My religious heritage has a strong focus on correct doctrine. Many in my religious heritage claim to retain the essentials and discard the peripheral. In the words of Romans 14, to properly define the things that are disputable and to give freedom in those areas not central to faith in Christ. Any person who interprets Scripture through this framework must periodically evaluate whether non-essentials have slowly crept into the faith corpus and have been misdefined.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. If all I had was the Bible, and I were to read the Bible with the intention of doing what God put me here to do, with the intention of pleasing God and doing his will, what would that look like? Would I keep living my life as I currently do, or would some aspects of my life change radically? When I read in the New Testament that Jesus’ disciples after his death became part of a church, and if I wanted to be part of that same church, what would that church look like? Would it look like most of the Christian churches in our world today, the church that we humans have reasoned out and built here on earth? Would it be defined by its place or location, and by its organization, to be like this thing that we refer to as church? Or would it look radically different? What are the basics?
Assuming for a moment that we might understand some correct (biblical) answers to such questions by considering the nature of things–our Triune God, humankind, spiritual and physical reality, where would those considerations lead us? What is God like? What is the reality of his visible creation? What is the reality of his invisible creation? What is his human creation like? What purposes of God can we discern in the answers to these questions? One must take time to ponder these questions and to discern correct answers. I invite your conversations and comments. What follows is not an attempt to short-circuit the discovery process, but to suggest something of where we will likely need to go.
The purpose of human creation is to fear God and keep his commandments. God made humankind to be like him, in his image, but the clear image bestowed in creation was lost in the Fall. Reflecting the image became much more difficult, even impossible, for human beings. What was needed was a re-creation, which God accomplished through Jesus Christ, and a sustainability of that re-creation which God accomplished through the giving of his Spirit.
FEAR GOD. God made us for relationship with him, in his image and likeness, to be blessed and to bless. He made us to bring his rule to visible physical creation, with the intent that his human creation would thus participate with him in glory and holiness, in dominion and full, abundant life. To understand this intent of God requres that human beings recognize God for who he is, and that they recognize their own created nature in his image and participants in the divine nature.
God wants to be recognized for who he is. Recognizing God’s nature and supremacy will lead all creation to respect him–to adore and praise and worship him. This is a first response, but does not reflect the totality of God’s purpose and desire for human beings.
FOLLOW JESUS. Ultimately, fallen humanity cannot experience re-creation and restored relationship with God without a visible, physical example of the possibilities of the invisible spiritual world. God sent Jesus so that relationship might be restored, but also so that human beings could have an example to follow, a demonstration of the possibilities of human existence. Human existence in the biological realm is not the whole of life. Human beings were created also as spiritual beings. Our biological or physical bodies only allow us to reside on this planet. Our existence is not defined by the visible, physical realities we see and experience. In fact, these are only temporary, and we can exist apart from the visible created bodies we use to identify ourselves and to distinguish ourselves.
Jesus came perfectly balancing what it means to be spirit beings who live in a physical world. Jesus became full participant with us in our humanity, emptying himself, becoming like us, experiencing the physical death that entered the world as a result of sin, and demonstrating his power over death so that restoration of relationship and eternal existence with the Father is declared possible. In his death on the cross, our struggle with sin, with death, and with the future is solved. In his resurrection and ascension is declared our possibilities.
God wishes us to follow Jesus, to learn from him (to be disciples), and to imitate him so that we reflect God’s glory.
BE FILLED WITH HOLY SPIRIT. God did not re-create us and once again leave us to our struggles, hoping that we might succeed where humanity formerly failed. Through his Spirit he gives us his presence and confirmation and reminders of his purpose. Through his Spirit he empowers our lives and our testimony. Through his Spirit, he guarantees his promise of our inheritance, providing presence when we feel distance, e.g. as the Holy Spirit powers our prayer life.
We become like God in each of these manifestations of his reality–one God, revealed in distinct personalities, making possible that we reach the peak of our possibilities according to his purpose. We become like God as we become like what we worship, we become like Jesus as disciples, we become like God’s Spirit and stride forward toward the invisible, spiritual realm as the ultimate expression of God’s purpose for us, a place where his rule and reign in our lives and in all creation will once and for all be restored.