Podcasts and Plants

While I was waiting for Jill at the dental office this week, I listened to a podcast with N.T. Wright, British theologian, titled "Making Sense of the Trinity." I highly recommend this podcast. It presented a new paradigm for me not only in thinking about the mystery of the Holy Trinity but also in thinking about sharing the gospel with others. 

Here are a few thoughts that came to me as I listened to the podcast:

In my experience as a Christian, I have always been told that God loves us and sent Jesus to pay for my sins, so that I could be forgiven of my sins and be good enough to go and be with God in heaven. In the podcast, Wright talks about it this way: God loves us, in spite of our sin, so much that He wants to come and live among us. He longs to be our God and have us be His people. There are a dozen or more places in Scripture where God states His desire to dwell among His people. This is, for me, a whole new way of looking at the situation. Let me try and explain the difference this makes in my mind. 

In my former way of thinking, I was focused on my sin. I am a sinner in need of a Savior. That is true, of course, but since my focus was on my sin, I was missing out on a whole dimension of understanding God's love. The fact that I need a Savior is patently obvious to anyone who knows me, and the Apostle Paul wrote, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Later he wrote, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) These two verses are part of what has been dubbed the Roman Road to Salvation, which is sometimes offered as a concise statement of the gospel message. 

While the Roman Road clearly and concisely explains the need for a Savior, the method of salvation and the results of salvation, it is a bit like a recipe in a cookbook. If, like me, you love to prepare food, especially for others, you may find reading recipes to be a delight. But the recipe doesn't satisfy in the same way that eating and sharing the meal that results from following the recipe does. The recipe stirs the imagination, but the tasting fills the senses. The Roman Road is the recipe, but God also told us, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)

For me, I think my knowledge of my earthly father has colored my perception of my Heavenly Father, and others I have spoken with admit to the same thing. My father was a decent man for the most part. He loved me, I'm sure, but he never said it in words until about a week before his death, when I was 61 years old. I grew up with strong moral instruction in a secure household, but I was never able to discuss feelings or emotions with Dad. 

As a result, I have struggled with an image of my Heavenly Father as an authoritarian, who loves me enough that He condescended to send Jesus to clean me up so that I might someday go to heaven and be with Him. Wright's view, that God loves me so deeply and passionately that He wants to come and live with me in spite of my sin, is revolutionary to me. 

Here's how I understand what Wright says in this podcast. The Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has lived eternally in community and perfect love. God's plan is that the love and community shared by the three persons of the Trinity is now being extended to include the people He created. God created "the heavens and the earth and the waters under the earth and everything that is in them." (Genesis 1) He completed the creation by creating mankind (Genesis 1:26) to be His people, and He gave them free will to make choices in the perfect world He had made. 

Mankind chose to ignore God's commandment (Genesis 3:1-6), and thus sin entered the world. This was not a surprise to God. It was one possible outcome of giving man free will. God planned from the beginning that if (and when) mankind chose this path, He would intervene. Enter Jesus (the Son). Mankind needs a Savior, and Jesus came in the form of a human being to free mankind from the devastation of sin. Isaiah 61:1 puts it this way:  

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me [Jesus],
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Now Jesus appeared as a flesh and blood human being so that mankind could interact with Him on a personal level. He also came to bear witness to the Father. In John 14, 

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Once again, the disciples knew who God is through the Scriptures and the traditions of the Jewish community, but that was like the recipe. Jesus walked among them for three years so they could "taste and see that the Lord is good." 

Jesus' mission included paying the price of sin for all of mankind. His death made the payment, and His resurrection sealed the deal by conquering death, so that people can live eternally, free of sin. When these final tasks were complete, Jesus left the earth and His human form and ascended to His Father in heaven. Now here is where God's plan gets really interesting.  Before He left, Jesus told the disciples,   

...I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

So, now we have the whole of the Godhead introduced, each Person of which has a role among men.  Jesus told his twelve, 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father..." (John 14:12)

How could men do "greater works than these?" Because the Holy Spirit will indwell and empower them, and there are many more of them than the one man, Jesus. It was this plan that led to the disciples' ability to spread the gospel message, not only of salvation (focus on sin), but also of God's passionate love for mankind (focus on God's love), throughout the entire world. 

Did you ever grow some beans from seed? As I listened and these thoughts formed in my head, I got an image in my mind of a plant beginning with the seed, which contains all that is necessary for a new plant to grow and bear fruit. In my image the seed represents the Father, who provides everything. As the seed germinates, it sends down a tap root (Jesus), and as it emerges into a mature plant, it creates secondary roots and rootlets to nourish the fruit that is growing for all to see. These secondary roots are the Apostles to whom Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell them. The rootlets are all the saints (also indwelt by the Spirit) who are sent out by the Apostles, who were sent out by the Son, Who was sent down by the Father. The result is a world full of good fruit. And all of the parts of the plant are intimately connected. Each part has a role to play. The ultimate outcome is a world full of good fruit that nourishes God's people (physically, in the case of the plant, and spiritually in the case of God's amazing love). 

When I finished listening, I was spiritually refreshed and  excited to share this new vision of what it means that we will be God's people, and He will be our God. Please let me know what you think of my little image.