So what exactly does it mean that Jesus is our foundation? It might be helpful to ask what is unique about Christianity. All of the so called higher religions claim to have God speaking His truth in certain writings, so is it not just revealed knowledge. Nor is it the expectation that following the rules laid down this way should involve the heart rather than just be legalistic and mechanistic. The Jewish Scriptures talk about loving God with heart soul and strength. Judaism is of course the cradle of Christianity, so one would expect the Jewish portion of the Scriptures to contain echoes and shadows of what is unique in New testament revelation. And they do. The Jewish Scriptures point to Jesus (John 5:39, Isaiah 53). But the fullness of revelation comes only in and thorough the person of Jesus Christ. In this respect there is both continuity and discontinuity between Old and New Testament revelation.
The theological word for what I am hinting at is 'Incarnation'. One definition of this is “the teaching that the second person of the trinity took on human form in the person of Jesus Christ, and is both completely God and completely man”. This is a great mystery, God becomes a living breathing human being, one who knows and can be known. Who can fully understand this (see July 29, 2010 post)? But several, things are sure. Firstly the God-man Jesus Christ shows us what God is like (full of Grace and Truth see John 1:14; 14:9). Secondly Jesus shows us man as God intended man to be. This is not well understood. Jesus does not come merely in the appearance of man, He is in reality a man. Yes He is God too, but He lays aside His Deity and all advantages associated with it, and operates only in the realm of His humanity (Philippians 2:7). Yes He performs miracles, but He does this because He is filled with the Spirit, not because He is God (or how did the disciples perform miracles?). As man He suffers with us the suffering of mankind (see next post). He suffers our limitations, He dies, He is tempted, He gets tired and angry, but all this without sin (Hebrews 4:15, Ephesians 4:26). As God He suffered for us (redemption). So He suffers both with us and for us. This is incarnation.
There are many other things one could say, but there is one main point I want to make today about the incarnation and about what is unique in Christianity. It is that in God becoming man and walking among us, He is making provision for, and taking strong initiative in opening up the possibility that we can enter into relationship with Him. This, together with the last point above, is the both the essence and the uniqueness of Christianity. With regard to relationship being possible, in His prayer to the Father, Jesus describes the life of the age as knowing both the Father and the Son (John 17:3). Biblical "knowing" is much much more than knowing about (in this case God), it is about entering into intimate relationship with Him who is Trinity. Many wish they could have been there to touch Jesus in the flesh. Jesus however told the disciples that it was better even for them that He went away. He explained that if He did not, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, would not come (John 16:7). As a man He could only be in one place at at time. Now that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus is here, He is with us always and lives in the believer. He dwells there in His fullness, when we walk and abide in Him.
If we were better at relationships we would understand more the wonder of what we are offered, when we are offered friendship with the Trinitarian God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Have you ever felt left out, being on the outside of a circle of close friends? Most of us have some painful experiences of exclusion, rejection or abandonment. Human kind can be very exclusive, even in Church (we are not meant to be). God is not like this.
There is perfect fellowship within the Trinity itself. In fact, the essence of God is relationship (Trinity), unity in diversity, complex and haunting harmony. It makes an interesting study to examine the relationship of Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. There is affirmation, respect, love, interdependence and much much more. They are so very very close. It is often said that a big part of Jesus' pain on the cross was His separation (for the first time) from His Father (Matthew 27:46). But amazingly, this fellowship of the Trinity is not exclusive, we are individually invited into the very centre of that fellowship. We are told for example "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).
I don't know how He does this, but I know it is true that each one of us is His favourite son or daughter. He is crazy about you, and He is crazy about me. If you or I were the only ones who responded to His initiative in sending Jesus to die for our sin, He would still have come. His love is extravagant and amazing and He wants us to enter into it experientially. If we would dare to believe that He is indeed our exceedingly great reward, and live our lives accordingly, we would know and experience the truth of what I am saying here. We do need to give our everything though. After all He has done, it is offensive to Him when we are luke warm, simply going through the motions, living for numero uno. In any case, there is no healing no real joy, in being luke warm. Who could be more miserable than a half committed Christian. You can't any longer even enjoy your sin!
It is said that Salvation is free, but to enter into fullness of life will cost us everything we are and have. It is the testimony of those who have paid the most, that it is worth it all. For example Paul, who suffered greatly for his faith puts it this way “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant―dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ―God’s righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself” (Philippians 3, "The Message”).
The Hymn writer put it this way. “Those who fully trust Him, find Him fully true". We need to learn, with our sanctified imagination, to see ourselves seated in the very centre of Trinity (Ephesians 2:6), where “neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8).
This is truly foundational. When we trust in Him, He becomes our foundation, and we have true security. We know who we truly are. We are sons and daughters of the living God, rooted and grounded in love. We have peace to overcome the circumstances of life. In the centre of His embrace, there is life and health and wholeness and healing. We even start to like ourselves. Healthy impregnable self esteem is to be found in His embrace. Truly there is no other foundation.
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