For This REason 42

[HKHaugan]

For This Reason 42

Ultimately everything seen and unseen has spiritual significance. The road, the way, the truth about reality is that nothing exists outside of the spiritual dimension. The expansive universe in which we find ourselves is an expression of the mind of God at work. From the most distant edge, if in fact there is an edge, down to the most minute part of the cells of our bodies, if in fact there is a most minute part, all find their origin in the spiritual realm wherein God initiates its existence. John says it best in His introduction about Jesus, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of men (Jn.1:3-4).” We may be finite specks in an infinite physical planetarium but exceedingly important in the view of Him who designed it with us in mind.

In that same introduction key words illustrate that importance. Words like “the Word (mind of God, Son of God) became flesh and dwelt among us,” “In Him (the visible Jesus) was life (Holy Spirit, invisible spiritual reality and experience) and that life (eternal) was the light of men (spiritual understanding). The the word “Recognition,” the world did not recognize Him (grasp His spiritual presence). Other words not be overlooked like “those that 'received' Him, that 'believed' in His name got 'the right' to be His 'children' because that gave them 'spiritual birth.' It is being 'spiritually born (Jn.3:16)' that enables us to relate to Him and to one another as spiritual beings. This opens us to being filled with His 'grace' and 'truth' blessings.

The whole point of John's Gospel is to get us to think spiritually. This is when we begin to reorganize our mind, heart and spirit based on the spiritual reality of Jesus, God the Son. The first three Gospels are the biographical sketches of Jesus' historical reality. John builds on that truth by concentrating on His spiritual reality. Therefore being 'children' of God means we are created in the image of His Father, Him and the Holy Spirit with a mind, heart and spirit expressing itself in a physical body. This is why we are called to start thinking of ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience. We recognize, we discern, we process, assimilate and accumulate spiritual knowledge and experience. This is why and how Jesus becomes our personal Messiah (leader), Savior (recoverer), Redeemer (restorer) and Lord (director). Each of those titles is filled with real personal spiritual power and eternal quality.

So when we say 'family' the word takes on a whole new meaning. More than blood relationship it is a spiritual unity with spiritual brothers and sisters all over the planet. So 'church' is no longer an institutional structure but an invisibly bonded reality called the Body of Christ. We all have One Father, One Elder Brother and One Holy Spirit personally perfecting and unifying us. This was accomplished by Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross where His shed blood became the sign of His life transferred to us proven in His Resurrection from the dead. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Him and the same Spirit gives us life through belief and faith in Jesus. Now when ever 'two or three are gathered together (worship, sharing, prayer and witnessing)' in His Name He is there. The experience is spiritual, personal and interpersonal.

The 'world' is more than the earth. It's not what you see but what you can't see. It is a spiritual atmosphere of lonely, frightened, prideful, self-centered images of God separated from Him trying to figure out who they are and why they exist. It is the pressure cooker of personal and social survival. It is an orphanage of renegade children where an elusive evil figure hiding in the shadows keeps stirring the cauldron of pride and fear to keep it broken and unsettled. It's an atmosphere that needs saving from itself. Perhaps with this condition in mind we can understand why God would come Himself, take on a human body, live in its confines, die to it every day and then allow death to take Him away only to return in the Spirit for us to personally experience Him. “God so loved the world (His lost people) that He gave His only Son (the Cross) so that all who believe in Him would not perish (eternal spiritual lostness) but have everlasting life (a spiritual relationship with the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.)” Jn.3:16.

This brings us back to the 'Word' and the Jesus' declaration that it is the truth. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus “What is truth?” That is a fair question and one that all of us should ask but the word 'truth' is scattered around in a variety of ways. It is something children are told they should always tell. It's something we want 'to get at.'

But let's take a different path and say what it isn't. Truth is not a concept that we can arrive at with disciplined thinking, wise counsel and practice like philosophical speculation. It's not what lawyers attempt to arrive at a trial or something we tell in order to find out who is responsible in a conflict. Neither is it the result of an inner quest for meaning through meditative exercise, academic pursuit and emotional sharing.

What is truth? When Jesus prayed the night before His trial and death on the Cross He asked the Father to fill believers with the truth, that His Word was the truth. This is an interesting request because it tells us three things. First that the written words of Scripture are truth, second, that He, God the Son, is truth (Jn.14:6) and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (Jn.14:17, 15:26). What this means for us is that Jesus is the focus for everything, I mean everything, that cannot be seen. What can be seen is to some degree verifiable through science but that which is behind what you see can only be verified by what Scripture, Jesus and the Spirit lead us to understand about it. Truth is spiritual life in action not some philosophical concept in an academic mausoleum. The words of Scripture are the vehicle through which the Spirit touches us within. Truth is the personal revelation of Jesus working His life into us by the Holy Spirit. Truth is the personal and interpersonal revelation of God's mind and heart relating to us and in us. It is the living quality of God's thought inspiring us to think like Him and to be like Him and to return to Him who created us to be His image and likeness. Since Jesus is the express and exact image and likeness of God He is the focus of truth in all thought and behavior.

So when we think, discern, consider, ponder, speculate, apply logic, it stands to 'reason' that we start with the words of Scripture, patiently seek the Spirit's revelation and consider how Jesus is recorded as having responded when placed in situations that demanded truth. Is it any wonder Paul in his letter to Ephesian believers so emphatically says three times, “For this reason...?”

More on spiritual maturity to come.