they thought the answers were to certain questions. Their answers tended to fall into the 30% range regardless. For instance,

1.) As a percentage, how many African American men pay their court-ordered child support? False responses based on myth: 30%!  Truth? 67.3%!

2.) As a percentage, how many African American men have a high school diploma or G.E.D. equivalent? Responses based on misrepresentation: 30%!  Truth: 78.9%!

Other myths, stereotypes and misrepresentations that have waylaid the African American man and African American community are things such as:

3.) Who earns more money, black men, or black women? Responses based on stereotype: Black women!    Truth: Black Men!

4.) As a percentage, who enters college more, black men or white men? False answer based on perception: White men!    Truth:  Black Men! (5.3% white, 5.4% black)

5.) What is the leading cause of death in the African American Community? False answers based on myths: Heart attack, diabetes, A.I.D.S., murder? Wrong! Though it ties in with murder, it is certainly not what we typically think of. The true answer is: Abortion!

With myths and misrepresentations like these being so pervasive it is easy to imagine the obstacles an African American man would face from his very youth! It would also be easy to see how this would negatively impact his relationship with others due to misperceptions about who he is, as well as the misperceptions of others about who he is! Yikes!

Do you see how not knowing who you REALLY are can take on a monster form that hideously gobbles you up, bones and all??

Even more fundamentally, can you see how important it is to know who Jesus is, regardless of your race or culture? After all, Jesus is the One in Whom we all live, move and have our being, and the One in, through, by and for Whom all things are created and sustained!(Acts 17:28, Col 1:13-23) Do you see how embracing this could put a stop to the myths, stereotypes and misrepresentations of the Evil one IN YOUR LIFE?!

By its title, “What Black Men Think”, the documentary proclaims to African American men, especially, that if we keep embracing myths, stereotypes and misrepresentations about ourselves, then we can only foster and expect a harvest of negative consequences on our minds, bodies, spirit, culture, relationships and communities!

With our blog site title Trinity and Humanity, and with the name of our sister site, The Adopted life, we have a similar purpose as the documentary noted above.

We are proclaiming the Gospel of All of Humanity’s Adoption into the Life of the Trinity, in Jesus, and trying to help everyone embrace this Truth of the Good News! We also want to help you avoid the lies and corresponding harvest of negative consequences on mind, body, spirit, culture and relational human community!

~ by Timothy Brassell

 

Am I Napoleon?

If I believe that I’m Napoleon does that really make me Napoleon?

Of course not! If I go around telling people I’m Napoleon everyone knows I’m deluded and that I believe a lie about myself. The truth is the truth whether we believe it or not. I’m Jonathan Stepp, if something goes wrong with my mind and I believe something else about myself it doesn’t change the reality of who I am.

The same thing is true of the gospel.

When the Son became flesh and blood as the man Jesus Christ he made humanity new, adopting us all into the life he shares with our Dad and their Spirit (Eph. 2:14-18). This is the truth whether we believe it or not. But, like any delusion, our believing a lie about ourselves has profound consequences.

If I am mentally ill and really believe that I’m Napoleon, that delusion will eventually impair and destroy every relationship in my life.

Likewise, if I am spiritually ill and believe the lie that I am not included in Jesus and that I am not a child of the Father, that delusion will also impair and destroy my relationships. The gospel is the good news of humanity’s adoption into the life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. To believe this truth about who we are in Christ, as children of the Father, transforms our lives.

No, I am not Napoleon. I am Jonathan, beloved child of my Daddy in heaven and brother of Jesus.

~ Jonathan Stepp

By the way: you may recognize this post from my old blog, Neo-Reformation. I like it so much I decided to post it again.

You Thought I Was Pro-Family? Ha!

A Trinitarian Christ-centered paraphrase of Matthew 10.1-39

(10.1-25) This is it, guys.  This is what you’ve trained for.   You twelve guys have been with me all this time, and now I’m going to send you out to fly solo for the first time.  Stay focused.  Go to the Israelite towns first.  We’ll go to the Gentiles in phase two, but it’s not time for that yet.  Tell people the good news, that the Empire of Love has arrived. And don’t just tell them.  SHOW them what the power of love can do.  Don’t pack a bag; don’t even bring money.  I want you to experience what it feels like to eat from Papa’s hand, day in, day out.  If a town welcomes you and listens to you, great.  But if they run you out of town, don’t stress about it.  It’s not your fault.  Their rejection will say more about them than about you.  When the Catastrophe hits, they will think Sodom and Gomorrah got off easy. Remember, the rich and powerful will hate you, just like they’ve hated me.  They will arrest you and beat you.  Do the job in one city; when they kick you out, go to the next city.  When the Catastrophe hits this generation (when the Son of Man comes to rule at the Father’s right hand), you Twelve will not have gotten to all of the cities in Israel yet.

(26) So yes, there are fearsome things going on.  But believe me when I tell you they are not worthy of your fear.   Your mission is to tell the truth, and truth is what these little Hitlers fear above all else.  Truth is the only weapon you will have, and it is the only weapon you will need. (27) Speak it fearlessly. (28) Do not fear death.  Men with guns can kill you, but they cannot defeat you.  They cannot destroy you.  Only your Father in heaven can do that.  He is the only one worthy of your love or your fear. (29) Remember, Papa’s good will is inescapable.  No tiny incident can happen outside of it, not even a little bird falling out of its nest. (30) Papa knows each hair on your head, (31) so don’t be afraid.   You are at LEAST as well taken-care-of as a sparrow.

(32) When the Catastrophe hits, my enemies in Israel will experience the consequences of their actions, as is the destiny of all enemies of humanity.  My Papa and I will not violate anyone by separating them from the results of their decisions.  Because he is a good Papa, he never plays favorites with his kids.  On that day, those who are willing to follow me openly will follow me to safety.  (33) Those who are too ashamed to follow me to safety will remain in danger.

(34) I have not come to bring peace – at least not the kind of peace YOU’RE thinking of.  Real peace comes at the cost of truth, and the truth is a sword that divides people according to who accepts it and who doesn’t. (35) Because I am bringing the truth out into the open, it will be “son against father, daughter against mother. (36) A man’s enemies will be those who live in his house.”  (37) …What, you thought I was pro-family?  Ha!  Sure, I love family togetherness, but I what I love even more is ruthless honesty.  Your family and friends may or may not be willing to join you in facing Reality, and your journey into truth may have to partly be a journey away from them.  I am the Truth, and Truth is thicker than blood.  Be clear about your choice. (38) Truth kills before it heals.  If you’re not willing to face the pain, you’re not willing to follow me. (39) Those who seek after their vision of ‘the good life’ will miss out on life that is truly good.  Life that is really good is found only by those who crucify their ambitions and seek after MY vision instead.

~ John Stonecypher

You’d Better Get Used to Being Human!

If you’re like me, and infested with a fallen human nature, that probably sounds negative and uninspiring at first, doesn’t it?

There is simply something about being human that we have been taught to disrespect, dishonor and not appreciate, regardless of Jesus and the scriptures (Psalm 8, Heb 1). Kermit the frog came close when he sung “It’s not easy being green!” Its not always easy being human! Plus, the rotten experiences we have had and are having in this flesh don’t seem to match up with the logic of wanting to remain human forever. After all, isn’t Christianity really about getting out of these human bodies and into a spiritual non-human body?

Where did you and I inherit poison like that? Christianity is absolutely NOT about not being human?! Just the opposite!

It’s about being truly human forever! It’s amazing to me how much I have missed this truth and, as a result, missed much more of the Kingdom here on earth NOW that the Father makes available in His Son Jesus and delights for me to share in with you!

I just had the wonderful opportunity of proclaiming this Good News at a local congregation of Grace Communion International in Baltimore, MD.! It is called New Life Fellowship, and I think you would love visiting there if you ever got the chance! They are alive and well in Jesus AND learning to celebrate their humanity NOW! “Wowsa” and “Good gravy!” Go Baltimore! They invited me up for International Day where we celebrated the fact that all of us will be human forever, and that all of the distinct expressions, colors, races, and general ethnic cultures and foods we love to eat will still exist in the resurrection!

Check out this set of verses in the Scriptures in The Message version of the Bible: Luke 2:27-52, Luke 24:36-48, listen to the message here (soon!), and claim this wonderful truth in Jesus:

Jesus was born as, lived in, died as, and was resurrected and ascended to His Father as the Jewish God/Man that originally came on the scene!

Notice in Luke 24 how he keeps exclaiming that it is Him, Jesus, Who has Resurrected and is the Resurrection? “Look at MY hands and my feet!”, he exclaims! “Ghosts do not have muscle and bone as I have!” He remarks! “Do you have some of my favorite food, fish? Give me some! I want to gobble it up and eat it to show you how human I still am in my FOREVER resurrection…AND HOW HUMAN YOU WILL BE IN YOUR FOREVER RESURRECTION WITH ME WHEN HEAVEN COMES TO EARTH!” (Rev 21:1-4)

Do you see what Jesus is doing in His own permanently human body? (Acts 1:1-11)

He is validating YOUR culture! Your Distinct Expression! Your Music! Your Favorite Dance! Your Favorite Food! Your Nationality! Your color of Eyes! Your DIFFERENTLY shaped ears, nose, mouth and body shape!! (Ha-Ha! I can hear many of you groaning as you debate the fact that maybe your current weight and looks are REALLY acceptable to God and may not change as much as you currently desire IN YOUR SINFUL PERCEPTIONS OF YOURSELF!!!Ha-Ha! I’m with you in that struggle!)

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to literally and exactly describe how you will look in the resurrection!

I’m lost about the old vs. the young thing, too! Neither am I trying to give more answers than raise questions. I’m not! I am trying to be faithful to the Gospel – Jesus – and the Jewish and human HIM he took seriously AND resurrected! So much so that in His human self he keeps saying, “It is me!” and they (his disciples) recognized HIM as himself!

Sure your body will be raised incorruptible, and YES, everything that is not truly human in you and is broken in your body will be fixed and made right! BUT, what is “right?” I don’t think a large nose, ears, or belly are necessarily wrong or broken in every case, do you?! Don’t we even say as fallen humans that “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”? And don’t we REALLY know that and mean it when we say it? Ha-Ha! Where does that come from if not from the Triune God in Whom we are all created and sustained in our distinction and union, and Who loves us UNCONDITIONALLY?

Imagine eating something that tastes as delicious as YOUR favorite dessert, candy, chocolate snacks or wine forever; with a vitalized tongue that tastes even more of the sweet goodness?! And think of the weight you won’t gain or have to lose, regardless!! Ha-Ha! Heaven!! This is the way we are supposed to be reading the scriptures in the Light of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:41-43).

So enjoy the foretaste, literally!

The Baltimore congregation and I did as we feasted on those many international dishes! Boy do I look forward to “eating to bursting” WITHOUT BURSTING in my forever resurrected and incorruptible human being! Good Gravy – for REAL! Thank you Jesus – I, for one, LOVE IT!!

~ by Timothy Brassell

Potential?

Is Jesus the Savior of the world or does he merely create the potential for salvation?

A lot of theologies say “if you believe in Jesus then you will belong to him and then you will become a child of the Father.” In these theologies it is not Jesus that makes us children of the Father – it is our own belief.

Belief then becomes the work by which we get ourselves adopted and save ourselves.

In such theologies Jesus is not our Adoption and he is not our Savior.  Jesus is the one who creates the potential for adoption and the potential for salvation, but it is human decision that causes adoption and salvation to take place. In such theologies salvation is not by grace. Rather, it is the potential of salvation that is by grace, while the actual accomplishment of salvation is by the human work of belief.

Yet neither the Bible or the Creeds of the Church ever call Jesus the “Potential Savior.”

He is simply called The Savior and The One through whom humanity is adopted as children of the Father. Any theology of Jesus that is going to be rooted in the Bible and the historic teaching of the Church has to first and foremost proclaim Jesus as “The Savior of all humanity” and then secondly say that he is “especially The Savior of all who believe.” (1 Tim. 4:10.)

First the Son of God adopted humanity into the life of the Trinity as children of the Father, and saved us from sin and death, and then we began to believe as the Spirit shared with us the faith of Jesus.

~ Jonathan Stepp