I am strongly suggesting that we Christians (yes, I too call myself a Christian) have been unable to walk as Jesus walked and do the things He said we would do because we have believed (or at least attempted to believe) the orthodox interpretation of Scripture. We have seen ourselves as worms of the dust groveling before God, begging Him to have mercy on us, fearing that He would send us to hell to burn forever if we didn’t say the right prayer that would prove we are accepting His blood sacrifice of His own Son in order to appease His wrath against our sin.
We have viewed planet earth as a vale of tears to be endured until the time (determined by God) came when death would release us. Then we would wait somewhere in the presence of God and others who had died before us until God decided it was time for Jesus to return to this earth from the sky and swoop up everyone who had met His qualifications for being saved.
Those who were left behind
would endure untold agonies before Jesus would set up His government on this earth for a thousand years of peace, reigning from a reconstructed temple in Jerusalem. Ultimately, if we were fortunate enough to survive judgment day,
we would spend eternity in a place of bliss with streets of gold, never giving a thought to all those poor souls who were burning forever in a lake of fire —most of whom had never even heard of God’s sacrifice of His Son.
This earth that we were born into was seen primarily as a place where we made the decision that would determine where we would spend eternity. So our chief goal in this life was to make the right decision and then do everything possible to persuade as many people as possible to do the same. We could never feel very good about our success since in any given year more people were always being born than we had persuaded to accept God’s plan of salvation.
But at least we had our own fire insurance.
Somehow we never experienced the life more abundant
that Jesus said He came to give us (John 10:10). And we certainly didn’t do the works that He did, and even greater works
that He promised we would do (John 14:12).
Some of us have indeed experienced what we call miracles,
but, as the term implies, it has been a supernatural
experience, occurring only once in a while and never considered to be the norm —as it was in the lives of both Jesus and His disciples up until about the time of Constantine when Christianity became the state religion rather than a way of life marked by its similarity to the life of Jesus.
I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me that our minds have indeed been corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ
—as Paul feared they would be (2Corinthians 11:3). The Spirit has revealed to me that the gospel is as simple as the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In the beginning we were all begotten by God (James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth) in His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26) and lived in a perfect God-created universe which we will call Father’s house.
The entire Bible is the story (told over and over again in many stories, parables and allegories) of our leaving that place of safety and abundance —but only in our corrupted
or alienated
minds (Colossians 1:21) —and of our return to Father’s house as we were awakened by Jesus to our true identity (born again
—John 3:3,7). We see that Father never sent an evangelist to tell us that we must do this or that to regain His favor or else be banished forever from His Presence. No, He just waited patiently for us to come to ourselves
(Luke 15:17) (to the knowledge of our true self). Though we return to Him with words of our unworthiness (v 21), He totally ignores those words and never even reprimands us. He just RUNS toward us, embraces and kisses us. Then He adorns us with the best robe
(of righteousness), a ring (signifying our access to everything that He has) and shoes (representing the gospel of peace
—Ephesians 6:15). Then He throws us a big party, the purpose of which is to be merry.
All is righteousness, peace and joy. We have entered the kingdom of God
(Romans 14:17). We now know that it is not a place up in the sky somewhere that death releases us into. It is within us
(Luke 17:21) and it is at hand
(Matthew 10:7).
But we haven’t yet come to the end of the prodigal son story (Luke 15). What of the elder brother who had served His Father faithfully (v 29) while the younger brother had wasted his substance with riotous living
(v 13)? He is the Pharisee or the orthodox Christian who has kept every commandment (v 29) and who touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless
(Philippians 3:6). But notice that there is no reprimand or condemnation for him either, just the reminder that thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine
and an invitation to stop complaining and join the party! (vv 31-32).
Can we not also accept that invitation and begin to be merry
as we deepen our understanding of the simplicity that is in Christ
?