Pentecost 73 Our Parallel Universe

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 73 Our Parallel Universe

In the last column the subject was based on my experience of what would become my understanding of justification by faith. Let’s continue what that experience meant. If you remember I was alone, a stranger and it was night in a small town in Norway. I had no place to stay and no way to get back to school in Oslo. When a local son offered to let me stay in his father’s home I accepted and was warmly received without a hint of reluctance on the mother’s part when I appeared at the door. This was an exact picture of what Jesus enabled for all of us who accept Him. The Father warmly accepts any friend of Jesus immediately and without hesitancy. That is the Gospel, the good news. You are OK with God.

Three things happened in my Norwegian experience to make being justified by faith a growing experience with spiritual parallels. While I found an ethnic genealogy it led me to see my true spiritual genealogy. I found a country, a language and an identity.

First, the country of Norway. I felt much freer moving about there. I found much the same acceptance wherever I went. Because of my appearance and my parents having come from there I had a kind of bond already established as I went.

Now think of this in spiritual reality. Isn’t it interesting that we all look like images of God? That He is our real parent and when we return to Him He enables us to move about much more freely? That also we have a bond with other believers? When the Lord Jesus justifies you through faith you have a place and a family. Your real country is the Kingdom of God.

Second, the Norwegian language. I was brought back into what, in my earliest years, was a familiar language. Though not fluent and still not fluent I was never made to feel inadequate. If I had remained I would have returned to fluency.

In the same way we learn a spiritual language, which is the language we were designed to speak. It is not only spoken in voices we can hear but also in behavior, in actions, in goals we set, in the sensing of being led by the Spirit and in the non-verbal communication we exchange. As we allow our minds to be bathed in His Word there is an expanding fluency we gain in insight, sharing and just plain being. When faith in the Lord justifies you the language you learn moves you into a depth of communication in the Spirit. We shift from shallow talk to deep talk, from surface talk to heart talk.

Third, the Norwegian identity. In many ways being in Norway was like coming home to something that was lost in my background somewhere. The sounds, the sights and the atmosphere were a garbled mixture that became clearer as I stayed there. In many ways it was as though I was regaining an identity I had lost.

Consider your spiritual identity. When you step out in faith, when you take the chance to believe, when you trust that every next moment will be in the hands of your true Lord, you have traveled through the gates into the courts of God. You have returned to the One who made you and restored you. You are His. You know to Whom you belong. When the Lord justifies you, you have an eternal spiritual identity and your name is written in the Book of Life. Your confidence, stability and direction are secured and your relational horizons expand.

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all you who remain of the house of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth.
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you (Is.46:3-4).

More, stay tuned.......