what is the gospel? who am I?

These are a few more research paper notes I wanted to preserve. These two sections, What is the Gospel? and Who am I? follow my January notes here on: Who is God?

What is the Gospel?

            The gospel is the  personal invitation to participate in relationship with God, inside his Kingdom reign here on earth.  I can have confident hope that God is accessible today in every part of my present life through his Kingdom.  God has set aside a place for me to actively partake in the beautiful relationship of the Trinity, both now and forever.  God does not just seek to set up a future Kingdom for eternity, his Kingdom is available now to anyone willing to accept the offer.

In Matthew 3, when Jesus is baptized and ”the heavens were opened to him” (Matt. 3:16), God is announcing that the much anticipated Kingdom has now arrived.  From that point forward, we live in a time in which the Kingdom of God is available.  God does not need to give further laws or speak through prophets because he has now offered direct availability to himself.  The good news of the gospel is that participation in the Trinitarian relationship is presently open.  “The rule of God is now accessible to everyone.  Review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable new opportunity.” (9)  The door has been swung wide open and God is asking me to join the Father, Son, and Spirit in their fellowship.

In Jesus, God has provided a very personal summons and a living example of what it is means to participate in the Kingdom.  “The reality of God’s rule, and all of the instrumentalities it involves, is present in action and available with and through the person of Jesus.” (9)  And I can enter that Kingdom by just wanting it and partaking, without even having all my beliefs correct, because I am God’s beloved creation.  “Personal need and confidence in Jesus permits any person to blunder right into God’s realm.” (9)  God delights in my action of engaging in his divine nature as his child and his friend, because relationship with him is what he created me for.  I was made as a place for God to reside and God “is restoring people to a state akin to the original sharing in the life of the Trinity that humankind lost through the Fall.” (1)  When God extends the invitation to share the fellowship of his Kingdom, he has in mind a loving and active fellowship with me.

            This offer to participate is the most abundantly generous and limitless invitation that exists.  Never has there been more hopeful words than to hear “You were meant to house the fullness of God.” (7)  And I am invited with such unearned grace that the offer can seem quite perplexing, as God extends this extravagant invitation to all, even the wicked and the ungrateful. (10)  This strikes “at the heart of the problem we have with grace: we don’t like it.  It seems unfair, but in reality it is perfectly fair.  God is gracious to all.” (7)  “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matt. 5:45).  God wants to reveal the belovedness of all his children, as he sees his creation, so that “from this place of inner security we may invest ourselves in… helping others discover how beloved they are.” (2)  The hope of the gospel invitation is meant to be shared.

This offer is radically tenderhearted because it originates from a self-sacrificing God who invites me, a sinner, to enter the fellowship of his abundant and holy love.  But with that pure and unconditional love, there also has to come the hate of my sin because a God who is righteous will stand against the evil that damages my soul.  “The dominant narrative of the Bible is a story of unearned grace, of a God whose love is not thwarted by human sinfulness, and of a Christ who dies for sinners.” (7)  The good news is that God never gives up and his will is to always be unconditionally loving me and hating my sin, simultaneously.

            I can trust a God who is infinitely personal and know he will accomplish his will.  When I accept the invitation to join my life with God, receiving the kind of life that flows in Jesus, the world becomes a safe place to dwell.  Pain, hardship, and grief still exist, but it all becomes bearable as I understand that my good and beautiful God gets the last word..  Jesus made a point of saying that if I rely on him I will never experience death.  I “will never see death… never taste death.” (John 8:51-52)  “The good news is that the destructive spiritual forces have already been defeated decisively.  So no matter how costly or painful the present contest, connected with the conquering Christ we shall ultimately overcome.” (2)  I am a treasure of God and I am a creation that will not cease to exist.  So are all those who love God and allow his love in return.  “He delights in them and intends to hold onto them.  He has even prepared for them an individualized eternal work in his vast universe.” (9)
            So as I think on my own life and make plans for it, in view of the message of the gospel, I realize my present hope is also a future hope.  I will not have to go through some terrible and final event called death but, instead, I have an assurance that my familiar life never ceases.  “God will preserve every one of his treasured friends in the wholeness of their personal experience precisely because he treasures them in that form… In fact, at ‘physical’ death we become conscious and enjoy a richness of experience we have never known before.” (9)  God values me, just as I am and as he created me to be, and God takes delight in seeing me embrace the gospel message to enter the triune fellowship that spreads into all of eternity.

Who am I?

            As I fully embrace who I am, I have confidence in eternity because I was created for the purpose of receiving God’s unearned love and entering into his joyous, creative works now and unceasingly.  A relational, self-sacrificial, and holy God brought forth creation to partake in the loving relationship of the Trinity.  And I have an inherent longing for the good and beautiful Kingdom life that God says I am worthy to participate in.  When I can allow myself to willingly enter this Kingdom fellowship of the triune God, I am daily being transformed into a more natural form of my eternal self. 

            I am God’s beloved.  As a ceaseless spiritual being, I long for his love because “it is the nature of the soul to need” and to let divine love sink deep into my heart. (6)  “We do not want merely to see beauty…We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” (4)  Because I was created for the purpose of participating in a Kingdom of beauty, my soul will not be satisfied with anything less.  And yet I am a hesitant being; I am so often overly cautious, guarded, and timid about accepting this seemingly incomprehensible offer.  “We prefer to be wanted, warmly wanted, before we reveal our souls.” (9)

            Author Trevor Hudson, however, states we should seek full confidence in both our belovedness and God’s nearness in any circumstance, knowing that even the most awful of sins will not stop God from extending his love.  “Only then can we embark on the perilous inward journey… secure in the knowledge that nothing we uncover can render us unlovable to God.” (2)  I desperately need to be intentional in placing myself in a position to experience God’s Kingdom if I am ever to align my beliefs with his truth.  Author Gregg A. Ten Elshof states that, “no one has any trouble acting out their beliefs” but I recognize that my beliefs so often guide me incorrectly or give undue pause, if I do not let God reveal to me how he sees me. (8) 

And so I continually place myself inside the Kingdom to be directed where to go and what to do.  Just as we have seen that God is tenderhearted, he created my heart to be tender as well.  Living inside the Kingdom of God keeps my heart open to God’s teachings and transformation.  A hard heart may not feel pain, but it also will not feel joy.  And a hard heart is not teachable.  But God knows this and understands this; it is how he knit me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).  And through the gospel message, God meets me exactly where I am at and he leads me forward in a transformative relationship with him.  God brings me to have the mind of Jesus, but in my way that is unique and individual to me and my personality.

He teaches slowly in parables so that I can chew on the message, think on the words, and let it become a part of who I am, instead of just handed to me.  “When we open the Bible and begin to read slowly and listen for God, the Spirit illumines our mind and gives us a direct word from God.” (7)  He teaches me in a way distinctive to the time and place I am currently in.  God knows that I need different messages at different times in order for them to sink deep into my heart or for the messages to mean anything to me.  This process takes time.  So he patiently teaches me, reminding me to stay gentle, open, and receptive.  “God does show himself from time to time in the space of those who seek him.” (9)

            As a person who truly wants to experience God’s Kingdom, and all the joy associated with it, I have to learn to embrace my true self.  God works through what we consider natural processes and so he “appears in the quiet whisper of our Spirit-guided memories, thoughts, and feelings.” (5)  The transformation happening in my soul is a stripping away of the things that are not actually ‘me’ as God helps me understand the most natural form of myself.  “The arm of the Lord revealed is a person who understands.” (10)  Dallas Willard explained this process as taking little steps to trust so that I can learn who I am.  He also cautions that despairing who I am is the greatest barrier to understanding and receiving the Kingdom.

            The answer to most of my life problems can simply be found in that I do not look to find God present.  “To see God in what we think, do, and feel – in life with family, friends, colleagues, and casual acquaintances, in our busyness and our rest” is where I find my true identity, united with God in an active and fulfilling relationship." (5)  A sense of joy, peace, and contentment exists for those who are faithfully and honestly seeking to love God, serve him, and enter into work with him.  And that leads to the question Dallas Willard proposes, “What will my life be like when I find the Kingdom?” (10)  When my soul is restored to the true intent of what a human was created for, my life will be one in which I am participating by authority and power in the Kingdom. 

            By acknowledging the loving nature of the altogether good triune God and accepting the hope of the gospel, I expect to increase my need for participation in the Kingdom community.  “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord find our desires, not too strong, but too weak.” (4)  May I go forward in life now seeking to live under the rule of the Kingdom of God, reconsidering and constantly readjusting my strategy for living so as to always stay in tune with God’s will.  May I stay actively connected within the loving relationship of the Trinity, living with the same tenderhearted vulnerability that God consistently demonstrates to me, and acting with obedience to the One who I trust to fiercely and persistently work for my eternal benefit and joy.  May my life be used by the loving and holy God as a way to share his gospel message of hope here on earth and then to enter into the joyous creative works of all eternity afterwards.  It is what God created me for, and that I know very well (Psalm 139:14).

Sources:

1) Fairbairn, Donald. Life in the Trinity; An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers. Downers Grove: InnerVarsity Press, 2009.
2) Hudson, Trevor. Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved. Downers Grove: InnerVarsity Press, 2010.
3) Johnson, Darrell W.. Experiencing the Trinity. Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2002.
4) Lewis, C.S.. “The Weight of Glory.” Sermon for Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, June 8, 1942.
5) Manney, Jim. A Simple Life-changing Prayer. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2011.
6) Ortberg, John. Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.
7) Smith, James Bryan. The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows. Downers Grove: InnerVarsity Press, 2009.
8) Ten Elshof, Gregg A. I Told Me So. Grand Rapids: Williams B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009.
9) Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997.
10) Willard, Dallas. “The Kingdom of God.” Teaching series for Hollywood Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, March – April, 1990.