One of the scariest events in my life was when we offered to look after a pet bird, a cockatiel or a budgie for a friend. My eldest daughter was less than a year old at the time.
Even though this occurred more than 34 years ago, I can still see the scene as I walked into the lounge, seeing her sitting on the floor with a happy face, but blown up to look like the Buddha statues that adorn some homes.
There are many people whose lives are at risk from a bee sting, or even peanuts. Some can become physically ill if they eat a pizza, or drink too much cows milk. Yet others must avoid all wheat products. All wheat products? Are you kidding!? We call bread the staff of life. The wheat family has sustained most of animal and human life on this planet from the beginning. So much so, that when Jesus calls himself the bread of life, that has been one of the easiest metaphors to understand in all ages. Methuselah would have grasped it just as easily as a child in preschool today.
Yet the staff of life can result in a lot of misery for some and even threaten their lives. Somewhere, we took a really serious wrong turn, and in the process we seem to have lost our way.
Spiritual allergies
But, believe it or not, there is a far more serious allergy which we may be unaware of.
Have you noticed how some Christians will react to the word works? It is as if their intellectual arteries constrict and their brains freeze so that every thought they think becomes a stutter.
The reason for this is that for far too many Jesus life ended at Calvary on the cross. Worse, they collapse the period between Jesus birth and death into a ritualistic fulfilment of the Old Covenant and the Law.
The fact though, is that Calvary, for us, is not the end, but a beginning. Of course, even for Jesus it was not the end, but simply a turning point in his ministry to mankind. Some Christian leaders and teachers have recognised the problem that too many have become stuck, like a car in deep sticky mud, in a gospel which is completely focused on salvation, and ends when one has been saved. There is nothing to follow, other than a bunch of fuzzy ideas about the life in Christ (which consists of worship which has been reduced down to listening to and participating in Gospel music, and reading Christian books), and going to heaven after one dies without having any idea what one would be doing for all eternity in heaven.
Now, please dont misunderstand me. I am not against Gospel music. I am not campaigning against Christian books or against participating in worship at church.
Salvation, for us, is not an end. It is a beginning even for God. Yes! It is the beginning of a new life for us, and a new relationship with us, for God!
It was probably because of his intense interest in true science and his deep regard for the founding fathers of our faith that Thomas F Torrance developed a passion to search for a better understanding of who God is. In the process, he discovered the extent to which Greek pagan dualism – had infected Church teachings, not least regarding the nature of God. That there is no separation between the being of God, the I AM, and what God does. Like light, which at the same time is a particle and a wave, so God is at the same time one Being in three persons and love. Every time we call God he, we are acknowledging His being, and whenever we say God is love we are acknowledging what he does.
It was the great work of Athanasius, a 4th century deacon that culminated in the Council of Nicaea and the formulation of the Nicene Creed. Athanasius opposed the prevailing teaching of much of the church known as Arianism, namely that Jesus was a created being who was not always God. The Nicene Creed has become the single most important and unifying statement of faith for the whole Christian Church for the last 1700 years.
Amazingly, science has shown us that pure white light is made up of a perfect combining of pure red light, pure green light, and pure blue light. And so also in nature, in white light these three are one. And whats more, good science was able to discover and confirm that the speed of light was one reliable constant1 in the universe.
Contracts and Covenants
Following on his brother Thomas, James B Torrance further clarified our understanding of covenants when he showed the difference between contract and covenant. Sadly, the Latin Bible, which was more influential in church teaching than even the King James Version, compounded the problem by using the Latin word for contract. A contract has conditions. A contract is only fulfilled when all conditions have been met.
A covenant on the other hand, has no conditions. It does, however, have obligations. Every person who intends to get married (enter into the Biblical marriage covenant) knows that life cannot be the same once the words I do have been expressed and accepted.
Participation is foundational to a covenant. A contract can involve independent execution, but a covenant requires joint action by both parties to be successful. And so it is with the New Covenant that has been written in Jesus blood. When we die with him, we are also resurrected with him as new persons.
Whats more, these new persons have ascended with Jesus into the heavens and are seated with him, and in him at the right hand of God (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3.1).
Why? For our benefit? No, not really. The benefit that each of us receives is simply contingent on Gods purpose which is to reconcile the whole of creation to himself (Oops! There is another allergic reaction am I suggesting Universalism? No way! But that is another story for another day).
Yes, there is nothing we can do to earn Gods love expressed in his saving grace, which we call salvation. Paul emphasises this in Ephesians 2:8-10 and many other places.
Everything we have done prior to salvation, intentionally or not, has made the necessity of Gods unmerited pardon essential!
But – once we have accepted that pardon; once we have allowed ourselves to be included in Jesus birth, life, brutal torture and death on the cross, he has taken us up and incorporated us into his resurrection and (for us) new life in him and with him.
Led by the Spirit
Now, we can no longer stand by and observe. Now, the Spirit leads us to participate in the Work of Jesus to complete the project or quest he set out on from the foundation of the world. It is living evidence of the incarnation God becoming man in Jesus that God not only invites us, but earnestly wishes and desires for us to participate with him in what he is doing. Sometimes, that can be very, very hard work, even to the extent of enduring massive and long persecution by people and groups who think they are pleasing him.
Allergies are caused when the body becomes confused about what is good and acceptable as opposed to what is harmful and to be rejected.
Fortunately, the cure can be fast and effective.
I dont remember what we did when my daughter blew up like a balloon. Whatever it was, she was quickly restored again and there was no lasting effect as a result of the experience.
The most amazing thing was that she was completely oblivious of what was happening to her during this whole episode.
The Bible reassures us that the one true God has been intimately involved in our lives even whilst we have been completely unaware of this. And when he shines his pure white light into our lives, everything changes in an instant. We can never ever be the same again.
1 It is true that the speed of light is different depending on the medium through which it is passing, but even if the speed is slightly slower when not passing through a vacuum, its speed is still constant in that medium, and reliably so. In fact, there is a whole new lesson from nature for us about God, even in this. Namely, that God acts differently in different cultures, even though his essence, or being, does not change.