I repent me of the ignorance wherein I ever said that God made man out of nothing: there is no nothing out of which to make anything; God is all in all, and he made us out of himself. He who is parted from God has no original nothingness with which to take refuge.
~George Macdonald (1824-1905)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Ephesians 1
Oh beloved, it is true. There are few times that writers like me are without words. But it is in times like this that it is true. There is a truth, within the Truth of the Gospel, which cannot be contained. Because to describe the infinite is not possible.
But can we try here? There is a thread we must understand, because it holds the whole story together. The King immortal, eternal, forever has made us in His image. And we, because of the profound power He has woven into us, have made an astounding mess of the world He gave us to tend.
Instead of tending and harvesting, we pillage our planet and the people who inhabit this place. We have given ourselves over to only caring about ourselves. And in doing so we have separated ourselves from the One who made us. For He is Love, and love does not live for itself. Love pours itself out for others.
We, each of us, have fallen exceedingly short of the glorious Love in which we should be living. Our choice to make our own selves the center of our motivation, has brought about a horrible turbulence in the world. Instead of everyone moving toward each other in profound concern for each other’s well-being, we try to pull what we need from each other. And in the pulling, we only cause destruction.
We, each of us, were in a terrible mess.
Enter Grace. G_d, in His Great Love (He is this), simply acted as He was, and is, and will ever be. He brought the entire panoply of His goodness to bear on the problem of our sin (notice the “I” at the middle of this word?). And do it, He did. G_d has poured out His blood, kicked evil’s head into the dirt, smashed death, and invaded our very spirits with His own.
It has been said, that G_d will do whatever it takes to put us back into a right relationship with Himself. He started this by paying for all of our failures and selfishness. However, this is only the beginning of the redemptive energy He has put forth for us.
But why?
G_d did not just save us from our sins. He is saving us from ourselves. And He is not just saving us from ourselves that we would quit being mean to each other and play nice on this planet. No, G_d has lavished His favor on us for much more than this.
He is working all things together for His glory and our good (same thing really), that we might literally be united with Him one day. We have been made of Him and for Him. We are not just being saved from some sort of punishment. We are being saved towards an inheritance we shall possess upon our homecoming.
Can we see it? And yeah, this is where the words fail. Do we have any sense yet what this means? United in Him? i have no way to put this into words, but i do sense it in my spirit. And when i do, the boundaries of my thinking are shattered and torrents of the strong sense of what reality is really like flood my being.
Eternities of eternities.
Forever-moments of praise with trillions of believers.
Finding the center of His Heart.
Him, finding the center of mine, and subsuming it into His.
So beloved, are you wondering a bit what your salvation is about? Time to lose the confusion and believe the truth. It is all about Him. But, once we realize this, everything changes. And instead of me disappearing into some sort of irrelevance, i finally become real and whole and free and in Love.
Just like i was always supposed to be.
