Competition or Convergence

Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'? "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)... (John 10:34-35)

When one begins to sense the implications of what Jesus is saying here about our proper role as gods in relationship with each other connected with Him, all sorts of peripheral things suddenly start to make more sense. (If you are a little confused about this idea, take time to read the last post and the related ones connected with it.) I feel it is important that I start paying attention to what the Spirit is revealing about this subject considering that Jesus made one of His most emphatic declarations regarding this fact saying concerning it, “the Scripture cannot be broken”.

The problem of course comes in when sin skewed the original design and function of our lives and our relationships. Rather than competing to see how much we can bless each other like those in heaven do, encouraging each other and allowing our lives to be sources of life-giving service to others, we have been predisposed by sin to selfishness which reverses the order of God's creation in our lives and now live grasping for everything we can get for ourselves, often at the expense of others. Thus life becomes an ever-intensifying competition for shrinking resources. This is the very basis for Satan's invention about our origins: the evolutionary theory. In this model based on the selfishness of the human heart, people assume that life is all about survival of the fittest. And since sin has affected all of creation here on earth it appears that there is much evidence to support this theory.

Yet God never intended for His creatures to live selfishly or to clamor and fight over resources. He designed us to live as benefactors to all around us, receiving to give to others rather than seeking how much we can take or hoard for our own pleasure. Yet the very concept of selfless living seems so foreign and incompatible with our natural instincts that we often question its validity or even its viability. It seems too strange to be real, and yet it must be embraced and experienced if we truly want to live in the upside-down kingdom that Jesus came to establish.

In God's way of relating, in God's government, all live to bless to others. Nature was designed this way and the underlying pattern can still be seen in many of the cycles of nature in spite of the severe damage sin has caused. Man is the glaring exception to this principle of serving, for humans are the ones so infected with the selfishness of sin that they tend to exploit rather than nurture. But in God's system of sharing life, all things and all creatures live and have their proper place in a great circuit of life and love that all originates and ultimately returns to Him. As we live in harmony with these eternal principles of life, we find ourselves the recipients of blessing from many around us and in turn joyfully pass on the blessings that come to us to benefit many others. Life becomes a great convergence of blessing for all involved rather than a competition against others where my gain is someone else's loss.

The key for the success of God's system of government is an ever-present cognizance and submission to the Father's sovereignty and authority and complete trust in His goodness. When all creation lives in joyful trust in the Father as the original source of all good things, then harmony is realized and we begin to appreciate the true joy of perfection and thriving the way God designed intended. We begin to experience what God declared at the end of creation week when He said that it was all 'very good'. Creation as it came from the hand of God was never intended to be a competition for resources or love or provisions; it was designed to be a convergence of life-giving resources that were ever increasing that in turn would result in ever-increasing exclamations of praise and gratitude to the Creator who exhibits such amazing love and goodness and graciousness through His creatures.

How does this relate to me today? I look at my own attitudes, my selfish motives and the damage that I daily inflict on those around me because of faults and confusion in my life, and I cry out for much more grace, for healing, for a totally new perspective and a new heart. I see more and more clearly how narrow my views of life really are, how limited is my awareness of the goodness of God, how lacking my heart is in gratitude and appreciation, and I am appalled at my own deeply entrenched selfishness. But I have hope, not because I have any ability to change my own heart but because God has the ability and is eager to fulfill His promises in me as I allow Him access through my spirit. As I read the last half of Ezekiel 36 this morning with my daughter, my heart was again deeply moved by how clearly God promises that He is going to give me a new heart and remove my heart of stone. And all that He describes there He emphatically declares He will do for His reputation's sake, not for my benefit.

That may sound at first like God is a selfish person Himself. But as the truth becomes more clear I remember that the problem of sin is skewing all of my perceptions about reality and often prevents me from appreciating what God needs to do. Until His reputation is salvaged nothing He has designed in all of creation is truly safe from harm. For me to have hope of living in joy and fellowship and life for eternity with the saved as well as to enjoy close intimacy with God, His reputation – what everyone thinks about Him – must be fully repaired. Only when all His creatures finally come to realize His total trustworthiness and freely return all praise and glory to the origin of life will it be safe for Him to fully restore us into close intimacy with Himself.

What will I choose today? Am I going to allow myself to continue playing the games of competition for resources that infects so many of my relationships with others? Or am I willing to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and choose to begin living in proper orientation within the great convergence of blessings and provisions that God designs for me to pass along to others?

Father, keep changing me. Change the way I think, the way I perceive, the way I react and especially the way I think and feel about You. Keep revealing Your heart, Your goodness, the real truth about what You are like to my mind and my heart. Let me see Your glory much more clearly so that what I reflect to others under pressure will be Your character rather than my selfishness. Do this for Your name's sake just as You promised to do. Thank-you.

Defining Attitude of a god

The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'? "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" (John 10:33-36)

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with my daughter about this passage. As with many people, she seemed a bit startled when we read this part about gods and wondered what in the world this might mean. I too have puzzled over this most of my life until recently when I began to open my mind to think past the typical religious assumptions about gods. This was motivated by my habit of questioning definitions of words to explore the deeper meaning of the terms that we run into in religion.

I have written several times about this subject before, but each time I approach it I usually learn a little bit more, especially when discussing it with interested individuals. I feel that there is a great deal of missed blessing in not allowing ourselves to explore ideas such as this because they make us uncomfortable by challenging our paradigms. Yet it is becoming clear to me that mainstream religion has really missed some important thoughts connected with the concept of gods.

It is vital to have a more accurate definition of just what a god is or else the conversation will go downhill very quickly. I find that nearly everyone has a lot of assumptions about this word, many of which are based more on tradition than on reality or Scripture. But much can be deduced simply from thinking logically and thoughtfully about the role that gods have played throughout history in people's lives to discover just why we crave having gods to start with.

I do not want to repeat in full what I have written previously on this subject except to note that a god is anything or anyone to whom our heart turns expecting to receive what we hope to be life-giving. Any source from which we hope to gain a greater sense of value, of worth, of identity, of purpose and to make us feel better or more energized can be seen as a god. Generally the people and activities that we utilize to make us happy, to bring us pleasure are in some respect a god for us. Also included in this list is any source that we depend on to protect us from danger, loss or shame which can become a god for us. Thus when we view the ancient false gods using this definition it becomes much easier to see what was going on in people's minds when they created various gods to worship out of some rather bizarre objects or creatures.

Given this context I want to go further to say that I have come to believe, based on the Word of Scripture, that the true God of heaven created us to have many other gods in our lives. That may at first sound like blasphemy but I do not believe it is if one considers it carefully and objectively. We are all created in the image of God and we have no problem speaking of ourselves as part of the family of God. But why do we suddenly recoil with horror when someone suggests that included in that reality we might also be called a family of gods. Indeed we are all God's children which should imply that we have taken on the family name which just happens to be God's name. So what is so wrong with accepting the truth that Jesus so bluntly stated in this passage, that we are all gods?

But here is where the important part comes in that I am seeing in these verses. The Jews accused Jesus of making Himself out to be God when He was in fact just a human. Laying aside the fact that He was in fact God Himself in the flesh, Jesus did not defend Himself from that angle. Rather He pointed out to them that they were confused both about the reality of what a god really is and more importantly how a lesser god is supposed to relate to the highest God in heaven. Jesus came to this earth to live as a human, as a child of God for the purpose of both showing us what God is really like and also to give us an example of what a true human god, an obedient child in the God family could live like in proper relationship to his or her heavenly Father.

The key factor that I see in these verses is the issue of attitude which ties very closely to the passage in Philippians 2:2-11 where the real disposition of Jesus is described in explicit detail. The problem with the charges of these Jews was not so much whether Jesus was a god or not but was in the way in which He related to idea in His heart. They claimed that He was trying to make Himself God; yet in Philippians it becomes clear that Jesus, though being God already, had chosen to live in total selfless love and humbled Himself in every position He found Himself rather than grasping for greatness.

It is a diversion to get caught up arguing over whether we are gods or not while missing the far more vital truth of what motivates us to live in relationship with each other and in our relation to God. Jesus showed us clearly that the way to live as a healthy, whole, fulfilled and righteous human being is to live in humility, in selfless love and service, to function fully as a god as it is properly defined. Since I now see a god as filling the role of being a source of affirmation, of blessing, of identity and life to someone, then it is easier to see why all of us are intended by God, who is the ultimate source of all good things, to be little gods to act in concert with Him as channels of all good things to bless others as we receive them from Him.

The main issue at stake here is the character and attitude and disposition and condition of the spirit of a person. This is what Jesus was trying to expose in His answer to these religiously confused people who had similar notions about God that we still entertain today. Jesus went on to strongly link the way He treated people to the issue of His true identity even though these men kept trying to disconnect the two. Jesus even said that if they could not swallow believing that He was the Son of God that they should at least be honest enough to admit that everything that He had done in relation to other people delivered a compelling message about what kind of person He was.

It is not blasphemy to realize that we are all gods. Jesus stated this explicitly here and if we feel uncomfortable with this idea then we need to challenge our own thinking and feelings rather than continue distorting the Word of God to fit our assumptions. But more importantly we need to learn from Jesus what the true role and function of a god is and how that translates into living as a source of blessing for those around us rather than living to please ourselves and see how much we can hoard of God's blessings for our own consumption.

Selfishness is the very core of sin. Selfishness far more than the breaking of rules is the problem that we have to face in our lives if we want to get real with God. A person can seek to keep all the rules they can imagine, can maintain a glowing appearance of religiosity and can firmly believe they are a shoe-in for heaven based on their beliefs about salvation. But if their heart is not being transformed from an attitude of selfishness to an attitude of humility and joyful service for others, then they are likely still living in darkness. And those who live in darkness, who live for self whether that has all the appearances of good religion or whether they are openly sinning with abandon, they are living in the realm of false god worship.

The very first commandment instructs us to not allow any other gods to rise above our priority for our Father God in heaven. It does not say that we are to have no other gods at all but rather not to not allow them to come between us and the one true God. I believe that God has appointed all kinds of gods to function on this earth, to be sources of life, of comfort, of affirmation, of encouragement and provision etc. We are to function in these capacities in various ways for those around us and likewise we are to legitimately accept provisions and blessings from others. But we must always keep in mind while we are living in nurturing relationships with those around us that it is really God who is behind all of this as the original provider for all the things we need for life and for godliness. As we keep God as our highest priority and the most valued relationship of all the gods in our lives, we can then learn to live in joyful community with all the other lesser gods in His family, receiving and giving to each other as God's Spirit directs us.

Baby Steps

The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." (John 10:33)

The Jews were angry because they were offended. Their beliefs about God were being challenged and violated. They had always believed that God was far up in heaven and aloof, and any idea of Him ever being a human was preposterous.

Jesus highlights the principle that a person's works, or fruit, is the way in which to discern character. Words and profession is one thing, but observing the actions, the disposition and the treatment of others leads to an understanding of what is in the heart.

Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father. In that role He lived and related to others just the way the Father would have if He had come to earth as a human. These religious people had the philosophy that a person could profess to honor God, could claim to be a God-follower while allowing their hearts to remain selfish. Their whole system of religion had degraded into a set of carefully crafted rules and traditions, many which had been designed to circumvent the very principles of truth and justice that God had given their nation originally. Their lives were largely a denial of the principles of heaven while they proudly professed to be God's representatives to those around them.

The 'works' of these religiously pious men were in striking contrast with the works of Jesus and how He treated the poor, the outcast and all those despised by the elite. For this reason Jesus came under severe attack repeatedly because he refused to in any way indulge in the practices of these hypocrites or endorse them in the slightest. While he was a perfect example of the foundational principles that had been given to the Jews centuries before of God's true ways of relating to others, He would not give credence to any of the accumulated traditions that had grown up around the original laws given to Moses.

These people had become obsessed with externals while neglecting the internal matters of the heart. They believed that religion and being right with God was based on performing religious rites, maintaining pure doctrines intellectually and keeping up appearances externally. All the while their hearts were filled with selfishness and corruption and deceit and were far from reflecting the real truth about the God they claimed to serve and worship. Because of this the example of Jesus became a constant source of deep embarrassment to them, a light that exposed their hypocrisy; and rather than admit their false beliefs they sought to put out the light that was bringing them so much discomfort.

These religious men were deeply offended by Jesus. Taking offense is seen in Scriptures as falling into the trap of Satan. Satan lives constantly in a state of offense himself. I suddenly realized this morning that rather than offense catching us in a trap which Satan manipulates apart from himself to lure people into, this trap is one in which Satan always lives and cannot escape from himself. Because he is hopelessly caught in the trap of offense himself and is filled with rage, he is ever seeking to make this trap as attractive as possible to lure others to fall into it so they can be filled with his bitterness and can be eaten alive in its acid over time.

Jesus could see clearly the trap of Satan that these men were caught in and longed to deliver them from it. Rather than sparring with these men to gain advantage over them or to shame them, Jesus was seeking in every way possible to attract them away from that trap by revealing the compassion and love and forgiveness of God to them. Even while they were clenching stones ready to kill Him for exposing their evil hearts once again with His love, He explained to them that the reason they could not appreciate His words or make sense out of what He was doing was because they were failing to think clearly and discern the obvious that He was showing them. He stated that the reason they could not make sense out of Him, the reason they were so miserable living in offense was because they were not yet His sheep.

In saying this Jesus was also pointing out that they were not really followers of God as they insisted themselves to be. By identifying Himself intimately with the Father whom they claimed to be their God, He exposed their hypocrisy openly and caused them to see the truth about themselves as well as about God and make a choice as to what they were going to do about it. In the midst of this confrontation Jesus made yet another invitation to help them get out of their trap of offense and become His sheep by seriously thinking about the things He had been doing in an objective way.

This whole book of John is all about the issue of belief. I am immersing myself in this book for that very reason because I too want to enter much deeper into true belief in Jesus. What I am seeing here is Jesus talking about two different options or steps available to deepen belief. If a person has too difficult a time believing the words of Jesus directly, they can simply choose to ponder the implications and significance of the actions of Jesus and how He treated people. That very choice to process this evidence can produce faith and belief that can help move one closer to believing more in His words and claims directly.

"If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." (John 10:37-38)

I find it interesting that Jesus challenges these religious men by saying they need not believe Him if His life and actions and works are not consistent with the truth about the Father. This is an invitation to reexamine their assumptions about God and what He is like and how He treats people. It is also an invitation for all of us to do the same thing.

It is just as easy for us to reject the testimony of someone who is acting out of harmony with our assumptions about God as did these Jews. Our religions are so filled with false assumptions and twisted ideas about God that we too live in confusion about what is good and righteous. When we find ourselves offended by something Jesus says or does, do we take it as an invitation to question our own fundamental ideas about God or do we lash out against anything that exposes and contradicts our opinions about religion?

Jesus invites me to take a baby step if necessary to engage on the ladder of growing belief in Him. If I have a hard time with something He says about Himself or His Father He invites me to simply allow His works to speak for themselves and allow the implications of how He treated people to begin to infiltrate my heart to clear my confusion or soften my resistance to what He is saying. Jesus did everything possible to attract these hardened religious people to change their opinions about God and view Him in the light of the example of Jesus. I was also raised to have strong but often mistaken opinions about God that need correcting and Jesus invites me to let His works and His words begin to eliminate these lies and fill my mind and heart with the real truth about Him.

If I will do this, if I am willing to accept the challenge of Jesus to just think rationally and reasonably about what He does and says, the effect of focusing my attention on Him can transform me to become one of His sheep who can then recognize His voice and who can understand and live in harmony with reality as it was designed by God.